City of Angels 2018-19

In this class, we have talked about drugs and alcohol a lot from our perspective. However, one topic that I would like to explore more is what is it like from a parent's perspective. I found a story online about a mom who found out her daughter was an alcoholic, and the mom felt terrible. She states, "I felt anger, ashamed confused, hopeless, and alone. I wanted to hide and did not want to socialize with friends." Obviously, her daughter's addiction not only affected her but the mother as well. Although we are not parents as of yet, with drugs such as weed becoming more and more easy to access, I can only imagine that there has been an increase in teen usage. Furthermore, as stated in previous blog posts, there is a good percentage of teens that drink alcohol, and an alarming percentage of teens that have either been in a car with a drunk driver or have been driving while drunk themselves. This is obviously something that parents would like to prevent from happening a...

In all the talk we’ve done concerning drug addiction and substance abuse in Los Angeles, I thought it would be interesting to focus in on drug addiction and substance abuse at Poly.   While it is not uncommon for teenagers to inevitably be curious about drugs and alcohol, binge drinking, drug abuse and drug addiction have grown very common among high schoolers today.   In the US, according to several studies done in 2016, 68% of 12th graders have tried alcohol, 37.4% of 12th graders drank/got drunk recently, 21% binge drank in that month, 22% rode in someone’s car who’d been drinking, and 10% drove after drinking (all in the month of the study).   In addition, 35.1% of 12th graders had smoked weed in the past year, 21.3% of 12th graders had smoked weed recently (then, in the previous 30 days), and 6% of 12th graders said they used marijuana every day.  What's more, 2.5% of Seniors were using cocaine.    I can only imagine how much these numbers have go...

Weekend two of Coachella just wrapped up. While the music festival is two hours away in the middle of the desert, Los Angeles is also known for attracting a ton of music festival goers at events such as FYF, Camp Flog Gnaw, and many more. Several people of different backgrounds, young and old, (including myself) enjoy celebrating our favorite artists and musicians. Plus, it's more than just the music. Food, art, camping, merchandise, free stuff, and of course spending quality time with close friends all contribute to an incredible musical experience! These festivals can be super fun and entertaining; however, sometimes the atmosphere and culture that surrounds music festivals can attract various drugs and drug usage. Many festival goers use, and sometimes rely on, various drugs to enhance and/or intensify their experience and I am not referring to marijuana. Typically, the drugs that are problematic at festivals include: MDMA (ecstasy), cocaine, opioids, alcohol, LSD, shrooms, and...

In January we delved into the topic of transportation of after responding to Emma’s blog post. Many of the responses focused on Los Angeles’s lack of convenient and efficient modes of public transportation. The most common modes of public transportation include buses, metro, and subway. There are multiple metro lines in Los Angeles although taking them seems to be more difficult than taking another form of transportation. In our previous discussion we assessed the current means of navigating our city in addition to future solutions that could improve the traffic and congestion in Los Angeles. After mentioning this topic to my father he told me about the how general motors and firestone tires paired up in order to derail future plans for infrastructure in Los Angeles. In 1938 through 1950 National City Lines and its subsidiaries, American City Lines and Pacific City Lines- gained control of additional transit systems in about 25 cities including Los Angeles. The National City Lines...

Alcoholism is defined as " an addiction to the consumption of alcoholic liquor or the mental illness and compulsive behavior resulting from alcohol dependency.” It is classified as a full-fledged addiction and disease by health organizations worldwide and is the third highest preventable cause of death in the United States annually. Even with such status and disastrous effects, alcoholism remains a topic that is often somewhat swept under the rug and considered a “lifestyle choice” rather than something that people can’t control. I’m interested in learning about how you guys first came to learn about alcoholism and whether or not you think our education system is teaching students enough about it, and also how American and Angeleno drinking culture is different from other places. How is the culture around drinking different in America than it is in other countries? Why do you think it is that even though we have one of the oldest minimum drinking ages worldwide, our alcoholis...

I have come to observe that in American society we shy away from talking about difficult issues. This is especially true when we broach the topic of life-threatening illnesses, people are often at a loss as to how to react. Recently in class, we have been learning about the stigmatization and narrative of various diseases. We as people enjoy and relate to stories because they have a way of drawing us into a person's experience. While statistics, facts, and data repel and instill fear. Releasing stories, putting a human face to an illness changes our perception. My grandfather has leukemia, a frightening diagnosis to many, but I have seen the lifesaving effects of the medication he takes and the full life he leads because of these advances in treatments. In Four Reincarnations, Max Ritvo's poems grief and angst are present as his imagination jumps between pain and serenity. Ritvo's willingness to lay bare his interiority illuminates a subject that is relegated in the darkn...