Hey guys welcome to my blog. As you interact with the various sites, videos and other media, I want you to be aware of the focus of discrimination. I stared with current day issues such as obesity and gay rights, and connected them with issues of the past such as black civil rights and the holocaust. While you search through my blog, I want you to keep in mind the connections each issue has with one another. I want you to consider how obesity issues of today connects with the civil rights movement of the past. How are they the same? How are they different? The purpose of this blog is to get you to realize that discrimination comes in all forms and affects all people. I want you to understand that discrimination occurs in many forms and that it is being transformed to affect new groups of people. Consider why it is important to remember the effects discrimination had on past victims and how can we try to prevent discrimination in the future. I hope you enjoy my blog! Also, there is a link to a holocaust video. To get there, click on "Older Posts" at the bottom of the page.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/08/04/earlyshow/contributors/emilysenay/main566628.shtml

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fTuKH3qBvZU&feature=related

Obesity continues to be a huge problem in this country. Pun intended! There are more than 1 in 4 people in the United States that are obese or over weight (nearly 60%). Why do you think this is the case? Obesity in children is one of the biggest threats we face in our society. Is it bad parenting with their childrens diets, or is the child to blame for his/her eating habits? What do you think we can do to help our children and ourselves become healthier people? There is a link to a news article about childhood obesity you can go to and a music video to make this issue a little bit easier to swallow. Again, pun intended!

Gay and Lesbian equality has been an ongoing debate for many years now. There are only a few select places in the United States where people are legally allowed to celebrate gay marriages. Why is this such a controversial topic? Where is the harm in allowing gay and lesbian couples to get married? What is your take on the issue. The following site allows you to interact with the many issues surrounding gay rights and allows you to voice an opinion.

http://www.speakout.com/activism/gayrights/

Here is part of the text from the famous "I Have A Dream Speech" by Martin Luther King in 1963. There is also a link attached where you can go and view the entire text of the speech. While rading, keep in mind the audience Martin Luther King is speaking to. The audience may not be as obvious as you think and there may be more than one. Also, while reading, consider how these cries for liberation can be compared to that of the Holocaust. Were these victims in the Civil Rights Movement and the Holocaust much different? What do you think?

http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/mlkihaveadream.htm

I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of great trials and tribulations. Some of you have come fresh from narrow jail cells. And some of you have come from areas where your quest -- quest for freedom left you battered by the storms of persecution and staggered by the winds of police brutality. You have been the veterans of creative suffering. Continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive. Go back to Mississippi, go back to Alabama, go back to South Carolina, go back to Georgia, go back to Louisiana, go back to the slums and ghettos of our northern cities, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed.

Let us not wallow in the valley of despair, I say to you today, my friends.

And so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal."

I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.

I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

I have a dream today!

I have a dream that one day, down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of "interposition" and "nullification" -- one day right there in Alabama little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.

I have a dream today!

I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, and every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight; "and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together."²

This is our hope, and this is the faith that I go back to the South with.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3mIIdQNjIuE&feature=related

This video is a slide show of the horrific events that took place during the Holocaust of World War II. There are some pretty graphic pictures within this video so be prepared to see some gruesome pictures. As you are watching the video, I want you to keep in mind the following.

Why do you think this video is affective?

Why do you think the creator decided to use this type of music?

What is your reaction after watching the video?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bHAF0sgzKOs