Seizure of umbilical cords?

I have just heard about a law in Mississippi that will require any baby born to a teenage mother who hasn't named a father for the baby to have its umbilical cord analyzed for its DNA. 

I am just going to let you sit and think about that one.......



OK- now this is supposed to put a halt to teenage pregnancy. I guess it is supposed to stop fathers from raping their daughters and having inbreed babies.

I can't think of anything more intrusive than this.  The poor kid has had to suffer for 9 months with the stigma of being another "statistic", then her rights are violated once again for a DNA test.  Is there some magic DNA registry that will automatically prove who the father is?  Is the tea party OK with spending hundreds of dollars for each baby born to have a DNA test, when their whole mantra is less government intervention in our lives?  This is the stupidest thing I have ever heard of. 

Here is my suggestion to the good people of Mississippi.  I think before every legislative session, each congressman should have their private parts swabbed.  This way we can make sure that they are not fornicating with any prostitutes or having extra marital affairs. Think about how many problems would be solved on Capital Hill.  And we should have a registry for every person in this country with a sample of their DNA.  That way we can catch the criminals much more easily.  We can rule out babies that have genetic abnormalities before they are born. We can run genetic profiles on people and help them with their career choices.  We can reduce insurance costs by getting rid of genetic diseases.  Does this sound familiar?  It is the theme of GATTACA.  Watch the movie and learn something!

Fruitvale station

In light of the disturbing Zimmerman verdict, I recommend seeing this film.  I agree with President Obama in that you can not understand what is like to be a young black man unless you are actually in their shoes.  This movie tells the story of the day in life of  Oscar Grant.  He was killed by a security guard in Oakland's transit train station in 2008.  The film sort of looks like a documentary because the camera just follows him through his day.  I feel that by showing his love for his family and his struggles with his girlfriend and his recent job loss that he is presented not as a martyr but as a real person, flaws and all.  Many people would look at Oscar and the way he dresses and just see a "thug", but he was much more than that.  The incident happened in front of a whole train of New Year's celebrators and was filmed by many. Octavia Spencer was excellent as his mother and Michael B. Jordan did a great job as Oscar.  Of course the movie has a sad ending, but it really was well done.  Give it a try.

One last comment on racism and the verdict

This weekend I spoke to two of my friends about the Trayvon Martin verdict and I was surprised at the outrage that they had for President Obama's intervention on Friday.  I was very impressed with his courage to come out and express his feelings on the verdict.  I thought he showed real raw emotion and still kept himself very presidential.  That has been his legacy throughout his term in office.  He has been voted into office during a time of extreme polarization.  I agreed with him expressing his experience as a young teen and the hurt he must of felt when being followed around at a department store or hearing the clicks of the locks on the car doors as he walked by.

32 years ago, I was a student in college and my friends and I got tickets to a Jimmy Buffet concert five hours away in Tallahassee, Florida.  We stopped at a convenience store on the way and asked to use the bathroom.  The clerk told us there wasn't a bathroom.  After some customers left the store (guess what race they were), we were told that we could use the bathroom now.  My friend didn't hesitate- she said- that is OK we would rather pee our pants and she grabbed my hand and we left.  I will never forget the look on the clerk's face and I my deep pride in my friend.  I always felt angry with myself, for not having the presence of mind to initiate such a response.

The sad thing is, here we are 32 years later and racism is still around, ugly as ever.  When I was in 6th grade, my teacher did the "blue eye experiment" with my class.  This was a famous exercise created by Jane Elliot and first done in 1968 after the murder of Martin Luther King.  The idea was to teach children who had never experienced racism, what it felt like.  Believe me, as the person that was subjected to the temporary torment-it was not any fun.  I had the blue eyes, so I had to go to the end of the line.  I was told that the blue eyed children were liars and sneaky and I went home for lunch that day and begged my mother not to make me go back to school.  We were told after lunch what the purpose of the exercise was and I will never forget that feeling and I was only subjected to the evil for four hours.


When I was talking to my friend yesterday she expressed an outrage that President Obama had the audacity to speak out on a court case that was decided fairly and legally.  I did express my opinion on the subject (wow-courage) and I hope I was able to convince her that what he did was necessary and admirable. I remember when we were teaching together during the O.J. Simpson verdict and her reaction to our students after the not guilty verdict.  I definitely wasn't happy with the verdict then.  I felt for the victims- Nicole Simpson and Ron Goldman.  I did understand our predominately African American student population's ecstatic response to the verdict.  It was a dig at "the Man". 

The truth is that all of us have a little racism inside.  You can't help it.  You are a product of your environment.  I was raised in an all white community by the beach.  I never really interacted with any brown people until I went to college in Atlanta.  I then proceeded to spend most of my teaching career teaching in predominately African American schools. I had to work to make certain that I did not exhibit any undue unfairness in my classes.  I will never understand what it feels like to be discriminated against or profiled.  But if our country can not come together and try to understand other's feelings, we will not be able to overcome the emotional chains of racism.

When we were in Europe- the headline story for several days was Racism in America.  Paula Deen and the Zimmerman Trial were the top story.  Does this mean that America is the only place in the world that is Racist?  No- we are the country to has the most diversity in the world. I felt weird in Europe because almost everyone was white.  There were almost no black people on the cruise or anywhere we were in Europe.  The truth is the diversity in America is what has made our nation so strong.  We need to embrace our differences and try to learn from our mistakes in order to become the best society possible.

PS: Ugly Americans?

One amendment to my last rant on Ugly Americans.  We rarely see a world map when learning about the weather.  I believe if we Americans became used to viewing the world map every time we watched the news, it would give us much more than the temperatures.  When I saw this foe the first time on our two week vacation- it made me realize that it is winter in the southern hemisphere.  Now deep down I know this, but it isn't something I think about in relation to my daily activities.  Looking at the map of the world puts everything into perspective. 

When I was looking for an image to put on this blog, I asked for weather images.  All I got was pictures of the United States.  I had to change my search to world weather in order to find the image above.  Why is this?  Think about that!  It is so simple yet so deep!

Ugly Americans?

 

We have just come home from our European vacation.  We visited London, Rome, Capri, Pompeii, Sorrento, Santorini, Mykonos and Athens. The trip was a whir of sights and delights.  The people were all very sweet and gracious.  I did see a few "typical" ugly Americans, but in fact I thought some of the Brits were even worse. When I say ugly, I mean that these people treat the waiters with disdain and try to have the food made their way instead of trying to adapt to the culture they are visiting. Two women in Athens were eating breakfast at the table next to us.  They wouldn't eat anything at the buffet. The buffet was not like a Holiday Inn. There were a lot a great choices. I made myself a bagel with lox, cream cheese, capers and tomato.  They had to have there eggs a certain way and so they ordered from the kitchen. They didn't like the eggs they got and they were loud and dismissive with the poor waiter. Then they argued with the maitre d and they were obnoxious. They were a real embarrassment to America.

 

If you consider a trip to Europe-here are a couple of things that I noticed along the way:

 

1.  "C" doesn't always stand for cold in every language.  In fact in both Italy and Greece, it stands for hot water!

 

2. European tourists are notoriously cheap.  They don't tip, so many restaurants have the tip included on the bill. The truth is that Americans are admired for their generosity( in the tipping department). My husband works at a restaurant here in Atlanta and he says if a table of people from Europe come to eat, the waiters add 15 percent to the bill or else they won't get a tip. 

 

3. We only visited the tourist areas of each of the cities so it was difficult to get a read on the actual vibe of the native people.  Our tour guide in Rome said that the actual inhabitants of the city leave

 Rome each summer and the only people that stay are the ones in the tourist industry.

 

4. Customs and Immigration is surprisingly quick and easy except in America and England.  I was very surprised when we flew into Rome and out of Athens, the security was quick and easy to pass through.

 

5. If you ever have the chance to visit another country-do it.  You can see pictures of the coliseum or the Trevi fountain, but nothing is the same as actually experiencing it in person. Words can not express the beauty inside the Vatican.  The art is really amazing. The picture below is one in a whole hall that looks like statues and is really a painting.  The water in the Mediterranean is really bright blue. The oldest buildings in America are 200-300 years old.  In Europe they are almost 3000 years old! Our tour guides were fantastic.  They were passionate about their cities and their history.  You can sit through Western Civilization I and II and not learn as much as you do from just being there.

 

 

 Amazing!

 

 

 

 

Where is the Justice?

 

I wasn't actually present for the confrontation that ended Trayvon's life, but I have to say that from my perspective doesn't the verdict seem to be an injustice?

 

If George Zimmerman was driving drunk and killed Trayvon with his car, that would be a definite jail sentence.  Why are we so afraid to prosecute a vigilante gun death?

 

You all know how much I hate the use of guns.  Now George is free and again allowed to use his gun.  Doesn't this scare people?  He overreacted in the past and now he gets a second chance to over react.

 

This case is really about the unnecessary death of an unarmed teenager.  The right side of this country supported Zimmerman and used the case to reinforce their stand your ground laws and further the divide on the race issue.

 

Is there anyone in out there that is on the right that can see this through the eyes of a parent that no longer has a teenage son? No one deserves to die no matter how they are acting or what they are wearing.  I don't believe that George Zimmerman killed Trayvon on purpose, I do feel that he probably feels really bad about what happened- but isn't that what the manslaughter sentence is all about?

 

 

What the Frack?

One of the many differences I noticed when visiting Europe was the lack of news stories about murder and violence.  In fact all the news on the BBC and other news channels was focused on racism in America( Paula and George Z.), Wimbledon and how England has discovered enough natural gas to make the self sufficient for the next 40 years. 

I found the fact the Brits don't support the sale of guns, have socialized medicine and will not grow any genetically modified food and yet embrace the blasting of the underground shale quite a paradox.  I did see many large wind turbines, which is very admirable.  I just thought that our British cousins, that always look down on our reckless destruction of our bodies and environment would think twice about the cracking of the ground below their little isle.

I definitely am worried about fracking.  I definitely have watched this technology emerge and I am not convinced that is without problems.  I have watched both the Gas land documentaries and frankly I do worry about our ground water and the shifting of our natural fault lines.  Is their any correlation to the number of earthquakes and nearby fracking?

I wish that we could really throw our money towards more solar and wind power. I have heard that some scientists believe that we could fully power the energy needs of all people with these technologies and they do not create methane or carbon dioxide by products.  The excitement that the Brits showed towards their early experiments with fracking was very disappointing to me.