communicating in your field week 4

Watch the video of a speech and write a peer review as if the speaker would get the feedback from you in written form.

In the review please address the following aspects of the speech, giving clear examples from the speech and then critique the student’s performance.

At least three aspects of delivery

At least two aspects of content

Was the speech effective?

[MUSIC PLAYING]
Clean up your room. Eat all your vegetables. And don’t stay out too late.
How many of you have heard these expressions before? And who have you heard them from? Your mom, right? I remember
getting aggravated with my mother and thinking what a nag. And my grandma used to always tell me now remember, your mother
is your best friend.
I never understood what she meant by that until my mother developed a brain tumor when I was 17. She’s not the same person
she was when I was growing up.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Imagine, it’s early Saturday morning, you are laying in a nice, comfortable bed in the middle of a really sweet dream. And
suddenly, 7 o’clock. It’s time to get up. This is the last alarm. You jump out of bed and you realize that it’s Saturday morning, and
you have to go to school.
Wait a second. Saturday and school? Yes. If you were a student in one of the countries of the former Soviet Union you would have
had to get up on Saturday morning and go to school.
The system of education is different in every country in the world. Does the US have the best one? Well, we would never know
unless we compare the two. I was born in Kazakhstan and I spent 17 years there, going to school there. So today I just want to talk
a little bit about the system of education in Kazakhstan which was heavily influenced by the system of education in Russia, and
compare it to the system of education in the United States of America.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
The First Amendment of the United States Constitution gives us our freedom rights. The freedom of press, speech, religion, and the
right to peacefully assemble. When I was assigned to write a paper for my Composition II class over censorship and the internet, I
felt that the internet should not be censored. It was an infringement on our First Amendment rights.
I was not familiar with the internet, or its contents. But I had always heard argument that people have said that the internet should
be censored, because it contained an abundant amount of pornographic material and harmful information. When I sat down at my
PC to begin my research, I typed in the keywords censorship and internet.
I pulled up about 20,000 sites. Well, the first nine out of 10 sites brought links to, or brought pornographic material directly onto
my computer screen. After an hour of research I realized that my opinion had changed. I now felt that the internet should be
censored.
It contains harmful, hurtful, devastating, damaging, even deadly information. This does affect everyone, whether we want to admit
it or not. Technology is becoming a vital part of everyone’s daily lives. Indirectly or directly, everyone in this classroom will be
affected by the internet.
Oh, I’m sorry, if y’all excuse me, I’m just going to rech over here and get this. I’m sorry. I seen it sittin’ there, but I thought you
seen it too. An’ I thought we was gonna’ hit heads. Just– I reched over and got it. OK? I’m sorry.
Probably sounds familiar to a lot of you, right? Because 95% of you said that you know someone who uses improper grammar on a
daily basis. Now, my fiance grew up in Branson, Missouri, and neither one of his parents graduated from high school. So he grew up
hearing his father “rech” for things, and knowing that his father had seen things, and things like that. And according to the book-the state of literacy in America provided by the National Institute for Literacy– 18% of the adults in Oklahoma are at the level one
literacy rate.
Now, today I’d like to talk to you about grammar usage and illiteracy in your life and in your community and what you can do to
help.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Harriet Tubman was a woman of her time. Who was Harriet Tubman? She was a woman led by the spirit of Gaia. Who’m I? You
might ask. I’d was one of Harriet’s brothers. I’s was one of the slaves that Harriet set free.
We used to sing a song while waiting in the waters when Harriet would come to free us. The song went like this– [SINGING] Wade
in the water. Wade in the water children. Wade in the water. God’s going to trouble the water.
Harriet Tubman, who was a savior of souls, a fugitive of slavery herself, and a courageous woman who made repetitive trips down
south bringing slaves up from the South to the North, to freedom. Imagine a young boy at the age of 10 years old, fascinated at the
works of what one woman could do at freeing slaves. This woman was Harriet Tubman. The young boy was I, Edwin Henderson.
Now, Harriet Tubman, who was a savior of souls, a fugitive of slavery herself, and a courageous woman who made repetitive trips
down south at freeing slaves. Now Harriet Tubman was born in Bucktown, Maryland-[MUSIC PLAYING]
[ARABIC] is a verse that most Muslims recite for wishing to complete an activity. And now I will be discussing about the Salat for-the– how to bathe before you must do the Adhan and then to prayer. What you must do is wash your hands. You state again,
[ARABIC] and wash your hands three times up to your wrists. You go [ARABIC], [ARABIC], [ARABIC] three times.
Then you will rinse your mouth by getting some water in your hand and just rinsing your mouth three times. Then you will do your
nose. And then you will wash your face one time, just rinsing it off just one time.
And then after that, you will go to your right hand. You will wash it to your elbow three times, going like this under the faucet. And
then you will do your left hand in the same manner in rinsing your faucet.
Then you will go to your forehead, back to the back of your head with just one time swooping it across in your head. Then what
you will do is your ears, you will clean out your ears and behind the ears. Then you will go to your neck. And afterwards you will do
your right leg, your foot to your ankle. And then you will do your left, left to your ankle.
And after you have done that, for females, what you must put on is a scarf and a skirt that you must have on completely before
you start off the prayer and before you do the second step, which is Adhan. This is what you will have on.
This is what, actually, all females must wear before prayer. They must be covered from toes up to your wrists must be covered as
well. And the only thing that will be showing would be your face and a little bit of your neck.
And men, male Muslims, before starting a prayer, after they have done the washing– the ritual bathe– they will put on this, which
is called a dishdasha. They put this on before starting the Adhan. And the Adhan, which is what you must say before starting off
the prayer, also as well starts off with [ARABIC]
And it goes like this– God is great. God is great. God is great. God is great.
I testify that there is none worthy of worship except God. I testify that there is no one worthy of worship except God. I testify that
Muhammad is the messenger of God. I testify that Muhammad is the messenger of God.
Come to prayer. Come to prayer. Come to success. Come to success.
God is great. God is great. There is none worthy of worship except God.
As you can see, it repeats itself letting everyone know– or Allah know– that this is what you are wishing to start off, is prayer. That
you are starting to pray.
And afterwards, what you will do is– this rug, you will lay it down facing the East– I don’t know if I’m facing East in here– and you’ll
have it laying down. Step onto the rug with your bare feet, no shoes. And you will start it off by saying [ARABIC] And for females,
they put their hands right below their chest, right on their chest. And they will start off with Adhan again before they start prayer.
Now this ritual is done by Muslims five times a day. We Muslims pray five times a day. They pray during the [ARABIC], [ARABIC],
[ARABIC], [ARABIC], [ARABIC], [ARABIC], and [ARABIC].
[ARABIC] is the final prayer, which consists of four [ARABIC]. And then afterwards it consists of four or more [ARABIC] as you would
like. You know, it’s up to you as many of [ARABIC] as you want to do as you are willing to pray for God. The four [ARABIC] after the
four that must be completed before you start off the [ARABIC].
Males do the same ritual as I have just shown you. They do the same steps of the bathing, the Adhan, and placing of the carpet.
The only difference is, is they where dishdasha, which is what they pray in.
As I wrap up, I would like to restate what I have stated to you. That Muslims pray five times a day. They pray before sunrise,
sunrise, noon, afternoon, and sundown. And they must complete two steps before starting off with the prayer. They must do the
ritual bathe, which is to make sure that they are pure and clean.
And they must recite the Adhan one more time. And that in mind, I shall [ARABIC]. Which means thank God for abling me to
complete an activity which is what I had wanted to do.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
I want you to think back when you were in elementary school. If you were like me and went to a public school institution there with
32 small desks, number two pencils, a bright red apple on the teacher’s table. If you were like me in the classroom, the emphasis
was placed on phonics, reading, and math. We read our readers, we had a flash cards and the such.
But that was then. Think about the changes that are occurring today. With the new techniques in teaching, the classroom is an
innovative place for learning. Today my specific purpose is to inform you of the two new teaching concepts applied in today’s
classroom and the governmental emphasis on progressive learning. And to make you aware of the changes in the future of
education.
As you may well know, I’m a third-year secondary ed major and a substitute teacher for the Tulsa public school system. And also, I
draw on the source, my mother. A driving force of my inspiration, she’s a 17-year veteran of the special ed classroom and she also
holds a master’s in education.
But turning back to the methods in the classroom, the new teaching method today is called inclusion. Inclusion is an incorporation
of each student into the classroom. It allows every student the ability to learn in a classroom setting, regardless of disability.
The federal law states that the classroom must make a reasonable effort to facilitate any student. This is good because it allows
every one to learn in an equal opportunity environment. For example, you have a deaf student that is basically able to keep up
with the working and keep up with the lessons. But the only problem that he has is that he’s deaf.
Well, with the inclusion method, they allow that deaf student to come into a regular classroom setting with the help of sign
language or an interpreter or closed captioning videos. He’s incorporated into the classroom. And he learns just like the rest of the
students.
The second newest method is called collaborative effort or teamwork projects. This is one that has a lot of emphasis in the sixth
through eighth grade level. And I find a lot of emphasis also in my honors class. Collaborative effort teaching is working in team
projects.
For example, if you’re going to do a research paper on, let’s say, the history of the United States, for example. Seven to eight
students would come together and they would research this aspect from all different angles, whichever angle they wanted to look
at it from. They would then form the information, form a project, get the paper together, and present the paper to the teacher.
This is a very good method as far as I’m concerned because it allows for more flexibility in the learning process. I cite– as a
resource– in Time magazine this last week they had what makes a good school? And there was an elementary school in
Minnesota. And they were working on their science project. They grew butterfly cocoons all the way up to chrysalises. And they let
them go.
Well, in that process one person had water the cocoons. One person had gather the milkweeds to feed them. One person had to
make sure the temperature was warm. And so then it was a collaborative effort and a team effort.
But just as these new innovations have helped the teaching effort, the government also has placed a special emphasis on
progressive learning. On February the fourth, 1997, President Clinton and the Secretary of Education offered the 10 points of
progressive reform. Some of the new things that they’ve innovated into the classroom were having a mouse in every student’s
hand by age eight, higher standards for the teachers, and volunteerism by college students like myself. And at least two years of
education for every person in the United States, at least.
And finally, with all the progressive changes in education, the classroom has become one of the most innovative tools for the
future. New concepts, the information superhighway, and mentors help to push this society into the 21st century. It is interesting
to think what the minds of our future leaders would be able to achieve in the whole.
In the words of Professor Julius Lester, education is the torch of wisdom. And may I add, may it always burn brightly. Thank you.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
One day a college freshman was mountain biking near a field when he fell off his bike. He stood up and saw what he thought was a
scarecrow hung on a pole about 20 feet in front of him. But it wasn’t a scarecrow.
It was a young man. He had literally been crucified to this pole. His five foot, two inch, 105 pound body hung up by white nylon
cords.
His head had been bashed in four places. His nose was broken. The skin on his head and face was cut in 18 places. And most cuts
went clear to the bone. He had been pistol whipped and was left hanging there for 18 hours, slowly bleeding to death. He died in
the hospital the next day.
What had 21-year-old Matthew Shepard done to deserve this? He was gay. Unfortunately, I think this incident was stemmed not
only from hatred, but from ignorance about the gay community.
I’ve had a lot of experience being around gay men. I fell for one of them a couple of years ago and became friends with all of his
friends. And hang out with them for a few years. And we got along perfectly. I love Broadway musicals, a big fan of Barbara
Streisand. So that’s just the group that I fit in with.
I’m not trying to promote a lifestyle here by any means. I myself don’t really condone it. But I’d like to tell you some things that you
may not know. Today, I’d like to discuss the debate of nature versus nurture concerning homosexuality. And tell you a little bit
about what it’s like for gay men to live in a predominantly heterosexual US culture.
First, let’s discuss the nature versus nurture debate. First, advocates of the nature have believed that homosexuality is genetic.
Dean Hamer– a molecular biologist at the National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, Maryland– did a l study on 40 pairs of gay
brothers. He found that in 33 of them, they all had the same exact marker on one end of the X gene. And some people have
begun to call this the gay gene.
In his latest work, he has found consistently that homosexuals have gay relatives on their mother’s side of the family. And since
the X chromosome is passed from mother to son, this promotes his earlier work. Simon LeVay– a neurobiologist– did autopsies on
the brains of 41 male cadavers, 19 of which were gay. And he too consistently found that a segment of the hypothalamus– which
is at the base of the brain and believed to be related to sexual drive– was smaller than in heterosexual men.
On the other hand, there are a lot of advocates of the nurture theory, who believe homosexuality to be a product of environment.
And they don’t agree with homosexuality. And they’re mad that the federal government is diverting tax dollars away from other
research and putting into areas as such a thing as the gay gene.
Bailey and Pillard published a study in the Journal of General Psychology where they found that 52% of identical twins were both
gay. And 22% of fraternal twins were both gay. Now, this does suggest that genetics plays a role in homosexuality. But it also
proves that environment plays an equally– if not more important– role.
Some reactions to this? Yes, some gays were glad that their lifestyle might be proved to be genetic instead of a choice. But for the
most part, they’ve been really upset at this research. The Hastings Center report suggests that since if homosexuality’s proved to
be genetic, that perhaps gay men would have to undergo treatment to perhaps change their sexual orientation.
They fear that this would lead to testing of fetuses in the womb to see if they have this gene. And then if parents– if the babies
prove to have this gene– they might decide to abort the child considering homosexuality to be a defect. Also, they fear that gay
testing might become a policy in hiring employees, such as drug testing. And this could open the community to even more
discrimination.
As Donald Suggs of the New York chapter of the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation said, homosexuality is not something
to justify and explain. It’s something that should be accepted. Until people accept us, all the scientific evidence in the world will not
change homophobia.
As you can see, both side of the issue have good points here. And I doubt this issue will be resolved any time soon. Now I’d like to
tell you about a couple of my friends that I interviewed, two very different people. The first one is Jason. He’s a 20-year-old gay
male. And I asked him what he thought about the question that homosexuality is a choice.
And he looked at me incredulously and said why would anybody choose to be this way? Choose to be made fun and degraded and
sometimes even disowned by their family? He wished more than anything that he could be straight.
He said he’s been attracted to men as long as he can remember. And he really started noticing it in high school. But he ignored it.
Because that’s not how he was raised to believe. he dated girls all throughout high school, dating girl after girl, after girl, hoping
something would change.
And he went to church every Sunday and prayed to God that God would change the way he felt because he didn’t believe that was
right. But it didn’t happen. And his senior trip to Cancun he decided to come out some of his closest friends. And when he told them
that he was gay, they all abandoned him.
No one talked to him for the rest of the year. These people who had been his friends for years and years just turned their backs on
him. And it upset him a lot. But finally he came to accept himself and realize that he didn’t need friends who wouldn’t support him
in who he was.
Jason is not your typical media portrayal of a gay man. He’s very handsome, very rugged, loves sports, kind of macho. Ripped with
muscles, that sort of thing. And he’s the one who taught me that you can’t stereotype gay men. Because I never would’ve known
by looking at him, besides the fact that we got along great.
On the other end of the spectrum, I then interviewed my friend Brian, an 18-year-old gay male, and asked him what it was like to
come out to his family? And his story’s quite different. His family’s very rich. And his father is a very prominent and well-known
psychologist here in town.
And he said one day he took his mother out to lunch and decided to tell her that he was gay. And sat her down and said mom, I
have something really important to tell you. And she got all upset. You know? Brian, what’s wrong? What is it?
And he just mustered up all his courage and said mom, I’m gay. And he said she just looked at him with this really funny look for a
few minutes and said well, I know. What do you want for lunch? Like it was no big deal.
They said they had known ever since he was little that he was gay. So it was no surprise for them. They accepted him openly, no
questions asked.
Brian is your typical media portrayal of a gay man. Jack onWill & Grace, that’s Brian. He’s drop dead gorgeous, great singer,
dancer, actor. He’s an interior decorator. He arranges flowers, makes jewelry, writes poetry. He’s the most all-around talented
person I’ve ever met.
In conclusion, I hope this makes you think twice before making fun of someone because they’re gay, or for any reason for that
matter. I hope I’ve enlightened you to some things you might not have known about the gay community. And I’d like to leave you
with a poem that Brian wrote. He wrote it when he dropped out of high school, partially because of all the hatred that he had to
endure.
You laugh at his expense. And he can’t understand why. He hears what you say as time passes by. He knows of the hatred you
hold deep inside. He knows what it’s like to go ahead, cry.
There’s nothing he can do. He’s weird, he’s strange, he’s a fag. And as the time slows, his smile starts to sag.
His cheeks no more rosy, his heart is a vice. His blood starts to boil but you don’t think twice. He knows that the demons awaken
his soul. He knows he is bright, a light you will never know.
He expresses his life through his art and his songs. He knows that his torture won’t last for long. Because one day, the artist is
gone.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Imagine if you were unable to communicate with somebody. What if the English language did not have a writing system? It would
make it very difficult to learn English. Well, this was the way of life for the Cherokee Indians.
They did not have a writing system or a way to learn and communicate with each other. So when Indians of different tribes would
assemble, they would use sign language to communicate. Until a man by the name of Sequoyah invented the Cherokee alphabet,
making it possible for people to learn the Cherokee language.
Like many of you, I have Indian heritage also. And one of the many people who learned to speak the Cherokee language– with the
help of Sequoyah– was my great grandfather, [? Auton ?]. And in an interview with my grandmother, Geneva [? Shafer, ?] she told
me a story about my great grandfather and how learning to speak to Cherokee language saved his life.
One day he was working on a fence. And he served as a sort of guardian for the Cherokee people, because he knew how to speak
English and the Cherokee language. And an Indian got upset with him and came up with a gun while he was working on this fence
and threatened to kill him that day.
And if my great grandfather didn’t learn the Cherokee language he would have gotten shot and killed. He talked his way out of the
situation using the Cherokee language. So without Sequoyah’s spectacular invention, he would have lost his life that day.
So this morning I would like to share with you a little background about Sequoyah himself, him actually creating the alphabet, and
the effects that the alphabet had. So first, I would like to begin by telling you about Sequoyah. And I’d like to start off by sharing a
quote from the book Sequoyah by Grant Foreman.
It says Sequoyah is celebrated as an Indian genius. Who solely, from the resources of his mind, endowed a whole tribe with
learning. The only man in history to conceive and perfect in its entirety an alphabet or syllabary. Sequoyah was born in the village
of Tuskegee in Tennessee in about 1776. Now, Sequoyah is considered one of the greatest Indian heroes of all time.
But to my surprise, he was only 1/2 Indian. His mother belonged to the Red Paint Clan in Tennessee, and his father was a white
explorer by the name of Nathanial Gist that left around the time Sequoyah was born. So he did not know his father.
Sequoyah’s name The Lame One in the Cherokee language. This was because he had a weak and a short leg. Now I don’t really
know if he was born this way or if it was an accident. The books aren’t too sure on that. He also had an English name, George
Guest. And according to David Petersen, in the book Sequoyah , Father of the Cherokee Alphabet, his last name is probably just a
misspelling of his father’s name Gist.
Sequoyah grew up and he had many talents as a boy. He loved to carve, draw, make things out of silver. And to used these talents
to support his family when he grew older. He was a trader, a farmer, he was a blacksmith. He liked making things out of copper
and silver, and he would trade these items.
Sequoyah later joined the US Army under General Andrew Jackson in 1812 to fight the British troops and the Creek Indians. And
during this time– when he was fighting in the war– this is where his spark actually was established in wanting to create an
alphabet for his people. Because he saw all the white soldiers reading military lists and receiving letters from their family and
friends. And he wanted his people to have this opportunity also.
So now I’d like to talk with you about him actually creating the syllabary. After the war he returned home. And at first– when he
first started work on the syllabary– he decided he was going to use signs and symbols for every word in the Cherokee language.
Which if we did that for the English language, we would have too many signs and symbols to remember.
So he soon figured this out. And he decided to use the same symbols for the same sounds and different words. And Lillie Patterson
explains this very clearly. She is the author of The Cherokee Who Captured Words.
And she says an alphabet has a sign for any one of the tiny sounds that makes up a word. Each letter stands alone. Whereas a
syllabary has a sign for each spoken symbol.
And Patterson gives us a great example. She says there is an important city in Tennessee that has the Cherokee name,
Chattanooga. Now, it was spelled with 11 English letters. But only four of Cherokee’s syllables would be used to spell this city.
So therefore, the Cherokee alphabet is called a syllabary. Because each character represents a syllable. During this time Sequoyah
was working on this– he worked very long and hard– he started to get scorned and ridiculed by his people. They thought he was
crazy. Including his wife. She got very upset and threw all of this hard work into a fire.
So he had to start completely over. But although Sequoyah continued his work, he used many English letters. He couldn’t read or
write English. He could speak some English. But he used English letters and signs and symbols that he made himself to create to
create the syllabary. Of course, each syllable or symbol had its own speech sound.
So in 1821– after about 12 years of work on the syllabary it was complete. And he decided to present the syllabary to the
Cherokee tribal council with his daughter in about 1821 also. They thought it was a hoax at first. And they really didn’t believe him.
And he had to prove that it was the real deal. And so he got it approved, and it became the Cherokee writing system.
So now I’d like to talk with you about the effects the Cherokee syllabary had. First, on February 21, 1828, the first issue of the
Cherokee Phoenix came out in Georgia. Now this was the first national bilingual newspaper. There was also Cherokee magazines,
bibles, they could capture their own laws on paper.
Educational materials, Cherokee children were able to go to school and actually learn Cherokee now. They were able to capture
their own words, songs, stories, poems, and prayers on paper. And according to Lillie Patterson, people were able to read about
their own customs, celebrations, weddings, and other events.
So today we have talked about Sequoyah. I have given you a little background about him actually creating the alphabet and the
effects the alphabet had. Today, only about 10% of the Cherokee can speak their own language. Therefore, Sequoyah’s syllabary
makes sure the Cherokee language is not forgotten. Sequoyah gave the Cherokee people a gift that will last forever.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Orgy, Hole, Korn, Busta Rhymes, Dirty Old Bastard. To most, these are just ordinary terms that are used nearly every day. But to
our youth culture they’re beginning to define and even shape the way our students head into the 21st century. Now, I’m a youth
pastor and I’ve been in youth work for 10 years. And what I’ve come to see is that the shift that we’ve seen in youth culture has
taken on dramatic looks in the last 20 to 30 years.
In the ’50s and ’60s and ’70s, we noticed that the family tended to spend a lot more time together than they do now. As a result of
this– in a poll taken by Chap Clark– 45% of all families said they spent less than two meals a week together. As a result of that
we’ve seen a decline in the family unit as a whole.
Back in the ’70s we had what we call aBrady Bunch mentality. And what that was, it gave the family an opportunity to work out
everything by themselves. They were able to pull everything together. And usually on The Brady Bunch it was within 30 minutes.
Today we’ve seen a shift that goes from Brady Bunch mentality to a Party of Five mentality. Meaning that the family unit has pretty
much broken apart. And that now the people inside the family are taking care of themselves. They’re having to go outside of the
home to their peers in order to make the life decisions and the life changes that they’ve made with the family in previous years.
What we’ve also seen is that the family culture has changed as well. We’ve seen parents start to leave the homes a lot more.
We’ve seen kids begin to be the breadwinners for a lot of the homes. The attitudes of the parents and the kids have both changed.
Today I want to speak about the youth culture. But even more importantly, how the changes in the family unit have affected the
youth culture that we live in today. And made it shift from a modern to a postmodern youth culture.
I want to do this by exploring the roles, the values, and the lifestyle of both the parents and kids in the homes. As we begin, we’re
going to focus on roles. In the modern culture, women had the role of nurturer and caretaker. They were in the homes. They were
stay-at-home moms a lot of times. And they took care of the family.
As we’ve shifted into the postmodern culture, we’ve seen that the woman has been become a co-wage earner. That she’s actually
had to enter the workforce to support her family. And as a result of that, in a book called Ties That Stress by David Elkind, we find
that 51% of all women work today, 51%. And of those 51%, 10% are in the top jobs in their field.
And of those 10%, they only make 30% as much money as their male counterparts. That is a staggering way to look at that. That
even though we have so many women in work today, they still make so little money. And as a result of that, they begin to feel
devalued, and they begin to move away from the workplace.
Or they go in search of other things that will compensate that. For men, their primary role in a modern culture was protector and
provider. That they took care of their family. They brought home the money. And the family was OK. They were able to provide for
their family.
In the postmodern culture, a role is now undefined for many men. They don’t know what their place in the home is supposed to be
now. And as a result of that, we’ve seen a lot more stay-at-home dads, Mr. Moms as you would call them. We’ve seen a lot of
fathers get back into their families so that they can make amends for the some of the wrongs that they’ve done in the past.
For kids, in a time where they were safe to explore they’re now just on their own. They’re required to almost raise themselves.
Because we do have two income families now, we’ve seen where kids are becoming Latchkey kids. And this isn’t just something
that’s happened recently. This is something that goes back for many years.
But kids come home from school and they’re basically asked to raise themselves for quite a period of time. Looking at the values
of each– for women, they went from a relationship of need to a need to be valued. And that means that at one time they valued
relationships with their spouses, with their friends, with their kids, with anyone who they had contact with– PTA, whichever.
And now they’ve moved into a place where they just need to be valued. Meaning that they want what they do to mean something
to other people. They want to see that their work is appreciated. As a result of that, we’ve seen a woman become more
independent in her lifestyle and in her values.
As a result of that women have become needing to be needed. Chap Clark– who is the professor of family and student ministries
at Fuller Seminary in Colorado– did a study on women over 30 and found that their rate of adultery is higher than that in men over
30. That women tend to go outside of the home. And sometimes going into other homes to fulfill relationship needs, fulfill
emotional needs and whatnot.
For men who once had a life of balance are now in a life of diversion. That they’ve had to become more diversified in their work
styles and in their home styles. And because of this, they’re being spread very thin. And some have resorted to becoming a
specialist in their field.
We’ve seen that cardiologists and radiologists and the medical field has become much more specialized. Because you’re able to
make more money in specialized fields. We’ve seen if you specialize in something then you tend to make a much better living at it.
For kids who once had a life of variety, they have now a life of fragmentation. That they have just so many choices that pull them
in so many different ways and they always feel like they have to be a part of all of them. That sports and school and church and
whatever you can do to be involved in something is much more important to kids nowadays.
They have more choices than ever. And as a result of that, they have a drive to be the best at everything they do. And that has
come into a realm where now coaches in schools become Bobby Knight.
That they drive their students to be as good as they possibly can be. And if they fall short of that then it’s a failure. We’ve also
seen that drama teachers now have become Steven Spielberg. That they push their students to act at Oscar caliber levels even
when they’re freshman, even when they’re eighth graders. And it’s slowly beginning to wear on our kids.
As we’ve seen today, the shift from modern culture to postmodern culture in our students has gone through changes due their
environment in homes and schools and in their workplaces a lot of times. The future of the family is not looking very good. Right
now we’re at a divorce rate of 50%. To put that into perspective, by the end of the day today, 3,500 kids will then be in a divorced
family. By the end of today, 3,500 kids.
If you look at that tonight 40% of all teens will go to sleep without a father in their home. And this is something that’s continuing to
happen. The divorce rate slowly goes up, and the family slowly breaks apart.
Kids are growing up without a family today. And as a result of that we’re beginning to leave a legacy to our kids that says if you
don’t like the situation you’re in don’t persevere through it. Just get out of it. Is that the legacy that we want to leave? Is that the
way we want to go into the 21st century?
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Not long ago I was watching live coverage from Kosovo. And as I watched, I saw the workers putting dead bodies in these massive
graves and these human after human, people who’ve had lives, families, emotions. People just like me being laid in these massive
graves. Bloody, missing limbs. I watched as children were running through the streets crying, orphaned by Milosevic’s henchmen.
And I watched as the elderly were being led away from their homes that they’d lived entire life, in a massive entourage of people
never to return. Not knowing where they were going, not knowing why. And I looked at them and I ask myself why? Why them?
Why not me?
And the only answer that I could come up with was freedom and liberty. The two things that embody this country, the two things
that make this country great, and the two things to prevent these atrocities from happening to me and my family. But have we
forgot that as a country?
Have we forgot what that means? Have we forgot the price that was paid to make that and to get there? I’d like to read you an
excerpt from “Remember Me”. It was by Mary Wynn. “Some people call me Old Glory. Others call me the Star Spangled Banner.
But whatever they call me, I’m your flag. The flag of the United States of America.
I remember some time ago people lined up on both sides of the street to watch the parade. And naturally, I was always there
proudly waving in the breeze. When your daddy saw me coming, he immediately removed his hat and placed his hand over his
heart. Remember?
And you, I remember you standing there straight as a soldier. You didn’t have a hat, but you were giving the right solution.
Remember your little sister? Not to be outdone, she was saluting the same as you with her hand over her heart. Remember?
What happened? I’m still the same old flag. Oh, I’ve added a few more stars since you were a boy, and a lot more blood has been
shed since those parades of long ago. But I don’t feel as proud as I used to.
When I come down your street you just stand there with your hands in your pockets. I may get a small glance but then you look
away. I see children running around and shouting. They don’t seem to know who I am.
I saw one man take off his hat and look around. He didn’t see anyone else saluting or looking at me, so he quickly put his back on.
Is it a sin to be patriotic?
Have you forgotten what I stand for and where I’ve been in? Anzio, Normandy, Omaha Beach, Guadalcanal, Korea, and Vietnam.
Take a look at the memorial honor roll sometime. Look at the names of those people who never came back to keep this Republic
free. When you salute me you’re actually saluting them.”
Is it just me or is 223 years of freedom not a big deal anymore? I think the feelings of pride and nostalgia of patriotism are quickly
fading in this country. The National Education Association– or the NEA– conducted a survey for high school students and asked
them, in your opinion, is your nation the greatest nation in the world? 88% of them responded with a yes. And the NEA said in
response, this is something that we’re going to have to change.
And I submit to you that it has. I was driving by a school a couple days ago. And it was cloudy outside. It was raining. And as I
came up upon this flagpole, a man was lowering Old Glory, the American flag.
And as he got it down and reeled it down closer to him, he reached up and he grabbed the flag. He crumpled it up into a ball and
he threw it down. He took the second flag that was on the ground and raised it up.
I looked at him and I was horrified. And I was angry. And I thought this is just not the way it should be.
You may question my patriotism. You may question my excitement about America and the flag and all these things. And it’s not
necessarily the flag, or the Declaration of Independence. It’s what they represent. It represents lives, men and women who have
died for these things.
I am an American. I love the Pledge of Allegiance. I love the National Anthem. I love everything about the United States of
America.
When I was 18 I joined the Marine Corpus following in the footsteps of my grandfather, who lost 80% of his leg stepping on a land
mine in Germany during World War II. My father risked his life in the jungles of Vietnam and watched his friends die right before
him.
He talks about holding men in his arms while they died. They understand what it is to pay the price of freedom. Well, I was not
forced to walk the road that they walked. I was blessed to have seen their lives, their experiences, and their philosophies on what
has made this country great.
I, as a person, saw a living example of the price of freedom. My father, and especially my grandfather. Every time he sits down and
every time he stands up and every time he walks to the kitchen, he walks to the bathroom, and he walks to his bedroom, he
remembers the price of freedom because he’s doing it with a limp. He remembers it.
In a book, Elias Lieberman was recounting his path that his family took coming to America. He was the son of an immigrant. And in
his book, he talks about one of the sections or one of the times that his father took him aside and said son, I want you to look up.
And here’s what he writes. “See, said my father pointing to the flag fluttering near. That flag of Stars and Stripes is yours. Live for
it. Die for it. And under the sky of my new country I swore to do so. And every drop of blood of me will keep that vow. I am proud
of my future. I am an American.”
Now why is this is not our solemn vow? This was an immigrant. This was someone who was given the chance and the blessing to
come into this country, and they swore to defend and honor the United States of America.
Is it because we have forgotten? Forgotten the price? Have we become the spoiled children of our forefathers who have fought to
make this country great? Have you ever taken the time to look at the Vietnam memorial and seen the thousands and thousands
and thousands of names on that?
Have you looked at Pearl Harbor? Have you seen the memorial there? Have you gone to Arlington Cemetery and looked at the
number of graves that lay there? Have you thought about the men and women who fought and died to make this country great?
And I think, most of all, have you thought of the mothers who have cried and have shed tears because they lost their sons?
I think then, at that point, then you’ll see the price of freedom. I think one of the greatest lessons of history is that we do not learn
the great lessons of history. What will it take to rekindle patriotism?
Does history have to be repeated? Will we have to fight these battles all over again? Will our fathers have to be in the trenches in
Germany? Will they have to lose people that they care for?
Must our government, once again, become a tyranny for us to understand the beauty and prestige of something so precious as
freedom? And finally, must we lose our freedom to thirst for it again?
A couple summers ago I went to Mexico City. And what I remember most and what stands out in my mind were the little children
coming to me, personally, looking up at me and begging for food. I remember the cardboard cities the women, the children, the
parents, the fathers, the mothers. The children running around with no clothes on, defecating and urinating, and swimming and
drinking from the same streams and the same water.
And the people, the little children coming up to us simply because we were Americans. Not because we smiled at them. And not
because of what we looked like. They knew we were Americans because we look like we had things. And they wanted to come
home with us. They asked if they could come home with us. Do we have something that they don’t have?
When I had my experiences in Iraq, the Saudi soldiers ran to us. We came over a hill and they ran to the American soldiers. They
didn’t stand up and fight. They had been in the desert so long that they were starving. And they ran to us in hopes that we would
take care of them, that we would feed them.
Because what Americans, we represent of freedom. You look at the Cuban refugees and the supposed black eye that we have and
we like to talk about in politics. These people do everything they can to come to America. They risk their lives. They crawl on
cardboard boats and try to swim to Florida.
Why? Is it because they have a great job lined up, or their chances of succeeding in America are great? They don’t know that. They
just know that there is potential there. They are free. And you can’t put a price on freedom.
So we, as people– especially as American people– we need to remember, the next time you see a war veteran tell them thank you.
And then maybe you’ll remember. The next time you see the flag think about the price that was paid, the blood that was shed to
fly that flag. And maybe then you’ll remember.
Teach your children when they come what it means to be an American. And maybe they’ll remember. Follow leaders that embody
the traits that make this country great and maybe they will remember. Let us remember our American roots, lest we repeat the
process of obtaining them.
And I’ll conclude with a portion of Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address at the Gettysburg National Battlefield. November 19,
1863, “It is for us, the living rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they, who have fought here, have thus so far
nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us. That, from these honored dead, we
take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion.
That we here highly resolve that these dead shall have not died in vain. That this nation under God shall have a new birth of
freedom, and that the government of the people, by the people, and for the people shall not perish from this earth. And may we
never forget. And may you never forget.”
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Oh my gosh, not today. No, it can’t be. Oh gosh, what am I going to do?
I know, I know, before school. Before school I– I can’t do it before school. If I’m late again my teacher will flunk me.
OK, let’s think here. School, work– I’ll do it between school and work. That’s it. But if I’m late again my boss is going to fire me.
So I’ll do it after work. I’ll go after work. Except for they’re closed by the time I get off work.
What am I going to do? Oh, this is so frustrating. Well, it’s really not that big of a deal. Really, it’s not that important. And to be
quite honest, I’m not all that interested.
What you have just heard are a few of the many excuses people use for not voting. Today I would like to explain to you why people
don’t vote, why voting is so important, and why you should be active in voting. In my audience analysis I found that all but two of
you are registered voters.
I also found that all but five of you voted in the last presidential election. Now those are pretty good percentages. But what about
those city and state elections? You know, the smaller elections? How come only eight of you voted in those elections?
Maybe it’s because you didn’t feel informed. Or maybe you didn’t realize the election was going on. After all, it’s not a big election
like the presidential election is.
Or maybe you just got busy and lost track of time. Or perhaps you weren’t all that interested. Those are all rather poor excuses for
not voting.
The extra time is hard to come by, especially with our busy schedules. And a lot of times we don’t feel fully informed. It’s hard to
find time to sit down and read a newspaper about a candidate, especially with all the other reading assignments we’re given in our
classes.
So all these excuses are understandable. But I must question a lack of interest. Government should be the most important thing to
us when it comes to voting.
This is the reason that voting is so important. The government affects our everyday lives. Not voting is like spitting in the face of
those who died to give us that privilege.
Now that may seem a little bit harsh, but it’s true. I’m sure you’re all tired of hearing how men died to give us that freedom. But
let’s reflect on that for just a moment.
Many men gave up their lives in war so that our country could be free. If what they did, they had not taken seriously, where would
our country be today? It wouldn’t be the free nation America that we live in now. No, we’d probably be off in some foreign country,
speaking some other language under some other ruler’s laws.
To vote is a privilege. But not only is it a privilege that we’ve been given, it’s a responsibility. If we’re going to run our country
under the system of a democracy, then we all need to take an active part in voting. If not, we might as well be a Communist nation
and allow an elite group of people to run our country.
So why is it that only 45% to 55% of voters actually vote? These are some statistics that were given to me on the 1992
presidential election by David Ellenburg, a professor at the Southeast campus. 38% percent of eligible voters were not registered.
14% of those voters did not like their candidate choices. 10% were not interested in politics, while another 10% just had no
particular reason. 7% were sick or disabled. 4% were not US citizens.
Another 4% were new residents. 2% could not leave their job. Another 2% had no transportation. And 6% of the people said they
had just had other reasons.
Well, let’s take a look at a few of these 38% of the eligible voters weren’t registered. Why not? It’s as simple as going down to your
local post office or tag agency and taking a form that takes maybe five minutes to fill out. So I don’t understand. Why are 38% not
registered?
14% percent didn’t like their candidate choices. Well, I’ve got new for you. Someone’s going to win the election. So you might as
well put your two cents worth in and be a part of your country.
10% of the people weren’t interested in politics. Why not? Politics affects our everyday life.
What about the sales tax you pay every time you make a purchase? The roads you drive on each day? The jobs that many of you
hold. All of these affect our lives. So I suggest you get interested.
7% of people were sick or disabled. If you’re sick or disabled or unable to make it to the polls an absentee ballot is allowed. So you
might consider asking for an absentee ballot. And for those of you that didn’t have transportation, I’m sure that if you were to call
your party’s headquarters they would be more than happy to find a way to get you to your election.
Another common excuse is my individual vote doesn’t count. Why, sure it does. Not all of the elections have been won by an
overwhelming majority. So each individual vote is very important. Imagine this– you’re running for an office. And let’s just say it’s
president of the United States.
On election day, 45% of the eligible voters show up and cast their votes. After all the votes are tallied you have lost the election.
Then over a period of time– maybe weeks, maybe months– The other 55%– you know, the ones that didn’t show up to vote-come up to you and say I am so sorry I didn’t make it to the polls. But I just want to let you know, I was going to vote for you.
How’s that going to make you feel? If just 1/2 of those people would have shown up it would have been enough to weight the vote
the other way. Everyone should be active in voting.
All but five of you voted in the last presidential election. That’s a big election, an important one, right? But what about those little
elections?
You know, the mayor, the school board, your city council members. Why is it that only 11 of you voted in that election? Those have
just as much of an effect on your life as the large presidential election does.
In conclusion, voting is an essential part of our government’s functioning. What happens at the polls has a tremendous effect on
your life, the big elections and the small ones. If we’re going to send a select group of people to the polls then we might as well just
let them be running our country.
We have the right and the responsibility to vote. So next time you see the signs or the campaign ads advertising that there’s going
to be a vote, check your local newspapers or call your city council to find out when the vote is going to be. I hope today I’ve given
you insight on why people don’t vote, how necessary voting is, and why you should vote. Don’t neglect your responsibility. Go
vote.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
I think we all know what this is. It’s a bottle of prescriptive medicine. Well, this is actually a prescription of antibiotics. And
according to my class survey, everyone here has taken an antibiotic sometime or another. Now, let me ask you. When taking an
antibiotic did you ever think about how it was affecting your body?
Most likely you probably thought the antibiotic was going to help cure or relieve your illness. But did you ever think that taking an
antibiotic would do more harm to you than good? I’ve been interested in the subject of antibiotics for quite some time.
A few semesters back I took a pathogenic microbiology class. And in there we studied about bacteria and how antibiotics affect
them. And since I do take antibiotics from time to time, I always was somewhat curious to know how they did affect my body.
When penicillin was put to use in the 1940s it put an end to so many deadly and harmful infectious diseases. Now, almost 60 years
later, these diseases are completely resistant to the antibiotics that we have come to blindly rely on. Today I’m going to talk about
how the overuse and the misuse of antibiotics is causing bacteria to become resistant to them.
Many experts agree that if nothing is done to prevent this problem, we will suffer new catastrophe epidemics more devastating
than we have ever experienced in the past. I will also offer you some simple solutions in treating some of your common illnesses.
And I will also teach you how to use antibiotics appropriately.
First, I would like to stress why I believe there is such a great need for us to be aware of our antibiotic use. There is growing and
alarming evidence that we may be losing our war against bacterial infectionous diseases. Jeffrey Fisher MD discusses in his book
The Plague Makers how we are creating catastrophic new epidemics with the overuse and the misuse of antibiotics.
Because the chemistry of the bacteria and how the antibiotics affect them is so complex, I will discuss this problem to you in a way
you will understand and will be able to relate to you. For example, let’s say you come down with a minor sore throat or an ear
infection.
The problem rises when you take an antibiotic and it doesn’t work. The bacteria, in turn, has changed its structure completely. The
target bacteria are altered in such a way that the antibiotics are useless.
The antibiotics are now rendered ineffective. In my class survey most of you stated that you had an illness that reoccurred often,
even with the use of an antibiotic. Many health officials agree that antibiotics are no longer successful in treating some of our
common illnesses. And that improper antibiotic use causes that sore throat or ear infection that won’t go away.
Now what is improper antibiotic use? Well, it’s not following your doctor’s orders. When you go to the doctor and he prescribes to
you an antibiotic and he tells you to take that antibiotic three times a day for 10 days, you better do so.
And why? Well, you want to kill off all the bacteria that’s causing your illness. Taking the antibiotics until you feel better is not doing
any good.
The bacteria are taking in the chemical makeup of the antibiotics and adapting it to their own. Another example I could give you-let’s say you come down with a staph infection. Well, 95% of staphylococci bacteria– which causes staph infections– are resistant
to antibiotics, 95%.
Also, certain strains of bacteria that cause pneumonia and ear infections are resistant to all but one known antibiotic. And in 1992
there were 420 antibiotic products on the US market. I have stressed the need of why I believe there is a problem with our
antibiotic use.
Now, what is something that we all can do about it? Now, I have talked about the downfalls of taking antibiotics. And I could just
say stop taking them completely.
But that’s not very realistic. Some of our illnesses get too serious for us to treat on their own. I know I’ve been to the doctor
thankful we do have such good medical technology. And without that technology we wouldn’t be where we are today.
Now, let’s preserve that technology for our children and our children’s children. Bacteria are one of our ultimate survivors. In the
pre-antibiotic era our grandparents and our great grandparents relied on home remedies. Herbs, and foods to treat some of their
common illnesses.
My suggestion? Think back of what they did. Try some of those things.
Health officials agree that antibiotics don’t have the same healing agents as our grandmother’s chicken soup does for colds.
Reader’s Digest of Natural Medicine nutrition writer Jean Carper suggests before we turn to drugs for every minor illness, we should
consider the vast health resources found in our local supermarkets. Before antibiotics were put to use, food was regarded as a
potent medicine.
Now, pharmaceutical drugs have made us forget of the rich and powerful medical use in foods. And food’s served for so many
purposes– antibiotic, laxative, painkillers, cancer inhibitors, and that’s just to name a small few. The list continues.
Research shows that foods perform similar to antibiotics. When antibiotics fail to heal a wound, sugar almost always works. Yogurt,
it boosts immune functioning and it cures diarrhea.
Garlic– we’ve all heard about it. It’s used for killing off vampires. But the Egyptians used it to build up physical strength. The
Greeks used garlic for a laxative. And early this century, it was used for tuberculosis and to treat battle wounds. And many, many
studies have established that garlic is an effective fighter in fighting off bacteria.
Now home remedies may not do all the relieving of an illness. And if you do you find yourself having to go to the doctor, I cannot
stress enough to you please follow his orders and take all the medicine. If we follow these few and simple steps I believe that the
fear of many health officials will soon decrease. We will prevent future antibiotic resistance.
To summarize my plan of what you can do, go to the supermarket. Look inside your refrigerator or even your pantry. Foods are a
great healing medicine.
Norman Cousins states in A Family Guide to Natural Medicine how many of us rely too much on painkillers and other drugs. And we
overestimate the threat of illness and underestimate the body’s healing powers. And again, if you go to the doctor I cannot stress
this enough– follow his orders and finish all your medicine.
Taking action on this problem does not require much from you. It’s actually something we already know. It’s just time for us to do
it.
Bacteria resistant to antibiotics continues every day, everywhere throughout the world. And the number of patients that can’t be
treated rises. Since this process is an inherent in the chemical molecular makeup of bacteria and antibiotics we can’t stop it
entirely. But by beginning right now to use antibiotics appropriately we can buy some time for researchers to develop other
methods of fighting off bacteria. If we don’t, the consequences are almost too horrible to imagine. The stakes are too high.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Prostitution– It’s a word that conjures up images of women in tight clothes on drugs. Or you may think of a male or female college
student trying to earn extra money. Or you may think of that high-priced call girl who secretly does it because she hates men.
In any case, You don’t think of these people as being moral. As a matter of fact, they’re probably immoral. Right? Otherwise why
can’t they get a job like the rest of us?
Well, I can turn each one of these individuals into a law-abiding taxpayer just like you and I. How? By decriminalizing prostitution.
Now I realize that this is a sensitive topic for some. But as a public policy major here a IUPUI, prostitution is very important public
policy issue that affects all of us. The police that are used to deploy and to arrest prostitutes can be used to help out apprehend
criminals in our surging violent crime rate all across the country.
It would seem to me prostitution is an issue that bears a little closer examination. Now let’s look at some of the public policy
problems with prostitution. According to Clark Harper– who was the editor of The Introduction to American Public Policy– a
substantial portion of the total criminal justice system caseload is dedicated to processing victimless crimes. Things like
prostitution, drug abuse, public intoxication.
The police are pressured by our society to arrest these individuals because they offend our morality. But the people that are
normally arrested are not the high-price call girls, but the low class streetwalkers. These laws against prostitution also encourage
organized crime to provide these illegal activities. They fail to prevent prostitution and they’re selectively enforced against lowerclass individuals.
A second problem with prostitution is that the woman’s right to self determination is taken away. In other words, she can’t decide
what to do with her own body without risking going to jail. Prostitution is said to be demeaning to women. And that by outlawing it
we are protecting them from sexual exploitation.
According to Edward Tabash– an attorney who contributed to an article inThe Los Angeles Times in August of 1993– he states that
this argument claims that in order to protect women against such exploitation society should imprison all women who engage in
prostitution. This means that it is preferable for a woman to go to jail, rather than for her to do what she chooses to do with her
body, if she chooses to sell it.
A third major problem with prostitution is that it violates our constitutional rights. The United States’ Constitution, which
guarantees our right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness is in danger of becoming obsolete in the face of our current moral
legislation. Ethnopluralism, or the right to value what we choose, is one of the basic tenets or benchmarks of an open and
democratic society. It’s one of the rights that our forefathers fought for in the Revolutionary War.
If we continue to allow a specific set of moral codes to determine what is considered good or acceptable behavior and what is
considered bad, or inacceptable behavior without regards to the rights of the individuals we will be moving further and further
away from our open democratic society, and closer and closer to those dictator-like governments that we oppose. Thus, there are
major economic, legal, and social costs associated with the ongoing criminalization of prostitution.
I believe that decriminalizing prostitution is a rational response to these problems that will meet the criteria that I have stated. My
solution will meet the following criteria– number one, it will allow for the redirection of resources that are currently being used to
enforce ongoing legislation against prostitution. Number two, it must allow the woman to have the right to self determination and
protection under the law. Number three, it must abolish the use of a specific set of moral codes that presently determine which
behaviors are good or legal, and which ones are bad, or illegal.
And last, it must protect the rights to privacy of two or more adults engaged in consensual sex. By decriminalizing prostitution we
can decrease the volume of arrests per year by 500,000. 500,000– That’s how many prostitutes are working right now here in the
United States. According to Linda Rio– who is an attorney and a contributor to the Archives of Sexual Behavior Nevada– using
Nevada as a model, prostitution can be treated just like any other industry.
It can be subjected to taxation, which would generate federal, state, and local revenues. It could be subjected to health codes,
allowing the associates to be tested monthly for sexually transmitted diseases, such as AIDS. And it could be subjected to business
codes, regulatory licensing and other federal mandates, just like any other business. Not only will our economy benefit from
legalizing prostitution, but so will our local police department.
According to the 1992 United States statistical abstract, there are approximately 1,000 police officers in Indianapolis. These
officers will then be available to respond to the over 11,500 violent crimes that were committed here in Indianapolis in 1990, three
years ago. This would also eliminate police corruption. Prostitutes pay police to prevent them from being arrested. Not only that,
we would have decreased organized crime’s interest in providing this illegal service.
The final issues is that of self determination for women. By decriminalizing prostitution, our country will be resolving a
fundamental dilemma that we now face in our society, which is the woman’s right to self determination. Women who were formally
dependent upon abusive parents will now financially be able to sever that tie.
Women will become financially empowered, no longer earning the 60% of what men make. Finally, moral issues will no longer
prescribe what is considered to be good or acceptable behavior between consenting adults in the privacy of their own homes. In
John Stuart Mills’ essay entitled On Liberty– which was in 1859 over 100 years ago– he limits the scope of criminal law, what
criminal law can do in the following ways.
He states that acts may be properly made criminal only if they inflict concrete harm on a [INAUDIBLE] person, number one.
Number two, except to protect children incompetents and backwards peoples, it is never proper to criminalize an act solely on the
grounds of preventing harm to an agent. And number three, it is never proper to criminalize conduct strictly because it gives the
offender some offense.
There’s a basic difference between crimes against people, and against property and crimes that a dominant group feels is
immoral. It’s important for us to distinguish between these two types of crimes. Given our reality of limited resources and soaring
crime rates, it’s imperative that we begin to establish priority what will allow the greatest of our policemen to address the greatest
more serious crimes.
There’s no consensus on the personal sexual activities of individuals or groups when engaged I sex. There is no right or wrong in
sexual activity. It’s time to legalize prostitution.
[APPLAUSE]
[PLAYING MUSIC]
This is a photograph of a 5-year-old child. It is doubtful that any of you would consider sex to be appropriate for this child. Yet this
is the age at which I was sexually abused.
According to an article on the front page of theLA Times in August, 1985– and I quote– “At least 22% of Americans have been
victims of childhood sexual abuse.” Suppose we take that percentage and apply it to a smaller population, of my C110 section. Of
16 respondents who completed a recent questionnaire, that would mean that 3.2 students may be survivors of childhood sexual
abuse. Sadly, my survey audience beat the national average and four students are survivors.
My purpose tonight is to get you to agree with me that childhood sexual abuse is a severe problem. To do this, I’ll be presenting
you with factual evidence and explaining the traumatic effect of sexual abuse on its victims. I will then establish a criteria for a
solution and propose to you a possible solution to this problem.
But how big is this problem? Let me give you some figures. Tragically, child sexual abuse occurs in astounding numbers in our
society. It’s widespread and can be devastating to survivors. According to Jim Stewart– director of the Marion County Child
Protection Services– his agency initiates 1,000 investigations each month involving sexual abuse.
The Indiana chapter for the prevention of child abuse reports that sexual abuse occurs in one in six homes. Left undetected and
untreated, childhood sexual abuse has the potential to follow generation after generation. I live this fact in that my mother was
violently raped at the age of 12.
The uncle who abused me went on to abuse his own daughter. And my great aunt, who is now 70 is recovering from the sexual
abuse she sustained as a child. For further evidence of this problem, we need only look as far as the headlines in our daily
newspapers.
We all remember the grisly story of Shada Rene Sharer, a 12-year-old girl who was brutally sexually abused and then murdered at
the hands of three teenage girls. One of those girls, Melinda Loveless, reported that she in fact, had also been sexually abused by
her father as a child. To bring this tragedy closer to home, on March 6, we read in the Indianapolis Star about Ken W. Zimmerman,
a little league coach here in Indianapolis who was convicted of five counts of child molestation involving a young boy.
So now we know what happens. But what does this mean for our society? In order to fully comprehend the impact these figures
have in our communities, we must first examine the aftermath of child sexual abuse on its victims.
Child sexual abuse is absolutely never the fault of the child. All children need love, nurturing, and attention. Yet the abuser uses
test vulnerabilities to their advantage in order to coerce the child into sexual acts.
In order to survive the abuse, children learn to develop incredibly complex coping skills. Only a few of these include minimizing– it
only happened once. Denying, forgetting, and emotional shut down. Even using these coping skills, most survivors have lasting
effects.
The abused child, as well as adult survivors, may experience any or all of these effects taken from the bookPartners In Recovery
by Beverly Engel. They include guilt and shame, fear and lack of trust, depression and anger, confused role boundaries, uneven
child development.
Because the child has been violated at such an early age, they simply have had little or no childhoods. Sense of powerlessness
and very low self esteem. When we multiply potential number of adults who are survivors by the severity of these effects, we begin
to get a clearer picture of the magnitude of this problem.
In order to solve this problem, a solution should meet these criteria– it should foster an environment for open communication so
that children can tell the truth about abuse. Childhood sexual abuse thrives in an environment of secrecy. And we simply can no
longer afford to keep the secrets.
A solution should involve a commitment to improving the safety of our children. And finally, a solution should ultimately stop the
abuse. In my opinion, the best solution lies in the protection and education of our children.
We must– as a society– raise children who are not afraid to tell if they are abused. And we must educate ourselves so that we are
prepared if they do so. We must carefully select and monitor caregivers.
Choose licensed daycare facilities and check references thoroughly. Choose daycare with an open door policy and use it
frequently. Play the What If game, taken from the Safe Child book by Sherryll Kraizer.
This game is played by asking what if questions about a hypothetical situation and then asking your child how they would respond
in that situation. The game teaches your children not only how to react in hazardous situations, but more importantly that they
have your support in a crisis and then you want to keep them safe. Finally, we must empower our children with their rights as
individuals, with their right to say no. With their right to their own bodies. And with their right to be believed.
By taking these steps to protect and educate our children we will have met the criteria for a solution I established earlier. We will
have improved the safety of our children. We will have fostered an environment for open communication.
And by teaching them to protect themselves, it is my hope that will ultimately stop the abuse. To quote an article out of today’s
Newsweek , “No child can be made invulnerable. But many can be made strong.” The brutal reality is that childhood sexual abuse
is alive and well in our society.
The adults who have suffered these traumatic childhoods must carry the burden of lifelong effects and painful periods of recovery.
By arming you with these staggering facts, and by presenting you with the traumatic effect of sexual abuse on its survivors, I hope
you will agree that childhood sexual abuse is a severe problem.
Child sexual abuse is one of the most traumatic events that can occur in a child’s life. Shortly after this photo was taken, my
childhood died along with my innocence. For the sake of our future generations, I ask you to give serious consideration to my
solution in order to protect our children from becoming part of this tragedy. Finally, for the survivors in my audience I would ask
that you please consider devoting as much time and commitment to healing as you have to surviving.
[APPLAUSE]