Obey Your Master

–

Obey your master,

You’ll only die faster,

It’s useless to fight,

And there’s no hope in flight,

Feel the hot fumes of death,

That Poison your every breath,

You’re just a dead man walking,

Like a predator, it is stalking,

You can not win,

So just give in,

You’ll only die faster,

Unless you obey your Master.

In the year 1860, the Pony Express was founded. This was the first true mail- carrying company to reach across the nation (from Missouri to California.) Since then, the way we send information around the globe has advanced greatly in leaps and bounds. From Morse Code to radio, TV to computers, and Palm Pilots to Smart Phones. But the ever existent U.S. post office has suffered through thick and thin, but is it becoming obsolete? Or is the post office stronger than ever? Do we still need the post office?

YES:

————–

Despite the emergence of e- mail, texting, and sites like twitter and facebook, Americans still need the post office. It is the only business who is established by the constitution, and the post office and private delivery companies flourish in big cities. The post office is the only thing that can get information to places like Wyoming or Alaska, who seems cut off from the rest of America’s technology. Without post, how could the elderly get social security? or the less fortunate get welfare? What if our cyber superhighway crashes? The post office is the only thing that we could rely on. Also, the post office also helps with census, and also takes care of Passports.

NO:

——-

Very little of “snail mail” is personal anymore. It is normally junk. For most of us, we communicate primarily through e-mail, and internet is becoming available in rural areas. Also, people are now starting to pay their bills online as well.

“Smoking is one of the leading causes of statistics.”  This observation, made by Fletcher Knebel, a political author, is dead accurate. There is a war over smoking not only in the United States but around the world. Anti- smoking campaigns, teens smoking younger and younger (the youngest I’ve heard is 12,) in- school campaigns to teach kids the dangers of smoking, and the media monster eating it all up. A new controversy was recently sparked in my mind when I was watching an episode of “Cash Cab” on the Discovery Channel. At the end of the episode, I witnessed the host and Discovery personality, Ben Bailey, put a cigarette in his mouth. The show cut before he light it. The Controversy sparked was should we be showing the use of tobacco products on family shows like “Cash Cab”? Should we allow the use of tobacco, drugs, or alcohol on TV at all?

Many adults today smoke. A statistic from the American Heart Association’s website (http://www.americanheart.org) States that “In the United States, an estimated 26.2 million men (23.5 percent) and 20.9 million women (18.1 percent) are smokers.” (2006). There’s no doubt in my mind that this number has gone up since 2006, and they do not include teens. But back in those days, (the 50’s-70’s,) It was cool to smoke. All of the actors did it, Marlbro used it’s advertising icon “The Marlbro Man,” and it was seen endlessly on TV and movies. The pressure to smoke was intense, and they didn’t have a reason not to, but they also did not know about the dangers of smoking. They did not know in those days that it harmed you. Now, there are many advertising campaigns against smoking, and it is not seen in movies and TV as much, but you still can see it.

Back in the “Good old days,” there were many advertising campaigns for smoking, and now it seems that the order has reversed. Many anti- smoking campaigns have been put out. One that stands clear in my mind is the Truth organization. They seem hell- bent on destroying the tobacco industry. Also, in schools, students are given presentations from teachers, police officers, or other officials to warn of the dangers of smoking and the diseases it causes. Props are even brought in to demonstrate the lung power of a smoking man versus a non- smoker, or some kind of picture to show the tar build up in lungs. This is all done to put a choke on an industry that has caused a statistic from the CDC that states “440,000 per year, 36,666 per month, 8,461 per week, 1,205 per day, 50 per hour, 0 per minute, 0 per second. Note: this automatic extrapolation calculation uses the deaths statistic: 440,000 annual deaths each year are smoking-associated.”

So what’s the big deal? yeah, smoking is bad for us and times have changed, but why can’t Ben Bailey smoke on the show? Discovery is a family- oriented network, and Cash Cab is a family- oriented show. This means that children may be watching, too. Children are so impressionable, so easy to pressure one way or another that I worry that seeing Ben Bailey, a loved TV personality, with a cigarette in his mouth would put the impression for kids that to be like Ben Bailey, they should smoke. I know this is kind of a long shot in the dark, but it influences the way kids think.

We know how bad cigarettes can be for us, and the younger you smoke, the more years are cut off of your life. In a report from the CDC, cigarettes can cut an average of 12 years off of your life span, and the younger someone smokes, the more life is cut off. And since the Discovery Channel is a family- oriented network, and Cash Cab is a family oriented show, and kids see the host Ben Bailey smoking, they’re going to want to smoke, too. This means that kids smoke younger, people die younger.

My point is this, that the FCC should ban smoking, alcohol, and other drug use on family- oriented networks or family- oriented shows and movies, because children are so impressionable, and personalities can be influential on the thinking of children.

This would, however, step on some toes and people’s freedoms. The Government should not have to control TV and movie content. People believe that it is up to the parents to explain to their kids why smoking, alcohol, and drugs are bad. My response is this: Why give them the influence from the other side? Why have their parents say one thing yet they see another on TV? If we take away the fuel, the fire will not ignite. If we take away influence from TV, movies, etc. then children will not have such a strong influence to smoke, and thus, listening to their parents.

In Conclusion, Cigarettes were the “cool” thing, when we did not know how bad they really were. Now that we know, we should ban the use of cigarettes, alcohol, and drugs on family- oriented shows to take away the influence that TV personalities or movie characters can promote if they are seen using drugs or alcohol or smoking. We will step on some toes, but it is for the greater good.