Monday, October 22, 2007

How many people actually did die in P-Diddy's "Vote or Die" Campaign?

Another year another election, well this year I am of age to vote for a presidential election! I am extremely excited. While all my friends were excited to be 18 so they could go to bars and hit up clubs and finally buy cigarettes themselves, I was ecstatic because I could finally have a voice in my country. However, my old pet peeve was my age groups’ lack of voting and now after observing my friends and their knowledge of what goes on in our country I’m not so sure.

In 2004 P-Diddy (a.ka. Puff Daddy, P. Combs, or Puffy) sponsored the “Vote or Die” campaign, a huge organized MTV movement to get the “young people” to vote. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, in 2000 (before “Vote or Die”) 70% of U.S. citizens reportedly registered to vote, among them 86% voted. Next election, 2004 (after “Vote or Die”) out of 197 million U.S. citizens only 72% (142 million) registered to vote and among those registered, 89% (126 million) said they voted. That’s 55 million citizens that didn’t even register, and 16 million that registered but didn’t vote (does that mean 16 million died, P.Diddy?)

After the “Vote or Die” campaign voting registration only went up 4% and actual voting only 2%.The sad truth about my generation is they are almost completely apathetic about voting or anything to do with helping our country. They don’t care about moral character, they don’t care about aborting innocent children, they don’t even care about issues that will affect them, if not now, eventually. Whether it’s ignorant promiscuous girls thinking condoms are the answer to all their problems or guys who thinks it’s okay to call girls “sluts” and “Ho’s”, my generation isn’t the most qualified to pick the leader of our country. I had one friend of mine ask me why Hillary Clinton was on the news so much lately (Thinking she was involved in some scandal, which made me laugh) and another asked me what “Pro-choice” meant.

I am not making fun of them, I’m just explaining to the adults that my generation is more worried about who their next boyfriend or girlfriend will be, what’s going on Thursday nights, or what kind of birth control their going to be on next to care to inform themselves properly about the wonderful country we live in and it’s democracy.Yet, I won’t give up. I don’t want someone voting if they have no idea what’s going on.

As a result, instead of dogging people for not voting the way I used to, I find informing my friends about the candidates and their platforms is a bit more useful. If some of them only knew what some people went through to vote and bring democracy to a country, maybe they would put down the iPod’s and cosmopolitan magazines and read up on the people that could eventually run their country.

Wednesday, October 17, 2007

King Middle Schools’ Version of Sex-Ed

At King Middle School in Maine the Student Health Center is place where children can go, with parental permission, if they need medical advice or medicine. However, according to the state law the student’s parents sign a permission form only to allow their children access to the center. The student's parents do not have to be informed of what their children are going to the center for, or what they are being prescribed there, if the student doesn’t want them to. As a result, the health center recently has found it “necessary” to prescribe birth control to 11-13 year old girls!

So under the state law, girls ages 11-13 would be able to access birth control and decide to never inform their parents about it. Leaving most parents in the dark about the inappropriate sexual activity their little girls are involved in and un-able to help. The school has been known to provide condoms for grades 6th-8th.

Is this really happening? Are that many kids in 6th, 7th, and 8th having sex to where this is needed? Actually no, in the reports they state, “Proponents say a small number of King Students are sexually active, but those who are need better access to birth control.” Other reports also explain that “Even though it’s just a few students the birth control program is “totally needed.”

How is it totally needed? I’m not even a parent and I’m outraged that this is even being discussed at a Middle School! Where are the parents? Is providing birth control going to persuade the girls to stop having sex? Um… no. It would be like giving a 10 year old boy a fire proof suit, matches, and some lighter fluid and telling him not to play with fire.

These girls don’t need to be having sex in the first place and they don’t need birth control. These girls need information as well as their parents. Inform the parents and let the parents take action, not the school. It’s atrocious! Shouldn’t parents be informed what students are being prescribed? These are 11-13 year olds. These girls don’t have the maturity or knowledge to make the decision to have sex so what does the school committee think that providing birth control will do, except show other girls that sex in middle school is okay, and ultimately cool if more girls begin to be prescribed, as long as you’re on birth control ! Every body’s doing it! I don’t think I even knew how birth control worked at that age. Is the age of innocence getting younger and younger?

Tuesday, October 16, 2007

Telia Tequila and the Age of Desensitizing

We all know MTV isn’t exactly the most kid-safe network on television. With shows like “Next” that display straight, lesbian, and gay couples going on several different dates with several different partners or “Exposed”, that takes us through a date with a guy and two girls, a guy and two guys, or a girl and two girls, we can’t exactly expect much out of MTV. However, my roommates and I were appalled when a new show came out called Telia Tequila- a shot at love”.

This show is hosted by Telia Tequila herself, a MySpace pin up girl that has built up more than 2 million “friends” from her racy photo’s and sexual profile. In the show, Telia invites 16 straight guys and 16 lesbians over to her place and comes out that she is “bi-sexual” and wants to find love. Each sex goes through certain elimination rounds and tasks to prove that they “love” Telia. “May the best sex win!” was a quote at the beginning of the show.

The show is demented and sick, and in my opinion, is even too far for MTV. What is the world coming to? All of these shows based purely on a rock star or old celebrity trying to “find love”. It’s pathetic and grosses me out half the time because all they show is the host making out or more with several different partners, sadly.

I watched the show once and only once because I felt I was watching a porno most of the time! How have we come to this? MTV used to be a music channel, hence the Music TeleVision ! Now it’s just a sex network to corrupt young adult’s minds into thinking that those things are okay.

No wonder it’s hard to find good men and women in the world, they are all glued to Telia Tequilia and think it’s how everyone should act. What bothers me most is more than half the young adults my age think this show is perfectly normal, funny even! They don’t think twice about it and believe I over react. What’s next? America’s Next Porn Star?! Oh Lord, I’m scared to even post that I might give someone at MTV an idea.

via Slate magazine