Being raised in the slums of New York City there were not many role models for me to take after. At seventeen years old, I dropped out of school to pursue my only chance of success; long distance running. My dream would be to win the marathon that will be held in Chicago next month. If I win this race, I will receive $50,000 and hopefully a contract with Nike. There is only one problem that I face; there are a few women that are faster than I am. I am in constant training, and I have placed amongst the top ten women in the Boston Marathon, but I have never won a major race. How am I going to win when there are other people that can out run me?
While I was talking to one of my friends, who happens to be an athletic trainer, I told her of my worries. She informed me that there is a new experimental drug that can help to improve my endurance by preventing the build up of lactic acid in my muscles, and she had access to these pills. The drug has not yet been tested on humans, yet when animals were given the drug they had no series side effects. My friend offered me a one months sampling of the drug in return for $5000 if I win the race and nothing if I loose. She swore to me that it is not on the list of drugs that are banned and it will not show up on a blood test. What should I do?
The main issue that I ask myself is whether or not I should take the drugs. All of my life I have dreamed of being an Olympic runner and if I take these pills I may get my chance. These pills can help build up my muscles and endurance which will give me a better chance of taking home the gold. If these pills do work than I will be able to take the $50,000 I win and move myself out of this hole I am living in. If I am in a better environment, I may want to do something with myself; perhaps I could get my GED and take college courses. If I take these pills, I could possibly be the best runner there ever could be.
On the contrary, I have also come up with the down sides of taking these pills.
In 1894, the lack of cleanliness and sanitation in the tenements was starting to affect the health of tenants. The Tenement House Commission defined the tenements as unsafe and hazardous for health reasons. With no running water and piles of garbage all over the streets, it made it very hard for tenants to keep their selves clean and be able to wash clothes. Soon, many people became ill with diseases like cholera, typhoid, smallpox, and tuberculosis that spread throughout the tenement like a wild fire. Within one year, twenty cases of typhoid were reported from just one tenement. Many babies died and tenements started to be known as “infant slaughterhouses.”
In the end of 18th century to 19th century, more and more people began moving into developed cities. Especially in New York City, thousands of new immigrants were seeking a better life than the one they had before. Tenements were built as a way to accommodate this growing population, and the majority people who lived in tenements were working-class, cause back to that time most tenements were located near factories, tenements were highly concentrated in the poorest neighborhoods of the city. A typical tenement building had four to five stories, in order to maximize the number of renters and to maximize their profits, builders wasted little space and buildings that had been single-family residence were divided into multiple living spaces to fit in more people, early tenements might dwell in almost 90 percent of their lots. There were no housing laws to protect the rights for people who lived in tenements until they stated The First
Situated on the Monongahela River is the neighborhood of Southside Flats. Within it lays the entertainment hub of Pittsburgh. Numerous bars and nightspots line the main thoroughfare of E Carson St. The early history of the neighborhood saw it as a main point for industry with its proximity to the river and railway stations. At the end of the nineteenth century, the neighborhood would boast a major steelworks factory that employed a sizable portion of the residents of Southside Flats. Many of these residents emigrated from the countries of Eastern Europe and incorporated many of their traditions into the area and the neighboring Southside Slopes. This style of life would last until the early 1980s when the South Side Local Development Company was formed and the steel plant shut down. The area was absent of a major employer until the City of Pittsburgh Urban and Redevelopment Authority (URA) bought the land once occupied by the steel plant in 1993. The URA bought the land with money they borrowed from a developer that eventually led to the construction of the SouthSide Works. The complex officially opened in 2004 brought many national retailers to the Pittsburgh area. The construction of the SouthSide Works is one example of how cities have had to cope with the deindustrialization that has taken place in this country over the past 30 years. The emergence of Southside Flats as the hotspot of Pittsburgh for nightlife and shopping has caused problems for the local residents. Over the past years, there has been an increasing riff between the local residents and the patrons of the area’s bars and nightclubs. This riff grew to such an extent that the Pittsburgh police began instituting tight reg...
The House on Mango Street is a novel composed of connected vignettes. The novel is told through the eyes of Esperanza, the main heroine. Throughout the novel Esperanza expresses her desire to leave Mango Street for a better, wealthier, and happier life. Esperanza makes many references to her feelings about her family's poverty; in multiple vignettes Esperanza expresses her sadness,resentfulness, and disappointment of her poverty
There are even steps for cross country runners who aren’t as good as everyone else. The most important step in my opinion is to master walking without anyone seeing you. By doing this it lets people think that you hadn’t walked at all so they will think that you have more endurance than you actually do. Next when you do walk, fast walk. That way your pace isn’t as slow, therefore; it makes it even less noticeable that you walked. Lastly don’t compare yourself to anyone else in the race. You are doing what you can do they just may have been running for a lot longer than you. Set a goal of how fast you want to run and really work towards it. A good thing
It is common sense that sports enhancing or any other drugs contain negative physical side effects. For instance, “males can become infertile and experience breast growth, while women can develop facial hair and an altered or completely suppressed menstrual cycle” (“Hoyle”). Balancing weight also starts to become an issue. In many sports, athletes wish to lose weight so they can compete in a lighter weight class” (“Diuretics”). These types of drugs are called Diuretics. Diuretics are used to remove water from the body. If the desired amount of fluid isn’t removed, the person feels that they should intake more until their mass goal is reached. If too many of these are taken, they can become very addictive, like any other
...mful effects, these effects can end somone’s life. These drugs are really bad, and hope that people do not use them. Therefore do not ever use performance-enhancing drugs.
Mike Davis in his book Planet of Slums, discusses the Third World and the impact globalization and industrialization has on both urban and poverty stricken cities. The growth of urbanization has not only grown the middle class wealth, but has also created an urban poor who live side by side in the city of the wealthy. Planet of Slums reveals astonishing facts about the lives of people who live in poverty, and how globalization and the increase of wealth for the urban class only hurts those people and that the increase of slums every year may eventually lead to the downfall of the earth. “Since 1970 the larger share of world urban population growth has been absorbed by slum communities on the periphery of Third World cities” (Davis 37). Specifically,
The problem is that Black Families can’t buy houses from white homeowners or white realtors
The book The Classic Slum: Salford Life in the First Quarter of the Century by Robert Roberts gives an honest account of a village in Manchester in the first 25 years of the 20th century. The title is a reference to a description used by Friedrich Engels to describe the area in his book Conditions of the Working Class. The University of Manchester Press first published Roberts' book in the year 1971. The more recent publication by Penguin Books contains 254 pages, including the appendices. The author gives a firsthand description of the extreme poverty that gripped the area in which he grew up. His unique perspective allows him to accurately describe the self-imposed caste system, the causes and effects of widespread poverty, and the impact of World War I as someone who is truly a member of a proletarian family. His main contention is that prior to the War, the working class inhabiting the industrial slums in England "lay outside the mainstream of that society and possessed within their own ranks a system of social stratification that enclosed them in their own provincial social world and gave them little hope of going beyond it. " After the War, the working class found new economic prosperity and a better way of life, never returning to the lifestyle prevalent prior to the War.
Steroids became an option to athletes in the Olympics and other major sporting events during the 1950’s. But this use of steroids among athletes only became widely apparent when Canadian sprint runner Ben Johnson tested positive for steroid use after winning the gold medal for the one hundred-meter dash during the 1988 Olympics (Francis, 45). Now a skinny fifteen-year-old can just walk down to the local gym and find people who either sell or know how to get in contact with those who sell the drug that will make him envious of his friends. Steroids are an attractive drug. While steroids seem harmless to the unaware user, they can have a risky effect. Most of the time whether the users are new or experienced, they do not know the dangerous consequences steroids can have on their bodies and their minds. Though steroids cause a relatively insignificant number of deaths in our society, the banning of steroids is justified because steroids have a lot of side effects not known to the uninformed user.
Harvey, Todd, and et al. Gentrification and West Oakland: Causes, Effects, and Best Practices 1999. 22 Nov. 2003.
Imagine eating Christmas dinner underneath a bridge on the cold dirt because you and your family were evicted from your home. Just trying to find a single meal is what thousands of people, who live on the street, go through each day. They have been kicked out of their houses and apartments because they can't afford rent due to their low paying jobs.
Many students and young people trying to leave marks on their jobs now use brain-enhancing "smart" pills to help boost their exam grades or their ability to work long hours without tiring. It's quite possible that employers will start to demand that employees use stimulants. Drugs, originally made for dementia patients and children diagnosed with ADHD, are now available without prescription. Healthy individuals use them solely to improve their memory, motivation and attention, without any prior consult with their doctors. Many of these drugs are available on the Internet which comes in handy to young people who want to save their money for the future. What they do not take into consideration when buying stimulants on the Internet is the risk of not knowing for certain what they are getting. Moreover, long-term consequences and safety of the technologies are not known. Scientists haven’t done enough research to know how much of an impact even a short period of using such substances leaves on our brains.
Where I live is one of the greatest neighborhoods in the city to live in; however it does have its draw backs. Importantly it has nearly everything a resident might want, beautiful picturesque scenery, proximity to shopping, and many of the cultural centers. Nevertheless the roads can be some of the most congested in town, and the streets are not safe to walk late at night.