Drunk Driving

In 2004, drunk driving killed about 16,694, which was 39% of the total traffic fatalities of the year. That is ridiculous! To put this information in perspective it’s like a Boeing 747 crashing, and leaving no survivors, every nine days all year long. Well if that’s not shocking then there is definitely something wrong you. I just can’t understand how people can possible drink and drive knowing these statistics. I, truthfully just don’t see the point. Instead of risking your entire life, not to mention the lives you endangering on the road, take a cab! Or even the bus, get a designated driver. Well, according to the 88 drinking violation given out on campus thus far into school, I am almost positive people are being faced or peer pressured into making a decision whether or not to drink and drive….. DON’T DO IT! It’s just not worth it. Surprisingly, we have improved over the years. In 1982, there was an occurrence of 60% of the total traffic fatalities. Wow! At least we have improved from there..but it is still happening and I feel no matter how many statistics are produced and how many drunk driving films are shown, people are still not going to get the picture. Well, I was faced with this decision the other day. We were on our way to a party and my friend decided that she wanted to drive to the bar after drinking two drinks! Of course I said absolutely not and she replied by saying "A drink or two makes me a better driver." I was infuriated and actually thought she was kidding. I responded (which I shouldn’t have) Even one drink can cloud your thinking, dim your vision, and slow your reflexes. Not to preach or anything but DON’T DRINK AND DRIVE. Its not worth being a statistic.

Diversity

Diversity from a multicultural stand point is the ideology of including people of diverse cultural and religious backgrounds. Ironically we spoke about this today in wellness and I feel it relates entirely to both Bell Hooks passage and “Blue Highways”. We were being questioned as to whether or not we felt there was diversity on our campus. The conclusion we all came up with was that it depends… Everyone interprets it’s differently. For example coming from Miami with such a mixing pot of different Hispanic and ethnic cultures, for me, diversity here is the southern way of life. I had never really been exposed to the accents and the kaki or salmon colored shorts with polo t- shirts. But people from Dallas I’m sure correlate diversity with different Hispanic cultures. So like I said before it is dependent on the person and how they grew up. For Heat Moon, his diversity was steering out of his “norm”, for example speaking and meeting people of a different intelligence and up bringing. Much like Heat Moon, Bell Hooks diversity was meeting people of a different up bringing and social class. Both of which dealt with this new “diversity” differently. Heat Moon was more expecting of it and even learned from the change. Unlike Heat Moon, Bell Hooks was judgmental and tried separating herself from them (upper class, other students). The definition of diversity that I came up with through my eighteen years of experience is just a deviation from the “norm” something .

" Blue Highway"

"Blue Highways” was a great book to start of the fall semester. I felt that it was easy to relate to. In almost every passage given to us to read, I felt I could relate to. Heat Moon, like us, started a new chapter in his life that significantly changed him. This is hopefully what we can all gain through our SMU experience. Instead of meeting people on the “Blue Highways, we are able to meet new and influential people here at SMU. We meet handfuls of people with different cultural back rounds and beliefs and although it may not seem like it we can learn from them, read “Blue Highways” and then disagree with me. We should take advantage of the diversity on our campus. This is what the book “Blue Highways” taught me to open up to people because you never know what they have to say, it could be something completely meaningless but there is a small chance they can influence your life. If I meet Mr. Watkins I probably wouldn’t have even looked twice, just judged him by his appearance, lower class and unintelligent… what could he possible have to contribute to my education? After reading his theories and thoughts, I definitely would have missed out! This book showed me there is more to education than just classes and books. Only through life experience you can gain knowledge. You have to think for yourself, develop conversations with interesting people and be open-minded.

Double Standards Between Men and Women

Double standards between the two sexes have been around since the beginning of time, and astonishingly in this day and age of so called political correctness and just mindedness, it is still present. One example that most everyone is familiar with is that when males are sexually promiscuous they are seen as heroes, but when women are sexually promiscuous they are seen as villains. I feel that the media sets double standards in the minds of women. When one pictures the “perfect women” (which the media portrays) one pictures a tall, thin, no blemishes, and silky smoothed haired women. That’s what we should all aspire too? On the contrary, men, do not have to fit into one standard look. They can be older, heavier and bald and still fit into the male beauty standard because the media does not send the audience only “one type” of man. Why is it that older men want younger women? My guess it not for their intelligence or “inner beauty”. Go look in any magazine, Teen people, Cosmopolitan, US weekly, I guarantee you that in all of the ads the women are either half naked or in some sort of sexual position trying to the sell the product. I was watching television the other day and there were at least ten commercials trying to sell cleaning products, and just take a wild guess who was acting out how the product worked… ALL WOMEN. Times are supposedly changing, but then how come I don’t see it!