TSA's Deep Pockets

Almost every time that we travel somewhere by plane, my dad gets his pocket knife taken away by the TSA. After seeing this happen a ridiculous amount of times, I began to wonder what the TSA does with all of the things that they take from people. After some research, I was shocked to discover the different ways that the TSA disposes of prohibited items, from shampoo to pocket knives. According to The Week, most liquids are thrown away, and all other items may either be donated or sold. Donation is a good solution and throwing stuff out is obviously not the most resourceful or economical thing to do, but I was most taken back by the fact that the government is permitted to sell the confiscated items. After reading more into the article on The Week, I discovered that, "The TSA is prohibited by law from profiting from items surrendered to them, but other government agencies' hands aren't tied the same way. Stuff that could potentially be resold is turned over to the states... and the state of Pennsylvania says it made some $800,000 in revenue from re-selling confiscated property online between 2004 and 2012." (read full article here) To me it seems very strange that just because one part of the government can't sell confiscated items, they simply hand it over to another in order to be resold. Honestly, what difference does it make? Either way, the government is taking our stuff and making an large profit on it. Fortunately, the government doesn't sell everything that they confiscate. There are some things, like scissors, that are donated to non-profit organizations or schools.

Is it okay for our government to confiscate our property and sell it for their own benefit? Is it the American people's fault for not following the rules in the first place? What are some other actions that could be taken that would be a better use of the acquired property? Should the property simply be returned to it's owner?

Black Thanksgiving?

Black Friday 2013

In my family, we have a tradition that all of the females (my aunts, cousins and grandma) go Black Friday shopping together every year. On the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, we always pick up the newspaper and look through all of ads and make a giant list of the stores that we want to go to. There is sort of an underlying competition among us, we always see who can get the best deals, meaning who can get the most stuff for the least amount of money. This year however, was different. While shuffling through the newspaper, we noticed that about half of the stores were opening on Thanksgiving at about 8 pm. At first, we were all appalled. Some of the things that were being thrown around were, "That's ruining the American family time on Thanksgiving!" and "How could they start Black Friday so early?". My Grandma even suggested that we boycott. Lord knows that wasn't going to happen with the Tucker girls. Strangely enough, after all of the fuss about how terrible it was, we went shopping on Thursday night. Some of the excuses were: "Well, we can get more shopping done if we do a couple big stores tonight.", "It won't make a difference if we go today instead of tomorrow" and "It's not going to make a difference if WE boycott shopping or not, they'll still choose commercialism over quality family time". As you can see, sadly my family (myself included) gave in to the temptation. And based on the crowds on Thursday as well as Friday, I think it is safe to say that many Americans did as well. As more and more things start to take priority in our lives, I think family is one of the things that has been put on the back burner in the lives of many Americans. I also found it interesting how we all seemed to believe that we couldn't make a difference with our little "boycott". What happened to the fired up Americans from things like the Civil Rights Movement and other protests that were begging for change? Have we lost faith in the power of our people and our voice? Do you think that Americans don't want change involving our dependence on commercialism and loss of family time or is it that we just don't know how to go about doing it?

Tucker Thanksgiving Dinner 2013

Overcoming Obesity

On a recent road trip to New York, we passed a billboard that read, "Child obesity is not a decision, it is a disease." This sentence shocked me. It is a perfect example of how our society doesn't take responsibility for anything anymore. We are always blaming our problems on other people, things or even disorders. I do agree that genetics might play some role in childhood obesity, but I think that diet and lifestyles are a much larger factor regarding this condition.

According to the Harvard School of Public Health, "Over the past three decades, childhood obesity rates have tripled in the U.S., and today, the country has some of the highest obesity rates in the world: one out of six children is obese,". (read complete article here) Personally, I find it hard to believe that obesity is a disease if Americans are primarily the ones "catching it". The American diet coupled with the lack of exercise has dramatically changed in the last decades, and because of this I think that childhood obesity rates have skyrocketed. Nowadays, due to both parents working or parents not knowing how to cook, many people eat the majority of their meals at restaurants. In addition, many Americans just don't eat very healthy.

 

The article also talks about the direct correlation between wealth and weight worldwide. When there is an abundance of money and moreover food, people tend to eat it. I do not understand how obesity could be considered a disease if people simply don't have the discipline to stop giving their kids so much food. I believe that we will only see an end to childhood obesity when Americans choose to make a healthy lifestyle and diet a priority in their homes.

From the Outside Looking In

Friends at school in Peru <3

During our class discussion today, my mind flashed back to memories in which I experienced the thoughts of foreigners regarding the United States. Most of you probably don't know this, but I lived in Peru last year for 11 months. It was there where I experienced firsthand the many different views that foreigners have of our country.  First off, Peruvians tend to think that we as Americans like to show off.  Many of them think that our involvement in so many of the wars around the world is unnecessary and frivolous. They are also somewhat intimidated by our strong military and economic power, which unfortunately causes many of the Peruvians to place themselves below Americans regarding self worth. During my time at school in Peru, there were several incidents in which my peers would make jokes about the "grandness" of America. For example, almost every time that a plane flew over my school, someone would say something like, "Oh my god! The US government is coming to get Madeleine and bring her back home!" Everyone would laugh, but it is obvious that these jokes were based off of some belief or stereotype about our country.

US Embassy (Lima, Peru)

The US Embassy in Lima, Peru was also a hot topic of discussion. Everyone, adults included, would make jokes about the size of the it. I'm not going to lie, it is rather large. To say that it's big would be an understatement. The US embassy covers an area of about 2 blocks. Lets make a quick comparison. The Chilean embassy in Lima is a small office building that kind of resembles a house. As you can probably guess, the US embassy is kept under very high security, and my best friend in Peru (Andrea Martin) says that, "They [the US embassy] check people like every Peruvian is carrying a bomb."

I think that many Americans don't realize the affect that our country has on the world. Even though we are number 1 and we should be proud of that, I think that we need to take into consideration the feelings and thoughts of other countries as well. I think it is interesting that we look at ourselves as the "good guy" while maybe in other countries we are thought of as the "try hards", "over achievers" or even the "bad guy". How do you think that our actions as a country make the rest of the world feel?

Flaunt It!

Whether it is at a local coffee shop or on Pandora, we as Americans are constantly surrounded by advertisements. For some reason, just this past weekend I began to notice the abundance of ads in my community and began to think about the reasoning behind these advertisements.

On Friday I was at a coffee shop in downtown Evanston with my sister. As I walked into the bathroom, I saw a strange ad (pictured below). Pictured is a tan women in a bikini. The advertisement reads, "If you got it, FLAUNT IT! If you don't, visit Bally Total Fitness." In this sentence, the word flaunt really stood out to me. The definition of flaunt is, "to display something ostentatiously, especially in order to provoke envy or admiration or to show defiance". The ad is telling all the women that go into the bathroom that they should conspicuously show themselves off instead of being modest. It is also suggesting that they shouldn't be shy about it. The ad wants the women to confront the world with their looks.

For the women that don't "got it", they can't flaunt it. Instead, according to this ad, they have to go get it. I think that this shows a prominent American value. We try to normalize everyone, and make everyone the same as us. Where did this coveted idea/self image sprout from?

The American definition of beauty is also displayed by the way that we recognize and appraise women with the perfect beach body and super tan skin. I found it interesting that in the picture they completely cut off the woman's head. It's almost as if the personality, intelligence and thoughts of this women don't matter one bit. Only her looks. All of this makes me wonder how the advertisements differ in the men's room.

What do y'all think about the role that advertisements play in our society? How do the these things that we see every day change what we think and want for ourselves?

    

Bucks for Stars

Yesterday, I was sipping my chai tea latte at Starbucks, while anticipating the long night ahead (it being homecoming and all). While sitting at a table in the corner, I looked up and happened to see a black and white picture of an old Starbucks delivery truck. What caught my eye was how different the logo on the truck was compared to the current logo that Starbucks has. Here are pictures of both:

The newer logo looks sleeker, cleaner and more classy. The older logo shows the woman's entire naked body, while the new logo is only from the shoulders up. In the old logo, the woman's breasts are exposed while in the new logo they are somewhat covered by her hair. Maybe a value that Starbucks has developed is modesty. Starbucks doesn't really have a whole lot of advertising, and maybe this is because they simply don't need it. They know that their products are good and that they will have no problem selling them. People seem to buy Starbucks no matter what.

In the new logo, her hair is very controlled and predictable, but in the old logo her hair is unruly and unkept. This could possibly suggest the reliability of Starbucks, and their hope that all products are appealing to the eye as well as the tastebuds. The new woman seems to be much thinner and happier. Maybe Starbucks, as a large corporation, cares about the health and well being of their costumers. The smile on her face is more profound than the old one. Obviously, Starbucks wants to sell products that their costumers enjoy. On the new logo, Starbucks added a star to her crown, possibly suggesting their superiority in the coffee business.

All of these observations helped me infer about Starbuck's clientele, products and service. They are a modest but predictable business, with high quality service and standards. I guess you get what you pay for.

Only Apple Cider??

Right now, I am in the car heading back home after a long weekend in Door County, Wisconsin. We spent four days enjoying the beautiful fall colors, the Green Bay bay, delicious apples and cherries. We stayed in a cabin in the small town of Ephraim, which has a population of around 200 people with no cell phone service or internet connection. Ephraim is the only dry town in the state of Wisconsin. And by dry, I mean that it is illegal to purchase or sell alcohol in the town. There are different pros and cons to having a town without alcohol. In a way, it makes the town more family friendly. It is unique and so not the norm in our modern era. This law takes root from a belief that the original Moravian (Christian denomination) minister had. He believed that there was no benefit of his followers consuming alcohol. This belief has not only continued as a tradition in the town over 100 years later, but has also transformed into a law. On the other side of the argument, some restaurant owners do not like that they can't serve wine or beer with dinner. They believe this law actually hurts their business. Is this law constitutional? Is it a good thing that the town as a whole is not conforming to modern society? Should they change?

Halloween Takes Over

With Halloween right around the corner, people are starting to do many different fall activities to celebrate the season. On Saturday evening, I went to Fright Fest at Six Flags Great America. Fright Fest is a special event that occurs annually in October. The park is open late, and creepy people in intense costumes follow the guests around and try to scare them. After participating in this somewhat strange event, I began to wonder why we celebrate Halloween and where it came from. After some investigation, I found out that Halloween started because the Celts believed that the souls of the dead came to visit Earth on the last day in October. Later on, the Romans conquered the Celts and adopted some of their beliefs (including their thoughts on Halloween). We all know that Roman influence, beliefs and traditions spread across most of the known world, which explains why we still find ourselves celebrating Halloween in modern times.

Since Halloween doesn't really mean anything to us, why do we still celebrate it? Halloween is not a holiday like Christmas or Hanukkah, which celebrates a specific religious event that people actually believe in. According to the National Retail Federation, Halloween celebrants are expected to spend $2.08 billion on candy this year. (To look at more statistics about Halloween in the US click here http://www.nrf.com/modules.php?name=News&op=viewlive&sp_id=1668) This article shows many shocking facts about the outrageous Halloween spending in our country.  Why is Halloween such a big deal? Do we continue our Halloween traditions solely for commercial reasons?

My friend and I posing in the coffins with a zombie woman

The zombie woman scaring
Reilly and Madeleine