Gun Control

Gun control is a very complicated topic. One in which there is no black and white answer. The Constitution gives us as Americans the right to own a firearm. I agree with this right that has been given to us. If you are a hunter then I believe that you should be able to own a rife or a shotgun. I don't believe that the reason why there are multiple gun related deaths in the United States is because of the amount of guns in the country. I believe it is the person with the gun who is the problem. Every year I go to Montana about twice a year. Everyone there owns a gun and is allowed to show it. In every pickup truck there is a rifle hanging in the back of the window. In Montana there are close to no deaths per year due to gun related violence. This is interesting because Montana has one of the largest amount of guns statewide. However you hear everyday in Chicago about someone in the bad parts getting killed by guns. In my opinion there should be gun regluations that accomodate the demographics of each state. Such as I do not believe that someone should be able to own a gun in the city of Chicago. Why would u need to own a gun in Chicago besides to kill someone. However if you are out in a rural area where there is a lot of hunting then I believe that it is ok. I also believe that automatic weapons should be available and ammunition should be much much harder to get.

Wrongful Convictions

After sitting in on the presentastion by Terrill Swift, I experienced many emotions. It was mind boggling to me that the police whose jobs are to protect Chicago would be so crooked and corrupt. They denied Terrill a lawyer which is illegal, and they also lied to him and tricked him into signing a confession by saying that if he signed it, he would be able to go home. When Terrill was just 17 year old, the police called his house looking for him claiming that he was "harboring" or hiding someone. This was clearly a lie becuase he was doing no such thing. The police took him down to the precinct and then told him that they knew that he had raped and killed an alleged prostitute. Terrill and three other men were charged with the rape and murder of a woman. When on trial, Terrill told the court that "he would be back" because he knew that since he didn't do it, he would be eventually freed. While in prison, Terrill wrote to Northwestern University, who has a very well known wrongful conviction program. Northwestern took the case and eventually in 2010 and during this following January, Terrill was free. However after he was free from jail was considered a sex offender which severely effected his life. Where ever he lived he had to identify himself as a sex offender and most people would not hire him. Terrill eventually got the sex offender title revoked and he now life a free life and is trying to get his life back together.

F/A-18 Crash into Virginia Beach Apartment Complex

http://news.yahoo.com/jet-crash-virginia-beach-fiery-not-deadly-080400895.html

Over the weekend, the news story that engulfed the media was the incident that involved a Boeing F/A-18 fighter jet flown by the U.S. Navy crashing into a Virgina Beach apartment complex. The two pilots were just starting off their day with a training mission. Within two minutes of taking off, the jet experienced technical problems which are still unknown. It can be assumed that the jet lost all power and thus unable to control the plane. The pilots took the proper precautions such as trying to release as much fuel as possible to reduce the magnitude of the inevitable crash. Dumping the fuel prevented a much larger and hotter fire which could have caused more casualties. Miraculously not a single person was killed in the fiery explosion. Following the crash there were 7 people including the pilots with minor injuries. Usually when pilots experience fatal problems with their aircraft they are trained to ditch the jet in a field or a large body of water. In fact the Atlantic Ocean was only a half a mile from the crash site. This tells us that they truly had no power or control of the aircraft. The pilots were found no more than 100 feet from the crash site which indicates that they stayed with the jet as long as possible to try and steer the jet out of highly populated civilian areas. The pilots did everything right and thankfully no one was killed.

David Jones Case

This past week my issues class performed a mock trial that involved a rape case. The alleged rapist David Jones was accused of raping his girlfriend Susan Williams. David Jones and Susan Williams were freshman at a made up Washington D.C. university called Capitol University. They shared a business class together and started dating. They had an intimate relationship together and had sex. That summer, David got a summer job in Chicago and him and Susan had planned to move there together for the summer. However Susan got a job in D.C. and ended up staying. They broke up because they couldn't see each other. When the next school year came they had no classes together so they kept their distance and saw other people. Then junior year they ended up having a class together and midway through the year they started dating again. She said she didn't want to make the same mistakes as last time so they didn't have sex. Then senior year came around and they went to a party on her birthday. Meanwhile David was doing an economics project with another classmate by the name of Jenny Jackson. They were to act as if they were married and were to create a budget report as a married couple. While at the party David was talking to Jenny and that got Susan jealous. Susan and David decided to go back to Davids apartment and David went into the bathroom to a condom on. They started to make out on his bed and David tried to take off her clothes but she said no. However after she said so she smiled and started kissing him again and leading him on. She tried to get out of the bed at one point and David tried to pull her back and ripped her shirt slightly. However it is not clear if the pull was violent or not. Eventually they had sex. When they were done, Susan got out of bed and looked on David's desk and found a note from Jenny saying, "See you tomorrow, you're a great husband." Clearly it was a joke but Susan stormed out of the room and wouldn't talk to David for days. Anyway they jury ruled David Jones (played my me) to be not guilty. The jury ruled me not guilty after only talking about it for two minutes. Out teacher the great Mr. Kramer told us that out of the 6 years that he had done this activity, not once has Susan Williams ever won the case. Does this say a lot about our society today?

White Like Me: Privilege

I agree with the chapter that there are more whites who are born into wealthy families, than black people. I am a prime example of that. I was born into a fairly wealthy family. Around here were just average we don't have a ton of money, but we have a good amount. Enough to go on around 3-5 vacations a year. But compared to the rest of the country, we are very wealthy. However, I believe that in this amazing country, that everyone truly has the opportunity to be successful in their life; it just not may come as easy for some as it is for others. That's what makes this country so unique is that you maybe born into the "hood" and be the poorest of the poor, you can still rise above that and be successful in your life and leave that all behind. What you are born into, doesn't determine your fate. However, with that said, life is much harder for those people who live in those poor areas. For me, to be completely honest, I really have not tired that hard in school. I've done what I've needed to do to get decent grades so I could get into a solid college. And I did get into many good colleges. This is mainly due to the fact because I go to a really good public school. But for the kids in the inner city who want to succeed, they need to work three times as hard as I did. I was given an ACT tutor and other academic tutors. The chances are that they don't have access to that. Their schools are very bad too unlike Deerfield. However, (and i don't want people to take this the wrong way because I believe that this is ok) but if a kid in the inner city were to work really hard and get straight A's all throughout high school, a lot of times, he would have a much better chance to get into a good college than me due to the fact that colleges look for kids like that and they would probably not have to pay for college too. I think that that is a very good program and that these kids deserve that because they worked hard, but that also takes away the basis that whites always have the advantage and are more privileged than blacks. Success isn't always making a ton of money and being rich. Success is working hard for what you believe in and succeeding at that and believing that you did the best that you could. Just because a black person isn't as rich as a white person doesn't mean that they are not successful. They do what they can with what they have and if some blacks choose not to succeed then that's their problem. There are plenty of successful blacks in this country. However I know that they have a large disadvantage.

Book Post #5

As we get to the end of the book, we learn more and more about the secret world of private military contractors. The reader has learned that being a private military contractor its only for a fit certain few. As we learned even the country's elite doesn't always make the cut. Retired Army Rangers, SEALs, Marines and Special Forces soldiers are good enough to become a private military contractor. After 9/11 the need for private military contractors soared. What was once a field were you could profit roughly $10 million a year, private military contractors now produce profits soaring into the hundreds of millions. Wealthy oil tycoons, diplomats, and other very important people pay out millions for the best security detail one can buy. They fight the same battles as our soldiers fighting over seas. The only difference is that they can do as they please and don't have to listen to a commanding officer. They are free to move out where ever they please and if attacked, will unleash a hell no man should ever experience. This book was one of the most interesting books I've ever read. You really get to realize what goes on over there that's usually swept under the rug over here. This book sheds light onto the CIA's dirty wars that don't get published and reported. It takes you back to Fallujah when the contractor murders took place. But in the end you have to realize that they're just doing what they love: fighting for their country.

Book Post #4

 In this blog I have included some of the pictures that are included in the book. All of these pictures are off Blackwater soldiers over in Iraq. After 9/11, the private military contracting business sky rocketed. Since then, companies like Blackwater and Triple Canopy have an army of thousands. 








This book goes through in immense detail the operations that have been carried out over time mainly in the Middle East. The are hired mainly by the United States government to protect a person of interest such as a senator or congressman or ambassador. When they travel to the Middle East, private military contractors are to do nothing but transport and protect their client. They are sort of the unsung hero's in the War on Terror. They put their lives on the line every waking moment to protect the person they are defending and kill the enemy trying to attack their client. A lot of times they are not so lucky and end up giving the ultimate sacrifice.