When I first heard that some place is paying young teenage girls to not get pregnant I thought I missed heard, this to me was shocking. I don’t know how someone can pay a person to not do what their body is naturally supposed to do.

I am a mother and I think anyone who gets pregnant should have the opportunity to make a decision on what he or she want to do and if they are ready to grow up. The reason I say that is because after you have a child you are no longer living for yourself you can’t do the things you want to do or spend money on just anything you want, you will be living for your baby, you will have to make sure that everything you do benefits your child. You will have to teach, nurture, care of and love them unconditional.

I am not trying to scare anyone, I am just trying to be honest and tell you how it really is. It isn’t just a walk in the park, especially if you choose to be a good parent. When I first found out I was pregnant with my son I was scared, confused, but over-all happy because I knew I was keeping the baby. I knew that I would not be able to go through with an abortion. It’s not like I think I’m better than others it’s just that I personally would not be able to deal with the way I would feel after.

I was pregnant, in school, in the process of getting housing, and working. I love the way I felt, not always though because I was big, and got uncomfortable sometimes. But just the feeling of independence, and self-confidence made it worth it. My son is a handsome young man, he is about to be two, he does not use the bottle, he pee’s and poo’s in the potty. My son is 28 inches, 41 pounds and wears a size 8 ½ in shoes. I know I did a great job so far. No one should get taught that having a child is bad or is wrong.

I mean, I well not teach my daughter that so I feel others should not do it. I would teach my daughter that she could get pregnant when she’s older and what she has to do to be protected. I well make sure she understands the things a girl, a young lady, or a women is suppose to know.

The San Francisco Chronicle reported that the Richmond High student that was gang raped at her Homecoming dance has told police that one of her attackers was a “trusted friend”.

As if what happened to this poor girl couldn’t get any worse. Not only was she attacked by the group of abuser and not helped by those gawking as the rape took place, but this person was a “trusted friend”.

If you’re calling this person a “trusted friend” after the fact, then she obviously did think she was in any real danger. You can’t help but think that being in any sort of situation with strangers that your “good friend” will protect you if something were to happen. Unfortunately, this supposed “friend” was a foe in sheep’s clothing.

As everyone knows the Bay Bridge has been under emergency construction for the past week. Some people have said that the parts of the bridge had fallen, others said that a chunk fell into the ocean, but what happened was the metal was rubbing against each other, caused by the high winds. This caused two rods and a saddle to crash onto the roadway last Tuesday, 10-27-09.

A few weeks before this happened I heard a rumor that someone saw a crack or a rip in the Bay Bridge. If this is true then why was in not investigated? So many people could have gotten hurt or die. I could not imagine my family being on the bridge during that time.

People are so simple minded, they think, “oh the bridge broke, it’s alright the government well fix it.”

I just don’t understand why people are not really affected by it at all, well… maybe a little because they couldn’t drive across the bridge but would you want to drive on that thing after finding out that the bridge was broken for the second time. For people who don’t know the first time was in 1989 during the big earthquake.
Ever since they patched up, but will have to makes more repairs in the coming months. The people on the bridge have been driving over it like nothing is wrong. I personally do not want to use that bridge because I’d rather sit back and watch the drama, then be in it or have front roll seats. What I mean is when the bridge goes falling down on everyone and into the ocean I won’t be there I will be nice warm in my house with my family watching it on the news.

I think people should just have more common sense, if you don’t know what happened or don’t understand it then find out the information. You need to keep you and your family safe, especially if you travel across the bridge a lot. Don’t be like a common person and look past what happened like everybody else.
—Valerie Klinker

Last night at the candle light vigil held in Richmond in support of the 15-year-old student who was brutally gang raped outside of her Homecoming dance, the victim herself released a statement to the public which read by her church pastor.

“We realize people are angry about this. But let the anger cause change, change that is necessary to keep our children, our neighbors and our friends safe.”

She also wrote in her statement, “violence is always the wrong choice.”

If I had experienced the two-hour horrific ordeal that she went through I can honestly say I don’t think I would have put those words to paper. It is a strong, empowering statement from a young woman who has been through hell and I applaud her for her strength. But I don’t think I would be able to call on change for the positive change after that.

I didn’t go through what she went through, but I went through something similar. When I finally came to terms with what had happened to me, I went through stages of self-hatred, anger at the world, anger at my ex, I didn’t want to just smile and nod and act like everything was A-OK. I wanted to take something like a baseball bat and do some damage. Of course, I didn’t actually do that, but it takes a very strong person to go through that and not come out of it bitter and hateful.

Because of that I really do appreciate her for coming out and saying something.
—Eming Piansay

Today I when came into work and got on the computer I came across a story that caught my attention. It was basically an article explaining the H1N1 virus. Well, actually it was talking about people who are at higher risk to catch the swine flu and it states their argument on why we need to get vaccinated.

I already knew about the swine flu being more of a risk for ages 18 to 22 year olds. Which means we are at higher risk to get the H1N1 virus. I think it has something to do with our immune system not being able to fight off the flu on its own, but I didn’t know that it’s also attacking little babies, children, the elderly, people with asthma or women who are pregnant.

This kind of scared me because I have a handsome son who is has barely started touching and terrorizing everything and I could not imagine anything happening to him. I am kind of a germophobe, which means I can’t stand when people cough and don’t cover their mouth or spit near me.

Also I am pregnant, and I do not want to get vaccinated for the swine flu. A lot of people are trying to scare me into it though. It’s not like I just don’t usually take shots, it’s because I am scared of what’s inside the medicine, I don’t know what the effects will be and every time I hear about the vaccine people make it seem like something is wrong with it, whether it’s friends or my spouse are telling me about the swine flu. They never took the vaccine before so they would not be able to tell me how it made them feel or if it changed them some how.

I wish someone close to me did get the vaccine so I can ask them questions about it and I would have to question their answers. I think if I get vaccinated I will get really sick, hurt the child inside of me, probably get people who are close to me sick and I won’t get better. I don’t really trust the government because I think they are the cause for the sicknesses across the world and they are only targeting those who are weak.

Even on the Internet I was reading about the vaccine and it said that all the vaccines have not had any bad effects so far, the word so far is a big no, no, to me. That means something bad is going to happen later on, I mean I know it well benefit me but I don’t want to put something in my system or even in my sons system with out having that mush knowledge about it.