In this topic I want to discuss fast food and how the government and make heathier choices affordable or at least give more in food stamps to cover the cost of food. Many politicians such as Toni Preckwinkle, Michael Bloomberg, Cory Booker, and James Clyburn have long advocated for healthier option but are going about it the wrong way. For example, not too long ago twenty eighteen to be exact is when cook county board president implemented a sugar tax and raised the prices of sugar snacks and drinks. She tried to dumb down and only tax sugary drink but that failed as well. Here is why it failed that was a tax on poor people who can’t find or get to healthier options there are literal food deserts across the country and Chicago and cook country are not special place that escapes that either. Taxing the poor and unhealthy was not good for her and part of the reason who lost the mayor of Chicago race to Lori Lightfoot. Instead of taxing people who may not have other options or can’t get to places like whole food or cannot afford to buy healthier items they need to make the healthy options affordable or add more money and expand food assistance.  

According to author Cliff Despress, Fast food isn’t necessarily bad, but in many cases it’s highly processed and contains large amounts of carbohydrates, added sugar, unhealthy fats, and salt (sodium). … When fast food frequently replaces nutritious foods in your diet, it can lead to poor nutrition, poor health, and weight gain. These foods are often high in calories yet offer little or no nutritional value. When fast food frequently replaces nutritious foods in your diet, it can lead to poor nutrition, poor health, and weight gain. Tests in lab animals have even shown a negative effect in short duration diets. Being overweight is a risk factor for a variety of chronic health problems including heart disease, diabetes, and stroke.”

According to lets move, “Establish a Food Policy Council Increase enrollment in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). Support the sale of local foods across the community by offering incentives and encouraging the establishment of farmers’ markets. Promote policies that support and protect community gardens. Pass food policies that require food and beverages purchased with government funds to meet certain nutrition standards. Require access to free and safe drinking water in public places. Ensure that residents can access healthy and affordable food through public transportation—by realigning bus routes, providing free shuttles, or other means.”

Yes fast food is unhealthy and causes health problems but taxing the poor and working class is not an option when combating the health problem of society making healthier food cheaper and assessable is the best option for fighting this.

I wanted to focus on a discussion of how men are seen as more aggressive than men which is not always true that is a stereotype that needs to die. In the fight for equality we must accept the truth and also face the facts men and women are equal and neither holds the advantage over the other at least not in this world. What is between your legs dose not determine your life and what can and cannot do. People must put sexism to sleep and let it die for all eternity and face the fact men and women can do the same thing. That includes the good with the bad.

Most people when you ask them who they think is more aggressive they will say men without hesitation. But in fact, is it more equal than people think yes men are quicker to fight and have a tendency to be more aggressive in talking and physical engagements. Also, yes men statically have more violent acts but women also engage in aggression some times its smaller but nevertheless impactful. Also, just who is filling out the report and giving information on how many crimes or violent act women are engaged in?

According to author Thomas Denson, “Women tend to engage in more indirect forms of aggression (e.g., spreading rumors) than other types of aggression. In laboratory studies, women are less aggressive than men, but provocation attenuates this difference. In the real world, women are just as likely to aggress against their romantic partner as men are, but men cause more serious physical and psychological harm. A very small minority of women are also sexually violent. Women are susceptible to alcohol-related aggression, but this type of aggression may be limited to women high in trait aggression. Fear of being harmed is a robust inhibitor of direct aggression in women. There are too few studies, and most are underpowered to detect unique neural mechanisms associated with aggression in women.”

Also, according to author Robert Gebelhoff, “ A study recently published by the National Bureau of Economic Research shines some fascinating historical light on this question. The paper looked at female rulers of European countries from 1480 to 1913 (including 193 reigns in 18 different polities) and whether their countries ever engaged in military conflict. As it turns out, women have a pretty bad record as peace-keepers: Queens were 27 percent more likely than kings to participate in inter-state conflicts.”

From the two authors above women tend to hide their aggression more well than men and society allows that. In the fight for equality if we are to reach true equality women and men must be honest with each other and it must be realized men and women are capable of good and bad.

A topic a want to discuss is how men are treated unfairly to court compared to women. When men go to court up against a woman, they are far more likely to lose than compared to if they went up against another man. That is in all cases but family in civil court and family court men have a high chance against losing to women. This something that almost no one is talking about. As today many women are fighting for equality but yet they hold a lot of advantages and privileges over men in many way that are not being discussed in society and the media. I want to make it clear that I am not anit feminist or anit women and I am not in any way shape or form bashing the feminist movement. However, they do hold an advantage over men in some area of society and everyone has a right to speak their truth or hold an opinion. I have the fact to back up what I’m writing about however just wanted to point that out.

According to author James Johnson, “Research suggests that as women progress further into the criminal justice system, they are more likely to receive preferential treatment from a judge at sentencing than they are from the police officer making an arrest or the prosecutor seeking an indictment. The researchers found females twice as likely as males to receive probation and slightly more likely than males to have their charges reduced (Farnworth et al., 1991). When the researchers focused on comparing females to males, overall “the evidence suggested a tendency toward less severe sanctioning of females, particularly in the decision to incarcerate; and white females appeared to be treated with particular deference”

Women hold an advantage over men in criminal court and another thing the author points out is how when women are the victim in crimes and the offender is a male, they are more likely to be given longer or harsher sentences. Thought white women are the main benefactor across racial lines women in general get better treated in criminal and other courts. In family court women when well over eighty percent of the time.

According to author Lisa Guerin, “Despite this change, mothers are still more likely to get custody when parents’ divorce. State laws vary as to what courts must consider in determining custody arrangements, but the general standard used today is that the custody award must be in the “best interests of the child.” And, the factors court consider in discerning where those best interests lie are more likely to favor mothers, as most marriages are structured.” Men in family or divorce court are almost certain to lose to women judges no matter the gender even with laws passed as the author stated the court favors women.

A subject I want to discuss in this post is how college should be free for all American citizens. Apart of the American dream is being able to move up the economic social ladder and have a shot at the American wealth and the chance to be in the middle class. When America was founded it was always considered a world power and economic power house. It the land of the supposed free not to mention the millions of slaves and how long it took for them to be free. Looking aside from that what most Americans and immigrant say the United State is were money is made and dreams come true. Over time how the money and wealth is generation has changed indefinitely.

The problem is that is not longer and true and the way people are supposed to get to that dream many Americas have decided college is how you can a job or generate wealth. Colleges and universities do play some role in making people believe that but it is mainly the government and media fault for making that happen and creating this era of college equal opportunity, job, and money. According to author Robert Farrington, Historically, our system relied states covering the vast majority of college costs, and the federal government targeting resources toward those who need additional help financing it. The result was that, up until about 20 years ago, student debt was the exception, not the rule, for those who wanted a bachelor’s degree.” 

Also, another author would agree with me Emma Kerr, “ When my father wanted to attend college, he took a job laying bricks to pay for school. But relying on just a summer or part-time job to pay for college today is next to impossible, says Lovett, executive director of Complete Tennessee, a nonprofit advocating for increasing postsecondary access and completion in Tennessee, which was the first state in the country to make community college free statewide. If anyone today wanted to go out and lay bricks and even pay for books that semester, it’s probably not going to happen. And so the realities of what college cost for my father look drastically different than today.”

To hold a degree in today society and especially in America means a lot but it come with such a high cost that can out way the benefits. It is hard for people to find job and the student debt plus interest add up college’s way the way for many of our parent and grandparents they got to become lawyers, doctors, academics, nurses, business owners, entrepreneurs, and philanthropist. This generation deserves be able to go to colleges and have the same access and opportunity and move up America socioeconomic ladder.

A pressing issue to I want to write about in this blog post is student loan debt impact of students across multiple generations. Though many Americas believe that student loan debt a debt which you cannot file bankruptcy on is only a millennial and other later generations problem. It does have some impact on older generations like baby boomers the main people who don’t want to wipe out student debt and don’t care about the cost of college. They vote to make sure that millennials and to some effect themselves have to pay that off with no hope of getting help from the government.

Before the nay sayar say that why you are supposed to go to college and get a job and pay it off. They must consider how, and they don’t realize this a crisis student loan debt which is again you are unable to get rid of it like other debt is a crisis it has far surpassed credit card debt.  In fact, according author Daniel Johnson, “The central problem for many is the accumulated student loan debt. At nearly $1.6 trillion, student loan debt exceeds accumulated car loans and even credit card debt. By almost any definition, this is a crisis: It is certainly a crisis for those with student loan debts whose repayment schedules span decades, with large monthly payments. It is also a crisis for lenders experiencing significant default rates and, perhaps, a crisis for the federal government, as it guarantees these student loans. Many argue that it is also a crisis for our nation’s economy; servicing this debt has a chilling effect on the sale of houses, cars, appliances, and furniture, as well as spending for vacations and luxury items.”

Also this is impacting everyone including old people according to Jason Love, “Baby Boomer Student Debt on the Rise Although student debt is rising among all generations, according to the Guardian report,⁴those age 60 to 69 have experienced a 72 percent increase in their loan balances over the last five years, the largest area of growth for student loan debt.” This important to note that with the cost of students loans and college this is causing the younger generation from moving out and opening their own business. This is making them stay home longer and hurting their contribution to American society at large as they are hurt from being tax contributor and innovators to help society advanced. This is very unfair to the younger generation who just want the same opportunity as the older generation like the earlier generation of the boomers and the silent generation who got to go to school for free or cheap and no student debt like this generation should.

The NCAA does not understand what it is like being a student athlete in today’s world where it can be very expensive and costly to do work without pay. Not to mention that many student athletes are African American and families with low income with poor backgrounds and not having economic resources. Coming from the bottom of the economic ladder in the United States of America is the worst especially with the United States special history with African Americans. The history of slavery whose effects of oppression and low income can still be felt today. To have those students and other students many of whom also come from lower economic standing, it is hard to have them in college where it is already expensive to go and then have them working and bringing in all this money to the universities and colleges they pay for, for free. A Sporting News report stated that 86% of student-athletes live in poverty. Student-athletes are not asking to get rich. They are asking not to have to worry about helping their poor family out or worrying about where their next meal will come from. The NCAA and schools have the money in a lot of cases to simply make things better.

There have been many people who have advocated for student athletes getting paid including current athletes and celebrities. The NCAA sees that student athletes are struggling while in school and continue to watch as they make millions off the back of free labor. According to author Steve Cameron “In the 2016-2017 school year, NCAA revenue reached $1 billion. Many people have argued that the players who drive this revenue don’t receive the true value that they bring to their schools. Regardless of how much money the NCAA makes, it refuses to pay college athletes. NCAA athletes are also prohibited from profiting off of their name, image, or likeness. The NCAA uses “amateurism” to justify these terms in courtrooms, but former athletes are pushing for a share of the revenue.”

The NCAA is making big bucks off the back of our free labor and we need some the share of the money we bring in especially when less than 1 percent of us actually make to be successful professionally in our sport. That is the least they can do for us is give us couple thousand dollars they making billions without giving us a cent.  I am not just advocating for basketball players. I’m referring to all student athletes.

Also, for the naysayers who think we can just get on campus job to compensate us when we basically give these sports teams our lives we do not have time to do any other work and barely enough time to have personal lives. According to author Jake Novak, A 2014 study by the National Labor Relations Board showed that players at major college football programs “spend 50 to 60 hours per week on their football duties during a one-month training camp prior to the start of the academic year and an additional 40 to 50 hours per week on those duties during the three- or four-month football season.”

We do not have time do any other form of work as a student athletes this our job and we need to get paid for it.                                                             

A student athlete I feel in my heart of hearts that I speak for all student athletes when I say they should be paid for their services, revenue, and entertainment they bring to the university. As a student athlete it is vital that students get paid because while they are in college, they are living their dream. As a student athlete we spend most of time practicing or craft to make sure we win games and give the students of our respective college school spirit. We spend a lot of time practicing and a lot of time away from our family and class. We don’t get to spend a lot of time working on schoolwork and getting good grades. It is hard managing our time due the demands of sports. It is like a full time job and for us to get nothing from all the blood, sweat, and tears we put into this job it hurt to see so many of my brother struggle while the university racks in big bucks. That goes for all people who play sports not just basketball.

Also, just to not leave any of my fellow students out all students should get paid like in countries like Sweden, Denmark, and Germany. We all put in some form work and bring money into universities and we should all get a piece of the money pie. Universities need to take better care of their students. 

We get to play as if we are in the league and we should get paid like the people in the NBA or NFL do. No, I’m not saying universities need to dowel out millions of dollars in contracts and deals. We should at least get some of the pie of the hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars we bring into these institutions. According to a Vox article “ The NCAA, the nonprofit association that runs college athletics, takes in close to $8 billion a year. According to a Business Insider report, there are now 24 schools that make at least $100 million annually from their athletic departments. In 2015, the most profitable athletic department in the country was at Texas A&M, raking in over $192 million. The University of Texas wasn’t far behind with $183 million.”

I know for fact DePaul university brings in millions as well here is chart to show a comparison of how much revue athletes bring in to how much they get paid. It not too much to ask for a piece of the pie you help make. I believe that student athletes should at least get a thousand a month of some negotiated price we they get like some percentage of the income they bring in.

This post will focus upon articles about how student athletes should getting paid. I will provide the link and input form the most convincing articles on the subject.

1.The first on by author Abigail Hess who gives a good case as for why student athletes should be paid.

https://www.cnbc.com/2019/09/11/student-athletes-should-get-paid-college-students-say.html

2. The second article is by Megan Gibbs who provided one the best argument as for how much money student athletes are bring into university and colleges.

https://www.collegexpress.com/articles-and-advice/athletics/blog/money-college-athletics-paying-players/

3. This particular article is one of my favorites because it gives good examples as to why student athletes should get paid and they relate to me.

Should College Athletes Get Paid?

4. This article details how California is leading the nation in making sure they do right by their student athletes. The state is making sure they peice of their hard earned money.

https://www.cnbc.com/2019/09/30/california-governor-signs-law-allowing-college-athletes-to-get-paid.html

5. This article discusses how other states moving to pay their student athletes.

. https://www.stltoday.com/news/local/govt-and-politics/effort-to-pay-college-athletes-wins-fans-in-missouri-house/article_30daa6c0-e04e-5bc9-8570-d858f3aa7d4e.html

In all the country is progressing forward and moving in the right direction. As states and universities are realizing that student athletes are an integral and important part of their institution. Student athletes brings in a lot of money for these schools and they deserve their fair share especially because many come form low income how who was exepince the worst part of Americas racial history. 

One of the live events that went on today was a sumo wresting event in Japan I love sports and this is one of the best sports their is in the world. It is up their with what I call the big leagues like how the United States has Basketball,Football,Baseball, or otherwise known as the NBA,NFL, for base ball its called NL, or MLB.  The east has something similar of the asian sports they have Sumo wrestling, karate, and Kung Fu. one of my all time favorite was and still is sumo wrestling. The sport has always fascinated me especially because since I was younger I always wanted to be bigger. Before I go deeper into the sport I want to give readers a very brief history of the sport and how it started.

According to website  web-japan, “Sumo is said to have started over 2,000 years ago. From around the Heian period (794-1192), the imperial family often watched sumo as a form of entertainment. Sumo evolved over many centuries, with the first professional sumo wrestlers appearing in the Edo period (1603-1868). Because of this long history, sumo is considered Japan’s national sport.”

This sumo competition was a sumo event similar to that of the American all star game, Their three parts to the sumo wrestling shows pre game, in game, post game. The post game had a performance by an artist her name Hikaru Utada she had a beautiful voice and thought I do not speak japanese the subtitles said it all for me. She was a good start for the pre game as they introduced each team of sumo wrestlers. The next part is the in game which is the most important part the wrestlers on one side their was Taiho team of eight sumo wrestlers and Chiyonofuji team of eight sumo wrestlers. It was similar to how the legends of basketball Lebron James and giannas played in Chicago yesterday. It was a major event in japan and it is quite interesting how the asian sport is just as popular as basketball in America. Chiyonofuji team won he is like the Lebron James of sumo wrestling in Japan.

The post game is also similar to how the United State dose it they have reports and host of shows talking afterwards about the event and doing replays of fights and scene just like how they do basketball here in the United States. This live event was really interesting for me and a culturally fun.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1mBzWz5VYExFVIHDovpAibaDsL4WuTYPD/view?usp=sharing