30. March 2010 by student.

I have had the chance to see how someones life chances are effected by their race, age, and country of origin. My best-friend of 5 years is an illegal immigrant, although she has been here for eighteen years, and her parents are both legal residents, she her self is still illegal. We have spent these last 5 years going to the same school, only because they bussed in students from low income areas to our “high class” school. From first glance you couldn’t tell a difference between her and I. We both wanted to go to medical school, in fact we had the same health classes together in high school. We both played basketball on the same team. We were both on the track team, competing in the same event. She managed to stay well dressed and blended in with all of the “trends”. Her family is very poor, her parents don’t speak English. Some how she always found ways to pay for her sports, and extracurricular things high school has to offer. My point is she did what she could to fit in with the middle/upper class students at our school. She did stay in trouble, not by choice but by default. She would mainly get in trouble for not coming to class, or not having a ride. She was lucky in that she had friends whose parents helped her out. She probably would not have graduated if it were not for these families. She did not have a computer or a printer or a ride to the library to do projects. Teachers would continually tell her this is no excuse, but it is. The campus library at the high school did not offer extended hours. Despite these downfalls she managed to graduate and experience most of the same things I did. Things changed once it was time for College. Universities require proof of residency, something she did not have. Still she was determined to go to school. Some how she was able to get into the local community college (to be honest I’m not sure how this worked). Okay, so she got in, that’s great! But now how is she going to pay for this? Her parents cant help her. She is ineligible for scholarships because she is not a legal citizen. Plus she cant work without a green card. This makes things even more difficult. She wants to go to school so bad. In fact she is, sort of. She has an older lady that is letting her work “around the house” for money once a week. She is basically a servant for this woman once a week. Some of her jobs include giving pedicures, cooking dinner, cleaning the pool, making beds, yard work, and even dying hair. She also makes money by babysitting. She has managed to go through two semesters paying for her own classes in these ways. As if paying for college is not hard enough she also must find a ride to class, she begs classmates for rides and catches the city bus when she can. She still faces the same problems with the computer, but now it is even harder to find one to use because all of her friends that helped out in high school have moved away for college. The point of my story was to say that not everyone is in their predicament because they want to be. She would much rather be in my position if she was given the opportunity. Yes, hard work can get you where you want, if your given the right opportunities. Others have to work twice as hard in order to get half of what you have. As for my friend her green card papers have been in the system for many years and should be processed soon. Once this happens she plans to get a job and apply for scholarships to pay for school. She can only take two courses at a time right now because of her financial situation. Once she can afford more she plans to enroll full time.

Posted in Introduction to Sociology | 1 Comment »

30. March 2010 by student.

The Banning of Books-Problem of Outspoken Discontent

Banning Books the argument from two sides. Censorship spanning from radio to television and to the books which appear in school to those banned from school create the solid and unpronounced standard; not all ideas are equal and expression through media isn’t socially sound, and that is flawed logic. No single idea from someone which ends free speech in the world of literature has the best intentions for the society as a whole.  I wish to address the idea that banned books create an unhealthy standard for what is and aren’t appropriate, and from that base decision the new idea of norms have been placed on literature. The idea that has become the standard in American society has transitioned from voicing objectionable opinion to suppressing the written word on the grounds that it is “controversial” apparently if someone finds objectionable material then of course the work is “breaking down society and corruption our generation’s youth.”

The reasons for banning books stretch from conflicting the ideas of Humanism, teaching of literature on unbias subjects, biblical interpretation, morality issues and the underline issue of the written word challenging society’s values, today’s culture takes the idea of suppressing questionable material one step too far; Again I can draw on the specifics of common examples, the social focuses placed on Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut, Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck and one of the most notorious banned  books in history; The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger. Books banned for years have remained forgotten about and ignored for years, information and written literature denied from society all because of one person creating a group and doing away with a piece of work because they find it objectionable, funny how free expression can be so bad that people will ignore the first amendment and will then deny free speech and expression on the standard that “there is more in the book than what is written.”

American politics, literary demand and banning and the increasingly cultural/political desire to ban books hits closer to home and has grown more emotional and increasingly divided. Harsh language, conflicting ideologies and new age ideas spur the desire to ban books. There is some information on censorship and community breakdown; the literary talents of some authors and subjects pushed down from religious and political beliefs. Take a look at one of the most famous book series in the world, Harry Potter and the … what ever, people fell behind a group and blindly agreed with the single idea; “Harry Potter encourages cult following, and deny Christian beliefs, these books if left unchecked will be the downfall of religious structure in the social structure.” This idea is an ignorant statement created by well-intentioned stupid people, the culture of America takes a simple idea, if you can oppose it then you can protest it, and remove it from society, is that the only option though?  

The argument against banning Books

In the contrast to the prior blog on stating the issue of the banning of books here is the counterargument against the practice.  I have noted on a blog that people find reasons to ban books but look deeper at it why ban books and are these people mistaken?  Here is a revelation of the divergent ideas; I suggest reading the work of author John Granger, creator of Finding God in Harry Potter, as an example of the counterargument to the “harm” of Harry Potter. The question is; is the Harry Potter series anti-Christian? A statement by conservative and evangelical Christians. Others state that Harry Potter supports Christian beliefs; this is not the only possible Christian reaction. There are many Christians, who argue that Harry Potter is not only acceptable, but in fact presents a Christian worldview, Officials at the Vatican talked glowingly about the Potter series at a news conference about the New Age movement, and this book isn’t as it has been stated by outspoken extremists deadest on taking information they don’t like and ripping out of society’s hands. I address this problem of banning books with extreme attention to Harry Potter because it is a great example of the two perspectives on the idea of books causing harm to society, Rev. Peter Fleetwood, a former official of the Pontifical Council for Culture, told reporters. “I don’t think there’s anyone in this room who grew up without fairies, magic and angels in their imaginary world. They aren’t bad. They aren’t serving as an anti-Christian ideology.” Think about this statistic for a moment; there have been 546 known attempts to remove books in 2006 alone, shocking right? The last item I want to touch on is the list of banned books  spanning from classics such as The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain, The adventures of Sherlock Holmes introduced by the acclaimed Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Ernest Hemingway’s A Farewell to Arms followed in toe by several hundreds other examples of banned literature, each of these examples have been banned for years and yet now these books are no longer banned, but have become required and recommended readings for school, what changed you may ask? Well society ended its broad view and allowed ideas to flow ending ridged thinking; when books are involved on the social level of acceptability it is all acceptable to read or nothing is, that is the ultimate liberal view on this topic.  

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29. March 2010 by student.

     Women have struggled for centuries to be considered equal to men. Even with the advances, things in 2010 are still not completely equal. Unfortunately stereotypes still exist and some discourage women to peruse what they want most. Many glass lenses and glass ceilings have been broken or cracked, but some still exist. Some of these glasses and lenses have recently been cracked but not shattered. Recently in politics, Hillary Clinton cracked a very big ceiling, the one to run for a women president. She stepped up to the challenge and is inspiring women across the country and world. For many decades politics has been know as a man’s job. Women have been looked upon as too weak to do anything productive in the tough field, and it is women like Mrs. Clinton that proves women can be just as tough.

     Every woman has it within herself to be something important. Women do not just settle to be house wives anymore; they strive to be doctors, police officers, and politicians. Many women are beginning to show their power yet; the media still looks toward men as the experts in the medical field and in the political field. Women go to school for as long as men do, it makes no sense why women are still looked as less knowledgeable. Jobs should not be given glass lenses. Men are becoming nurses and women are becoming politicians, no one has a set plan set out for them. Everyone is their own person, with their own opinions, and own views.      In the primary elections for the 2008 elections many people would not listen to a thing Mrs. Clinton spoke about but yet; had a million reasons why they would not vote for her. The president is not there for fashion trips and because there a celebrity, they are there to run the country and make decisions on behalf of the county. This country has improved from the times where women could not even vote, but things are nowhere near equal. If a women has the same views as a man odds are the man will look like the better prospect because we have been raised with media showing that men are the experts when it comes to politics. Media is to blame for many of the stereotypes, TV shows and commercials implant ideas into children from a young age and some are hard to get over. When I was a junior in high school I had a classmate in my American Government class say that “women take care, while men take charge” it is a quote I will always remember because it is a perfect example of how woman have always been stereotyped. Its disgraceful and ignorant, so many women have done amazing things in history!                  In conclusion women have always been given the “glass lens” that they are inferior to men when it comes to politics. That even if a woman goes to school for the same amount of time as a male the male will still look superior. In my opinion I feel the media is to be blamed for many of these ongoing stereotypes. Many women have helped prove than we can be just as knowledgeable and tough as men, but it will be some years before we can be considered true equals.

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29. March 2010 by student.

People talk about it on the news, in books, movies, and casual conversation.  The “Go Green” movement is sweeping through America, Europe, and even the entire world.  Everywhere you go you see something about going green, from Hybrid vehicles, to “please recycle” signs dotting the walls of our local towns.  Sadly, the movement is just starting, and people aren’t the least bit optimistic about it.  The problem is, a large majority of people think that what they do will not matter.  They choose to let the “big guys” do it, such as the massive automobile corporations and various transportation businesses.  If people actually believed in themselves, and everyone collectively pitched in to help out, even picking up trash on the side of the road could do more good then anyone could fathom, though it’s not the only thing that can be done. There are hundreds of things our community can do to get involved in the “green” movement.  From simply recycling, to buying a more fuel-efficient vehicle, the possibilities are endless, and all help in one way or another.  If we all stop doubting our ability to help contribute to the green movement, and take some initiative, we might actually get something done in our communities and eventually create better, cleaner world.

Many people wonder why all of a sudden we need to start going green.  They look outside and wonder, what’s so different outside that we have to make all these complicated changes?  The thing is, the Earth is aging.  Even though it ages at an extremely slow pace, the long-term effects from damaging the Earth can have an enormous impact on everyone, everywhere, though it may not be apparent at first glance.  One of the many outcomes of harming the planet is Global Warming.  The release of aerosols and greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere from various objects, including but not limited to cars and paint, are destroying the ozone layer by weakening the layer that blocks harmful heat from reaching the surface.  People think this is a myth, yet sea levels rise and glaciers melt around the world.  This is one of many ways the world is being hurt by our mistreatment of its bountiful resources.  Who knows what will become of the world 10, 20, or even a 100 years from now.  People could be sitting on small islands around the water-filled world that used to be earth wondering who could have been stupid enough to let the world come to this.  This won’t happen as long as everyone around the world takes a stand and starts to change their ways.  The world can progressively get better over time but it needs us, the human race, to reverse the damage we have done.  In a better world, people will be happier and conditions would improve in many aspects of life other then the environment.

There are numerous ways in which our community can be a part of the green movement.  Making our households green is one of the first steps toward getting our community green.  An organization known as PATH has given 10 ways in which you can make your house greener.  People spend loads of money buying and paying for the cheaply made light bulbs you can get at your local hardware store.  Rather then getting these cheap bulbs, why not get CFLs, (compact fluorescent light bulbs), which can save you up to $100 a year.  You can program your thermostat to go up during the day and then go down during the night, or put it up when you leave the house and then turn it down again when you return, resulting in hundreds of dollars saved on energy bills.  You can plug air leaks, located around doors, plumbing, and numerous other places in the house, as well as keep your air conditioning system up to date and clean.  If you install a low-flow showerhead, an average family of 4 can save up to $200 to $300 a year.  Putting an insulated jacket around your water heater, as well as turning the temperature down to 120 degrees could save loads of money as well as prevent scalding.  Planting trees around your property so that they create a shadier setting can reduce your cooling costs up to 25%.  Buying energy star products when replacing common household items such as stoves and microwaves can lower your energy costs anywhere from 10 – 30%.  Use low-VOC or no-VOC paints to reduce the organic compound level in your house.  One final thing you could do if your just green-crazy is to get a blower door test.  Though this costs anywhere from $200 to $400, it is more then worth it and can be evened out in energy saved in under 2 years.  In conclusion, after reading these simple and easy ways to go green in your household, there are no excuses for disregarding the green movement (Top 10).

The vast majority of us are full time workers, whether it is in an actual job, volunteering or being a full time student, we all work in some way around our community.  In these places where we work, many things can be done that are similar to or have similar outcomes as the ways you use to go green in your house do.  McGill University’s sustainability office gives a few ways in which you can go green in your workplace.  Use less paper by reusing old paper and setting printers and copiers to double-sided so that they use both sides of the paper.  Instead of giving employees or students bills in paper form for whatever they print, have an electronic bill made so that students can pay before they print and it will save paper from not having bills made.  In your own personal office or dorm room, turn your computer screen off or put it to sleep as well as turn the lights and any other electronics off when leaving or not using them.  Also, learn how to save energy while using your computer.  Most computers have power saving functions that can make a profound impact.  One last way you can go green around your workplace is to recycle old ink cartridges and computers, as well as phones and other recyclable supplies.  Using all these green techniques can save your workplace loads of money, so there is no excuse to not participate (Make your…).

Working together to make our community green is easier then people think.  If we come together and do simple things here and there, our community will eventually become a much greener and better place.  Planting trees is one major thing we could work on, and it is easy.  Planting seeds and then taking care of the trees as they grow is an easy and enjoyable task.  Picking up trash is something that you don’t need a group to do – it can be done individually on your way to work, class, the gym, or any other daily activity you do.  Fundraisers can be held to raise money for community projects, such as purchasing new, fuel-efficient buses, more recycling cans, or seeds to plant trees and other plants.  In our schools we can introduce new methods of teaching our children the importance of protecting nature and letting them know how to be green early on.  Recess in more natural environments can teach children to love nature, there for protecting it.

One of the issues people don’t participate in the green movement is that it’s too expensive.  When you go out to your local dealership and see “hybrids” that cost 3 times the price of the vehicle you have now, it’s hard to argue with that.  There are many ways in which you don’t need to spend a lot of money to become efficient and green, as well as save money in the long run.  An article by Yuliya Chernova in the Wall Street Journal states some ways in which we can go green without breaking the bank.  High tech thermostats cost anywhere from $50 to $150, but save you loads of energy by setting it to lower the temperature when everyone is sleeping and vice versa.  This pays back in about a year.  Motion sensor lights turn off when no people are present in the room, making them a high energy saving product.  They cost anywhere from $40 to $60 and pay back in under a year.  A big way to save energy is to insulate the attic of your house, which can save a lot of heat that would normally escape through the roof.  It costs anywhere from $500 to $700 and pays back in under a year and a half.  In regards to the gas guzzling car crisis, it’s ok if you need time to save up for a new, more fuel efficient car.  If you need two years to save up so you can trade your Ford F150 in for a Hybrid Honda Civic, then go ahead and save.  Being green has some cost up front, but the outcome of doing some of these things can double, even triple your money in return.  Think of going green as some type of investment, and a very good one at that.

The green movement is somewhat new.  Ten years ago, nobody even cared what kind of car they drove, what kind of light bulbs they use, or what the long term effects of using a high VOC paint was.  Now, as the effects of our hurting of nature continue to worsen, people are waking up to the idea that we need to work together to stop this global crisis that is the life of the world as we know it.  The green movement is not just a movement; it’s the key to keeping this world going strong.  We need to stand together as a community and work to better it by joining and participating in this movement.  By becoming a green community, other communities will notice, as well as cities, and by setting an example we will spread the movement like wild fire and save this wonderful world from a horrific turn for the worst.  By the famous words of the sports-oriented company super star Nike, just do it.

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29. March 2010 by student.

Ever since the beginning of humankind, there have been deviants.  From Ogar the cave man stealing his neighbor’s food way back in the Stone Age, too the CEO of Enron stealing millions of dollars, law breaking is always occurring.  Some crimes are worse then others, however, and warrant a different kind of punishment then the usual slap on the wrist, or jail time.  Capital punishment has been used to exterminate society’s most horrible people, from rapists to murderers.  But is it the best, or even most efficient way to deal with these criminals?  Though capital punishment gives these horrible people what they deserve, it is a drain on the economy and people have become much more anti-death in the past decade, believing mostly in the preservation of life and forgiveness.  The best way to deal with these horrible criminals is to give them life imprisonment without parole instead of using up immense amounts of state and federal money killing them.

         There are thousands upon thousands of prisoners in the United States.  For a long time, we have sadly boasted the most prisoners of any country in the world.  The death penalty helps reduce these numbers, but at a slow and financially painful cost.  According to the Death Penalty Information center, to keep an in-mate in a maximum-security prison and on death row for one year in a California jail, it costs $90,000 dollars.  In 2008, California had 670 in-mates on death row, amounting to a total cost of $63.3 million dollars.  Not only does the actual incarceration drain taxpayers and state funds, the seemingly never-ending trials to defend in-mates against the death penalty are quite expensive.  “The average cost of defending a trial in a federal death case is $620,932, about 8 times that of a federal murder case in which the death penalty is not sought”  (“Costs of the Death Penalty”).  That’s the cost of the initial trial, and does not include the numerous appeals that are inevitably filed afterward, which could raise the cost up to a million dollars or more.  Here are a few more astonishing facts from “Costs of the Death Penalty” regarding the capital punishment system in the United States:

Using conservative rough projections, the Commission estimates the annual costs of the present (death penalty) system to be $137 million per year.  The cost of the present system, with reforms recommended by the Commission to ensure a fair process, would be $232.7 million per year.  The cost of a system in which the number of death-eligible crimes was significantly narrowed would be $130 million per year.  The cost of a system which imposes a maximum penalty of lifetime incarceration instead of the death penalty would be $11.5 million per year

(“Cost of the Death Penalty”)

Shockingly, these statistics are from 2008, the costs of 2009 most likely being much, much higher.  The costs have not been officially released, but I can assure you that they may even be double those costs.  These enormous costs are one of the main reasons the death penalty should be abolished.  It would save an enormous amount of money to keep prisoners in jail for life without appeal or parole.  It may also save lives due to new evidence coming around or newfound technology, including the workings of DNA clearing someone of their crimes, which is another main argument against the death penalty.

The death penalty has been used for a long time.  The first legal execution in the United States was back in colonial times, 1622 to be exact.  Daniel Frank was executed in Virginia for the misdemeanor crime of theft (”Capital Punishment Timeline”).  Now, people are being executed for murder, treason, rape, crimes against humanity, and other major crimes.  DNA, new technology, and new legal system procedures have been major players in taking these criminals down, but they have only been around for the past decade or two.  Recent witnesses as well as botched investigations have proven many executed criminals innocent.  These men and women may have had families and friends believing them to be horrible people getting what they deserved, while they sat in torment and immense melancholy knowing that they were innocent, but could do nothing about it.  Thankfully, DNA is used more and more every day to prove many men and women innocent, and even save their lives.  In November of 2005, a boy was proven innocent many years after being executed in Texas, not by the state proving him innocent but because his friend who lied under oath finally told the truth (”Innocent Man Executed in Texas”).  Another incident recently arose involving Texas regarding the wrongful execution of a possibly innocent man.  CNN’s Randi Kaye reported that Texas Governor Rick Perry may be covering up an innocent man being executed under his watch.  In 1991 a man was convicted and eventually executed for arson, in which his 3 children were killed in a house fire.  The man spent many years pleading that he was an innocent man convicted of a crime he didn’t commit.  Recent findings have come to light claiming there was NO evidence of arson, and that the man was innocent.  The day the findings were to be shown to a state committee, Rick Perry replaced 3 members of the science team in what was a reported attempt to botch or derail the entire investigation.  If he had not replaced them, the findings would have gone through and the report proving the man innocent would have come to light weeks before the primary election in which the Governor was running for re-election.  Critics say that if this report had come to light, he would have been known as the first governor to preside over an innocent man’s execution, and most definitely have lost the election.  The chairman, a political ally, postponed the committee meeting indefinitely, saying there was no way to tell when they would reschedule (“Did Texas Execute Innocent Man?”).  This is absolutely ridiculous, and shows how corrupt some politicians are.  This governor wrongfully executed a man for killing his own daughters.  To be known at your death, as a murderer of your own family when you know it is not true, is a pain I cannot even begin to describe or relate to. 

In the Bill of Rights in our wonderful country’s Constitution, there is a clause regarding the use of cruel and unusual punishment.  Capital punishment is the very definition of cruel and unusual punishment.  Why must we stoop down to these murderer’s levels and kill them?  Let them stay in prison for their entire life to think about the crimes they have committed.  These capital punishment procedures such as electrocution and lethal injection are not fool proof, either.  Electrocutions don’t always fully kill people, sometimes they must add more electricity to finish the job, giving the inmate extreme pain.  Recently in Ohio, an execution was stayed because of a recent botched execution in which a lethal injection FAILED to execute an inmate.  The doctors giving the lethal injection couldn’t find any good veins to put the needles in.  Now the state wants to push forward the man’s execution.  If failing to execute a man, then executing him at a later time, isn’t cruel and unusual punishment then I don’t know what is.  The man is obviously going to appeal for a pardon and most likely win due to the state’s foolishness.  This shows that the death penalty is a waste of money as well as cruel and unusual punishment (“Ohio governor…”).

Proponents of the death penalty believe that it is just, because it gives closure to grieving families.  That since DNA and other technology are in better use, we don’t have to worry about death row inmates being proven innocent.  They believe it will clean out the prisons, keep prisoners from escaping, and offer lawyers new chances to weasel deals benefitting them out of the prosecuted.  Families can have closure without having someone killed.  They will rest assured knowing that the man that has killed their loved one is now going to rot in jail for the rest of their life.  Prosecutors should get hard evidence to prove someone guilty and put them in for life, rather then shove the death penalty card in the defendants face.  Current DNA use is not fool proof – there may be some cases in which someone may be framed, or DNA may be botched.  The threat of the death penalty will not only scare the inmates, it will scare them into doing everything they can to get out of the prison.  All fair arguments, but easily defeated.  The one fact that I can personally relate to is the fact of closure or even revenge.  I can only imagine having a loved one who has been killed someone, and I believe that in the situation there is nothing more in the world that I would want more then revenge.  We must remain human, though, and remember that death is not something we should wish upon anyone or anything, nor should we decide their fate.

The death penalty has been abolished by over half of the civil world including the entire European Union, (abolishment of the death penalty in said country being one of the guidelines a country must follow to join), and many countries look down upon us for still using capital punishment.  This cruel and unusual punishment is expensive, cruel, risky, and just plain needs to be abolished.  If there is not enough room for prisoners, then the prisons need to be made larger rather then thinned through lines of executions.  No humans or group of humans on this planet should ever be given the right to determine whether or not someone lives or dies.

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29. March 2010 by student.

A few weeks ago The Florida Modern-Day Slavery Museum rolled up to FGCU to teach students about the modern day slavery and about the slavery that has taken place in history. This was something I found especially interesting because it related to our class lectures about poverty, and life chances. In 1963 and 1964 in the U.S. slaves began to have market protests, because what the white people were doing was auctioning off African American people. After really thinking about race, and considering the fact that we are all one race, and people are the cause of creating different “races” like “black” and “white” and “hispanic,” when if you really look at the DNA there is actually no difference. When the 13th Amendment was passed, it backed the different nationalities legally, but not mentally from the struggle they would go through to assimilate and gain the freedom that the white people had. There were articles displayed about different Florida growers that talked about the different kinds of slave labor going on. In the 1920’s, sugar cane plants and orange growers made a statement saying,” We used to own our slaves. Now we just rent them.” Which demonstrates how people still viewed different ethnicities then. Even today there are tomatoe growers that keep their workers on land and do not allow them to leave. They give their workers around 40 cents per bucket of 32 lb tomatoes they pick. There have been growers that actually lock their workers in the truck. Your neighborhood Publix swlls those tomatoes in their store, and were producing them out of Immokalee. I didn’t even realize this was happening so close to me! Many workers are lured with drugs from their employer, and then the employer pays them in drugs. Getting them addicted ensures they will work there just to get paid in drugs. In the case of Cesar and Giovanni in December of 2008, these tomatoe growers continually locked their workers up in a truck over night. A truck without beds, food, and very little air flow. They threatened their workers by saying if they ever went to another employer, they would hurt them and their new employer. Two men one night escaped from the truck and eventually filed a lawsuit. The growers are now in prison for 12 years. These tomatoe growers were stationed in Florida, North Carolina, and South Carolina. I don’t understant how none of us knew this! A quote from one of the escapee Antonio Martinez reads,” …that’s when I realized I had been sold like an animal, without compensation.  Many of these workers are illegal immigrants. But who defines them as illegal? They are illegal because of the fact that our country created a line between their countries and ours. They are not allowed to come onto “our territory” unless apply to the government and wait the time to get into the U.S. So first, we make them illegal, so they can’t get real jobs. Then, we let the tomatoe growers exploit them. Perhaps that Obama’s fight to let the illegal immigrants work legally in our country would fix the problem? It sure would help them, and force the growers to pay their workers better, and give them better treatment. But would that help the Americans in our country that are without jobs, and struggling to make ends meet? And, if we are going to allow illegal immigrants to work legally, how about the immigrants that have the proper documentation, but came to America on something like a Student H-1 visa, which does not allow them to work, are we going to let them work too? We may have created the borders, and made the illegal immigrants illegal by making them, but should we reward those who followed the rules of our system that is currently in place?

-http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/09/us/politics/09immig.html

-The rest of my information was from the traveling meuseam and the packet they gave me.

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29. March 2010 by student.

Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty, is the execution of a convicted criminal by the state as punishment for the most serious crimes known as capital crimes. Capital punishment remains an on-going issue, even where it is being used only for the most serious crimes. Supporters argue that it deters crime and is an appropriate punishment for the crime of murder. Opponents argue that it does not deter criminals more than would life imprisonment, that it violates human rights, and runs the risk of executing some who are wrongfully convicted. Punishment that allows criminals reform themselves is arguably a better solution then execution. Although, in the ideal society, human beings should be able to recognize, based on their own conscience, that crimes deemed serious enough to merit the death penalty or life imprisonment constitutes behavior that cannot be tolerated.            In the year of 2008 there were a total of 37 inmates executed. Texas led the pack with 18. Texas was followed by Virginia with 4. Georgia, South Carolina, and Ohio rounded out the top 5 states. The top 5 states with inmates sentenced to death all have over 200 inmates sentenced, with over 3,200 inmates nationwide.            The first legal execution of a criminal in the American Colonies was in 1622. This would be the beginning of years upon years of debate. The great support for capital punishment is shown in the fact that of the 53 jurisdictions (50 states, the District of Columbia, the Federal justice system, and the U.S. Military), 38 allow the death penalty. However, even though the support of capital punishment is very evident, the actual amount of executions has dropped. During the past decade Americans have been adding approximately 170 new cases annually to death row, while executions have only been in the twenties. Many Americans also support the death penalty because, logically you would think that capital punishment would be less expensive than life imprisonment. In a New York state poll, for instance, a 72 percent support for the death penalty dropped to 56 percent after the persons polled were informed that the death penalty is more costly than life imprisonment. In the state of Virginia the annual cost of keeping a single person in prison for one year is $17,000. A prisoner whom is sentenced to death stays in prison for approximately 50 years; making the total cost of life in prison in the $850,000 range, plus or minus a few years. However another study done in New York for death penalty cases cost approximately $1.9 million per case, making it much more costly to sentence a person to death due to the extra legal costs to instill capital punishment.            Personally I am for the death penalty. I believe that if a person can take the life of another human being then theirs should be taken from them. It all comes back to ever action will have an equal but opposite reaction. All crimes should have a suitable punishment.

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29. March 2010 by student.

The law of capital punishment has been the target for heated debate for many years now. The two sides of the argument both have reasons in which they believe the way they do. For most of the citizens opposed to capital punishment it comes down to a money issue. They put alot of the suport of their argument on that the death penalty cost more then life in prison.

A recent editorial in the Spokane Washington called for elimination of the death penalty because of its high costs and the state’s slim budget. Executions are uncertain and usually delayed by the mass amounts of appeals to ensure the constitutionality of the trial. The editorial cited a study by the Washington Bar Association that stated over $600,000 in additional costs for a capital case: “death penalty cases are estimated to generate roughly $470,000 in additional costs to the prosecution and defense over the cost of trying the same case as an aggravated murder without the death penalty and costs of $47,000 to $70,000 for court personnel. On direct appeal, the cost of appellate defense averages $100,000 more in death penalty cases than in non-death penalty murder cases.” The editorial said changing the state’s method of execution only pushes the problems aside and called for life imprisonment without the possibility parole as the best solution to solve to problems caused by the death penalty.The results of a poll of police chiefs recently featured in DPIC’s report “Smart on Crime: Reconsidering the Death Penalty in a Time of Economic Crisis“. The poll, conducted by R.T. Strategies of Washington, DC, surveyed a group of 500 randomly selected U.S. police chiefs with questions regarding the debate over the death penalty and reducing violent crime. The police chiefs were not against the death penalty by philosophically, they found it not to be an effective crime fighting tool.  Among the police chiefs surveyed, only 1% of the chiefs listed greater use of the death penalty as the best way to deter violence. The poll also showed that some of the police chiefs ranked the death penalty as the least efficient use of taxpayers’ money towards programs to fight crime.  Most of the police chiefs did not believe the death penalty acts as a deterrent to murder.

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29. March 2010 by student.

               Ask anyone, odds are most people have no idea what happens to their electronic waste one they throw it away. Especially in the United States most of us have no idea what happens to it or where it goes. Broken and out-dated computers, cell phones, iPods, and other electronics are being tossed away every day. The question is where does it go? In the United States there are not many recycling options for electronic waste. It is pretty expensive to recycle a computer and other electronics because of all the harsh chemicals they are made with. So where does it go?

               Believe it or not, electronic waste is shipped out. Yes we pack it up in cargo ships and sending it to developing third world countries to “recycle” it for us. Unfortunately their methods of recycling e-waste consist of burning most pieces and attempting to recycle plastics. So these people who get less than 4$ a day on their work are burning chemicals such as mercury, lea, and many other harmful substances. They are rereleasing these toxins into the air and most of the time there is chemical runoff into their streams and main water sources. Studies show that countries where America sends their e-waste have approximately 40x more lead in their drinking water. Having these harsh chemicals in the water they drink, bath, and wash which is contributing negative externalities to the people. Children are being born blind and many of the villagers are getting chemical side effects that contribute to a lower death age. These people are living with excess e-waste in their homes.

               For such a powerful country, we do not respect developing countries as much as we should.  The US goes into these poor countries or cities with promises of more economic wealth and we leave them worse off than they were. Countries in the Southern tip of China where we are known to send e-waste used to strive in the fishing industry and that is how most of the families used to make income and provide food for their families. By giving these villagers the big responsibility of “recycling” our e-waste they have neither the materials nor knowledge to recycle these items properly and have in end ruined their fishing businesses due to chemical runoff. Now their fish are dying in the streams and water supply and they now not only have more pollution, but their fishing industry has been ruined. Now their only option is to keep taking in our e-waste and recycling it as best they can manage just so that they can receive enough money to feed their families.

               This is not just an issue affecting the Southern tip of China, the US and other developed countries are shipping their electronic waste to these poverty written countries and cities so that we can take the responsibility off and out of our country. There are electronic waste recycling centers in the US where they properly disposed and recycle the materials without releasing negative externalities into the air or water. The only problem is if we willing to pay extra money for our electronic waste to be disposed and recycled properly?

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29. March 2010 by student.

Children that drop out of schools not only hurt themselves, but the rest of America as well. According to Essential tools: Increasing rates of school completion every nine seconds an American child is dropping out of school; that means every minute 540 kids drop out. The causes for dropping out are numerous and range from uninterested in classes to becoming a parent. In an interview of 500 students 47% percent said they were bored in class. Another 47% had to leave because they were either becoming a parent or they had to take care of other family members. Those children normally come from lower income families because they are at a 6 times higher risk of dropping out than children from higher income families.    

The under-educated students are costing Americans $260 billion dollars from low wages and taxes. According to the U.S. Census a high school dropout earns about $19,169 a year while a bachelors degree earns around $51, 554 a year. If the students would just have finished high school they could be earning almost 10,000 dollars more a year, and that would cut down the $260 billion which comes from welfare and food stamps as well as lost tax money.

The groups affected by this are everyone. In 2001, 28% of females and 36% of males dropped out. They ranged through groups like African Americans, Latinos, White, American Indian, and Asian.

Possible solutions for this problem presented by the 500 interviewed are tutoring programs, GED opportunities, and night classes. The lack of education is literally costing America billions of dollars. The improvement of schools and lower income communities will lead to the savings America.  

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