Connor "The Crusher"

Connor Michalek was a very young boy who was diagonsed with cancer and had ill hope for a long, healthy life. Being this young he had strong hopes, passions and dreams that any kid would want. Making these dreams come true for him was exactly his fathers goal. Having the support of the public was just a bonus. But my opinion is rather harsh on this subject. I do not think it is fair that the public just worshiped this boy in general. Millions of children are diagonsed with the same type of cancer Connor had- why is it that they do not recieve the same attention? Every life is equal, our society is fixated on entertainment and feeling better about our selves. I am not saying that Connor should not have had the luxurey of meeting his idol, or getting a memorial video that streamed worldwide. Im saying that our society should not be idoling a single boy, when there are countless little children, just like Connor days before death that have not had the same opportunities...

Placebos ....

Placebos are most commenly sugar pills that are given to patients who believe it is medication. This is not doing so to save money, but to see the relationships between the ones who did recieve medication and the ones who did not. This is scientifically called a controlled experiment. Although we see it moraly wrong, it is neccesary in many cases. For example, when trying to test a new drug one would gather a controlled sum of people- usually in the thousands. Half those people would recieve the drug and the other half would unknowninly recieve the Placebo thinking they too are recieving the drug. By the end of the experiement, changes would occur and the scientists would be able to intentify if the drug worked or not. Leslie was told to perform the controlled experiemnt with her patients fighting Pergeria. Because this disease was deadly and no other medication existed, she thought it was morally right to use no placebos in the experiement. This act of caring almost cost her the entire experiement for scientists wanted to see evidence. If I were in Leslies situation, I too would give the 300 or so patients the actual drug instead of using the placebo. It is the right thing to do.

Sam Berns Having Hope

Sam Berns is one amazing, inspirational and bright young man who battled pergeria every single day. He gave hope to those in need, and he let nothing stand in his way if he has a goal to accompish. There are roughly 300 people in the world who have been diagonsed with this extremly rare disease. For us, we feel sympathetic. For him- he saw the glass half full. Because of this disease he had became a role model for the rest of the world for he didn't show us things he couldn't do, but the things he could. Sams mother had been one of the biggest supportors in Sams case, stopping at nothing to try and save her boy. Because of this Sam stayed positive until the end. Sam addmited: "I kind of just want my mom to be done with progeria for her sake, because my mom will keep working forever until progeria is cured." Sam knows his mother had not given up, and because of his hope and faith in her - he had lived past the expected due date which has given hope to the rest of world. Sam Berns: (October 23, 1996 – January 10, 2014)

The R-Word

Freedom of speech is something in Canada that we take for granted sometimes. We use special words to express anger, frustration, or hate and we have been so accustomed to using these words that we forget the symbolic meaning behind the word. The R-word- Retard, is a word that gives some people no shame to use. We use it when we perform a silly task or when some person does something wrongly but is it appropriate to use in any scenario? The answer is NO! Intellectual disabledment is not something that is to be taken in a joking matter. A normal person would not say "You're retarded" to an disabled person because it's wrong.. Why is it okay to use on other people then? Society should put a taboo on the R-word just like the N-word because if something is not stopped soon our generations children will feel more accustomed to using other bad words for daily, daily tasks.