Recent Exhibition:
Reflection:
For this exhibition, the project I did was based on Abortion and all of the criteria surrounding the subject, I typed an essay to go along with an art piece. This exhibition was my first one ever because I am new to this kind of school, I had a better experience than I thought I would have. Pretty much anyone that took their time to look at my project liked where I was coming from and that I was standing up for something that most boys don’t, everyone liked my art piece and I got lots of compliments about it. No one disagreed with what I was saying but I did see a few people who sort of looked at it weird and did not say anything about it. I would not say my perspective about the topic changed really, but I did look deeper into the other side and can understand why they are on the side they are on. One thing I could really understand about the opposing side is that abortion just goes against their morals so they do not like it. I understand more about my values than I did before because the people I talked to agreed with what I had to say, they made me think about certain aspects of the topic that I did not think about before. Something I understand about the values of the other side is that most people that do not agree with it are very religious and stuck on their own beliefs which I can understand, especially Something new I may have learned about democracy from this project is that it is very easy to say one thing and make people automatically believe it, also that it can be easy to change people's perspectives on things if they are not too stubborn. My political views have not specifically been changed, but I do understand people who have different beliefs than me better. I understand that everyone has their personal beliefs and it's difficult to just change someone's beliefs by one project. Willingness to be disturbed can play a massive role in society. I think it can play a huge role because if you are willing to let yourself be disturbed you can learn a lot more about the real, dark history of the United States and maybe it could change/ improve people's beliefs for the better.
Art and Writing Piece
I am a sixteen year old male, so this is an unusual topic for me to do a project on, but I thought I would dive into it to show my view. Personally, I have only ever understood the concept of abortion since my eighth-grade year, and ever since I have known of it I knew it was up to the woman who carries the baby. I was very shocked when I saw the law passed in Alabama which made abortion illegal. The law of abortion in the United States of America is pretty simple; if there is any fetal movement, it is not permitted. The debate between abortion has been a big debate for a couple of decades in the U.S. It mostly came up as a problem in the United States around the 1920s. There are pretty much only two sides to this debate, the Pro-Life side, which is the overall argument that babies should not be killed in the stomach and should have a chance to live, and there is Pro-Choice side, the argument that women should be able to do whatever they want with their bodies. There is another view, some people do not really care but they think it is morally wrong. I stand on the side that women should be able to choose what they do or do not do with their bodies (Pro-Choice).
I am a middle-class sixteen-year-old boy who grew up in a very protected home from the outside world and politics and stuff so I have had no experience with abortion whatsoever, but it is an important topic to me because I believe in equality for everyone, and it really messes with the whole equality thing when they try to take a choice of controlling their own body from women. I wish I could say I have more experience with it, but I do not think I will even ever have any personal experience with abortion.
My exact stance on this topic is kind of interesting, since I am a sixteen year old boy no one cares about what I believe in, the only reason I did this topic is because it feels important to me that everyone has all the rights they deserve and a woman making her own choices about her own body is just a normal thing that everyone should be allowed to do and it actually makes no sense to me that they are trying to take away a bodily right.
The biggest opposing side of abortion stands with religious people. For example, 82% of people from the Buddhist religion believe abortion should be legal in all/ most cases. Jehovah’s Witness’, Mormans, and Evangelical Protestants are the only religions where more than 50% of the people think abortion should be illegal. The debate consists of the moral, legal, and religious side of things. I can see how people can be against it because it is offensive to their religion or it is morally wrong, but they should not criminalize it because it goes against their religion. It is simply just not fair to the receiving end.
“When the right to abortion is endangered, the fundamental equality of women is threatened”. These were wise words said by Naral Pro-Choice, an organization that argues women should have a choice. This is one of the arguments that I agree with the most. I never really looked at it like women losing their rights until I was done reading this article, I realized they actually had a very solid argument
I have also seen some pro-life arguments that did give very good reasons. For example, ProCon Org gave me the pros and cons of abortion and a lot of them made sense. One of the cons was that embryos are considered part of the homosapiens and if you kill one you are killing another human, which is an invalid argument in my opinion because the brain is not formed yet. The human brain is not even fully formed until a year after birth, that is why we do not remember being babies.
Another pro-life argument that caught my eye was that women and their partners have a lot of emotions after an abortion, including depression, anger, regret, etc. “Abortion is unlike any other issue debated today. Millions of American women have aborted a child, and the pain, loss, and emotional need to justify what was done, both on the part of the mother and on the part of her loved ones, is strong and deep.” Their main argument is that no one knows when life actually begins, so aborting a child could mean they sense and feel every bit of it.
Another Pro-Life source I found for this project had a science based bias. They are arguing that during an abortion the embryo can feel the pain of it happening. Science proves that a fetus’s eyes, mouth, and tongue are developed at 6 weeks in the stomach, but it does not prove that they have nerves. So I believe it is an invalid argument that needs better proof.
I do not think the law should take abortion into their hands and criminalize it in certain states. Abortion is being banned in certain states instead of as a country because it would genuinely enrage a massive group of people. Taking away a woman’s right to get an abortion is contesting their rights, if they can not make choices for themselves and their family it is taking one of their rights away. I believe one of the first states to do anything with the abortion law was Hawaii. In 1970 a law passed that abortion is legal up until the 24th week of pregnancy because the baby is almost completely formed by then. It is illegal in more states than it is legal in states. Illinois has made abortion completely illegal with no limits or acceptions, Alabama has made it illegal with limits, and in places like Colorado, it is still completely legal.
I think it is oblivious that people criminalize it, I do not understand how people can be so caught up in their own beliefs and religion that they happen to make it seem like an evil thing. I feel like they do not realise that it actually affects people's lives and where they are at at the moment. Women do not just get abortions because they do not want the baby, there are a bunch of reasons. One of the most common reasons for abortion is simply because the girl can not afford to have a baby, financially or just in general.
“Abortion should be safe, legal, and rare”- Bill Clinton. Nobody wants to get an abortion it’s just the circumstances they are under at the time that cause them to do it. I believe on the inside we are all actually Pro-Life because no one wants to kill another being; It mostly just happens depending on the situation of the women. Just because some people do not believe in the subject does not mean they can take everyone's rights away for it.
In my honest opinion, I think it should be the choice of the woman carrying the baby because it is her body, and the law should not be able to take the rights of their own bodies away. It genuinely confuses me how they are even allowed to take a simple human right away. I do like how they do the laws by state instead of a country as a whole though, I think if they were to ban it all around the United States there would be a huge outrage. But overall, I stand on the more on the pro-choice side, I just believe it should not be criminalized because sometimes the girl has no other choice, and I definitely do not think it is okay to take the rights to do it away.
I am a middle-class sixteen-year-old boy who grew up in a very protected home from the outside world and politics and stuff so I have had no experience with abortion whatsoever, but it is an important topic to me because I believe in equality for everyone, and it really messes with the whole equality thing when they try to take a choice of controlling their own body from women. I wish I could say I have more experience with it, but I do not think I will even ever have any personal experience with abortion.
My exact stance on this topic is kind of interesting, since I am a sixteen year old boy no one cares about what I believe in, the only reason I did this topic is because it feels important to me that everyone has all the rights they deserve and a woman making her own choices about her own body is just a normal thing that everyone should be allowed to do and it actually makes no sense to me that they are trying to take away a bodily right.
The biggest opposing side of abortion stands with religious people. For example, 82% of people from the Buddhist religion believe abortion should be legal in all/ most cases. Jehovah’s Witness’, Mormans, and Evangelical Protestants are the only religions where more than 50% of the people think abortion should be illegal. The debate consists of the moral, legal, and religious side of things. I can see how people can be against it because it is offensive to their religion or it is morally wrong, but they should not criminalize it because it goes against their religion. It is simply just not fair to the receiving end.
“When the right to abortion is endangered, the fundamental equality of women is threatened”. These were wise words said by Naral Pro-Choice, an organization that argues women should have a choice. This is one of the arguments that I agree with the most. I never really looked at it like women losing their rights until I was done reading this article, I realized they actually had a very solid argument
I have also seen some pro-life arguments that did give very good reasons. For example, ProCon Org gave me the pros and cons of abortion and a lot of them made sense. One of the cons was that embryos are considered part of the homosapiens and if you kill one you are killing another human, which is an invalid argument in my opinion because the brain is not formed yet. The human brain is not even fully formed until a year after birth, that is why we do not remember being babies.
Another pro-life argument that caught my eye was that women and their partners have a lot of emotions after an abortion, including depression, anger, regret, etc. “Abortion is unlike any other issue debated today. Millions of American women have aborted a child, and the pain, loss, and emotional need to justify what was done, both on the part of the mother and on the part of her loved ones, is strong and deep.” Their main argument is that no one knows when life actually begins, so aborting a child could mean they sense and feel every bit of it.
Another Pro-Life source I found for this project had a science based bias. They are arguing that during an abortion the embryo can feel the pain of it happening. Science proves that a fetus’s eyes, mouth, and tongue are developed at 6 weeks in the stomach, but it does not prove that they have nerves. So I believe it is an invalid argument that needs better proof.
I do not think the law should take abortion into their hands and criminalize it in certain states. Abortion is being banned in certain states instead of as a country because it would genuinely enrage a massive group of people. Taking away a woman’s right to get an abortion is contesting their rights, if they can not make choices for themselves and their family it is taking one of their rights away. I believe one of the first states to do anything with the abortion law was Hawaii. In 1970 a law passed that abortion is legal up until the 24th week of pregnancy because the baby is almost completely formed by then. It is illegal in more states than it is legal in states. Illinois has made abortion completely illegal with no limits or acceptions, Alabama has made it illegal with limits, and in places like Colorado, it is still completely legal.
I think it is oblivious that people criminalize it, I do not understand how people can be so caught up in their own beliefs and religion that they happen to make it seem like an evil thing. I feel like they do not realise that it actually affects people's lives and where they are at at the moment. Women do not just get abortions because they do not want the baby, there are a bunch of reasons. One of the most common reasons for abortion is simply because the girl can not afford to have a baby, financially or just in general.
“Abortion should be safe, legal, and rare”- Bill Clinton. Nobody wants to get an abortion it’s just the circumstances they are under at the time that cause them to do it. I believe on the inside we are all actually Pro-Life because no one wants to kill another being; It mostly just happens depending on the situation of the women. Just because some people do not believe in the subject does not mean they can take everyone's rights away for it.
In my honest opinion, I think it should be the choice of the woman carrying the baby because it is her body, and the law should not be able to take the rights of their own bodies away. It genuinely confuses me how they are even allowed to take a simple human right away. I do like how they do the laws by state instead of a country as a whole though, I think if they were to ban it all around the United States there would be a huge outrage. But overall, I stand on the more on the pro-choice side, I just believe it should not be criminalized because sometimes the girl has no other choice, and I definitely do not think it is okay to take the rights to do it away.
Personal Connection Essay:
The abortion debate in the U.S.A.
Personally, I have only ever understood the concept of abortion since my eighth-grade year, and ever since I have known of it I knew it was up to the woman who carries the baby. I was very shocked when I saw the law passed in Alabama which made abortion illegal. The law of abortion in the United States of America is pretty simple; if there is any fetal movement, it is not permitted. The debate between abortion has been a big debate for a couple of decades in the U.S. It mostly came up as a problem in the United States around the 1920s. There are pretty much only two sides to this debate, the Pro-Life side, which is the argument that babies should not be killed in the stomach and should have a chance to live, and there is Pro-Choice side, the argument that women should be able to do whatever they want with their bodies. There is another view, some people do not really care but they think it is morally wrong. I honestly stand on the side that women should be able to choose what they do or do not do with their bodies. Some arguments I have heard include “what if the girl is going to be a rocket scientist when she is older?” However, she now has a baby her money will now have to go towards that instead of the schooling she needed to get there.
Most of the women that do choose abortion do it either because they can not afford to have a baby, or because they are too young to be parents. What if the woman gets raped and she just straight up does not want the baby, there is no point of letting it form into a complete person if she is just going to get rid of it with adoption either way. If the United States decided to ban abortion it would leave hundreds of thousands of people stranded and could potentially ruin a bunch of people’s lives. I honestly do not understand why they would even consider making it illegal, for example, Alabama passed a law in May of 2019 that all abortion in the state will be banned by November of 2019.
Some of the abortion connects to the religion of the people. For example, 82% of people from the Buddhist religion believe abortion should be legal in all/ most cases. Jehovah’s Witness’, Mormans, and Evangelical Protestants are the only religions where under 50% of the people think abortion should be legal. The debate consists of the moral, legal, and religious side of things. I can see how people can be against it because it is offensive to their religion or it is morally wrong. But I can not understand why the law would take it into their hands when it is generally the woman's choice.
Abortion is being banned in certain states instead of as a country because it would genuinely enrage a massive group of people. Taking away a woman’s right to get an abortion is contesting their rights, if they can not make choices for themselves and their family it is basically taking their rights away. I believe one of the first states to do anything with the abortion law was Hawaii. In 1970 a law passed that abortion is legal up until the 24th week of pregnancy because the baby is almost completely formed by then. It is illegal in more states than it is legal in states. Illinois has made abortion completely illegal with no limits or acceptions, Alabama has made it illegal with limits, and in places like Colorado, it is still completely legal.
“Abortion should be safe, legal, and rare”- Bill Clinton. Nobody wants to get an abortion- it’s just the circumstances they are under at the time that cause them to do it. We are all actually pro-life; we don’t want to kill embryos, but sometimes people have no choice. Just because some people do not believe in the subject does not mean they can take everyone's rights away for it.
In my honest opinion, I think it should be the choice of the woman carrying the baby because it is her body, and the law should not be able to take the rights of their own bodies away. It genuinely confuses me how they are even allowed to take the rights away. I do like how they do the laws by state instead of a country as a whole though, I think if they were to ban it all around the United States there would be a huge outrage. But overall, I stand on the more on the pro-choice side, I just believe it should not be criminalized because sometimes the girl has no other choice.
Philosophy Project:
Writing Piece: Life, life is one wild ride. In only 16 years I have experienced so much in my life already, and can not wait to see what I have ahead of me in my future. I have experienced love, hate, pain, joy, confusionMy life does not consist of very much, I play video games, hang out with friends, skate, and go to school. But, that is all I need. I do not fully know my meaning of life. But as of now, my purpose is to gain experience in life. For example, meeting new friends, finding love with other people and animals, all the pain, all the suffering, it is all apart of my meaning in life. I find purpose by hanging with my boys, spending time with family, going on mountain bike rides, and hikes. I find joy in nature, animals, and especially when my friends are with me. The only things that really matter to me are my friends and family, without them I would be nothing. All the different friend groups I have passed through over the years have built who I am today. I find a lot of beauty in my life because I am grateful for who and where I am in a world of almost 8 billion people.
A meaningful life for me is just to be successful and have good friends my entire life, then I will be happy with my life. “Intertextual Experience” impacts my philosophy a lot. I watch this one show called Naruto: Shippuuden and the show has genuinely taught me things. One of the main things it has taught me is that “There's no advantage to hurrying through life." I love being a kid, and I am deeply sad that it ends one day and that day is coming faster than expected. I was very protected from stuff as a kid, so I had to learn a lot of stuff about life through my experience as a teenager. I do not want anyone to feel bad for me or anything but two of my closest friends took their own lives when we were only 13 years old, it was a pain/ experience I wish I did not have to go through so early in life, but it really did teach me a lot of lessons and it gave me a lot of motivation to live my life for them. I have felt miserable before and like I had no purpose, but who hasn’t? In such a cruel world where things are so unknown, who hasn’t just felt like paper floating in the wind? I can assure you, you are not a paper floating in the wind, you might be just one human out of almost 8 billion, but each and every one of us has a purpose here, and if you do not like the hand fate has dealt you, fight for a new one.
A meaningful life for me is just to be successful and have good friends my entire life, then I will be happy with my life. “Intertextual Experience” impacts my philosophy a lot. I watch this one show called Naruto: Shippuuden and the show has genuinely taught me things. One of the main things it has taught me is that “There's no advantage to hurrying through life." I love being a kid, and I am deeply sad that it ends one day and that day is coming faster than expected. I was very protected from stuff as a kid, so I had to learn a lot of stuff about life through my experience as a teenager. I do not want anyone to feel bad for me or anything but two of my closest friends took their own lives when we were only 13 years old, it was a pain/ experience I wish I did not have to go through so early in life, but it really did teach me a lot of lessons and it gave me a lot of motivation to live my life for them. I have felt miserable before and like I had no purpose, but who hasn’t? In such a cruel world where things are so unknown, who hasn’t just felt like paper floating in the wind? I can assure you, you are not a paper floating in the wind, you might be just one human out of almost 8 billion, but each and every one of us has a purpose here, and if you do not like the hand fate has dealt you, fight for a new one.
Final Food Project Essay
Consumers have a major role to play in food ethics. My personal “Food Ethic” is important to me because I want to be healthy, but it is not the thing I focus most on. Although, I would not say I eat very ethically. I can only think of a couple of ethical ways I eat, One of the only ethical ways that I eat is organic foods, my mom buys them because she thinks the chemicals in non-organic are harming the earth and animals. I would characterize my food ethic as normal, I do not eat junk food all the time, and I do not eat healthy all the time either. The biggest factor that influences my food ethic is health. I care a lot about my health because I know if you just eat a bunch of nonsense while you are young it will bring in some health problems in the future. Another factor is environmental, at my mom’s house we have a massive garden and she loves to grow a lot of vegetables each year, and sometimes we have meals from stuff entirely from our garden. I mostly base my eating habits on how I want to look and feel. I am just hoping to be healthy for hopefully my entire life, and I do not want to cut my life short from drinking a bunch of soda and eating a bunch of McDonald’s, and keeping my same eating habits will help me with that.
For some people their relationship with food is very important to them, for me, I can not say it is. My relationship with food does not impact my happiness or how I feel, If I were to not have the accessibility I have to food today it would definitely impact my well being and feelings. There are a lot of people who do not get to have the same experience with foods that I do, so I am grateful for food but as of now it does not affect me personally.
Our food ethics can be influenced by different types of things, whether it be online or in person. I would not say my food ethic is influenced by marketing or media, probably only when I see ads for fast food, and then it makes me want to go get some Wendys or Sonic. Or when I go to a restaurant and they serve me processed food without me knowing because it costs them less money. I do not know completely how my ethic is influenced by that stuff, but I feel like junk food is basically crack so if you are being fed it without knowing, it will become the only thing you eat.
Everyone has their personal food chain, as in herbivore, carnivore, or omnivore. Personally I am an omnivore. I actively participate in my personal food chain, I am an omnivore so I will eat basically anything. I eat meat almost every day whether it is for lunch or dinner. It influences my ethic because it adds a lot of other foods that I can eat because I am not vegetarian or vegan. There are so many different types of eaters, we see vegetarians, pescatarians, people that eat both meat and vegetables, people that only eat meat, and the list goes on. But for me personally, I could never go without eating meat, I eat it probably every single day and if I could never eat it again I do not know what else I would replace it with. To conclude, I personally think it is important to have a good food ethic, but it is not something that you should form your life around and definitely is not the thing you should be focused most on.
For some people their relationship with food is very important to them, for me, I can not say it is. My relationship with food does not impact my happiness or how I feel, If I were to not have the accessibility I have to food today it would definitely impact my well being and feelings. There are a lot of people who do not get to have the same experience with foods that I do, so I am grateful for food but as of now it does not affect me personally.
Our food ethics can be influenced by different types of things, whether it be online or in person. I would not say my food ethic is influenced by marketing or media, probably only when I see ads for fast food, and then it makes me want to go get some Wendys or Sonic. Or when I go to a restaurant and they serve me processed food without me knowing because it costs them less money. I do not know completely how my ethic is influenced by that stuff, but I feel like junk food is basically crack so if you are being fed it without knowing, it will become the only thing you eat.
Everyone has their personal food chain, as in herbivore, carnivore, or omnivore. Personally I am an omnivore. I actively participate in my personal food chain, I am an omnivore so I will eat basically anything. I eat meat almost every day whether it is for lunch or dinner. It influences my ethic because it adds a lot of other foods that I can eat because I am not vegetarian or vegan. There are so many different types of eaters, we see vegetarians, pescatarians, people that eat both meat and vegetables, people that only eat meat, and the list goes on. But for me personally, I could never go without eating meat, I eat it probably every single day and if I could never eat it again I do not know what else I would replace it with. To conclude, I personally think it is important to have a good food ethic, but it is not something that you should form your life around and definitely is not the thing you should be focused most on.