Most people are just hearing about the Trayvon Martin case. Everyone is getting involved, for example Will Smith and President Obama, just to name a few. Most of the truly dedicated to helping bring awareness to the case participate in the Hoodie March. Thousands have participated so far in the Hoodie March. Yet there are still some people that think Trayvon got what he deserved, (not true), or that it was all fake and it was just a Skittle commercial. I know what you're thinking but some people are just dumb enough to think that national news was just a ploy. Why would they think that it's just a made up story to sell Skittles. President Obama was stated that if he had a son that he would have looked like Trayvon Martin and that it could have potentially have been his son that was shot done for wearing a hoodie. Many people have criticized Obama for saying that but it's true. Will Smith also stated that we live in America were the girl who throw flour on Kim Kardashin was arrested on the spot and the man who killed Trayvon is still walking around free. I personally want to see George Zimmerman go to jail and stay there for a very very very long time.
There are also the people that are saying it was the hoodie itself that caused Trayvon's death. Clothing has nothing to do with it. Hoodies don't cause murder like mini skirts don't cause rape. People that are on the side of George Zimmerman are trying to make up as many excuses that are possible to get him to look innocent.
Like it or not every person is effected by Trayvon Martin. Whether they knew him personally, if they think that he was the one in the wrong, if they are one of the many that went out on marches and protests to rise awareness, every person knows about this case. There are also some people that are saying that, that could be the next Trayvon. Because of the stereotype no one is truly safe from the people like George Zimmerman.
Trayvon Martin. Most have heard of that name before. But in case you’re like me who doesn't really listen to the news that much, Trayvon Martin was a 17 year old teenager that was walking back to the condo he was staying at, coming from the store after buying an ice tea and a bag of Skittles for his younger brother. That’s when George Zimmerman shot and killed Trayvon for being “suspicious”, and walking in the rain looking around, apparently that accounts for something being suspicious. Zimmerman later stated when police arrived on the scene that he shot Trayvon out of self defense. Why did Zimmerman need to use self defense? He is a 28 year old 250 pound grown adult with a gun going against a 17 year old 140 pound unarmed kid. Zimmerman could have easily won that fight if he really had to.
Trayvon did not have a criminal record but Zimmerman was charged with resitting arrest with assault and battery in 2005 but the charges were later dropped. The neighbors went on to say that Zimmerman is fixated on crime and tends to target young black males. And has called the cops on suspicious behavior 46 times since January 1, 2011. One neighbor told the public that one of the police officers "corrected" her when she said that she heard the young teen shout for help, by saying that it was in fact Zimmerman was the one who was screaming for help right before he shot Trayvon. Which is completely not what the witness heard. This is the same officer that initially failed to arrest a lieutenant's son who was videotaped attacking a homeless black man.
Before the 911 audio tape came out Zimmerman’s father went on the record saying that he never confronted the victim. But that was later proved wrong when the tape came out and Zimmerman was documented saying that he was following Martin and that he did get out of his car and continue to follow him even after he was told not too by the 911 operator. In the 911 recordings you can hear Trayvon yelling for help as Zimmerman chased him. If you’re in the neighborhood watch and someone is running away from you yelling help, usually they are not the ones that are causing the problems. If Trayvon had a weapon I’m 100% he would have pulled it out and used it on Zimmerman because I’m sure that Trayvon felt that his life had been threatened, why else would he had been yelling for help.
As of right now Zimmerman has not been charged with a crime, police say that there is not enough evidence to charge Zimmerman with the murder of Trayvon Martin.
The “R-word”, most have used it and openly admit that they use it, while others know that it’s wrong but they still use it and hide the fact that they do in fact use it. I will not be one of those people living in denial. I admit that I have been known to say the “R word” and I know that it’s wrong but I never really grasped the concept that they understand what it means and that it hurts their feelings when they hear people saying derogatory things that were once used to define them, but are now being used to insult others. It has always been a bad habit of mine to use that word and not think of who I’m affecting around me.
I have always had the mindset that mentally disabled people don’t get what’s going on and get in the way a lot. Like they are good at just certain things and nothing else. Was I wrong or what! This past weekend I was working on my service hours for school and there also volunteering was a person who has adopted 3 mentally disabled kids. At first I didn’t notice (because I tend to be slow at those types of things,) but when I did at first I was freaking out. Why do they have knives? Are you sure that they can handle that? And so on. And the answer to all those questions is yes. They can do whatever we can do, and in some cases they can do it better. Those hours spent there were some of the best ones I have spent in a long time. They were so care free and happy and always laughing. Not “stupid”, “slow”, or anything in between that we tend to associate them with.
And with volunteering there with them I had to make sure that I wouldn’t slip up and accidentally say something derogatory. There’s also the issue of having the habit of throwing it around in public because for most it is a horrible habit. You never know who is out there. Maybe someone is mentally disabled or someone is related or close friends with a mentally disabled person. The offense slur hurts more than just the people you’re directing the “joke” to; it can hurt a lot of other people.
After spending those hours with them I can now truly see what mentally disabled people are actually like. They are not stupid or slow and they do deserve to be out in public just like everyone else. I am now truly starting to see what the “R Word” actually does to people and I want to do my best to help end it.
Swearing, a controversial topic. Most people would say that it’s their 1st Amendment right, freedom of speech. Yet our teacher won’t let us swear on the internet.
Swearing is either looked at from the view point of, only uneducated and dimwitted people swear to the view point of, everyone does it, its part of our everyday language. And I can see why our teacher won’t let us swear on the internet that he is personally connected to. It’s a “learning” tool that we get to use because of our computer use and we are a Catholic School.
To me swearing is something that only seems right in certain situations. If its use is completely unnecessary in the conversation then I could see why its use would be looked down upon. But if something dramatic happens and the result is complete catastrophe then I could see the use of swearing in moderation, at least.
I guess that my teachers request for us to not swear on the internet sites that he is connected to seems only fair. Since he is connected to it might seem like this class is a joke and it’s a free for all. Which is not the case what so ever. I’m sure that this is not so much to ask in terms of just not swearing around him and just on your own separate accounts.
This year the month of January has been declared by President Barack Obama as “anti-trafficking month.” This is the reaction of the fact that there are about 14,500 to 17,500 people being trafficked only in the U.S. annually, that’s not taking into account all the others that are enslaved around the world. Unfortunately slavery didn’t end with the Emancipation Proclamation, the slave holders and recruiters got sneaky and started to go underground with the trafficking. Of the three major international crimes committed, illegal drugs, arms trafficking, and human trafficking, human trafficking alone generates about $15.5 billion and that contributes to the $32 billion that all three generate annually.
When post people think of slaves they think are people that slaveholders have captured from Africa and that are forced to work in plantations or be servants to the owner and or his family. But the uniformed definition of slavery or human trafficking is forced labor, bonded labor. CNN determines if it slavery if one person has complete control and ownership of another person or people.
While most children and adults here in America love to eat chocolate, most don’t wonder where it comes from or who even makes it, all they care about is if it tastes good and how much we can get our hands one. But most 2nd and 3rd world countries are forcing children to pick cocoa beans and make them into chocolate. They continue doing this even though it is stated and “enforced” that there is no child labor that goes into the process of making chocolate but you should still check the label to make sure it has the fair trade label. Most of those child slaves never eaten a bar of chocolate, some don’t even know what the word means.
Chattel Slavery is when the slaves are treated as personal property. This was slavery in the first most basic form. But when they go across borders into different states or countries then it transforms into human trafficking, especially if they are expected to do sexual services for money for the owners.
I think that the most important facts are that Slaves work in fields, brothels, homes, mines, restaurants—anywhere slave owners can feed their greed, they aren’t just forced to work on plantations like they were before. 27 million slaves are in the world today, which you would figure would be less considering that slavery is supposedly ended in the word. The majority of slaves can be found in India and in African countries, this is to be expected since they are considered to be more 2nd and 3rd world countries where people aren’t given the basic rights like education and basic human rights.
- GoGreener
- End unnecessary wars
- Make greater steps on helping and preventing homelessness
- Fight to end childhood hunger
- Work on ending the recession and growing the economy
- Try to elect mature Representatives that can run our country efficiently
- Fight racial discrimination
- Decrease the unemployment rate
- More communication instead of more violence
- Find a cure for cancer and all the worlds incurable diseases
Tuesday November 8th, 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.
President Obama was stated that if he had a son that he would have looked like Trayvon Martin and that it could have potentially have been his son that was shot done for wearing a hoodie. Many people have criticized Obama for saying that but it's true. Will Smith also stated that we live in America were the girl who throw flour on Kim Kardashin was arrested on the spot and the man who killed Trayvon is still walking around free. I personally want to see George Zimmerman go to jail and stay there for a very very very long time. 
There are also the people that are saying it was the hoodie itself that caused Trayvon's death. Clothing has nothing to do with it. Hoodies don't cause murder like mini skirts don't cause rape. People that are on the side of George Zimmerman are trying to make up as many excuses that are possible to get him to look innocent. 
