Vegetarian

Jessie L. Janeshek, Age 17, Weirton, WV

The cafeteria was crowded, and I searched for a table that would accommodate me, my tray, and my notebook. I hoped that the comfortable din of the large white-painted room would fuel my thoughts. I had been searching for ideas to use in my essay on vegetarianism for a few days, but I hadn't found anything. All of the tables were filled, and I stood beside one occupied by a young woman, a few years older than I, who was nibbling on a salad. Her brown hair was pulled atop her head in an old-fashioned chignon that complimented, rather than contrasted her torn jeans and violet argyle sweater. Her ears were each dotted with several red jewels and her hazel eyes were intent and framed by dark lashes. I smiled tentatively, and she returned my gesture with warmth. "May I sit here?" I asked her.

"Sure," she answered quickly, rearranging her satchel and books to allow room for me. "I should be leaving in a few minutes anyway."

"Oh, don't rush," I replied.

"Are you a student here at the college?" she inquired.

"Oh, no, I'm still in high school. I just came here today to look around and get some information about the school."

She nodded, and I caught her eyes skimming over my lunch of a hamburger and French fries. I glanced at her salad, and the question arose from me almost of its own accord: "Are you a vegetarian?"

"Yes, as a matter of fact I am," she answered. I didn't want to appear impolite, but I was itching to reach for my notebook. I sensed that a conversation with her might be just what my essay needed.

"I'm writing for an essay on vegetarianism. Do you think I could ask you a few questions?" I grasped my notebook smoothly and drew a pen from my pocket.

"Well, sure," she answered, surprised, and to my relief, not at all irritated.

I cleared my throat, and tossed my hair, attempting to adopt an air of professionalism. Still, there was only one question I could think of to ask, so I did. "What made you decide to become a vegetarian?"

She stared into the crowd as if it composed one large face impatient to hear her answer. Once focused, she set down her fork and spoke. "Well, when I first stopped eating meat, it was because it was the trendy thing to do. My friends and I all tried it. It was sort of an "earthy" way to take meals, or a fad, just like coffeehouses or internet cafes. In a week or so, the novelty passed, and most of them went back to their fried chicken and meatloaf. But I found something, or, should I say, someone, that kept me inspired: Linda McCartney."

I had personally been disheartened by Linda McCartney's untimely death, and I opened my mouth to say so. Before I could utter a word, though, my new friend continued.

"When I began to read up on Linda, I grasped an opportunity to examine a "genuine" vegetarian's lifestyle and her reasons for adhering so faithfully to her cause. One afternoon she and her husband Paul were watching their sheep in the meadow, and then they sat down to a lunch of lamb. Right then and there, they both made a pledge to "go veggie" at a time when it was relatively unheard of except for religious or cultural reasons. The two of them became vegetarians because of a kindness and love towards animals and a desire to stop living a hypocritical life. All I could conjure in my mind at that time was eating a chicken sandwich and then going home and watching the birds that nested in our pine trees. I realized what the McCartneys had felt, and in turn, vowed to do what they had done."

I nodded, truly intrigued by her words. By the time she had finished, I had thought of another question to ask: "What about the health factors of vegetarianism? Do you really get all the nutrients you need?"

"Of course. Being vegetarian is not being limited to a plate of lettuce for every meal. I still eat products derived from animals, like milk, eggs, and yogurt, and beans and peanuts provide just as much protein as meat. And you can't forget about soups, sandwiches, and pastas. Another thing I admired about Linda McCartney is that she made the endless possibilities of meatless meals known. She had her own cookbooks and a line of frozen vegetarian dinners. She spoke out on her cause and did everything in her power to dispel the silly myths about vegetarianism."

I was engrossed as I watched her fervent eyes glow with the passion of her cause. My lunch had grown cold, but I couldn't consider eating it now. I noticed the minute hand of my watch creeping, and realizing that the next class would be meeting soon, I knew my source would have to go.

She recognized it too, and habitually pushed her books together as her monologue came to a close.

"Linda was a pioneer to a cause that was unheard of by the majority of people at that time. Since then, though, millions have walked the trail she blazed, and made their way through the jungle of ignorance and conformity. Perhaps they decided to abstain from eating meat, poultry and fish for health reasons, environmental concerns, or maybe just to emulate Linda and her husband. Still, the reason they chose to "go veggie" is insignificant; what matters is that they had the want to change and the willpower to comply with their choice. I don't know if I've persuaded you now, but maybe you'll consider going veggie in the near future. Do it for your health, your pet, or as a tribute to Linda and her work to better our environment. Try to take the initiative. Each time you slice a carrot instead of a steak, you just may save a life."

I thanked my new acquaintance as she stood to leave. Sitting down, I stared at my untouched lunch and shook my head. The food that had littered my tray hit the bottom of the garbage can with a reassuring plop as I made my exit.

When first entering the cafeteria, I hadn't noticed the thick row of trees that paralleled the walkway. Now, I couldn't help but wonder if sunshine amply penetrated their leafy boughs. But the road that they framed was bathed in the light of the afternoon, and it glinted and beckoned me forward. I almost stepped onto the foot-trodden avenue, but changed my mind and decided to take the long way, through the trees, back to my car. The grass teased my sandaled feet, and I approached the trees, walking with a purpose. Their feathery canopy was thinner than I had first expected.

No, my small forest was not quite Linda's "jungle of conformity." Nevertheless, I had my own path to clear.

Eating Well

Christopher Hoeller, Age 8, Aurora, IL

My name is Christopher Hoeller. I live in Aurora, Illinois, and go to Allen grade school. I am 8 years old and in the second grade. I am just like most boys my age except for one thing: I am vegan. I have been vegan for four years. I guess it all started with my Emmah (this means mother in Hebrew), and some kind of new thing that was healthy and supposed to be good. That was when I was four. Before that I ate meat, all kinds, like pork, chicken, beef, duck, and fish. I also ate dairy products like cheese, ice cream and milk.

I used to get a lot of colds and my skin would get bumps; so my Emmah took me to the doctor. She found out that I had a dairy allergy. I can't eat anything with milk in it. So now my Emmah buys me vegan products like Rice Dream milk and ice cream and vegan cheese. She also buys vegan meats like Boca Burgers and Wonderdogs. They taste really good and are healthier for my body.

On Saturdays when my two brothers come, my Abba (Hebrew for father) makes us a NANBY shake. It has vegan ice cream, milk, bananas, and sweetener. It is very sweet and very good. My whole family loves it except my Emmah, as she does not like bananas. When my Abba opens his restaurant he will serve the NANBY shake.

My whole family is vegan and we don't get sick very often because we eat well. My favorite dish is vegan lasagna. My Emmah makes her cheese from scratch. Lasagna is my favorite dish but I know how to cook spaghetti by myself.

This is how you do it. First you take a pot and fill it with water. Let the water boil. Add the spaghetti and cook for 15 minutes. Drain the water from the spaghetti in a colander. Put the spaghetti in the pot again and add margarine, salt, basil, and paprika. This is my specialty; it's called Spaghetti Supreme. One day you can try to make it yourself.

Importance of National Parks

Skyler Baldwin
San Diego, CA
National parks are important to me because they help to preserve valuable land, protect the habitats of animals and protect our heritage. National parks are all so different, offering everything from grassy and wavy, to rocky, to mountains, lakes and rivers to coastlines. They help animals stay alive, healthy and safe and help people to appreciate nature. Another reason parks are important is because they are outstanding places for family vacations. You can see geysers explode, go fishing, hike on fabulous trails, see beautiful wildlife including birds, bears, elk, and deer, snowmobile through forests, rock climb, canoe, explore and see the most amazing natural sights. In addition, they teach people who are not familiar with the outdoors about nature, wildlife, conservation, preservation and outdoor recreation. They teach us so much about our history, culture and heritage. As young children, the more we go to parks, the more we can teach our children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren about them. The more parks we visit, the more our generation will appreciate them.
I have some great ideas to protect our parks for the future. First, national parks should tap into the youth culture using celebrities because that is who the youth of America listen to these days. I love American Idol and I think national parks should get Ryan Seacrest to announce National Parks Day and inform the audience (which is millions) about the beauty of national parks and remind them to help parks by donating money or volunteering with repairing or cleaning trails or even just by visiting them. I also think that parks should get pictures of stars at national parks to make kids want to say, "Hey, Angelina Jolie stood here!" or "Miley Cyrus loves Yosemite!" They could be put on websites, magazines, and brochures or any media exposure, like on the AOL welcome page or the cover of a teen magazine. Another great idea is to make a national parks video game. The subjects could be: that you have to save the endangered animals; or, make it around a map of national parks that have obstacles, like a herd of elk, bears, a stream, a waterfall, a Ranger, and beat other people's times; or, even get on a Wii game where you have to save animals or get rid of bad people like smokers, or people that litter, or feed the wildlife or don't put out their campfires.
In conclusion, national parks are important to me, to our country and to the world, and we need to make sure they are here for the future, for my children and theirs.

National Parks

by Logan Clark

State of Illinois

There are multiple ways to turn over a new leaf for our environment. National parks protect landmarks, preserve cultural & historical artifacts, provide homes for wildlife and provide a place of enjoyment for all. Some of the ways I thought of to turn over a new leaf for our environment and preserve our National Parks are with additional litter programs, increasing educations at our schools, and additional games to increase the desire to explore our national parks. It is important to keep our National Parks pristine, as they were before modern human influence. The Junior Ranger Program is influencing children and their families to pick up litter and some National Parks have recycling facilities. However, at one park I noticed they lacked enough trash cans and cigarette receptacles. This is important because I have seen cigarette butts and other trash scattered everywhere. My brother and I picked up the trash and we spoke to a ranger about having trash cans at each bus stop in the park. Also I think the NPS should increase fines for littering and have a litter report hotline, so if we see a person littering we can report it. We could celebrate National Parks Week, where rangers could come to schools across the country and inform students about National Parks and the environment. I, for instance, live in southern Illinois and have been to many National Parks and Monuments. Many of my classmates have not had the wonderful opportunities I have. I try to share my experiences with them but I feel they don t understand. This would help them to have knowledge of the parks and the environmental impact that we have on them. I think board games should be developed to educate people about our environment and National Parks. There is National Parks Monopoly, which has already been created. But there could be National Parks Chess with pictures of different parks on the tiles. There could be monuments like the Statue of Liberty as the queen, the Washington Monument as the king, Old Faithful as the bishop, Mesa Verde as the rook, and the Arch at Jefferson National Monument for the knight. In addition, I personally would like to see a NP Jeopardy and trivia game also created. They could also make new games for National Park and environmental awareness. This would educate and be fun. I have had a wonderful time going to numerous National Parks throughout the United States. I love the general feeling that I am at an area in the US that I have read about, seen on TV and learned about in school- and I am there! It is important to me to preserve these parks for my children to see. I want them to be able to experience them like I did- not just study them in books.

Saving the Enviroment

Peter Rosen, Grade School
State of Utah, USA

Saving the environment sounds big, but there are simple steps you can take at home to save the environment and national parks and the best part is they aren’t even hard. One of these things is riding your bike to anywhere that you can. Walking works just as well. Doing this helps because it doesn’t pollute and pollution is bad for the environment. Another easy way to help the environment is to turn off the lights. As you walk out of a room all you have to do is reach over and press a switch, it’s as easy as that. Another way to save energy by turning off the lights is not using them in the first place. If it’s bright outside why not just open a window and use natural light instead of wasting energy? Wasting energy hurts the environment in two ways. One, it pollutes because most of our energy comes from fossil fuels, and two, you get those fossil fuels by mining, which doesn’t exactly help the area you’re mining environmentally. Besides simple things you can do at home there are other things that are just as easy that you can do at the national parks. I live in Utah so the first thing that comes to mind is something I learned at Arches. Stay on the trail. In Arches they have cryptobiotic soil that takes thousands of years to grow. One step off the trail and you just demolished thousands of years of work. Another thing is to look instead of having to touch. It’s one thing to admire nature’s work and it’s another to examine it with your fingers and ruin nature’s work. There are some things that you can do at home and at the parks, not littering for example. Take the few steps to the garbage can; don’t just dump it where you are. Recycle, recycle, recycle. This is one of the most effective ways to help the environment. It helps in two ways. The first is that it doesn’t mess up the environment by cutting down trees, etc. The second is that you don’t have to take all the energy to turn trees into paper; you just have to use enough energy to turn paper into paper. Recycling saves the earth’s environment and it helps us have resources longer. If you’re headed off to a national park it’s best to be educated about it. This way you know things that you should and should not do to help the park. You can then have a fun and environmentally friendly trip. The environment is important and we, as humans have the ability to save or destroy the wonderful things that surround us. Saving it cannot be just one person’s efforts. It has to be everyone working together, and if we all work together we can turn over a new leaf for the environment and help preserve our national parks.

Hispanic Heritage: Online World

Ingrid Cecilio, Blanton Elementary, Austin, Texas

Anahi Jaimes, Blanton Elementary, Austin, Texas

Chistal Avellaneda, Village Oaks Elementary, Naples, Florida

Public Health Care

by Roman Smart – Utah Valley University
Public Healthcare is absolutely not a right of anyone, but rather a privilege. I plan to illustrate a number of reasons why.

Right VS Privilege
Suppose it's eleven o'clock in the evening and you've just settled into bed after a tiring day of work when the doorbell sounds. You stumble down the poorly lit stairs, making your way to the door to find a dingy, unkempt man holding a torn, cardboard scrap in front of him that reads "Starving, cannot provide food for myself. Help me."
Let's pause and contemplate on the situation: Is it an inalienable right of this man to obtain food from others because he, being fully capable, does not attempt to pursue his own food? Is it a law that you have to welcome this stranger into your home and provide him with sustenance? Absolutely not. How do you know this man is not an imposter, waiting to rob your house or kidnap your daughter? Or simply someone that is perfectly capable of obtaining food but would rather have someone do it for him? Is food a necessity? Of course it is. Does that make it a right of every food-dependent creature to obtain food at another's expense? It is a completely preposterous supposition. Why then, would we assume the "right" to rob a doctor of his personal time to treat us for free? Why would we expect a nation to pay for someone who makes no attempt at providing for themselves? Our nation cannot. It defies that which the nation is predicated upon - Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness to all. Not happiness to one, at another's expense.
Any healthcare received from our government is a privilege, not a right. Helping a
needy person late at night on our porch may be a civil duty for the just, but by no stretch of the imagination is it a legal obligation. Likewise, any healthcare received from the government should not be an assumed mandate to anyone living in the United States, but assistance provided to those who are in need by a helpful government.

What is a “Right”? "Natural rights embody the concept of individual autonomy and negative rights that are inalienable and inherent to human beings. Natural rights (e.g., life, liberty, the owning and disposing of property, and the pursuit of health, occupation — and happiness), like human rights, can be exercised by all individuals simultaneously without infringing and trampling on the rights of others (i.e., negative rights concept). When governments transcend these rights with welfare rights, entitlements, and redistribution of wealth schemes — in the name of compassion, utilitarianism, or some greater common good — it squarely infringes upon the autonomy and basic rights of individuals and corrupts the negative concept of the law."(l) In other words we are entitled by law, or we have the "right" to do anything that does not affect anyone else adversely by violating personal rights or endangering them. Is the doctor expected to work for free in order to treat those unwilling to work to pay at least a portion themselves? Should the blue-collared expect to be robbed a portion of their earnings in order to pay for those that a fill-in-the-blank Internet survey decides are unable to sufficiently pay themselves?
If you were a doctor working to pay off loans accrued from costly years of medical school, outrageous insurance rates and high overhead charges, would you not feel violated if forced to work for free? Should we not expect it to be a conscious, independent, decision made by doctors, medical workers and researchers to contribute? "It is the provision of this service [healthcare] that a doctor depends upon for his livelihood, and his means of supporting his own life. If the right to healthcare belongs to the patient, he starts out owning the services of a doctor without the necessity of either earning them or receiving them as a gift from the only man who has the right to give them, the doctor himself." (2)Universal Healthcare According to the Institute of Medicine, The United States is virtually the only wealthy, industrialized nation that does not provide universal health care to its citizens. Universal health care is provided in most developed countries, in many developing countries, and is the trend worldwide. After hearing this, many immediately flock to the bandwagon of bickerers and complainers on the matter. Why would a nation as powerful and intelligent as the United States not offer medical assistance to anyone living within its borders? How can every country on the American Continent south of the Rio Grande offer some form of universal healthcare while the US remains heartlessly aloof? The answer lies in the same reasoning as to why the United States is so medically advanced. It's the same reason that wealthy foreigners are ironically rushed from these more "compassionate" countries to the US for important medical procedures. Why does America provide the most advanced and widely coveted medical service in the world? Because free-market capitalist forces are able to work to enable the best health care in the world at the lowest rates possible, still ensuring proper care. Without the "excessive profits" of insurance and pharmaceutical companies, (about which the complaining is endless), there would be no funding provided for crucial medical research.

Although readily available in virtually every well-established country outside the
US, and most third-world countries, universal healthcare in these countries is most often sub-standard, and viewed by most of the populace and specialists in the country as "catastrophic, with the main criticism being the awful service, overcrowded hospitals, high deficit of doctors, long waiting lines for scheduling appointments, outdated installations and severe lack of specialists, even in major urban centers, and general lack of basic medicines "(3) Tyler Winn, a US citizen who lived in Brazil for an extended period of time, spoke on his experience in receiving universal healthcare treatment in Brazil in 2004, when faced with no other option, "I was told to report to a bus station in order to receive some necessary vaccinations. Imagining that I was going to catch a bus that would take me to a doctor's office to receive my treatment, I was rudely awakened when shown a long line of people waiting to enter a door of the dirty bus station where the vaccinations would be administered. After an uncomfortable hour and twenty minute wait, without so much as a chair I entered the small unsanitary room, where I was greeted by mildew-welcoming, green tile floors and a single metal chair against a brown, stained wall. Needless to say, it was another drastic difference from the paper-lined bed of the cozy family doctor's office I was accustomed to growing up. I was once again surprised to see a woman dressed in jeans and a T-shirt, looking less qualified than myself to provide medical attention pulling syringes from an old solid steel refrigerator circa 1955, and sticking the arms of anything that walked through those bus station doors." [4] The problems of socialized medicine where health care is a supposed "right" do not stop there however: It actually begins to steal your privacy. Let's suppose you are living right now in a country where taxes are withheld from your paycheck in order to pay for equal universal health coverage for all citizens regardless of financial status. Your neighbor is an adrenaline junky and is constantly checking in to the hospital for treatment of self-inflicted injuries due to dangerous stunts to appease his ego. Your other neighbor will only eat deep fried foods even though the doctor has warned him that costly heart surgeries are inevitable if he doesn't change his eating habits. At work, a friend of yours refuses to wear a seatbelt in his car or a helmet while on his bike because they "cramp his style." Another neighbor, despite an infinite number of ads from anti-tobacco agencies and pleas from family, friends and doctors, refuses to quit smoking. Don't forget the promiscuous college student who opts not to practice safe sex, endangering not only herself but also those with whom she has relations. Suddenly everyone's personal lifestyle becomes the business of every other taxpayer because the nation is working to sustain these unhealthy ways of life.

The very foundation upon which this great nation is based begins to be shaken. Your choice of "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness" wavers when that choice is put into the system that politicians and bureaucrats deem suitable for the populace. In many countries which use socialized medicine, the choice of what medicine to use or what treatments to receive becomes the choice of the government, and not of the individual.

Nowhere in the world will ever be free from fear, danger, or even desire. There will always be inherent risk no matter what we are doing. Living in a world free of risk, as Nirvana-like as it may sound, is not only impossible, but would limit the choices of those living in it. Likewise, offering cradle-to-grave healthcare sounds very appealing but that doesn't make it a reality or even attainable as long as people choose not to work for it. The only way to attain it would be by negating the choice of the populace. Making healthcare a "right" to all, and disregarding personal choice would only take away an even greater right- the autonomy of physicians, hospital employees, pharmaceutical researchers, and more importantly, you and I as tax-paying citizens of these United States.
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References:
1.
Faria MA Jr. Health care as a right. Medical Warrior: Fighting Corporate Socialized Medicine. Macon, Georgia, Hacienda Publishing, Inc., 1997, pp.94-103.
2.
Sade, Robert M. "Medical Care as a Right: A Refutation" In Cross Cultural Perspectives In Medical Ethics, published by Jones and Bartlett Publishers, pp. 179- 183
3.
[translated from Portuguese] Rietra, Rita de Cassia Paiva. Inovacoes na gestao em saude mental: urn estudo de caso sobre o CAPS na cidade do Rio de Janeiro. [Mestrado] Fundacao Oswaldo Cruz, Escola Nacional de Saude Publica; 1999. Pp.125
4.
Winn, Tyler N. Personal Interview Conducted by Roman Smart, Nov 2. 2008
Roman Smart will be a senior at Utah Valley University, majoring in Digital Media. He was married in July and plans to attend law school upon graduation.
2nd prize in the essay contest was won by Michael Cohen, who will be a junior at Cornell University where he is majoring in Industrial and Labor Relations. His essay topic was: “The American Election: Let Freedom Ring”.
3rd prize was won by Charlotte Schwarz, who will be a sophomore at Duke Unversity. Her essay topic was: “Immigration and National Interests.
Both 2nd and 3rd place winners complete text will shortly be on our website. We can provide you hard copies of both upon request