Tossed salad and scrambled eggs.............

I have been blogging less lately, but I have a good reason, school has kept me busy. Many of our friends have been doing many blogs on their sites about real world and American issues and I commend them for writing about these important topics. Eric recently blogged his thoughts on politics. I tend not to speak about my political feelings since my very liberal views get me in trouble. I recently had a conversation with a friend from school and we got into an argument so we decided not to talk about politics and that is my general feeling about it with friends. Still, I wonder how a nursing student could be a Republican and not consider becoming a Democrat. Republicans do have the tendency to cut money when it comes to healthcare. Several examples come to mind. The biggest that comes to mind is what Mr. Reagan did back in the 80's. He chose to ignore the impending AIDS crisis and instead of giving the CDC the money they needed to continue research to start prevention, he decided to cut money for healthcare and increase defense money. I first realized this horrific mistake when I was in high school and I saw the great HBO movie "And the Band played on" which is based on the book by Randy Shilts. I recommend either if you are interested in the history of AIDS in America. Sure Bush nowadays pretends to want to help healthcare with his big plan of using "Drug discount" cards that he and congress came up with. If none of you have looked into any of the details of this plan, it is a horrible idea. This plan is so confusing to seniors that many are lost as to what to do with the 70 different options. It is a confusing process that involves a lot of paperwork and research in order to get the best deal. This plan has been drummed up by the drug companies so many do not think that it is a great plan. I have worked for Pfizer Pharmaceuticals so I have experienced both sides of this issue while attending nursing school. I see the issues both sides have and we desperately need to find an answer to our national healthcare crisis. I am not sure what that is but we need some kind of reform. It is very sad when you see older adults that have to choose between eating or taking their medicines or they decide on their own to take their meds every other day in order to save money. These things can kill them. That is a bit of my take on this topic.

In America, it is not just our healthcare system that is messed up we have many issues. U.S. News and World Report recently has had an issue called Defining America and within it had these crazy figures:

-People who say that religion plays a big role in lives: US-59%, Britain-32%, Canada-30%, Italy-27%, Russia-12%
-Divorce rate per thousand: US-6.2, Denmark-4, Canada-3.4, Japan-3.1, Spain-1.4, Italy-1.0
-US credit card debt in billions: 1990-$210, 2000-$650, 2005-projected to be $985
-Average paid vacation(days per year): Germany 30, Spain 30, Britain 25, Australia 25, Netherlands 25, Japan 18, China 15, US 10.

These are some alarming numbers. It just shows what our society is going towards. I have to say the alarming one in my eyes is the religion one. Of course it does not say what religions we are talking about it can be assumed that the Christians make up a big chunk of that. Of course then you look at the divorce rate and think hmm what is missing here. One of my pet peeves are people that say they are religious but really aren't. Their lives reflect what they really believe in. I also don't really respect the super religious people that claim that their religion is the best even though they have never tried or even researched other religions. They are simply that religion because their parents went to that church when they were born. There are very few people that can say, "Yes I tried all of the religions, and I choose this one". Although in my sarcasm, I think that all of organized religion is evil. I am not necessarily against believing in something, but the religions have some major problems within them and you can especially say that about the Christians. The history of Christianity in itself is proof. I will not dwell, I just think that a lot of "Christians" are hypocrites and I am not sure what to think anymore. I have no religion right now. I am borderline atheist at this point with the state of the nation and the world. There is so much killing in the name of religion that it is ridiculous! After 9/11 a lot of people delved into religion for solace and I did the opposite. It made me doubt even more in a higher power. How could one religion say "God" told them to kill thousands of Americans and another go to war to kill thousands of innocents that happen to get in the way. It is not just 9/11 that got me to this point. I have also witnesses many good people die too early mostly from cancer. I have had to watch about 7-8 people I know wither away and suffer from this disease and it makes you think. I have also watched a little premature infant die before she had the chance to live. Going to the funeral for a 2 month old baby really effects your look on life and I never want to have to go to a funeral with a casket that small again if I can help it. I guess none of us will ever know what happens when we die, but I live by the thought that we are here, who cares why or how, just LIVE life. Experience what is out there. Don't say something is bad when you have not even tried yourself. Life is about choices and mistakes will happen, but we need to learn from them and grow. Don't spend your life hating someone just because they are different, that is just a waste of a perfectly good life. I guess my answer to living life the best way I can is my new career adventure. Nursing seems to be my thing after searching for what to do next. With this career, I do not think I will look back and think, why did I spend those years like that. I will be contributing to life and helping others. It is such a rewarding career and I can't wait to practice it!

As for my other political views, I agree with everything Eric said in his blog. I am definitely pro-choice and I volunteered for Planned Parenthood for two years and even did some lobbying in Lansing, Michigan. Many people misunderstand this wonderful organization. They see that they do abortions and immediately deem them the enemy when they do many wonderful things. One of the big things that they stand for is birth control which it something our country does little with. We still have so many problems with teens getting pregnant and I just do not understand with the plethora of birth control that is out there. The US leads the developed world in teen pregnancies. Here in good old Alabama, recent stats showed that girls as young as 10 are getting pregnant way too often. To me that is very disgusting. And this is the trend not only here but all across the US. Many teens age 10 to 15 are getting pregnant more often. They are having sex sooner and don't consider it a big issue. I have learned some disturbing things in nursing school such as middle school kids (ages 10-14) are having more sex and don't think that oral sex is sex or that it is not dangerous. These "kids" are doing this on the school bus. I am not sure why our country is so afraid to talk to our children about sex and birth control. We need to have school programs and parents talking to children before age of 10. If you wait until 14 or 15 you are too late in many situations. In one nursing class, I found out that teens in Sweden have the highest rate of sexual activity (US is second), but they have the lowest rate of pregnancies, abortions and births. This is contributed to the availability of birth control and the fact that they learn a lot about sex and earlier on.

To end, I want to encourage any able bodied person to go out and donate blood or platelets. Go to the Redcross or in the south Lifesouth and find out how to. I am still confused as to why there is an organization that gives it's "donated blood" to just Alabama, Georgia and Florida. I would think the Redcross is all that is needed, but Lifesouth does do some good work. I can say that I have donated blood ever since I was able to at the age of 18 even though I have had the rare experience of having a vein collapse a couple of times. Yesterday, I tried something new. I did what is call apheresis which means to separate. It means that they separate the whole blood and extract platelets, plasma or red blood cells for donors. They extracted platelets from my blood for leukemia, cancer, and anemia patients. The apheresis process is easy and only takes 2 hours from your life. They give you a nice comfy recliner to sit in and your own tv to watch a movie. I watched Big Fish as the machine went through cycles of withdrawing blood and infusing the parts that are left over from the extraction. Blood donation is usually only an hour out of your life and you get free cookies and juice. I was very proud of Eric for signing up for the bone marrow donor list which he was called for and had more blood tests done for a patient that needed bone marrow. In the end they found a better match. All of these procedures are things that we can do to help others. It is one thing to blog about the crisis of our world and not do anything or to go out and do this little thing that can help lives. Please consider donating and show an act of kindness. I only wish I could donate more than every 8 weeks. I must give Eric a holla award for donating blood. I got him to do it in college along with some other pals and he and I go together now and the people always think how cute. They usually say that we are unusual, but more couples should share something like that.