Invisible Children

                Tuesday November 8^th, 2011 was a day that deeply disturbed me. It was the second time in my high school career that the organization Invisible Children came to present their cause. 

                Invisible Children was founded by 3 guys that decided that they wanted to go to Africa on a film-making adventure. When they got there, they couldn’t believe what they saw. They saw thousands of kids going from their village into a city where they would all sleep in abandoned buildings, in order to protect themselves from a rebel army called the Lord’s Resistance Army, or the LRA. This was been the result of the LRA going in and kidnapping children from their village and forcing them to fight as child soldiers. According to the estimates of the Invisible children the LRA army is mainly child soldiers, about 90%. This is the result of dwindling amounts of people that support the LRA’s cause.  

                The LRA was first the Holy Spirit movement but was then changed to the Lord’s Resistance Army after the leader, Joseph Kony came to power. Because of their horrible acts on humanity the LRA was declared a terrorist group in 2001. Then in 2003 when the three young filmmakers made their way into Northern Uganda is where the Invisible Children first got rolling. During their stay in Africa the guys made a rough cut of what everyday life was like in Northern Uganda. They met every memorable people during their stay. When they got back to the states they edited the video and made it into a D.V.D. for people to buy and they hoped would get more people aware of the Africa’s longest war. 

                Joseph Kony first started out with a strong army and was trying to over throw the Ugandan president. When the presidents army was started to either capture them or threaten them until they went against Kony. As more people started to leave out of fear, he started to abduct innocent children. In this past year there was 146 civilians killed with 523 abductions. This adds to the total count of 963 deaths and 1,810 abductions. The child soldiers aren’t Kony’s only victims. After the LRA goes into a village they abduct the children and kill most of their families. They are forced as young children, as young as 9, if not younger to fight as child soldiers. If they didn’t want to fight, tough, they were either killed or they were eventually broken into doing the unmentionable acts. Kony figured that if you get them while their young you can eventually get them to do whatever he says and that they would be purely loyal only to him.

                After a while the D.V.D. gained popularity and more and more people got wind of what was happening in the war. I personally first heard of Invisible Children through a music video of a band that I, at that time currently loved, but I was younger and it didn’t really faze me what it was about until some representatives from Invisible Children came to my school.

                They gained so much popularity that they eventually got President Obama to send over 100 advisory troops to capture Joseph Kony. He is currently the most wanted war criminal wanted by the International Criminal Court.

                This cause is a very important to me. The first time they came I cried my eyes out when they had a person that has lived through it and that has lost family and friends to the hands of Joseph Kony and the LRA. We need to come together and put a stop to all of Joseph Kony’s destruction. 

Citations:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FAgbZdrWiN4&ob=av3e

http://www.invisiblechildren.com/

http://kabiza.com/WhoIsJosephKony.htm

A Bully Church?!?!?

                The Westboro Baptist Church is a church, which in my opinion the next Jim Jones incident. They are people that run on the hurt that they cause people. They go around and protest at gay and military funerals. They say that the soldiers are turkey’s not heroes. “They are lazy, incompetent idiots looking for jobs because they’re not qualified for honest work.”  That is a bunch of garbage. They go through a whole lot of training to become a soldier, besides they are the ones that go out to a foreign country to protect us as Americans, from countries that want to attack or control us.  They try to pass off their extreme ideas on that their trying to save the world. “It’s the world’s last hope.”  Most people strongly dislike the ways of the Westboro Church. On the website it states that their members lose 0 nanoseconds of sleep over the opinions and feelings of others. I have no idea on how they are able in good conscience to do that. I would never do that. I have too many moral standards to do those things that those “people” do. What those people do is very immoral.

                They blame the Christians for God’s hatred towards everyone. They blame other religions like Christianity and Islam for example for the scorn of God.  They say that us Christians told lies that God loves all of us and the Jesus died for all of us. They preach that God loves no one. He hates “fags”   and military people.  If God loves no one then he doesn't love them. Also God said that we’re all made in his image. Then those people are in his image. Wait! They don’t believe in everything that the Bible says. Really. God gave us the Bible so we can know how to live and what to follow by.

                By protesting at funerals and putting people down they are basically taking away their human dignity. They believe that they are doing charity to the people that they protest against.

                For one I believe it’s wrong to protest against the soldier’s funeral or the fact that they put people down.  They are part of the reason why so many young people are choosing to end their own life. Because a church is bullying them, aren’t they supposed to be helpful and support full? 

Citations:

http://www.godhatesfags.com/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6UMP3AK5jwo

Cyber Bullying

                Bullying is a major problem in today’s society. Teens feel much more open and free to do it, since the creation of the internet. Cyber bullying allows the bully to bully, in some cases without ever seeing the person. With the invention of social media like, Face Book and MySpace, it’s giving the bullying a whole new platform to work with. Instead of being face to face with only so many people to hear, it’s now out on the whole internet where everyone, can see it. There was a bullying case a while back that had a mother bully a student and that student thought it was a girl from school. With the internet, no one has to be exactly who they are. They can be whatever age, gender, or race that they want to be. No one at the time would know who exactly that person is. Cyber bullying can contain many forms. In one article it lists the forms that it can take, how to survive it, and one survivor’s story. (Link is below)

                In generations past when kids were bullied, they were just tormented at school, when they got home it was like their safe haven. Now since the creation of the internet, social media, cell phones, etc. the bullying doesn’t stop just because their home. It’s now a 24-7 problem that is costing lives by the minute. Face Book was meant to bring people together, not tear them apart. Right now there is so much cyber bullying going on that Face Book is just fueling the fire to this seemingly never ending problem. Cyber bullying can contain many forms. In one article it lists the forms that it can take, how to survive it, and one survivor’s story. (Link is below) Does anyone even know why kids bully each other, how about why they cyber bully.  This website (link is below) addresses what some of the reasons are, how you should deal with it, and how to gain awareness on this issue.

Links:

http://kidshealth.org/teen/school_jobs/bullying/cyberbullying.html     

http://www.stopcyberbullying.org/why_do_kids_cyberbully_each_other.html

Bullying

Delaney Escher age 16

Jim Harold Jr. age 12

Elise Groth age 12

These are the years that these three students were bullied or when the bullying actually started.

Hateful texts, voicemails end after visit to school psychologist

            "He said, 'If you're going to therapy, and you've never been in therapy before and this situation is putting you in therapy, then there's something wrong,'" said Delaney. Only then did Delaney Escher get enough confidence to stand up and start reporting the bulling even though it didn’t stop right away at first. She admits that even though it’s been two years she still get “death glares” from some of the same students.

It wasn't fear that kept bullied teen from talking

                         “Their new school counselor suggested that they take their son to get a few mental health tests. It was a suggestion that they'd never been given by their son's doctor or his old school district. "And within less than five minutes of the conversation, when (the mental health professional) sat there with me and Jimmy, he said, 'Do you realize your son has Asperger's?'" said Jim Harold Sr., 49. "We were like 'What?'" Since Jim Harold Jr. was diagnosed the bullying has stopped and has found a new social circle. Jim accounts that his younger years and bully years are a blur and fuzzy when it comes to the bullying acts.

Bullying leaves tormented students, helpless parents

                        "I kept on telling her, 'Don't let me ride the bus. I don't want to get on the bus. Please, don't make me get on the bus,'" This is 12 year old Elise Groth’s account on what her “normal” day at school was like. 

            Jamey Rodemeyer, you might not know the name, but he too was a victim of bullying. He went to a high school in Buffalo New York. His body was found on September 18, 2011 after he committed suicide. Jamey’s been bullied since the fifth grade. He was tormented on his sexuality. A couple of days before the suicide he hinted that he was going to see a recently deceased family member. If that wasn’t a cry for help, what is? This unnecessary death could have been prevented. One of Jamey’s idols was Lady Gaga. His finally tweet was to Lady Gaga thanking her for everything she has done for him. She in turn is fighting for the law that makes bullying illegal. Even in his death the bullies are still saying that he’s better off dead, which is so not true. Police are looking into criminal charges for those bullies.

            Jamey makes You Tube videos about everything. One of them was entitled It Gets Better, I Promise. And it does get better. The band Rise Against has a song called Make It Stop (September’s Children) is about all the kids that are bullied and have taken their own life

***Warning depicts thoughts of suicide***

            People have a lot to say about bullying and suicide. I personally think that bullies are just too insecure to deal with their own issues so they take it out on other people. Hannah A. says “There should be a law against bullying.” Ryan M. states “Bullying is bad and mean.” Linzey Z. says “Bullying is bad, because everyone gets hurt, and we should all care for each other, not hurt one another.” Mr. Miller, the dean at BK says that “Bullying is mean, don’t do it.”  

 

 It's something that doesn't have  to be, yet its still around. 

           

Citations: 

http://www.democratandchronicle.com/article/20110925/NEWS01/109250359/Hateful-texts-voicemails-end-after-visit-school-psychologist

http://www.democratandchronicle.com/article/20110925/NEWS01/109250357/It-wasn-t-fear-kept-bullied-teen-from-talking

http://www.democratandchronicle.com/article/20110925/NEWS01/109250354/Bullying-leaves-tormented-students-helpless-parents?odyssey=tab|topnews|text|Home

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XP4clbHc4Xg

Research on aborted fetal tissue must be banned.

I strongly disagree on this topic. There is in my opinion no reason why it can't be done. It's not like it's promoting  abortion. The women aren't getting paid for it. There is still a lot of information out in the world that we don't know about in terms of fetus' and what not. No matter what the circumstance that got that fetus aborted, it's still aborted. People can't decide what they can and can not do since they decided for whatever reason that they can't have that baby. There is so much research opportunity with aborted fetal tissue, that might give them answers about pregnancy that we haven't learned before. The fetus after it was aborted had no life to live, this way at least it is contributing to science and potentially helping future generations. It is in no way doing anything wrong, so why should it be banned.    

People dumb enough to leaved their lockers open can't complain about thefts

It's common sense really, if you don't want your stuff stolen put a lock on it. I believe that coveting is born into us  to some degree when we are born. Yes not everyone goes out and steals,but lets be honest, who hasn't gone I really want that and I can't have it. In a perfect world we could trust everyone and no one would have to worry about their stuff disappearing. But this is not a perfect world, and people steal. But it is also that owners responsibility to make sure that the locker is locked up tight. That is what the invention of the lock was for. It's designed to keep personal possessions safe from the hands of thieves. The school supplies the lock, that right there says that there is a possibility that theft could happen. If that person would have just put the lock on the locker then their belongings would still be there when they got back. The lock that the school supplies is meant to prevent, but it can't do that if its not on the correct way,or not on at all. In a way the school  shouldn't have to hear it because of the persons lack of responsibility that landed them in that situation in the first place,but the school should also try to get that students belongings back. All in all students that leave their lockers open can't complain about theft.