Use of Marijuana?

Recently Colorado passed a law making the use of marijuana legal if you use it for recreational use.  For years the use of marijuana has been illegal, so why the sudden change? What is our country going to be like if marijuana is legal? Will people treat it like the use of alcohol or will kids and adults constantly be high? It’s hard to picture a functional work environment when people are constantly high. I see many negative effects that marijuana will have on our country, but there are also many positive aspects. Many people argue that it will help the economy by a huge margin. According to CNN the use of selling marijuana could save the government up to 14 billion a year.  Although it is a very questionable prediction 14 billion dollars would help the government a lot and the people. I’m interested in how marijuana will be treated in the state of Colorado, in a way for many states they are test dummies. If it works and is treated in a positive way then marijuana could be a positive thing to our environment, but I believe that people will abuse it and become a negative aspect to our current life.

Connecticut shooting

America went through yet another tragic even this week, and the hearts of the American people go out to the families involved in shooting. I always ask after a tragic even like this, why do the killers always have to take the lives of innocent people? If you hate your life than why destroy someone else? I think the reason these events keep happing is because of one, gun control and two the media. Although we all have the right to hear the facts and the awful story I believe the gunman or whoever commits this awful murder shouldn’t even get talked about. The people who are willing to kill so many innocent people are clearly messed up in the head. So when the next killer sees that everyone will know his name for committing such a violent crime it almost makes them feel like heroes. They want to world to recognize there name and face. The gun control aspect of this debate is simple, limit the use of guns. It is just awful that we haven’t learned our lesson the first times a killing has happened.

Abortion

Truthfully I don’t know where I stand on abortion. I understand that when we’re paying health insurance bills that a small portion goes to a clinic that not only treats abortion, but helps for many reasons, but I don’t know if my parents should be paying some amount of money for woman that made a mistake. I understand and 100% support some woman who decide to get rid of it especially the ones who were rapped, but there are some woman who did it to them self and some woman don’t learn lessons. Why should these people count on the hard working Americans to bail them out. Also there are plenty of people that want to adopt that can’t have a baby. When I heard that babies who are 20 weeks old can feel pain I persuaded me that abortion is wrong, but talking about it I agreed with many people when they said woman should have the right to do whatever they want with their body. I’m up in arms about this topic and look forward to talking about it.

Cheifs Killing

Recently the NFL was saddened when Kansas City Chiefs linebacker Jovan Belcher fatally shot his girlfriend early Saturday morning, after killing his girlfriend he drove over to Arrowhead stadium and shot himself in front of his coach and general manager. Jovan Belcher went there to tell both his coach and general manager that he was very happy and thankful for what they did for him, he then proceed to kill himself in front of him. During the halftime of their game the news anchors began to talk about gun control. This is one awful story that supports my belief that gun control needs to be even stricter. It is easy for all of us to say that the gun control is strict enough, until one of your loved ones is killed. If someone who was close to me killed themself or got killed, because it was so easy for them to get a gun I would be outraged with the gun control. There needs to be stricter rules that will protect the people. Murders would drastically go down and would make everything better crime wise for America.

College Sports

Recently I watched a video on how college athletes and teams are treated more like businesses then student athletes. Within the last couple years many schools have made more revenue on college football than any other profit organizations in the entire school. Before 2000 the Oregon Ducks were only getting a couple thousand applications a year, ever since they won the Pac 12 championship in 2000 and reached a rose bowl berth there applications have reached an all-time high nearly doubling. This is making the school millions of dollars in revenue. Including their Nike sponsorship and the revenue they are making on television, tickets, appeal etc. The school is making million dollars off of the football team. This is the case for many schools in the country. Sports are a huge part of schools revenue, the purpose of the video I watched was about how student athletes feel like there being treated more as business men and woman then student athletes. I don’t agree with it but many people wanted the students to get paid, they thought that allowing the school to make millions of dollars off of their success is not fair, that they should see some of the profit. My argument was that for most of the student athletes their paying for your education and for most schools the revenue that the sport makes goes right back into the stadium or uniforms etc. So the athletes are seeing it spent on themselves just not directly to them.

Death Penalty

The death penalty is a very long well thought out plan that has many aspects that are made to protect the accused. In the pretrial the court makes sure that the jury is a fair well educated jury. The reason for the long process of determining the jury is because if the jury had a bias member or someone that had already pre-determined their decision someone’s life will be taken away. Another way the accused can get away with surviving is pleading insanity or a mental illness. If you were to kill someone and diagnosed with mental retardation the court would protect you from the death penalty. There are many ways the court will help provide the accused with a fair trial. I think that this long methodical plan is a very accurate way of protecting the rights of the accused. We could be much stricter than we already are, but these rights provide the wrong with some fair protection. There are five ways of using the death penalty they are hanging, firing squad, lethal injection, gas chamber and electrocution and in my eyes I find all of these ways more than fair. If you take someone’s life why your life shouldn’t be taken? I understand that in some cases there are some acceptations, but that’s up to the jury to decide. Also most of the killings are very brutal and gruesome the way that these criminals are put to death are quick and painless, so in my eyes they are having somewhat of a luxury. None of these are considered cruel and unusual punishment in my mind, but I can see how people can argue it. I think they get what they deserve. The state of Illinois and some surrounding states don't have the death penalty. Surprisingly California has the most amounts of inmates with 724. I was also surprised to hear that they had the most women with 19 inmates. There are by far more male inmates in the United States. In North Carolina in 2002, a new law allowed life without parole and because of this death sentences dropped by over 50% following the law.

The Next Four Years

With the election over most people have accepted that Obama has won the election. It makes me intrigued and excited where he will bring the country in his next term. As what I like to call myself a fair critic I don’t think president Obamas first term was a successful one. I thought that the bright side of the his four years was the assassination of Osama. And I wish that the highlight was him getting us out of debt. I don’t see or understand how his plans that have not changed very much will make his next term more successful. What will president Obama do to get us out of this huge debt? He didn’t bring us out but dug us further into debt, but I am not positive that Governor Romney’s plans would have gotten us out of debt. It is a very controversial topic that truly needs to adapt. I want to see a president that is willing to accept that the other party might have some good plans. The democratic and republican parties are great but together I believe we could create a great plan to get us into positive ways again.

Next Four Years

With the election nearing close tensions among family and friends tend to get high. Most people can’t help to let themselves go and debate which candidate they approve of. Whatever ends up happening the week leading up to election I always ask myself what the next election is going to be like. I know we have plenty of worries to worry about but I always begin to wonder, what will happen? If president wins the election and we don’t see much progress like his last term than will the next president be a republican? If president Obama turns the economy around, will a under qualified democrat become president, because of his success? And if Governor Romney wins will his term be a success? Will he help the republican party retain office for years to come? All of these questions are impossible to answer in my mind. You won’t be able to determine this until the next four years are up.

Political Ads

Recently in the life of the media all you see and hear about is politics. There is no way of getting around it even when watching sports all the commercial are political ads. I always wonder while seeing these adds if they actually work. All they do is take something that there opponent has done wrong and try to make a mockery out of them.  Does this really persuade the voters? I know that if I had the chance to vote it wouldn’t. By the time all of these commercials come out I would have already made up my mind. For example I saw a commercial today about Brad Schneider and the commercial talked about his personal life and how his business didn’t make a huge profit, but I don’t care about that. If he didn’t have the history or the skills to run for congress than he wouldn’t be running for it. I don’t understand why people think that attacking their opponent is the only way to get to the public. Why is it that we have to probe what other people did wrong rather than proving what we have done right? I would rather vote for a person that’s more confident in what they will bring to the government rather than what the other person has done wrong.

Crime Rate

In the last ten years America has seen the most drastic rise in crime rate and killings ever. At 4.7 murders per 100,000 people in 2012, it is by far the highest in the developed world. Why is it that the crime rate has so drastically increased? Is it because of the current debt that the united states are in. We are currently trillions of dollars in debt.  During our last depression the “great depression” the crime rate drastically increased, because people will do whatever it takes to provide for themselves and their family. Another reason I believe for the current crime rate is because of my generation. If you think about the current role models that my generation and the generation after me has to look up to it almost embarrassing. Athletes have been getting DUI’s and criminal records like crazy, many musician are not considered “cool” unless they have a criminal record. These are the people that many kids inspire to do and there setting examples that unfortunately kids follow.  I really don’t know what to suggest stopping this. No matter what you or me say people are going to continue doing what they want. Even the few good role models cannot inspire enough people to stop what they’re doing, and to our current debt we have a long time until its back to okay.  The crime rate is a problem that many people are avoiding, but it is just one step that needs to be taken to make America what it was before, the true super power of the world.

Presidential Debate

Recently the biggest story in the news was the presidential debate, as a kid that unfortunately   hates listening and talking politics I was fascinated by the debate. My parents are split one a republican one a democrat. I like having a split family better because I can go into everything with an open mind and not corrupted. So as being a kid with no personal preference watching the debate I had to say I thought Mitt Romney won. Obama was playing defense the whole time. Listening to the positive and negatives that Romney listened about president Obama really persuade me. I believe that governor Romney is a better candidate. His plans although do have flaws and can fail, I believe will work. He is so positive and determined to make all of his agendas work he convinced me. When President Obama kept comparing himself to former president Bill Clinton and came off that he thought he was President Clinton.  He was living to much in his shadow, when he should be creating his own. I might have been convinced because I did watch the debate on FOX. The difference in watching it on ABC and FOX is huge. We switched of channels from ABC to FOX. ABC had the cameras mostly focused on Obama FOX had theirs on Romney. The way the media persuades people is amazing. Why is there not a neutral channel ? Is it because there would not be strong ratings? Personally I would love to have a channel that always people to form their own opinion.

Class Colors

Class colors are for some reason a very huge issue. Why is it that kids were so frustrated by the change of colors? The fact that kids and factuality started to talk about how legally they can’t do it is pathetic. All the students and factuality new that the students were going to wear their class colors. I believe that the reason they were leaning towards the red and grey sprit wear was because of hazing. Although shouting "freshman bedtime" is stupid and pointless it’s pathetic that people take offense to it. When I heard that chant I never thought anything of it. Society and people have become way too sensitive. People need to lighten up and just embrace the experience. I was told that its unfair that people were looking forward to wearing black for four years, if that’s true than you should probably be thinking about other things.  

Burning the Flag

Recently we talked about the importance of the American Flag. When immigrants come into America and see the red, white, and blue flag flapping in the wind it represents something more than the people of America it represents freedom and opportunity. This is why I don’t understand why people think it’s a good idea to burn the flag. Burning the flag is disrespectful and a gutless act. You’re destroying something that represents something bigger than yourself, your destroying the symbol of hope. To many the American flag represents a loved one fighting for their country, or the idea of freedom. If you have something against what the people in the government are doing don’t show your opinion in such a disrespectful act. There are many ways to show your passion other than burning the flag. If you don’t like living in the United States then you have the option to leave. I believe the flag is the single most important symbol. Burning the flag is the most disrespectful thing you can do to the people and the beliefs of the United States.

Speech Code

The actions that were accounted for at Auburn University were discriminating and the punishments that were distributed were right. These types of actions should be outlawed and banned from campuses. What they did was hurtful and lawful. Kids should not have the right to display raciest beliefs and flaunt them in public. What was conserved as funny should not be allowed on any campus or any ground. America is said to be equal and a land of opportunity, these kids were showing that we are still not yet equal and we should punish the racism that was displayed.  People should not be allowed to display these kinds of acts because it is raciest and condescending. The sad truth is that there is a lot of racism still left in this country no school wants to be known for  that, and laying down strict punishments will hopefully help people from displaying it on campus.

The University of Missouri does have policies on freedom of speech most of which are very respectable. Although I believe that they could use room for improvement at least. One of the policy that was not present was one about sexual harassment. I honestly do not feel uncomfortable nor do I have any worries of being sexual attacked physically or verbally but I do believe that this could be a problem for women. I understand that it is a possibility I could be affected, but having visited college 99% of the verbal abuse is performed by males. Most of the verbal joke is made for good fun, but college students can quickly take a simple joke overboard, therefore I believe more restrictions should be made to help the students of the college.

None of the restrictions or lack of restricts persuade my view on the University of Missouri. With the rules that are made I don’t believe that many students will abuse there right of freedom of speech. The rules and regulation don’t lack much, and will allow for a great atmosphere. They don’t shut down anything that will prevent people from supporting their opinion, and they restrict enough rights to allow the actions to become overboard.

The University of Missouri I believe would not allow the actions of the Auburn students to go unpunished. If they ever found out about what was going on, I believe the fraternity would face strict punishment and legal actions would take place. They would do what is necessary to earn the trust and dignity back of the community, and I would support there decision.

FIRE is a very respectable institution that is doing the right thing to support the students at different universities. Not many people that I know of know what FIRE is, but I think what they are doing is great and I support their beliefs. They believe in serving justice and creating equal rights for all students and I agree with them. Fire has a very strict definition of speech code although I believe it should be looser I also agree with what it stands for. Their codes are only harmful to you if you’re the one performing the wrongful acts; otherwise they are just trying to protect the kids and employees of the universities.

FIRE is a great organization that all colleges and universities should look into. It helps the people of the community and is only there to protect their rights. Many kids especially now days need restrictions and I believe they have a great idea of what is right and what is wrong. Many people walk a fine line and FIRE prevents the abusive ways.

Judicial System

Recently in Deerfield and Highland Park we have had tragedy’s that have hit the hearts of the community. Two weeks ago in Highland Park an 18 year old girl driving under the influence hit a family of 4 killing the little daughter. During the summer two Deerfield students tried to arm rob someone’s house at 7:00am in the morning using a stolen firearm. The gun that was stolen had no ammunition, but it was stolen in the attempt of hurting someone. I am not supporting the decision the two kids made from Deerfield but I don’t understand how both these kids can spend up to 100 years in jail, but the girl that killed a 1^st grader will only spend at most 14 years. She was under the influence and should be convicted in manslaughter. The kids from Deerfield never caused any physical harm to the family or any property. This makes me raise the question is there something wrong with our judicial system? To put this in terms of the media a couple years ago a football player named Plexico Burress shot himself in the leg by accident and went to jail for 2 years for not having a permit on the gun, but another football player ran over and killed a man walking home, the man who killed an innocent citizen spent only 2 months in jail. You would think Burress, who shot himself, inflicted enough pain on himself. Why is that we don’t punish people for killing? Our judicial system is not benefiting from allowing these things to happen. We need to really rethink our punishments because these decisions do not make scenes.

Should Abortion Mean So Much

Today the United States of America is 16 trillion dollars in debt, so why do we focus on small details like abortion. I agree woman should have the right to get an abortion and there should be some controversy on it, but people’s feelings on abortion should not make or break there candidacy. We should truly be focusing on their tax plans and the way they are going to get us out of debt. We are in a great recession that needs fixing. In some cases when people state their feelings on abortion it has killed there chance at becoming a president or a candidate for an election, and I believe the only reason that abortion is such a big deal is because the media takes a small story and makes it into a controversy. We all act like the Medias puppets and give into everything they tell us to believe. If voting I would not let abortion persuade your opinion but rather the way the candidate will represent your state country out community.

Are Athletes Good Role Models?

In the United States professional athletics is a multibillion dollar business and have hundreds of icons. Whether it’s the NFL, MLB, NHL, or the NBA athletes can’t stay out of trouble. In the NFL alone 14 different players got DUI’s in the off season. Why is it that our athletes and our icons can’t stay out of trouble? Millions of kids look up to these athletes, and not many set a good example for the kids. Whether it’s Sammy Sosa taking steroids or Allen Iverson being charged with assault athletes everywhere is struggling and have been struggling to stay out of trouble. When my Father was growing up athletes were still American icons but they weren’t making 20 million dollars a year, they were just playing for the love of the game. My Fathers childhood idol was Gordie Howe of the Detroit Red Wings and even though Gordie was the face of the organization in the summer he would work on the farm just to make ends meat. He never had to play hockey he never asked for the fame but he embraced it and set an example for kids to look up to. Now day’s backup kickers make enough to buy a mansion. Personally I don’t have a problem with an athlete making a lot of money as long as they earn it, and give back to the community, and accept that they need to make smart decisions. As a huge hockey fan I can say Jonathan Toews fits the perfect athlete. Toews is an amazing athlete and leader for the Chicago Blackhawks. Toews stays out of trouble works hard and gives to the community. He has his own charity called the Toews foundation where he gives donated hockey gear to inner city kids that cannot afford it. In my mind he is amoung a few athletes around that will inspire the next generation.