Defects Caused by a Defective Government

Defects Caused by a Defective Government Kyleigh Grandon Erin Miller Between the years of 1961 and 1971, over 11 million gallons of an extremely harmful pesticide were sprayed throughout what equates to 10% of Southern Vietnam, or 4.2 million acres. The pesticide, Agent Orange, would go onto lead quite a legacy, ranging from severe birth defects and various types of cancer. The United States is responsible for these health issues that influence over 2.1 million peoples lives today. Veterans that fought in the Vietnam War cannot control who they pass the illnesses on to, so many of their poor, unknowing children and grandchildren are impacted as well. The Department of Defense needs to take responsibility for the effects of Agent Orange and increase the funding to stop the suffering. Agent Orange was accidentally created in 1943 by Arthur Galston. Originally only supposed to be a plant growth stimulant, the pesticide wiped the plants out. This caught the eye of scientists at Fort Detrick in Maryland and they began to study Galstons work. With the help of the British Air Force, Agent Orange was born. Though initially not toxic, it becomes hazardous during production with the addition of the chemical dioxin. Galston boycotted the use for years, but it was not stopped until the presidency of Richard Nixon in 1971. During this time, millions were exposed leading to many severe health problems that most still have today. Money was not given to Vietnam by the country responsible, the United States, until 2007. The U.S. did not even mention helping the Vietnamese until 2006. The fact that 35 years passed before discussions even began is outrageous. When high levels of dioxin were found in soil in two locations in the United States: Love Canal and Time Beach, the Vietnamese almost immediately provided clean-up services and help for American veterans. Over 12 years went by before the United States government considered helping the more severely affected Vietnamese people. There is absolutely no reason why such a long period of time had to go by before the Department of Defense brought the severe effects of Agent Orange before Congress so they could provide proper funding and resolution. One Vietnamese study estimates that up to five million people have health issues that are caused by exposure to Agent Orange. Of the 5 million people suffering, 3.5 million are veterans that have such severe problems, many parish every day.   If they are lucky enough to survive, they are faced with the fact that their health issues can still be passed on to their children and their childrens offspring. Approximately 350,000 family members of these veterans have health issues, many being small children. Most that are affected have a cleft palate, congenital heart disease, and / or spina bifida and many do not live until the age of 18. These are only three of the possible 31 diseases listed by the United States Department of Veteran Affairs. With many victims living in small, poverty-stricken villages, they are unable to afford proper medical care and every day parents are forced to watch their small children pass. With all the acts Congress passed between 2007 and 2011, they gave $31,000,000 in total. With the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2012, Vietnam received a well deserved $20,000,000 on top of that. However, it still is not enough, with 17 of 23 soil samples taken from Da Nang, Vietnams fifth highest populated city and busy tourist area, being deemed harmful and far above international standards.  Ãƒâ€šÃ‚   This is devastating, considering there are 1.047 million people living there and when tested, the test results of some Da Nang residents was 100 times above acceptable. A bone marrow and tissue test is typically done to help diagnose people who are ill, but many are unable to receive them because a single test costs a grand. Since most of the funds from the U.S. go towards clean-up, people who suffer with health issues are left stranded, hoping they can get free healthcare just to stay alive. The fact that the clean-up completion date only keeps getting pushed even further into the future and that more people just become exposed everyday is pitiful. This just goes on to prove that Department of Defense does not want to take full responsibility because they are only looking out for themselves and cannot realize the humane thing to do. Since the United States is the highest donator towards the Agent Orange clean-up, many think that they have done enough. With a total of almost 62 million dollars donated, that is completely understandable. 75% of cleanup is complete as of mid-2016, so the question some are asking is why the United States should come up with more funding. When Americans do not have the healthcare coverage they need, the government feels like why should they have to pay for another countrys healthcare. With every one person exposed and the chance to still pass it down from generation to generation it simply means the effects will never end. With millions suffering every day with defects from a defective government, the Department of Defense needs to reach out a longer helping hand to reach those in villages who need increased help. Additionally, the highest concentrated area is next to an airport that has four million attendees a year, one million of those people being foreigners. This only means that the effects of dioxin are potentially spreading all throughout the world for more to get ill. The United States does not recognize any legal liability for damages alleged to be related by Agent Orange. Why is that when they are 100% responsible? Vietnam did not spray Agent Orange on their own country, America did it all. Every time someone gets a disability from Agent Orange, it is all because of us. Dear Department of Defense, accept reality, be humane, and take full responsibility for the mess you have caused.

Human Gene Therapy :: Science Genetics Papers

Human Gene Therapy Gene therapy is the use of genes to treat disease. It represents a quantum leap in our approach to the treatment of human disease and will have a significant effect on medicine over the next ten years. William French Anderson, Michael Biase, and Ken Culver performed the first successful gene therapy on a human in 1990. They developed a protocol for treating Adenosine deaminase (ADA) deficiency, severe combined immune deficiency, also known as the" Boy in the Bubble disease". ADA deficiency is a result of inheriting two copies of the defective ADA gene (in other words it is a recessive disease). Possession of a normal gene leads to the continuous, regular production of ADA in cells throughout the body. Without at least one properly functioning gene, children have no way of converting deoxyadenosine (a waste product) into inosine. This leads to the rapid build up deoxyadenosine in the system, which becomes phosphoralysed into a toxic triphosphate which kills T-cell. The result is an al most complete failure of the immune system and early death. Concept of Gene Therapy The term gene therapy originally referred to proposed treatments of genetic disorders that would involve replacing a defective gene with its normal counterpart Current usage of the term now extends to include all treatments in which there is an introduction of genetic material into body cells to treat a variety of diseases. Gene therapy utilizes two theoretically possible approaches: 1) Somatic gene therapy entails the transfer of a gene or genes into body cells other than germ (egg or sperm) cells with effect only on the patient. The new genetic material cannot be passed on to offspring. Examples of Somatic gene therapy have already proven to be clinically effective. The first successful treatments of adenosine deaminase deficiency took place in 1990 in 1991 with two patients aged 4 and 11. Both are thriving with continuing treatment. The first successful treatment of familial hypercholesterolemia, a genetic condition, which affects the livers regulation of cholestrols in the blood, took place in 1992 of a 29-year-old woman. Her improvement was stable for the 18 months of the study and liver biopsy demonstrated activity of the inserted gene and no discernible abnormalities. Five patients have been treated as of 1994.Current research involving Somatic gene therapy is focusing on a number of areas. Clinical trials are being performed on a treatment for cystic fibr osis, a chronic genetic disorder.

A Review of Tom Piazza’s City of Refuge Essay

It was mid-August on a hot summer day hurricane Katrina damaged a city, New Orleans, possibly for a lifetime. The novel: City of Refuge by Tom Piazza gives readers an omniscient point of view of two families lives during this tragic event. The Williams family from the Lower 9th Ward and the Donaldsons originally from the upper Midwest who had made their way to New Orleans share the same traumatic experience; in different ways of the levees breaking from hurricane Katrina changed both of their lives forever. On Friday morning Craig Donaldson saw on the news that Hurricane Katrina had moved into the Gulf, heading in their direction. Craig and Alice, his wife contemplated leaving the following day or the day after for Oxford, Mississippi. Saturday morning started out rocky. Malcolm, their son, woke up with a burning fever. With all of this going on Craig prepared for their evacuation by getting the house in order before Katrina hit on Sunday. Around mid-day they decided to get on the road; unfortunately, the highway was backed up. Craig then decided to take a different route on a two-lane highway; traffic flowed at first but that too got backed up. Due to the extensive amount of traffic and the effects of the storm, they stopped at a hotel. They had wanted to stay with Alice’s parents but there were too many complications of not having enough room space, so her mom says. They waited at the hotel until the weather was clear enough for them to continue driving. Alice’s mother insisted she call her Aunt Jean and Uncle Gus who lived in Chicago. After Alice made the phone call, they decided to make their journey back to the Midwest. When they arrived in Chicago her family presented them with great hospitality and said they could stay as long as they needed. Alice decided to enroll Annie their daughter into school. During this time Alice was still taking care of Malcolm and helping her aunt and uncle around the house. The hurricane took a toll on Craig. One particular day while at his favorite cafe shop called Blue Horizon he noticed everyone appeared to be in a â€Å"happy-go-lucky-mood,† and this began to irritate him. He became upset because everyone took their lives for granted; no one was experiencing what he was going through. Craig became depressed and easily irritated. There would be times where he would take a deep breath and tears would run down his face and he would not know why. He recognized these symptoms and labeled himself as having Posttraumatic Stress Disorder. He started to accept that his home in New Orleans would never be the same. Alice comforted him during this time, even though she was going through the same experience. After time went on, things started turning from bad to good. Craig received a phone call from his old college friend, Peter. Peter suggested that Craig write a column for the â€Å"CHI EYE†. They felt this would be a good way for Craig to vent and write about his evacuation experience as well as his experiences in Chicago. Peter told Craig he would receive $1000 a week for 1500 words. When Craig received his first check, he took Alice out on a romantic date. As weeks went by Alice settled in Chicago; she secretly started searching for apartments and houses. She looked at Chicago as the place where her growing family lived before they went to New Orleans. Alice enjoyed living back in the Midwest; she did not feel that the damaged city of New Orleans was a good place for her kids, and she did not want to live like an â€Å"urban pioneer† for the rest of her life. She was ready to settle down and New Orleans was not the place for her at the time. Alice brought to Craig’s attention that they could not live in her aunt and uncles attic any longer. She told Craig she was looking into their future by house hunting. Craig took the new information as a stab in the back. He felt hurt and betrayed by his wife because she did not want to move back to New Orleans. Craig felt that their family might not be able to make it during this rough time. He contemplated on whether he should leave and return back to what he called home (New Orleans) and break up the family or stay for the kids’ sake and feel like a disintegrate parent. Craig and Alice sat together and started expressing their feelings about how they felt on their current living situation. The heart to heart conversation made him realize he was making the wrong decision for his family. He was caught between starting a new life and returning to their old one. They both experienced self-knowledge during this time and achieved a new basis for themselves. They both realized that they were experiencing the same struggle, stress, and both wanted to be a happy. Although Alice had her opinion of New Orleans, she did miss the town but deep down Craig also wanted to start a new life. Craig has come to accept the idea of walking away from New Orleans; he saw how his friend, Bobby, experienced difficulty letting New Orleans go. Bobby and Jen, friends of the Donaldsons, became defensive when they heard Craig did not want to return to New Orleans because of Alice and their kids and also Alice’s concerns for the overall city. Craig tried to explain from Alice’s point of view why they should not return so that Bobby and Jen would understand. Craig and Bobby had different perspectives on the situation and completely different life styles. Bobby and Jen needed to realize that this was not a safe environment for Craig and Alice’s kids. They remained friends even with their new life differences. Craig returned to New Orleans acknowledging a new perspective; the importance of why he loved the city remained during Mardi Gras.

Content or Lexical Word in English

In English grammar and semantics, a  content word is a  word that conveys information in a text or speech act. It is also known as a lexical word, lexical morpheme,  substantive category, or contentive, and can be contrasted with the terms function word  or grammatical word. In his book The Secret Life of Pronouns (2011), social psychologist James W. Pennebaker expands this definition: Content words are words that have a culturally shared meaning in labeling an object or action. . . . Content words are absolutely necessary to convey an idea to someone else. Content words—which include nouns, lexical verbs, adjectives, and adverbs—belong to open classes of words: that is, classes of words to which new members are readily added. The denotation of a content word, say  Kortmann and Loebner, is the category, or set, of all its potential referents (Understanding Semantics, 2014). Examples and Observations All morphemes can be divided into the categories lexical [content] and grammatical [function]. A lexical morpheme has a meaning that can be understood fully in and of itself—{boy}, for example, as well as {run}, {green}, {quick}, {paper}, {large}, {throw}, and {now}. Nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs are typical kinds of lexical morphemes. Grammatical morphemes, on the other hand—such as {of}, {and}, {the}, {ness}, {to}, {pre}, {a}, {but}, {in}, and {ly}—can be understood completely only when they occur with other words in a sentence. (Thomas E. Murray, The Structure of English. Allyn and Bacon, 1995)Reverend Howard Thomas  was the presiding elder over a district in  Arkansas, which included  Stamps. (Maya Angelou,  I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. Random House, 1969)Most people with low self-esteem have earned it. (George Carlin, Napalm Silly Putty. Hyperion, 2001)The  odor  of fish hung thick in the air. (Jack Driscoll,  Wanting Only to Be He ard. University of Massachusetts Press, 1995)Liberal and conservative have lost their meaning in America. I represent the distracted center. (Jon Stewart) Function Words vs. Content Words All languages make some distinction between content words and function words.  Content words carry descriptive meaning; nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs are types of content word. Function words are typically little words, and they signal relations between parts of sentences, or something about the pragmatic import of a sentence, e.g. whether it is a question. Lewis Carrolls Jabberwocky poem illustrates the distinction well: Twas brillig, and the slithy tovesDid gyre and gimble in the wabe:All mimsy were the borogoves,And the mome raths outgrabe. In this poem all the made-up words are content words; all the others are function words. In English, function words include determiners, such as the, a, my, your, pronouns (e.g. I, me, you, she, them), various auxiliary verbs (e.g. have, is, can, will do), coordinating conjunctions (and, or, but), and subordinating conjunctions (e.g. if, when, as, because). Prepositions are a borderline case. They have some semantic content, but are a small closed class, allowing hardly any historical innovation. Some English prepositions serve a mainly grammatical function, like of (what is the meaning of of?) and others have clear descriptive  (and relational) content, like under.  New content words in a language can  be readily invented; new nouns, in particular, are continually being coined, and new verbs (e.g. Google, gazump) and adjectives (e.g. naff, grungy) also not infrequently come into use. The small set of function words in a language, by contrast, is much more fixed and relatively steady over centuries. (James R. Hurford, The  Origins of Language: A Slim Guide.  Ox ford University Press, 2014)