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Show Editorial WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 14,2009 THE SIGNPOST Signpost Viewpoint Pesky parents: WEBER STATE UNIVERSITY WHAT A30UT ECOLI? \NE DON'T CUARGt EXTO/\ FOSTHAT! But worth the hassle College students who live at home are likely to discover that graduating from the ranks of adolescence and beginning college life is not a rite of passage into a challenge-free relationship with parents. However, being aware of the root of many of these challenges can help both students and their parents interact in a thoughtful, unselfish way. To understand the origin of these challenges, consider the evolution of a person's relationship with their parents. After birth, they are dependent on parents for every need. As they grow, they gradually develop intellectual and motor skills that enable them to perform many tasks independent of their parents. Before long, they become a walking, talking two-yeai-old capable of spreading chaos throughout the house and picking the neighbor's flowers to share with Mom. As capable as a child becomes to perform a variety of tasks, they still depend on their parents to provide them with such things as food, shelter, transportation, counsel and discipline. However, as they enter the teenage ^ears, they start to drive, and the money they earn from their new jobs gives them a greater level of financial freedom. Year by year, they become less dependent on their parents. From the earliest moments of a person's life, they develop a relationship with their parents that eventually comes to the threshold of a drastic evolution. It's this drastic evolution that can be a root source of tension between parent and child. A parent's outlook on their relationship with their child is formed over years of care-giving. Their fingerprints can be found on almost every significant decision of their child's life. For years, they provide their children with all their physical needs and help them make many decisions. The challenge for a parent is accepting a new role in the life of their child that allows their child more autonomy. . This challenge can be compounded by the presence of a few factors. If it is their first child, it will be their first try at accepting this new role in the life of one of their children. If they have younger children, they will have to distinguish between their relationships with them and their relationship with their college student. If their young adult is living at home, they will try to act independently of their parents while still being dependent on them for many of their physical resources. This pursuit of autonomy contrasts with their need for the physical resources provided by their parents. Their parents will likely feel that everything they have provided, and continue to provide, earns them a certain amount of influence in their child's decisions. A young adult may feel their parents' expectations threaten their attempt to realize their role as an adult. If they do, they will naturally resist their parents. At the same rime, their parents will resist their attempt to become independent Parents and their college-aged children have an equal role in maintaining and improving their relationship. There's nothing wrong with a parent' offering their adult child guidance, but they should be carefuj to respect their child's right to choose their own path. To have this respect, they must bridle their desire to ensure their adult child makes the "right" life-defining decisions. They can lead, prompt and encourage, but as soon as they try to enforce, all their influence evaporates. Parents can be wonderful resources of counsel, especially during a time of life when so many major decisions are being made. Students can make life easier for their parents by seeking their counsel and factoring it into the decisions they make. Another way a student can keep a vibrant relationship with their parents is to simply spend a few minutes each week telling them about their life. Parents are used to knowing, and they like knowing what's going on in the life of their child. " Maintaining a healthy relationship with our parents does not decrease in importance as we grow older. In this crucial time of our lives, when we are making decisions that may form our long-term future, we may in fact need the support and advice of our parents more than ever, whether we are living with them or just need some familial camaraderie and/or commiserating from time to time. But it is up to both the parents and the child, whatever age that child may be, to make sure the parent-child relationship does not fall into disrepair. Comment on this column at wsusignpost. com. THE WEBER STATE UNIVERSITY r POST Managing Editor Gina Barker #&f}'' 626-7614: ^^g^^^&^ZB^ ; Cimaron Sports Editor Matthew Maynes 626-7983 tp Editor ShayLynne Clark 626-7621 Features Editor jNapok, ,„„ ,626-71051 Allison Hess ^;v%; 626-8526 Adviser 626^359 Office Manager Georgia Edwards 626-7974 -The Signpost is published Monday, Wednesday and Friday during fall and spring semesters. Subscription is $18 a semester. First newspaper copy free, each additional copy SO.50. -The Signpost is a student publication, written, edited, and drafted by Weber State University students. Student fees fund the printing of this publication. Opinions or positions voiced arc not necessarily endorsed by the university. The Signpost welcomes letters to the editor. Letters must include name, address, telephone number, relationship to staff, and the writer's signature. -The Signpost reserves the right to edit for reasons of space and libel and also reserves the right to refuse to print any letter. Letters should not exceed 350 words. Bring letters to the editorial office in the Student Union 401, or mail to: The Signpost, Weber State University, Ogden, Utah 84408-2110. Attn:Frances Kelsey. E-mail thesignpost@weber.edu A bit of common sense Passing healthcare reform... so closi Gina Barker Signpost columnist It's a rare occasion when watching C-SPAN is entertaining. In fact, most cable packages could remove these channels entirely and 99.9 percent of Americans wouldn't even notice. This is because C-SPAN is universally understood as the channel we skip through to get to the real television - Spike TV's "Worst Vacations Caught on Tape," or the spin-off of the spin-off of the spin-off, "Flavor of Love." But on those rare occasions when we can appreciate the significance of the moment at hand, C-SPAN is there. Like yesterday, the Senate Finance Committee was abuzz with final details, reviewing one last time, before the big vote; the Senate Finance Committee voted on the Healthcare Reform Bill. And it passed 14-9. To date, President Obama is the closest to actually achieving a more encompassing and inclusive system of healthcare, and presidents have been talking about it since Roosevelt. This legislation will affect every single American. Very seldom does such far-reaching legislation actually reach the Senate floor, and only after a brief 8-monthlong discussion. Worth watching C-SPAN? Definitely. Waking up late yesterday, literally pulling on whatever clothes were closest to my person and running out the door, I didn't get the chance to check my cell phone till around 10 a.m. Looking at my inbox and seeing 12 new messages all in the space of an hour, my mind quickly went to apocalyptic developments. What happened? Nothing, just Senator SOURCE: AP EXCHANGE. U.S. Senate Finance Committee debates healthcare bill on Tuesday. v - ; Hatch, who is a member of the Finance Committee, text bombing me with tweets. Quick notes like, "appearing on CNN," "watch the Finance Committee debate liveonC-SPAN today," and "bill breaks several of the promises the President made to Americans"' mundatecL" rhy cell phone. But today was a big deal. The Senate Finance Committee was the final hurdle to cross in the Senate to actually vote on the biggest issue in America, or at least the one with the most screaming voices: healthcare reform. Some of you might be wondering, "Okay, the Senate Finance Committee (which is just a committee, not a passlng"vote on the bill itself) passed the healthcare bill. What does that mean?" Consider today's vote as a preview of what might come. The Senate Finance Committee held a 13-10 majority. The actual Senate holds a 60-40 majority. At theriskof needing to knock on wood, this healthcare bill can pass. Pass, and hopefully insure millions more Americans who deserve coverage. It's clear enough the current healthcare system is broken, leaving millions of Americans uninsured. In a system that denies the poor a right to good healthcare bas^d on income, insurance companies have made enormous profits at .the" expense of dying American* who need good coverage the most. The industry is the most significant roadblock to healthcare "reform^ And in the new reforms, wherej insurance companies would ^ forced to finally do the right and offer affordable services those with pre-existing conditionss! and make insurance rn6jj<> affordable to lower-class families;! these companies are still findirjgi ways to make healthcare a business] rather than a service. * U\ Insurance companies a j | ! continuing to pressure rji|{ government to create strict! mandates on the young who g<|; without insurance. Young customers; equal healthy customers equal; >a; quick buck. I do believe Americaii|j have an obligation to pay inter, ;4j system that will be helping thenlj later down the road, but not fpr profit's sake, for the people's sake. ]I £ ; "i Comment on this column. $\ wsusignpost. com* Letters to the Editor: H1N1 vaccine Viewpoint . I am writing regarding the Viewpoint article on October 5 to clear up, some of the dangerous factual errors in your article. Firstly, the new swineflu(or H1N1) vaccine was produced in exactly the same way the seasonalfluvaccine is produced every year. Indeed, both the vaccine inaniifactulers themselves as well as the National Institutes of Health conducted even more rigorous tests on this vaccine then are normally used. Secondly; youstate thattheHlNl vaccine contains an untested adjuvant called MF59. This is incorrect None of the H1N1 vaccines or 2009 seasonal influenza vaccines contain any adjuvant, including MF59. Thirdly, you imply that those who get the H1N1 vaccine significantly increase their risk of contracting Guillain-Barre syndrome. 30006000 people in the U.S. each year contract this disease whether or not they have been vaccinated. There was a slight increase in risk for this disease found with the 1976fluvaccine (approximately 1 additional case per 100,000 people vaccinated). However, the increased risk in those who take mostfluvaccines is closer to 1 per 1 million cases. Finally, you say that you would rather take a chance with the virus then with the vaccine. Therehave been no serious reactions attributed to this vaccine in multiple clinical trials. On the other hand, it has been clearly shown that some groups, such as pregnant women, are at particular risk for serious illness, hospitalization and death torn the 2009 H1N1flu.We are inthe midst of an influenza pandemic whicri, though it has been relativelywnild thusfar,is by no means over. We owe it to ourselves, our families, and our communities to getthe - facts about swineflu.Much more information can be foundf £ at www.flu.gov. I encourage all - s your readers to get the facts I p r ajl• j themselves. - Joanna Prashgff I Comment on these letteff klj wsusignposLcom'S, Letters to the editor ar;e..-;*J edited for libel and lm- \ guage only, all other asV'^ pects are the orginal form;: in which the authors: them. |