The Fatal Jet Ski Ride :: Memoir Essays

The Fatal Jet Ski Ride Walking down the cold, white, hospital hall, my mind was racing a million miles an hour. How could she be dead? Two people in two days...what are the chances? We rounded the corner, my cousin Daniele holding on to me as hard as she could, me gripping her arm to keep myself in pace. There she was, Pam Doan, her body I should say, lying there under that white sheet. Pam, was my cousin's best friend, and mine too, for the fourteen days I'd been there. Two weeks earlier I had arranged for my boyfriend, Charles, to come pick me up and take me back with him to Bridgeport, Nebraska to stay with my Aunt Annie, Uncle Gaylen and my cousins Casey, 18 and Daniele, 15. I arrived there June 23rd, 2002, the day after my 17th birthday. The first few days consisted of Daniele teaching me how to drive her car, seeing how I didn't have one of my own there, and she couldn't drive yet. I had never driven a stick shift before, and it was a pretty comical experience for the both of us. But once I had mastered it, we drove all over that little town. Just Daniele, Pam and I. Pam was 17 also, looking forward to her 18th birthday in November. Our days started routinely. Daniele and I getting up and showering, convincing her dad to take the boat out to the town lakes so we could go tubing and water skiing. Meeting Pam out there and the three of us spending all day in our swimsuits getting tan and sore from riding those damn tubes around the lakes. A few trips here and there into town to my aunt's mexican restaurant to get some food. Then it was back into the shower as we got ready to go out for the night. There were places to go and people to meet. I met my cousin's ex-boyfriend, Aron, and his friend Kyle. Then there was "Perv", whose real name I haven't a clue. At one social gathering, Daniele and I were having a conversation with a couple of guys, one who was Aaron Houston and the other was Stuart Klassen, who will always be known to Daniele and I as "Possum". Then along came the 4th of July weekend that will haunt me forever. My uncle took their family camper out to the lakes and Daniele and I took turns with her brother, Casey, staying out there.

Concerns of Ethics in Management

What is the status of ethics in management? This is a very hard question to address in a three to four page paper because there is no definite answer. As with many society-wide concerns, ethics runs the entire spectrum of behaviors; from Wal-Mart being very customer oriented and a friend of charity to those fly-by-night repair scams that tend to prey on the elderly. When does a business cross the line from making a profit to stealing a profit? That is a hard line to gauge. Laws are designed to make that line a little clearer but laws can't out think the mind of man. If a way can be thought of to make money it already has been or is being thought of. It's where people are taken advantage of that we need to worry. There are many business in place that simply prey on the people who don't know any better. Whether its the feature on Prime-Time that shows elderly people tricked into phony home repairs or the local business that offered a friend of mine a computer at an inflated price with an outrageous financing plan, some business practices are unethical. What I will focus on today is not the clearly right or the clearly wrong but that vast amount of items that are in the middle. Looking at more of a gray area, Wal-Mart is generally viewed as an ethical company but even they have a reputation for unfair competition. Wal-Mart has a marketing plan that targets smaller cities with large-volume discount stores. While this may not appear to be unfair on its face, many people have felt it's negative effect. When Wal-Mart moves into a market, many of it's smaller competitors go out of business. Small business in small towns can't compete with the prices, availability, or selection of a huge conglomerate like Wal-Mart. People in the towns don't have much of a choice. Pay more for less or pay less for more? Not are hard decision. But the ultimate effect is that many small business can't survive the competition. Is that ethically wrong? That is a very hard call to make. I recently had an experience of buying a new car. I shopped around Coos Bay and also in Roseburg while on a recent trip. I was in the market to buy a Dodge Ram. The prices seemed to be about the same in these two markets. My father and I decided to drive to Portland to look further. When we got there, the first dealership that we saw had over thirty Dodge Rams on the front lot with a recent shipment of more in the back. Compared to the Coos Bay dealership which had nine. Immediately, I noticed that the price at that dealership was $1,300 less than the same model with the same package in Coos Bay. Both stickers said the price quoted was the manufacturers suggested retail price. Already over $1,000 to the good, we decided to look further. We found six Rams that had an additional mark down of $2,000. This was because of an engine style in the process of being phased out that had an additional rebate. Looking at the two different models from Portland and Coos Bay we would save $3,300 by buying here. We decided to look no further. We selected the color and bought my truck. Overall, we had a very pleasant experience but what about the people who buy from the Coos Bay dealership and spend over $3,000 more? Are they being unethically taken advantage of? That's a hard call as well. I took an equal opportunity class in High School and during that class someone inevitably brings up car prices in Coos Bay as being unfair. Are these prices unfair or is it just the law of supply and demand? Was the two thousand dollars that I saved in Portland because that model car wasn't available to the dealership in Coos Bay? That difference can be easily excusable. The other $1,300 I have a harder time with. I took detailed notes and both stickers were basically identical with the exception of price. Each indicated a different manufacturers suggested retail price. Ethically, I think the line has been crossed. There can't be two different manufacturers suggested retail prices for the same car. One has to be wrong. I had a good experience buying this car but not everyone will. I've been to the dealerships in the past that have used those high pressure tactics to coerce people into buying or spending more than they can afford. Those are the kind of ethical issues that can't be legislated. Thinking through the ethics issues reminded me of my car buying experience because just like in the ethical issues, there is no clear cut answer. In ethics, one would think that there is right and wrong but in real life cases of ethics in business there is not. There is no black and white answer only millions of shades of gray. Think about junk faxes, what is so wrong about sending an unsolicited advertisement to someone. People get them almost every day in their mailbox. It seems like a reasonable response but the differences are great. The junk fax ties up an important communication tool of the company and the costs are split between the sender and the recipient without the recipient's permission. The cost to the sender is simply the cost of a telephone call. While the cost to the recipient is the cost of paper, ink, and power to receive the call in addition to the loss of use of the machine during reception. I wouldn't want to get junk mail in my mailbox, if I had to pay for it!. I don't like it much even when I don't have to pay for it. But is this practice of junk faxing wrong? I say no. Ethically, I feel that it's not wrong if the faxes are reasonable in length and company has a process to quit sending faxes if a recipient requests. I was the recipient of one junk fax. It came into my mailbox here in Talent at the Anjou Club. It was an advertisement to buy office supplies. Now there is no law, either civil or military, that prohibits this but I realized this isn't something that the Apartment complex should pay for. I took the fax to the manager's office and they drafted a letter to request that it be stopped. They stated that if any more faxes were received, Anjou Club apartment's would no longer do business with this company. This was motivation enough for them not to do it. I never received another fax. With business, that is how the system must work. If the pursuit of the bottom line goes to far, then the bottom line must be threatened. I don't think there is anything ethically wrong with many business practices. It's all a matter of people being satisfied with the product that they are getting. If they are satisfied, the business will flourish. If not, it will suffer. That is probably the best way to measure ethics in management. Overall, I think the status of ethics is management needs some work. There are very good companies out there that charge a fair price to make a reasonable profit but there are many business in place that prey on the weak and poor.

Peer Pressure In Adolescence Essay - 1397 Words

Introduction Sex and sexuality are important issues throughout the lifespan, specifically during adolescence. Another large issue during adolescence is pressure from peers. These pressures can be intentional, or just driven by the pressure to fit in by matching other’s actions. One of the more interesting topics in this time of a person’s life is seeing how these two issues overlap. The affect of peer pressure on sexuality in adolescents is a large issue. Large enough to warrant representation in the media to raise some sort of awareness. Visual media sources, such as television and movies, are created to reflect the popular ideas of the time they are based in. The topics discussed will change drastically to match the time periods’†¦show more content†¦In many forms of media, featured in the past and present, sex and sexuality are common topics discussed and experienced by the characters. The largest difference between Usually these storylines revolve ar ound adolescents trying to navigate new sexual experiences, and the other characters reacting to the situation. However, the purpose of this paper is focusing on how peer pressures affect the adolescent’s actions and views on sex. The popular source this paper will be using for comparison is from an episode of Glee titled â€Å"The Power of Madonna†. Two of the three characters facing sexual pressures in this episode, Finn and Rachel, are adolescents. Both feel the need to have sex and lose their virginity due to spoken and unspoken pressures from their peers and partners (Murphy, 2009). This situation revolves around both of the adolescent characters being talked into performing intimate acts, which they are not initially comfortable with. This show is meant to reflect the ideas held by society, specifically by the show’s adolescent viewers. That includes their approaches to discussing sexuality and the influence peers have on it. However, those commonly held b eliefs are not always proven to be true by research on the subject. Pressure from Peers A consensus has been reached by researchers that in general adolescents are participating in more sexualShow MoreRelatedMiddle Childhood and Adolescence1048 Words   |  5 PagesMiddle Childhood and Adolescence Kierra Williams PSY/280 October 30, 2012 Mara Husband Middle Childhood and Adolescence Middle childhood is the period of life that occurs between the ages 7 and 11. During these times of children lives they are in school and are making many different friends, and their cognitive and physical skills are enhancing. 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