Legalizing Marijuana

My colleague Tina ,talks about a national U.S topic that has been going on for years. It is true that as the years go on, marijuana has increased its supporters for legalizing marijuana.  Tina's question is should marijuana be legalized? I personally believe that marijuana should not be legalized. I believe that marijuana should be passed as a medical purpose only to help people with any medical conditions. Medical marijuana has been used to help cure cancer and glaucoma but for patients in research situations. Other than that, people are just gonna use marijuana for recreational purposes.  

I agree with Tina that marijuana should not be legalized for consumption of any kind because of the lasting effect on the human brain. I recommend that she brings up more sources as to why else it should not be legalized besides effecting the brain. Also, she need to go further explaining the case of Gonzales v. Raich , as to what the outcome was of the case.

Should the Immigration Reform be passed?

There have been many topics going on in America recently. For example the health care plan, gun control and universal background checks. But another topic that has been up for debate has been the Immigration Reform. This bill has been up to debate as to whether we should pass it as a law. This bill was proposed by the "Gang of Eight", who are "A bipartisan group of senators who has agreed to an immigrationreform framework that includes a pathway to citizenship for the undocumented, asignificant step toward a sweeping overhaul of the nation's immigrationsystem."  Now if this bill is passed, it could give many immigrants the chance to have papers to get a job, get to live legally in the United States and will be granted the desired path to citizenship.  However, that would take some time. In an article called “Immigration Reform News: What to Expect in the2013 Bill” written by Laura Matthews, stated that “Immigrants can apply for lawful permanent resident status (i.e. green card) after 10 years.”
                Now one may wonder, Why apply if you’re going to wait that long? . Well my opinion is that immigrant have been living in the shadows and with fear of facing a police with the chances of getting deported. They can’t drive peacefully because they don’t have a driver’s license. So one could imagine that this is bill is worth the wait. But other people think differently. I read another article called “ Some Say Immigration Bill Is Bad Deal for the GOP”  who was written by Charles Babington ,stated that “ Many conservatives are scared to death that the Republican Party is committing suicide, that were going to end up legalizing 9 million automatic democrat voters”  Now with all that said, this bill wont “automatically” legalize immigrants for their green card.  Further reading into the article, Senator Marco Rubio, a leader of the bipartisan team, had this to say “Not all 11 million illegal immigrants here today will qualify to become citizens, and not all of the 11 million illegal immigrants are Hispanics” this statement shows that this bill won’t just be rewarded to just any immigrant, they apply and earn it. And I believe it is good because many people who are in Mexico are associated with the drug cartel and we just can’t give automatic citizenship to anyone. They also have to go through a background check to see any crime activities that they have been involved with.                                                                                              

Many citizens don’t know the type of suffering and hardship one has to go through to get to America. I was born here in the United States. However, my parents were both born in Peru. My parents crossed the border so they could have a better life here in America. Since America is considered the land of the free. Many immigrants come to the United States to have a better life. But in the quest to come here, they cross the border. In the process, people get robbed, raped, drugged and even killed to get here. I know that nobody forces them to come here, but they see America as a place of many opportunities that can’t be offered anywhere else that makes them want to come here. It’s hard to be apart from your family and having to go in a hostile environment that you have no idea lurks there. That is why I believe that this bill should be passed because it could give many immigrants those opportunities they always wanted, so they could live a better life.

Here is also a link to Sen. Marco Rubio being interviewed further about the immigration reform.

Gun Control

My colleague, Kiara Woods, brought up a good topic that has been going on in America for a while now. Ever since the shooting in Newtown happened, the topic about gun control has been brought up a lot by citizens.  Kiara’s question is “Will guns help society?” I believe that guns can help society against criminals, but also that it can kill innocent people, which don’t help society. People say that guns kill people. Well if that was the case then that means that, pencils misspell words, cars make people drive drunk and spoons make people fat? I think not. I also read the article that was posted in New York Times that was written by Joe Nocera. He states that “Is it possible to commits cold – blooded murder, in broad daylight, on a busy Manhattan street full of witnesses, and even a camera recording the shooting? It sure starting to look that way” with Nocera saying that , he says that people who have a gun can practically kill anyone as easy as 1,2,3. It sad to know that innocent people die from gun shots every day, and the government isn’t doing much about it. I for one am for the second amendment. I think people have the right to defend and protect themselves and their home from anyone that threatens them, but I don’t think anyone should use a deadly weapon. I believe we should have a universal background check whenever someone purchases a gun. I agree with Kiara that these incidents cannot go on any longer as well. Kiara goes straight to the point with her thoughts that “if the government thinks passing a law to allow people to carry guns around will be a big mistake.”  I recommend my colleague to go further more into explaining about how guns can affect society besides killings. But overall, it was a good post and I agree with what she is saying.

Should the consequnces be harsher?

There are many topics that are important now in America, but one topic that intrigued me was about drinking and driving. I personally lost a dear friend of mine in a drinking and driving accident about a week ago.  On Monday, March 25, 2013 Statesman.com, published an article called “Woman killed inhit-and-run crash” This article talks about how Christina Lopez, who works in the ACC Northridge college in Simons café, was killed in a drinking and driving accident. The article states that “Lopez was pronounced dead at the scene of the crash at Springdale Road near Pecan Brook Drive in East Austin after police arrived at about 11:45 p.m., according to an arrest affidavit.” When I read this part of the article it brought me to tears to know that she died right there on the spot.  But it made me mad to know that the person that killed her didn’t even go to help her, he just ran away.

Now my question is, should the consequences for drinking and driving crimes be harsher? After much thinking I thought to myself that yes, we should be harsher.  Statistics in the organization called MADD (Mothers Against Drunk Drivers) show that “Every day in America, another 27 people dieas a result of drunk driving crashes”. Imagine how many people’s lives are lost. A person could be dying now as we speak. Not only are the people that are in the car affected but also their loved ones.  I personally knew who Christina was. She was a great friend and an amazing mother to her two young children.  It makes me sad to know that many adults or children are dying because of the irresponsible actions of people that cause this tragedy. This is why I believe we should make the consequences harsher so people will not be tempted to drink and drive. Sure people will still drink but we could decrease the numbers of people drinking and driving.

               In the website called DrivingLaws.org say that if you are caught in your first offenseyou get minimum jail time for 3 to 180 days, fine up to $2,000, and a licensesuspension for 90 to 365 days. Now I don’t know about you but I don’t think it is enough. Many say it’s there first time but the first time could also kill someone. I believe that they should get sent to jail for 2 years and pay a fine of $10,000. When we put more of a harsher consequence for people to know they will think twice when drinking and driving. I don’t believe that it is being unfair and mean because many people’s lives are lost because of these actions and it isn’t fair for the family members that have to go through losing someone they love. Drinking and driving is bad and we should spread the word for people to know what they are getting themselves into.

Sources:
-http://www.statesman.com/news/news/crime-law/woman-killed-in-hit-and-run-crash-identified/nW3sC/
-http://www.madd.org/statistics/
-http://dui.drivinglaws.org/texas.php

White House muzzled down gun control groups?

        On Friday, March 8, 2013 John Aravois, posted on AmericaBlog, about how the White House did a negotiation with the gun control groups. John Aravois states that “The White House reportedly got the gun control groups to agree to hold their fire, as it were, in exchange for the groups being permitted a seat at the negotiating table”.  Now the question is, was this a good idea or a bad one? I believe and also John Aravois, that it was a bad idea. It makes it seem that the White House has all power. This shouldn’t be like that way because people have the right to speak and should be “muzzled” down. People from the gun control groups will believe that they don’t have a word in anything. Sure they might be in the meeting but there are not allowed to speak, just hear the conversation and agree to it. Further into the article, we see that Aravois used examples as to why it was a bad idea in the past. One of the examples that John Aravois states is “ Fast forward to 2009, the first year of the administration. Again, the Obama administration made clear to outside groups that they’d better toe the line, or they wouldn’t be welcome in the Obama White House. Groups like SLDN, then the lead gays in the military group, were cut off by the White House for daring to speak up against the President’s seeming-reticence about moving forward on his promise to repeal DADT.

         Now with all that said, gun controls have been one of the main topics lately in America, after many shootings that happened in the last couple of months. It’s obvious that the author’s audience is anybody that is concerned with the gun control topic. He uses past examples of groups that have made an agreement with the white house, to lure the audience. It’s his credibility and evidence that how the white house is being unfair with all of these groups. He argues that it isn’t fair and that there should be something done about it. John says “I’m all for working with the Obama administration and Democrats generally, and a number of us have proven our ability to do just that, time and again, all the way back to when Barack Obama was still battling Hillary Clinton in the primaries. But that doesn’t mean we’re always going to be on the same page with the administration, and it doesn’t always mean that the White House is going to be doing what they should be doing on any given issue.” I agree with what the author is saying. They should recognize that the people’s voice matters as well. At least they are taking accounted for that the people should have a vote about the back ground check.

Gun loophole makes no sense

On Friday, February 22, 2013 CNN , published an opinion article called "Mark Kelly: Gun loophole makes nosense" that was written by Mark Kelly. Mark Kelly is the last commander of the space shuttle endeavor and a former naval aviator. He is also the husband of former U.S Rep. Gabrielle Giffords. He talks about how he really wasn’t concerned about the gun control until his wife was shot and six of her constituents were murdered during a "Congress on Your Corner" event in Tucson, Arizona. When she was recovering, Mark began to pay more attention about gun control. Mr.Kelly uses statistics in order to make the reader understand and lure them in into the topic. Kelly said “I'm a numbers guy, a statistics guy -- and what I've learned has shocked me. Almost 100 people a day die from a gun, 33 are murdered. We've got 20 times the murder rate of similar countries.” This is a good way for readers to know about how many people die from guns. His intended audience is anyone who agrees that congress should do something about gun control and even people that opinion has not changed about having guns. Kelly states that “82% of U.S. gun owners -- including more than 70% of NRA members -- support criminal background checks for all gun sales. Ninety-two percent of all households in the country support universal background checks. That tells me that citizens across the country want Congress to get this done, because they know it will keep us safer.”  By reading statistics it can make a person realize how dangerous weapons are and can cause many deaths. Kelly’s claim is quite simple, he states that “Tell them you want one system, a universal background check that will keep all of us safer and respects our Second Amendment rights.”                                                                                                                                     

When I read this article I thought to myself that I absolutely agree with him. Everyone knows about the horrific gun shootings that have been happening for example, the Sandy Hook Elementary School Shooting that happened in Newtown, Connecticut, on December 14, made an impact on me as well as a million people in America. It made me sad and mad how innocent children and adults lost their lives to a person who had a disorder and nobody knew about it. And how could we forget the shooting that happened at a movie theater in Aurora, Colorado.12 people lost their lives, parents lost their children and many family members lost a loved one. It also brings another attention across that the person who was responsible for the shooting was mentally ill.                                                                                                              

Like most people, I also want a background check on who are buying guns. I am not against the second amendment. I believe people should have the right to defend and protect themselves, but I don’t think that we should be giving deadly weapons to people who might be criminals and mentally ill people. I think to myself , how much more shooting and deaths is it going to take in order to finally have a background check all across the united states. I hope that we soon have a powerful and strict rule about gun control.

Bush family e-mail accounts hacked

   On friday, february 8, 2013 The Washington Post ,published an article named "Bush family e-mail accounts hacked" that was written by David Fahrenthold and Rachel Weiner. The article talks about that Former president George H.W. Bush and his family, were victims of a computer hacker. The hackers gained access to confidential emails and also conversations that the president had with friends and family. The article states that "The Secret Service is investigating a hacker's apparent theft of a trove of personal e-mails and photos belonging to the bush family after the material was posted late thursday by Smoking Gun Web site.A report by Smoking Gun said the e-mails covered the period from 2009 to 2012, and that a total of six accounts appeared to have been compromised"
   I believe this is a important topic because it talks about how even someone important as the former president could get hacked. Electronic nowadays cant be trusted. People should be careful when posting things freely online. People could get hacked and their personal things could be stolen.This could bring up the topic of electronic direct democracy. How former president George H.W. Bush was hacked, makes for a source to the topic of electronic direct democracy. It shows how america isnt ready to have electronics expand so much to the U.S. This article is important to show people that we should be more secure of our personal things and may even bring the government attention that electronic in voting can be corrupted as well.