Commentary

Dear Julie,

  While I understand what you’re saying with companies taking advantage of big attacks in our country, I do not believe these companies are doing it for marketing advantages. The United States has an awful gun control problem, which I have talked about in a recent blog post! The United States actually ranks at 31st for the highest rate of gun violence in the world, and has about 38,000 deaths per year due it. What’s extremely upsetting, besides that, is the fact that the NRA and its representatives want to keep everything the same when there’s actually a severe problem.
  While this nationwide gun control problem is, in fact, a problem, the NRA argues that everything’s fine! The NRA will blame everything and anything besides the guns, and it’s clear in every argument they make. Always suggesting that the solution to gun violence is more guns when in reality it’s stricter laws because the second amendment is outdated. The second amendment is so outdated that it doesn’t cover things like machine guns, the AR-15, landmines, dirty bombs, flame-throwers, tanks, biological & chemical weapons, etc.. The NRA cares about the money, and a really good read with all the numbers is in this article: Political Data. The NRA actually feeds off of mass shootings by lobbying for arming individuals (especially teachers), when in reality that would just be more money for them as well as more guns in schools. 

  Back to what you’re saying, I wouldn’t say these companies are doing it for a larger market when the NRA is literally killing thousands of children and adults by not allowing gun control. At the end of the day, it’s about how these companies are providing a ton of money to the NRA, and the companies no longer wanting to be apart of supporting mass murders and violence. Is it necessarily irrational to want to cut ties with a corporation that’s supporting mass gun violence?
  I’d love to talk about this further, but I’d keep going because this is something I’m very passionate about. I understand where you’re coming from and I don’t believe all guns are bad, but with the current state that America is in, the second amendment isn’t cutting it anymore. The NRA is too powerful now with millions of members, and gun violence will never go away with more guns like they suggest. With these companies cutting ties with the NRA it is the first steps into a better gun regulation, not a gun prohibition.

Cliche - Cannabis

  Recently something that I've been doing research on is medical cannabis and CBD which are two different things, but have something in common: federal government restrictions! I'm not here to talk about the legalization of cannabis though, I'm here to talk about the research that could go into effect as well as the decriminalization of marijuana on a federal level if a recent CBD drug, Epidiolex, is passed by the FDA.   Recently U.C. San Diego started dealing with the Ray and Tye Noorda Foundation of Lindon to start research of CBD. CBD is cannabidiol, which is one of 113 cannabinoids identified in cannabis which accounts for 40% of the plant's extract and has no THC. Cannabidiol has harsh regulations due to the ban of marijuana on a federal level even though there is starting to be more and more research that CBD helps with not only seizures, depression, anxiety, and chronic pain, but also helps with neurodegeneration, neurogenesis, and plenty more. U.C. San Diego's Center for Medical Cannabis Research will start conducting research on the effects of CBD on severe cases of autism in children hopefully in 2019, but a major conflict is the fact that cannabis is a schedule 1 drug according to the FDA. 
  According to The Washington Post, the FDA is actually poising approval of the first cannabis-derived drug Epidiolex. Epidiolex is simply CBD, but the FDA has never approved any type of cannabis drug before. If this CBD is passed that could mean possible changes on a federal level for cannabis, which could mean the decriminalization of cannabis. The U.S. spends about $50 billion on the war on drugs each year, and in 2016 the number of people incarcerated in federal, state, and local prisons and jails was 2,157,000 (Drug Policy Alliance). This would mean fewer people in jails and prisons as well as a lot of savings for the government. 
  Overall there's a lot more to say about the cannabis, CBD, and federal regulations, but this is a major breakthrough in history going on. I deal with CBD every day, and I take CBD every day as well. This is something I'm very passionate about, not for the THC but for the CBD and overall medicinal purposes. I have a lot more to say about the subject, as I'm excited about the potential research, but to keep it to the point this is all I could say!

Commentary!

I read a blog post on U.S. Government Views about unequal representation within the government, which I completely agree with, but there’s also plenty of evidence for the ideas the author is presenting. While it is an unequal representation, I feel like unequal representation isn’t the best way to phrase the pure societal prejudice against women in the government.
    There is plenty of evidence for basically everything the author is writing about in their blog post when it comes to how women are perceived. In the recent election, there were news articles about both Trump and Clinton, but there was a major difference about how Hillary was perceived throughout the news. Although Trump has flat-out stated his racism and sexism it was always dismissed as things such as “locker room talk”, while Hillary was constantly bashed for being a woman. Trump retweeted a post that said “If Hillary Clinton can’t satisfy her husband what makes her think she can satisfy America”, and this directly is about being a woman and her qualifications for the presidency. Not only was this posted by the current President, but it was a frequent argument throughout the news. Articles about her being unfit for the presidency because of her personal life as well as her being a woman.
    Women in America are highly criticized due to the societal norms we have in place. It’s deeply rooted in our society due to women being forced to be homemakers throughout history. While other parts of the world have been evolving to combat instilled sexism, America hasn’t necessarily been making leaps and bounds. This is a way bigger problem, but I will keep it limited to women in the workforce. In the workplace women on average earn 79 cents for every dollar a man makes (AmericanProgress), are less likely to be employed because it’s instilled in our brains that men perform better at their jobs (hbswk), and the list goes on a lot longer. These problems for women in the workforce are seen heavily in the American Government as women only make up 19.1% in the House and 21% in the Senate, and this is not at all fair or equal because there are more women than men in the United States.
    There are plenty of problems within our government, but the unequal representation and pure prejudice at work in our system against women is a major problem. I completely agree with U.S. Government Views when stating that there needs to be more encouragement, but I believe our society as a whole needs to work on fair treatment before this can work. If a woman were to be in office it would be amazing in my opinion and most likely inspire more women to join the field, but I feel like a major problem that would need to be solved before we can, would be getting more women in the House and Senate to show that women are more than capable. It’s an extremely difficult task to work on, but we are on our way!

Let's talk guns

So… gun control. In my opinion, it’s a major problem at the moment and no matter what I do I cannot manage to stop thinking about it recently. All over the news I see school shootings, mass shootings, and terrorist bombings but legally nothing is changing. Instead while millions of people marching for their lives, the government and NRA are not taking anything seriously. There needs to be better gun control, and there are many problems with the arguments against gun control.
Let me start by saying the United States has the 31st highest rate of gun violence in the world. As of 2016 there were about 3.85 deaths per 100,000 people, which doesn’t seem like much but that’s more than 38,000 deaths due to gun violence in one year alone. What’s worse is these numbers keep rising, and nothing is being changed. In comparison to other first world countries, the United States is the worst when it comes to gun violence, but we are also worse than the majority of second and third world countries.
The citizens of the United States love their second amendment, and it’s obvious when looking through any type of mass media. One of the main problems in my opinion about the second amendment is that it was written in 1791, which is over 200 years ago. As time has passed amendments have been added, altered, etc., but “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed” has not. This was before machine guns, landmines, dirty bombs, flame-throwers, tanks, biological & chemical weapons, and when there could be ⅗ of a person! Over 200 years, and there is still no change.
Evolving as a country and society can be difficult, but there are countries all over the world that have made a change for the better. My favorite comparison is with Japan because Japan has almost completely eliminated gun deaths. While culture is a major factor, their gun control is a major factor as well. Their gun control set up is amazing as there are many classes, tests, background check, and evaluations that one must go through to obtain a license to own either a shotgun or air-rifle. Not only does one have to retake classes every three years, but there are yearly exams by officials to check on the people and their guns. This has allowed people to still have the right to their weapon, but it has brought their gun violence down to a point where there are only about 10 deaths a year from gun violence.
America needs to change, and there are countries we can look up to for change. Our gun problem is horrifying, and every day I wait for our country to get out of our old ways and evolve. So government officials, if you’re reading this, please for the love of our people do something.

Blog 4: Being Latino

I read an article by HuffPost discussing school walkouts and how we are still fighting for latino students. There are many problems with hate and segregation in America but there is a severe problem with hispanic discrimination, and there has never been a real movement for this.

In this article the author, Sanchez, discusses her life as a teacher in Los Angeles and looking back at the last 50 years since the East L.A. school walkouts. In 1968 there were school walkouts due to “unequal conditions of their schools, high push-out rates, racist and discriminatory attitudes or practices of school staff, not being reflected in the school curriculum, and being tracked into vocational and special education classes” (Sanchez). She then discusses how the walkouts paved the way for many students to follow what they did, but there are still tons of problems with education and segregation for hispanic students. A study by Civil Rights Project at the University of California shows that schools are more segregated now than there was in the 1970’s, meaning that Latinx’s are being forced into schools that are under resourced and limit the opportunities for education out of high school.

Personally I’ve been very privileged in my education and I am the first in my family to have ever graduated from High School or gone to college. My family members were not so lucky and this is because they have had the same chance their peers did. The education system is skewed and especially in Texas, as they don’t teach Hispanic history in depth (or at all) and the schools are heavily segregated due to gentrification.

This article uses real facts that can actually be fact checked and it’s by a hispanic author! Irene Sanchez has a diverse educational background and works with the hispanic community in California, so I believe she is trustworthy. I personally agreed with this article in many ways even though it was a reflection. I highly recommend reading this article, because it’s important to remember that there’s more than one disadvantaged minority in America.

Blog 3: Planned Parenthood and the Federal Budget

Throughout history there has been plenty of turmoil when it comes to Planned Parenthood. Frequently there is debunked facts, yet people that support the defunding of PP keep trying. No matter what you read about the organization it boils down to medicaid, religion, and government funding which tends to make people extremely angry. I recently read this article online from the San Diego Union-Tribune stating that it is wrong for abortions and PP to be federally funded, but these claims through the article are false.

Planned Parenthood is mainly thought of as an abortion playground in the eyes of many pro-lifers, but abortions are only funded through medicaid in three situations: rape, incest, and if the pregnancy is endangering a woman’s life. The article claims that “this restriction has been sidestepped” when in fact medicaid and each healthcare provider only gets federally reimbursed if this rule is met, as well as medicaid and healthcare providers are subject to audits and claims reviews by both state and federal auditors to see if there has been an abuse of the system. If these healthcare providers were to seek reimbursement with a false claim they would end up with violations and liability to the False Claims Act, which would cost them millions of dollars (The Hill).

One of the main reasons people think PP is federally funded is because 60% of women who rely on PP rely on public health programs like medicaid. With recent talk of defunding PP it’s not really about shutting the organization down, it’s about cutting healthcare. There’s not a part of the federal budget that says “Planned Parenthood”, but there’s a part for health care that is about 1/10 of the federal budgets 4 trillion dollar budget.

This article was written by a pro-life and anti-PP radio show host, and this is even stated at the bottom of the article. The author worked for Life Choices pregnancy counseling center in San Diego, which is a pro-life and pro-catholic organization, and has all her degrees from Catholic universities in biblical studies. Personally I do not believe she is fit to try and talk about abortion, because in all of her work it comes down to morals and religion which is unjust in deciding legal matters. Planned Parenthood is about more than terminating a pregnancy, it’s about the safety and health of women across the nation and without healthcare this doesn’t exist.

Blog 2: Shutdown

  Recently there has been a lot of talk about ending the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) immigration policy, which allows for adolescents who illegally immigrated to America to have a renewable two-year deferred action from deportation. This policy passed during the Obama era in 2012 and has stayed, with hundreds of thousands of people applying and being accepted. This program has allowed for many immigrants to obtain an education and secure jobs, but the current President wants to end the program.

  Trump has made his opinion on illegal immigrants extremely clear by expressing a need for a wall on the U.S. and Mexico border, as well as frequently tweeting various hate remarks on immigrants and their countries. Recently there have been two government shutdowns within three weeks, both times being about government spending on the military, immigration reform, and border security. 

  I have been reading articles frequently about the subject, and I feel as though there are two great articles to somewhat understand what exactly has been happening. The first article by CNBC discusses the view of the government shutdown directly related to DACA, while the second article by BBC discusses what exactly the government shutdown is. With both going hand-in-hand it makes understanding the dilemma a lot easier!

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