Jesse+Jaramillo

**Alcohol Consumption and Effects in Western Culture**

 Despite its popularity, alcohol consumption has many negative side effects that have impacted our culture for many years. In 2010, the CDC (Center for Disease Control and Prevention) reported that fifty-two percent of Americans are frequent alcohol consumers. Alcohol consumption has been climbing up since the mid 1920’s, when the Prohibition Act was over turned. Ever since then, alcohol has had positive sales and non-users have become frequent users, which has caused consumption percentages to go up. We know alcohol, throughout history, affects not just frequent users, but others that have never taken a drink of alcohol in their lives. Alcohol has many physical consequences that harm the person who consumes it. Even though today, many still consume alcohol, knowing what harm it causes to the user.

 Alcohol has been in the world since the Stone Age with the discovery of beer jugs. After that, Egyptians were the first to drink wine, and ever since then, alcohol has expanded different inventions. With different inventions of alcohol, the different intentions of alcohol use change. The spike of popularity of alcohol has increased the past few centuries because of new inventions. The popularity of alcohol is due to its mind-altering effects. Alcohol, throughout history, may have not caused many incidents, such as someone drunk killing someone important, or someone drunk consuming too much alcohol, but it has affected the average person today. Alcohol is very popular with the younger generation, mostly because the youth can be experimentalist. The younger generation is considered to be willing to try new things as opposed to the older generation. The older generation has experienced more with alcohol but a longer time ago, when they were younger. Being intoxicated is acting cool to the younger generation, because it makes them socially accepted to their peers. As we know to this day, alcohol consumption is practiced every day and is commonly advertised in today’s media to and through the younger generation.

 What are the effects of alcohol that we know impair users? Alcohol has various effects on each user. Alcohol can calm some, and it can completely shut down others bodies. What alcohol is known to do is to temporarily impair the mind, which throws the visual sense off as well. Alcohol can cause the mind to either think that oneself is somewhere in one place, while they might not be there in reality. Most of the time when someone consumes too much alcohol, it tends to make one not remember what actually happened, and that is where some people call “a blackout”. Blackouts happen very rarely to some but quite often to others. Due to these impairing effects, alcohol is considered a drug. Drugs are frowned upon in most cultures, but in others, drugs are used every day. In western culture, alcohol use is frowned upon when it becomes binge drinking, but not when it is classy wine drinking at a dinner table.

 The effects I have seen with alcohol can be considered hilarious, while others were very annoying. I have had to take care of some people, when the person consumed too much alcohol, which it is very irritating, trying to help them take care of themselves, when they simply cannot. In other ways, to see someone do something stupid that he or she would normally not do is very hilarious, like someone doing a crazy dance or singing a song they don’t know. I have personally experienced alcohol as an audacious activity, that can make you do whatever, whenever, that does have consequences. An incident that happened to me was during my sophomore year in high school, my sister and cousin decided to get drunk at a concert here in town. They consumed eighty year old vodka, and with all our friends and family around, they didn’t realize how drunk they got. My sister woke up in the hospital after falling and hitting her head, as my cousin fell asleep during the concert. After the concert, my grandma and grandpa had to pick us up. We had to drive to the hospital to go check on my sister, which we still had my cousin with us, she also ended up throwing up in the hospital room, and getting checked into the hospital as well. These consequences were highly sufferable for both my sister, and my cousin who got into a lot of trouble and were never allowed to hang out together again. Most people like to forget about these consequences while; others have to live with these consequences for the rest of their lives.

 What should we do with the consumption of alcohol being so high? The next time, before we consume, we should think about what is going to happen to us in five minutes, thirty minutes, or even ten years from now, after consuming this. Where will this drink take us from being sober, to being drunk in a matter of a few hours? We always need to think about the possibilities we will face as a matter to the consumption of alcohol. Alcohol can take someone to different places, places normally the user would not intend on going, and it is practiced everyday throughout our culture. We see alcohol as a drug, a gateway drug, and even a weapon. Yet, as we face ourselves with this drug, which we never think about the consequences alcohol might do to us.





**The Rivalries of Valencia County High Schools**

In the center of New Mexico, there is a small county called Valencia. Valencia County is located twenty miles south of Albuquerque, and it is considered as part Albuquerque’s metropolitan area. In Valencia County, there are two big cities, Los Lunas and Belen. Los Lunas has a population of 14,835 (U.S. Census Bureau) residents in its city limits (U.S. Census Bureau), and Belen with 7,269 residents in its city limits (American FactFinder). Even though most of Valencia County is urban farm land, roughly about 76,569 residents live in the county, which covers 1,000 square miles (Valencia County QuickFacts from the US Census Bureau). In this area, three high schools serve this entire area, [|Los Lunas High School], Belen High School, and Valencia High School; each having about 6,000 students. With Albuquerque being too far of a drive, many locals stay in either Los Lunas or Belen for entertainment. One big event in Valencia County is the “Battle in the Backyard” taking place in spring every year, in which high school students endure challenges, such as painting over signs, making loud noises driving down one of the main streets, and messing with each other’s properties, all to prove that their high school is the “best”. Year after year, Valencia County sees damage, but not as bad as the spring of 2011.

 The senior class of 2011 was an outrageous class in Valencia County history, partly due to the fact that this was Valencia High School’s second graduating class and all three high schools are now playing 4-A (AAAA) class in sports. This was a big turnaround for Valencia County schools, because Los Lunas High was always the slightly bigger school with a slightly better team. In 2007, the story changed, and Los Lunas gave up 75% of its students and Belen gave up 25% to create a new high school, Valencia High School. This caused more jobs and was a plus to Valencia County’s economy and thus making all three high schools bigger. With more population, the rivalries got more intense and sports got more intense as well. With Belen High School Football program the best in the State and Valencia’s the second best, the school spirit became high and social activities rose throughout the community.

 It is unclear when Belen High School and Los Lunas High School were rivals, but probably when Los Lunas High School became a school in the early 1920’s. Even though Valencia High School is new there was a new tradition started and ended in just a couple of years. This past year, the senior classes at Los Lunas High School, Valencia High School, and Belen High School decided to have a “Battle in the Backyard” event in which seniors from all three schools go on a scavenger hunt throughout Valencia county and the school with all the highest combined scores wins.

 A group of students from Belen were supposed to go to create a human chain and run around a tennis court. This group chose San Antonio Park (in Los Lunas) and ended up destroying the grass and knocking over a light pole with one of their vehicles, which in return, broke the playground set. The damage was well into the thousands, and it didn’t end there. A group from Valencia High School decided to change a sign on Los Lunas’ Luna Hill. Luna Hill is about one mile from Los Lunas High School off of Interstate-25 and this hill has the giant white letters “LL” painted on it. This group walked up this hill and changed the sign to say “69”. 69 is a sexual term and considered provocative. Then, the next day of the challenge, a group from Los Lunas High School wanted pay back for their hill. Belen has a giant letter “B” on a smaller hill located, as well, on the other side of the interstate in Belen from Belen High School. This group decided to go to Belen and change the “B” to spell out the word “Bitches” with paint, which is another sexually provocative term. After these weeklong events, none of the damage was fixed as compared to before in past years, when students fixed what they messed up, and as a result local residents, city government, and federal government were unhappy.

 Since the early 1970’s, these traditions have come to a halt. What made these events more serious and personal rather than previous years? Mostly due to the three high schools not knowing who messed with their local land and not knowing exactly if it was the other particular school or not. More heat came from incidents from the previous year when some were called traitors since they transferred to Valencia High School from Belen or Los Lunas. The overall cost of the damage throughout the area was around a million dollars. But the city government, locals, and federal government were not going to forget about this. They made all the seniors from both high schools volunteer at least 15 hours to fixing the damages, whether or not they caused the damage. It is unknown what the new tradition is going to be for the three high schools but its guaranteed the government is going to be stricter than previous years.





**Works Cited** //Valencia County QuickFacts from the US Census Bureau//. U.S. Census Bureau, n.d. Web. 9 Oct.

<span style="display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%; text-align: center;">2011. <@http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/35/35061.html>.

<span style="display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%; text-align: center;">U.S. Census Bureau. //American FactFinder - Results//. N.p., n.d. Web. 9 Oct. 2011.

<span style="display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%; text-align: center;"><@http://factfinder2.census.gov/faces/tableservices/jsf/pages/productview.xhtml?src=bkmk>.

<span style="display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%; text-align: center;">//American FactFinder - Results Belen, New Mexico//. N.p., n.d. //U.S. Census Bureau//. Web. 10 Oct.

<span style="display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%; text-align: center;">2011. <@http://factfinder2.census.gov/faces/tableservices/jsf/pages/productview.xhtml?src=bkmk>.

<span style="display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%; text-align: center;">Corporal Punishment

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;"> Corporal punishment is the act when an adult is abusing a child through physical punishment. In 2006, 223,190 children in the U.S. were physically abused, but in 1976, there were more children abused with 1,521,896 children (U.S.). The past century many adults grown up with corporal punishment, and many will somewhat agree that they feel like better people. In Europe every single county has a ban on corporal punishment and even laws on corporal punishment at home. So why have cases of corporal punishment gone down in the past 40 years? Where the most cases of corporal punishment occur in the U.S.? What has been done to decrease the number of cases of corporal punishment?

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;"> Here in New Mexico corporal punishment has been out lawed as of March 2011 by the House of Representatives, the Senate, and our Governor (Echo). This was major step for our public schools to outlaw an issue that has been in our nation’s schools since the establishment of schools. In our country about half of our states have outlawed corporal punishment while the other half still except it. While states have been placing laws on corporal punishment; the number of cases has decreased since the early 1970’s about 68% (U.S.). Corporal punishment hasn’t been affecting the U.S. but all over the world. All of Europe has outlawed corporal punishment as well has punishment in the home. Europe has had corporal punishment not just in school but in home for many centuries, and to suddenly outlaw a practiced characteristic throughout a continent is a major change. Major changes have not been in just the U.S. and Europe but all over the world including China, Japan, Australia, South Africa, and Russia.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;"> Since corporal punishment was outlawed in New Mexico in 2011, I still grew up, going to school with corporal punishment being legal. Growing up in a catholic community, corporal punishment was used in school. When I was little, I had an apple thrown at me by my nun. It was very sad because I was the one who gave her the apple. After that I had only one other incident where I got into trouble. The other incident was my junior year of high school; my English teacher really disliked my method of learning. My method was to get ahead on my work and one day I decided to skip class the week after I got far ahead. When I got back, she started accusing me of cheating and being lazy. She also stated that I go into class; I liked to get high on marijuana, and never paid attention. Angered, I walked out of class and go back after I cooled down. I put my head down and she grabs a English textbook and throws it at me, which smashed my nose. I got a bloody nose and I got suspended from school. My high school took her side for the most part, but the exception of her accusations of me. I was possibly not liked because I played sports and I called her a lesbian but I got what I deserved. I understand that I was wrong for leaving class and getting too far ahead, but others would have said she was being very abusive and committed a crime towards her student. My peers were also punished for the mistakes they made as well, but they did worse actions then me. Since my school is in a populated area with many diverse cultures; this brought issues into not just the community, but our whole state.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;"> In schools today you would have found my story to be repulsive of corporal punishment, but I certain communities like the catholic community I grew up in, I found it to be understanding. There are psychological damages that consequently happen to children when you use physical punishment, but they do not end up having harshly negative effects. The effects would be when a child behaves disorderedly, you use a spank on the butt and the child knows that they have committed wrong doing and stop. There should be a limit to how much physical and mental punishment you use towards a child, because children are more weak and younger than the parent or guardian.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;"> With the lack of physical punishment in schools, children would know they can do whatever they want without any consequences. Such as, “if you don’t stop you won’t get lunch” well what happens if the child goes home with no lunch, then that’s no benefit to the parent who send their child to school to get and education and take care of their child for six hours. It is hard to punish a child, with the child knowing they can get away with whatever they want. Lack of physical punishment has negative consequences for the child and even when they grow up to when they are adults. So I say yes to physical punishment in school but at a certain limit to where you spank the kid, but no bloody noses.



<span style="color: #008000; display: block; font-family: 'Lucida Console',Monaco,monospace; font-size: 170%; text-align: center;">Let's reintroduce corporal punishment in the schools - and use it on the teachers. <span style="color: #008000; display: block; font-family: 'Lucida Console',Monaco,monospace; font-size: 170%; text-align: center;">P. J. O'Rourke @http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/keywords/corporal.html

<span style="display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%; text-align: center;">Works Cited

<span style="display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%; text-align: center;">"U.S.: Corporal Punishment and Paddling Statistics by State and Race." Discipline at School (NCACPS).

<span style="display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%; text-align: center;">The Center for Effective Discipline, n.d. Web. 11 Nov. 2011.

<span style="display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%; text-align: center;"><@http://www.stophitting.com/index.php?page=statesbanning>.

<span style="display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%; text-align: center;">Echo, Marc. "Thank You New Mexico For Banning Corporal Punishment in Schools." //Huffinton//

<span style="display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%; text-align: center;">//Post Education//. N.p., 7 Apr. 2011. Web. 20 Nov. 2011. <@http://www.huffingtonpost.com/marc-ecko/new-mexico-corporal-

<span style="display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%; text-align: center;">[|punishment_b_846201.html]>.