American Girl Says...

In Danielle's article, "Should the US Government take control of our children's nutrition? YES YES YES!!!" , she discusses the Child Nutrition Bill and how it should definitely be passed. I absolutely agree with my fellow colleague and feel as though we have needed something like this for quite some time! America isn't at the TOP of the 10 fattest countries in the world, but we are close enough. The United States is number 3 with 66.7% of our population being overweight. I'm not implying that we should all look like the stick-figures on the cover of magazines, but being overweight is simply unhealthy. If children don't learn to be conscious of what they eat now and how to properly take care of their bodies, it will be much more difficult as they get older. As Danielle said, "it is a lot harder to break bad habits and form good ones." I remember in middle school our options for lunch usually consisted of fried chicken fingers and french fries but on Monday's we had Taco Bell tacos, Wednesday was Pizza Hut day, and Friday's we got Chick-fil-a sandwiches. As you can see, healthy options weren't even available to us at school. Of course bringing your own lunch was always an option but we had to leave at 6:30am to make it to school every morning, it was far easier for my mom to hand us $5 and on our way then worrying about making lunches before she had to make it to work herself. I think passing a bill to ensure healthier choices at school and simply making children aware will improve our countries health overall. Who knows, maybe sooner than later we won't be dubbed the FATTEST country (even though we are number 3)!

Don't Ask, Don't....Shhhh!

In old news, a lower court has ruled 'don't ask, don't tell' unconstitutional and the whole thing is going through the appeals process now. The Supreme Court has now ruled that the policy will not be suspended until the appeals process is completely done with.
I can't say that I disagree with the Supreme Court's ruling. I know a lot of people are frustrated because they wanted to see change immediately. However, with the appeals the issue is tricky. The repeal of the policy is not set in stone and if men and women begin outing themselves now and then the appeals process comes through in the favor of 'don't ask, don't tell,' their military lives, salaries and benefits are all in danger.
Which brings me to the point that 'don't ask, don't tell' is one of the most outdated ideas still supported in a military that has supposedly become very modern. It is a form of government sanctioned segregation in a world where we like to pretend like that doesn't exist anymore. The fact that we have to sit and wait out the bureaucratic mess until we can embrace the change of policy is unsettling. All of us would prefer to see overwhelming issues like this be taken care of in one swoop.
The unfortunate truth is that many people still believe that 'don't ask, don't tell' is beneficial to the armed forces and is an issue of combat readiness. But those members of the service who are hiding their sexuality for fear of losing their job, benefits, and the pride of serving their country are lying to their comrades every day. Lies that lead to more and more lies, just to cover up who they are. I would prefer that someone who I need to trust 100% out in the field be completely open with me, rather than to get used to the idea of lying for survival. It's not their fault, it is what the system does to them.
You hear among male service members that they are fighting with their best friends, their brothers; the people they've been through everything with. Yet I can't imagine how you could consider someone your best friend or your brother without them knowing serious aspects of you and who you are. I think being able to be open with other service members would increase camaraderie and brotherhood. The only people who it would rattle are those who are homophobic or closed minded; and I don't understand why until now the military has put favor on protecting those men and women from the truth over allowing decent gay or bisexual men and women have their freedom.