After reading this article, I have to say I was at a loss for words. And, I’m still not sure what to say as I write this post. Wait, I know what to say, but I’m not sure how to say it diplomatically. I will write about the gist of the procedure, but here is the link to the article for you to read it yourself: Gender-Confused Kids

According to this article, when kids are unsure if they want to remain a boy or girl (e.g. born a boy, but believe they are a girl trapped in a boy’s body or born a girl, but believe they are a boy trapped in a girl’s body), doctors provide medicine to delay the onset of puberty “,,,to allow the individual to come to terms with the direction he or she wants to go.” In other words, the doctors feel they are …”allowing the individual more time to make a decision.” Huh? The doctor interviewed in this article goes even further and explains, “Male transsexuals can avoid going through menstruation, while female patients can avoid growing body hair or developing a deep voice if they begin sex reassignment once their childhood hormone-blocking regimen ends.” Wow!

I bet you are wondering how do they (the doctors) actually do this. Well, according to the article, they inject “… either luteinizing hormone-releasing hormone (LHRH) or medroxyprogesterone, which block estrogen or testosterone to delay the onset of puberty.” The article states that this procedure is mostly done on girls who reach puberty early. In addition, the hormone-blocking process prevents “unwanted bodily features” just in case the child decides to have a sex change operation once they become an adult.

Now, am I wrong in my assessment in that the parents, as well as the doctors, are putting a huge responsibility onto the child’s shoulder? To make the decision on whether or not they want to “remain” the same sex in which they were born? I mean, really, how are they to understand everything that’s going on with this procedure? They are children! In this particular instance, it seems to me that, people are trying to play God or undue what God has done, thinking they know better.

The article about this procedure was written in May of 2008. I don’t know how much publicity it received (I certainly don’t remember it), but I really want to hear the opinions of 7DayBuzz readers on this. Do you think this is right? Should doctors be allowed to perform this type of procedure on children, even if the parents are consenting? Should children be allowed to make an important decision such as this?

According to CNN.com, Bernice Duesler, the wife of the man who said the kids changed the “complexion” of the club, told CNN that “the club has been subpoenaed by the state Human Rights Commission, which has begun a fact-finding investigation, and the legal advice was to try to get together with these camps.” In other words, the club was advised to do everything they could to make this go away as soon as possible! It’s bad publicity for the club!

Based on Bernice Duesler’s statement, my interpretation of this olive branch, that’s being extended, is that the swim club is doing this, not because it’s the right thing to do, but because it’s the best thing to do, from a legal standpoint. When daycare center’s director, Alethea Wright, was informed of the swim club’s decision, she informed CNN that the kids had been “emotionally damaged” and she doesn’t know if it would be the best thing for the kids to return to the club. Especially, if those members, who said racist comments, are still there. I wonder if those same members were at the meeting today and voted to ask the kids to return. Just wondering.

What an interesting turn of events for this story. Yes indeed!

The private swim club, Valley Swim Club, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, made racist comments about some minority kids who had previously been given permission to use their facilities. Then, after making the comments, the swim club cancelled the kids swimming privileges, and rejected their membership. The following is what CNN.com is reporting on this travesty:

“The Creative Steps Day Care children — ages kindergarten through seventh grade — went to the Valley Swim Club in Huntingdon Valley, Pennsylvania, on June 29. The day center’s director, Alethea Wright, had contracted to use the club once a week. During their first visit, some children said they heard club members asking why African-American children were there. One of the boys told the Philadelphia Inquirer that a woman at the club said she feared the children “might do something” to her child. Days later, the day care center’s $1,950 check was returned without explanation, Wright said.”

Now, it’s bad enough that this club, and its members, treated these kids this way, but what makes it worse is the president of the club, John Duesler, told two Philadelphia television stations that the children had changed “the complexion” and “atmosphere” of the club. What?!!! How can one change the complexion of a business? This is so stupid! This is classic “trickle-down effect” mentality in action. What do I mean? Well, I am of the opinion that the attitude of the worker bees stem from the attitude of the Queen bee. In this instance, the president of the Valley Swim Club is the Queen Bee and his racist attitude has “trickled-down” to permeate the entire atmosphere of his staff at this club. Not to mention some of the members who bring their own racist views to the table!

I’m not sure what the outcome is going to be for the Valley Swim Club, but I hope justice overtakes racism in this case. I really do! These are just kids who were looking to have fun swimming! Come on!

Retired NFL quarterback Steve McNair hopefully had plenty of money from his playing days. He played in an era where pro athletes, especially key players like quarterbacks, make millions in salary and endorsements. Additionally, McNair had some business interests – he recently opened a restaurant – outside of professional sports.

Have you ever heard the saying “More money, more problems?” One problem, which may not seem like a problem, money can cause is excessive popularity.

Popularity

Athletes, entertainers and public figures often breeze through certain situations as a result of their popularity. They often eat without paying, something that seems so unfair, and they draw more-than-normal attention from the opposite sex. “I ain’t saying she a gold digger, but she ain’t messing with no broke…”

Since we are born with human weaknesses, the amount of popularity some people get turns into a huge negative; just because someone can throw a football 60 yards does not automatically make them equiped to deal with celebrity.

Sin

The seventh of the ten commandments speaks about committing adultery – cheating on your husband/wife. McNair had a girlfriend although he was married. When you read the initial reports, it actually seems like he had a girlfriend and a wife on the side! They didn’t even talk about it at first, but the story was certainly odd since there was no mention of divorce and/or seperation. Basically, he was sinning.

Predictable behavior

So we have a man, McNair, who should have plenty of money, is popular his playing days in the NFL and was cheating on his wife. Oh, he was also suspected of cheating on the woman who he was cheating on his wife with! I guess his first girlfriend thought he was divorcing his wife and there was something so special about her to make him change his ways. Maybe it was all the time they spent together and the Cadillac Escalade he gave her – although she had to make payments on it.

The way the story is developing the girlfriend found out he may have been cheating on her, she had to pay for the “gift” along with a car she couldn’t sell and her rent was going up. At this point the alarm probably went off and she realized where she really stood in the pecking order with McNair. When reality hit, she might have realized she wasn’t as special as she thought she was.

McNair met his girlfriend 6 months ago at a restaurant he frequented with his family. Just think what would have happened, or not happened, if he wouldn’t have cheated on his wife. Normally, the cheater gets caught and may end up breaking up with their significant other. McNair kept on cheating and paid with his life.

It was unfortunately his time to go, but if he wouldn’t have cheated he would probably be somewhere right now enjoying life. Lesson learned?

I love you honey!

FEAR #1: Health reform will let faceless government bureaucrats come between you and your doctor.
FACT #1: Private health insurance already comes between you and your doctor. And because each company sets its own rules, it’s hard to imagine a more bureaucratic system. Some insurers decide which doctors you can see, which hospitals you can visit, and what drugs you can take and still be covered. And they may require copious paperwork before approving a treatment you and your doctor want. Health-care reform would standardize claim procedures to cut down on all of that. And it would protect you from other abuses, like being rejected for coverage or paying exorbitant premiums if you get sick.

FEAR #2: Health reform will take away the good coverage from your job.
FACT #2: If you’re satisfied with your job-based coverage, you would be able to keep it. Employers who don’t offer insurance would either start to provide it or contribute to a fund that helps employees buy it on their own. Some small businesses would be eligible for subsidies to offset the cost. And every policy would offer at least a standard, easy-to-understand, comprehensive set of benefits like those your congress person now enjoys.

FEAR #3: Comparing the relative effectiveness of treatments and drugs will lead to rationing.
FACT #3: This issue flared up because Congress recently approve more funding for “comparative-effectiveness research.” The term refers to studies to evaluate which drugs or treatments work best for different medical conditions and different patients. That’s one more piece of information – based on science, not drug-company advertising or sales reps pushing pills – to help your doctor and you decide what’s right. Consumers Union has long argued for better health-care information. For an example, go to ConsumerReportsHealth.org and click on Best Buy Drugs. You’ll find free advice based on comparative-effectiveness research into which drugs work best for some two dozen conditions, ranging from heartburn to hear disease. That’s not rationing. It’s just being smart. And ifyou suffer fromone of those conditions, you may find you could choose a better medicine with fewer side effects and save thousands of dollars a year.

FEAR #4: Health reform means a government takeover of medicine as in England and Canada.
FACT #4: The proposed health reform system would look nothing like those in England and Canada. Both of those countries finance health care out of general tax revenues. England goes even further by owning and operating most of the hospitals. The proposed health reform system would build on the current employer-based insurance while ensuring affordable comprehensive coverage for those who lack it.

FEAR #5: Health reform will be too costly; it will raise your taxes and could even bankrupt the country.
FACT #5: The real threat to your finances is the health system the U.S. has now. A recent study concluded that today’s $2.4 trillion annual health-care tab would jump to $4.4 trillion by 2018 if nothing is done to rein in expenses. It is believed that the proposed health care reform system is teh best hope for getting costs under control. It would cut down on waste, overhead, and price gouging, and reduce inapprorpriate care and preventable errors.

Now those of us who support health care reform understand that change is scary. And this new system would be a complete overhaul of something that we all of have gotten so used to. But, it needs to be done. It needs to be done.

Okay, here are the topics for this week. Remember, for every topic, keep your comments to five words.

1) Woman Prank Calls Her Grandmother 45 times in One Day

2) Fourth Grade Teacher Pretends To Be Groom To One of His Students in Mock Wedding

3) Seven Out of Ten Republicans Would Vote For Sarah Palin If She Ran For President

4) You Can Guess Someone’s Social Security Via Publicly Available Data on State and Date of Birth — Especially If That Person Was Born After 1988

5) People are Pledging Their Soul As Collateral for Loans

You know where this is going right?

How can President Obama, or the head of any organization for that matter, take control and expect to fix everything at once? The short/quick answer is you can’t and newsflash, trying to do so in America isn’t going so well currently, but things could change. We can go around and around about political parties, but at some point it would be wise to at least consider whether or not the Republicans’ negative comments towards Obama have turned from party hate to reality.

Taking on the recession, the health care system and a new energy problem all at once could turn out to be President Obama’s fatal flaw. For the record, I want to see him succeed, but just because I want it doesn’t mean I’m going to look past some mis-steps along the way. It might have been a better idea to go one at a time and finish, or establish, each “project” the same as you would a renovation project in a house. This isn’t Extreme Government Makeover so an amazing renovation cannot be completed in (7 days on the TV show) 6 months. If you are keeping track of the clock, we are 12.5% through the Obama administration leaving 87.5% on the clock – half way through with the first quarter.

Colin Powell, someone who has my utmost respect, feels the same way. “I think one of the cautions that has to be given to the president — and I’ve talked to some of his people about this — is that you can’t have so many things on the table that you can’t absorb it all. And we can’t pay for it all,” Powell said on CNN’s “State of the Union.”

Let’s not forget, Powell was one of the key players in the strategic planning of Desert Storm and served as Secretary of State during Bush’s first term. Powell also saw something wrong with the way Bush was running the country and had no problem leaving the Bush administration – purely my opinion. Some will say Powell left because he mis-represented himself, AKA lied, some will say Bush kind of fired him and others will look at it my way. But looking at his entire history, I would say he smelled something stinking, threw up the peace sign and left!

To be fair, here is a comment from someone calling themselves “Ohio Citizen” concerning this subject: “Powell is hedging. I think the President will triumph when the economy turns, and it will certainly turn. The thing President Obama has is the audacity to actually tackle some of the fundamental weaknesses that have kept us in the boom and bust cycle. I look forward to reading the talking points of conservatives and republicans in 2011 and 2012. I suppose they will find a way to give themselves credit for our prosperity even though they are predicting gloom and doom. America is great and we have a great President leading us with courage and foresight, Powell’s coldfeet not withstanding.”

The whole thing could boil down to making one of two choices: current spending or current unemployment, health care, etc. President Obama (obviously) isn’t worried about current spending and that has many people, including most Republicans, worried about the future of our country. To those people – I may actually be one of them – I ask, could we continue to do the same things we were doing and expect different results? I admit, I wouldn’t want to tackle so many tough projects at once, but if the house is falling down around you, you have to do something more than just fix the front door.

Now, she didn’t say why she was resigning, other than the fact that she said she wanted to make a “positive change outside government.” In addition, she said her family helped her make the decision to resign when she said she asked them, “Hey, you want me to make a positive difference and fight for all our children’s future from outside the governor’s office?” and they all gave a resounding yes! Hmmmm, what could she possibly mean? Here’s what I got from it – she’s going to run for president in 2012.

Even though Palin and John McCain failed in their quest for president and vice-president, Palin has still been in the news. Her spat with David Letterman kept in her the news and recently, an article in Vanity Fair cites nameless campaign aides who informed they questioned if Palin was ever really prepared for the presidency. It really amazes me how her name continuously remains newsworthy. Why is that?

I think Sarah Palin has a chance at the presidency in 2012. Not because she’s smart or equipped to be run the United States of America, but because she has a huge following and people actually like her, for whatever reason. Not to mention that some people just want President Obama out of the office, at all costs!

Anyway, I think Sarah Palin is getting ready to prepare herself for the run of her life! What do you think?

Hatred (or hate) is a word that describes the intense feelings of dislike of something or someone. For example, one can have a hatred of inanimate objects (e.g. vegetables, bicycles, tables, chairs, etc…) to hatred of other people, and/o entire groups of people.

I’m saddened almost daily by the level of hatred in America; forget about the rest of the world because this is a horrible problem we have right here at home. I don’t necessarily think it (hate) is at an all-time high, but rather it is being overtly displayed more and more. You probably encounter some level of hatred everyday, but you’ve gotten so used to it, therefore, ignoring it for the most part.

Why should I have to deal with blatant hatred?

That is a question we all need to ask ourselves as well as look into the mirror to see if we are one of the many who could be increasing the negative atmosphere.

People Simply Hate Obama

There are many people who hate our president. The sentiments go from being scared of what his policies are doing to our country, to wishing he fails and ultimately, getting killed while in office. Political parties have, and will probably always have, an impact on how people feel about the government. Some people will simply go along with whatever their party believes – something I think lacks individual thinking and decision making. I can understand why someone would be against President Obama because the Democratic way isn’t to their liking and that is where my understanding stops!

I have this feeling that many people don’t like President Obama because he is a black man.

In response to a resolution apologizing for slavery, someone commented saying, “The ni.ggers in the whitehouse. Whatelse do they want?” That is such a short sentence, but it reveals some deep-seated racial hatred to have the nerve to say that in a public forum. Obviously, this person associates the word “nigger” with a black man, more specifically, the President of the United States. Also, he/she feels as though President Obama’s election should mean “they” (Black people in general) don’t need anything else. That is dripping with hate.

I’m not a Republican and I, too, don’t agree with everything President Obama has done. So where do I fit in? I would like to think I fit in as someone who can think independently and judge people on what they do rather than who they are or the color of their skin. Truthfully, I think idiots come in all races, sizes, nationalities, etc. Speaking of idiots…

I am absolutly dumfounded when people have such outspoken and strong feelings about President Obama as if he turned the country upside down as soon as he took office in January. My amazement continues when some of those same people skip over the eight years George Bush Jr. was in office and also try to blame Bill Clinton for the current issues. It’s like these people have selective amnesia as it relates to the 8 years in between.

As of April, 4, 2002 American soldiers have died in Iraq, but former president George Bush Jr. is kicked back in his Texas mansion. Since we went there on false pretenses, or a big fat lie, why can’t Bush be charged with 4,262 counts of murder? Although that may be extreme, I don’t think it is as extreme to think one man has destroyed our way of life from January 20, 2009 to the present, July 2, 2009. That is just silly. He’s only been in office less than six months! Even sillier, if President Obama did exactly what Bush did for the last eight years, many people (mostly Republicans) would still feel the same way.

Not So Heavy, But Still Filled With Hate

Why do people have so much disdain for Barry Bonds, but don’t feel the same way about Roger Clemens, Alex Rodriguez, etc.? All of them have admitted using or have been accused of using steroids. Although I am referencing baseball players, drug use – recreational and performance enhancing – and crime, are rampant in virtually every sport. How does someone come to the conclusion of hating one athlete, but not feeling the same about others? Barry Bonds, who has never admitted to using steroids, but has been accused of using the drug, has hit more home runs than anyone in history and many people would like to have his record erased. But Rodriguez, who readily admits to using steroids during his career, could very well break Bonds’ record. However, noone seems to be calling for his record to be erased. Why is that? Does it have to do with race?

Hate is often driven by envy or by someone who goes against the grain and that is what this baseball example shows. Barry Bonds doesn’t like the media and in turn the media trashed him every chance they got. Since people amazingly believe everything the media prints or talks about, many people have adopted the same feeling towards Bonds. I have personally met Bonds and he was nice to me. Should I jump on the bandwagon and believe the media or should I judge the man on how he treated me?

I’m not sure what happened between Michael Jackson and the various children he was connected with, but a court of law didn’t find him guilty of molestation. But some people are doing their best to drag him through the mud before he is even in his grave. Others have made comments like, “Michael Jackson can’t hold a candle to Elvis.” Please! Can the man rest in peace?

It Will Probably Never End

We could probably talk about different examples of hate until we are blue in the face and it will never end. This isn’t relegated to national politics, sports or the entertainment world. Hatred like this happens in our local neighborhoods, jobs, clubs, schools, stores, restaurants and churches. Since there is about a zero chance of it being eradicated totally, we can at least be mindful of others.

I have had a recent experience where I needed to show tolerance for someone who isn’t like me. I charged down one path and did not encounter the attitude I was expecting, which really blew me away. Without going into detail, I told my wife that I may have to reach out to this person because now I know where their heart is and I could be of help. Eventually, it will make me feel better because it will take far too much energy for me to show hate.

Hate is an energy draining emotion and is taking far too much time on the Internet, TV and other news media. We should have something better to do.

As usual, for those of you who are new to 7DayBuzz, here is how WordPlay Wednesday works: We present five topics to you. All we ask in return is that you comment on each topic, but use only five words. Also, your comments should be as descriptive as possible with the five words you choose to use. Okay, here we go…..

1) Venus and Serena Williams Reach Wimbledon Semi-Finals

2) Former Saturday Night Live Comedian Al Franken Finally Named Winner of Minnesota Senate Race – Democrats Now Control Senate

3) Vibe Magazine is the Latest Casualty in this Bleak Economy

4) Burger King’s Latest Ad Is Sexually Explicit

5) Senate Approves Resolution Apologizing for Slavery and Segregation BUT Does not Authorize or Support Reparations