Invisible Children Reflection

Last year in Human Rights Club we focused our attention on an organization called Invisible Children. I got really involved with the organization and attended events, met people from the organization, donated money and spread the word about what is going on in Uganda. I feel especially close to this organization and was elated when it was chosen for School Chest this year.
When we watched the Invisible Children film in class, it was the third time I had seen it. Every time I see the film I find a new aspect of it that really hits home. The first time I saw the movie, I remember being especially moved by Jacob's emotional breakdown. This time the aspect that stood out in my mind was the stark transition in emotion between the beginning and end of the film, it showed me how involvement with organizations that spark change can help the American youth view the world in a new light. I think that focusing on an international charity for School Chest this year was a good idea because it helps the student body attain a more worldly view.
When I was heavily involved with Invisible Children last year, I participated in a long term fundraiser for the organization. I remember asking my dad to donate money for the cause, and him recounting a time in his youth when his school focused on a charity in Peru. He asked me why I was focusing my attention on an organization outside of the United States when there are people in need here as well. At that time, I did not really know what to say to counter his point besides "you just don't get it." After hearing Jedidiah Jenkins speak on behalf of Invisible Children at this year’s School Chest assembly, I know why this organization means so much to me. If the youth in America and other developed countries don't do anything about this issue in Africa, well then who is? Jenkins explained how the adults of our country are mostly focused on domestic affairs and while many of these issues in the US are valid, children are not being slaughtered, forced to kill their families or brainwashed into joining an army of rebels. Another huge difference between the issues in America and Africa is that if even one child in the US faced an atrocity even close to what children in Africa face every day, it would make international news. Yet, hundreds of children every day in Africa face horrible conditions and ever present evils and most of the general population is not even aware of this.
Elie Wiesel, a Holocaust survivor and author once wrote, "The opposite of love is not hate, but indifference," this quote speaks to the issue of people in our world who are aware of what is happening in Uganda but do not take measures in order to make a difference. We need to eliminate the bystanders worldwide in order to stop Joseph Kony from dehumanizing the children of Africa.

Eating Animals 1

At the beginning of this year I decided that I would read Eating Animals for my independent reading book in Issues. At that time, I had been a vegetarian for several years and a strong supporter of that lifestyle. However, recently, under my doctor's recommendation I began to eat meat again; only organic, white meat... This transition has been awkward for me. Aside from getting used to meat again, I kind of felt like I was having an identity crisis. I have identified with this lifestyle for so long that transitioning this was very difficult for me. I am just beginning to read Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer and I am excited to see how his transitions from being a vegetarian to an omnivore and vice versa have been and to see the parallels in my own life.

Death Penalty Final Response

“It is better that nine guilty men be set free than for one innocent man to be convicted.” The abolishment of the death penalty in Illinois was without a doubt just. Before this abolishment, the ability for innocent people to be convicted and executed was too likely. In his speech given in regards to the death penalty abolishment Gov. George Ryan explained how seventeen wrongfully convicted men had been condemned to death in Illinois, “together they spared the lives and secured freedom of 17 men who were wrongfully convicted and rotting in the condemned units of our state prison.”
It is not fair to allow the possibility of condemning wrongfully convicted inmate to face the death penalty. According to The United States Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics, statistically 8% to 12% of all state prisoners are either actually or factually innocent. Even though that is a low percentage when factoring in the entire population of our nation, any amount of innocent people sent to death wrongfully is too large of a number. We must do everything in our power to prevent this from happening.
While watching the film The Execution it became clear that several of the men that were on death row along Clifford Boggus believed that they were innocent. It made me wonder how many of these people who claimed innocence were actually innocent?
Our nation’s court system has a lot of loop holes and I think our main priority should be to solve the issue of wrongful convictions rather than having the initiative to swiftly convict the accused. With the present loop holes, and the margin for mistake, it baffles me that some states still have a capital punishment law instigated. It seems barbaric and completely unjustifiable.

Abortion

I think that NARAL has a better website in general because it is visually appealing; it has a lot of colors and presents a picture of a woman that shows a lot of emotion. Another thing that I like about this website is that it presents its opinion on the matter right away on the site. I think that in general the pro-choice side is winning this debate in our country because of the influence of young people in politics recently. As we saw in the 2008 elections, the real power in America is within the young population. I think that most young people today in our country are pretty liberal and thus support the concept of pro-choice.
The age of consent in Illinois is 17, I think that if you are allowed to make the decision to have sex without parental consent then you should be able to make decisions regarding reproduction health on your own as well.
In regards to the abortion laws in Illinois, one that really bothers me is the rules regarding insurance company involvement with abortion. I think that insurance companies, and state coverage, should cover an abortion in full. If a woman is making a decision to get an abortion it is obviously because she is not ready for motherhood, this law further restricts her capabilities to access the necessary health care she needs. I think it also could further jeopardize a woman’s health, in the sense that she may attempt other abortion methods if unable to access an abortion from a medical clinic. However, I think almost all of the pro-choice laws are just, including the ones regarding low income patients and emergency contraceptives.

Drug Testing and Student Rights

In the case of Acton v. Earls, the court ruled that drug testing was justifiable and acceptable and that the students' rights were not violated. In some ways I agree with this ruling, and the drug testing policy in general, and in others I do not.

In a society where lying and cheating have been over utilized in an attempt to get ahead, I think there needs to be some sort of leveling to keep things fair for those people who are being truthful and thus not using performance enhancing drugs or recreational drugs. I think that it's a sad truth that our society has become a lying mecca obsessed with getting ahead at any cost.

I think that if, as a society, people unanimously agree that drug testing is unjust, we have to take some steps to preserve some sort of human aspect within America, before completely abolishing this policy.

On the other hand, I think that drug testing is pretty invasive. I do not have anything to hide, but I find the idea of someone collecting my urine kind of creepy and unsettling. In an effort to "preserve and maintain order," I think that schools who utilize drug testing are becoming more like prisons than educational institutes.

An education is not only what you learn in the classroom; learning occurs in all aspects relating to the school one attends, from social lessons to history lessons. With that in mind, I think that the schools should take less preventative measures and allow for students to screw up on their own. If someone fails a drug test and is out of a sport for half of a season or can't attend Student Council meetings for a month, they will probably be embarrassed but I don't think it serves as the wakeup call that school officials are aiming for. I think that the best way for students to learn the error of their ways when relating to real world issues is to deal with the real world consequences. It's a tough lesson to learn but i think that it’s a vital one. So, schools do these students a favor and don't drug test them and provide a warning; allow them to be caught by the police for using drugs and get arrested.



In response to the ACLU article on student privacy, I would personally be outraged if my personal information was shared with anyone other than those currently permitted. I think that be doing this, school officials are breeching the trust that students place within these school officials and could later make it hard for students to come forth with information. In the next ACLU article regarding the unlawful strip search of a middle school aged girl the prosecution insisted that schools are not 'constitutional dead zones,' and the Court agreed. I think that this was a key point in not only this case but in student privacy issues everywhere, students, you still have your rights as an American even when in school. As for the article on drug sniffing dogs, I don't see this as much of a threat to privacy. I wouldn't mind the dogs sniffing through the hallways, because frankly, I would never bring contraband inside my school and anyone that does deserves to be caught and arrested for being stupid enough to do so. In the past at DHS there have been incidences where students have been caught under the influence of or in possession of contraband at school. When something like that happens the news spreads like wildfire through the hallways and soon everyone is talking about it in class, there’s a Deerprints article being written and it's an opportunity for teachers to preach about how terrible drugs are to students who have never even heard of the drug that the kid who is now being hauled off in a Deerfield Police Department squad car... I think that people who bring drugs to school are creating a distraction from learning and for that; they probably deserve to be ousted by a 130 pound German Shepard named Nana.

In my opinion, my rights as a student right now are pretty fair. I feel that in some ways the rules regarding privacy at DHS protect me, and even though sometimes I am surprised that some of my information is such common knowledge and so easily attained, I have never experienced a dramatic event where I felt that my rights had been blatantly violated.

Saudi Arabia: a step in the right direction

When I heard on the news that in Saudi Arabia women would soon gain the right to vote for elected officials in their nation, I was surprised. I had learned of Middle Eastern countries where only men were allowed to express political views; maybe it's a post 9/11 mindset but don't all Middle Eastern men disrespect the women in their lives?
After reading a follow up article I learned how off my opinions once were. What I thought was a country that only allowed men to vote is really a country where the leader's vote is the most significant.
In America's ongoing battle to spread Democracy worldwide, has its people become spoiled with the concept of Democracy and the power of one's voice? I don't think so. I do not believe that Democracy can be viewed as a luxury but more appropriately, a necessity.

As portrayed in the media, I had thought that Saudi Arabia was a country where suppressed women were ignored when it came to anything related to politics and that the men are the only beings with power. Now that's somewhat correct but even more upsetting is the fact that men have far less power than once assessed in this country and that the leader of the nation is ever-powerful.
With the leader taking steps to grant women the right to vote in the 2015 elections, maybe this country is seeing the error of its ways and beginning to get on track with the twenty first century.
My hope is that one day Middle Eastern women and men can not only equally vote in a Democratic format for leaders of their country, but can also have an equal, unbiased opportunity to gain office.

Troy Davis, an innocent victim of the death penalty

"It is better to let nine guilty men free than to convict one innocent man." On Thursday September 23, 2011 Troy Davis was executed in the state of Georgia. I found this event extremely disturbing because for over twenty years Davis had maintained his innocence and had many organizations and influential people backing up his argument.

Besides the faulty process that the case underwent, I believe that this execution speaks mainly to the too often occurring case where innocent people are convicted of crimes they did not commit. My uncle Thomas Breen, one of the leading defense lawyers in Chicago, has fought tirelessly throughout his career to end the death penalty in Illinois and get innocently convicted people out of jail. Growing up in a state that does not currently recognize the death penalty I have always believed that people who have been convicted have a second chance no matter what. However, after researching the Troy Davis case I have learned that as a nation, America does not share that idea.

I think that it is sad that some states still allow the death penalty as a means of punishment, if convicting a person in a case where there are significant amounts of reasonable doubt then putting them to death is not cruel and unusual punishment then what is?

Speech Codes on Campus

In my opinion, I think that behavior such as that characterized in the articles and slideshows from the prompt, should be banned on college campuses. College is a time to learn both in terms of education in the classroom and, possibly more importantly, a time to learn in social contexts. As a society it is our responsibility to make it clear to the college age generation that racism is not a joke, and it's not a means to have fun, this mission can only be accomplished through justifiable punishment of the students who partake in this behavior.
The pictures in the slideshow are disgraceful to not only the university that those students represented, but to our society in general. I understand that it would be nearly impossible to rid our society of hate and racism, but we should at least try to show students that this is not appropriate or justifiable behavior.


All of the colleges that I am looking at are private institutions, and some have religious affiliation. One school that I am interested in is, DePaul University. I was worried about if I would like this school because I was concerned that the religious affiliation would make it very strict and possibly conservative. However, when I went on the tour of the campus the student representative assured me that you could barely notice the religious affiliation on campus. When I looked up DePaul on the database it had a rating of 'red' this concerns me because I do not want to go to a school that is extremely restrictive or strict. I researched a couple other schools and found that the private schools without religious affiliation usually have a 'yellow' rating instead of 'red.' One thing that I noticed that makes me wonder if these ratings can be accurate is that most of the data and cases for each school are from no later than 2007. However, with this rating I believe that DePaul would probably punish students who conduct parties based on racism, and I approve of that.
I think that FIRE has a valid mission and I approve of their definitions for the most part. However, I believe that not all of their data is up to date and that makes it difficult for me to fully believe and justify my beliefs off of the provided information.

Time and Place

I think that preventing or limiting students’ right to free speech, is preventing important conversations and lessons to be facilitated in the classroom setting. However, I do not think that putting expectations into effect is necessarily a bad thing. For example, in terms of the case of Morse v. Frederick, I think that the students knew and fully understood that their expression was inappropriate. The students chose to conduct themselves in a certain way and were well aware that there would be consequences. I do not think that they should have been punished with expulsion, because rather than preventing learning in the classroom they facilitated a lesson with real life application.

Contrary to some of the stories that my classmates shared in class this week, I think that our school is pretty lenient when dealing with controversial incidents relating to freedom of expression among our student body. For example, the other day in the hallway I noticed a group of students discussing their weekend activities which apparently included unappreciated behavior. A teacher overheard these girls and rather than sending them to the dean or simply saying, “You’re not allowed to say that,” the teacher made her presence clear and said, “Remember who your audience is.”

This is an interesting take on the freedom of speech debate. As I think about it, it is a more realistic take on any that we have studied yet. It is true that I am more willing to discuss certain issues and topics with one group of friends while discussing something different with others. It is not like certain people tell me I am not allowed to discuss something with them, but I usually would not do it anyway. I feel like this is the same for students in the school setting. Most students would not blatantly swear or use profanity in front of a teacher but are much more willing to do so with their friends.

Has society bred us to not be ourselves all of the time? If so, I do not think it is necessarily a bad thing.

Doggy Face Lift?

The other day, I was playing with my Shar-Pei puppy. Being a Shar-Pei she is wrinkly, and as I would describe 'shmooshy.' While I was talking to my dog, Xena, in my high pitched 'puppy voice,' I jokingly said that she needed a face lift because her face is so wrinkly. My statement was obviously a joke because forcing an animal who cannot communicate whether or not they actually want a procedure is simply cruel and unusual (not to mention spending thousands of dollars on a cosmetic procedure for a pet is crazy.)

The next day while I was reading one of my favorite news websites, TheWeek.com, I came accross an article on the exact concept I had been joking around about with Xena: plastic surgery for animals. The article outlined a trend growing in popularity around the world, people paying for their dogs to undergo cosmetic surgeries and procedures to improve their looks.

In my opinion, I think multiple issues in modern America are characterized here; the idea of Americans being obsessed with seeking perfection no matter what the consequences and the unfortunate popularization of animal cruelty in our nation.

http://theweek.com/article/index/218525/plastic-surgeryhellip-for-your-pet