Abortion

The pro choice NARAL website is a better website because it also agrees with the pro life website saying that we should try to lower the amount of abortions while still having the right to choose what you want to do with your unborn child.  The NARAL website gave better agruments because it talked about everything, not only why we should have the choice to choose if we want to have an abortion or not, but also how we can lower the amount of abortions by using birth control and taking sex education.  Personally I think that the Pro Choice side of the arguement is winning the debate over abortion.  I think that even though Pro Life takes more action, the Pro Choice side is more largely supported than the Pro Life side. 
As an 18 year old high school student, I support both of these arguments, I don't think that these unborn babies should be killed, but on the other hand I think that we should have the right to choose whether to have a baby or not.  I do think that the parent of the daughter should be notified and brought into discussion about the abortion, not telling the parent could destroy trust between the parent and the child.  But I do believe that the parent should have no say in whether or not the daughter recieves an abortion or not since it is the daughters body and it's her baby.
I don't think that the father of the child has to be notified in the event of an abortion.  There may be something that happend between the father and mother that could make the father angry at the mother.  The father should have no say in the decision because he is not carrying the baby around for nine months. 
I do support Illinois' choice of being pro choice.  I do agree that the parents should be notified if the child wants an abortion.  I feel that the laws in Illinois are fine and don't need to be changed.

Final Death Penalty Post

I believe that the abolishment of the death penalty was a very good idea.  I completly agree that there is something very wrong with the accuracy of accusations of death row inmates, if someone is on death row for 15 years and comes within 50 hours to being executed.  The article also says that we believe that Illinois has executed an innocent man, which would ruin our 30+ year streak of no innocent deaths.  I don't think that people should be killed for the murder of someone.  "People have a lot of lingering doubts about the possibility of a person being wrongly convicted.  They are willing to convict them, but when it comes to the death sentence, they want to be doubly sure of their guilt, even more than the system requires."  This quote may be true about how we never executed an innocent person, but we came very close back in 1999, I believe that even though they want to make sure the person charged with the crime is 100% guilty, this doesnt always happen, sometimes they send the wrong people to death row, for this reason we need to get rid of the death penalty.

Deadline

“Growing up black in this state, you know, you really didn’t have a chance when it came to a crime. You know, they say that justice is blind, but justice really isn’t blind.”  This quote is very true in some states.  Mostly in the south, there is a lot of racial discrimination, so people will blame things on black people just because they're black.  I think that when it comes to white people and captial punishment, they will not be given the death penalty as easily as a jury would give a black man the death penalty.  I also feel like jurys think that the murder of a white man is worse than the murder of a black man.  Jurys should understand that a murder is still a murder. Since people of color and people who have a low income get the death penalty the most, I think that jurys feel like they are less important than someone who is white or has a good income.  Jurys should be made where there are all different races of people, instead of just one race, by doing this bias will be taken out of the picture and ensure a fair jury.
“Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.”  This quote is directly from the 8th ammendment.  I believe that the death penalty is cruel and unusual punishment, therefore imposing the death penalty upon somebody is unconstitutional.  I think that places in the south support the death penalty more because they take pride in their death penalty.  I was watching the show "The Awful Truth" and Michael Moore went to an execution in Texas and outside of the place where they're killed people were out partying and cheering and chanting "USA".  I think that southerners get a strange sense of pride from executions.
I don't believe that our justice system will ever be perfected.  There will always be people who are wrongfuly accused of a crime they didn't commit.  I think that every once in a while someone being wrongfully accused is acceptable, but as of now 1 in 7 people on death row are found innocent, I think that is just too bad of a ratio, and it needs to be improved somehow.  If I could talk to the victims family, I would say that the death of another man will not bring back your loved one and that this death will not bring any justice to you and your family.  I believe that the family of the victim shouldn't have any input on the punishment of the accused.   The partners of the Washington DC sniper and Oklahoma city bomber were minors so didn't recieve the death penalty.  I respond to Stephen Bright's quote by saying that I agree with him, something is wrong with our justice system, its good to know that we have concerned citizens in the USA to help out every once in a while.

Death Penalty

The stages designed to protect the rights of the accused are the direct appeal, the post-conviction review, federal habeas corpus and the clemency.  I believe that this almost guarentees that only the guilty will be convicted because there are so many stages that can get an innocent person out of even the thought of being guilty. 
I feel that death by lethal injection is considered the most humane, only because when the person is killed, they're unconcious.  I think that all of these except for the lethal injection is considered cruel and unsual punishment, because the description of what is happening to the guilty person is unimaginable.  Many of the executions involve the eyes popping out, being burnt, bleeding to death, the lungs collapsing, and bones fracturing to name a few of the symptoms of death.
According to the map, there are more executions in the south than in the north.  I feel like the south has more black people convicted and put into death row than the north due to racism still being in the south. 
Killing someone costs millions of dollars.  It would be financially and economically smarter to just keep convicts in prisons their whole lives and not kill them.  More white people are convicted than any other race, and white people being killed sends the most people to death row.  Most people are against the death penalty.  The DPIC says that most police cheifs are against the death penalty, and think that it is the biggest waste of taxpayers money.

Campus Speech Code

I do not think that the behavior shown in these picture should be banned.  I think that people should be able to express their views, no matter how much people disagree with them.  Laws should not be able to supress the views of the people.
          I looked at Illinois State University, they have an overall red light for speech code.  When I looked into their rules more, I found that some of their rules are very unfair.  In order to arrange a meeting, you must tell the school two weeks in advance, I don't see why we can't just be adults and do what we want without being watched over.  Also were not allowed to say anything that may hurt another groups feelings, not that I would, but I just feel like we have the right to speak our mind.

Drug Testing

After reading the documents, Petitioners v. Lindsay Earls and Veronia School District v. Acton, I find that there should be a greater amount of privacy given to students.  I find it unreasonable to have to drug test student athletes and students participating in extra-curriculars.  I also believe that the drug testing of these student is unreasonable because the schools have no reason to suspect these students of doing drugs and they have no right to drug test them.  High School kids do not give the school administration any plausable cause to drug test all of the students participating in sports or clubs.
Students have the right to make bad choices and do drugs, whether they get caught or not shouldn't be decided by the school.  Schools have no right to drug test their students, even if they are doing extracurriculars and sports.

9/11

             I really liked the video that we watched in class.  I like how it was the only footage I've seen from inside the tower during the attacks, and how we could kind of see what the firefighters inside went through.  I also got a good view of the south tower falling from up close.  I read an article about how people remember the attacks.  Firefighters had the doors on their firehouse painted showing the towers.  There were also some pictures of people who had tattoos as their way to remember the attacks.  I lived in virginia about 15 minutes from Washington DC at the the time of the attacks.  My mom actually worked at the pentagon at the time of the attacks.  I rememeber my little sister being sick, which cause my mom to stay home that day.  She didn't work on that side of the pentagon that got hit, but she was always walking around she said, so you never know what could have happend.  I remember everybodies parents coming to pick them up from school.  My dad told me how he and his coworkers went to the roof of their building and saw the smoke coming up from the pentagon.  My parents lost a lot of friends who worked in the pentagon that day.
                 The impact of the attacks have influenced my life a lot.  I feel like there is no real privacy anymore.  You have to be careful about what you do and say on the interenet.  Airport security now takes forever to get through and is a real hassle.  Security has really been stepped up everywhere, now there are more cameras and security guards.  People these days are scared of flying on planes sometimes because of the attacks.  I feel like people have a lot of stereotypes towards people from the middle east because of the attacks now and just assume if they are middle eastern that they must be a terrorist.

Speech in School

                        I think that students free speech is perfect how it is.  I believe that students should be able to say what they want and express theirselves as long as nobody gets hurt and it doesn't disrupt the learning process.  I think that students should be able to express their views and talk about drugs in school, even if it does promote the use of illegal drugs. 
                       I think free speech in school is fine besides the fact that we can't promote drug use.  I remember one of my friends talking about how one of her teachers made her take off a braclet with a marijuana leaf on it.  I remember I thought that wasn't fair that she couldn't wear what she wanted to wear, and the teacher said that she would give her a detention if she wore it to school again.  But everything else besides drug talk is fine.
                    

Numba 2

            I feel like I should have at least 4 or 5 blog posts by now.. I'll be honest, I'm quite a slacker.  I feel like our school system should be changed.  I believe that students only prepare and learn for the test.  I mean that in a way to say that students aren't ready for the real world once they are out working and living on their own.  I feel like we should get a new grading system, and also instil some sort of program to make it so that we dont forget all the information that we've learned after 6 months of learning it.  I don't really know an exact solution for this problem, but I'm sure somebody can come up with something. 

First Blog Entry

Ok, so this is actually my second blog.  I made a blog and a new email just for my blog and then I forgot my email and password.  So much for that.  This time I made an email that I'll actually remember.  They should really make blogging easier, so far it just seeems like a big hassle.  For some reason my normal email wouldn't work on blogger (pretty annoying).  I don't really have anything to write about right now.

Ryan