Peter Norman....The Silver Medalist

When I was in 9th grade my mother bought me a shirt that had one of the most epic moments in Olympic history. That was the moment where Tommie Smith and John Carlos stood on the potum to make a silent protest of the discrimination they have to face back home in the United States. In this picture I never notice the "white guy" until we watched a documentary in class about Peter Norman. It's so admirable that a white man not even from the United States would risk his own life and the respect from his country to help two people fight a controversial cause. Norman was the one that came up with the idea that Carlos and Smith wear one glove. The world needs more people like Peter Norman. He even said that he was in the right place at the right time, and does not regret his decsion at all

"Hey excuse me Sir....oh I'm sorry Ma'am...Wait what are you????"

In discussion last week we talked about is it ethically right to subject athletes to gender test. In my opinion I feel it only needs to be done in extreme cases. For example in the World Championships in track and field their was big controversy of the South African 800 meter runner Caster Semenya. Many spectators and fellow athletes felt that Semenya was not a female,and she should be gender tested. Semenya was offended and South Africa as a whole was as well.  To be honest with you, when I saw and heard Semenya speak my eyebrows were raised. Never have I seen a female with such a masculine built and even face.  She also beat her competitors in SECONDS,  in a 800 meter sprint race. This would be the only time that I would ever question someone to a gender test.  Test results were not released for Caster but I feel that she has something in her that could be a disadvantage to the other female runners.

"Super Size Me Please"

In class to my enjoyment we watched the documentary, Super Size Me. The film was about a man in perfectly good health who took on the task to eat McDonalds fast food for thirty days straight. After just a week of eating McDonalds, his health already started to decrease. Blood pressure, body fat all increases. Before watching this film I would have thought eating McDonalds for an entire month would be a breeze and a dream. But watching jim suffer and look completely miserable I have second thoughts. McDonalds is Americas favorite food, and this relationship we have with it is making us fatter and more importantly killing us! I'm really glad I watched this film because it opened my eyes to realize that their is ABSOLUTELY no nutritional value in any fast food item. Even the salad on the menu is more calories than you should intake in a whole day! As of 10-26-10 McDonalds is officially off my menu.

"Why We Hate Fat People"

Reading the article "Fat Politics" made me realize that I have never seen an obese person in any professional job. For example watching TV I notice there isn't too many overweight actors and actress. The only one I have ever seen an morbidly obese person in show business was actress Gabourey Sidibe. And she got so much exposure in the movie "Precious" because of her weight. Also I have never seen an obese doctor, lawyer, wall street broker, the list could go on and on. This leads me to the conclusion that obese people are discriminated against. The article said it's even hard for morbidly obese people to even sign apartment leases. I'll be the first to admit I would be uncomfortable if I had an overweight doctor, but that still doesn't it make it right for them to be discriminated against. We never know, they could be the best stock brokers, doctors, lawyers, but I guess we'll never know because the United States wants people to be "perfect"...literally