*Marijuana*

I wanted to write my additional journal article about legalizing marijuana; it is a highly controversial topic that is being talked about in every establishment across the country.  I recently watched an AWESOME documentary about legalizing marijuana called "The Union: Business Behind Getting High" which talked about the actual process of legalizing marijuana and covered a ton of statistics that compare it to tobacco and alcohol, both of which are much worse than marijuana.  This is what I don't understand--lets be honest, a TON of people smoke marijuana, people from ALL walks of life.  We aren't talking about trashy drug addicts here, we are talking about business people, "normal" blue-collar working class people, students, teachers, politicians, celebrities, you name it--it is across the board.  So if everyone is doing it, and we have the research and statistics to prove that it isn't harmful, why won't the government just legalize it and regulate it?  Just yesterday I read an article in Time magazine about legalizing medicinal marijuana, and how this is going to push us in the direction of legalizing it for everyone, not just those who have a prescription.  If the government can regulate it, they can tax it to make money off of it; on top of this, think about how many less stupid marijuana arrests and convictions there would be.  Really? You're going to lock up some guy for having an ounce of weed in his car? Shouldn't you be out catching the killers and rapists? It makes no sense to me that so many arrests and convictions and tons of people that are in jail are because of possession of marijuana!  Where are our priorities??  Maybe this is all just ranting and raving but I can see the facts as plain as day, just as anyone else could see, and keeping marijuana illegal just makes absolutely no sense to me.  Thousands of people die every year because of drunk driving or from lung cancer related to tobacco addiction; people die from liver disease related to alcoholism.  And yet these substances are perfectly legal and we have the right, at a certain age, to indulge pretty much as much as we want, and the government profits.  Such a double standard.....

The Nature of the Everglades

This article was really only interesting because of its descriptive nature; the information itself, while well written, was so heavy with information that it was hard to stay interested in it; on top of this the article was some 24 pages long--all about the Everglades. Thats passion.  The parts that interested me most was the very beginning when she discussed how the Everglades got its name and the actual discovery of the Everglades.  Its not something I've ever thought about before, so it did catch my attention for a few minutes.  After this introduction, Marjory goes into EXTREMELY descriptive sections of each important part of the Everglades--the grass, the water, the rock, the river of time, and life on the rock.  She describes every detail of the Everglades so concisely that I felt that I could actually be standing there, envisioning what she was writing.  It is evident from the beauty in her descriptions that she loves the Everglades.  Among all of this description was a lesson on how it all started, and where it has come today--from the grass to the water, she talks about its journey.  She talks about the rains, and winds, and how the affect the flow of the water throughout the Everglades;  she critically analyzes breezes and currents as though it all tells some sort of story.   You can learn a ton about the Everglades from this single, 24 page, article.

The People of the Glades

This article captivated me right off the bat because of its descriptive story about the continents shifting back and forth, and the development of prehistoric man and mammal.  I find archeology and anthropology very interesting, so this article kept my attention by bringing in little details such as the first man standing up called "Pithecanthropus erectus".  The details about how man became three races when the land started separating and how these men went about establishing each other's race was insightful;  I've always wondered about these times and what it was like, and its almost as though Marjory Douglas is giving us a little window into those times.  Then she starts talking about the progression of mammals in prehistoric times and the different species that came about and what they are known as today--this is even more interesting than talking about man!  She talks about the movement of mammals into Florida and into the Everglades region--and how this area was overflowing with such a variety of wildlife and how it was a gathering place because of the location...and then of course she starts to talk about how the number and variety of species of wildlife have been continuously declining and what this could be attributed to (man, of course).  This article caught my attention because I really have never been interested in the Everglades whatsoever, and because I wasn't born in Florida (and hated it most of my life for some reason) I have had no desire to learn the history of Florida.  As I grow older however I feel myself becoming attached to this place I call home, and am more interested in learning about it.

What Colloquium Meant to Me

I made meaning out of Colloquium by really immersing myself in the content and trying to absorb as much information about the environment as possible.  I did this because there was something inside of me that felt as though I needed to tell everyone I knew about the information I was learning in class.  My husband, my family, friends and coworkers--anyone who'd listen really.  It made me feel kind of crazy actually; everytime I left class I had learned something new that I had never thought of before....and if I've never thought of it, how many of my family and friends have?  I felt the need to share the information, to educate people on peak oil, climate change, and dwindling fish populations; to tell them about renewable resources and to talk about our dependence on oil; to discuss conservation and tips for reducing our ecological footprint.  These things always weighed on me when I left class, and I realize why. I can no longer feign ignorance; someone has educated me, made me see things I've never seen before.  Someone has taken me to see the Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary and let me experience Florida's beautiful environment firsthand, something I've never had the opportunity to do before. I can no longer walk around with my blinders on; if I did, I would be living a complete lie, knowing the information that I do.  Now that we've been educated, we have a responsibility to educate others and lead the movement for change.  To stand up and take responsibility for our environment and for our behaviors.  I know it is easier said than done, but with many of us graduating soon into varying disciplines, we can all have a different impact on different populations of people.  I personally will be working in the health field, which will expose me to so many opportunities to educate the public on health diets, organic foods, and other issues.  I will be in a position to advise people and educate them.  We should all use this opportunity to our advantage.

High and Lows of Colloquium

So Colloquium was sort of a roller coaster; there were some classes and assignments that were so enjoyable and others that were miserably boring.  The first handful of classes were all field trips so I had little in the way of negative feedback about those; I honestly had dreaded the idea of field trips but they turned out to be educational and fun, and I was able to experience many things that I would not have if I had not had this Colloquium class.  The last half of the semester was a little less fun; there were days when a really good and interesting documentary was being shown, and others when the movie was actually pretty boring; most of the time, I'd have to say that because of the content, the classes were pretty enjoyable.  

The papers are something that I have heard many classmates complain about; I however enjoyed them more than most, and this is evident with the good grades I received on them (all 100's).  They allowed me to delve deeper into the content and put my critical thinking skills into action; writing papers have become second nature to me since I have been in college for 4.5 years now. :)  These papers all had interesting topics and very attainable word lengths, definitely within college level standards, so I saw little to complain about there. 

I feel as though Prof. Muldoon should have lectured just a little bit more; I'm not sure if he realizes this, but he is actually quite the engaging public speaker, and it is evident that he knowledgeable about most of the topics that are covered in the many documentaries he made us watch; I think this would have brought a little bit more dynamic to the class, and would have kept us on our toes a bit more. :)  We all know his wife just had a baby, so this could be the reason for more movies and less lecturing, since we all knew that class time was his "get-away" time. Haha! 

Nonetheless, this class has definitely had the most impact on me during my college career, and has left an impression on me that I don't think will go away anytime soon.  In a way I am glad that I waited to take this course in my last semester of college, because I don't think I would have appreciated it the same during my sophomore or junior year; this course was a great way to end my undergraduate career and put some very serious topics on my mind as I enter a new phase of my life.

Crude Awakening

I thoroughly enjoyed the videos on oil drilling and was pretty much amazed at how crooked the entire system really is.  I think was astounded me the most, in general, was the fact that nobody seems to think that it is important to notify the public about how we are producing less and less oil from our normal drilling areas....this means something important that isn't being broadcast! The thing about it is that these oil companies continue to lie about how much oil they still have in these reserves, in order to keep increasing the amount of oil they can remove from their reserves....however, this is just giving people false information about our current standings with oil and when we will run out! I know that there are ways to really find out how much oil we have left, but obviously nobody thinks its important enough to discuss, especially since oil is such a money maker.  It completely amazed me when they discussed that they outright lie to people just to continue to make money--don't they see the importance of the situation? I guess not....

Another issue they covered is that our most important drilling areas are running dry; they pictured these places that were once rich drilling areas that are now desolate and dry.  The machinery is all rusted and no good anymore and the view is forever obstructed by what was once a town/state/country's wealth.

The videos were eye-opening to say the least.

Human Impact on the Planet

This is a very broad topic, but after being in this class for as long as I have been, I think I have a pretty strong opinion on it.  I really only know my own impact and the impact of those around me, so within that small population, I am of course generalizing.  That being said, I think we are having a horrendous negative impact on our planet, and that if we continue to behave in the manner in which we are, our planet will be destroyed quickly and there will be nothing positive left for our great-grandchildren and their grandchildren.  So this is what I know about my small population's negative impact: nobody that I am close with recycles anything, nobody I know closely invests in energy efficient appliances or vehicles,  nobody I know drives a hybrid, nobody I know walks or rides a bike to work/school, nobody I know tries to eat organically or grow their own food, nobody I know tries to reduce their consumption of water and/or electricity.  I can say these things with complete honesty, because I sat and tried to think of even one person that I am close with that might do any of these things, and I couldn't come up with anyone, including myself!  We have no real consideration for our environment or the population of wildlife, to be honest, we don't even think about it on a daily basis!  You know what we think about regularly? What we are going to take out to dinner, without thinking about the dwindling fish population; we think about what handbag we want to purchase next, without thinking about how it got here from Italy; we think about how we're going to afford that Ford F-150, without thinking about how much gas we are going to have to buy to fuel that truck.  We are a consumerist society and it is going to take a long amount of time and a ton of effort to try and change that!  Until we make the environment a top priority and start treating our planet with the respect it deserves, I don't think anything will change.