Book Post #3

The first part of the book starts off with going in depth with the science of warfare. The book talks about the mindset of the soldiers. It talks about the adrenaline rush that they get when they react to the sounds of a bullet passing by their heads. It goes in depth about fire fights at night. When the enemy fires their weapons with tracer rounds, there is a distance where there is a chance that you can actually dodge a bullet. After it talks about the mental stress that combat puts on a soldier. They never are the same when they come back from combat. The stress that they have to deal with is unimaginable. Knowing that at any moment that they could be attacked and killed in unbearable. Not to mention the fact that they know that there is a potential that they could also lose a friend to the enemy too. Then when they eventually do lose a friend, some soldiers can't take it. Some soldiers eventually snap from the stress. The book talks about the mental problems that develop from the stress of combat. This book really makes you appreciate what these men and woman really do on a regular basis. They risk their life and their comfort to protect you and to make sure that we have a safe and free country.

Book Post #3

In the middle of the book, it gets a lot more intense. “The Army might screw you and your girlfriend might dump you and the enemy might kill you, but the shared commitment to safeguard one another’s lives is unnegotiable and only deepens with time. The willingness to die for another person is a form of love that even religions fail to inspire, and the experience of it changes a person profoundly.” This is what the main point of the book is. These men and woman share bond with each other that no one else knows. This part of the book takes the time to tell the reader how under appreciated the soldiers that fight for this country really is. The message of this part of the book is that we should always take time out of our day to thank a soldier to a veteran or a soldier for their sacrifice. They do things that we can't even imagine and they should be thanked.

Book Post #1 War

The book War is probably the best book that I have read. The story that it tells is unlike no other. Sebastian Junger went side by side the troops in Afghanistan to try to understand what the soldier of our country goes through. Through each and every fire fight he learned more and more what goes on through each soldiers head. They experience what 95% of the country will never see. The experience things that no one should see to protect their country. They give up their freedom and rights, so you can have yours and live a comfortable life. This book I believe is a great tribute to all the troops because it tells their actual story. Nothings censored or edited so you get the full effect of actually being there, without actually being there. This is exactly why after I graduate college I plan on becoming an officer in the Army. I believe that you are given so many rights in this country and that I need to give back to the country that has give me so much.

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?