Death Penalty for Social Justice

The article, "The Death Penalty- Why the Church Speaks a Countercultural Message", is about changing our attitudes towards the death penalty in accordance with the Church's ideals and beliefs. It poses several strong arguments in support of ending the death penalty and is laid out in a very logical manner.

To me, the diction of the article gave off an undertone of superiority to the reader. By saying that the reader should be open to, and implying that they should, develop a new attitude for the issue if they support the death penalty; the possibility of my support was dramatically reduced. I understand the logic used to justify both sides of the issue, but in my own personal opinion I see no concrete evidence to support the abolition of the death penalty.

One of the largest arguments against the death penalty is the possibility of putting an innocent person to death. If the accused is sentenced with the death penalty they are more often than not put on death row for an extended period of time. During that time the convicted can appeal their case many different times. It speaks volumes to me if they are unable to convince a single jury to change their sentence. There is the chance that they have an absolutely terrible legal team, but a vast majority of capital crimes have murder at their center. Unless the criminal was able to swab every molecule of DNA that they could leave behind, there will be something linking them to their crime. In cases involving DNA identification of the criminal the appeals process becomes entirely useless.

Some Capital Crimes include: wrecking a train with the result of deaths, first degree murder, deaths resulting from aircraft hijacking, murder for hire, and murder during the rape or molestation of a child. I can only speak for myself, but people who murder children after raping them don't really have any chance of rehabilitation in my eyes. Why should they allowed to live their lives in a prison, even under total seclusion from humanity, where they are cared for better than some of the poor people in our country?

Invisible Children

Who:

·         The invisible children are children in Africa who have been abducted by Joseph Kony’s army. They are abducted during the night from villages without a large population, making it harder to defend themselves and their children from the abductors. These children are desensitized to violence and taught how to kill and sneak into schools to take other children for the child army.

What:

·         The child soldiers that are abducted from Ugandan villages are taught to fight and kill. They are also taught to sneak into schools and villages and take more children into the army. With children constantly moving about as they travel to and from the nearby towns and cities at night for protection no one notices an extra child or two entering the village that day. All these children know is how to hold a gun and kill.

When:

·         This has been going on for the past 17 years of the Uganda rebellion. The rebel group, led by Joseph Kony, has been abducting children to use in their army as soldiers. The children comprise a vast majority of the rebel force and are very dangerous soldiers because they have to kill in order to not get beaten by their adult captors and they were raised to fight from the young age at which they were abducted.

Where:

·         All of the abductions, as well as the fighting, have taken place in Uganda, Africa. At the beginning of the rebellion Kony’s cousin claimed to be possessed by a spirit that was telling her to overthrow the government; upon her death Kony took over and began the child abductions. Kony and his rebel army live out in the desert or the dense rain-forest  nearly inaccessible places. They train the children in the desert, where it is nearly impossible to escape because of the lack of water and places to hide from the soldiers.

Why:

·         The rebels believe that a war is the only way to bring about a change in the Ugandan governmental system. They use the children because they are easy to control with a few adults. Children also have modifiable minds, they can be taught that killing is what they are supposed to do and that’s it. Children require fewer resources than adults in terms of food, water, shelter, and clothing. 

The First Commandment in 2013

Teenagers, and most adults as well, give a lot of things in their lives more priority or importance than is really necessary. With all the technology and gadgets we have access to it becomes very easy to forget about things like God. Sure most of say were not idolizing our “stuff” but how many people are actually telling the truth when they say that they don’t put their belongings first, or near first, in their life. In the modern world idolatry is just as prevalent as it was in ancient times; we just go about in more subtle ways now. Instead of worshipping huge numbers of gods and goddesses we worship things like wealth and material goods.

The First Commandment states that you shall not commit idolatry; you shall only worship the one true God. Today teenagers especially idolize things before God. We no longer worship a pantheon of gods and goddesses like people did in ancient days; we put things like our iPods, computers, and phones before a majority of things in our lives, including God. These things become so important to us that we ignore our relationship with God. God should be the foremost part of our lives; he should be one of our, if not our first priority. We also hold many famous celebrities in high regard, and there is nothing wrong with that. It becomes a problem when we hold celebrities, or any person, in such a high level of regard that we almost deify them and make them more important than God.

Now many of the denominations of Christianity say that Catholics are guilty of the same sin they accuse so many others of committing when it comes to the saints. Although devote Catholics venerate the saints and relics, that is show great respect and reverence for these people and items, they do not idolize them. For everyday objects though even veneration is going too far; not only does it bring you closer to idolizing the object, but something like your phone or iPod doesn’t deserve that much respect and reverence. If your honest with yourself, it’s really not that important to have massive amounts of wealth or material goods; it’s certainly nice, but should never be desired to the point that it blocks out what’s really important in your life.

One way you could work on changing is by going to church. Instead of just going to church and suffering through it, try and actually listen to the message being given to you. Now you don’t need to put much effort into this either, you go to church for an hour a week and listen and then you’re done. For the rest of the week all you have to do is try and give God a moment or two out of your day to thank him for what you have or to just pray. Eventually the theological virtues of faith, hope, and love will allow you to gain a deeper understanding of God and grow closer to him.

The final thing that disobeying the First Commandment by creating idols to worship or place before God could lead to is belief in magic and other superstitions. The church describes superstition as giving someone or something a power that belongs exclusively to God and relying on said power to help you rather putting your faith and trust in God. 

Jordan Davis Post

In 1955 a 14 year old black boy named Emmett Till was brutally abused and murdered by two white men for whistling at a white woman. Emmett grew up in Chicago but had gone done to Mississippi for the cotton harvest. One day at a local store, Emmett whistled at the owner's wife on his way out of the store. When her husband returned home he and his accomplice kidnapped Emmett in the middle of the night and killed him, dropping his body into a river weighted to a cotton gin fan. Although his death was tragic, when his murderers were tried in a court in their hometown, the jury's verdict was that they were innocent. This completely biased decision sparked the civil rights movement of the 1950's and early 1960's.

Trayvon Martin was a 17 year old African American boy. He was at a gas station buying a pop and skittles in a gated, well off neighborhood when a white man saw him. According to the man, Zimmerman, Trayvon look suspicious and high. He called 911 and the police on the line told him to stay where he was and let them handle it. Zimmerman decided to plan law enforcement instead and pursued Trayvon, eventually shooting him in the chest. Florida has a “stand your ground law” that allows gun owners to shoot first and ask later if they feel threatened. Although this law’s makers had the right intentions when they created it, the law needs to be seriously changed in order for it to be truly effective and prevent needless deaths like Trayvon’s.

One final example of senseless murder of black males just because they “Look or act intimidating” is Jordan Davis. Jordan and his friends were in their truck at a public gas station blaring their music. 45 year old Michael Dunn told them to turn their music down and they ignored him. Dunn said he felt “threatened” by the group of teens in their truck blaring their music, though I don’t see how loud music is a threat to anyone other than the teens hearing, so he decided using a gun would be the correct answer to the problem. He then proceeded to fire not 1, but 8 or 9 shots, into the truck, killing Jordan Davis in the process.

So I would like to know, what on earth is so terrible about what each of these young men did to deserve being murdered? If I walked into a gas station with my hoodie on, would some crazy person find it necessary to shoot me, or is it just because Trayvon was black that Zimmerman thought he was a threat? It truly disgusts me how people feel that they have the right to shoot someone, usually killing or severely injuring them beyond healing, just because they felt threatened by loud music or a kid in a hoodie.

Political Party Platforms

With the presidential elections right around the corner, it only makes sense to post about the platforms of the two main political parties running for office. Although I don't have a political preference party wise I do come from a family that is constantly bickering as half is conservative as half is liberal.


Democratic Platform:

Abortion is a big issue in today's world. Many people want abortion to be made illegal current president Barrack Obama believes abortion should be legal. The Democratic party thinks that a woman should have the right to chose whether or not she has an abortion without government interference. Support programs that help woman during and after pregnancy along with adoption agencies is another aspect of Obama's view. I do agree with this because the woman should have the right to chose for herself. I'm adopted and am very glad I wasn't aborted but if for some reason a woman doesn't know adoption exists and wishes to have an abortion it is still her own moral choice, not the government's.


Same-sex marriage is a vastly debated topic in the political world today last I heard. A same-sex couple has just as much right to get married as any other couple. Obama wishes to help these couples by working to ending discrimination against them by local, state, and the federal government. And why shouldn't they be allowed to get married to the person they love? I honestly don't see how the government can say that someone cannot marry another person of the same sex just because they believe it is wrong. The only result of same-sex marriage is same-sex marriage, the world s not going to end if same-sex couples are allowed to be legally married. I'm in total support and agreement of same-sex marriage.

Biological weapons are becoming increasingly more common in the modern era of scientific knowledge and discovery. The current administration is continuing its efforts to improve our first response to intentional and unintentional release of biological hazards into the public. Obama is also taking steps to reduce potential exploitation of biological weapons by expanding our capabilities to prevent, attribute, and apprehend the perpetrators of such attacks. I agree that we need to continue to increase our defense against such hazardous and easily deployed attacks.

Republican Platform:

The first topic from the Republican platform is protecting religious freedom around the world and at home. Since our very beginnings, America has been a beacon of hope for those being persecuted for their beliefs from all over the world. Religious intolerance and violent persecution are strongest in the Middle East right now. According to the Republican platform the current administration has pushed the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom to the side at a time when its voice most needs to be heard. Although i do agree that it is a fundamental and universal right of every human being to worship in whatever religion they chose to, I do not see the importance of bringing religion to the forefront of politics. 

My final topic will be the Republican support of Federal Healthcare Research and Development. The Republican support the federal investment into basic and applied biomedical research, especially the neuroscience research going on to try and find a cure to mental diseases like Autism, Alzheimer's, and Parkinson's. These terrible disease afflict so many and cause them and their loved ones so much distress. The  use of embryonic stem cells is inhumane but there are other ways to get stem cells and the Republican party realizes this and sees their potential. Gleaning stem cells from adult stem cells, umbilical cord blood, and cells reprogrammed into pluripotent cells are just some of the ways in which to continue stem cell research without killing embryos. I am in utter agreement with the Republicans here, and not only because i wish to pursue a career in the biomedical fields, but also because without funding and investment scientists can do very little to nothing to help all the people who are afflicted by terrible disease including the ones mentioned above as well as many types of cancers and life altering injuries like spinal cord deterioration which causes paralysis.

Bullying Post

22 year old Martha "Missy" Combs, a Ladue Horton Watkins High School graduate, recently posted about her experiences being bullied in her junior year of high school. At Ladue a tradition started by senior boys ten years ago. In 2007, when she was junior, she was put on this list and she was devastated. Combs didn't bother to go to school for the next day or two after the administration did nothing to stop "The List" from being made each year. Recently, she found out the list is still being made and decided to post about her experience with this list in order to get the school staff to realize that ignoring bullying isn't the answer.



William Lucas is another good example of how bullying causes tragedy. Lucas was a 15 year old boy from an Indiana high school and he killed himself September 9th, 2010. He was harassed and bullied every day by people for his presumed sexual orientation. The principal of the school was quoted saying hurtful things to Lucas as well. "If someone beat you up, I wouldn't know whether to give him an award or suspend him" -Rodney King, principal.

Lucas' parents have recently hired an attorney and are suing the school with a Wrongful Death Lawsuit because nothing was done to prevent the bullying that causes Lucas to kill himself.



On September 20th, 2011 Jamey Rodemeyer, a 14 year old openly bisexual kid from Buffalo, NY, committed suicide from gay bullying in his high school. Jamey had made several YouTube videos encouraging other people suffering from gay bullying to not let it ruin their lives. One of these videos is It Gets Better, I Promise! which he made in May 2011. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Pb1CaGMdWk

Jamey's parents are currently continuing to spread his message of stopping gay bullying, and bullying of any kind. Jamey was a big fan of Lady Gaga; he had a collage of pictures of himself at different concerts with her in the background. When Gaga found out about this tragedy she was horrified. She began a campaign to have all bullying made illegal and to have bullying set as a hate crime. On the weekend that he killed himself, Jamey posted the lyrics to a Lady Gaga song on his Facebook wall. "Don't forget me when I come crying to heaven's door."




Lakota G said: "Golden rule, nuff said."
Hannah S said: "Bullying should be watched, stopped, and prevented."
Sheila H said: "When people hurt over and over, think of them like sand paper. They may scratch and hurt you a bit, but in the end, you end up polished and they end up useless."