What would people do without music?  Everywhere we go music is there to brighten our day.  Occasionally it gets stuck on a song we despise and cannot stop thinking about how much we want to switch the song.  But when we hear a song that we really like sometimes our actions are uncontrollable.  We feel delighted and free.  We might even bob our heads or tap our feet. Music has been defining people for generations, allowing emotional release that can be mental, physical or spiritual.

There have been countless cases throughout history where music has been used to calm a persons mind.  “Egyptians used music to calm their insane,” and in the Bible story of David and King Saul, David controlled the Kings emotions by playing the different notes on a harp.  In the present day, 2009, we use music for just about everything.  We use music when we are exercising, driving or going on a trip, relaxing, and partying.   However, is this all we use music for?  Absolutely not, we use music for plenty of other things.  Music is everywhere we go.  Music is in all different types of stores, from clothing stores to car lots.  It is in hospitals, dentist offices, workplaces, restaurants, movie theaters and movies themselves, and religious buildings.  There is no mandate that companies must play music at all times and yet they do.  Music makes people more comfortable.

Music can always calm me down after an extremely stressful day full of homework, and apparently music is known to have calming affects on the majority of all people.  Now people have jobs dedicated to music therapy, because science has proven that music can change our blood volume, blood pressure, circulation, pulse, and even our metabolism.  It is hard to believe that music could have anything to do with our metabolism, but truth of the matter is that a human beings metabolism can be related to music.  Researchers have theorized that music affects us in such ways because our bodies and organs work in a rhythmic way.  Rhythm can be found in a persons respiration, heartbeats, brain waves, and speech patterns.  If you think about it, the way that we talk and form sentences is very rhythmic, with our long or brief pauses and the stress that we put on individual words.   Each individual can be found to have a unique speech pattern, but our speech is in fact a pattern.

If a person is musically active than their life and body will be most likely to be affected in a positive way.  For example, researchers have noticed that those who play the piano are benefited not only mentally, but physically as well.  People who play the piano are less likely to develop arthritis in their hands.   I wonder if typing helps to stop arthritis in a person’s hand, because in a certain sense it is the same thing.  Of course piano is more pleasant to the ears, but nonetheless it is the same motions.  Active participation in music can also eliminate stress.  Eliminating stress is very import to both a person’s physical health and mental health.  Stress affects a person’s body in horrible ways.  Sometimes it causes little things like gaining weight, and other times it causes depression.  I am sure we have all heard the commercials, “Depression can hurt.” And depression does hurt.  It lowers self-esteem and makes a person feel alone. Stress is not beneficial to our bodies, and the sooner we get rid of it the better we feel.  Musical experts say that singers rarely develop any sort of chest pains, but this is not unheard of.  As much as music can help a person physically, a person still has to have genetics in which they would never develop any sort of problems to have a completely accurate survey.

Music’s impact has been known for generations and I am so glad that many of my peers openly embrace the musical side of themselves.  Unfortunately for some there is no musical side.  I like to say that I am not musically inclined, which is sad when my father can pick up just about any stringed instrument and make it sound good.  He likes to say that I can play lots of things, like the radio and the I-pod.  However, I can listen to music and appreciate it.  I can also use music to melt away my stress and so can you.

Let me know how music does or does not affect your lives.

Original Site: http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0826/is_n4_v8/ai_12426666/pg_3/?tag=content;col1

Everywhere we look there is segregation.  There is segregation between sexes, cultures, and religions.  Do we intend to have these segregations?  Do we want to categorize ourselves?  Absolutely we do.  We have engraved in our minds this idea of unity, yet we keep ourselves from being truly united.  We have come a long way, but there are so many simple things that should have been changed long ago.

I have just read an article on racial segregation in the United States.  According to this article “ the Alabama Constitution still mandates that separate schools shall be provided for white and colored children, and no child of either race shall be permitted to attend a school of the other race”(2).  An unsuccessful attempt was made in 2004 to revoke this act.  I personally feel that there is no greater failure in a nation than separating its citizens.  You have no control over what race you are.

When people ask me, “What are you?” I respond by saying I am American.  Now this tends to either make the person laugh, or it just confuses or aggravates them.  But why?  The constant question annoys me.  “What are you?” I am American, that is were I was born.  That is where I am loyal.  A more appropriate question would be what ethnicity are you?  I myself am a mix of many ethnicities.  I am a combination of 1/4 Sicilian (Italian), about 1/4 Austrian mixed in with the people who used to live in Germany, before Germany, and Czechoslovakians, a little over 1/4 Hungarian, 1/16 Cherokee Indian, and 3/16 American.  I say 3/16 American because some sides of my family had been in American for many generations.  It boils down to I am white or Caucasian.  That is what I have to write on District Tests and applications.  None of those ethnicities define me; they just explain how I came to exist.  It is not about what you are.  It is about who you are.

How are we segregated?  As children, boys are friends with boys and girls are friends with girls.  It is what we as children are taught.  It might be that boys and girls have nothing in common, but that seems highly unlikely.  So why is it always battle of the sexes?  It is because we made it that way.  They are different and we want to be part of something.  We want to be with our own group.  Eventually, it ends up that interests differ from one another, but originally it is because we are physically different from one another.

I am fascinated and outraged at the clubs that my school has to offer.  There are good clubs like Speech and Debate, CSF, and Red Cross.  However, there are segregated clubs like Armenian club, Asian club, BSU (Black Student Union), Christian club, Indian club, Muslim club, Latinos Unidos, Jewish club, and Gay Club.  Since when are any of these clubs interests?  They are not interests, they are things that separate us from one another.   They are not Running club, Science club, or Art club.  Things that people take interest in or do as a hobby.  The most they could do is learn about their religion and their heritage, but it’s not about that.   Not to offend any Armenians, some of my closest friends are Armenian, but there were people standing in front of the Armenian club sign ups shouting, “If you are not Armenian, you can’t sign up.”  That sounds like segregation.  With all these clubs our multicultural school becomes empty. Armenian, Asian, Black, Christian, Indian, Muslim, Latinos, Jewish people, and Gays are all American.  They are in America and most of them were born in America.  Why do they choose to separate themselves from one another, and how can a school let them separate themselves from one another?

If you are a United States citizen, you are American!  I did not say if you are in America than you are American, because people visit from other countries and if they are not American maybe they do want to be American.  But whether you are Armenian, Asian, Black, Christian, Indian, Muslim, Latino, Jewish, or Gay you should want to be American.  Let hobbies describe who you are.  Do not let your skin color, eye color, hair color, or religion control how and what you decide to do.  It is time we become one, because background of people who are not you, does not count for who you are.  We should all be ourselves, but still live together as one.  We are one nation of many different backgrounds.  But that is all that they are, backgrounds.  It is time to create something new.  Under one nation, we are the same.

Original Site:    http://www.experiencefestival.com/a/Racial_segregation_-_USA/id/1990959