Abortion Post

After looking at both sites I can see a lot of differences so it is really hard to compare the two. NARAL uses science and health to convince women that it safe, but they lack a truly emotional side to the abortion debate, they do have some women that talk about how it was hard for them to obtain an abortion but there is a disconnect between the site and me. On the other hand The National Right To Life site was much to based on the emotional side of things, they made a few arguments for health reasons but they were not very convincing. They spent a lot of space on using tactics to appeal to the emotional side of women, on the side of the home page they have some statistics about when the babies heart starts beating and showing how few abortions are actually for health purposes. I know that more people in America support the pro-choice side, while most of them think that people are not fighting enough for it. I can see both sides of the argument, I don't believe that late term abortions should be legal but I see nothing wrong with abortions that happen in the early months of pregnancy. But the site that I visited didn't really move me to either side more than the other, they were very obviously biased and anyone who stepped back and really looked at what they were saying would have realized that these statements need to be taken with a grain of salt.
         In my opinion, parents should always be notified of an abortion being performed on an underage girl. Not for the reason of stopping it, but for the reason of safety. While the abortion techniques have been shown to be mostly safe, there is still a chance that something bad could happen to the girl and it is better to be safe than sorry. I believe that pretty much all parents only have good in their mind for their children. And besides you can't perform any other surgeries on minors without parental consent, so why is abortion any different, it shouldn't be an exception to the law in this case.
         On the other hand I do not think that the father of the unborn child should have to notified, while it is very true that they helped in the creation of the child, they are not always in the picture and they do not have rights to interfere. It is completely ridiculous to ask this of the women, especially in cases where it is rape, incest or the woman does not actually know who the father is. Pregnancy is something that is understood by women in a more personal way, men do not always understand what it would be like and therefore cannot make an informed decision on this topic.
        I happen to think that the laws in Illinois regarding abortion are pretty relevant and correct. I wouldn't want to change them, with the exception of the spousal consent law. The spousal consent law is not necessary  and can restrict a women who is being abused at home from proper care and options. But other than that I think that Illinois has the perfect amount of laws on abortion and make it perfectly accessible to those who need it the most.

Final Death Penalty Blog

        Let me start out by stating that Illinois's banning of the death penalty was completely just. Capital Punishment is morally wrong and has too much room for error to be legal. The only problem with this is that the death penalty is constitutional, under the Constitution we should be allowed to have the death penalty. Even though we know that capital punishment is morally wrong, we cannot use the Constitution to say that it should be banned. Governor Ryan was completely right to have changed his mind, he was never exposed to the truth behind the death penalty and once he was he realized how arbitrary it is, before this time he supported it because he thought that it was completely just and had no bias. After taking time to consider that seventeen innocent men had been exonerated from death row anyone would be able to realize that the death penalty is wrong and there is too much room for error to allow it. The State Senate was able to make an emotional connection with the exonerated inmates and realized the negative effect the death penalty had on their lives and everyone close to them. As in our Death Penalty packet from Michigan State University they cite arbitrariness and discrimination as arguments against capital punishment, I would have to agree after reading Governor Ryan's speech, when he talks about how only 2% of murder cases received the death penalty it really stuck out to me. That is completely unfair to these people on trial, by the Constitution they are guaranteed a fair trial, and this is not fair. What makes some people more worthy of the death penalty than others? Once we get into this sticky subject we realize that there is no right answer, we as humans have too much bias to be morally right one hundred percent of the time. Going off of something Governor Ryan said, it does seem like life without parole is a really horrible punishment. These inmates have to rot in jail thinking about what they have done for the rest of their lives, this is worse than the peace that comes with death. These people are of no danger to us when they are locked up in solitary confinement for their entire lives. This also allows time for people to try to prove their innocence, therefore we will not condemn any more innocent lives.

Death Penalty Blog

1. There are many stages in a trial for the inmate to try to prove that he/she is not guilty. The first is Direct appeal which allows the defendant the look for mistakes or errors made in the trial that would lead to a retrial. then there is a post conviction review that goes over the entire trial and looks for any mistakes that anyone missed. After that they move on to the Federal Habaes Corpus which allows the defendant to make a plea to a federal judge, if that does not work they will try the next step which is clemency where a higher power like the Supreme Court or the state government can intervene and give a less severe punishment.
2. All of the methods of execution seem really awful to me but if I had to say the firing squad, the electric chair, hanging and the gas chamber all seem pretty cruel and unusual. The lethal injection is much better and much more humane, if you could even say that, than the others which all cause a lot of pain. Hanging is a thing of the past in my mind. It is too much a symbol of dark times in our history and we should move on from it. The electric chair is obviously no longer used but it sounds like one of the worst ways to die, its painful and it mutilates the body. The firing squad is way too Soviet Russian-esque to me, it is also very painful and can be drawn out for a long while. Choking is proved to be one of the worst ways to die because the victims are fully cognisant of it and it is very emotionally hard.
3. The data was unsurprising to me, I knew that places in the south and California would have more people on death row. It is also expected for there to be less women on death row, the amount of blacks and whites seemed pretty close but the black was always higher and I think this is arbitrary I don't believe that people would rather convict an African American man over a white man.
4. Some of the things included in the former Illinois statute of capital punishment seemed a little out of place, but it was very specific and left very little wiggle room which is good for something like that. But I am glad that the death penalty is gone in Illinois, I think life without parole is a perfect punishment for a murderer.

Public Schools Rights to Drug Test Students

While I agree with the court that is is completely acceptable for the school to administer drug tests to students if there is a drug problem. But what District 92 classified as a drug problem just seems like normal teenage rebellion, it doesn't seem like the drugs are out of control at this school. If I would think that a problem would have to have causalities and probably harder drugs. There was no evidence that a majority of the students were consistently using illegal substances. It seems to me that the problem is isolated to a small, but vocal, contingent of students. I also am of the opinion that if schools require you to pass a drug test to get into extracurriculars that it will discourage people that are on the edge of giving up drugs because they are afraid that they will get caught and there will be dire consequences. After school activities should be able to foster a safe environment for people of all different backgrounds. If a student gets tired of the drug scene or maybe thinks that joining a certain club will give them something else to focus on instead of the peer pressure to start using drugs. This will create more of a divide at the school and be a deterrent for these students who want to find a safe haven from what they have been dealing with from their so called friend.

College tuition: Is it worth the extra costs?

As I am applying to colleges I can visibly see my parents getting worried about the costs and I completely understand why. When looking at private colleges AND public universitys, it costs a surprising amount of money to attend. Most universities advertise their tuition costs as how much you will pay but they do not add that there is also a 10,000 dollar room and board plan, a meal plan, and incredibly expensive books and supplies. I wouldn't exactly say that we are a struggling family  but there is only so much a year that any family can put towards my education. The FAFSA forms that help calculate the ability of one family to pay are extremely skewed, it may be that my family can pay 40,000 dollars for college a year but at what cost. Will my parents be able to take vacations, or what about be able to pay the mortgage? Will they even be able to put food on the table? These price hikes are coming at a time when it is most essential for young adults to get a college degree. People who decide not to get college degrees are paying for it because they are not qualified for raises and promotions, which means that they will never be earning more money then they are at that moment. So you see why it is important to get a degree but we also need to understand that it might just be impossible for some families to pay for their childrens tuition costs, which does not provide great opportunities for their futures.

Racism on College Campuses

I think that this behavior is completely out of line, it can be considered a hate crime. This crime can be punishable by law but it is obvious that these students do not understand the implications of what they were doing. These young adults have not grown up in a time when real racism was alive and well. They didn't live through the 1960's they don't know about the struggle. So not only should they be punished by the university but they should be forced to take a class that will help them fully understand the ramifications of their actions. They should be educated on the struggle of African Americans and why what they were doing was completely offensive. I researched Colorado Colleges speech codes because that is my number one choice at the moment. I was surprised to find that they actually restrict a lot of behavior. I understand why physical and emotional harassment can be banned but I don't really understand why they are restricting certain speech. CC also does not allow demonstrations on campus without prior approval by the college this policy is effectively taking away the right of free speech for the students. Considering the kind of college CC is they would definitely try to expell students who were involved in those kind of parties. CC prides themselves on being a very politically correct campus but by doing this they are restricting free speech for their students. A college needs to educate their students on racial tensions and not just restrict them, if students understand what they are doing is wrong it is more likely to stop them than being arrested would. In my mind I think that both FIRE and the colleges are right in their own ways, parties that make fun of racial stereotypes should not be allowed but at the same time punishing people for making a racist comment in class should not be allowed. It would be much better to educate that student rather than force any kind of punishment on to them. Students who decide to make offensive comments will likely be shunned by fellow students, so instead punishing them it would be much better for everyone if they were educated on the subject instead

Students First Amendment Rights