news flash: neighborhood watch isn't working

Lately, there has been a ruckus in San Diego over all sorts of things- racial tensions at UCSD, lack of funding for the public school system, all the way down to not-so-important issues like LT leaving the Chargers, and poor sleep-deprived students surviving finals week (me included). Another disturbing story to add to the mix is the discovery of the bodies of Chelsea King and Amber DuBois. Sadly, their stories hit closer to home than the many hundreds of other cases that occur each year. The close proximity of sex offenders to where we all live, work, and play has made me aware that these stories don't just happen to the people we see in the news-- it could happen to any one of us-- scary thought.

I find the deaths of these innocent girls extremely disturbing- also because of the lax sentences that are given to these sex offenders. John Albert Gardner III, who was tried last week for the rape and murder of Chelsea King, is registered as a sex offender. He was released from prison in 2008, serving only 5 of his 6-year sentence. Originally, the psychologist hired for his case recommended he be given a harsher case, but that obviously didn't happen. This brings up the question of why these offenders are not given harsher sentences that they obviously deserve, as well as the validity of life sentences without parole and the death penalty.

There is much controversy in the use of the death penalty- who are we to say who can live and who can't? But in situations like these, I don't see what society would be gaining be keeping child sex offenders around. You put them in jail, let them out, and they do the same things over and over again, hurting innocent members of society, and in this case, children. Why not take them out of the genetic pool? They've obviously proven themselves useless in the responsible citizen category. The other option? Keeping them in jail (for life, preferably) with our tax dollars. I know it takes many more tax dollars than necessary in giving someone the death sentence, but sometimes aren't sacrifices necessary?

Of course, this is a democratic country and realistically death sentences issued on mass-scale would never happen. These are just some thoughts- I don't even know if I fully endorse the death sentence in all situations, especially where those who are wrongfully sentenced are involved-- i'm just trying to process these events in my mind and make sense of the system that governs it. If you have any perspectives on this issue, please comment, because I'd really like to hear your side of it.

When it comes down to it, the entire situation just makes me uncomfortable. Think of it this way: while these offenders are released back into communities, your sisters, friends, and neighbors walk to school with eyes wide open.

dear media, you are going overboard.

I don't know if any of you have noticed the uproar at UCSD over the student ad for a "Compton Cookout" party in parody of Black History Month last weekend, but its created an absolutely ridiculous and unnecessary amount of press. In the past week, i've read about it in the LA Times, NBC, San Diego Tribune, Digg, etc. The latest article made me laugh with disbelief. Check it out:

"At a forum attended by hundreds of students and faculty Friday morning, the Black Student Union issued a list of demands, including mandatory diversity sensitivity classes, increased African American enrollment in students and faculty and the creation of space in central campus considered "safe for African-American students."

- article from NBC San Diego, read the entire article here.

Really. Up to this point, I hadn't noticed that we were victimizing African American students to such a large degree on campus. Um, isn't your presented solution basically SEGREGATION? And endorsing the whole controversial affirmative action issue? The media is completely narrowing the focus and spotlighting the black community as victims of this event.... but the solution that the campus comes to? Let's shut down the all-campus TV station!

Like that's going to shut people up. Why don't you shut down the newspaper and radio while you're at it? UCSD, the media, and the public are completely missing the point. You don't punish 27,000 students because a select group of of them have committed an erroneous mistake. The bad publicity has basically now labeled UCSD as a racist institution, when in reality UCSD does not discriminate against anyone (nor do we take part in affirmative action). Low African-American admittance, retention, and graduation rates at UCSD? I highly doubt its intentionally done: the UC system simply takes those who reach the bar and qualify under UC standards. How P.C.

Oh, and get a load of the title of the piece: Racial Tensions Boil at UCSD.

Excuse me, people. As a student at UCSD in the last 4 years, I have never personally witnessed any kind of racial targeting or discrimination by any student group towards another. The drama over this entire thing has become completely overblown way out of proportion (And no, I haven't had my head in a hole for the time i've been at UCSD). In the 2+ years i've been involved in the MultiCultural Greek Council and The UCSD Guardian (all-campus newspaper), racism and discrimination have never been issues that we've had to deal with as a campus. In fact, I think that we've actually made steps towards improvement, admitting more diverse student groups under MGC, and having all of these organizations work together to participate in all-campus events. I highly doubt that the student organization that hosted the event had racism in mind when planning it (targeting their hatred at another group) - they are all diverse organizations in themselves. In the pool of "night-after", "highlighter", "office hoes and CEOs" and countless other themed parties that go on around campus, do "red-neck white trash" or a "chinese laundress" themed parties need to be held in order to counter this one? Students throwing the party were fully aware of what they were doing in their description of the "Compton Cookout." Hate speech? I don't think so... more like gross stereotyping.

Read an article published by the UCSD Guardian here.

caricature of society?

"Weight discrimination in the United States increased 66% over the prior decade."

- Rebecca Puhl, researcher at Yale University's Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity

I read an article in the LA Times health section today that contained a statement about how how obesity is a psychological manifestation of American culture. Here's an excerpt that said it pretty well:

"[The obese are] almost a caricature of greed, overconsumption, overspending, over-leveraging and overusing resources,"... "Though it's not entirely rational, it's an understandable reaction, especially in a country founded on the Puritan ethics of self-reliance, sacrifice and individual responsibility. If people feel they're sacrificing, then see someone spilling over an airplane seat, they feel angry that that person is not making the same sacrifices they are."

- Fed up with fat and saying something about it, LA Times, read the entire article here

photo credits

I thought that was a pretty interesting way of looking at it. Do you find yourself to be discriminatory towards the overweight? While living in Paris last fall, it definitely caught my eye that people were, well, smaller. They eat very well, don't hold gyms in as high esteem as Americans, and smoke like chimneys. During my sojourn, I ate tartes, crossaints, fromage, and all the other french delicacies you can imagine to my heart's content, and returned (reportedly) tinier. We're obviously doing something wrong.

The piece made me reflect on the way our society is, and all the power we have in our hands to change it. However, the problem is not as simple as its presented in the article. If you look into the issue more, the government and health policies really do have the power to turn this around. They can't rely on citizens' personal initiative to be healthy when they're offering shelves upon shelves of cheap junk food- just go look in your local Wal-Mart. Based on its target demographics, what low-cost foods of nutritional value are they offering their customers, compared to your average Whole Foods grocery store? You can't make junk plentiful and cheap, and then discriminate people for being fat. The idea behind environmentalism is similar- don't expect people to be recycling and making an effort to be green when there is little incentive (sadly, the benefits way down the line doesn't seem to factor into the majority of the population)- why not start charging for plastic bags at grocery stores and taking plastic water bottles off the shelves? The smallest steps can make such a huge difference in the long run, we just need to implement them.

Yes, we're making the effort now, taking unhealthy foods out of school cafeterias and encouraging the use of reusable shopping bags and metal water bottles. And we're still not doing enough. But why now? This isn't rocket science- we should have figured this out ages ago. Now we have these huge issues on our hands that will take generations, and many tax dollars, to solve.