kristelsauter…

I was eating meat the other day and started thinking about vegetarianism and veganism. I started thinking about different factors that affect the world by eating meat, but also certain factors that affect the body when one is vegan. I found it pretty interesting that there are pretty much counter-arguments for both opinions about the pros and cons of becoming a vegan. By definition, a vegan is a vegetarian who eats plant products only, especially one who uses no products derived from animals, as fur or leather. Personally, I think this is like being an extreme vegetarian with some positive and negative aspects. Many people do not find this to be a controversial issue, but I feel that some aspects should be argued for and against choosing a lifestyle like this.

Many say that being a vegan pretty much implies a diet high in fiber, rich in nutrients, free of cholesterol, and low in fat. “They emphasize that not only is vegan food better for you, but the consumption of non-vegan food, specifically animal fats and proteins, has been linked to a number of health problems. These include obesity, heart disease, hypertension, diabetes, osteoporosis, and several kinds of cancer. According to the American Dietetic Association, vegetarian and vegan diets are associated with reduced risks for all of these conditions.” The positive aspects of being a vegan can be seen throughout the quote, but sometimes people take it to the extremes.

I find it very important and one has conscience that different types of foods cause health issues, but I also find that one should not take anything to the extreme because anything at a extreme level surpasses one’s ability to judge whether it is a good or bad thing. Many people that consider being a vegan a “better and healthier” way of life but there are many aspects that these people do not notice. I am not saying that being a vegan is bad, but that there should be certain limits that one should take into consideration. A great aspect of being a vegan or vegetarian is that it can prevent health diseases, but at the same time a negative aspect can be brought up. Malnutrition and lack of vitamins is a problem, which is brought up by taking veganism to the extreme. It is important to come to a consensus when thinking about adapting a lifestyle like this.

I was talking to someone that is a vegetarian and I questioned her about why she chose to be one. Sometime people convince me about how they really want to live a healthier life and how it they want to prevent health problems in their future and that is the reason why they are vegetarian. Others simply say how they pity the poor animals that die because of them and things that are linked to emotions rather than logic and reason. First of all, I would like to point out that a cycle of life exists, and many animals eat each other. This helps come to the fact that human beings are like other mammals too, and they are carnivorous, meaning they are meant to eat other animals in order to get the appropriate nutrients and vitamins. This leads me to another conclusion, vegans are in favor of natural and organic things, but taking pills as a source of a nutrient because they are not receiving it through their diet is a bit contradictory. Those pills are usually made in factories that produce many other artificial supplies.

I would like to point out that killing animals is not the only way to get nutrients, but one should make a balance. I do not encourage the mistreatment of animals, but I do not believe that by fishing or hunting, one is doing as a great of harm as many believe.

http://www.starchefs.com/features/food_debates/html/issue_01.shtmlility

Have you ever thought about what a child thinks when he is spanked for misbehaving? or even grounded? I personally believe that a talk works better than a physical punishment or grounding children. What constitutes the thoughts that go through a child’s mind? Sadness, revenge, happiness, rage, anger, or even confusion. 

I have seen many kids reactions when they get spanked or when are grounded from watching TV or going out to play in the neighborhood. I can assure that a child does not have positive feelings towards his/her parents’ reactions. I usually sit and ponder what can be going on through a child’s mind when he is punished for a wrongdoing. Don’t get me wrong, I am not saying that a child deserves no lecture nor punishment, but sometimes the way should differ because a child usually does not sit and reflect upon his actions unless there is a positive appeal to his feelings and emotions. 

1.    Spanked

·      I have seen young toddler get spanked for the uttermost erroneous reason. Was it because he was unable to sit on the chair in the correct way or because he was not hungry anymore? A child gets spanked and does not ponder upon his wrongdoings. He/she is more concerned with the fact that his mother or father hit his behind and humiliated him in front of his friends or maybe felt pain because he felt alone and had no one to talk to when he was spanked. A physical mark leaves a mental scar and has no real use when discipline a young one.

2.     Grounded

·      What good does it do to take away a child’s way of being entertained or his way to let go of other thoughts that he is pondering about? When is it proper to do this to a child? One never really understands what goes through a young one’s mind and the truth is that one should try to keep it open for imagination and creativity. Grounding a child scars him mentally as well and does not contribute to the inner growth.

3.     Lecture

·      Sometimes it is better to sit down and explain the consequences that actions can have to a child. This does not mean to yell at him, but instead, it means to give the child an explanation so he can ponder back and then differentiate what is wrong from what is right. The child does not necessarily have to get hit in order to learn not be grounded.

It came to my attention that lecturing a child in a positive way not only reveals the possibilities of doing the right thing the next time, but also opens the doors for thought. Spankings and being grounded do not work sometimes because they are actually scared to tell others the truth. Grounding and spanking do not necessarily have the best connotation and usually result in negative emotions and rebellion. It is because of this that many children who are abused or grounded so much do not learn from their mistakes and feel it is a routine to get hit or grounded. Lecturing is a way of scolding in a form that the child know and does not have such a bad impact on the child.

            For many years it has been scientifically proven that obese people are more likely to suffer from many diseases. People know this, but it is evident that they actually do not even care nor show interest towards losing weight to live a healthier life. Their lack of interest shows how the number of obese people has incremented in the World. It is true that a large amount of people have the initiative to lose weight as their New Year’s resolution, but very few people actually comply with what they say. I actually think that a tactic that would help increase the number of obese people who actually diet would be to claim the positive aspects of losing weight instead of telling an obese person that they will be more likely to have diseases.

            To start off, one should appeal to the emotions of the obese and also put some reasoning behind losing weight. Even though fallacies are created, it is a way to attract people. It is of great importance to stress the risks that will decrease by dieting in order to lose weight and also benefit in a healthy way.

By losing weight one can…

1-      Decrease the amount of weight put on weight-bearing joints in order to decrease the development of arthritis causing pain in the hips and the knees.

2-      Decrease the percent of risk in having two extremely excruciating conditions such as gallstones and pancreatitis.

3-      Decrease the risk of developing bacterial and fungal skin infections and psoriasis which are all due to obesity.

4-      Decrease the risk in obtaining adult-onset asthma and the development of sleep apnea, which is the interruption of breathing during sleep which causes lack of sleep and repetition of awakenings.

5-      Decrease the risk of becoming less fertile. This applies to women making them have a better chance of becoming pregnant and increase a men’s fertility.

The ways of knowing applied to this concept include emotion and reason which can help convince people to live a healthier life by losing weight. The area of knowledge that can be linked to the reasoning behind dieting in order to become less obese and live healthier is human sciences.

            When I first thought of obese people dieting, I also came to the thought of taking pills to lose weight. Knowing that it is an unhealthy way to lose weight, people do not really pay attention to the risks that can be invoked by taking these pills. If people fall so easily because of commercials then why not create a commercial with the five reason for one to lose weight. This issue goes back to the problem of people being manipulated by emotions and not be pure reasoning. If it was as easy as just appealing to people’s emotions, many problems would not exist in such exaggeration like obesity and other health related issues. Not only do the ways of knowing affect our interpretation of how we chose to take advice given about life but also they language implied and how it is used to appeal to emotions and also sound more reasonable.

http://www.acsh.org/news/newsID.1747/news_detail.asp

           After having many rights given to us, should they be taken away? Freedom of religion is present in many countries around the World. It has come to my attention that once again the court has ruled in favor of the ‘Good News Clubs’, which is a religious club that is present in many public schools around the United States. At some point in time, people started to make complaints about the religious groups that public schools offered. It is not mandatory for a student to join the club so what is the real problem? Atheist parents filed complaints against these groups claiming that schools had no right to offer religious clubs, but who is to say that the school cannot have these types of clubs?

            I used to be part of two Christian groups at my middle school. CSU and FCA were groups offered by the school and were not mandatory for anyone. The Christian Student Union met on Wednesday mornings and discussed ways to help the community and also got together for Bible study in a very friendly way and invited anyone to become part of the group and grow as a Christian. This group was composed of all types of Christians and had certain activities that made it special around school and felt completely inviting. The Fellowship of Christian Athletes met after school right after athletics which was the last period and had athletic activities which would be related to things in the Bible and created an environment were one could grow as a Christian. Like I before mentioned, none of the groups were mandatory and violated no rights. The freedom of speech is one of the rights that is given to all citizens of the United States and many nations in the World and by having a group in which one can express words about God, no right is being violated.

            When I first started to find out that a case had been filled trying to eliminate groups and religious activities from school I felt completely offended. It is no ones write to tell you what religion to follow and how to follow it. It was as if someone was telling me that they were filling a case against my way of living. How ethical is that? Even though many cases were filled by Atheist, there is not right that rules in their favor because no one was imposing their beliefs on them. When I started analyzing the ways of knowing that were linked to this conflict I decided that the problem itself came from many misperceptions. Not only did emotions and reason play a role in creating the conflict, but I feel that the main WoK was language. For many years, the Pledge Allegiance was said in the morning at all schools, but due to the fact that it stated “one nation, under God” people now had to figure out a way to rule against this. This pledge was not created to impose any belief on anyone, but people in the World today have developed a very defensive way of thinking and feel attacked by pretty much any statement. I found it to be pure ridicule that someone would file a case against a group that affected them in no way.

            Emotions play a major role in the accusation of prayer in schools. It is of great importance to stress that at no point in time was there an intention to pray in school in order to offend people, but it was just to grow as Christians. The article stated that the “the expression of a religious viewpoint is speech, protected by the First Amendment against discrimination and entitled on a neutral basis to access to public facilities that are open to other speakers” (Good News Clubs Win Yet Again in Court), meaning it is of complete legal rights to form a group to pray in. Also, it is of great importance to stress that people have the right to abstain from joining the groups meaning that no kind of prayer is being imposed on them.

http://www.cc.org/blog/good_news_clubs_win_yet_again_court

       When I come think of this question I ask myself, how can someone chose to abort a child instead of putting it up for adoption? I look at many cases in which a mother actually wants to abort a child in the first couple weeks of a pregnancy and wonder why they would actually risk their lives by going through an abortion instead of giving the gift of life to a child and letting him live with another family. It sounds really easy when it is written out like this, but this is one of the hardest decisions that a mother who cannot bear a child or does not want to have it has to make in their life.

       The first thought that comes to my mind when I see this question is ADOPTION and it comes to my head in the form of a huge street sign with flashing lights. Even though it is the answer I would blurt out if I was asked to answer the question very quickly I come to think of it again and it is a very harsh question to respond to. The situation in which a girl/lady/woman is present in helps give an understanding of the background and how the question would be answered. Nowadays many economic situations are present where a family cannot afford to maintain a child. Sometimes not even one child is able to be maintained instead of multiple children. This would be a reason for someone to think that abortion would be the best option, but then again I come to think why adoption can’t be an option for such a person.

       In order to adopt a child, many legal procedures have to be followed in order for the adoption to be able to occur, making it more unlikely for a woman to go in search for someone who is willing to adopt her child. Another factor that makes it more difficult is the economic situation in which the pregnant female undermines. In the worst case scenario, she will not be able to get ultrasounds nor any type of test in order to make sure the baby is doing well and it will be at the expense of the adopting family to take care of these expenses. These reasons are why people find it difficult to make a decision which can actually lead to a life changing experience for the adopting family and the adopted child, but it is not impossible. I find it difficult to accept that many people go to the extremes to help people with illnesses, but do not even consider the option to save a life and help out with a life that will be taken away if the opportunity of adoption is not present.

       How can a person go and pay to kill a life!!! Does this statement not sound sick and disgust you? Many of the cases of women who cannot look for a way to get their child adopted end up getting an illegal abortion. This not only takes a life away, but also puts the life of the woman at risk because she is not 100% sure that the abortion she is getting is even safe. How bad does that sound? Dying because you want to kill your baby!! Can anymore emphasis be put on the fact that no one should have the right to take a life of a newborn or the life of any person?

       It is true that emotion and reason, ways of knowing, take a major part in making these decision, but they take part in making decisions of our everyday life too. Do people not know that there is a document that protects their right to live? The moment in which a sperm and egg meet a new life is created meaning that the right to live should not be allowed to be taken away from any person nor embryo. Religion, an area of knowledge, is also very closely tied to this topic. Many religions are against abortion and in favor or adoption, but for many people it does not mean much of anything.

       I completely understand that due to lack of economic sources and due to issues due to money people cannot afford to have a child, but if that is the case then why not chose to leave the child up for adoption even though it might be hard for the child to accept when he/she is older. Why not ABSTAIN from having sex if there is no possibility for the child to be kept? Many people act before they think and having a child should require thinking before acting!

http://adoptionblogs.typepad.com/adoption/2004/12/pros_and_cons_o.html