Social Awareness Journal - Days 1 and 2

Day 1
Friday, October 22nd, 2010
Gay Suicides - The Pressure that Society Puts on People Who are Gay

Recently, whether you read it in a newspaper or heard it on the news, you've probably heard about Tyler Clementi's suicide. Tyler Clementi was an 18-year-old gay freshman at Rutger's University, who committed suicide by jumping off the George Washington Bridge on September 22nd. Clementi committed suicide after some of his classmates posted footage of him having a sexual encounter with another man. People were shocked, and still are, by his suicide. What some people aren't aware of though, is that Clementi's suicide is just one of many that have been committed over past few months. On September 9th, 15-year-old Billy Lucas hanged himself "[after] what classmates reportedly called a constant stream of invective against him at school."
Then, just a little less than 2 weeks later, 13-year-old Asher Brown shot himself after he told people that he was gay. And, around a month ago, another 13-year-old named Seth Walsh hanged himself, after being "apparently unable to bear a relentless barrage of taunting, bullying and other abuse at the hands of his peers."

My reaction to this? What has the human race become? Who are we to make fun of, and put down, other people because of their sexual orientation? What's the motivation? Or satisfaction? Why do people think that it's okay to push people's emotional limits, so much, and so far, that they commit suicide? That they take their own life, because they're not "socially acceptable"? Think about that.

Day 2
Saturday, October 23rd, 2010
Injustice: What it Means To Be Small, Be Susceptible, Be an Animal

Have you ever seen commercials on television about how many animals are abused each year? What about the ones that tell you how many animals are put in shelters, how many are used for fur, or how many are used for testing make up products or drugs ? In case you haven't, or you've forgotten the number, I'll tell you. Millions of animals are abused each year. Approximately 6-8 million dogs and cats in the United States are put in animal shelters, and of those 6-8 million, approximately 3-4 million are euthanized. In 2006, more than 350,000 baby seals were killed for fur, including more than 30 million mink, foxes, chinchillas, and other animals that are killed on fur farms each year, by electrocution and poisoning, as well as approximately 2 million dogs and cats worth of fur that's exported from places worldwide, and mostly labeled as fake here in the United States, also unaware that some of these 2 million are skinned alive.
In animal testing, approximately 25 million vertebrate animals are tested in the United States every year. If you include invertebrate, the number goes up to 100 million.

The thing that disturbs me the most about how many animals are abused or put in shelters every year, just in the United States, is that so few people actually know about it. Yes, we all know that animals are abused and put in shelters, and that some are killed for fur or testing, but people never really tend to look at the number. I can compare it to an ordinary person: they find a fatty snack that they really like, but never bother to look at the nutrition facts, and eat it almost every day. Over time, they get more and more obese, but they never notice. Then, one day, bam! They look at the scale, and their whole situation just blows up in their face. It's the same this. People never really look between the lines so see the facts that they're missing, and then, all of a sudden, they realize what's wrong, just when it's too late. What's going to happen when the animals that humans hunt become extinct? Or shelters are overridden with animals? Or, no animals are even left?