Abortions

Pro life groups are making it harder for women to access abortions by attacking he doctors, or other health clinics that have these services. Pro life groups are trying to eliminate abortions regardless of a women's situation, which makes it even harder for a women to find help in difficult situations. Pro life groups are making it harder for women to receive abortions because there are regulations that women must follow, and other guidelines that must be followed in order to insure a women's health. Good health is the most important thing one could have, because with good health many other good things come, but when a women is sick or not in a good mental state things can turn from alright to bad. Ultimately it is the women's decision on whether she wants to have an abortion, but when there are pro life groups influencing one's decision that is not fair. President George W. Bush signed the FFederal Abortion Ban in 2003, which is a women's right to a safe abortion, giving her the opportunity to have a properly done abortion.  There are many health risks, and depending on how long a women has been pregnant, changes the circumstances of the abortion, which may effect the mothers health.  I feel that the mother should hold the ultimate decision because it is no ones decision besides the mother of the child, because the mother too is experiencing pain. When thinking about having an abortion, there are many factors that come into play for a mother, and the decision is not an easy decision. Once the decision has been made I feel that pro life groups should have no influence on a mother who wants an abortion because pro life organizations and individuals have no idea what that mother is experiencing, and what she went through. An abortion is a difficult process, and pro life groups are only making it harder for women to receive aboritons. Pro life groups should be punished because they are punishing other mothers and making a mothers decision more difficult than it needs to be. By forcing a mother to look at a picture of her unborn fetus, or look at an ultrasound where the mother can see the fetus move, only puts more stress on the mother, and shames them for even thinking about having an abortion. I feel that it is better that a mother has an abortion, than having a child if the are not mentally ready to have a child, or if financially they are not ready either. Raising a child is a huge responsibility and it is no one elses decisions but a mothers, regardless what the government says, because they are not thinking about these types of decisions or going through a similar event that a mother is experiencing. I feel that abortions should be one hundred percent legal, and i feel that in the future they will be legal, because the government can not have control over one health rights, but they do have control over the procedure and making sure that the procedure is safe for the mother. 

Purple Heart Response

While reading I tried to imagine what it would be like to be a soldier but it was too unclear. I thought about running around the desert, and thinking about the wide open land covered in sand. Soldiers in Iraq are exposed to this new habitat everyday, and do not know what to expect or do otherwise. Going into war soldiers are not told very much information about where they exactly are, and may not know the severity of the war which misleads a soldier causing him to make different decisions. While fighting one must be completely concentrated, because any small mistake or misunderstanding can cause an injury or a fatality. While laying in the hospital talking to Wolf he state, "You stop thinking. And just fight. Because, just for those few seconds, it simple: If you don't kill the other guy, he's going to kill you" (pg115).  I could not imagine having to be those conditions, and yet soldiers have to experience this on the edge thinking. Soldiers emotions are played with causing them to work under hard mental conditions, which causes them to think in another way or not at all. Soldiers are trained to distinguish an enemy or another person and see if he is threat, to make sure they do not impose violence. Soldiers see people getting killed, which leaves an internal scar that stays with someone forever. Understanding what soldiers go though on a day to day basis make me fortunate to be an American, and makes me appreciate may rights, which the soldiers are praying for, freedom.

Purple Heart Response

War is nothing to joke around about because the events, people, and horrors are all real and often can not be escaped even after the war is over. American citizens are simply spectators of the war and truly do not understand what it means to be in war. Americans' see war as a couple of tragic events where innocent soldiers are killed, and then hear the final outcome of the situation and base their understandings of war of those few events. When actually war is indescribable because there are so many events that take place on a daily basis that can not even be taken. Soldiers learn new cooping mechanisms in order to deal with the casualties they have seen, because war is some heavy stuff, that must be managed well otherwise things one may lose control. While roaming the streets, one does not know who and what it out there, which increases stress and anxiety putting a soldier in an unstable state and changes ones actions and decisions, which may be the difference between life and death. Matt stated, '"When you point your gun at someone and pull the trigger,' he said, 'shit happens. It's not a surprise. It's not pretty, but it's not something I necessarily want to talk about."' The events that one experiences changes the way he or she may view a certain situations, and depending on the severity of the crime or action one may put up a wall and keep their emotions to themselves. When experiencing horrific actions ones emotions are going to be extremely painful, and one may not want to talk about it because they do not want to revisit those emotions again. It is important for soldiers to express their emotions rather than letting them build up inside because that will only increase stress and other internal pain. Private Kane told Matt that he should talk his experiences, because the physical wounds will heal but ones mental state will not cure itself until one expresses what they have been through.  The events that one experiences will not go away, but one must learn how to deal with those events and understand what they have done, and why they did it because otherwise those physiological emotions will eat a soldier from the inside out.

Death Penalty

Looking at the states in which believe in the death penalty, I noticed that many of of those states have large cities, and have a main population of Americans, Hispanics, and Blacks. I feel that states in which contain large cities should enforce the death penalty because the there is often more crime, and simply act as a consequent for a crime. In 1999, 98 executions occurred in the United States, and since the numbers of executions have dropped. I feel that in the near future the number of executions will continue to decrease because new laws may be imposed stating that the death penalty is against ones constitutional rights. I shocks me that the majority of defendants executed was Whites and yet Whites are typically the victims to a defendant on death row. I feel that a state may impose certain regulations such as the death penalty based on what they have previously experienced as a community, and nationally as well. Each state is different from the other, so each state should be able to impose regulations with in reason. These consequences must be reasonable and fair, based on the crimes the defendant caused. I feel that there should be more than one review to a death penalty case because evidence is not often false, wrongly accusing an innocent man. Multiple trials are needed to prove a defendant guilty, and I feel that some of the trials need to be held in higher courts than a state court; and for at least one of the cases the Supreme Court should examine the case to ensures that the defendant is guilty based on the information provided at the time. 

Death Penalty:Innocent Until Proven Guilty

The post-conviction review, is when the jury and other officials get together and review the case to make a final decision, in which they believe the defendant is either guilty or innocent. This a time where issues are brought up, which are not on record giving the court new information to work with hoping to reduce the sentence, and give other information that might influence the jury to think differently about the case. A individual is innocent until he or she is proven guilty, protecting an individual’s constitutional rights, until the court has made a decision. I do not believe that this system is sufficient to guarantee that only the guilty are convicted because the information at the time in which the court has, might not be completely true, therefore falsely accusing a defendant in court. There have been cases in which the defendant has been proven guilty, when actually they truly innocent. Years later when specific evidence is revealed the court may realize that an individual was actually innocent from the crime in which the court believed that individual committed. Firing Squad is a cruel and unusual punishment, in which the states should not be allowed to execute an individual because it inflicts pain, and is mentally disturbing for the defendant who is guilty, and the riflemen. Even though death penalty itself does not violate ones Eighths Amendment rights, some of the ways in which the court decides to kill a person is inhumane and in my opinion tortures. I feel that if a person is sentenced to the death penalty, they should have the option to decide which way they want to die. The states data tells me a lot about how the death penalty is used, because depending of the severity of the crime; one can be sentenced to death, or simply sentenced to life in prison. Looking at some of the data shocks me because depending on the state in which one lives, can determine how he or she will be prosecuted. It is interesting to see how different states and have different rules in which they obey by, which may lead to harsher sentences depending in which state one lives in. the data shows how depending on where an individual lives, different death sentences come into play, which each states decides is responsible or not. I personally am in favor of the death penalty, but am not in favor in some of the methods, in which some states use because some of the methods are cruel to an individual even if that person is a mass murder, because that person is still human. Taking a life is the most severe punishment one can face, so the court must be one hundred percent certain that the defendant is guilty before they sentence a man to the death penalty.

Clifford Boggess: Death Penalty

Clifford Boggess had an extremely had childhood, having been adopted, and then having his adoptive parents get divorced, and having to move in with his grandparents in a new town. Questioning whether Clifford should be sentenced the death penalty; I feel that the jury should look into Clifford’s past life, and get a better understanding what Clifford experienced. Clifford mother was a drug addict, and was also an alcoholic, while she was pregnant with Clifford. Clifford was most likely suffered from some kind of sickness because of his mothers drug habits , not allowing him to mature and grow up in a healthy environment. Clifford stated, that he decided to kill Frank Collier because he needed money  to fix his car, and didn’t want to have to take his own money out of the bank, in which he was saving to in role back into college. Clifford brutally killed Frank by slitting his throat, and then stomped on his face, throat, and lungs. Clifford planned the murder of Frank Collier, because before he went into the store he went to the park, and super glued his finger tips, so that there would be no trace of finger prints. Clifford should be sentenced to the death penalty because he killed a innocent man, simply to get money in order to fix his car instead of using his own money. Clifford told his girl friend that he liked the feeling of the warm blood while he was killing Frank, which is a clear sign that Clifford in mentally unstable and out of control. Clifford then killed another man, Mr. Hazelwood for money again by shooting him in the back with a 12 gage shotgun, and shot him again in the chest. Once the police arrested him they claimed that he acted as if he did not care, and acted as if he was proud to have killed these innocent people, like a John Dillinger. Clifford clearly cannot control himself, and if he is let loose in society, others may potentially be in harm’s way. Clifford should be sentenced the death penalty, because he killed two innocent people, and has a family background that shows plenty violence. Clifford Uncle was arrested and in jail for killing a police officer, and has other members of his family who are in jail for committing other violent crimes.

Teen-Bullying

In Jamie Nabozny case the rash amount of bullying made him want to take his own life. Jamie decided in seventh grade, that only way to escape the bullying, was to kill himself by taking a number of different pills. After rethinking what he had done, he told his mother, who then rushed him to the hospital and had Jamie’s stomach pumped. Still in High School, Jamie was being bullied because he was gay, and the started to become physical. On day while Jamie was doing his homework he was beaten so badly that he needed to be rushed to the hospital, and have surgery. One of the students stated that he would kill Jamie if, he were to tell who beat him up. In Jamie’s case the court held that the school district did not do enough, or anything at all to stop the bullying. The school district was found guilty, and Jamie was awarded 900,000 dollars from the case, which in reality is not enough for what Jamie had experience on a day to day basis. At Deerfield, there does not seem to be a bullying problem because, our school has enforced many rules that cover harassment, and bullying. Due to the numerous rules and restrictions, I feel students do not bully others because they realize that the consequences are severe for simply saying something inappropriate or beating another student up.  I do not think bullying is a problem a Deerfield High School, but it does occur here in smaller cases. Bullying can occur in many different ways, such as physical abuse, verbal abuse, cyber bullying, and texting, which my make a student feel that he or she cannot escape the abuse no matter where they go. At Deerfield there are some traditions like homecoming week, in which the senior class hazes the underclass men, which to supervisors and deans at the school may seem like bullying, but in reality it is nothing more than some harsh verbal exchanges, and maybe some physical abuse if things get out of hand. Truly these are the only time where Deerfield may consider bullying as a problem, because otherwise I feel that the students have respect for each other, and know their limits in certain situations. For other schools around the country and world that experiences sever cases of bullying, new programs and ideas should be considered in order to stop bullying. In the television show If You Really Knew me, I felt by taking the students out of school and exploiting them to the program, it made the students more aware of the problem, and made the students more aware of what they were doing to one another.

Purple Heart

Matt who is suffering from traumatic brain injury, is having trouble remembering specific events from the past, but is able to remember certain details. Typically when someone has traumatic brain injury, they have trouble remembering specific events, have trouble remembering certain words, have trouble understanding certain gestures, and facial expressions, so the nurse is not allowing Matt to join his troops in combat until she has decided that he is well. In war there are many different types of injuries besides the physical wounds, which may also be permanent depending on how bad the case may be. Matt has experienced sharp pains running to his skull, which causes him to cry out in agony, and yet he does not know what he has, which is driving him insane. New tactics are being developed in the Iraqi war, because searches are being performed allowing, “Their squad to conduct searches of females after the army found out that some of the enemy soldiers were dressing as women to avoid being searched” (Purple Heart 30). In war people will do anything to survive and make it back home to their loved ones. Each individual soldiers’ has their own life, that may not appear on the battle field but shows in their facial expressions and in their heart. These soldiers are fighting for their country so that their family can be safe, and so that their children do not have to face the tragic event in which they have faced. Every soldier out there has different cooping mechanisms to deal with the emotional and physical aspects of war. Some soldiers take pills such as oxy cotton in order to block out the pain. There is a pain that every soldiers has in common which is the longing for their loved ones, which in some cases is the worst pain. When Matt began thinking about how he got to Iraq, and why he was there in the first place, he began thinking about why counties go to war. “It wasn’t about fighting the enemy. It wasn’t about politics or oil or even about terrorists. It was about your buddies; it was about fighting for the guy next to you. And knowing he was fighting for you” (Purple Heart). The soldiers didn’t know why or what they were fighting for, all they knew was that the members in my troop are protecting me so I have to protect them. War is about protecting ones countries interests, and making sure that good is safe. It didn’t matter who the enemy was, or what the enemy was doing, if he or she was threatening American troops he or she would be under fire and wounded or killed for no reason. Innocent people are dying for their country, and yet what do they get in return a badge that reminds one of all the horrible event and actions he or she once experienced.

Students and the Fourth Amendment

I am completely against student drug testing in school, because it completely violates a student’s constitutional rights. Once you enter a school facility you surrounded certain right on order to abide by the school rules, so there aren’t many more rights that a school can legally take from the student body. Random drug is unconstitutional because a school administrator cannot force a student to take a drug test just because he or she looks or acts suspicious. If a student is a member of a sports team for a school, then the student might have to take a drug test, because the school is now responsible for the student and the students’ health. I feel that only students who are evolved in school activities may have to take a drug test, in order to prove to prove that the student is health and obeying the school rules. School administrators cannot force students who don’t participate in school activities to take a drug test because those students are not involved in any activity outside of school. “respondents argue that because children participating in nonathletic extracurricular activities are not subject to regular physicals and communal undress, they have a stronger expectation of privacy than the athletes tested in Vernonia.” If a student is not active in a school activity then the school has no rights to invade that specific student’s privacy. Unless a administrator has suspicion to believe that a student has drugs, weapons, or anything that will seriously harm the student body or the school, the school has no legal rights to search a persons’ personal belongings. I feel that students who participate in activities sponsored by the school will either decide to stop doing drugs and focus on his or her sport, or will decide to drop the sport because they realized that the sport didn’t mean that much to him or her, and it isn’t worth getting drug tested and getting caught by the school for using drugs. It has been proven that schools forcing drug tests on all students in school’s where drugs have been a problem in the past has improved students’ grade, reduced the amount of violence in a school, and has increased the amount of student athletes.  

Purple Heart Chapters 1-4

Matt Duffy an eighteen year old boy who is in the Iraq war, woke up to a throbbing pain in his foot in the Green Zone which was now a medical center. "The famous Green Zone. The walled compounded inside Baghdad where Saddam Hussein had once lived. Now it was occupied by the central Provisional Authority. The brass" (pg11).  It is ironic that a medical center for America is in Saddam Husseins' old house. The doctor said that Matt has TBI, or Traumatic brain injury, which he should recover from over time. The last thing that Matt saw was a young Iraqi boy at the end on an alley way before the blast hit. The blast threw the boy into the air like a rag doll, far above the burning city. Matt awoke again in the medical hospital, to a officer and a lieutenant colonel who awarded him the Purple  Heart, which is a medal that soldiers are awarded for wounds sustained in combat. At first Matt did not want the medal, he just wanted to know what was wrong with him, and what had happened to the Iraqi boy. Many soldiers die for the Purple Heart, and yet Matt did not seem to care about the award. Matt is recovering from a battle wound, which was bigger than himself. Matt was trying to figure out what had happened to his troops, as well as himself because everything was now a blur to him. These battle wounds have shaped Matt into a different person, which will change his perspective on the war as he continues to recover from his injury.

Teaching Religion

In public schools where there is a wide range of different religions, a teacher has to be cautious about what he or she says because it might offend someone of a specific religion. A teacher and students within a classroom must have respect each individuals' religion because, you don't want a student to be embarrassed of his or her religion, because then that class is putting their classmate in a unstable state. Each individual has the freedom to choose and express his or her religion, and share their ideas about their specific religion. I read the article Holocaust role-playing misses mark, which talked about a tenth grade teacher who assigned a project where some students would play the role as Jewish people in a concentration camp, and other students would be the Nazi's at the concentration camp. During class the students who played the role of a Nazi would bother, and molest the Jewish role playing students, in order to show that the Nazi's were rude and treated the Jews badly. This is an unnecessary activity, because Tenth grade students clearly understand that the Holocaust was completely inhumane, and don't need an activity to show that the Jews were being mistreated. The students' should rather be learning why did this horrific event occur, how did it take place, what events lead up to the Holocaust, and what other countries could have done in order to help the victims. If a student or teacher is insensitive to religion, many emotions may arise in class which may lead to disagreements and arguments taking place. There is always those few individuals who believe that their religion is the best religion, and the only correct religion, which is incorrect because there isn't a correct religion. Religion is a very sensitive topic, which must be handled with care and if it isn't many controversies may arise. Some people take religion so seriously that, the revolve their lives around their religion. 

Speech Codes Assignment

Looking back to the last class, I was shocked to hear that student would even think to dress up in KKK, robes and on a university campus. Students were dressed in KKK robes, and other students blackened their faces, and pretended to hang other black students. These students should be punished, because their being extremely racist, and offending other blacks around the campus. In the 1830's and 1840's coon shows portrayed Blacks as lazy, stupid, culturally inferior, and buffoons. These kids are discriminating the past black slaves, and blacks today, and taking the progresses that already has been made, and throwing it down the drain. These students who think these parties are a joke should be mentally examined, because there is nothing funny about discriminating against blacks, or any other ethnicity. These parties are demeaning to other black students, and therefore should be kicked out of the college he or she was attending, because the actions occurring at that party, were a hundred percent discriminatory, and offensive to many other people on campus. A speech Code is any university regulation or policy that prohibits expression that would be protected by the First Amendment in society at large, and these students' on campus, violated many if not all of  the speech codes laws, which means that these students should be punished, in order for the for these students to clearly understand what they have done is completely wrong and demeaning to many people.

September 11 video

I felt that September 11, was a turning point for the community of New York. Many loved ones were lost, and yet people still had the strength to come out and help support the firefighters, and other individuals who risked their lives to help others during this tragedy. Days after the crash occurred, the sky was still gloomy and the streets were covered in pieces of the two buildings. It amazed me how much faith these people had in their country, even after this horrific event occurred. Many people gathered, hoping to find their lost loved ones, but many of them were never found. What really shocked me was the group of people in the center of Union Park who were drawing on the ground. Those words were absorbed into the ground and will be forever remembered, just as the World Trade Center will be remembered. When the crowd broke into an argument, people began to release their frustrations, and also comfort one another by listening to one another, and to reinsure themselves that this will not happen again. The people who died, and the people who risked their own lives by going into ground zero, will always be remembered. These brave individuals were extremely patriotic, and gave other Americans a since of pride even after all that they had already been through.