RE: Kaitlyn Helmchen's OpEd "Students stressed out" of May 28, 2020
I do not find it odd that young people are suffering anxiety. That has been the goal of Democrats and their leftist media lemmings who have been peddling one line of doom and gloom after another for 50 years. While Democrats and the media know nothings peddle their “the sky is falling” scenarios one after another, people are living longer healthier lives, even in the middle of a pandemic, enjoying cleaner air and water and living in a world at relative peace.
I do not find it odd that young people are suffering anxiety. That has been the goal of Democrats and their leftist media lemmings who have been peddling one line of doom and gloom after another for 50 years. While Democrats and the media know nothings peddle their “the sky is falling” scenarios one after another, people are living longer healthier lives, even in the middle of a pandemic, enjoying cleaner air and water and living in a world at relative peace.
The latest line of nonsense being pushed by the
Chicken Littles on the left is the Wuhan Virus.
We know the virus is a nasty deadly ordeal. We also know 80% of the deaths occur in the
age groups 65 and older. We know young
people, age 24 and under, have a better chance of being bitten to death by
ducks than succumbing to the Chinese Virus.
So the new “end of the world” scenario is that, out
of respect for others’ safety, we all have to wear masks 24/7 and remain in
lockdown until weak-kneed testing expert like Abe Schwab can get tested for the
Chinese Virus three times an hour and have a government minder tell him when it’s
safe to come out from under his bed. The
JG has sent their best virtue signaling reporter – Sherry Slater - out into the
cruel, cruel world to hector people who choose not to wear a mask.
In early April Medical News Today published a report that
indicates neither surgical nor cotton masks effectively filters for the Wuhan
Virus. In fact it’s worse. We are told that we should wear a mask out of
respect for others so as not to spread our germs to the general population. Alas, here’s the bad news for virtue signaling
scolds like Slater and long list of fear mongering JG letter writers advocating
for masking. The study showed greater contamination on the outside of the mask
than the inside.
It would seem that people wearing masks are more
likely to become infected and spread disease by the simple act of putting on
and taking off the mask.
So fear not young people. Ignore the fear-mongering Democrats and their
crooked media boob army. The only thing
you have to fear is fake news being generated from a purely political press
more interested in bringing down PDJT than they are in the truth.
Thursday, May 28, 2020 1:00 am
Students
stressed out
As problem grows, cope by getting
organized, seeking help rather than choosing isolation
Kaitlyn Helmchen
As anxiety becomes
more recognized, people have wondered how we, as a society, can solve this
issue. Before we can do that, we must look at how it has been increasing in
recent years and the potential causes of stress and/or anxiety.
More students are
becoming stressed and/or anxious about life. According to Higher Education
Research, in 1985, 18% of incoming first-year college students said they felt
stressed.
Since then, this has
only gotten higher, with 28% of students saying this in 2000 and 41% in 2016.
As we can see, it has not decreased, and it is not stopping.
What are some causes
of anxiety and stress? When some students in North Side High School's
senior class were surveyed recently, 60.2% said school stresses them out the
most. Now, this can include a variety of things such as grades, tests, friends
at school and homework. Other students said the future gives them anxiety and
stresses them out as well.
Students are taking
this issue into their own hands in several ways. In the North Side High School
survey, 39.3% of the students said they use music to relieve their stress
and/or anxiety, and another 21.8% said they use art/literature.
The problem with these
choices is they can cause isolation and lead to overthinking as time goes on.
These ways can cause a cycle of a student feeling bad one day, listening to
music to feel better, and then feeling the same way again the next day.
Students can start
having a better impact on their stressors by having a planner so they can
write down what needs to be done and when something needs to be completed. This
could lead to them being more organized and teach them time management skills,
which are useful when it comes to work.
Students can also talk
to their counselors about how they feel and how to go about doing things, such
as completing projects.
Why should we care
about anxiety and stress so much? If anxiety continues to be a problem, other
issues can arise. As anxiety becomes severe, physical problems such as
headaches and feeling tired become more frequent. Over time, people can become
depressed and start using bad coping habits, such as substance abuse, to
lighten that stress.
Although stress and
anxiety may affect us all, it can become more severe and cause other problems
for us, which is why we should care about these issues right away.
Kaitlyn Helmchen will
graduate from North Side High School on June 5 and plans to study at Indiana
University-Bloomington.
Friday, May 29, 2020 1:00 am
Return to
campus? Weigh the risks first
Abe Schwab
Notre Dame, Purdue and
IU have all announced their plans to resume face-to-face classes this fall. And
this is understandable. Students surveyed want to be on campus and parents want
them there, too. It's what the customer wants.
But taking part in
face-to-face classes has costs that students and their parents should consider.
Face to face classes
will increase the spread of the coronavirus to students, employees and
their families. We don't know how these infections will affect students, and it
may be tempting to dismiss this concern. After all, the mortality rate seems
very low, especially for 15-to-24-year-olds.
Seems.
Woefully inadequate
testing in the U.S. means we don't know how many people have died from
COVID-19. Compared with the United States' six-year average, 30,000 more people
have died this year. We have 2,000 extra deaths from non-COVID-19 pneumonia in
Indiana. Only the most naïve would believe that most of these extra deaths are
from something other than undiagnosed COVID-19.
More importantly,
mortality is only one of the possible harms of COVID-19. The long-term effects
on cardiac and respiratory systems and other bodily functions are not fully
known but are obviously severe in some cases in which the patient doesn't die.
Without attention to the potentially life-long harms, both physical and
financial, of COVID-19, students and their parents might inadvertently ignore
significant non-lethal consequences of COVID-19.
And these outcomes are
not limited to students. Students' families, employees and employees' families
will also be subject to these harms. And many of them are not in the 15-24 age
bracket.
It's not surprising
that federal, local, and state governments would allow for individuals to take
on these risky choices. We routinely value economic activity more than saving a
single life. Preserving human life is important, but it's only worth so much.
A simple example: If
we enforced a speed limit of 20 miles per hour on any road anywhere in the
United States, we would have fewer fatalities from car crashes. We would save
lives. And yet we allow speed limits of 70 mph, and in some states even higher
than that. And this has economic benefits. Individuals can travel further for
work, organizations can transport goods faster, etc. We've accepted that
certain economic benefits are valuable enough to allow for a certain number of
additional deaths.
We don't know in
detail what will happen over the next year, but we do know that increasing
interpersonal interactions will lead to more deaths and other severe medical
complications from COVID-19. We don't know who will be infected, who will be
hospitalized or who will die. But we know that when we increase our
interpersonal interactions, some will. And you have to ask yourself – do you
want to subject yourself or your children to that risk?
Abe Schwab is
professor of philosophy and director of Ethics Across the Curriculum at Purdue
Fort Wayne who specializes in applied ethics.
Friday, May 29, 2020 1:00 am
Letters
Holcomb should mandate
masks, not play politics
Why is Gov. Eric
Holcomb so reluctant to issue a mandatory mask order? Citing ample evidence,
medical experts – including his own health commissioner, Dr. Kristina Box –
have repeatedly championed the effectiveness of wearing a mask in public
gatherings against the spread of the coronavirus.
The governor, ever
solicitous to protect business interests, has already expressed his fear of
offending, choosing to place the onus of any decision on them – much as an
irresponsible White House has done to individual states. And these essential
businesses appear just as reluctant, leaving the choice up to customers they
must feel are too easily turned off. Interesting that Menards, which requires
everyone to wear a mask in its store, seems to be suffering no lack of
customers.
Or could the governor
also be acting out of the fear of alienating the base he shares as a member of
the Republican Party of Trump – those science deniers and lockdown defiers?
This we know Indiana has no shortage of. Could his reluctance stem from the nightmare
of a gun-toting mob occupying the Statehouse?
We would hate to think
Gov. Holcomb's risk-benefit analysis includes playing politics with human
lives. Requiring masks is surely worth it if it helps us feel less nervous
about going back to work or shopping for groceries and, what is more, if it
increases even slightly the chances of our survival.
Jack Hill
Fort Wayne
Thursday, May 28, 2020 5:00 am
Journal Entry
Woodburn
ceremony prompts wish for safer practices
SHERRY SLATER | The Journal Gazette
The Journal Gazette
has adapted to the COVID-19 pandemic, as have many other local workplaces.
Reporters and editors have been asked to work from home since mid-March to
minimize our exposure to the potentially deadly virus. We remain scattered
across the city, working on laptop computers from our couches, dens and dining
room tables.
My co-workers have
used various technology to cover news conferences by the governor, mayor,
county commissioners, and state and county health officials. They have kept our
readers updated on the growing number of Hoosiers and Allen County residents
who have died from COVID-19 or tested positive for the coronavirus.
I've kept up with
those sobering facts, part of my responsibility as a journalist and a citizen.
I've also kept up with the best advice medical experts have to offer for
reducing the spread.
Last Saturday was one
of only three times I've been asked to leave home to cover an event since the
statewide shutdown began. What used to be a routine part of my work duties has
become strange and even, I have to admit, a little scary. But I arrived in
downtown Woodburn with a face mask, some sanitizing hand wipes and a positive
attitude.
What I found there
disturbed me deeply.
About 100 people were
gathered in the Woodburn Clock Tower Plaza for a dedication ceremony. Not one
of them was wearing a face mask. Needless to say, they weren't standing 6 feet
apart, either.
The gathering was to
dedicate a “wishing stone,” where Woodburn residents could “make a wish or take
a wish.” Inspired by a book read by a fifth-grade class, the idea was to
encourage people to wish for peace or good health or some other intangible.
If I had made a wish
that day, I would have wished that Woodburn's mayor and city council members
would step up and be the leaders their constituents deserve. My second wish
would have been that the other adults in the crowd would heed the advice of
medical experts. Woodburn's children – and vulnerable adults – are depending on
them.
Sherry Slater is the
business reporter for The Journal Gazette.
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