Uneven Waters

Within the sport of swimming, there are not many ways to cheat. With everyone starting at the same time, using technological devices to see who touches the wall first, there is not much leeway for cheating. Although what a swimmer can wear may be the way for someone to get the final point in a race. Many swimming races are determined by tenths of a second, such as comparing the top times in the American and US Open for the 1500 freestyle. Larsen Jensen raced a 14:49.29 and Peter Vanderkaay raced a 14:45.54. With times being this close in a long event such as the 1500 free, it comes down to what a person is wearing and the amount of friction that they have with their body rubbing against the water. Many serious high school students have times that are very close together when they go against each other in Conference. What can sometimes make that 100th of a second difference is what kind of suit that they are wearing. This becomes a very serious issue for some swimmers if they have financial issues. Some suits can cost upwards of $600 such as the SPEEDO fastskin III. Many fast skins stop working the way that they are supposed to after just a few uses becuase of way that devepers use to make them. Having financial issues and trying to afford a suit at this price can sometimes become and impossibility while a swimmer from a more privileged area may be able to buy this kind of suit and not put in the kind of time and training that the other less privileged swimmer may be putting into their training. With this in mind, IHSA has banned long legged fast skins for swimmers and must be cut off at the knees. They have also said that the suit cannot be longer than the shoulders and that for men, there can be nothing above the waist. These rules are fair because swimming is about seeing who can be faster, not to see who can buy the newest technology and beat someone else. By banning certain types of suits or making the suits smaller it reduces the prices of fast skins that are avaliable for high schoolers to buy. By doing this, IHSA has made the playing field more level because although some fast skins are still legal, the ones that high schoolers can use for competition standards are much cheaper. This is fair for everyone because by making the suits cheaper, more people can have the opportunity to buy them and use them for races. By doing this, they are making the playing field more even for everyone.
For myself, I see this as an advantage because my family will not buy me a fast skin. But when conference came around my junior year,I was able to beat out nearly everyone in the 50 free. Although many of them were wearing fast skins, I was able to overcome some of them because of the time I took to prepare myself for that race. If it were not for the regulations that IHSA has, I would have probaly taken a low ranking in conference due to the suits that the other high school students were able to buy.

Speech Codes on Campus

 

Some college fraternities such as Beta Theta Pi are deciding to throw parties that depict white people dressing up like black people and enforcing stereotypes. Other people that come to these parties dress up like KKK members and then they pretend to lynch, beat, and yell at the black people because they think it is fun. The acts that these college students are making are incredibly immature. Although I believe that many of them are just doing it just for the fun of "it", what they are doing can be incredibly offensive and is racist. What these college students are doing is enforcing stereotypes and making fun of people just because of the color of their skin. These acts should be banned from campus, but not illegal. They are only detrimental to people to find this offensive and it can do nearly nothing that could help with the education of the people involved in these activities. There are other ways to have a fun time but stereotyping and pretending to lynch someone is not okay. Students have a different kind of speech when they are at school, and I believe that this is one of those acts which should be banned from schools. In the "real world", it is okay although it still is wrong. People have the right to act in this demeaning manner because of the First Amendment.
Iowa State seems to have put down policies that are very strict. So strict in fact, that many of the people on campus do not use their First Amendment rights that they are granted because they are so afraid that they will be punished for exercising those rights. Iowa State has the Red Light from Fire and they have this because many of the students do not use their First Amendment rights because they are so scared of being punished. Many colleges have changed their policies so as to not scare students to use the First Amendment to their advantage yet, the Iowa State administrators have not changed it and thus that is what makes the administrators.
This does not change my feeling for the school because as an engineer major, I do not think I will have to worry too much about exercising my First Amendment rights to accomplish what I need to do. I also do not have very strong feelings for many things so not being able to express my opinions is not that important to me although I know it is for many other people going to Iowa State. The policies that are put in play seem to be very strict going as far to say that any type of prank or something that someone may find unwelcoming is not allowed. I believe that all of the policies that they have are legal, they are just very detailed and thus, very strict.
Iowa State would immediately come down upon them and most likely kick them out of their school. The only reason that they would possibly be expelled is because if someone were to do one thing, it would be incredibly easy to break more than one rule. I would agree with the school's reaction because I believe that as a student in a school, a student has less rights of speech than if they were an adult in the "real world".
I agree that FIRE is doing what they believe is best and that they are trying to guarantee rights for all students and allow them to all be accepted. I believe that in some cases FIRE may be going too far. They try to include everyone and I think that in order to understand the "real world" one must also be subject to the criticism and rights being taken away from one. I only say this because there will be cases where someone will not be able to fully use their First Amendment rights and one must be able to know how to cope and use their limited speech to still get their point across.  The codes that FIRE has protects students but so much so that they can not see anything outside of their little bubble which can eventually become detrimental. Nothing that FIRE does will really hurt people, only not expose them to experiences that they must know how to deal with when the time comes.
Fire is a good website dedicated to giving freedoms to students. They are looking to include everyone and hope to give everyone the chance to have a higher education without being offended or restricted in any way.

Obesity Thrives in America

Obesity is a burden to the American society. Nearly anyone can say it is bad for someone to have, it causes health problems in the long run it can be costly. Nearly two thirds of American adults are obese. This used to not be as "large" of a problem as it used to be. In 2000, the BMI percentage of any state was never above 30% and yet in 2010, there are twelve states that have a BMI percentage of 30% or greater. This shows that people in America are becoming more obese than what we used to be. This is now an issue that America should have its eye on as Americans can watch as its nation becomes more obese. Many believe that a large contributing factor in this obesity epidemic is fast food. This is true in some ways, fast food was not as big as it used to be back in the early 2000's and it is hard to prove. Yet fast food cannot be the only factor at fault. It involves many factors. Some of these include the popularity of video games. With more people on the couch playing video games or watching the big game, they are not out doing things. During the big economic crash of 2008 many people saw the best way to save money was to go and cancel their gym memberships.
Many people believe that with an economic crash, they should save their money as much as possible. Some do this by going out to eat at fast food restaurants because they are so cheap. The problem is that in the long run, it can cost more for the person who decides to take this tactic. The costs related to obesity related medical costs was nearly 147 billion dollars. When one is to think about how expensive, it does not seem that expensive when covered by the one third of the United States who are obese. But when the math is completed, it turns out to be near 1,500 dollars per each obese person compared to the average person with medical costs. Not only is being obese costly in the medical field, it is also bad for the body.
It is difficult to show how fast food and health problems are related, but the connection to obese people and fast food is much more connected. In a way, eating fast food can cause health problems because of the chance of becoming obese. Some health problems that come with being obese are stroke, type 2 diabetes, and heart disease. Many of these diseases are preventable but being obese opens up many more opportunities to contract these diseases. These preventable diseases should be easily kept off yet because people are obese, they are getting sick. This is especially true in children in the 20th century.
17% of children are now obese, that is nearly 12.5 million children/ adolescents. The number of adolescents that are now obese has nearly tripled since 1980. This is becoming a larger problem than what America may believe especially with kids having these kinds of statistics. This epidemic of obesity is something that can be stopped although it has not, over the past few years.
An easy way to help keep off obesity and the diseases that come with it is to eat healthy and exercise. Around thirty minutes of moderate activity a day helps with having a healthy lifestyle.
Illinois has tried to do their part in keeping obesity out of their public schools by making Physical Education mandatory for at least 4 times a week. I have discussed with my cousin in Wisconsin and she only has PE twice a week, nearly half of what Illinois school kids have.