Author Archives: krl46

Healthcare and its Connection to a Universal Right to Life

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What I found most interesting about this table talk was that framing the discussion surrounding health in terms of whether or not health care is a right forces the dialogue about this highly controversial topic to focus on aspects of the issue that are perhaps too often ignored in policy debate. In one sense, this debate really could be seen as boiling down to one question: Are individuals who earn more or have higher standing in the labor market more deserving of high quality health care, or should all those residing in the U.S., no matter what their economic standing, be entitled to quality health care even if it could lead to, say, longer wait times to see a doctor? I do not mean to simplify a complex issue by posing this question, but I think that this question is far too often totally ignored in political rhetoric surrounding health care in the U.S. Sometimes it can be really easy to get wrapped up in political agendas and the intricacies of different policy solutions and ultimately forget where these agendas and solutions fall along a spectrum defined by answers to the aforementioned question. Also, the fact that this question is often brushed over in policy debate may offer some insight as to why health care is such a highly debated and divisive topic. I think that the fact that certain members of the population are not able to get the healthcare they need because of their socioeconomic background really plainly challenges notions of American self-help. While it may be easier to dismiss other social policy provisions by claiming that people need to help themselves and secure a quality of life they wish to have based on their own efforts or merits, individuals cannot heal or save themselves from chronic illness; access to healthcare is directly tied to individuals’ right to life in a way that really cannot be denied or ignored.

Also, the fact that what people believe constitutes a right, or what should be defined as a right, will ultimately impact whether or not they believe healthcare is a right was something I had not considered before. Reflecting back on this discussion, I think that the discussion we had reveals the power or genius of the U.S. Constitution, and its intentional vagueness that allows it to be applied to new circumstances. While the Constitution does not guarantee a right to healthcare, it does guarantee the rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Thus, when healthcare is being denied in a way that denies individuals life, liberty, or the pursuit of happiness, it could certainty be said that an individual’s rights are being denied.

The Power of Loving Persistence

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I really loved this story. The Loving’s story really captures how sometimes change is brought about when people simply live their lives by what they know is right in their heart. Richard and Mildred persisted. Refusing to let other people steal their joy, they found a way to build the life they wanted to live surrounded by people they love. Richard and Mildred embodied this silent strength, and by continuing on and doing what they believed they should have the right to do, changed the course of American history and ensured that every couple that came after them would have the right they had the courage to secure for themselves. One of the most powerful lines of the movie, I think, is when Mildred explained that they may “lose the small battles, but win the big war.” This line is so powerful because when we are in the middle of striving for change or working towards some goal, sometimes it is difficult to see the small battles as part of a larger war. It is often all to easy to admit defeat the first time we are told “no” or the first time we fail. Starting to plan the next battle and believing that the war has yet to be won takes both incredible courage and wisdom. The Loving story is a testament to the that fact that even when the outcome of a battle seems most definitive, the war cannot end if its soldiers keep persisting. The Loving story serves as a reminder not to underestimate the power of our own human spirits and the change we can effect just by harnessing this power and standing firmly in our beliefs. Also, I think another point that the Loving story illuminates is that when we see people in our lives or even across the country or world entering into these battles, we should compassionately listen to their stories and join the battle. Mildred pointed out that she and her family had their “enemies” and their “friends.” The Loving story reminds us that we need to listen to people’s stories—not make judgments about what these stories are or should be based on the color of their skin, who they love, where they are from, or anything else—and share their stories when they need to be heard, being a friend and helping them to win the larger war they had the courage to put in motion.

Stress as A Wind-Driven Sail, Not a Weighted Anchor

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Today’s “Stress Less, Achieve More” table talk made me realize that I expend so much energy dreading stress. In a sense, I almost stress about upcoming stresses. Accordingly, I really agree that thinking about a healthy level of stress as a motivator—an energizing force that can lead me to finish and conquer whatever it is that is concerning me in the first place—can be so helpful. Also, this point made me wonder if perhaps thinking about stress in this positive way may actually be a tool that can help me remain at healthy, motivating level of stress instead of letting it build up to a detrimental, debilitating level. More specifically, when I get that initial sort of jolt of stress—or that feeling that there is no way I will be able to do what I need to do and accomplish what I want to accomplish—perhaps I can tell myself that the concern about finishing my work and doing it the best that I can is going to provide a driving force that will help me surmount this challenge. I previously felt that stress was this anchor that attached itself to me, and it was just a very unpleasant weight or burden that I had no choice but to deal with. Now, I want to start to of stress as a windstorm and my own perspective, or how I view the stressful situation in which I find myself, as a sail. If I set of my perspective just right, I can harness all that stress energy and use it to push me forward. Another very, very important piece of insight I gained from the table talk is that when the burden of stress is so heavy that I cannot really take a step back and change my perspective, I should reach out to people for help and find an outlet for this stress. I think this point is really important because it can be really easy to feel like there is nothing that will alleviate the load of stress besides enduring it until the stress-inducing semester, situation, experience or assignment has passed.

Essentially, I think the most important take-away I left the table talk with was the sense that it is okay to be stressed. It was also very reassuring to know that everyone else is stressed just like I am. As a couple people brought up, it is very easy to look around, see people going out several nights a week and participating in a ton of clubs, and think that there you are doing something wrong because you are so stressed and not even taking on as much as others. Thinking about how everyone is stressed but experiences this stress differently is heartening.

 

Re-Invisioning the Invisible: A Conversation about Disability at Cornell

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I really appreciated that at this Rose Café, the Rose community could come together and have a conservation about the experiences of people with disabilities—a subject that is often avoided or overlooked. I totally agreed with several students’ point that living with a disability becomes invisible because, often, explaining that you have a disability is met with stigmatizations or uninformed assumptions rather than understanding and conversation. These points made me consider that perhaps this stigmatization of disability is a symptom of broader American social norms that tend to find blame for a variety of circumstances—whether that be financial hardship, difficulty finishing a test during a given class period, or bouts of depression—and place it on the individual. Thus, rather than viewing that fact that some students get extended time to finish their tests as something that ensures that this student has an equal opportunity to succeed, people may falsely perceive this accommodation as signaling that this student has less competence or receives unfair treatment. I think that when an individual speaks out about having a disability, others, not recognizing what is contributing to these assumptions, may either falsely assume that this individual is not working hard enough to overcome their disability or start to view this individual as lesser. American society often seems to have sort of a pervasive inability to accept difference, and this inability to recognize that every single person has different hardships, experiences, aspects of self leads to a system of categorization that falsely stigmatizes some aspects of self or hardships as “abnormal.” This stigmatizing label, then, may contribute to this feeling that a disability is something that should be hidden, preventing conversations that could remove the stigma from taking place. Accordingly, I think that having conversations about disability like the one we had tonight and sort of creating awareness about the experiences of individuals with disabilities at Cornell and beyond during orientations or other events, as one student mentioned, could be a way of making it easier to have these conversations that deconstruct the stigma that fuels distance and allows false assumptions to persist.

 

Re-Discovering Fake News

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I really loved how Professor Schwarz pointed out that fake news surrounds all aspects of our communication—not just media communication—and has always surrounded us. The development of the concept of fake news over the last year is something that has really fascinated me—how different people emphasize different definitions of it, how concerned the country at large has gotten about it, and how it has become sort of a colloquial phrase in the same way that “lit” or “shook” has. Despite having gone to a couple of different events and discussions about fake news on campus, Professor Schwarz’s point that every time we fail to speak out against the words of others that spread stereotypes, mindlessly pass on a word of gossip, or create a false rumor about someone or something out of our own bad feelings, we are fueling fake news. This point is so important to remember because given that spreading or failing to stop the spread of these kinds of seeds of fake news is nearly an everyday action for us, it is no wonder that it is starting to saturate the media, get in the way of political elections, and feed division on larger scales. If we perpetuate fake news at a micro-level, we are numbing ourselves to the consequences it can create at a macro-level. We may share ridiculous stories simply for the laugh of it, feed into conspiracy theories for the thrill of debating about it, and then get so caught up in the fake that we are no longer vigilant about making the distinction the real and the fake. This added perspective to the fake news phenomenon reveals that people really do have more power against fake news and that this power is easier to make use of than is immediately apparent. By recognizing our own tendencies and speaking out against the actions of others that fuel and normalize fake news, we reduce the power fake news has to entice and divide the country.

The Hope in Understanding

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I have to say that I think the conversation Judge Miller led was my favorite Rose Café yet. It was both inspiring and reassuring to know that there are government leaders out there with an unwavering dedication to county’s promise of equal protection under the law for all persons and a willingness to offer an impartial, discerning check of power when this promise is not being delivered. What is more, it was so good to hear that someone “on the inside”—who is intimately familiar with how change is accomplished—has so much hope for the future of America. In times of great uncertainty and division, this message of hope needs to be heard.

Also, I really appreciated how Judge Miller pointed out that there is good in everyone. I interned at the Philadelphia District Attorney’s office two summers ago, and after sitting through trials and sentencings, it quickly becomes evident that it is incredibly easy to define someone by one moment and make a judgment about how that moment should affect the rest of his or her life. Equally, though, when you take a step back and make a point to focus on the factors that lead up to that moment or caused that moment to unfold the way it did, the judgment can turn to understanding with less effort than you may assume. Understanding why someone did something or ended up in a particular situation is crucially important, not because it will always change the conclusion to which the judgment points, but rather, because understanding why someone did something is often necessary, or at least extremely helpful, to figuring out how to stop either someone else from doing that same thing or preventing the same person from doing it again.

Also, I found Judge Miller’s discussion about jury selection fascinating. Again, it sort of points to the fact people with certain experiences and social characteristics are predisposed to be more understanding of or more critical towards a person depending on this person’s own experiences and social characteristics. Sort of an unexpected takeaway I took from Judge Miller’s discussion was how important it is to recognize what influences our own snap judgments so that we can remove our own biases and hear the stories of other people, and this process of understanding, it seems, can actually lead to a more accurate, more impartial judgment in the end.

Another R of Rose Scholars: Rewarding

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What I enjoyed the most about discussing the R’s of Rose House was learning how much effort goes into to ensuring that Rose is a place where students can rejuvenate, expand their minds, find their voice, and grow intellectually and professionally. Knowing what Rose House is meant to be for students serves as both a reminder and a motivator that encourages me to do my best to make the most of living here. Also, the fact that students living in Rose have the opportunity to voice their opinions about what kind of events they want to take place, which professors they want to talk to, and where they want to go visit really emphasizes that Rose is dedicated to being not just a dorm but a community –a place where people and their voices are valued. I really appreciated that we were able to unabashedly vent about what we feel needs improvement—from toilet paper stocking rates to an increase in the number professional development events—because just knowing that people want to know what concerns you or what you are hoping to accomplish this year improves the experience of living in Rose and empowers you to realize these goals.

I also just want to echo the emphasis on brining more networking and professional development events to Rose. I think that bringing Cornell alumni or really just any successful professionals with interesting career paths to talk about why they choose to enter different industries, fields of study, or occupations would be an awesome addition to the resources Rose offers. While Career Development does have career fairs, workshops about how to, for example, market your liberal arts degree, and dinners or meetings with prominent alumni, these events often fill up fast and can be a bit overwhelming. Being able to attend these kinds of events right on West Campus in more relaxed and interactive environment would really contribute to Rose’s aim of bringing all of Cornell’s benefits “down the hill.”

Adding to that point, I also agree with the idea that having more Cornell professors come visit Rose could facilitate opportunities for building relationships with Cornell faculty and getting involved with research. There are so many extremely bright, accomplished people doing extremely interesting, groundbreaking work right here at Cornell, and learning about all that is being discovered right here on campus would really help students make the most of the privilege of going to Cornell.

I am looking forward to an exciting year!