Tuesday, April 23, 2013

Man I'm Old!!!!!!

 
 
When I was younger I would steal my older brothers’ dirty magazines and thought it was awesome. Occasionally I would sneak down stairs late at night and watch Cinemax. I really thought I was getting away with something. I was young and stupid. As I grew older the magazines lost their appeal, I realized stuff that they talked about would never happen to me, until college. I watched an old Cinemax movie, Heavy Metal when I was really young and saw it some years later, thought to myself, “This movie is crap, the acting sucks and I actually think I am stupider after watching it.”
Fast forward to the present, I have a ten year old daughter and I would be extremely upset if she were doing the things I did. Watching the segments of Deep Throat in class made me think to myself, “I don’t want my kids exposed to the.” Twenty years ago I may have thought differently, but now that I am a parent trying to raise my children “right” I think the time and place for porn is not where my ten year old can access it. I guess I’m just getting old.
 
 


Tuesday, April 2, 2013

Agent Orange Anyone?

                After class on Monday I was thinking about what to blog about. We had discussed so many issues: execution, Ron Kovic, monks burning themselves in protest and the Ho Chi Minh Trail. Out of all these topics, I thought of how horrible Agent Orange is. Then Tuesday I was in the Veteran Affairs (VA) Hospital and struck up a conversation with a Veteran who had served two tours in Vietnam and was now suffering from cancer caused by Agent Orange, which gave me a personal connection to the negative effects of the chemical. He also told me that his children had genetic birth defects, which is common in people who were exposed to the chemical.
 I told my wife about my encounter at the VA and she told me about her best friend, Kate. She was born with physical defects that, through many surgeries, have almost been corrected. My wife told me that Kate’s father was in Vietnam and was exposed to Agent Orange and that is the cause of Kate’s physical impairments. Not only do I have a personal connection with a person affected by Agent Orange, but my wife does as well.
                Six days ago the VA posted a link for Veterans that were exposed to Agent Orange and other herbicides used to defoliate Vietnam. This link is also for the children of these Veterans that suffer like my wife’s friend Kate. The link is: http://www.publichealth.va.gov/exposures/agentorange/, and it is filled with great information and resources.
 
This Photo shows C1-30's in a staggered formation spraying Agent Orange over the forest canopy, with no regard for who it might be landing on, friend or foe.