Ronald Reagan: Just a Normal Human Being

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IMG_0283   The Ronald Reagan Library opened my eyes to the world of not only the President but a normal human being as well. The exhibits were all so well put together and the one up at the top is the Presidential plane. This was such an interesting exhibit. I was able to walk through a replica of his plane. I did think the plane was going to be bigger but it really wasnt. I then begin to realize that this was many years ago when technology was not as advanced. It was interesting to see where the president spent his time. It almost seemed like it wasnt as secure as you would want it to be, for the president that is. It was interesting to hear the story of the chocolate cake. Ronald Reagan would invite reporters on to the plane and would cleverly always choose the ones who’s birthdays were on the day. He would always have a chocolate cake and would send it to the reporter and join them. He was a normal human being.

IMG_0296  This exhibit was one of my favorites. In this exhibit, walls, shelves and everything were covered in everything football.  Jerseys from every single NFL  team in the  U.S. and college teams. There were also old high school uniform teams as well as old uniforms for cheerleaders. It surprised me to see some of the NFL team rings as well as the super bowl trophies. There was so much to learn about in this exhibit. I was able to see the way uniforms advanced and came to be what they are now. There was also old fashion footballs, as well as the older head gear. It really made me think about how much things change throughout the years. Everything advances so quickly but so do we. Everything becomes more complicated or much easier for us.

IMG_0277   This exhibit made me very happy in a way. It was an exact replica of the oval office. It was interesting to learn that the president originally had a different office but he told them that he worked too hard to not have this office. One of the things that made me happy about this exhibit was the story behind how they were able to get the actual height of the oval office in the museum. Ronald Reagan himself helped to create this exhibit. When the city was told that the ceiling was too tall so due to restrictions they were not able to  create the exact height of it. Therefore Ronald Reagan himself thought outside of the box and told them that if they couldnt build any higher than they should just dig underneath. That was such a great story because it was an example of the brilliant mind of Ronald Reagan. It was wonderful to see that the portrait of George Washington  was hanging in the center of the room. He was the first president so therefore he holds a great place in the house.

IMG_0276This exhibit was a very informational and visual one. In fact they even had footage of the event itself. This exhibit was specifically about the attempted assassination of our very own President. When we first walked in there was something projected on to the side what looked to be a wall and there were two small screens on it. These two screens played the actual footage of the attempted assassination captured by a news reporter. The president himself as well as two other members of his staff were shot. This to me was such an important moment. Many times in our countries history have the Presidents been shot and killed. Amazingly this one survived. I feel maybe there were bigger reasons as to why he survived.

IMG_0272This exhibit was my absolute favorite. There was something about this that warmed my heart. This exhibit explained how when President Reagan was a child his family placed a penny underneath the tile by their fireplace. The purpose of that was so that they could say truthfully that they were never “penniless”. This warms my heart because it shows that even though he became President they were real people. We have this idea that the Presidents cant make a small mistake just because. In reality they came from the same place we come from. Whether living a middle class lifestyle or living in poverty. Later on Ronald Reagan went back to his old home and discovered that the penny was still beneath the tile. It was one of the greatest things ive heard.

My favorite exhibit had to be the one about the penny. It is such a sincere story with so much emotional background. As I explained before, we have this idea in our head that the President of the United States has to be perfect. He cant make one move without everyone deciding whether or not it was the right one. Everyone criticizes them for the things they do and the decisions they make. In reality, none of us really know what its like to be President. We dont know what its like to live a life where everyone judges the things you do whether its laugh or smile or even blink. We dont know what its like to make big decisions for a country even though we know some people will dislike it.

That brings me back to this exhibit. Something so small so simple with so much meaning. They put a penny under a tile because they were modest enough to know that maybe one day everything they had would be gone. Maybe one day, theyll have nothing left, and times were rough. I feel as if that one small penny gave them so much hope. That even when all their money is gone, they will still never be penniless. That is a real home, with real humans, with real American situations.

We have to take a step back sometimes and understand that the President, just like us, are human too. No one is perfect and everyone makes mistakes. Its a basic part of human life, and culture. We have to allow a little space and privacy to be held within that area for our Presidents. That is how I feel everyone should understand this exhibit. They should see it as a symbolic action which is very relevant to anyone’s life.

This really was my favorite exhibit because we never really see too much about who the President really is. We never get to see too much about where he comes from and the most emotional parts of his childhood. I think this exhibit proves that. I think the whole museum itself proved that. We need to take  step back and learn to admire who the President was and who he truly is now. We cant judge them solely based off of their term in government. Not everyone is going to agree with their decisions and we all need to grow up and realize that.

Museums, libraries, stories, archives, anything these days can tell you a lot about a certain topic. How much of it is really true though? What we know is what the media wants to expose us to. What we know is the framing of a specific topic. The framing of either just the good or the bad. What we know is what we hear or what we want to believe. I feel this museum truly does cover some of the basic aspects of Ronald Reagan’s life but there was a lot of untold stories.

He was known as one of the greatest Presidents of all time. At least that is what I hear. For the most part, and from what I know as well he was a very great president. Many of the exhibits we saw in the library were personal. Some not as personal as others, but definitely breath taking. Do I feel like they show the whole truth about who he was, definitely not. The museum was framed to show the people the good things in his life. The human things in his life.

I personally believe, great president or not, good person or not there were still some dark sides to Ronald Reagan. Many people have biased opinions on others, whether they know much about them or not. Just like Reagan and what he called “The Evil Empire”. Much of biased opinion there but we really never got to see the facts on that side of him. Showing the people who someone really is means showing them every side of them. The good the bad, the happy, the sad, and everything in between. I dont believe we get the whole truth from museums or media. Its all framed to be what they want it to be.

Week 5 Posting 2

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Hello, everyone! I wanted to make a separate post for the 2001 Gross article, 2015 Grinberg article, and 2015 Powers article. I found the Gross  article really interesting. It was funny because at the time I was indulging in a guilty pleasure, watching Glee (I know, it’s terrible). However, there were examples of what the article was talking about even in the episode I was watching. It was interesting since this article was written in 2001, and even in some of today’s television we are still having this issue of using gay and lesbian people for comedy. I also found the author’s idea that LGBT people are not stereotyped at all, they are completely invisible. I was happy that the author mentioned “queer-baiting”. That’s something I see a lot with musicians… “Well my song /might/ be about me kissing a girl, but that’s up to interpretation” (paraphrasing Demi Lovato recently hah). Not sure if girls or guys are doing it more but I guess it doesn’t matter.

I found the articles about marketing and complimenting very intriguing.  I volunteer at a children’s hospital and a big part of doing so is purchasing and distributing toys to the kids. They are definitely separated based not only on age but by gender. I know they would let a kid pick whatever they wanted (not forcing gender roles and stuff) but it’s a reminder of how much just the packaging can influence who gets to play with what toys. I thought it was interesting that it is parents and the environment that are more likely to influence a child’s ideas about gender and gender roles than what toys they are playing with. The complimenting article also made me think about the time I spend volunteering. I was reminded of how quick I am to tell a little girl that I like her hair or her shoes rather than compliment her for her choice. I do know, from doing arts and crafts with kids, that they absolutely love when you compliment them on their color choice or creativity. I hope to be able to move more in that direction when volunteering. Did these articles make you more aware of purchasing toys and how your compliments can affect girls?

Experience at the Ronald Reagan Library

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If I can go back to the Ronald Reagan Library again, I would go back anytime. At first when I found out us as a class was going to this museum, I was already regretting taking this class. I do not like museum because the previous museums I have been to were the worst. They were really boring with terrible tour guides. But at this museum, I judged by a book by its cover. I have learned the significance of the museum and what amazing things Ronald Reagan did when he was in office.

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This picture is a timeline of the first 70 days Reagan was in office. The first day of his presidency he began putting his ideas about government and the economy into practice. To begin controlling the growth of government, he eliminated non-essential travel and cut the number of government consultations. Moving swiftly from January 20th the Reagan administration lifted all energy price controls, began dismantling the council on wage and price stability, and ordered federal agencies to freeze pending regulations for 60 days. If I was the president of the United States, I would also begin throwing out solutions and ideas to help this economy grow and try to lead many years of economic growth.

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This explanation of using energy in a positive way caught my attention us as Americans use energy everyday. In the quote above the picture Reagan said that is is a great opportunity to free America from depending on foreign oil that can be turned off at anytime by people who can use our nation for blackmail and coercion. So Reagan supported the constructions of nuclear and solar power plants so that Americans can depend on energy that is ours. I felt that this was a smart move because personally I cannot depend on anyone else but myself, and he wanted Americans to do the same.

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This picture is one of the things that Ronald Reagan’s wife, Nancy, did when she was the first lady. It was a project called the “Just Say  No” project. This project was a campaign across the country influencing all Americans to fight against drug abuse. The reason why this fascinated me is because she took on a big problem as the first lady and took so many actions. You know when she makes a board game against drug abuse, you know it’s serious. All the trips she took across explaining the negative affects on drug abuse I felt could have convinced anyone to stop using.

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President Reagan’s unshakable lifelong opposition to communism and staunch support of human rights helped free hundred of millions of people around the globe. His “behind-the-scenes” diplomacy was crucial in securing permission for thousands of Soviet Jews to immigrate to Israel. But he also reached out to foreign leaders to secure freedom for individuals held as political prisoners. President Reagan’s commitment echoes to this day in the voices of men and women seeking freedom around the world. This quote interests me because freedom is the best thing any country could have and if Reagan strove for freedom, even in another country, it is amazing.

I feel that the best exhibit for me was the football exhibit. It was so fascinating because I am a huge football fan, whether it is college or pro. I was so fascinated, that I forgot to take pictures of any of the old hall of fame players jerseys, or USC’s championship rings of winning the national title multiple times. Terry Bradshaw, Roger Staubach, Eric Dickerson , and Steve Mcnair were all mentioned in the football exhibit at the Reagan Museum. These players and many others were the greatest pro football players of all time. It was really mind blowing going into this exhibit and this place was the place I spent most of my time in. Also seeing the evolution of the actual football that was used in the games aging back all the was to the 1920’s till now was amazing.

The Ronald Reagan Library was overall really fascinating, and to be honest I would go again and take as many people as I can.

Little Girls/Gender-Neutral Marketing

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The article about complimenting little girls was an eye opener for myself.  I have a 3 year old daughter and I find myself complementing her on how pretty she looks in her princess dresses.  As a result, all she wants to wear lately are dresses.  I have even noticed her teachers at school compliment her in the same ways.   I didn’t think it was a big deal until I read this article.  I agree with the author that individuals should model great compliments to children, so they won’t think they have to look or act a  certain way.

Moreover, I enjoyed reading the science supporting gender-neutral marketing article.  I agree with Target about removing gender references, so kids will have one section of toys instead of “boys” and “girls.”  Although, I found it interesting about the LEGO friends, which are purple and pink in color.  I believe this is giving off subliminal messages to girls that they can play with legos, but only purple and pink legos.  I agree with the author that it is basically persuading children that they are different based on their gender.  I remember when I was younger I would play with the same legos as my brother and didn’t think anything of it.  Today, it is immensely relevant that toy companies are gender stereotyping and programming children to think a certain way.  For example, they recently came out with a “boy” easy bake oven which is blue.  I think this is telling boys that they can bake, but in a masculine way since the oven is blue instead of pink.  Ultimately, toys are toys and kids should be able to follow their own interests without gender labels.

Collaborative Care with RT

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In clinical, what are you seeing related to sedation vacation and collaboration with Respiratory Therapists? What is ideal? What is standard practice? What medications are you seeing in the clinical setting for sedation? What tools are used to determine the infusion rate?

In clinical the main areas I have witnessed collaboration with Respiratory Therapists (RTs) is my time in NICU, PICU, or when my patient in Med/Surg went into respiratory distress and we had to call rapid response. In the NICU, the RTs play a crucial role monitoring all of the neonates on vents and making changes as needed.

I haven’t witnessed sedation vacations on the floor, but it seems like a good concept to implement. When a patient is on a mechanical ventilator it can be uncomfortable and inadvertently inflict pain on the patient. Sedation is provided to give the individual a more pleasurable experience amongst the necessary equipment to monitor their well-being. The ideal practice is to provide a vacation or weaning from the sedation medications once a shift to assess neurological systems, ability to follow commands, and evaluate the need for remaining on sedation.

In the clinical setting the medications that I have most seen used are fentanyl and lorazepam.

To determine the infusion rate:

drug dose ordered (mcg) x patient’s weight (kg) x 60
drug concentration (mcg/mL)

You also want to know the target goal for sedation, times of sedation vacations, and how often neurological checks are to be performed.

Hogue, M., & Mamula, S. (2013). Sedation vacation: Worth the trip. Nursing 2015 Critical Care, 8(1), 35-37.

Blog #4

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Visibility, representation , and diversity were all key points that were talked about in our readings this week. In the article, “The Poor Will Always Be With Us: Just not on the TV News”, I was not surprised to learn that the media gives little coverage about poverty in America, however, what I found to be very interesting was that coverage on poverty rarely allows for Americans living in poverty to share their opinions. It was even more interesting to learn that concerns for the elderly and veterans living in poverty was seen as more important than any other group living in poverty. This can be understood in both ways. First, the elderly population are more than often portrayed as weak and unable to provide for themselves. Second, the arm forces are a group in our American society that receives not only many resources, but also are seen as national heroes. Thus, these two groups within our society are thought as more “important” and as the “deserving poor”.

Further, reading the article “Let toys be toys: The case for gender-neutral marketing” allowed me to reflect on my own childhood and the choices I made when buying toys with my parents. One of the main points this article states is that  “parents and environment are more likely to influence which toy a child picks up, not gender”, and I completely agree with this statement. Looking back into my childhood, I vividly remember having an endless amount of toys which consisted of Barbie dolls, Barbie dresses, mini-doll houses, etc. Social forces in which a child grows up around shape the way they think and how they perceive the world. Thus in my case, I was taught that girls were supposed to play with dolls and boys were supposed to play with cars. I think it’s a difficult task for parents to not only realize that gender stereotyping is wrong and has a huge impact on how children make sense of the world around them, but also teaching children to be more open-minded. Thus, as the article states “it’s a cycle: Gender stereotypes are fostered in childhood and take shape in adulthood, to be passed on to children.

In the article, “Global Food Disparity: A Photo Diary”, I was shock to see how different each country’s family food choice differs so much from America. This article, brought a different perspective of media in my mind. Though media sometimes portrays ethnic cultures, gender, and race in a rather negative way most of the time, this article help portray the variety of culture we have in this world. Media pieces like this one, helps bring awareness about the obesity problem we have here in America specially with regards to child obesity and gives readers a different perspective.

With all of this being said, I am interested in hearing what are your thoughts with regards to these articles. Were you able to relate your personal experiences to these articles? Did you agree or disagree with what was said? and do you think that certain factors in our society are visible and represented more through media?

Week 7 Check-In

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Hello and happy Friday!  We have a few items to check-in with you about.

  1. The grade book is current. The work that was submitted on time for Week 6 (Challenge 3, Component 2 blog post) has been graded. Please check the grade book in CI Learn and read any feedback we may have left for you. Always contact us directly with questions about your scores.
  2. As a reminder, this week you are focusing on Challenge 3-Component 3. This involves searching two social media sites. You are not required to create new accounts, provided you have access to two sites already (Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Instagram, LinkedIn, other?). Full instructions are included in the Weekly Schedule for Week 7. You also have one VoiceThread slide to comment on for the first 9 pages of Chapter 3 in Net Smart.
  3. You will notice that we’ve embedded a Twitter search widget in the left column of our site! All Tweets that include the hashtag #UNIV349DC will appear here. If you have chosen to search Twitter and have an account (or would like to take this opportunity to create one), feel free to share resources and reflections in the form of Tweets — just include our hashtag!
  4. Please click the link below to read more about our guest speakers, Michael Berman and Raechelle Clemmons! Click the “Submit my question” button and complete the form by next Thurs, 10/8. http://tiny.cc/whybesocial

Have a great weekend,
Michelle & Jill

Visibility

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I really enjoyed the articles this week specifically I enjoyed “The Best way to Compliment Little Girls.” I honestly never really thought about how giving someone a compliment can affected them so negatively. I find myself constantly complimenting women on physical aspects of themselves instead of complimenting who they are as a person . For example when the women all got together for lunch and they were complimenting each others hair cuts and hand bags, it just shows how much society tells us that really matters for women are superficial things. Overall I think that this article did a great job in giving alternative ways to pay compliments that make it more about who these girls are as people rather than who they are for their looks.  The following is a quote that really caught my attention from the article “On the other hand, your outfit is fabulous because it reflects your creativity, and your lashes are gorgeous because they are a part of you, and your long legs can take you to the top of a mountain or the front of a stage, if that’s where you want to go. You look great, and you are great. You are beautiful because of who you are, not who you are because you are beautiful.” This made me think of my own mother and how she would have complemented me. My mother was very big on minimizing the importance of looks, so while reading this article I felt like I was reading the words of my mother.