Bullying Prevention Speech

        Bullying has long lasting effects on people, but it only seems that the short-term effects are noticed.  Some of the short-term effects from bullying are that the victim will often suffer from headaches or stomach aches before the school day begins.  They don’t want to go to school or actively engage in learning.  Kids who are bullied have an increased risk being or becoming depressed, are more likely to have sleep troubles and lower academic scores. The long-term effects depend on the severity of the bullying and coping mechanisms of the person being bullied.  The person becomes withdrawn, openly critical of self, unmotivated, or expressing an inexplicable fear.  Many bullying incidents are not addressed because the victim may keep it a secret that they are being bullied for fear of what will happen.  This may have the person who is bullying believing they can get away with what they are doing and feeling like they have power over the person they are bullying.  Also bullying affects the victim's self confidence.  The effects of bullying can last a lifetime, some of which are:  The victim of the bullying begins to feel worse about themselves.  Victims of bullying have a harder time keeping friends, because the victim will tend to isolate themselves more than someone who is not bullied.  Would you want to spend your day at school being happy, focused on learning, and feeling safe?  Or would you like to spend it worrying about what someone will say or do to you?

Was Mrs. Lincoln really insane?

I read in the “NY Times Upfront Magazine”, about the 1875 trial of Mrs. Mary Lincoln, wife of President Abraham Lincoln.  In the article, it asked the question, was Mary Todd Lincoln insane or very depressed?  Most of Mrs. Lincoln’s family died of disease and her husband had been assassinated ten years earlier.  In her grief, she insisted on communicating with her dead family.  Also, Mrs. Lincoln acted paranoid insisting that retired confederate soldiers wanted to poison her; because of this her son requested a judge put her in an insane asylum. 

The magazine article poses the idea that she was not really insane but depressed.  Was she really insane?  The Associate Press published September 24, 2012, that the Lincoln Presidential Library hosted an insanity retrial in Chicago using modern laws.  Modern laws say that two physicians must agree that a person is a danger to themselves before they are put in a psychiatric mental health ward.  So now Mrs. Lincoln gets a new trial with modern laws that will most likely have different results then the original trial.

In the State Journal Register on Oct 1, Mary Lincoln was tried at the Presidential Library, with area judges as the lawyers, and the audience as the Jury.  More than twice as many jury members said she was not insane and she should not have been committed.

What if cows gave root beer instead of milk?

        If cows gave root beer instead of milk, one important thing I would notice is that we wouldn't have all the dairy products or foods we have today.  Foods that we all love would taste very different. Every flavor of ice cream would have a root beer taste to it.  Sandwiches that have cheese in them would taste very different. Imagine going to a shop and ordering a ham and root beer sub rather than a ham and cheese or going to a pizza place and ordering a root beer pizza instead of cheese. Also, imagine drinking root beer with your warm chocolate chip cookies.  We would not have chocolate milk but rather chocolate root beer. Milk contains calcium which is very good for our bones and bodies. There is not much nutritional value in root beer so we would have to get our calcium and protein from some other food sources.  Even everybody's favorite root beer float would be very different.  What would replace the vanilla ice cream in a root beer float?  It would be root beer ice cream, with even more root beer poured on top. As much as I enjoy root beer, I would not wanted it  to replace milk because I enjoy eating and drinking many of the foods that contain milk.