GL 350; week sette

                                                      The ending is just the start of a new begining

            Wow, I cannot believe that this is the last blog I will have to do for this trip of a lifetime. This experience has been life changing and full of memories I will never forget, this is somewhat bittersweet. The memories made and the great people to have met, the humbling moments and tough learning experiences. As writing about week 7 and what we did it was definitely an amazing week filled with a day of possibly the second greatest moment of my life so far.

            The papal audience, it is where we went on Wednesday morning, bright and early. I have been excited and waiting for this for the past 7 weeks and it did not disappoint. We were less than 50yrds away from his holiness. When he walked in their was just so much emotion in the air and all around me, when he walked into the room, I got tears in my eyes, it was an amazing moment for me. That was the second greatest moment of my life so far, with the first being this Easter when I was baptized into the catholic church. A very special thank you to Danilo Mori for making that possible and being that close, I am beyond thankful and appreciative.

            As for the rest of the week we went to Nettuno, to see the American Cemetery of Italy. This was also an emotional moment, not because I had a relative in it but the emotion that grew from being an America citizen. It was amazing to see the two American flags wave proudly in the air that was just a sight in itself, for me anyway. I have never been a very patriotic person except for supporting the troops but I feel like this experience has made me grow into a more patriotic and proud American citizen. Going to that cemetery was a humbling experience, just like the Arlington national cemetery. Then, the city of Nettuno in general is beautiful, kind of like Florida, even though I have never been there. Was went to the beach for a while, the second beach I have ever been too, I can now say I have seen and been to the Tyrrhenian and Adriatic Sea.

The Talented Mr. Ripley, what can I say about it? Well, for the first comment it surpassed my expectations because I thought it was going to be difficult to keep my attention and be a hard read but no, it was not. I loved the book, especially how in the book Mr. Ripley went to Naples and stayed in Venice for a while. I could relate with him going to Venice because I was there and seen what he saw. Now, Naples on the other hand, they talked about it being a place you could go and eat and enjoy yourself but when we visited it for a short period, it was somewhat unnerving and nerve racking because now a days it is a not so friendly and safe place. The book as a whole was good but for the ending well, I was in my room getting close to the end and Tom kept seeing or thought he was seeing police. He thought he was going to get caught, his heart was racing and he was becoming nervous and while, I was reading it I was getting excited because I thought he was finally going to get caught. Then, at the last page, he got off scotch free! I thought it was horrible because I was all ready and excited for him to get caught but he was a free man. I was an excellent book though, a really good read.

This experience, going to Rome, seeing everything that we have seen, it has been amazing. I am so thankful and grateful for this opportunity and being able to live in Italy for eight weeks. I have learned many life lessons from this trip and made memories that will last for forever. I was able to grow deeper into my new found faith, something that I had planned or at least hoped for. I was able to become a more indepenpendent, assertive , patriotic and humble person. This experience reinforced that good old saying that everything happened for a reason, like maybe I did not get into the nursing program and move to the 5 year program, so I would be able to be apart of this experience. All the readings that we have ahead to do, the blogs we have done, somehow made this trip better, I think. As for this last week, I will take in all the scenery, everything that is around me and live this last week to the fullest until that Friday morning, when it is off to America!

GL 350; week Sei

                                                            The Beauty of Saint Peter's
           Catholicism, something that is not really what I thought would be in my life plan but in a strange but life changing coincidence, it is. For me, becoming catholic was because of something I felt deep inside myself, a feeling when I first stepped inside of the chapel at Walsh and attended my first mass that I seem to get every time I enter a church and go to mass. I decided to pursue this feeling and become a part of the Catholic Church this past Easter of 2012. So being able to go to Rome and see the history of my religion and some of the greatest churches that are a part of my religion is very special for me. The atmosphere in the churches we have been in over here are just indescribable for me and am enjoying learning more about all the different saints and development about my religion. Now, out of all the churches we have been to so far, Saint Peters basilica is a sight to see.

            What to say about Saint Peter’s basilica? Well, it is an enormous church, with its arm like pillars stretched out welcoming all the visitors or the vast amount of history within its walls; it is a church to definitely see when you go to Rome. Now, I would consider this church to look modern for its age because it is filled with light colored marble and brightly light unlike the other beautiful churches I have seen. I was able to go to Saint Peters two times and see everything all over again because a church that big, you need to go a second time. Also the fact that the Pope lives nearby is pretty cool. We were able to go underground excavations and to be honest, it was not the most exciting experience I have had except that the guide I had looked like Harry Potter which amused me a lot! At the end of the underground tour it id however become really interesting because there was the remains and burial place of Saint Peter, along with some of the past Popes. We were about to also go on top of the Dome of the basilica, wow, was that a sight to see and even with the over 500 steps, it was amazing. The views of Rome from above and the view of the inside of the church at the bottom were simply amazing. I was very impressed with Saint Peters.

            “Rome was also God’s seat on earth, the rock on which Christ has established His Church…” this was said in “The Italians” on page 295, this was it for me, Rome was were the Catholic church pretty much started, Saint Peters basilica is essentially the center of the church, it is where the pope is located. Rome really is the spot where the center of the Catholic Church first started, quite amazing to think about. Also in “The Italians” on the page before these lines struck me as interesting “The barbarians crowded the museums, filled the concert halls and the Comedie Francaise, honored the dead French cultural heroes while they tortured the living French patriots. Rome, on the other hand, was spared nothing”. The poor city of Rome, always having to rise from the ashes and its people hardly ever catching a break, always being destroyed or pillaged. After six weeks of reading “The Italians” and “The Smiles of Rome”, we are finally done reading them, I was quite happy because that meant we had less reading to do but then I realized “Oh wait, we still have the talented Mr. Ripley.”

            Before I left on my glorious trip to Rome, I watch part of a movie called “The talented Mr. Ripley” on TV. Well, I thought the movie was boring and I did not understand what was going one, partly because I caught it half way. As for the book, as I started to read it, I was immediately bored and thought it was going to be a heard read, after a couple of chapter, it became interesting. At the beginning, I did not understand why Mr. Greenleaf came to Tom in a bar or how Tom knew Dickie, still this confuses me and  was thinking like what kind of person asks an acquaintance to go bring back his son from Italy? But, as I was reading and realized that Dickie was living near Naples and the author was writing about the area around Naples, it hit me that I was going to be around the area he was talking about, even in Naples but for a brief time. As the chapters pasted by I immediately recognized that Tom was a psychopath or at least acted like one, pretending to kill friends girlfriend because she is trying to break up their relationship or the fact that he, Tom, pretends to be Dickie, dressing in his clothes and acting like him, a bit weird and creepy. I was on the train this morning and was reading “The talented Mr. Ripley” when Tom finally did the expected and well, I was not shocked but surprised he did not do something else, I do not want to say because I do not want to spoil it for someone not as far. I had to close the book after reading this because the train has arrived in Termani and I shall expect that the rest of the book will get better and hope that it does!

            Saint Peters square, the basilica, the underground and even the museum, all of it was amazing. The museum, I forgot to talk about it earlier, it was good, felt like, looked like and smelled like a museum but when we got to the Sistine Chapel, it was such a sight to see. Michelangelo’s painting of the last judgment and the ceiling, just amazing to think about how he could have done that. While we were inside the museum, just before the Sistine Chapel, I went to the little café shop to get a bottle of aqua and an espresso because I was very tired and thirsty but what I did not realize is that it was busy and after I paid for my espresso, the line to order was long. Needless to say, I did not get my espresso that I paid for because the line was taking too long and I was afraid for my group to leave me again and, or, miss the Sistine chapel. Luckily, I only paid uno euro for the espresso, so I was not too frazzled about it. For this week coming up, I not only get the chance to go back to Saint Peters basilica but also to see the Pope! I am beyond stoked to attend the Papal audience; I will be bringing all three of my camera’s for that day, Wednesday to be exact. An experience that I think will strengthen my faith a little more and leave a lasting impression.

Soc 490; week sei

                                                     The Italian Market experience
                      

Can a disease be cured through the power of prayer? This is a question that can be answered many ways, yes, no, maybe, it depends. My answer to that question is miracles can happen, they happen almost every day and that through prayer, a disease cannot necessarily be cured by it but the suffering, pain and/or depression from it can be helped. There is indeed the power of prayer and with that it can help a person deal with the disease and whatever comes with it. The power of prayer works in mysterious ways, correction God works in mysterious ways. God will not give us anything that we cannot handle and through prayer we can handle whatever comes at us better.

             The Italians healthcare system is different than that of ours in the United States; t.hey have a complete universal Healthcare system. Yes, the United States is implementing a full Universal healthcare system soon, some parts have already begun, but Italy is a little different. For instance the government employs the doctors, nurses and other healthcare professionals like fire fighters and police officers. There doctors and nurses are given a lower salary than that of their counterparts in the United States. As for the quality of healthcare given verses the United States, well, that is a question I cannot answer. So this week for our sociology we were given the assignment of surveying ten Italians about their healthcare system, questions like “Do you like your current doctor”, “what is your age” and “do you like your healthcare system”?

            When we got to the market, I was not nervous about asking complete stranger’s questions or not understanding them because most people me and my partner asked said yes and I never really understand what Italians say anyway so it was no different. Me and my partner, Sydney, we to a university where there were a lot of college students and well, all the ones we talked to smirked at the questions we asked and laughed. Most of the college students, I had answer the questions said “no” about liking their healthcare system and laughed at the question and also said some things in Italians. Then, there was an instance with a group of people where they found a mistake in our Italian translated survey paper, medico was spelled on the paper without the c and, two other people that day pointed it out and scolded me for spelling it wrong, which it was not my fault to begin with. I felt like that most of the college students did not take the survey and the questions seriously but thought it was a joke. Now, when we went to the food/ meat market, it was another story.

            As soon as we went into the food and meat market I felt more comfortable asking the older people the survey because they took it seriously. Most of the older people said “yes to liking their healthcare system and almost all considered themselves to be in good shape. There was a specific gentlemen I remember, he was in his 50’s and was very happy to answer my questions.  As soon as he was done with his survey, he made his son, I assume, fill out the survey too, but as his son begun filling out the survey, the man started talking in Italian to me. I nodded my head and said “Si” even though I was clueless to what he was saying until the very end, “Obama, Obama”, that was the only thing I heard clearly and his son raised his hand in excitement. I told professor about this and he said that Italians love Obama. I thought this was very interesting and wondered what the reasons were as to why they liked him so much? As much as I would like to talk about Obama and my opinion of him, I shall keep my feelings to myself on this one, not like that Italian gentlemen that, I think wanted to talk about Obama and really liked him.

            As for our assigned readings for that week, nothing really caught my eye except for Johnathon Ross’s article where he talked about Massachusetts healthcare model. I was unaware of the fact that Massachusetts has a universal healthcare system in place and that it is working for that state. Now, in Ross’s part where he mentions the states system he complains about it and giving negative facts about it like “Costs continue to rise sharply” and “insurers keep 15-20 percent of the premium dollar for their operating costs and for shareholder profits” and then Ross makes a good point about making universal healthcare nationwide “Do we really want to multiply this complex state experiment by 50 before we see if it can actually work?” I think that this point is excellent because Massachusetts is struggling on how to make universal healthcare work and multiply this by 50 like Ross says and well you will have a mess. Another interesting and 100% agreeable quote he makes is “America needs guaranteed, high-quality, affordable health insurance for all, with “everybody in and nobody out.”We cannot attain this goal if we rely on schemes designed by Wall Street and the for-profit health insurance industry.” I agree that the healthcare system needs some work to provide a way for everyone to be able to get healthcare and get high quality care that is universal from the poor to the wealthy but I do not entirely agree that the Universal Healthcare Obama is enforcing is the best way.

            While I do not believe Obama’s way of going about healthcare is the best, I do not have a choice nor does anyone else because it has been passed and America must agree with Obama because he was reelected. Is the Italy’s Universal healthcare working, yes it is, but just because it is working there does not mean it will work in the United States? As for myself being in the medical field and my future is going to be in the medical field, the whole topic of healthcare is very important to me because I am going to be at the center of it, as a nurse helping the sick, the poor, the wealthy, people of all backgrounds, colors and age, people with no insurance or with it. I am already an STNA, working with people of different backgrounds, ages and reasons for needing care, I see that something needs to be done about the healthcare system we have not, especially Medicaid and Medicare, I just do not know what. Well, I do have several ideas but I do not feel like rambling on and on, more than I have to. We did talk in class about how the Universal healthcare document is available for the public to read but it is over 1200 pages long. I would love to read this document, so I could see the true program for what Obama and congress has said it is but it is not only 1200pages long but is full of small print and full of mumbo jumbo, no doubt

Soc 490 week cinque

The good old debate of Healthcare

            Your health, is it something in our hands or in the hands of God or whoever a person might believe in? Can we control it? Well, this question about our health being something we can or cannot control will always be an open ended question. For me I still believe that your health is something you can and cannot control because there are certain factors about health that you can control and cannot control. Also everyone’s definition of health or good health is different; everyone has different opinions and views. In our assigned readings throughout the weeks, I have not really came across the subject of controlling your health or that topic in general just healthcare, expense of healthcare and insurance or if healthcare is a right or a privilege.

            In our readings in “Gaudium” several things throughout the pages caught my attention. On page 79 there were two small passages, “to bring about a politico-juridical order which will give better protection to the rights of the person in public life” and “there is wider cooperation to guarantee the actual exercise of personal rights to all citizens and not only to a few privileged individuals.” These two passages immediately made me think of President Obama and what he is trying to do with Universal healthcare, making sure everyone has the same rights and exercising people’s rights equally. But, the world is not a fair place and everyone is not treated equal, it is a hard solid fact. Obama is pushing for healthcare being a right, which is something “Gaudium” or “the pastoral constitution of the Catholic church” is for. There were two other interesting passages and they were on page 85, “and also to pass moral judgment in those matters which regard public order when fundamental rights of a person or the salvation of souls require it.”, “While faithfully adhering to the Gospel and fulfilling her mission to the world, the Church, whose duty it is to foster and elevate all that is found to be true, good and beautiful in the human community, strengthens peace among men for the glory of God.” So as I was reading the first passage I relate it to the church being the final judge on healthcare being a right or a privilege and well “Gaudium” points to it being a right and with the second reading, well I just thought it was a very interesting sentence about the church in general.

            As for the other readings we were assigned in the “Universal Health care” book, well I ended up being frustrated about the whole thing. For the past six years of school high school and college, it has been drilled into my head about always having sources cited as to where information comes from. Well, this book and none of the authors have said citations! How do I know that their information is credible or let us discuss that none of the statistics or facts are from the year 2010 and up. How is data about the uninsured or poor from 2006 and 2007 relevant to todays? The job rate, economy and number of uninsured fluctuate with just a day, let alone a couple of years. There have been several authors on both sides having excellent points that capture my attention and sometimes sway my opinion but then I realize “where are the sources and oh, this information about the unemployment rate is from 2007!” It is an informative book and good at weighing the pros and cons but where are the citations.

            Now, for the assigned readings for the universal book, I accidently read an extra article not in the assigned reading, but it was interesting more specifically a passage about a pregnant woman. In Atul Gawande’s article he uses a story about this pregnant woman from Ohio. Starla is due for delivery and she received a letter that her work was going out of business and she was going to lose her health insurance. The bill for the delivery was going to be $9,000 without insurance and with her husband being unemployed it would be difficult to pay. So she talked her midwife into inducing labor, so insurance would be able to cover the charge well, this did not work out in their favor, she had a difficult delivery and problems, that ended up costing them $17,000 dollars which insurance did not cover. This not only made me furious that a mother would do this because the dangers of this were, in my opinion, outweighing the cost of just delivering when she was suppose to but the fact that her midwife agreed is just poor taste and a horrible decision to make. I was appalled, she not only put the baby in danger but also herself and in the end she had to pay double and go through a more difficult labor.

            On the discussion of healthcare being a right or a privilege, we have discussed back and forth about our own views. In “Gaudium” there was a quote that made me think a little more in depth about the subject. On page 82 “Citizens must cultivate a generous and loyal spirit of patriotism but without being narrow-minded.” Maybe those who think healthcare being a privilege, including myself are being close-minded? Not thinking what is best for the whole country and not having faith in our leaders of America but only thinking about our views we are raised with and developed from where we grew up from or the little of the world we have seen around us. I always try to keep an opened mind about things but I feel that I have been looking at healthcare close-minded, not thinking about America as a whole but only a small group of citizens, a very small group. I will be pondering more about this little quote trying to be open-minded about healthcare because to be patriotic you have to be for the whole country, like the soldiers overseas fighting for our freedom, they are not fighting for the freedom of one small part of the country but for the whole country  of the United States.

GL 350; week Cinque

The Gving of Thanks          

  Week five already, wow! The time has sure passed by. It is starting to feel like yesterday that I just rrived.We have seen a lot of amazing sites in Rome, around every corner, you are able to find a site marked historic or found in a history book. In Rome there are no skyscrapers and plenty of green space, more than I had expected. Now, last week I was able to go to the Roma zoo located in Borghese gardens and then this week Gabby and Aubree took us on a tour which included the gardens. We also saw a private museum owned by the Borghese family and it was very impressive.

            Now, at the start of Gabby and Aubree’s tour we walked from Termani to Barbarini and then to the entrance of the gardens. Along the way we stopped at several churches, which were beautiful, Santa Andrea was the name of one of them I do believe, right beside Santa Susanna, the American catholic church of Rome. We were able to walk past the United States Embassy, the American flag waving through the wind and it seemed very special to see for me. We finally made it to the gardens and while we were not given a tour of the gardens, due to the size of the gardens, we were given a summary of them. In relating our readings to what we saw, in “the Smiles of Rome”, the article was about the Italians and their gardens. “These gardens have excited so much admiration that little thought has been given to the house…”, now, the house the museum was located in had a private garden attached, gated in, not to mention the rest of the gardens located around the building. Unlike the quote from the book, this house looked, I think, detailed and expensive, a quite impressive site with the garden filled with fruit and flowers attached. “The result is extraordinarily romantic and beautiful…”, the Borghese gardens were beautiful, well maintained trees, shrubs and flowers, beautiful playgrounds for children to play and a beautiful zoo to attach people of all ages.

            Now, in the readings from “The Italians”, one little passage in chapter nine really caught my attention. “How old are the little boys in Naples who steal nags from parked cars…The eight year old boy who was kidnapped by the Mafia, a few years ago, with his grandfather, one of the great Sicilian landowners, knew, without being told by anybody, that he must show no fear, see nothing, hear nothing, and later remember nothing of what had happened to him.” First the little boys at Naples stealing stuff, well, this coming weekend I am we are traveling to Sorrento, and having to pass through Naples. Apperently, Naples is not exactly know to be that safe of a place to vist so luckly we are only passing through Naples. Second, the other part where the grandfather had to forget about his grandson, well, that was absolutely horrible and just because of the Mafia. I have seen television documentaries about mafias all over the world and they are not the people to mess with or cross paths with. There was another quote in the readings that caught my attention, “These people, however, also discover that all official institutions are weak and unstable in Italy; the law is flexible and unreliable…”, I have noticed here that the Italian law really is flexible, for instance to parking and the driving laws, I have seen people park in the craziest spots where anywhere else in the world, they would have been towed. As for speeding , I have not seen one person pulled over for it and people fly here or that a two lane road really means four lanes, two cars in one lane. I want to try this in the United States but I would prefer to not cause an accident and get arrested because when I tell the nice police officer that they do it in Rome, that is a bad excuse! Now, the one thing we have been told that the police are strict on are the men selling knock off bags, it is illegal and they crack the whip of this activity.

            This week we celebrated Thanksgiving, a holiday all about being thankful for what you are given in life, the family and friends you have and the freedom of living in one of the greatest countries in the world, the United States. We started off that Thursday going to a thanksgiving mass, something I have never done before. The mass was just like any other mass except for at the end the ambassador of the United States to the Holy see read the proclamation of Thanksgiving by President Barrack Obama and then we sang Oh beautiful. The proclamation was not very exciting for me, possibly blaming it on the fact that I am not a fan of Obama but changing the subject, when we sang Oh Beautiful, I was tearing up and it gave me goosebumps. Then it was time to head back to campus and take a nap before dinner. Thanksgiving dinner in Rome was better than I thought. I expected the food to look Italian and taste Italian not like our thanksgiving dinners back home but wow, were my expectations blown away. It was amazing and we all sat around a table eating our thanksgiving dinner together as a family, along with some guests.

            To end this blog I am going to talk about what I am thankful for. First and most importantly I am thankful for my family and friends that I have. Without my family well, I would not be at Walsh, be on this trip and not have all the loving support that I have. Second, I am thankful for the beautiful county that I live in, the United States, while I strongly, very strongly dislike the way the country is going and who is running it, America is still my home, where I was born and where I belong, being in Rome has made me discover this about myself. Third I am thankful for the life I am given and the opportunities given to me, four years ago, I could have never been alive to be doing what I am now and breathing, just plain breathing but I am thankful everyday for this opportunity to be living. To give a little short story I was in an accident and broke my neck, not knowing if I was going to live or die and or function normally again. I am also thankful for this experience and opportunity of going and being in Rome because well, it’s Rome, who wouldn’t want to go to Rome?



Soc 490; week quatro

Healthcare across the world

            So this blog is considered a two for one because we are blogging for not only this week but last week. For sociology class these two weeks we were able to go to the museum of the mind and the museum of medical arts, probably two of the most interesting places I have been so far because the human mind is a very interesting topic for me and the being in the medical field, the medical history interreges me. This blog will contain a variety of of topics, like the two museums, our readings for the week and what caught my eye and, the Romans approach to health care and if health care is something we can control.

            First, I will start off with healthcare and if it is something we can control. In my opinion, yes and no for several reasons. Yes, you can control your health because of the personal choices you make through your life and the lifestyle you chose to live. If you exercise regularly and eat right then you can control a great amount of your health and if you eat poorly and do not exercise regularly just be prepared for the consequences. No, you cannot control your health because of several factors like, genetics, environmental, economic or illness factors. For example, if a person is diagnosed with cancer, breast cancer, colon cancer or even skin cancer, it is all not preventable and more than likely will lead to health problems, something that is out of your control. For example, my lifestyle ad health when I was younger was poor, my diet was unhealthy but I did get exercise and then now I am healthier now a days with the help of weight watchers, maturity, higher impact of sports, parents lifestyle changes and educating myself about the food I eat and what is around me. A person’s health is something they can control but at the same time they cannot control.

            Now, a person health in one country is different from another because of several reasons. Like comparing Rome’s lifestyle compared to the USA. In the United States, there are more wide spread smoking bands, like not in public places or only in certain areas outside but in Italy, I do not think they have such a thing. I have seen people smoke everywhere, blown in my face by a person walking by. If a person chooses to smoke then fine, it does not bother me because that is a person’s right to choose the habit but I do not like Italy’s way of not supporting the greater good against second hand smoke and this is one thing I think Romans need to take from our country. So on that note, the United States needs to take notice on some of the healthy habits of the Romans. Italians do eat healthier or should I say, the food that they eat is healthier. The Mediterranean diet is considered what most Italian people eat, healthy oils, breads pastas fish, nothing deep fried. American diets are filled with fast food or unhealthy food, lots of sugar or fat. Personally, I ate very healthy before coming here but one approach that I will take from the Roman lifestyle is using only olive oil and vinegar for salad dressing, a very healthy habit that I love. The Roman lifestyle is, in my opinion, healthier that of Americas lifestyle because of the options we Americans are given daily, the variety in our foods and ability to go get whatever is on our mind.

            For the readings that we did this week, well the reading in “Gaudium”, seemed to stick with me the most. “The economically more advanced countries and other countries is becoming more serious day by day, and the very peace of the world can be jeopardized thereby” or “Feed the man dying of hunger because if you have not fed him, you have killed him, and really to share and employ by supporting individuals or peoples with the aid by which they may be able to help and develop themselves”. These two quotes for the selected readings caught my attention because they swayed my opinion of healthcare being a right or privilege, go to being in the middle. The more of a gap there is between the poor and the better off people will lead to problems, whether it is in the country or the state that we live in. The more people we leave uninsured, not by choice, the more people unable to afford or get care and we need to take care of those who cannot take care of themselves. While it does make no sense to help those who can help themselves, I do not think it is possible to separate the people that really need help verses the people that don’t need help, you can either give insurance to both groups or do not give insurance to both groups. In Gaudium, it always talks about the “universal common good” or the common good”, this phrase is said a lot and I am thinking more and more toward the common good but it is difficult to change the way you think.

            In the other readings for this week it was all about other countries healthcare system verses ours. The biggest problem I have with the universal healthcare book, Is the fact that there are no citations or ways that I can look up the information or the fact that I have not found a single fact an author has given from any year past 2010. Data from 2009 and older serve as no evidence for today’s statistics and figures of the medical care given today or people uninsured and the lower economical class of the United States. Or the author, Michael Tanner, giving statements like “you could lose your current insurance, Are you happy with your insurance? Too bad.” Or “ no matter, the government know best”. And another “higher taxes…estamates of the new healthcare program run from $65 billion to $600 billion…..money ultimately coming out of the pockets of hard-working men and women.” Tanner is making all that “could” statements these things could happen but we will not know until it happens or doesn’t happen. The estimated cost he gives, well he does not give a source for this information and the fact that everything fro buying a car, fixing a car, student loans or building a new school has an estimate of what it would cost, something’s can go over a given estimate and somethings can be under estimated.

            Overall, I have learned that the Roman approach to healthcare is not exactly as healthy as it seems, like the way they approach food is healthy, like olive oil and vinegar for everything and fast food not as readily available, but for the more open smoking atmosphere, that is not. Or, that your health is something you can and cannot control no doubt about that. I am controlling my health to be better and I am in fact getting better, healthier over time, 60lbs gone and still losing. As for healthcare being a right or a privilege well, I am now on the fence, ideas inside my head are just swirling around and around, bouncing off the walls, so as of now I am undecided on which is the better choice. As for the best part of the past two weeks the museum of the mind was the best, absolutely exciting and it made me look forward to learn even more about the human mind through my upcoming years of nursing and psychology classes!

GL 350; week quarto

                                                                        Roma, the beautiful

            Oh, Lions, tigers, and bears, a day at the zoo that is filled with animals and a place that is my favorite to go to. So I was able to go to the Roma zoo in the Borghese gardens. The zoo was small but fun either way, I saw a lot of monkeys, there was probably over forty in this one exhibit. I felt like a child again going to the zoo, getting excited over all of the animals. Also written in my agenda for that weekend was seeing the new James Bond movie, Skyfall and, it was better than I thought because I have never seen a Bond movie before. Then on that Sunday we went to Santa Susanna, the American Catholic Church in Rome, for mass. So as the week began, we were given our schedule that included Piazza della Rotonda and Navona and Aventine Hill.

            On the first for the week were Piazza della Rotonda and Piazza Novona. Now, to get to Pazza della Rotonda we had to ride good old bus 64, not as terrible as our first experience on it. The bus was worse the very first time because none of us had been in a situation like that before and we were all still jet lagged, in my opinion. In the Rotonda, there were no cars in the square, well big oval but there were a ton of street artists. We saw the four rivers fountain in the piazza, very cool and the detail on the fountain was amazing. I was most impressed by the lion and alligator at the bottom and the fact that people back then knew how to create fountains like that back in the day. We went into this church well, we went into several churches that day and each one just as beautiful as the next. We also saw and went into the Pantheon, an amazing structure with a hole in the ceiling but the coolest part is that it has catholic saints inside and Roman Gods as well, a common display of different religions. The only part of the tour that was a little disappointing was the fact that subway was closed for lunch when we went but it was funny and interesting when the hostess to the restaurant next door was telling us that they bought out subway and should eat at his place, which we did not.

            Then, on the agenda for the next day was Aventine Hill. We got off at the metro station of Circo Massimo and the first thing we saw was the Circo Massimo, where the first chariot races were held in Rome. Our wonderful professor, enlightened me with a little fact about these chariot races, the races went counterclockwise and that is the reason why the Nascar races now a day’s goes counterclockwise! Then we went to this door or structure at this church and the old folk tale about it is that if you tell a lie when you stick your hand in the mouth of the figure, it bits your hand off and, I told a lie, my hand is still attached. We walked a lot on this tour but I enjoyed it the city was beautiful. We had class on top of this hill and overlooking a balcony, you could see a panoramic view of Rome and Saint Peters basilica off in the distance, beautiful, just beautiful.

            So in the readings this week, it was all about “The Smiles of Rome”, we had two stories to read and one especially caught my attention. The first reading, well it was about this author who lived in Rome and always lived in some kind of historic apartment, a semi- boring story. Now, the second story was about this author, Alice Steinbach, who visited the city and had a frightful experience. It all started when she went for a coffee at cafe Greco in Piazza de Spania. While she was drinking her expresso, she noticed this man in a coat at the bar, she did not think much of it until she left and figured out she was being followed. She kept walking and then faster because she noticed more men and knew that she was in trouble, more specifically mugged. She ran and screamed, luckily getting away. This story caught my attention because the other week in Rome I went off by myself to explore. My plan was to go back to the Jewish ghetto and get my brother a star of David. I was not scared or nervous at all, achually I was excited because I was free to be on my own schedule and do what I wanted to do, I got lost in Rome and was able to find my way around. I accomplished a lot that day and did not have any issues besides the flats I wore not being water proof. After reading that story, I was a little sick to my stomach, thinking “oh my, what if something like that happened to me”, but it did not so no worries.

            As the week was winding down, we were all prepping for our trip to Florence. I was over ecstatic to be riding a high speed train, hitting over 230 kmh. It was again a good week in Rome, no issues with anything and things running semi-smoothly. The only thing bad that happened this week was my camera dying on me, twice. Why? Because I forget to charge it, so maybe I will learn from my mistake and remember to charge it. Actually, I will still forget to charge it and forgetting to charge it will happen again, no thinking positive on that one.

GL 350; week Tre

Oh thee beautiful Rome….and Venice.

            Only three weeks into my Rome adventure, well technically four but wow! It still feels like I have been here for months or at least longer than three weeks. This week has been very laid back and kind of relaxing especially after going to Venice, which I will talk about shortly. This week we had our usual readings from our assigned books and not our usual three hours of Italian but four hours! For me, learning or at least being in Italian class is difficult, I cannot seem to understand what is going on and I have never really taken a language before which, I feel sets me back in Italian, but we will see how the rest of the weeks to come go and try to be positive. As for our weekly visits, we went to the St Domitilla catacombs, San Giovanni in Laterano, St. Constantine church and the aqueduct system.

Venice was beautiful and the whole boats as transporting was awesome, especially Boat police cars and ambulances. I loved the place, fell in love with it. Venice and the surrounding islands had open air, the sea, and just the atmosphere of the city. While taking a ferry from island to island was the only option and I do get motion sickness, I did pretty well about not getting sick, I think always being up getting fresh air helped! We also went to the beach, best part of the trip because I have never been to a beach before, amazing! I loved the sand, the sounds of the water and discovering shells, I collected too many of them, I went shell crazy. We went to an original murano glass factory and saw how glass can be molded into all kinds of objects, what we saw was glass being made into a vase and a horse. So, I never realized how much murano glass could cost and it is expensive, 2000 and up for the good stuff. For instance, there was a chandler costing 45,000 Euros! The Sunday before we left we went a beautiful church, Saint Mark’s Basilica, the service was in Italian and Latin, one of the most beautiful services I have ever seen and words cannot describe its beauty. Now, since the service was in Italian I could not understand what was going on, so relating this to the story in “Smiles of Rome” by Margaret Visser, the church service did seem like a play. The service was scripted from the readings of the day, kept my attention and spoke silently to me, just like if you see a good play but this service was able to reach a place much deeper inside me than a play could, into my heart and very soul. In general, the city of Venice is beautiful, just amazing, and someday I hope to go back there, I I will just have to wait and see.

            In our assigned readings this week I read several passages that caught my attention and well, said something that I liked. In “The Smiles of Rome”, of pg 84 a passage says “Love each other as much as brothers should, and have a profound respect for each other. Work for the Lord with untiring effort and with great earnestness of spirit. If you have hope, this will make you cheerful. Do not give up if trials come; and keep on praying…..”, and this “Bless those who persecute you; never curse them, bless them….Never repay evil with evil….Do all you can to live at peace with everyone”. These words stuck with me because they are words I have been trying to follow, being kind to everyone or respecting everyone no matter their personality or lifestyle or how they treat me. These words are quite beautiful because of the beauty following these words gives you. The church or Bible teaches us to see the beauty that God created around us and in every person sometimes it just takes a just a moment or second look to see that beauty and other times it is instant.

For instance, when we walked into St. Constantine church, it was a beautiful church do not get me wrong but it seemed like other churches we have seem until we had the option to climb the sacred steps on our knees. The climb up was difficult, already having bruises on my knees from previous falls and climbing up 28 steps is harder than it sounds. On each step you are suppose to say a pray or meditate, which I did and when you reach the top, your knees or my knees did not hurt anymore, I was very proud of myself for climbing up the sacred steps on my knees. After the climb, I was able to notice more beauty about the church that made it unique and captured my up most attention; so much attention that I did not know the group had left for the next church. The beauty of life, of God, or everything is around us, through the beauty and atmospheres of the church to the dirty alley down the road or the Indian umbrella sellers, a weird beauty I suppose but beautiful in some way. The next church we went to as San Giovanni also known as the Popes church. It was a very big church and what I would consider very modern for a church in Italy. I saw the holy doors which are only open once every 25 years, 2025 is the next year it will be open. The door was beautiful after taking a second look because the hand of Mary and foot of baby Jesus was a color different that the rest, worn away to a pretty gold like color from all the people rubbing it. The paintings inside were beautiful and the church was too big to explore and enjoy in the time that we were given so I plan on going back to revisit it, studying the inside more intently.

The same day as the churches we went to we also went to the St Domitilla catacombs. The catacombs were more than what I thought they would be, an aura indescribably creepy yet beautiful. The history and the structure or the dark immerse and massive maze of graves underneath the ground. Over 150,000 tombs and less than 2,000 still intact, or something along those lines, are still intact because of all the damage done to the catacombs. Our tour guide was the best we have had so far and was easily understandable. The catacombs were something that I have never seem in my life, heard of but never seen, there was so much history, so much hope in the darkness from underneath, a beautiful thing. The end of the week was a tour of the aqueduct system of Rome. So the fact that all the water Rome gets from this system is pretty darn cool and the fact that the water tastes excellent is well an added bonus. We were able to see the structure of the different systems and, a beautiful park, feeling like we were in a farmland, but we were still in Rome. So, I will be truthful, this was kind of boring and it may sound bad but, to me it was boring but the aqueducts in itself was interesting to see up close and being able to touch the stone. This week being in Rome was again Amazing and full of moments and memories for my future memoirs, well, maybe not for the memoirs that I probably will not write that because my memory is horrible and I have yet to write in the “said” journal I wanted to keep while I was here!

Soc 490; week due

                                                          Healthcare; a topic always in the spot light

      Is healthcare a right or a privilege? A debate that will always be a hot topic now since President Barrack Obama is changing the way it works. As for myself I think that it is a privilege but, like a tree at the beginning of a storm, I am beginning to sway from side to side which opposing side is truly the right one. If you are able to understand the view of an opponent’s argument, you can not only be able to better understand your own view but improve what you know about the topic in general. As for healthcare being a privilege these are the reasons why I think that the opponents believe it is a right.

     The Bible, one of the most, if not greatest, influential books in the world, tells us to love thy neighbor and to treat others as our brothers or sisters. Viewing healthcare as a right, follows this way of living by treating everyone the same, giving everyone the right to get healthcare. In “Gaudium et Spes”, it give us many reasons to believe that healthcare is a right and that everyone is entitled to it. On page 23 “God, Who has fatherly concern for everyone, has willed that all men should constitute one family and treat one another in a spirit of brotherhood”, or on page 25, there are reasons everywhere as to why healthcare is a right “the common good”, “general welfare of the entire human family”, or “rights and duties are universal and inviolable….made available to all men everything necessary for leading a life truly human. Such as food, clothing, and shelter; the right to choose a state of life freely and to found a family, the right to education….”. All this tells us clear as the air we breathe that healthcare is a right just like food and clothing or education. Making healthcare universal is the claimed to be the best solution for the common good of America by promoting the general welfare of the human race or as what the opposing side would claim. Also in Gaudium on page 27, “respect and love ought to be extended also to those who think or act differently than we do in social, political and even religious matters”. So giving healthcare to everyone is showing love and respect for people of all backgrounds and lifestyles.

     So since Healthcare being a right is what seems like a probable solution, fair to all and now going to be in full effect by our reelected President Obama, all citizens everywhere will have be given the right to healthcare. Citizens in all counties of Ohio will be able to get healthcare and go to hospitals and get the right treatment. For instance the Cleveland clinic in Cuyahoga County will be able and be made to treat everyone, not only people with insurance. The residents of Cuyahoga County will be able to get the care they need at the Cleveland clinic and promote their well-being, right? Wrong, it is wrong because when giving people access to the best healthcare does not mean they will use it or if a person lives an unhealthy lifestyle, living next to a hospital will not make that person healthy. Living next to one of the best hospitals around does not mean the people around it are healthy; it is all about your lifestyle, economic status and, genetic factors/illnesses. When people do live close to a hospital or live in the county of the best hospital around just means that those people have easier access to it or could reach a hospital faster. The economic factor could be the big issue as to why people in Cuyahoga County are not all healthy and living in range to the Cleveland Clinic. If a person is financially instable, how are they going to afford to pay for healthcare at the Cleveland clinic?

     Healthcare is not free even with Obama’s Universal healthcare plan or Obama care, if the citizens of America are unable to pay insurance premiums, hospital bills, car payments, groceries or anything else how are they going to pay for insurance? Take away from the people who can? Bring the rest of society down instead of raising the other half of society, balancing society. Yes, everyone will have the right to get healthcare, be able to get the care that they need or help they might deserve but that still does not make healthcare free. There is nothing in life that s free except for the air we breathe, Food stamps or government housing, public education or private education, private insurance of government insurance, someone has to pay for it and that someone is the people who can afford only the bare necessities or those who can live comfortably. We are going to be paying insurance for those who cannot pay for it; there is no doubt or question about that fact because we already pay for their government assistance, like food stamps, medical card, government housing or unemployment. Now, the real question is who’s going to pay for us when we, the middle class, can no longer pay for ourselves?

Gl 350; week due

     Ah Rome! A city that is famous for everything; food fashion, art, history and the way it is able to captivate the tourists who come to visit. Now, wait a second, I am not here to only visit but to stay for a while….”I am not a tourist, I live here”, at least for eight weeks and six now. As for this week we went to the Spanish Steps, piazza de Popolo, and the Appia Antia. Going to the Appia Antia was by far the best.

    The Appia Antia, one for the oldest roads in Rome, some parts of huge old chucks of cobblestone and other little small chunks. The big chunks were by far the worst to go over with on a bike, yes, we were on a bike. The bikes were not liking the cobblestone or my butt, but… the views and whole bike riding in Rome was amazing! Now, in our readings for the week in “the Smiles of Rome” Jane Alison’s section “The love artist” talked about a man named Ovid going into exile from the country he loves. He passes by all these places in Rome that belongs to he country like, the circular temple, the Aventine and the city of Ostia Antica. He is traveling down this road through Rome awaiting his exile and he asked an officer “Does that mean I can bring Rome with me”? He says this because Rome is in his heart forever, apart of him and who he is, a Roman. This does not really have anything to go with the Appia Antia except for Ovid traveling on a road to his exile and me traveling a road that could lead me back to home or, campus.

     The charm of Italy, it is true, I have been captivated by it. What captivated me? I think it was the history, the art and the beauty and history of the churches around Rome. The Churches are the biggest part of what has captivated me because of being a new catholic and excited to learn more and see more about the religion I am choosing to follow. In “the Italians”, chapter 3, the author talks about “the fatal charm of Italy”, talks about the Pope, specifically, “The Pope has once again become a great spiritual leader, a symbolic figure, the moral head of all forces of good against evil”. I am so excited to see the Pope at the end of our trip and especially being able to go to the Papal audience. Then, in the chapter it says “Of course, natural beauty and famous views are abundant in Italy. Such things, however, are not unknown elsewhere. Nature is usually more inspiring even in the United States…”. I wondered to myself how could this author possibly compare Italy’s natural beauty to the United States, because I have lived there almost 20 years now and I have not seen beauty that can touch this place. Maybe when I go back to the United States and find a natural beauty that can rival Italy but as for now, Italy has won.

     “The air is in fact filled with so much noise that one must usually talk in a very loud voice to be understood, thereby increasing the total uproar”. On pg 60 in “the Italians”, the author wrote this. I can relate to what the author wrote about the Spanish steps, oh my word were they packed. The steps were occupied with tourists, lots of tourists, more than I have seen so far and just good old Italians waiting on the steps for someone. Since the steps are know to people as a meeting place, everyone really does meet there, it is like a maze trying to walk up those steps to get to the top. The Spanish step or piazza de Spania, was beautiful, but not as what I expected, maybe because I pictured something else in my mind or just because I was not interested in steps, who knows. Then on pg 69 of “the Italians” it says “the fact that everybody, or almost everybody, seems to be doing his job with whole-hearted dedication and enthusiasm is what impresses travelers next”. I believe this passage does not speak for Most of the Italian workers today, from the people I have seem very few are sincere others are just probably to the point of hating tourist and only liking their money, but do they really care about how happy they seem or how hard they work?

     This week I was able to see three beautiful churches; the art work was just gorgeous and amazing. How can someone paint something so big? Also just being in the churches surrounded by a holy presence is just relaxing, calming and peaceful. Just sitting down in a church for a while is something I am trying to do every time I go into one. I know the names of the churches I went into but I just can’t remember at this moment. As for being in Rome this week, it was again amazing, but I have noticed that the waiters and service at restraints suck, they suck and the servers get paid for doing a horrible job. I have not found a good waiter yet, even though I have managed to find a couple who are somewhat cheerful. As for having seven more weeks, I am ready to see more of the City around me and explore the bounty of art and history around me.

Soc 490 week one

                                                Health care, a right or a privilege?
     Rights and Privilege, what do they mean? What is the accepted definition of the two words?  A right is a moral or legal entitlement to have or do something. A privilege is a special right, advantage, or immunity for a particular person. To me, a right is something you are born with, like the right to live life how you want it or do what you want while abiding by the laws or freedom of religion, speech and press. A privilage is something you have to earn or work for, behaving approprietly or following the laws, not just given to you. As society today is growing more and more, people are becoming more and more greedy, lazy or wanting the good things in life handed to them, with no effort on  their part. My health care is given to me from my parents who work hard to have the privalege to be under a good insurence company, it is not given to them becuase they needed it but because they work for it.
     As for the four opinions from the book "Universal Health Care", two said it was a right and the other two said it was a privilage. I agree with Peikoff because of several statements he said in his artical. He state "we are not born with the trip to disneyland, or a meal at McDonalds,...", this is absolutly true, yes we have the freedom to go to Disneyworld but you have to earn money to be able to go and then you can have the privilage to go. Now, sometimes a person may win a trip to the magical kingdom, well that just luck or maybe a parent has a dying child and the make a wish foundation gives the family a trip, that was through a strenous trial of pain and eventually death that a family like that is able to go. Going to disneyland is not a right but a privilage. In Creech's article he uses the bible and what it says as a means to defend universal healthcare being wrong. He states that the bible discourages economic systems that construct dependence or reward sloth. He even quoptes a bible verse backing up his opinion, Thessalonions 3:10. He makes a point that a universal government healthcare system is a form of socialised medicine and destroy professional freedom for medical proffesions and since I am in the medical field, i agree with him.Also with the point he makes about the quality of health care lessen when the government has to make healthcare affordable and mandatory for everyone.
     As for the other two articles I do not agree with them because they make the view of healthcare being affordable for everyone and it is a right. In Redmonds article, she states that people are not free with the healthcare system the way it is today. Like the mentally ill are not free becauss they are unable to get insurence and they end up in jail, or her statement "jails and prisons have become de facto psychiatric treatment facilities for the mentally ill. First of all this is a false statement, where are her facts or research. Jail and prisions are filled with people who either deserve to be in there for a crime they have commited or because they may cause a threat to others or themselves. In American today there are a number of facilities that help the mentally ill and or homeless for free, they just happen to have rules, sometimes strict rules that some choose not to follow. Now, yes some people with mental illnesses do have a mental illness that need help and cannot get it and this is obviuosly a matter needing a solution. as for the other article, by the Interfaith canter on Corporate Responsibility, "a call for accesible and affordable health care for all people in a just and compassionate healthcare system.....faith based investors believe it is in the economic intrest of companies....". Yes, we do need a just healthcare system but because people will take advantage of the system or abuse privilages or stretch the limits of their rights, a just and compassionate system is not a possibility. Healthcare that is affordable and comprehensive for everyone is not in the economys intrest, how is the government going to pay for the lower half of american that cannot afford it? Raise the taxes of the people who can, insurence companies raising premiums and deductiples, thus making healthcare unaffordable for for the higher margin.
     The battle of healthcare will be a struggling battle for the years ahead, there will never be a perfect solution or a plan that makes everyone happy. No matter what is decided on or who think "this will work for everyone" they are all wrong. Making healthcare affordable for everyone or enabling everyone to get coverage is a double edged sword. Now, in my opinion a goverment involved healthcare or government run system is the absolute wrong path to go, the more the government gets theri head up everyone's butt, the less freedom we have as americans, next the government will draw our names out of a hat to decide what job we can have or what house we get to live in or even the food we eat. Healthcare is a privilager for the people who earn it, whether it is a sick or dying child, an elderly man who needs help, a war veteren needing care after fighting for our freedom, or a hard working american not sitting on there butts expecting soemone else to take care of them.

GL 350 week uno

     Italy, the trip of a life time and places  not many people get to see. I get this opportunity and I will keep each moment and each new place we see forever a memory. Studying in Italy for the next two monthes is an opportunity I would have never been able to have and this is going to be an opportunity for me to grow as a person and succeed indepententy. As we get our week one schedual, the main sights are the Coliseum, Roman Forum, Campo de'Fiori, the jewish ghetto and several churches. With our schedule, we also recieved reading assingments to correspond with our daily sight seeing, interwoven into each other.
     The first day we were off to the Coliseum and Roman Forum. The Coliseum was breathtaking, getting right off the subway, walking up a flight of stairs and there right in front of you is the mighty structure. When reading "Who killed Daisy Miller", in "The Smiles of Rome", we were given a little history of the Coliseum and a story about a woman, Daisy, who died from Malaria before seeing the Coliseum because the Coliseum and Roman Forum are bult on a marsh, but no longer that now a days. The Coliseum was bult by Emperor Vaspasion  and ever since it was bult it is the 8th wonder of the world! As for the Roman forum, well for me it was just ruins, rocks and crumbled stone, nothing that caught my interest. There was a quote in "The Smiles of Rome" that I thought about when walking through the Roman Forum and also Palentine hill and most of Rome, "When we contemplate ruins, we contemplate our own future", eventually we all fall eventualy and some of us can leave impressions in the world and others do not. Like the Roman Forum or other famous ruins in Rome, they all fell but leave impressions every day the rumble is still there.
     The rest of that week we were off the the Jewish Ghetto, an area that caught my eye and the history that caught my attention because of my brother being jewish. I was sure to get plenty of pictures of the ghetto to show him an area that can be considered apart of him. In Campo de' Fiori, well shops and merchants were every where, wanting to grab your attention and sell there wares to you. Which in my opinion most of the merchants were selling cheap wares not worth the money. In the Italians chapter 1, it talks about the italian charm, the city Rome in itself has a charm not felt any where else. The famous sights suck you in, draws your attention and when your attention is distracted, well your belongings become a pleasurable sight for the mischevious. "They are the first victims of the famous charm of Italy", this quote from the italians is pointed to tourists and it is far beyond a false statement. When our professors and guides take us to our daily sights, the new unfamilar famous surroundings captures your mind and charms you because these are things you have never seen before or cannot be replicated any where else in the world.
     Towards, the end of the week we were able to visit this beautiful church that is not open to the public and also the baths of Cacacella. This church was historic and looked as if it was right out of a history book about churches. The artwork, paintings surrounding the walls and on the ceilings and just the good old fasion architecture, all marble floors, hand crafted and the atmosphere in general was captivating. The other part of that church was the catacombs that we were able to see, skulls real skulls used as the cross, as the light fiixtures and displayed all around the basement. Now, the Baths of Caracella, the image that came to mind for me was no where near the scale that my eyes saw. There were massive brick walls all around and even origianl mosaic tiles for the flooring still in tact. Thousands of people flocked to this sight in the days of old and it was more that enough space to hold that number of people. After I was able to see the ruins, I really could picture the baths, with pools to bath and excersise. The one thing that made me laugh, is that every time the tour guide would talk about the courts with excerising and activities going on, all I could think about was like a high school gym and a bastektball, which neither they had back then.
     It is amazing to see how well the Italians maintain the beauty and historic atmosphere of the ruins around the city. For a moment you think your just riding a bus going through a city, which you are but then it is like a slap in the face when you ride by a set of ruins or a historic building with a crumbling structure being restored. Italy definetly has a certian charm that captures a toursit but unique to the surroudnings and in my opinion does not compare to going to New York or California. Rome is a beautful city and has a beautiful culture but why is a city reling so much on old ruins or crubling structures or a pretty flat of grass to make it what it is. All great things fall eventually, it is just a matter of time and when some of the famous sttructures fall, what are the Romans going to fall back on, more ruins?