The Death Penalty

Recently, I have read an article relating to the death penalty. The article is titled "Why the Church Speaks a Countercultural Message". The article relates to all the reason to why the death penalty is not the best choice as punishment for certain crimes. There are many facts that are given throughout the article about how many of the states that do have capital punishment are not actually reducing crime rates with it.

Approximately 70% of the public in America is for the death penalty, this is a definite increase from 1960 where less than half the population was for the death penalty. Certain factors may include the fear of violent crimes and this has been a solution for a long time, there are many more factors than just these two.

There were four points that the Catholic Bishops made about the death penalty and how it can be change. The first point is that we can break the cycle of violence and there can be a more humane and effective response to the growth to violent crimes. The second point is that the belief of catholics has the unique worth and dignity of each person from the moment of birth. The third point is that God indeed is the Lord of Life and that means that human life in every stage is sacred. The fourth point is that abolishing the death penalty is most consonant with the example of Jesus. The last point pretty much summarizes all the other points because all the other points are exactly what Jesus stood for.

The "R" Word

The word retard has been used to describe people and things but has anyone really thought the impact of this word and how others feel about it? The word retard is offensive and should not be used in a playful manner like many people use it. The word does not just hurt a person with a disability but also to those who know them and love them.

The website "www.r-word.org" has many stories about why the r-word should not be used. One of the stories on the website was written by the mother of a child with autism. She talked about how it doesn't matter if your child is normal or intellectually disabled, you still love them the same. She said that the r-word is offensive not just to the child, but also to the parent because it is saying that your child is not a full human being. She had this to say about respect "Although our loved ones may be disabled, it doesn't stop them from having feelings. They deserve to be respected.

I personally feel like the word should not be used by anyone because of what it is capable of making people feel. I also feel like it should not be used in a catholic high school because any catholic institution should be free of hate, discrimination, or slurs.

A Noble Cause

A recent organization that has been put in the spotlight is Invisible Children. Invisible Children has been in the spotlight since their Kony 2012 video hit the internet last year. Many celebrities such as Ryan Gosling and Rihanna support Invisible Children and their noble cause. Invisible Children was founded in 2004 by Bobby Bailey, Laren Poole, and Jason Russell to bring awareness to child soldiers in Uganda. The organization also brings focus to the Lord’s Resistance Army, which is commonly known as the LRA, and their leader Joseph Kony. Invisible Children is working on bring the end to child soldiers and the LRA and others like them who use children as soldiers.

The organization was founded in 2004 by three college students, who traveled to Africa in 2003 and filmed their journey. The three of them learned about the LRA and Joseph Kony while in Northern Uganda. While in Northern Uganda they learned about children who would commute during the night to avoid being caught by the LRA and becoming a child soldier. Bobby, Laren, and Jason all felt like no one else knew about any of the atrocities happening in Africa except the people who live there and they wanted to spread the message. They started to release their films to the world and helped spread the word about the heinous crimes in Uganda.


Joesph Kony's army is constantly moving to different civilizations, Uganda being the main one. But now Joesph is moving to the Democratic Republic of Congo, Southern Sudan and central Africa. The invisible children organization is trying to become world-wide. However, millions of people saw the video and some even made an effort to help cure this problem.


The boys who founded the organization were deeply troubled by what they saw and heard from the young children in Uganda. They promised them they would take action and provide a better environment for them. As soon as they returned home they began to spread the word and rally people to help their cause. Today, Invisible Children has a lot of followers who support and make donations to the charitable organization. The group even makes videos and does presentations at schools in order to raise more money. Invisible Children is such a good cause and hopefully one day soon they will get Joseph Kony and his followers so that many African children can live happy and safe lives
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The Importance of the First Commandment

In today's world all of us probably know more about pop culture than we know about our own religion. Most of us have either forgotten or never realized what the First Commandment meant and what it even is. The First Commandment pretty much says to keep God number before anything else. In Today's world most of us have other people ahead of God such as celebrities, athletes, and musicians. We can admire these people but we should really keep God on the top of this list.

  When we do things like this, it is a sin, because they first commandment clearly states "And God spoke all these words, saying, I am the Lord thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. Thou shalt have no other gods before me. We as must live by the First Commandment in order to honor God and His good deeds. God gave us this commandment as a way to love and honor him and we should follow this commandment as a way of showing our love. We need to have theological virtues.

        

 The First Commandment should be important to teenagers because it's what will set us apart from everyone else. There is a strong tradition in Christianity of reading this commandment.  We have the responsibility not only as believers in God, responsibilities not only as believers in God but also as Christians to live by this commandment.

Before Jesus came and saved us all, people used to worship all kinds of phony  gods. Which is one of the reasons Jesus stepped in. The Canaanite goddess of love and fertility, Asherah, was one false god worshiped by the people in the past. After Jesus came around is when people started to be told the truth. I feel we need someone to step in and give us a reality check and tells us the truth.

 

What we need to learn is that there in no one will do what God has done for us, and is continuing to do each day. God has a plan for each of us and this plan included loving him and spreading His word. No other person can do what he can do and the more we learn to accept the better off we will be in life and the afterlife. As God's children we must spread the good news. We must respect what our society was built on. We have to put all our faith in God and not believe in Superstition like Magic.

Injustice in America

African-Americans have almost been at center of racism and threats since the birth of America. African-Americans have persecuted even when they are unarmed and show no threat. For example, Emmett Till a fourteen year old boy was brutally murdered and was thrown into a river for just whistling at a white woman. Emmett Till's mother held an open casket to show the horrors of racism.

A more famous case of racism is the case of Trayvon Martin. Trayvon was a seventeen year-old that was shot because he was wearing a hoodie and looked suspicious. A man named George Zimmerman called the police to report Trayvon looking suspicious and disobeyed the police and followed Trayvon and later shot him in cold blood. Zimmerman said it was self-defense and in Florida you are allowed to shot if you feel like you are in danger so was this a justified murder or just a modern day lynching.

I believe that racism played a major role in these two cases and the case of Jordan Davis. I found it racist because the people who did the killings were of the other race is feels like race was a big deal. Also many people believe that they had to do what was right because they did not like different races and they could be friends with one another or help them out. If everyone had come together as a community in these cases we would have to deal with racism and we could move on and get along peacefully. In the law it states that it is a hate crime if someone purposely attempts to hurt or injure someone if they don’t like them. I believe that this was a racist crime that took place for both victims and it was also a hate crime. 

The outcome of the Trayvon Martin case is still ongoing but the court still believes that it is the shooters fault because he was told by the police not to follow Trayvon. The shooter is being tried for murder because there was self defense but people think he may have gone too far. In tills case they have found the suspect not guilty and the court room was shocked but they said there wasn’t enough proof to prove the body. Also till’s case was like the Jim Crow segregation like other having stated but the suspect could not be tried again after being found not guilty. I believe that the shooter should be found guilty of shooting a man for fooling around.

What you need to know about sin

"This happens at the beginning of salvation history when Adam and Eve disobey God's direct command not to eat the fruit from the tree of knowledge"

This quote tells us that sin has been around since the beginning of time and the first human beings even sinned against God. This quote also tells us that we sin to help ourselves and to get what we want for ourselves in Adam and Eve's case they wanted knowledge and they got it by disobeying God.

"I am the Light of the World"

This quote simply means that we should follow Christ because he is the good of the world and will show the evils that there are. It also means he will always be right and he will lead us away from the darkness of sin.

"From out the heart come evil thoughts murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, and blasphemy"

This quote means that all the evil comes from ourselves and will cause us to commit many other sins. This also means that we should keep our hearts clean with our faith if we do not want to have sinful lives.

"Sin is an offense against God as well as a fault against reason, truth, and right conscience"

This quote tells us how sin is an offence to God and to ourselves. It tells us how sin can harm our reason and blur our conscience. When our conscience is blurred by sin then we are not able to choose the right way.

"The sum of those conditions of social life which allow social groups and their individual members ready to access their own fulfillment"

This quote tells how our social lives give us and easy access to what ever we want. In today's world we can be fulfilled anytime we want and not much is said because others are committing sin just for their pleasure.

Political Party Platforms

Democratic Platform

• Putting Americans Back to Work
• Protecting rights and freedoms

I agree with the Democratic Platform because America needs to have more jobs open for our citizens who are in need of a job to support their family. I also agree about protecting our rights because our nation was made because we wanted freedom and we should not loose our freedom or our rights. 

Republican Platform

• Job Creation: Getting Americans back to Work
• Small Business and Entrepreneurship 
• More American Jobs, Higher Wages and A Better Standard of Living

I agree with the Republican Platform because America needs to get back on it's feet and get rid of the economic crisis. We also need to support small business to get the economy on the right track and make sure that there is much less large corporations taking control of smaller businesses. We also need to get to the point were all jobs can increase the wages to the employees and that we can have better living conditions.