Emmanuel's Gift

In the United States, we have come a long way in understanding that individuals with disabilities have not only the right to life, dignity and respect but also that they have something to give back to the world around them. While watching this video, I was struck not only by the fact that children with disabilities were killed and/or abandoned, but also by the fact that their lives had no value. Emmanuel beat the odds by putting together a grant package for something as simple as a bicyle so he could bike across a country, and in doing so he impacted an entire country by passing on the generosity. Emmanuel is truly a gift to his culture because he has shown that despite years of beliefs that disability deems an individual worthless and unworthy of life, he has not only proven that he can have a dream and make it happen but also that they can make a difference in the lives of many.

Unnatural Causes

As I watched this DVD, I was amazed at how well it connected all of the things we had been discussing in class. I noticed that those individuals with more education lived at a higher socioeconmic status than those with little or no education. Each district in the video reflected a different set of issues to go with the varying socioeconomic statuses of the individuals. Individuals with little or no education tended to have poor diet and more health concerns than those who were well educated. I also noticed that the lower the socioeconomic status of the individual, the shorter their life span and the more health concerns they had, and that those individuals who lived closer to the poverty line were more likely to suffer from abnormal amounts of stress and health ailments such as high blood pressure and diabetes. It was also clear that the socioeconomic status can have a huge impact on the amount of stress placed upon an individual and can therefore have an impact on their overall health and life expectancy. It was also interesting that in human experiments it was found that those individuals who were of higher status had lower cortisol levels than those of lower status.