This is our class blog site for reports on writing research and professional practice. Please plan to read the reports before class and respond to them with a question or meaningful comment. You can also site these for your midterm and in other course materials.
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Discomfort made me feel stupid. I couldn’t understand half of what was really going on when reading these documents on the Vietnam war. A part of me honestly was skeptical when opening up these documents. To my own awareness, I was still flustered and confused as to why humanity at that time period, did what they did. It made me question myself, and the things I thought to be good about society. But after I watched a documentary assigned by Professors Matt Cook and Sean Kelly, everything made sense. The Sixties: The Years that Shaped a Generation portrayed the 60’s as a time of discomfort that lead to the endless fight for peace and equality. That in itself struck me to the core and opened so many doors for me to see why the Vietnam War was meant to be.
Admitting the truth is at times extremely hard to do. I could only get a glimpse of what the respected activist Martin Luther King had to go through to voice his truth. And I found myself frustrated with how long this emotional roller coaster even lasted. But it did, and that’s one thing I now appreciate about history. That we can accept what happened then, in order to appreciate what is happening right now. The many activists in this video who spoke out about the true meaning of this time period, talked about how the 60’s was where “a generation rebelled and lost it’s innocence.” In between feeling angry and confused I came to realize that being lost is good; because in that there’s a chance to find my truth. I see now that that’s what this time period did to most people back then. It helped them find their truth and share it. Living in the sixties seemed like an uphill battle, but without the war what would we have to fight for? This was a time of hardships and despair. But those same hardships lead to the expression of the voice of the people and what each of us stood for. Whether it be homosexuality, racial equality, women’s rights, or equal pay in the workforce, this horrifying war drove us to fight for what we believed in and voice our own opinions.
The document that caught my eye was a form of expression written in poetry by Roseville High school students who were affected by the war and everything it stood for. One of the poems was called, “My Life or Yours” by a high school student named Rich Hall who expressed the deep concern for innocent lives being taken away by more men getting drafted to war and dying for a cause they didn’t choose to fight for. The letter itself was written by a woman named Judi Holmes who had a cousin in the war who was struggling to see value in human life anymore. My point is that the many men who sacrificed their lives for us did it so we could have the courage to face ourselves and stop cowardly hiding in the fear of losing our sense of pride. The truth is, our pride was diminished as soon as the war had even started. We belittled ourselves by following our sense of pride and shame. In doing this, Presidents Lyndon B Johnson, John F Kennedy, and Nixon created lies like the Pentagon Papers and untold secret bombings on Cambodia; which spiraled into more conflict and hate. That anger turned into anti-war movements and ultimately new ideals of the people’s own definitions of freedom. This created a whole new outlook on life, where people discovered drugs and neglected their responsibilities. For once we were truly expressing ourselves with no limitations or boundaries. Whether it was through music, poetry, or societies, we cultivated freedom. And to me, through these different forms of expression, we weren’t free from the war; we were free from what the war stood for. I see now, through my analysis that the war resembled fear of defeat and humiliation. When in reality, we were the one’s humiliating ourselves by going to war with Vietnam.
In all honesty, in writing this I was afraid of being wrong in my confusion and stupidity. Then I remembered what Dr. Rajimaira once said during our lesson on critical thinking, “Discomfort is good…Confusion is the best!” In that moment, it all clicked for me. I was no longer fearful of doing the assignment wrong because for once I felt connected with the past, and more accepting of right now.
When you are at the bottom of the American class structure you rarely hear anything about politicians or the about our government with the exception of the President giving a speech or candidates trying to get attention for their campaigns like Donald Trump making racist comments; the working class appears to be just as polarized from Congress as it is to us. So when you hear about a Latino individual running for a future in politics the whole community goes crazy, praises and applauds the individual being that they are seen as hard workers and an intellects (especially if they are from a humble beginning) and this is because representation is power.
Reading these articles has opened up a whole new world to me in terms understanding who politicians are and why they act the way they do. It’s no surprise to me that races that are considered “minorities” in the U.S. are minorities in the terms of numbers in Congress. It is hard to believe that a Latino minority in office could have any influence with 6.7 percent Congressional Seats (Davidson) and I do not need a census to know that we are underrepresented. It leads me to believe that these Latino representatives possibly act more as delegates in their districts than trustees to win re-election.
Being that Latino communities in districts tend to be less wealthy, they have demonstrated time and time again to be less informed or less interested about policies in the presidential voting results. This is when Congressmen have to choose whether acting as trustees and potentially loosing office next term or becoming mere puppets of their constituents. And this heavily affects representation in this country because this means that other congressional districts that may be wealthier may have more influence and power which could lead to legislative measures in their favor, whether it is for tax cuts on their businesses or importing more immigrants for cheap labor.
I favor having Congressmen act as delegates to their districts because the people do elect them for the purpose of having the representatives voice the opinions of the people. “A majority of voters (55.4 percent) wanted the representative to do what the voters think best (i.e., the delegate model).” – Medvic. I would be angered if a politician I voted for is not pushing for legislation that I thought he would because it would benefit me as a constituent.
The thought of descriptive representation among Latino communities can be a double sided knife. It helps Latino representatives win and stay in office in districts where a majority of the community is Latino which is what this country needs to be more balanced in terms of racial representation in Congress. The problem with this is it could work against the districts to have their concerns voiced because the politicians may feel less pressured to act as representatives.
People have to wake up and realize that being active in politics is not just voting for the president once every four years; it involves voting for congressmen every two years, being active in city councils to be up to date with how the city is being run. I believe that constituent’s responsibilities include but are not limited to mailing congressional representative on views of an issue and expressing beliefs whether it is protesting or burning the flag. There are various ways to pressure representatives and to let them know that there is a voice to be heard and that there are people in their districts that are alive.
The Sixties: The Revolution of a Generation
Back then you could see the fear in young men’s eyes and how they were overjoyed to return to their homes and to their friends and family. This was a very important time in American history also known as the 1960’s that can vary depending on the topic. There are moments from both Martin Luther King and resident Kennedy’s assassination, to African Americans pushing further for equality with riots and fights with police. Among other things but one of the most important is without a doubt the America’s involvement I the Vietnam War. Back the at the beginning it seemed to have gained traction but turned to be just a waste of time defending a nation that didn’t even want Americans involved in the first place. We sent thousands of troops overseas because we were simply afraid of communism spreading and eventually leading to the shores of the United States. There was nothing to fear and no reason to send so many of our young brave men to die for no just cause.
The Vietnam War was considered one of the most senseless wars in the history of the United States. We were in the middle of it say in the 1962- 1967 or so when people began to protest about ending the war and bringing the troops home. Research shows that about 20,000 casualties were reported in Vietnam involving American troops so far. Mainly college students started protesting about it how there simply sending them over to die when they should have pulled out long ago. Riots break out in nearby college communities and cities across the United States demanding that they bring them home. Also that others were sending letters to the president asking for them to return their troops home or at least explain to them why they ae still fighting in Vietnam.
I have actually read those letters sent to him from nearly half a century ago and they are pretty interesting because they tell him that they want their kids back for various reasons that vary from simply being out of danger to outrageous ones like keeping some shunned from the rest of the world. There was something even more shocking however and that’s the governments reasons they sent back to the families of those troops. For example, one letter from Ms. Nelson in San Diego, CA asks why her son was deployed into Laos in Vietnam. Former post Commander John R. Betts make mentions of how some of those responses included “protection of vehicles” and “suspicious vicinity activity” and others mentioned in letters sent to parents including Ms. Nelson’s. Parents who received these letters acted in outrage and some of them even joined protests taking place both on the streets and on campus to voice out their opinions to Congress and the president.
Everyone knew that by this point that we couldn’t win the war no matter how many troops we sent there. Then the President finally chose to remove all the American troops back home a couple of years later in 1975. Though it took them so long to finally remove all our troops we will never forget those great moments of American history. People demanding that there soldiers be returned even though it was either violent or non-violent. College students being beaten down by police for wanting their friends to return to finish their education and have a normal life. From either becoming great men or starting families with the ones they love. The Vietnam War is one of the most infamous in U.S. history that should never be repeated again without a just cause. Hopefully that day will never come to pass but until then never forget the event that happened during this era of change.
So I looked myself up on google and I found very little my personal information. My name is pretty common so I wasn’t expecting to find myself. I go by my middle name for most of my life so the only information of my first name is of a professional baseball players. I stay online a lot but I don’t contribute often enough for my name to get out there and I am not very social online so even my Facebook doesn’t show up on any searches. Also a few years back I was asked to do this for a class and the only information I found was my old myspace account, a few comments left in old forums when I was a preteen and so when I was done with the class I took it all down. I don’t feel tied to my name when I am online, it allows me to be anonymous even though I don’t use it in a positive or negative way I am glad that I haven’t needed to give up a lot of my personal information on the internet. Although when I did first look my self up the most eerie thing I can remember was that my phone number was on the profile searcher, even then my number was outdated but still made me worry of what other information could be left on line. Since then I decided to leave Facebook, twitter, myspace, and other social media sites because I never felt too attached to them. My closest friends also feel the need to have social media pages so they got rid of theirs so there was never a pressure to get one. College has really changed that, classes and students mainly use Facebook to get notes or catch up on what was missed and so it is convenient that I get one again. I check it very rarely but I never enjoy doing it, it shows to me that I am stuck to it, that I need it if I want to continue interacting comfortably in this digitally infused world.
I would like to see a United States congress filled with House and Senate members that represent their constituencies to the best of their ability. Actual political representation is seen when a constituency is happy with the choices their elected official has made on their behalf. I see this best played out by electing politicians based on whether they have represented their constituencies best, therefore using a delegate form of political representation. The trustee form of political representation rests its success on whether the individual elected made a correct move, based off of their own judgment. Although, for an office such as President of the United States, the trustee form of government seems almost necessary. Representing every demographic of the U.S., the executive leader needs to be able to make decisions based off of their own judgement. However in local and congressional elections, as Hannah Pitkin said, “representation is to make present again”, with a delegacy form of political representation, those elected would take into consideration their actual constituencies and make those masses present again.
An example would be the representatives from the state of Missouri. Out of Missouri’s eight representatives in the U.S. congress there are only two democratic representatives, the same two that are the only african americans. With the Ferguson riots one year passed, african american citizens are dependent on the predominately white representation that they have in congress to represent them, at a very crucial time. I’m not saying we elect our representatives based on race, I am implying that not every white representative will empathize with the struggle that it is to be a person of color in our society. Therefore, we should not elect those who cast their votes based off of their own personal views. We should allow the masses to decide what is best for our society, to a degree of social issues, social goods, and civil liberties. Accordingly, many of these issues are held at state level, therefore the delegacy form of representation would work best to elect state/local leaders, including congress.
I would like to see, not just congress members, but all politicians going into politics for the sake of representing their constituencies fairly. In the Congress: The Electoral Connection reading, Mayhew writes, “It seems fair to characterize the Congress as an assembly of professional politicians spinning out political careers. The jobs offer good pay and high prestige.” While the position of being a representative should receive compensation, I believe that treating government for personal gain to rise through the ranks will eventually result in a lost connection with their constituencies. Praise and high prestige should go to those who go above and beyond what they are expected from their position. A concrete behavior that I would like to see would be representatives frequenting their entire jurisdiction, and composing regular poll tests to see what the public opinion actually is, not just what the representative assumes, and act on it. This type of behavior is important because if representatives lose connection with their voters, then who are we voting into congress? People who can deliver a nice speech? People who see you no more than a ballot towards their paychecks?
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As with any aspect in nursing, technology can be effectively used if utilized in the appropriate manners and can benefit in patient care and safety. I think that healthcare professionals should be open to change and embrace technology, because that is the direction that the healthcare field has already taken. Those who are not flexible to adapt to these changes will be faced with struggles in the future.
An example that comes to mind involves the use of paperless charting and electronic physician orders at the facility that I currently work at. A few years ago, these changes were implemented at my hospital. Yes, it was a struggle to adapt and with any new changes there were hiccups in the process along the way. But eventually, we collectively reached out goal of paperless charting, electronic medication administration, and physician-entered orders. These changes help promote patient safety because of safeguarding against medication errors, and reducing the risks of incorrect orders via telephone or verbal orders. Charting is also more effective and easier to manage.
Another use of technology that promotes patient well-being is the increasing access to their own medical records. Patients can have access to their laboratory values, diagnostic exams, and have electronic methods of contacting their care providers with questions and follow up information.
Who? (Who gets it or what disease process)
Patients with nososcomial pneumonia or Community acquired pneumonia, acute bacterial sinusitis, skin and skin structure infections, chronic bacterial prostatitis, UTI’s, acute pyelonephritis,
What? (Class? Pharmokinetics? How does it work)
Levaquin is in a group of antibiotics called fluoroquinolones . Levofloxacin is a antimicrobial that fights bacteria in the body. It inhibits bacterial cell synthesis by inhibiting DNA gyrase enzyme. Half-life is 6-8 hours
When? (Frequency)
Every 24 hours
Where? (Chronic home med – Acute care – both?)
Depends on the route, but can be taken at home and in hospital setting.
Why?(Reason – Action)
Same as reason for who
How? (Dose, Route, Safety)
Route: PO or IV
Dose: 500-750mg PO, 250-750 mg IV
Safety: Associated with increased risk of tendonitis and tendon rupture. May exacerbate muscle weakness with patients with myasthenia gravis. Watch out for hepatotoxicity.
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