Reflection

I would say my biggest challenge in this course by far is consistency with the posting of these blog assignments. It's so easy for me to overlook and forget about these type of assignments because of the demands of my course load this semester, which is not an excuse, it just means that I can plan and organize better. I've gotten everything I needed for our first portfolio assignment, now it's just a matter of getting everything together and making it presentable. Hopefully I can do better about all of this in the remainder of this semester.

Why Place Matters

After reading " Why Place Matters: Building The Movement For Healthier Communities", I was once again very informed and enlightened of the social and economic change taking place in our country. It's a great feeling to know that there are people in our country who do legitimately care about the betterment of lower income families and communities. Probably the most inspiring part of the article to me was reading about the leadership and economic development in Fresno, California. To me, this is where we will truly see the most significant change in the health and social well-being of our country's economy. People need to be be properly educated and trained so that they are equipped with the necessary skills and knowledge to better themselves and the people around them, it's contagious. If you travel to a urban neighborhood with section 8 housing, you'll often times see or hear of drug sales, gang violence, and unemployment. Why? Because alot of these people don't any other way to survive. Hustling is a necessity for young black males in an impoverished neighborhood. It's a good thing to see government programs taking action and training these neglected people to empower them and help them change.

Tuskeegee and Guatemala Syphylis Experiements

My blog posting hasn't been very consistent the past few weeks but I'm definitely going to change that.


I couple of weeks ago we read two articles on the two different instances of men being unethically tested for syphilis. In the year of 1932 in Macon County, Alabama, the Public Health Service alongside the Tuskegee institute conducted an experiment to test black men with syphilis, however what the men didn't know was that they in fact were being infected with the disease from the doctor. The doctors justified this practice by saying that they were looking for a cure for the disease and they offered the men free healthcare, meals, and burial insurance. This unethical study was supposed to only last 6 months but ended up lasting 40 years, from 1932 to 1972. It's incredible to me how such a demeaning, racist, and inhuman practice can go on for so long, but I guess I should take into consideration the time period this was in and the type of civil rights being granted to minorities at that time.

The other article was on case study similar to the Tuskegee experiment. In 1946 U.S. Public Health doctors conducted a study in a Guatemala prison, deliberately infecting 700 prisoners with syphilis. Because of the regulations of the prison in Guatemala, the doctors went about the experiment a different way. They had prostitutes who were infected with syphilis come and sleep with the prisoners so that they would contract the disease. If this was not successful, they would go so far as to literally pour the disease onto open scrapes on their penises, faces or arms, and would sometimes even inject it into their spine. All of this was going on for two years in Guatemala and the prisoners had no idea. This is mind boggling and really cause me to question what other unethical practices have been conducted for the benefit of our country. It's sad.