War on Soda

"It would have amounted to a tax on the poor, said some. It would have had little effect anyway, noted others, because people would still have been allowed free refills. It was un-American, said others still, for was this not the country of freedom, more or less, of choice?"

Protestors of the ban marched outside City Hall last July.

         Last Tuesday marked the "giant-soda ban that almost was." New York City's Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg's plan to limit the size of sugary soft drinks was deemed "arbitrary and capricious" by Justice Milton A. Tingling. The initiative was to ban sugared drinks over the size of sixteen ounces. Mayor Bloomberg's concern for his city was the increasing obesity rates and the fact that obesity can kill. People opposing Bloomberg quickly shot back saying it was against their civil liberties to tell them what they can and cannot put in their body. They also claimed that education is better than "dictating" what people should and should be eating and drinking. It is of significant interest that the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (N.A.A.C.P.) backed big soft-drink companies, particularly Coca-Cola, because of their long-time relationship with civil rights groups and the tens of thousands of dollars donated by Coke to Project HELP, a health educational program developed by the N.A.A.C.P. Clearly, it always comes down to the money. The irony of this is that African-Americans and other minorities "would be among the key beneficiaries of a rule that would limit the sale of super-size, calorie-laden beverages."
          Obesity can be more prevalent in low-income areas due to the quality and quantity of affordable food people can get. Fast food is exactly what these people aim for because it fills their stomachs without emptying their wallets. In fact, "about 70 percent of black New Yorkers and 66 percent of Hispanic New Yorkers are obese or overweight, compared with 52 percent of white non-Hispanic residents." Would the giant soda ban help these numbers decrease? I, personally, do not think so because after drinking a "small" soft-drink, people just may not be satisfied. They would find a way to fill their desire for more. And as many know, when you consume sugar, you just want more and more sugar. In many other countries, our size small is their largest size! Everything is bigger in America, including the people.

Yosemite's Perfect Shot

        Last week marked Yosemite National Park's annual "natural firefall," when the sun sets and hits Horsetail Fall at such an angle that it looks like lava flowing down El Capitan, the world's largest single chunk of granite. Hundreds of photographers from around the world gather in hopes to capture this exact moment. Create. This image is not what it appears to be, flames of lava bursting out of the rock. The sun creates the scene and the photographers create the picture. They sit outside for hours awaiting the perfect shot.

        After watching the brief video, one can see how different a picture becomes when it changes from black and white to color. We have also discussed in class how black and white photos were used historically to create more serious images. Although Ansel Adams, the photographer, may not have had access to color photography, he captured the essence of the "Firefall" without having to rely on vivid orange tones to make his point. He got what he wanted his own viewers to see in black and white. Ansel Adams managed to take a black and white picture but still capture the movement and tone equally as if it was in color. The first time I saw his picture, I could see the fire-like waterfall on El Capitan though there was no orange-fire color.

"When you photograph people in color, you photograph their clothes. But when you photograph people in Black and white, you photograph their souls!"
-Ted Grant ("Canada's premier living photographer")

Racism at Emory?

Students marched in protest against Dr. Wagner on Friday.

         We may not want to admit it, but we still live in a country where racist terms are part of some people's everyday vocabulary. Will this ever come to a complete end? Probably not for a while. "Racial wounds" are being "opened" at the highly renowned university, Emory, in Atlanta, Georgia. Yesterday, the New York Times published an article about the President of Emory, James W. Wagner, and a column he wrote for the current issue of the university magazine. In the column, Wagner, "praised the 1787 three-fifths compromise, which allowed each slave to be counted as three-fifths of a person in determining how much Congressional power the Southern states would have, as an example of how polarized people could find common ground." This is not a first time event that Emory has been noted to target different minority groups at the University. In September, Emory announced "sweeping cuts." Some say these budget changes also target programs popular to racial minorities. Minorities at Emory make up 31 percent of its student body.
          John Emory, for which the school is named, was a Methodist bishop who owned slaves 177 years ago. Generations later, many of Emory's leaders favored a segregated school system, but in 1962 the school decided to sue the state of Georgia in order to allow the enrollment of African American students. Despite the fact that Emory took action to enroll a more diverse student population, Emory continues to demonstrate conflicting sides of its personality, such as the flying of a Confederate flag outside of a fraternity. On the other hand, the University is also home to many African-American artifacts and literature including "what is thought to be the nation's most complete database documenting American slave trade routes." Although Wagner has "reopened the wound," he did apologize for his clumsiness and insensitivity.  Our generation has grown up in a time when we have to learn what is and is not right to say about other people. Will there ever be a time when it is just natural to accept?

Responsibility Abroad

        The 100th self-immolation in China-occupied Tibet which took place on February 3 was reported last Wednesday. Lobsang Namgyal died on scene after setting himself on fire and the International Campaign for Tibet reported that he "called for the long life of the Dalai Lama, the spiritual leader of the Tibetans." The Tibetans' self-immulations are a protest against China. The Tibetan's "vast homeland came under Communist rule after Chinese troops occupied central Tibet in 1951." Out of these 100 self-immolations in Tibet at least 82 people have died.
        In America, we are pre-occupied with peace, gun-control, racism to name a few. I ask, can we have peace at home and be at peace with ourselves if there is no peace abroad? When our international community cries out for help, such as these Tibetans who suffer under their occupation of China's harsh government, what responsibility do we have as Americans- for ourselves and for our country - to help? How does our government decide which countries to help and which to watch as mere bystanders?
        Is it appropriate for countries like the United States to step in and help our international community in times like these or do we leave it to China to take care of "their" people? I will leave you with a heart-breaking picture from the New York Times 2012: The Year in Pictures. Jampa Yeshia was a Tibetan exile who "set himself on fire at a rally in New Delhi to protest the impending visit to India by China's president, Hu Jintao."

A Majority of Latinos

"Students after school in Glen Avon, east of Los Angeles.
Latinos now make up more than two-thirds of many cities
in that region."

          California's majority population is now Latino. Reading The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao about a Dominican-American boy's life between New Jersey and Santo Domingo, is not the only reason I chose to write about the gains Latinos are making in the United States. Only a generation ago, "California voters approved a ballot initiative that was seen as the most anti-immigrant law in the nation. Immigrants who had come to the country illegally would be ineligible to receive prenatal care, and their children would be barred from public schools." Yes, that's America for you, a great melting pot, accepting of ALL backgrounds, races, and languages. The law was later deemed unconstitutional and never achieved its true goal of its "backers": to push immigrants out and keep the demographics at a steady white majority.
           So now, the numbers just keep rising. Immigrants, mostly from Latin America, are pouring in awaiting their American Dream. The current and future estimations of demographics in California truly show what kind of country America is: accepting.
         
           In 1990, Latinos made up 30 percent of the state's population; they will make
           up 40 percent -- more than any other ethnic group -- by the end of this year, 
           and 48 percent by 2050, according to projections made by the state this month.

           Accepting. Is our melting pot accepting? We see many immigrants come in to make up extremely diverse demographics, but I don't think we are quite there yet. Our own Chicago remains the most segregated city. We don't mix in the melting pot. The course for the Chicago marathon takes you through many of Chicago's different ethnic neighborhoods, each one unique with lanquage, script, scents, sounds, colors, costumes of diverse parts of the world. The effort needs to come from both sides - it takes at least two to mix up the melting pot.

Could it be Fukú?

A driver digs out her car in Portland, Maine.

        Many East Coasters are suffering through the daunting two to three feet of snow that fell in the past few days. In fact, the storm was a result of the collision of two weather systems, affecting more than 40 million people! More than 300,000 people still remain without power, mostly in Massachusetts. Federal aid helped people in local towns of Connecticut after President Obama declared it a State of Emergency. And to think that I thought we got a lot of snow here in Chicago!
         Natural disasters. First Hurricane Sandy, now Snowstorm Nemo. When natural distasters appear such as Sandy and Nemo, now I can not help but think of fukú. Junot Diaz offers a unique way of looking at why events happened in history in his book The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao. What is fukú? It is a curse. Many families try to stay as far away from it as possible, but sometimes it is inescapable. It was said to be "carried in with the screams of the enslaved" (1). Fukú is also often described as being related to disasters whether privately, locally, or nationally. In the point of view of Yunior, the narrator of Oscar Wao, would people say that is it fukú creating Sandy and Nemo? What have we done to deserve this type of fukú? Could it be as big as destroying our environment one gas tank at a time or as little as disobeying a teacher? Can fukú somehow be related to karma? After all, what goes around comes around.

"Drowned in a Stream of Prescriptions"

        It has taken over one year for Richard Fee's story of abusing prescription drugs for ADHD to surface in national news, The New York Times. Growing up in Virginia Beach, Fee was never diagnosed, nor did he show any symptoms of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, ADHD. It started in college when he could easily access Adderall, the ADHD drug, to focus and really zone in to study for tests and write papers through the night. Adderall can go for $5 to $10 per pill on college campuses. Richard Fee's parents first found out he was using prescription drugs for his 'disorder' because it showed up on his mother's insurance plan. He committed suicide, hanging himself in his closet, years later. His death is attributed his addiction to the ADHD drug.
        It is frighteningly easy to obtain a prescription for Adderall from doctors. In some cases, a patient can meet with a doctor two times for under five minutes and be diagnosed for ADHD. A prescription for a drug to enhance focus follows. Doctors frequently "skip established diagnostic procedures, renew prescriptions reflexively and spend too little time with patients to accurately monitor side effects." Is it the doctor's fault for not taking proper procedures leading to Richard Fee's suicide? His father begged his doctor not to prescribe him any more drugs, "You keep giving Adderall to my son, you're going to kill him." Richard Fee became "violently delusional" and spent a week in a psychiatric hospital. It was there, believe it or not, that he received prescriptions for 90 more days of Adderall! Two weeks after they expired, he was found in his closet.

        Richard Fee's experience included it all. Conversations with friends and 
        family members and a review of detailed medical records depict an
        intelligent and articulate young man lying to doctor after doctor, 
        physicians issuing hasty diagnoses, and psychiatrists continuing to 
        prescribe medication -- even increasing dosages -- despite evidence of 
        his growing addiction and psychiatric breakdown.

     
        Fee's sad story is not new news. In fact, abuse of ADHD drugs have become prevalent not only on college campuses but in high schools across the country as well. High schoolers, especially in affluent areas, find that taking the drugs will give them an edge for college standardized tests and help them focus to achieve the GPA that is expected of them. Last June, right around the time of finals, SATs and ACTs, the New York Times printed an article about the use and abuse of amphetamines and other focus drugs in high schools.
        It's not hard for kids in these well-to-do areas to get their hands on these drugs - they have the money, the support, and the skills to convince parents and doctors of their supposed needs. It is not unheard of to imagine that similar happenings go on right here at New Trier. Do people realize that "prescription stimulants like Adderall and Vyvanse (amphetamines) and Ritalin and Focalin (methylphenidates) are Class 2 controlled substances - the same as cocaine and morphine - because they rank among the most addictive substances that have a medical use"?