Fighting tooth and nail

October 30, 2012 By

Commentary

 

October is not only known as National Breast Cancer Awareness Month, but it is also Dental Hygiene Month. To some of you, that may not mean anything in particular — but to me, dental hygiene has taken on a whole new meaning, evoking a lot of determination in the past 11 years of my life.

I have always had trouble with my teeth. When I was young, one of my front baby teeth never came in and almost all of my teeth were crooked and were in places they did not belong. My mom had always wanted me to have the perfect smile that most strive for and so I was sent to my first orthodontist appointment at the age of 11.

One of the first things my orthodontist said to me when I met him was, “This is going to take a lot of hard work.”

I did not know then that by hard work he meant more than a decade’s worth.

In the beginning process, I had to get six teeth pulled out before I was even able to have braces put on. For some unknown reason I decided to have this done one week before Thanksgiving. I was excited about having braces at a young age and I wanted them on as soon as possible.

But after about a month, a week or so before Christmas, I went through what most go through when first getting braces. The nasty taste of metal in your month, the newfound pain of headaches from your teeth moving to places they have never been before and the intensive brushing ritual that I have perfected over the years. But for some reason, that was not enough to make the process shorter.

I was never late to my appointments and I did all that I was instructed to do. I was content until I started noticing that my other friends from school were getting their braces off within two years or less.

I went through multiple surgeries where I had to have teeth brought down from my gums because they were not moving quickly enough and transparent teeth (teeth switched in position) on the bottom and yet I still, after more than half of my life, am going through the process of getting all the gaps in my teeth taken care of.

After 10 years with the same orthodontist, he suddenly quit.

I was not only enraged, but also let down. I now have a new orthodontist who seems knowledgeable and more than willing to have me as a patient.

A lot of people I know question me on what I will get out of this experience besides a perfect smile. My answer is that I have acquired a newfound determination to question everything and make sure I am getting the best for myself.

One thing I do want to know after all of this though — is 11 years of patience considered to be a virtue?

 

Filed Under: Opinion

Teaching inside the Dayton Correctional Institution

May 30, 2012 By

Did you know you could make a gun out of a bar of soap? Or a usable key from a tuna can? No? Neither did I. But these are some of the first things I learned when I went to prison—well, I wasn’t incarcerated, but I did visit twice a week.

In the fall of 2010, I jumped at the chance to teach interpersonal communication, a common general education course, at DCI. I have certainly learned how to bend the course material to fit inside the prison barbed wire fences. The facility has a limited number of classrooms and even more limitations in the computer lab and library, but it has been worth every adjustment. Sinclair students at DCI are much like our students on campus: interested to learn, struggling with personal issues, and surprised to learn so much.

I was elated when most of the spring quarter students excelled in a difficult writing assignment. I mentioned it to colleagues and friends only to hear them laugh and say, “Well, they should! They have lots of time to study and read.” But the reality is that’s not true. These women—some young mothers, some grandmothers—work eight-hour jobs, take more than one class and stand in lines to use a computer just to type an assignment. We believe it’d be a long day in prison, but the most active inmates are working and volunteering and exercising and attending chapel services, as well as participating in the required classes for their rehabilitation. Every interaction requires standing in a line: buying food from the commissary, eating lunch, drying laundry, accessing medication, requesting a sweatshirt for cooler weather, making a short phone call, or visiting a loved one.

Despite the large number of women incarcerated at the facility, interactions between the women are friendly. But the women hide most emotions since a tough exterior is required to live a decent day inside the walls. However, when I develop trust in the classroom between the women and myself, I am delighted to hear them share stories of their personal life, their self-concept, and their determination to leave and not return. This kind of talk is not typical and is kept quiet. These students do not take this opportunity lightly. They appreciate all the time devoted for a faculty member to get into the gates, understand “the system” and become familiar with the environment and jargon.

Some may ethically believe inmates should not be able to benefit from a college course, but until someone meets them and believes the mistakes made by the prisoner could have been their own, they should reserve judgment. I will continue to teach at the prison; it has been rewarding in ways I don’t experience on campus. Maybe it’s because I see them wearing the same outfit day after day or because I know they have not seen their family in years. I can see their entire campus from north to south from the parking lot, but I sense the course concepts are running strong through their minds. They will use the skills from the course as they are released back into the world with $75 and a box of belongings, hopeful to use their time for something more valuable than carving soap and making illegal keys.

Filed Under: Opinion

To increase the speed limit or not to

March 6, 2012 By

Ohio lawmakers propose to increase the speed limit to 70 miles per hours on interstates –five miles per hour above what the speed limit is now.

Why should icreasing the speed limit be so hard? Today, drivers typically drive five to 10 miles over the speed limit anyway.

As students we should be elated about the speed increase, we can get to our destination a lot quicker without having to worry about being tremendously late.

We don’t have a problem with getting to where we need to be a lot faster. Plus, we can navigate around those pesky slow drivers.

With the speed increase, many will take advantage and still drive way over the speed limit. Those who are hesitant about the increase cite that car crashes will increase, but no matter what speed you are going fatalities of the road can still happen.

The problem arises when a driver is going 70 and another is driving 60 miles per hour. The risk of crash-related fatalities increases because of the slower driver, so if everyone is traveling at the higher speed, there’s less risk of suddenly coming up to a slower car and plowing into its rear end.

But accidents do happen.

And so when you’re coming up on a slow driver, we suggest moving into the adjacent lane and passing him or her. There is no point in risking someone plowing into your bumper because of that slow driving 90-year-old.

Many students feel that the speed increase is necessary in certain areas, mainly Interstate 75 due its high level of traffic, but not within the city or local traffic area.

Others have expressed concern that faster speeds means that brakes and tires have to be in optimal condition because the faster you go the hotter the tires get. Not only will having perfectly good tires be a problem, but also an increase in fuel consumption will ensue.

A bill that would raise speed limits on Ohio Interstate highway passed a State House committee with bipartisan support. A similar bill stalled last year in the Senate.

For now, we all have to suffer and drive 65 miles per hour, until the bill is passed.

But always remember, regardless of the speed limit, you will receive a ticket for going 10 to 15 miles over the limit.

Filed Under: Clarion Consensus

The smaller things

January 17, 2012 By

Now that the holidays are over, the joy that we often feel dissipates. The Christmas tree gets put away; some presents go unused and life returns to normalcy.

But the Clarion wonders: are joy and happiness fleeting or are they something that we find within ourselves? And if joy and happiness are fleeting, how do we gain it for ourselves?

For the Clarion, we find that it is the smaller things in life that brings the joy and happiness back into our lives. It may be the wide toothy smile from a child, a call from an old forgotten friend or admiration from a mentor. All of these possibilities can cause us to have a better outlook on the day because it brings a smile to our faces.

Think of the times in your life when you have been the happiest or you were having a bad day and something out of the blue brought a smile to your face. It could have been the kindness of a stranger holding the door open for you, inviting a new student at Sinclair to lunch or merely giving someone paper and a pen to write with.

All of these things are small and are quite inexpensive because it doesn’t take much to show someone who may be having a bad day some kindness.

Appreciating the smaller things in life may not be included on your new year’s resolution, but try it out for a while. It will prove very beneficial because not only are you improving someone else’s life, you are improving your own life as well.

Just recently, one of us at the Clarion forgot his wallet before buying food. An employee of the Main Street Café said that the food could be eaten, if the money was brought to pay for the food later.

It was this simple act of sympathy that was needed to get through what seemed like a bad day.

What better gain in this world than somebody who can cheer you up when you’re having an off day?

I implore of you to communicate with someone who seems upset or saddened, share your notes with a classmate and say ‘please’ and ‘thank you’ when someone does something nice for you.

Who knows you may be the only example of kindness that person will see that day. And in the midst of your darkest days, you will think of the kindness you’ve shown to others and possibly, smile.

Filed Under: Clarion Consensus

New Years Resolutions

January 9, 2012 By

Every year when Jan. 1 rolls around, we tell ourselves that we will get on that diet, stop our bad habits or finally look for a new job that will provide us with the financial stability that we all are looking for.

But for me, New Years resolutions aren’t as important.

Given, for most people it gives them hope and a bar to attempt to jump over to better themselves, but when does the bar become too high to jump over?

Realistically, most people make a resolution, only to give up on it after a few weeks when they are faced with adversity.

The old saying goes, “Old habits are hard to break.” Putting the cancer sticks down tends to be a popular choice for a resolution, but in turn, tends to be one of the most difficult habits to break.

Making a resolution to be trendy is completely ridiculous. It defeats the purpose and concept of a resolution.

I’m not saying don’t set a resolution; I’m saying set realistic resolutions.

If you are going to set a resolution, I can offer you some ways to approach them with the right mindset.

Make your goals reasonable. By setting small, accomplishable goals, you can really start to get the ball rolling towards accomplishing larger goals.

For example, giving up on drinking soda can help you shed those extra pounds without drastically changing your diet. One can of Coca-Cola contains 140 calories alone.

However, resolutions can quickly lose their drive or momentum if they are too lofty, or if they are long-term goals. When setting a resolution take into consideration how long it will take  and what it will take to accomplish this goal.

Having strong will power is the most important factor in regards to resolutions. And that’s the best place any of us can start.

Filed Under: Opinion

Every eleven minutes

November 7, 2011 By

Every eleven minutes, a patient is added to the list of people waiting for life-saving organ donations at organdonor.gov.  Every day, an average of 18 people die because the number of waiting candidates vastly outnumbers the number of organs donated.

Close to 7,000 people die each day in the United States.  In the entire year of 2010, fewer than 8,000 organ donors died and made a donation to a waiting candidate, according to the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network.

Every person who makes the commitment to become an organ donor can make a difference.  They can save the life of one or more people hoping for an organ before their time runs out.

Considering one’s death is fundamentally uncomfortable, and deciding to donate one’s organs immediately after death is not an easy choice to make.

In these matters, a little bit of misinformation or distrust can easily discourage would-be donors.

This is why I think Dr. Byrne’s crusade against organ donation (“When the Heart Stops Beating”) is dangerous.

Byrne appeals to a folksy conception of death.

“We all know the difference between a living person and a cadaver,” he says.  “After true death, there are no organs that can be transplanted.”

He subscribes to an easy definition of death, one in which only rotting things are truly dead.

In an interview with The Michael Fund Newsletter, Byrne describes death as follows: “The soul has left the body and decomposition has begun. After death what is left on earth is a corpse. The remains are empty, cold, blue, rigid and unresponsive to all stimuli. There is no heartbeat, pulse or blood pressure. The patient has stopped breathing. There is poor color of the skin, nails, and mucous membranes. Ventilation will not restore respiration in a corpse. A pacemaker can send a signal but it cannot initiate the heartbeat in the corpse. Healing never occurs in a patient that is truly dead.”

Byrne objects to the declaration of death after a person is brain dead because, in many cases, a brain-dead person kept alive by machinery continues to show superficial signs of life (color, blood pressure, healed incisions).

Byrne’s rigid conception of death, though convenient, is not the standard of the medical community.  Although he was once the President of the Catholic Medical Association (U.S.), it is also not the viewpoint of the Catholic Church.

The Pontifical Academy of Science found that brain death can rightly be equated to the death of a person.  Pope John Paul said on the topic: “The criterion adopted in more recent times for ascertaining the fact of death, namely the complete and irreversible cessation of all brain activity, if rigorously applied, does not seem to conflict with the essential elements of a sound anthropology.”

He called organ donation a “genuine act of love” and a “way of nurturing a genuine culture of life.”

Although Byrne may try to justify his position with implied horror stories of innocent vegetative patients killed for their organs, it should be noted that there is a difference between a comatose patient and one that has been declared brain dead.  There are strict guidelines used by the medical community to determine the level of brain activity, and brain death is, by definition, complete and irreversible.

Although hope or fear of prematurely removing life support may lead us to treat the body of a brain-dead person as a living person, that person is gone.

It is all well and good to publicly espouse oversimplified medical definitions if no harm may come of them.  But in this case, failing to recognize the complexity of the issue can cause much harm.  It can discourage otherwise well-meaning people from doing one final act of good after their passing.  It can lead to unnecessary deaths.

On my driver’s license, there is a small outline of the state of Ohio within a heart, and the words “Organ Donor.”  I highly encourage other students at Sinclair to look into the actual facts of the matter, and to consider becoming donors themselves.

Filed Under: News, Opinion
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