Counterintuitive Spring 2023

You gotta fight!, For your right!, to be Natural!!

My friends Leroy and Tommy go on Tindr a dating app used to find women of their liking based on a photograph.Leroy swipes right when he sees a women who wears their hair natural because it symbolizes self-acceptance and strength.Tommy tends to swipe left when he sees women wearing their hair natural because Tommy would rather have  a women who has less self acceptance but is beautiful and fits into society. Point being today in the community of African American women there is a divide on whether to choose to wear their hair Natural or Non-Natural. This argument is huge, celebrities like Erykah Badu are involved serving as a leader in the movement. From the start of the movement in the late 1800s, this issue has grown in the African American Community, from the creation of relaxer by Garrett A. Morgan to the industrialization of chemical hair products. A lot of Non- Naturalist have so many reasons to wearing their hair as they do, one of them being so they can fit the European standards and look acceptable to our society. African American males seem to be agreeing equally with how their wives choose to up-do their hairstyles, some like them natural, some like them non-natural, and some just do not care. Times are changing for the movement, now in present days Natural hair has a much more powerful standpoint in the political argument then they did 20 years ago when the Non- Naturalist were on the winning side. As we continue on with my research you will see how time, looks, and thoughts are a huge part of the movement.

People are welcomed to walk into the hospital when in need of care; however, not all will be treated equally because of the individual’s disadvantages or advantages. It’s not that doctors are bias towards the patients. It is very seldom that the first priority of the doctor’s is not the wellbeing of patients, yet why is there an unequal amount of treatment amongst people of different groups such as race, income, and social class? Through analyzing surveys taken by patients there is no doubt health disparities is apparent in hospitals and the problem of that roots back to the patient’s privileges. One of the privileges of people with wealth is the ability to communicate more effectively; though communication between doctors and patients is often overlooked by people, it makes a huge influence on the doctor’s decisions and performance. Therefore, people with strong communication skills are usually able to get the most out of the doctor’s abilities.

Who knew world’s most harmful drug, heroin would be so accessible through doctors to heroin addicts? In Vancouver doctors are getting paid through government to provide heroin to drug addicts in Insite clinics. The idea of heroin being provided through injection under supervision of doctors is not a clean way to help these drug abusers. You are simply fulfilling the addicts desire of getting heroine not making any change. The Insite programs opened up in Vancouver and many other places in Canada, have patient coming back over again and again. Basically they are asking for more and it’s never enough for them. Having to inject heroine directly can be seriously harmful as it speeds up to an individual’s brain faster making the effect of drug last longer. It seems very unethical of doctors role supporting the Insite program, as it doesn’t do any good to a patient’s health. There also may also be higher risks of spread of the infection through syringe needles which is used to inject every patient in the Insite clinic. The two common infections that can spread from person to person is HIV and Hepatitis infection which can occur through single needle use.

Rape victims are always raped twice. First they are physically raped, then they are raped emotionally by the justice system and society. After experiencing the devastation of rape, victims often confide in an authority in hopes that their grievance will be addressed and their attacker be punished. Instead of being relieved by the actions of the justice system, victims are shamed and blamed for being victims. After going through such a traumatic experience, victims are scared and often feel alone. Help and answers are often sought after but instead victims receive ridicule. The long term effects of emotional rape surpass the physical action, causing depression, anxiety, and a lack of self worth.

Surprisingly, even the most brilliant doctors are more human than we think they are. Medical professionals study extensive hours to become who they are today (Doctors, surgeons, nurses, etc.). These people specialize in the study of the human body and other medical diagnosis.  They are expected to uphold a certain standard on the quality of their performance. Medical personnel often go out of their way to give patients the best quality service possible; however, these “experts” make mistakes as well. These mistakes can be minor or major and some can be life threatening. In over the last couple of decades, accountability has been a big issue. Should doctors be accountable for their mistakes or should they be pardoned? Study shows that Doctors are not improving their skills because there is no visible punishment for them; also, there are no expectations set upon some medical personnel. In result, medical personnel will give the minimum quality service possible. The patient to Doctor relationship is not established and this creates a tough environment for the patient. As a patient, we want to be as comfortable as possible and trust our doctor to give us the best care. However, the trust in doctors have diminished greatly because of the mistakes and minimum effort the doctors put in. If doctors are accountable for their mistakes, the quality of their performance will rise and the amount of mistakes they make would be less.

Using heroine has been heavily shamed in most societies, but what if the idea of drug addicts using heroine was supported instead of shamed? Vancouver seems to be one of the few cities in the world taking this initiative to change the rising death toll among drug addicts. As well as providing a highly controversial clean needle exchange program, Vancouver also discovered hope in a study known as the North American Opiate Medication Initiative (NAOMI). The clean needle exchange program provides users with clean needles to prevent the spread of disease. NAOMI prescribes heroine users with heroine at a clinic with medical staff present. Both of these programs were designed to support heroine addicts instead of shaming them. The programs are supposed to integrate drug users into society as people, instead of ‘junkies’, to keep the death toll decreasing amongst drug users, to prevent the spread of disease, and to keep the crime rate diminishing. Overall, the programs are taking a different and effective approach in fighting the War on Drugs.

Do you want to send your kid to school and fear one day that one day that he or she might not come home? No, of course not no parents should have to worry about their child’s safety when sending them off to school weather if it’s elementary, high school or college. Unfortunately because of the times that is of society today, there is a probably that parents could send their kids off to school and they will not return home. This is because that mass shootings are at an all time high. A mass shooting, by definition of the Federal Bureau Investigation, is defined as a single individual unleashes a mass attack that results four or more victims that have been either wounded or  have been killed by the attack. Everyday more communities are traumatized as the result of mass shootings that occur in their hometown. So far in 2015, there have been a total of 294 mass shootings that have occurred in the United States that dates back to October 1st of this year. Which means that everyday a mass shootings occurs somewhere within the United States. The majority of mass shootings that have occurred have been in schools, but in recent months statistics prove that movie theaters and churches have also been prime targets for mass shooters. There are a couple of questions that are asked after a mass shooting occurs. Questions include “why would someone want to do this”, “could this have been prevented” and “what can be done to prevent this”? The main thing that is looked at when evaluating all of this is that mass shootings are mainly related to have mental health issues of the attacker or gun violence. Some people will say that one is the problem while others will say the opposite. There will even be people that say that both are the problem or neither is the problem. It’s obvious that both issues are the problems for mass shootings and nothing is being done to help prevent them.

Everyday we are locked in a battle with our own law enforcement. The same cops that promise to provide public safety, peace and support by providing assistance during emergencies, crisis and life threatening situations has now become a threat to us. This battle that we are confined in most of us do not win and if we are lucky enough we’ll make it out alive. If we are even luckier than that we will make it out without suffering from a long-term psychological disorder that can only be alleviated by Prozac, Zoloft and other addictive antidepressants that’ll wear off in the next few hours but we’ll be forced to take again as a way of escaping. Escaping the everyday brutality our police officers direct towards us as they continue to beat and kill victims.

Fire up the Xbox, pop in a prescribed disc, and undergo autism treatment. Having autistic subjects postpone real-life social interaction and opt for a virtual game to enhance their social skills seems questionable. Yet, it’s happening at The Center for Brain Health at the University of Texas. Neuroscientists have collaborated with video game developers on this rather counterintuitive creation, a game that medical professionals are attributing to increased scores on psychologically based social tests and enhanced real-world interactions in players. Several other game developers have followed suit, creating Project Evo and the aptly named Social Clues. Those on the autism spectrum will soon be able to circumvent the pills with nasty side effects and pick up fun, immersive games from their local pharmacy.

Many believe the death penalty is cheapest way to get rid of some of the worst criminals there are but many would be incorrect. Capital punishment is a very big issue that has been brought to light in our country over the last fifty years or so.  The biggest argument on this topic is not the moral problems but the cost of using this type of punishment. We are finding out now that it is actually cheaper to keep the prisoners locked away for life than to execute them. According to a former jurist from California named Donald McCartin, he says, “It’s 10 times more expensive to kill than to keep them alive”. The problem inlying with many states that still use the death penalty is that many of the politicians do not know the statistics behind the costs.

According to a study done by the LA times it costs the tax payers an extra 114 million more a year in California to keep someone on death row compared to life in prison. California has only executed about 11 people over the last 27 years. Take costs for each execution and it is around $250 million per inmate paid by the tax payers of California. For something that is morally wrong and very expensive many politicians fight to keep it.

It can be over 20 years after sentencing to the death penalty that it actually occurs. It takes years of legal battles and drawn out appeals in court. New Jersey recently banned the death penalty for this issue alone back in 2007. It was estimated that the average cost for the death penalty is around 4.2 million for each execution case yet none were actually executed. It has been found that in California it costs an extra 90,000 dollars more per inmate to house someone on death row. States are facing many budget cuts and can not afford to use the death penalty anymore and are as a result are abolishing capital punishment. States have hundreds who have been sentenced to death yet in the United States last year under 50 inmates were executed.

Giving someone life without parole compared to the death penalty creates many opportunities for the inmates to be exonerated of charges. With new technology being used in crime labs it gives the inmate the right sentence. The death penalty has killed many that actually weren’t guilty of the crime but were charged with the crime. It has been found after the person is put to death that the truth is found about who actually committed the crime. The United States is one of few that still practice the death penalty, other have been able to see what we can not.

http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/nation/2009-03-07-exepensive-to-execute_N.htm

http://deathpenalty.org/article.php?id=42

http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/federal-death-row-prisoners