community
By V. Lonnie Peek,Jr. One of the interesting dy-
namics about human nature is that some folks disregard facts and latch on to misinforma- tion that allows them to form an opinion or position. It does not matter that the basis for their opinion or position is in- correct; they are just focused on what they want to believe. Their attitude is, “Don’t con- fuse with facts.”
A recent nationwide survey
of 3000 Americans found that 18% of them believe that President Barack Obama is a Muslim. Now first, there in nothing wrong with being a Muslim, if that is your faith of choice. But from a presiden- tial perspective it is important that American possess factual information when forming an opinion about their president.
The Pew Research Center
that conducted the survey pointed out this belief has grown sharply among Repub- licans. Also a Time magazine poll found that 24% believed Obama was a Muslim, com- pared to 47% who said he was Christian. Then there was 24% that didn’t know his religion.
Now why is this informa- tion important? It is impor-
THE MICHIGAN CHRONICLE
August 25-31, 2010
personality stated, “I hope Obama fails.” Then he gets a ton of calls supporting this idiotic position.
Why would you want the
president to fail? If he fails, the country does not make progress. The presidency is not just about the presi- dent the person, it is about the office that he or she op- erates within. When George Bush was the president, even though I did not agree with some of the things that he did, I didn’t want him to fail. That would affect the citizens of the country.
Some of those who don’t V. Lonnie Peek Jr.
tant because in some folks’ minds, religion in directly re- lated to political judgments. The survey pointed out the fact that those who think that Obama is a Muslim over- whelmingly disapprove of his job performance. While a ma- jority of those who think he is a Christian approve of what he is doing.
It is so interesting to note
that this president has had to deal with all types of side issues, like where he was born. We know why, don’t we? We know why a national radio
support Obama use the hook that he is a Muslim. Within that scenario there are a lot of erroneous assumptions. For example, just because you are a Muslim does not make you a bad person. Yes, there are bad Muslims and yes there are bad Christians. It is the indi- vidual who takes and distorts their religious tenets to justify doing bad things.
This president will have to
continue to weather different types of storms because he is a different type of president. But I predict that history will record him as one of our great presidents. Just stay tuned.
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Obama’s religion is still an issue Homework wars: How can parents improve the odds of winning?
Children are more likely
to do their homework if they see it as an investment, not a chore, according to new re- search at the University of Michigan.
Most children in the United
States say they expect to go to college, but there is frequently a gap between students’ goals and their current behavior, ac- cording to the study conduct- ed by U-M graduate student Mesmin Destin and Daphna Oyserman, a psychologist at the U-M Institute for Social Research (ISR), School of Social Work, and Department of Psychology. The gap can be especially wide among low- income and African American students, the study says.
The study is published in
The Journal of Experimental Social Psychology.
The researchers conducted
two studies among middle- school children in the Detroit area. In the first study, they asked 266 students about the jobs they saw themselves having as adults: “Think about yourself as an adult, what job do you think you’ll have? What will you be doing in 10 years?”
Nine out of 10 children ex-
pected to attend at least a two- year college, but only 46 per- cent saw themselves as having an education-dependent adult identity. Those who did invest- ed more time in homework and got better grades over the
course of the school year. “Even among children with
the same starting grades, ex- pecting to be a teacher, an engineer or a nurse when you grow up predicts that they’ll invest more time in home- work,” said Oyserman. “And, not surprisingly, they will have better grades over time than children who expect to have a job in sports, entertain- ment or other areas that don’t depend on having an educa- tion.”
In the second study, the
researchers worked with a group of 295 students and their teachers in science classrooms. The researchers presented information to the students about either the edu- cation-dependent earnings of college degree recipients, or about the earnings of actors, musicians and sports figures.
Then the students answered
questions about how they planned to spend their time that evening, and students marked how much time they would spend on homework or studying among other activi- ties such as sports, music or online activities. After the re- searchers left the classroom, teachers assigned students an extra-credit assignment rele- vant to current class material.
Children who saw how
adult earnings were related to education were eight times more likely to do the extra credit homework as those who
saw the presentation showing adult earnings independent of amount of education.
ies show that a small but pow- erful
Taken together, these stud- intervention showing
how much education matters is likely to have a major effect on the likelihood that children will spend time on school- work. They are more likely to be seen as an investment in their futures, not a chore that interferes with their lives.
“Our results also inform
an ongoing debate about the academic value of athletic par- ticipation for low-income and minority youth. Despite ap- parent benefits for academic achievement and outcomes for more privileged youth, na- tional survey data do not show that athletic participation has positive effects for urban and minority youth, or female and rural Latino youth,” said Oy- serman.
“We find that very subtle
cues can influence academic performance. Failing to see connections between adult identities and current actions puts children at risk of low effort in school. And waiting until low-income and minor- ity children are in high school to make these connections increases the chance they’ll already be too far behind to make it to college.”
Visit the ISR website at
http://www.isr.umich.edu for more information.
Free prostate screenings St. Joseph Mercy Oakland (SJMO) will offer
free prostate cancer education sessions fol- lowed by screening opportunities Saturday, Sept. 11, in its Alice Gustafson Center, 44405 Woodward Ave., Pontiac, on the hospital campus. September is Prostate Cancer Aware- ness Month.
Vanguard Community Development Corporation partners with Feed the Children, PepsiCo
To celebrate 70 years of service to the community, Vanguard Community Development salutes Second Ebenezer Church for 70 years of service by partnering with Feed the Children and Pep- siCo to bring 14 semi tractor-trailers full of food, essentials and personal care items to Second Ebenezer Church (14601 Dequindre St.) to help 4,000 Detroit families. All of the Vanguard CDC staff and 75 volunteers from the church and approximately 300 Detroit Metro Area-based Pep- siCo associates, the majority from its Frito-Lay business unit, volunteered to help distribute the items at 10 a.m. Players from the Detroit Lions were also on hand to distribute items to families identified based on their need. The distribution is the latest and largest stop this year on Feed the Children’s Americans Feeding Americans Caravan.
The following SJMO physicians will present
information on various topics related to pros- tate cancer. Men should sign up for one topic from the schedule. All speakers also will cover: what is prostate cancer, who should be tested and when, what the screening involves and the risks and benefits of testing.
Free screening will be available following the
presentations for those who wish to participate. Available screening includes a digital rectal ex- amination (DRE) and a PSA blood test.
Educational speakers and their topics are: 9 a.m. — Jeffrey Forman, MD, “Prostate
Cancer Treatment Options”
9:30 a.m. — Brandon Allen, MD, “Lifestyle Choices and Prostate Cancer Prevention”
10 a.m. — Marko Gudziak, MD, “Dysfunctions Following Prostate Cancer: Erectile Dysfunc- tion, Urinary Incontinence and Available Treat- ments”
10:30 a.m. — Atul Rajpurkar, MD, “The Role of Family History: Why Does Prostate Cancer Seem to Run in Some Families?”
11 a.m. — Tina Schuster, DO, “How Does Pros- tate Cancer Develop?”
11:30 a.m. — Michael Cotant, MD, “Lifestyle Choices and Prostate Cancer.”
Pre-registration is required. To register, call (800) 372-6094.
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