In the news...

I just got done watching the AMA awards and was surprised when Taylor Swift won the Artist of the Year, but really happy for her. I was surprised she won with Michael Jackson up for the same award, but glad a young girl that has worked as hard as she has won. A young girl winning such a huge award is not very common.

Another thing I saw on the news was that it is being said that women's mammograms are now only needed to be done every two years. A lot of people are making a huge deal about that because they think the government is just trying to save money by saying it doesn't need to be done every year. It would be horrible if that is the case and the government would do such a thing. But honestly, with how the government is right how who would know? Making cut backs such as this one, is in my opinion not the way to go about getting us out of our debt. My mom heard that if every man, woman and child in the United States would give 1/2 a million dollars to the government it would get us out of our debt. That is absolutely crazy!! Maybe the government should be more focused on getting us out of that debt than some of the ways they spent the stimulus money, for example when they used it to build tunnels under roads for turtles. I think finding breast cancer in women is way more important than some other ways the government money has been spent.

Abuse of Power

Friday night I was being the sober driver and ended up driving a bunch of my friends around all night. I was driving down Chesnut and noticed a cop was riding my bumper, but knew I wasn't speeding so I thought I was ok. He continued to follow me all the way to Meredith and finally put his lights on. From the minute he came up to my window he was a complete jerk. He told me he pulled me over because my license plate wasn't lit up.. I didnt even know that was a feature on my car! I told him I was being the sober driver and thats why my car smelt like alcohol, he didnt believe me. He made me get out and proceeded to ask me if I had a weapon on me. Once again he didnt believe me and patted me down! I was very shocked by this. Then he gave me a sobriety test, like I would lie to a cop about drinking and driving. Throughout all this he asked me a bunch of random questions that were none of his buisness, like how I knew the guy in my car and other stuff. I always heard of people getting gift cards for being the sober driver, never being harrassed and questioned so much like I was. It may not sound so bad, but being there it was awful. It was like the cop was on a soap box and was taking advatage of his powers. This was a perfect example of a guy who thought he was better than a young girl and was on a power trip. Seems to be typical for a lot of guys these days. If they think they are better than you or of higher power than you they sure do have to show it. It seems like the police officer would appreciate what I was doing, not treat me like crap.

Change

Change is inevitable. It is everywhere, everyday. Sometimes the change is for the better, sometimes it's not. Women are starting to take a bigger part in seeing the chages they want to be made, and I like it. This year we actually had a woman running for president. That's huge for our country, but I don't think it should be. I think women should be seen just as capeable as men and should be in the running for president all the time.

At the beginning of Part 8 there is a quote I really liked. "You dont have to be Superwoman to change the world. You just have to take responsibility for your life and your community--and realize that you have the power to so, even from your own sticky kitchen table." I love this and think it is so true. Anyone can change the world, they just have to have the mindset they are going to be successfull and do what it takes to accomplish it.

The article from this chapter that really caught my eye was Article 40, "Ava Lowery: Teen Activist Making a Difference in the Iraq War." This is a perfect example of a girl who isn't letting her age or gender stand in the way of her fighting for what she believes in. I was shocked to hear she had gotten such rude comments and even death threats. But she didn't let those ruin what she is fighting for and I believe that shows a ton of character. She could have let those comments get to her and give up on what she believes in, but she didn't. If everybody had that passion for what they believed in this world could be a much better place.