Death Penalty Final Response

                The abolishment of the death penalty in Illinois is one of the greatest things to happen to this state. It is an unjust punishment and has no place in today’s legal system. Governor Ryan tells the story of all of the innocent men that had escaped the death penalty in his speech. With this punishment, there is absolutely no way of taking it back once it has been administered. As stated in the article, What killed Illinois death penalty, on February 5, 1999 Anthony Porter walked out of jail as a free man 50 hours before his execution was planned. Sometimes defendants are innocent and they cannot prove it and they are sentenced to death. The problem with the death penalty is that after a person is sentenced to death, most of them plead for their innocence and one would assume they are just lying. It's as if the justice system is playing psychological games with the inmates' minds. In the movie, Deadline, there is a story of an inmate who was jailed and was sentenced to death and had to spend years in jail before he could prove his innocence. The fear that was probably in his mind because of the death sentence was unimaginable. It is a cruel and unusual punishment and should not be allowed in our nation.

                 It is not ok to justify murder because of murder. It is insane to think that the crime that people fear the most is being administered by the government. It is not barbaric times anymore and in turn we should not use barbaric punishments. When the death penalty is used twice the amount of pain is also released. Another family has a member to grieve for, another child is missing their parent to raise and teach them, and another person has lost a sibling. It is completely idiotic for the death penalty to still be put in use. As Governor Ryan states in his speech, the pain that a death row inmate's family has to face is different because society is calling for the death of their family member. It wasn't their fault that the murder occurred, but they do understand that punishment is deserved. They just don't want the death of a loved one to occur. In my research on the death penalty, I found that although family members of the victims want retribution and the murderer killed for closure, extinguishing another life doesn't make them feel any better.

               The emotions of the people sentencing the defendants to death are like a rollercoaster. The regret one may feel for an unfair killing could last a lifetime. In the article, What killed Illinois Death Penalty, David Schwartz feels the guilt for prosecuting an innocent man to his death, "So it is that execution that still haunts the lawyer." It is not fair to put the enormous responsibility of choosing between life and death in someone's hands. No sane human can handle case after case of that. The abolishment of the death penalty in Illinois was just and at the right time; because of all the negative emotions involved with that decision and the possibility of killing the innocent could occur. It was one of the brightest days in Illinois history.

9/11- A horrifying day

            

After the events of 9/11 I was constantly paranoid about being attacked by a plane coming out of the sky. It was awful because I was afraid to even leave my house. All that I saw on the news was panic and disaster. These feelings took a long time to subside for me. But after watching the video in class about 9/11 all of those feelings just ended up coming back. It hit me that I am not always safe in my own home. The nation was just as afraid after these terrible events occurred. It was almost surreal that it even happened in the first place. It is hard to wrap your head around the idea that someone would have no problem killing thousands of innocent people just to make a political statement. Never before had anything like this ever been done. When it was happening people were just watching in awe. No one had any idea what was going on because there were multiple planes that were hitting multiple targets. It left people scared and confused. It was truly a horrifying day.

                The movie in class that we watched was intense. It provided a first person view of what happened on that fateful morning. The day started out just like any other, smiling, laughing and joking around at the firehouse. In an instant everything changed and there was a sense of panic in the air. The firefighters were wondering what happened, but they had a job to do so they rushed to the site. While everyone was watching in fear, those brave men were making their way to the twin towers to save people’s lives. It takes an incredible amount of courage to take those first steps up tower one to go into an almost hopeless situation. Being a firefighter in an honorable job and they deserve a lot of respect from the people of this country. Without them all of the people involved with that day would have passed away. They fought the best they could and saved as many lives as possible. Every New York firefighter put up a valiant effort.

                9/11 gave our country a sense of reality. No, we are not invincible. Before 9/11 people were never afraid of stuff like that happening. Nowadays it’s a common fear that a terrorist act might occur and our actions reflect it. Airport security is much tighter, the terror alert level has been high for the past couple of years, and the government now has a major focus upon stopping terrorism. 9/11/2001 is a day that will change our nation forever.

Freedom of speech

            In class this week we have really been discussing the idea of freedom of speech in school and when it applies. We looked at many different cases and the opinions of the court have been varying. For example in the Tinker v. Des Moines case, John and Mary Beth Tinker want to wear black armbands in school to protest the war. The school doesn’t like that idea and tries to restrict them by not allowing the armbands. In the end though, the court held that the students had the right to wear the armbands. On the other hand, In the Morse v. Frederick case, a student named Joseph Frederick displayed a banner at a school sponsored event saying "Bong Hits 4 Jesus". His principal Deborah Morse demanded that he take it down but he refused so she tore it down. The court held that the principal had a right to rip it down because it promoted illegal drug use in school. I think that students do not truly have freedom of speech in schools. It is the school's job to protect the students and ensure the highest quality of education for them. In order to truly be able to do that they must limit freedom of speech. People are easily offended these days and it's the school's responsibility to make sure that that doesn’t happen. Although I do not believe it is right to not allow students to express their opinions, there has to be a system in place that protects students from being exposed to things that they don’t want to hear or see.

                One problem about identifying whether a student is getting his or her freedom of speech violated is that the law about it is very vague. Many court cases about this topic easily could go both ways depending upon how you argue it. Sometimes students see it as unfair when the school gives them punishments and claim that their freedom of speech was violated. The issue is that only a couple of people (the justices) get to decide whether that is true or not and that doesn’t give fair treatment to everyone who claims this. It just isn’t a fully developed law and there are so many loopholes people can use to get around it and manipulate it. One day at DHS I was wearing a shirt with a picture of a rapper smoking a cigar and I was asked to take it off. I didn't find it fair at all because it’s not like I was supporting tobacco use and I was not being obnoxious about it. I felt like I had gotten my freedom of speech violated but there was nothing I could have done about it unless I wanted to waste time and money taking the school to court. Many instances like this have also flown under the radar. A lot of times when students feel like their rights have been violated, they don't do anything about it and the unfair treatment keeps occurring.

                  The government really needs to establish what rights students have at school. Not everyone is getting the same treatment and that is just unfair to the students. At least if a student's freedom of speech is being restricted, have a law telling them that in order to prepare the student. I just don't like how the law can be so different and it can apply differently just depending upon the case. Freedom of speech in school needs to be addressed and it has to start with the important people in Washington.

Opening Night

Its a brand new season of football at DHS and with that brand new season comes our new turf field.  Its Opening night and were playing against Zion Benton ; we beat them 27-20 last year. Whole town is going to be there. Everyone should show up. Big night tonight. Hopefully we come away with the win. Reppin the linemen all day everyday.