Barbies of Color

  Since I am a boy and didnt play with barbies as a kid, I cant relate much to this story. However, I still find it crazy that in this day and age that it is still hard to find an African American doll/barbie.

http://healthland.time.com/2013/04/03/a-mom-asks-mattel-to-make-party-supplies-featuring-barbies-of-color/

  Georgia Braithwaite is a five year old African American. Like many other five year olds she enjoys collecting and playing with barbies dolls. Georgia has a total of five African American barbies, that were no easy find. Her mother had to look all over the internet in order to find them.

  But finding more African American dolls wasn't Georgia's biggest problem. She has a birthday coming up, and like every young girl the perfect party is of course a barbie theme. Once again her mother went online to look up African American barbie party supplies, only to find nothing.

  Her mother was shocked, what was she going to tell her daughter Georgia? There was nothing that just the Baithwaite family could do alone. So as a result started a petition on Change.org demanding Mattel (the company in charge of barbie) to feature barbies of color.

  It seems to me that young girls like barbies, because they make them feel as though they are the barbie (beautiful and skinny). For Georgia and many other young African Americans this is a struggle because its hard to relate to a barbie if it is completely different race.

The Struggle of Loving a Dying Baby

  The article that I chose for this weeks struggle is a struggle that no parents should ever have to go through. It is the short story of an author and her familys baby named Ronan.

http://healthland.time.com/2013/03/22/qa-author-emily-rapp-writes-about-how-to-love-a-dying-baby/

  As my mother has said before, no mother should ever have to barry her children. However that is what author Emily Rapp and her family went through. Her baby Ronan has resently passed at the young age of just three. The worst part of the whole story is that they knew it was going to happen. At birth Ronan's rare disease went undetected and was too late to cure. The baby suffered from a disease known as Tay-Sachs disease. It doesnt just quickly take the lives of young children. It causes blindness, seizures, and paralysism all before the age of three.

  Put yourself in the parents situation. They had to sit there and watch as thier young baby was dying knowing that there is nothing that they could do prevent the inevitable. All they could do is charish the time that they had with Ronan and keep as much hope as possible.

Struggles in Sports

  To some people the only struggle on a football team would obviously be losing the games. But do people ever look at the other struggles of the sport. This other struggle is known as concussion and can do alot more damage then a lose.

http://healthland.time.com/2013/03/13/helmets-and-mouthguards-dont-prevent-concussions/

  The article that I chose was, Helmets and Mouthguards Dont Prevent Concussions, by Alexandra Sifferlin. This article illistrates a common struggle of a football player. It puts into words how that even the things that we love, have there consequences.
  The "C" word is a big word among football players, it means Concussion. Concussions seem to be taking over the sport of football. They are caused by high impact hits to the head, and have completely changed the way football is played today. Concussions is a relatively new topic of decussion but thanks to new technology, we know more about them then we ever have. But that doesnt mean that everyone including coaches and players have a full understanding. Concussions have many sytoms alot of them being very serious, which is why they should be taken very seriously and with extreme percaution. If a second or third concussion take place after the first there can be serious brain damage, this it why players and coaches must have a full understanding.
  Another aspect of the article was the role that the gear plays in the sport. Studies have shown that the helmet and mouthguard give false sense of sercurity and tend to not do much against concussions.
 

Helpless Animals

  As we known being human comes along with many struggles. These struggles can be big or small. But have we ever taken the time to realize the struggles of the animals that we share our great planet with. These animals are struggling from something that is completely preventable and should be stopped as soon as possible. 

http://science.time.com/2013/03/05/traffic-why-its-time-to-get-serious-about-the-bloody-illegal-wildlife-trade/

  I understand that some animals are killed because humans need meat or that they are killed and sold for food. What I do not understand and completely disagree with is when animals are killed for their parts. There are many different species of animals, all of them are unique. Some have shells, some have horns, and some have warm fur. To some people these "parts" are very desirable.

  The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species cracked down on one of these cases. Their goal is to slow down the murder and trafficing of endangered species. Rhinos and Elephants from Africa were murdered by humans just for their ivory horn. Both of those animals are very large animals and all the savages wanted was its horn. To me this seems rediculous. The CITE managed to raised the population of rhinos from 2,000 to 19,000.

  Obviously there is a struggle here. And tipically when there is a struggle the person/thing struggling is able to deffend themselves. However these poor animals are helpless and can not defend themselves. They need help from real people, laws need to be made to stop the murder and trafficing. The sad thing too is that once these endangered animals are gone there is no comming back, and I believe that many people dont look at the situation that way.

Six Year Old Struggles

  The Article I chose for this weeks Struggle was written by Bonnie Rochman, on the everyday Struggle of a six year old girl.

http://healthland.time.com/2013/03/01/do-schools-need-new-rules-for-transgender-students/

  The young Coy Mathis seems to live the normal childhood life. She wakes up, puts on her pink clothes, and is on her way to kindergarden in Fountain, Colorodo. Nothing seems odd in this young girls eyes. However, Coy Mathis is a boy. Coy Mathis was born a boy, but at the age of three had already declared that she was a girl. To simply put it into words, Coy Mathis is a six year old transgender. Luckly for her kindergardeners are more accepting then others.
  One of the struggles that Coy Mathis faces is bathrooms. As we all know, boys go to the boys bathroom and girls go to the girls bathroom. But where does Coy Mathis fit in with this bathroom situation. Earlier the principal of the school allowed Coy Mathis to use the girls bathroom, but has recently revoked this privlege. This is not good for Coy Mathis, becasuse the last thing that her mom wants is for her is to faces the struggles of feeling different then her classmates. Her mother has taken this case to court and has changed the rules for transgender students like hers. It may not seem like much but it is one less struggle that Coy Mathis will have to deal with.
  For now Coy Mathis doesn't have many struggles, and at such a young age doesn't realize what she is going to have to go through in her life time. People aren't always as forgiving as kindergardeners. Throughout her life she will be judged and hated on by many people. There is no excaping this struggle. People will do means things to her and say even meaner things. To get through these struggles Coy Mathis must stay strong and remember to be as confident as she was when she was three.

Filled with Struggles

  The Article that I chose to write about was filled with struggles. And let me start off by saying that articles on struggle are not a very happy read. As a matter of fact I struggled to find something positive.
  The Title of the Article that I chose is called Horror at Sea: Adrift for Months, Starving Asylum Seekers Threw 98 Bodies Overboard. Writen by Emily Rauhala

http://world.time.com/2013/02/19/horror-at-sea-adrift-for-months-starving-asylum-seekers-threw-98-bodies-overboard/

  The title pretty much sums it all up. Thirty two Asylum seekers were rescued by the Sri Lankan navy. By definition Asylums seeker are people that have protection and immunity from extradition granted by a government to a political refugee from another country. These Asylum seekers set sail on a wooden boat, and then the stuggles began. The Muslims were on their way to seek refugee in Indonesia and Australia, when their wooden boat filled with over a hundred people began to veer off course and they became stranded for over two months. On top of being stranded for two months they went twenty one days without food. As a result ninty eight people were thrown overboard.

  If this story isnt the perfect example of struggle, I dont know what is. The Asylum seekers struggles started even before their failed voyage. The Muslims left on a wooden boat to excape the everyday struggles that they faced from their homeland. They risked their lives and everything that they had for a fresh start, which shows that the conditions of where they were from must have been terrible. Little did they know that their futures were filled with even more struggle. Aboard the Muslims faced the struggles of hunger, and the death of loved ones. People had to throw their moms, dads, brothers, sister, and neighbors overboard. This is something that no one should ever go through.
  With every struggle though there is hope. The people that survived and were recued  have a chance to start over.