Blog Seven Assignment

Rising Tensions 

            If you have been paying attention to the news lately, you have seen the rapidly growing animosity between North Korea’s Supreme Leader, Pyongyang, and President Trump. For more than 6 decades now, North Korea has been in the hands of lunatic monarch dictators, intent on trying to show their power off to the world while severely oppressing their citizens. But after all this time, the conflict between the United States and North Korea has reached its peak as North Korea threatens to fire nuclear weapons against the U.S. if threatened.

            These threatens started when Pyongyang felt intimidated when President Trump ordered 59 Tomahawk cruise missiles to be fired on a Syrian military airbase, where the chemical weapon that killed over 100 people in Syria, were believed to have been launched from. Since then, Pyongyang has said that he will not hesitate to fire nuclear missiles as a preemptive strike. But these sort of statements are coming from a young boy who has been taught everyone must bow to him, nonetheless, he does possess nuclear capability. Though one starts to interpret these words as somewhat empty threats since the maximum missile range that they possess could only get as far as Alaska. But given that their last nuclear missile test failed after it “blew up almost immediately”, I think that might be a fair assumption. However, President Trump is not backing down and has already send the submarine, USS Michigan, to join aircraft carrier, Carl Vinson, to dock in South Korea. The last President Trump has said on this issue came late yesterday when he told the press that “major, major conflict with North Korea is possible, but that he would prefer a diplomatic solution”.  Diplomacy is indeed needed but I do not think it wise either to back down when faced with nuclear threats.

Blog Stage Six

            My classmate wrote on his last blog a commentary titled “FederalGovernment should defund Planned Parenthood which offers abortion services” in which he states that he supports President Trumps statements of defunding Planned Parenthood. Another colleague of mine (Carlos M) also chose this blog to comment on and made the point that people are under the impression that abortions are illegal when they are in fact, completely legal. And yes, it is true that the federal funding they receive is a reimbursement from Medicaid for services that women receive at these clinics but abortions only account for 3% of their services rendered. As someone without medical insurance, I can personally tell you that Planned Parenthood is a lifesaver. They offer pap smears, pregnancy tests, and STD tests, among other things, at only a fraction of what a doctor’s office would charge you. I used Planned Parenthood last year to get a pregnancy test so I could have a referral for a doctor. My experience there was such a pleasant one. Once I took the test, they congratulated me and asked me what my plans were for the future. They never once asked me if I was considering an abortion, and when I told them that I was hoping to get pregnant, they were ecstatic and extremely supportive of my decision. So even though they offer abortions, they in no way suggest or even mention abortion unless it is something that you want to discuss.   

                His second argument is that abortions are not something that should be convenient or easily accessible and young people should learn to take responsibility for their actions. Why does no one consider the cost of raising a child? What if the mother was on contraceptives but still managed to get pregnant? Maybe the responsible thing is not to subject a child to a life or poverty and hardship on account of an accident. I have a three-month-old baby girl at home and she takes up all my energy, but I stay up late and make sacrifices to care for her because I wanted this responsibility. Not to mention the physical burden that a woman’s body takes on to create another life. When abortion clinics are not made accessible to women, they often have to suffer unnecessarily due to negligence from abusive doctors. Before Planned Parenthood was made available, women would get abortions without anesthesia, in unsanitary conditions, and sometimes even suffered sexual abuse from the doctors preforming the procedure. So maybe put yourself in someone else’s shoes before prematurely judging someone’s unique situation and their decision.