Death or Dishonored

Should the death penalty be banned in the United States or is it an appropriate form of justice? Capital punishment has being going on since we as people have formed a system between right and wrong. Its worldwide, not just limited to the United States, and comes in many different forms. Does having the death penalty in a state really change someones' state of mind to kill someone or not? What would be the case if an innocent man was executed on death row? Killing a person for killing someone else will not bring that person back, but is seen as a form of closer for the victims family. Is an eye for an eye the proper way to approach this matter, ecspecially in todays' time with everyone becoming more open and understanding. As Ghandi once said "an eye for and eye leaves the whole world blind.

I am truely on the fence on whether or not I see the death penalty as right or wrong. If someone does something wrong or illegal and are found guilty of the matter the should indeed be punished. To say its cruel to kill someone and hurt them who has hurt another person makes little since, because they should feel the pain that the person they killed felt. People are most afraid of death, so with a state having the death penalty in reality deters people from commiting capital crimes. People in our society gets what is coming to them, not always right away, but it will come back to haunt them. The cost factor could work for both sides, but it is clearly to pay to kill the person then provide for them in jail. Blacks and Hispanics are said to be over represented in capital punishment cases, they are claimed to be products of their enviorments, which maintains the idea that "poverty breeds crime".

Killing someone for killing someone is suppose to prevent someone from killing another, but what does that do for the people hurt the most? The victims family does not get their person back simply because the murder was killed. I personally would rather see the person rot in jail rather then get a free pass out of jail. Im sure most people sentenced to life in prison would rather die then years and years in prison. If the racial bias is true, then whites in the middle and upper class have a lot less to worry about then minorities of the lower class. During the case Furman V Georgia, the defense attorney stated that death row memebers were "'members of the human race as nonhumans, as objects to be toyed with and discarded", which is against the rights of citizens. The arguement could go both ways for me, each having it's own pros and cons. It is a form of justice that will be around, but I feel within the near future it will be seen as inhumane and abolished as a whole.

Hush, Hush

Some people like to have their noses in everyones' business, and other people keep to theirselves. For reasons I'm not sure, being called a "know-it-all" is a insult. In years back it was looked down upon to look around and snoop in other peoples business. Todays standard is different because everyone is so for our amendments, ecspecially the first one, the freedom of speech. The same people who were elected to make sure our rights were upheld began trying to censor tv, internet, music in an effort to cover up the things they don't want the masses seeing. Wikileaks became the gateway, relasing the things the goverment didnt want us to see. So the question is should we know everything, as Wikileaks believes, or do states have rights to keep secrets.

Wikileaks is considered a "whistleblower" website, a whistleblower being someone who knows about illegal activites or wrong doings of the government. The website's intention was to inform everyone on what actually happened with events in the middle east. In 2007, the website relased a video titled "Collateral Murder" which showed video of a US helicopter killing a group of people is Baghdad, killing civilians. The news was report, but the US claimed that all they fired upon were the insurgents, and they were not sure how the civilians died. When the news hit home, the governments War on Terror was up for question and it left people wondering what we were doing there. The troops seemed hungry for some trigger time, repeatedly asking permission to engage the target. They even shot and killed a man and badly injured his two sons who were trying to recover the dead bodies from the street. The people of the united states were upset that the goverment lied and attempted to cover up what had happened. From a local report to national news, people want to see the story how it happened, not interpreted or covered up to make it look like we are the good guys. I stand for that but what happens when the people do know it all.

The big issue to anyone going against wikileaks, is the issue of national security. Should the government cover up their wrong doings?No. Should the government try to hide the brutality of war from the people?No. Should they cover it up because the contents inside is a threat to national security? Well of course. Like I said, Wikileaks has good intensions, but when they post news on the internet and the wrong person gets his hands on it, you begin to understand why there is government cover ups and they go to such lengths to hid them. Im sure there has been a few events through out history that has been kept on the hush for fears that people may panic. They could get their hands on information of nuclear weapons that then another country gets and buids it themselves. Now an enemy of the United States would have weapons of mass destrcution that could kill millions because some pissed off computer geek believe "everyone deserves to know". Yes everyone should learn something new everyday but when millions of lives are at stake and the well-being of our earth as a whole is at risk, I believe some things are better left unsaid.

Sources:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/04/05/wikileaks-exposes-video-o_n_525569.html

wikileaks.org

www.nydailynews.com

Better safe then sorry.

I believe I was only in 1st or 2nd grade at the time, but I must say I do remember that day. The principal had called all the school into the basement cafeiteria, and turned on the TV only to hear about the chaos going on in New York. Not until a few years later I realized what had happened. The older I got, the more I looked into it, it only brought about more questions. I realized that our actions went from doing the right thing, into making the whole situation a shady ordeal. We arent to sure what happened but whatever was planned was a sucess.

To say that we over reacted, initally, is obsured. I couldn't imagine having a family on the plane, or being in New York that day and dealing with that mess. The country sprang into action, and did what was on all the peoples minds. "It may had failed to advance Bin Laden's goal of promoting radical islamic caliphate, but when we saw the iconic towers falling to the ground.....we became unhinged with fear." The quote is so true, which goes back to the article I sent you about low tourism in the post 9-11 US. People became afraid to fly, take trains, go to work, it put a stop to our country and economy. But that was Al-Quieda and Bin Laden's plan all along. They wanted to instill fear into the people and that is what they suceeded with.

Second Time Around?

Does President Obama deserve a second term? Which GOP candidate is his biggest challenger? Obama became the first African American to become president of the United States, which is quite a feet, because it was something I wasn't sure I'd ever see during my life time. He was know as the "voice of the younger generation". A very elegant speaker, he used he's calm and cool tone, appose from his money and TV ads to help him win the election. He was seen as a real person, not just another politician. Having that major appeal from the common person, it helped his causes during the '08 election. His biggest problem was coming into office at such a hard time in American history.

Obama has accomplished alot following Bush leaving the office. He managed to pass a nation-wide health care plan (aka Obamacare) for the United States. He has had a major roll in the education system for public schools. During the BP oil crisis, he reacted quickly and managed to gather people to repair the leak. He even charged the company for its damage it had done to the wild life and ocean. His plans to help steer the country away from its dependence on foreign oil and more towards the use of different forms of energy. His foreign affairs involve helping bring down Osama Bin-Laden and Kudaffi. He helped provide jobs by rebuilding road ways, streets and highways. In my eyes, his biggest accomplishment was helping the end the war in Iraq and help bring the troops home.

I personally believe Obama's accomplishments have out weighed his wrong doings, therefore he deserves a second term. It's easy to come into you presidency with the country on an upturn, but to come in during one of the worst economic moments in American history, its hard to make yourself look good. He's a good candidate because he's one of those "for the people, by the people" sort of president, not just one the believes they know the proper way to run it. Not everyone is ever going to agree on any topic, but I believe if you see his ideals and whats he wants to do, I believe its a positive thing for this country and he deserves a second term.

Dear Media: Pick a Side!

Does the media tend to lean more towards a liberal side or a more conservative side? Well that's hard to determine based on where you go to for your news. In my eyes its nearly impossible to receive solid news, because whether its the writer themselves or the person who owns it, they're going to show you or tell you whatever they decide. It's truly a struggle to find someone who is not bias at all. Since everyone has different views of what seems like the right thing to do, everyone will have a different say on certain matters. As we either hear, see or live through these events we call "news", we receive the news and often ask "is that right?" or "is this how it happened?". Now to me, its hard for me to determine exactly what you mean by mainstream news. Clearly not every person reads the Herald or watches channel 5 news. In a country filled with leaders whom either are liberals or conservatives, why is in so hard to find news from a third party?

When speaking on the liberals side of the news, a majority of people aren't sure as to how to determine whether the news the are getting is bias. Well that is only determined by the other party to accuse them of the biasness. Major news channel companies accused of being liberal by the conservatives are CBS, NBC, ABC, CNN & MSNBC. Now I'm sure we all at one point or another have watched these channels, but if you truly listen to all these major networks reporting on similar subjects, you begin to see the similarities in the news they post. Many conservatives believe the "big-boys" of big business pay the editors and reports, to post the news they seem fit. Now that doesn't seem fair, because that means the owners of the networks show us the news they want us to see. They twist and turn many stories that hit the hot-button issues, including subjects such as race, gun control, abortion and of course money spending.

On the Conservative side of things, or the republican side, the company has the most attention for being conservative is FOX News. Like the channels I named above, FOX news was under heat from the public after being called to one sided. A good example was during the Bush administration, as you could tell they had high support for the republican party (which Bush is), while companies like CNN and ABC often bashed the Bush administration. This is different today, as Obama being a democrat, FOX News often bashes him and his administration, while tending to receive positive reactions from the liberal news groups. The thing is, this is more then just one-sided television news, its over the radios, on the Internet and in papers. In my eyes the news today that I see the gist of tends to lean more towards the conservative side of things. Me tending to be more of a conservative I agree with about 55% of the things they say. Saying that, it really gets to me, because during the research for this blog, I noticed myself getting my information from these biased websites. I think its a shame how hard it is to find a news station with some actually middle ground.

Sources :
http://www.opednews.com/

http://rightbias.com/

http://en.wikipedia.org/

About Me....

Hello to everyone reading my newly formed blog, Modern Times Through Modern Eyes. Allow me to introduce myself, I am Stephen Meehan, as know as The Scuba. I go by the name scuba,because apparently I resemble the kid from the movie "Big Daddy" who's favorite action figure was Scuba Steve. If you ask me, I'm pretty sure I was a much cuter kid, but aside from that, I am very glad to be a part of this class and have the oppertunity to share my opinion and views with the class.







I grew up in the wonderful city of Boston, the best city in the world. All the culture, the people, the landscape, along with some of the best hospitals and schools in the world, I couldn't ask to live in a better place. Having been taking public transportation most of my life, its really a blessing to be able to have seen and walked most of the city. I'm very intrested in skateboarding, and to skateboard around the city crusing from street to street, with all the great architecture, its a gift compared to the people who live in the sticks (outside of the city). It may seem hard to believe, but I really enjoy reading, writing, and letting my mind race, because I dont believe dreaming is a bad thing, apposed to all the good things you can do with a dream.

I LOVE MUSIC, im not to sure what I'd do without it. It amazes me how one song can reflect so many people's lives yet have so many different interpretations. I love being outside, I cant stand to be cooped up inside, while the world is going on outside. Whether its skateboarding, snowboarding, swimming, walking my dog, whatever it is, if its outdoors its for me. Between working, school and my life in general, with all the stress I love to have the time to kick back and relax. I'm so lucky to have seen all the championships brought back to boston over the past decade or so (being such a big sports fan), and cant wait for the Pats to return to the Super Bowl!