Today I learned that the President of the United States, took out public enemy number one, Osama bin Laden, last year for the sole purpose of using it as a "cheap ploy" to get reelected in November.
Sigh. Oh, Mitt Romney, when are you going to stop talking about all of Obama's perceived negatives and tell us what your ACTUAL plan for America is should you, [deity] forbid, become the next President? Clearly you don't think justice for Septemeber 11, 2001 is something to throw around as a major accomplishment. You would just rather bop around the country talking about nothing and smiling your ridiculously fake smile in all the right places.
And please don't pretend like W. wouldn't have been throwing his capture of Saddam in everyones face had he been up for reelection. That was the only silver lining to come out of the whole embarrassing ordeal in Iraq, which PS, is no better off now than they were before. And everyone agrees that conditions have deteriorated here at home as well.
Also, that deficit you're so effing concerned about? Not totally Obama's fault. There was a surplus in 2000. Then Iraq and their pretend weapons of mass destruction happened.
You can etcha sketch your own campaign and ideals all you want but the fact are as follows:
-Bush took us into an irrelevant war and ignored the relevant one.
-Obama gave the order to kill bin Laden and ended the War in Iraq.
-Bush was still in office when the economy went bust.
-Obama did his effing best and saved the US Auto Industry you thought we should abandon.
You're an idiot.
Monday, April 30, 2012
Tuesday, April 24, 2012
It's Primary Election Day in PA. Hey!
Friends. I know Primary election day is not the most exciting day of the year. In fact, with how busy we all have to keep ourselves in order to have food on the table, it's diffcult to even find the time to go to the polls. I am hoping to get to mine just before closing time, which is 8p.m. here in Pennsylvania by the way.
I got a call from the Obama campaign the other day asking if I was going to go out and vote for the President and I was like, "Um, duh." Although, I didn't really even know that was necessary at this point. He is obviously the Democratic Party's candidate for the 2012 General Election. But just like any other candidate, Obama still needs to rack up his apporpriate number of delegates.
Which brings me to my point of this blog. The way we vote in the U.S. is totally effed up for a number of reasons.
1. As previously mentioned, who has time to vote? 7a.m.-8p.m. is not enough time. Especially for students and people with more than one job.
2. What is the point of voting when the candidates have pretty much already been picked by all the states that voted before us? Exactly. Which is why all 50 states should all vote on the same day. This would allow for the "elite media" as Newt likes to call them, to have much less of an influence on the way we vote. We wouldn't know who won what state and by how many votes one or two at a time. It would be a more accurate representation as to who American Citizens actually want as their candidate.
3. Speaking of being a more accurate representation, did you know that some states have what is called an Open Primary while others have Closed Primaries? Pennsylvania has a closed primary. This means that you can only vote for those within your party and if you are registered as an Independent then you don't get to vote at all.
4. I don't know about you guys but, I consider American owned territories relevant. These include places like Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Virgin Islands. So even though they pay taxes to the U.S. government (except income taxes), and hold their own seemingly meaningless primary elections during our primary season, these places are not represented in Congress and are not permitted to vote in Federal elections. I.e., they can't vote for the next President of the country that technically owns them. Why? Because they're not a state. So there.
5. Anybody remember the 2000 Presidential Election? You know, when Al Gore actually won but then George W. Bush somehow managed to become the President after months of counting and recounting votes. That election taught us that it really doesn't matter what we the citizens of America want because even when the popular vote goes to one candidate, the number of delegates awarded is more important. And the big state in question that year was Flordia. Shocking, I know. The problem had to do with paper ballots. Back in the day, you had to punch holes next to the name of the candidate you wanted to vote for. Unfortunately, this method of voting was faulty. Ballots were difficult to read and incorrect votes we cast. Some votes didn't count at all because they weren't punched hard enought. In the end, W. was awarded Florida and its 25 delegates allowing him to reach the required 270. So, of the 100,000+ Americans that voted in 2000, it really only takes 270 to decided who will be our next leader.
Fun fact, the Governor of Florida at the time of this debacle was none other than Jeb Bush. Relation? Brother of one, President-elect George Walker Bush.
I don't mean to discourage anyone from voting. Your voice still matters because we vote to pick the people who eventually become delegates. Also, we vote for people who run our cities, counties, and states. Here in NEPA we know a thing or two about nepotism and corruption. And we all know it isn't fair and doesn't benefit anyone but the elected officials and their groupies. So we can stop voting for those assholes who don't have our best interest in mind and start voting for other people. It doesn't mean they're going to do any better but at least they'll do it differently.
So go vote today. At the very least, vote in November. Because Frederick Douglass, Alice Paul, and a bunch of white guys would want you to.
This guy too.
I got a call from the Obama campaign the other day asking if I was going to go out and vote for the President and I was like, "Um, duh." Although, I didn't really even know that was necessary at this point. He is obviously the Democratic Party's candidate for the 2012 General Election. But just like any other candidate, Obama still needs to rack up his apporpriate number of delegates.
Which brings me to my point of this blog. The way we vote in the U.S. is totally effed up for a number of reasons.
1. As previously mentioned, who has time to vote? 7a.m.-8p.m. is not enough time. Especially for students and people with more than one job.
2. What is the point of voting when the candidates have pretty much already been picked by all the states that voted before us? Exactly. Which is why all 50 states should all vote on the same day. This would allow for the "elite media" as Newt likes to call them, to have much less of an influence on the way we vote. We wouldn't know who won what state and by how many votes one or two at a time. It would be a more accurate representation as to who American Citizens actually want as their candidate.
3. Speaking of being a more accurate representation, did you know that some states have what is called an Open Primary while others have Closed Primaries? Pennsylvania has a closed primary. This means that you can only vote for those within your party and if you are registered as an Independent then you don't get to vote at all.
4. I don't know about you guys but, I consider American owned territories relevant. These include places like Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Virgin Islands. So even though they pay taxes to the U.S. government (except income taxes), and hold their own seemingly meaningless primary elections during our primary season, these places are not represented in Congress and are not permitted to vote in Federal elections. I.e., they can't vote for the next President of the country that technically owns them. Why? Because they're not a state. So there.
5. Anybody remember the 2000 Presidential Election? You know, when Al Gore actually won but then George W. Bush somehow managed to become the President after months of counting and recounting votes. That election taught us that it really doesn't matter what we the citizens of America want because even when the popular vote goes to one candidate, the number of delegates awarded is more important. And the big state in question that year was Flordia. Shocking, I know. The problem had to do with paper ballots. Back in the day, you had to punch holes next to the name of the candidate you wanted to vote for. Unfortunately, this method of voting was faulty. Ballots were difficult to read and incorrect votes we cast. Some votes didn't count at all because they weren't punched hard enought. In the end, W. was awarded Florida and its 25 delegates allowing him to reach the required 270. So, of the 100,000+ Americans that voted in 2000, it really only takes 270 to decided who will be our next leader.
Fun fact, the Governor of Florida at the time of this debacle was none other than Jeb Bush. Relation? Brother of one, President-elect George Walker Bush.
I don't mean to discourage anyone from voting. Your voice still matters because we vote to pick the people who eventually become delegates. Also, we vote for people who run our cities, counties, and states. Here in NEPA we know a thing or two about nepotism and corruption. And we all know it isn't fair and doesn't benefit anyone but the elected officials and their groupies. So we can stop voting for those assholes who don't have our best interest in mind and start voting for other people. It doesn't mean they're going to do any better but at least they'll do it differently.
So go vote today. At the very least, vote in November. Because Frederick Douglass, Alice Paul, and a bunch of white guys would want you to.
This guy too.
Wednesday, April 11, 2012
Because I've Got a Crush on Obama. And you know, logic...
This election season thus far has been dominated by the
race for the GOP nomination. And from their debates, TV appearances, and town
hall meetings, we know the primary concern of these candidates is to defeat the
President in November. The number one issue they are running on is winning.
Winning when millions of Americans are losing. We’ve lost jobs, money,
opportunities, and some have even lost their lives overseas in the War on
Terror. That didn’t all happen in the last four years.
Since taking office, the President has achieved many important things that few give him credit for. He saved the American auto industry in Detroit while others thought we should let it die. He saved 1.4 million jobs and today Chrysler, GM, and Ford are all once again profitable companies. They’ve paid off their outstanding loans years ahead of schedule and have added 200,000 jobs. In addition, we’ve now seen two straight years of private sector job growth.
The President has also ensured that we can be insured by our parents until the age of 26 under his Affordable Care Act. This is extremely important at a time when thousands of college graduates are having trouble finding full time jobs.
Hey ladies, do you like having your birth control covered? Because the President’s opponents don’t want you to have it. They’d prefer to have states decide how to provide coverage to their citizens. That’s 50 different healthcare plans instead of one that benefits all. In recent months we’ve seen dozens of laws proposed by Republican run states that violate the rights of women and are aimed specifically at making them feel guilty enough to reconsider their choice of abortion. Virginia, Idaho, Louisiana, and even Pennsylvania have all proposed bills that would require a woman seeking an abortion to get an invasive procedure against her wishes and against her doctor’s wishes. This may seem extreme for a party that claims to be against big government intruding on the lives of citizens. The President stands by women and supports their equal rights.
In addition to equal rights for women, President Obama supports equal rights for homosexual citizens. In 2011, he officially repealed the unfair, “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” law that forbid openly gay men and women from serving in the United States Armed Forces. Since it was signed into law in 1993, 13,650 perfectly good soldiers have been dismissed from all branches of the Army and thousands more may have been deterred from joining. The President, like so many our age, younger, and increasingly, older citizens, understands that sexual orientation has no effect on the ability of a person to defend their country.
Though it is still not yet legal for same-sex couples to marry in all states, President Obama has declared the Defense of Marriage Act unconstitutional. This law defines marriage as being strictly between a man and a woman and denies legally married same-sex couples federal recognition. The President was also the first to provide hospital visitation and medical decision making rights to same-sex couples that were previously denied. Imagine your partner was in a terrible accident and you were barred from seeing them in the hospital. Imagine being told that your relationship is less than someone else’s. It’s true that President Obama has not yet come out and fully supported same-sex marriage on a federal level, but many believe, that if reelected, he will. It is time that this country, the land of the free, where everyone gets an equal chance at the pursuit of Life, Liberty, and Happiness, stop picking and choosing which citizens are worthy of those rights.
But hey, if you don’t like equal rights, if you don’t like affordable healthcare coverage, if you don’t want help repaying your school loans, and if, for some reason, you think record highs in the stock market, an increase in gross domestic product, and a recovering economy isn’t what you want for the next four years, by all means vote for one of the Republican candidates. But if you want a better America, an America that values and practices the ideals we preach to other countries, vote to reelect Obama. He's still a pretty awesome guy.
Since taking office, the President has achieved many important things that few give him credit for. He saved the American auto industry in Detroit while others thought we should let it die. He saved 1.4 million jobs and today Chrysler, GM, and Ford are all once again profitable companies. They’ve paid off their outstanding loans years ahead of schedule and have added 200,000 jobs. In addition, we’ve now seen two straight years of private sector job growth.
No one
can deny we are not out of the red yet. Nor are we trying to say that America
is back to what it once was prior to the previous Republican administration,
but Rome wasn’t built in a day. It took eight years of poor
decisions to get us to this crisis that we call the Great
Recession and it’s foolish to believe that it could be reversed in only
half the time. But we're on the right track. The President has a
plan, to rebuild the American middle class.
As
college students, we may feel like we’ve been ignored thus far. Education
hasn’t been an issue that’s been discussed regularly or at all and the
Republican candidates have little more than talking points on their websites.
President Obama won the 2008 election thanks in large part to young voters and
will not forget what we’ve done for him. In return, he has taken steps to make
college more affordable and signed a new law that will make it
easier for college students to repay loans. In 2014, new borrowers will pay no
more than 10% of their disposable income and allows for any remaining debt
after 20 years to be forgiven. Those who take public-service jobs such as
teachers, nurses, and members of the armed forces will have their debt forgiven
after 10 years assuming their payments are made on time.The President has also ensured that we can be insured by our parents until the age of 26 under his Affordable Care Act. This is extremely important at a time when thousands of college graduates are having trouble finding full time jobs.
Hey ladies, do you like having your birth control covered? Because the President’s opponents don’t want you to have it. They’d prefer to have states decide how to provide coverage to their citizens. That’s 50 different healthcare plans instead of one that benefits all. In recent months we’ve seen dozens of laws proposed by Republican run states that violate the rights of women and are aimed specifically at making them feel guilty enough to reconsider their choice of abortion. Virginia, Idaho, Louisiana, and even Pennsylvania have all proposed bills that would require a woman seeking an abortion to get an invasive procedure against her wishes and against her doctor’s wishes. This may seem extreme for a party that claims to be against big government intruding on the lives of citizens. The President stands by women and supports their equal rights.
In addition to equal rights for women, President Obama supports equal rights for homosexual citizens. In 2011, he officially repealed the unfair, “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” law that forbid openly gay men and women from serving in the United States Armed Forces. Since it was signed into law in 1993, 13,650 perfectly good soldiers have been dismissed from all branches of the Army and thousands more may have been deterred from joining. The President, like so many our age, younger, and increasingly, older citizens, understands that sexual orientation has no effect on the ability of a person to defend their country.
Though it is still not yet legal for same-sex couples to marry in all states, President Obama has declared the Defense of Marriage Act unconstitutional. This law defines marriage as being strictly between a man and a woman and denies legally married same-sex couples federal recognition. The President was also the first to provide hospital visitation and medical decision making rights to same-sex couples that were previously denied. Imagine your partner was in a terrible accident and you were barred from seeing them in the hospital. Imagine being told that your relationship is less than someone else’s. It’s true that President Obama has not yet come out and fully supported same-sex marriage on a federal level, but many believe, that if reelected, he will. It is time that this country, the land of the free, where everyone gets an equal chance at the pursuit of Life, Liberty, and Happiness, stop picking and choosing which citizens are worthy of those rights.
But hey, if you don’t like equal rights, if you don’t like affordable healthcare coverage, if you don’t want help repaying your school loans, and if, for some reason, you think record highs in the stock market, an increase in gross domestic product, and a recovering economy isn’t what you want for the next four years, by all means vote for one of the Republican candidates. But if you want a better America, an America that values and practices the ideals we preach to other countries, vote to reelect Obama. He's still a pretty awesome guy.
Wednesday, March 28, 2012
Health Care. Get it.
I don't know much about the healthcare system in the US. But I do know is that it is entirely too complicated. And when things are too complicated, and everybody is mad about it, and we have big discussions about reform for two decades, we should probably try to fix it.
I haven't read the 2400ish page document that is "ObamaCare" and I don't understand the logistics of where the money is coming from or whatever but I know that basically the whole debate is about whether or not the government can force you to buy health insurance. But like... Why the eff wouldn't you want to have health insurance?
Do you think you're super human and don't need to visit the doctor yearly? Perhaps you are. But you certainly cannot afford to go without a dentist. Because that would make you toothless and therefore your opinion on manditory healthcare and the value of it is loud, clear, and both un and in -credible.
What if you have a heart attack? Or a kidney stone? Or somebody accidently shoots you in the face during a hunting accident? You are going to the hospital. And somebody has to pay for that healthcare you are going to receive. And you're going to be glad that you received it because, you're welcome, you're alive. But then you're going to get a bill. And since you don't have insurance, you're definitly going to pay out the ass. Then you will file for bankruptcy and those medical bills will likely be forgiven. But as they say, somebody still has to pay for it.
Also, what the hell are you spending money on that is more important that good health and hygiene? Probably nothing good. Do us all a favor and stop double fisting Quarter Pounders, cigs, and beer. And brush your teeth. You're disgusting.
And if you can afford to buy a shitty car and pay manditory insurance then you can afford to buy yourself a better life expectancy.
P.S. - To the women protesting against ObamaCare on Capitol Hill the other day chanting, "Real Women Buy Their Own Birth Control": Are you effing serious? What does that even mean? You're ridiculous. And FYI, "Real Women Stand Up to Their Douchebag Husbands and Fight for Their Rights."
I haven't read the 2400ish page document that is "ObamaCare" and I don't understand the logistics of where the money is coming from or whatever but I know that basically the whole debate is about whether or not the government can force you to buy health insurance. But like... Why the eff wouldn't you want to have health insurance?
Do you think you're super human and don't need to visit the doctor yearly? Perhaps you are. But you certainly cannot afford to go without a dentist. Because that would make you toothless and therefore your opinion on manditory healthcare and the value of it is loud, clear, and both un and in -credible.
What if you have a heart attack? Or a kidney stone? Or somebody accidently shoots you in the face during a hunting accident? You are going to the hospital. And somebody has to pay for that healthcare you are going to receive. And you're going to be glad that you received it because, you're welcome, you're alive. But then you're going to get a bill. And since you don't have insurance, you're definitly going to pay out the ass. Then you will file for bankruptcy and those medical bills will likely be forgiven. But as they say, somebody still has to pay for it.
Also, what the hell are you spending money on that is more important that good health and hygiene? Probably nothing good. Do us all a favor and stop double fisting Quarter Pounders, cigs, and beer. And brush your teeth. You're disgusting.
And if you can afford to buy a shitty car and pay manditory insurance then you can afford to buy yourself a better life expectancy.
P.S. - To the women protesting against ObamaCare on Capitol Hill the other day chanting, "Real Women Buy Their Own Birth Control": Are you effing serious? What does that even mean? You're ridiculous. And FYI, "Real Women Stand Up to Their Douchebag Husbands and Fight for Their Rights."
Monday, March 26, 2012
Life is Hard.
So today I decided to take some G.Damn. initiative and begin job searching. You know, because getting paid on Thrusday and having $4 left on Friday is really not cutting it for me anymore. And people wonder why I don't go out. How the eff am I supposed to pay for fun? With my looks? I'm not that hot. I chose to have expensive things and my social life, small as it was, suffers. Also in about 8 months my student loan debt will begin following me around like some kind of life ruiner. Therefore, I can no longer survive on $100 a week. It's cruel.
You guys, it's gotten so bad that I'm considering going back to the old school flip phone with no internet access. Do you know how that makes me feel? Frightened. I don't know what we all did before technology was at our fingertips. I will probably cry for the first couple of weeks everytime I go to check my email and remember that my phone is so obsolete it's like "what's 3G?" I might as well just get the Jitterbug.
Anyway, the job search. I used this website called indeed.com to search the NEPA area for jobs in the category of Arts/Entertainment. And I guess the only companies that are hiring are healthcare and hotels. Touche, hospitality industry. You are a real job now.
I think I got cocky for a while there. You go to college and immediately feel like you're better than everyone else. It's something that is perpetuated in our society. People with higher educations are better than those without. And it's wrong. There are plenty of people who live fine lives without the benefit of a piece of paper that says you blew $100,000 dollars on four years of parties and bullshit research papers. When the eff am I ever going to need to write a research paper again? Never. Because I refuse.
As college students we throw around phrases like "when I get my real job..." as if our current part time customer service job isn't real. Well, guess what? For some people it is. And for the foreseeable future, it's probably your only job. Reality check. Life hurts. Minimum wage hurts. If you don't have a Masters Degree+ you're just as useless as everyone you think you're better than. Courtesy of the Great Recession.
I always had a bad feeling about my major. As did everyone else who didn't understand what I was "going to do with it" and never hesitated to demand an answer. I don't hate Communication Studies. I love mostly everything I've learned in my classes. I enjoy being able to discuss TV shows with people who actually gave a shit about what I was saying. And I was pretty damn good at just about everything. (i.e. Honors Society Invitee, Bitches. And once I scrap up $40 I'll change that to Inductee) But once you realize the likelihood of working at a major TV studio is "unrealistic," thanks mostly to the people that have told you that exact thing your entire life, you kind of start to wonder if you should have picked something more practical. Like a nurse. Or a teacher, like my mother always wanted.
I began by looking at the local TV studios websites and aside from not being qualified to apply for any of the available jobs, because I was never interested in PR, I realized that I really don't want to work for a local news station. It's depressing. I would spend 8 hours a day looking at video of houses on fire or listening to the angry geriatrics call and complain about how Tom Clark incorrectly predicted the weather. So no, thank you.
I did find two jobs at the same company that sounded like my cup o tea. Quality Control and/or Video Operator. Sitting in a room watching/editing video all day? Yes, please.
Otherwise, I guess I'll be trying to clock more hours at my current real job. Barista extraordinaire.
P.S. - Please watch my new, mildly offensive video about the Sacred Heart if you haven't already. Sorry and Thanks.
You guys, it's gotten so bad that I'm considering going back to the old school flip phone with no internet access. Do you know how that makes me feel? Frightened. I don't know what we all did before technology was at our fingertips. I will probably cry for the first couple of weeks everytime I go to check my email and remember that my phone is so obsolete it's like "what's 3G?" I might as well just get the Jitterbug.
Anyway, the job search. I used this website called indeed.com to search the NEPA area for jobs in the category of Arts/Entertainment. And I guess the only companies that are hiring are healthcare and hotels. Touche, hospitality industry. You are a real job now.
I think I got cocky for a while there. You go to college and immediately feel like you're better than everyone else. It's something that is perpetuated in our society. People with higher educations are better than those without. And it's wrong. There are plenty of people who live fine lives without the benefit of a piece of paper that says you blew $100,000 dollars on four years of parties and bullshit research papers. When the eff am I ever going to need to write a research paper again? Never. Because I refuse.
As college students we throw around phrases like "when I get my real job..." as if our current part time customer service job isn't real. Well, guess what? For some people it is. And for the foreseeable future, it's probably your only job. Reality check. Life hurts. Minimum wage hurts. If you don't have a Masters Degree+ you're just as useless as everyone you think you're better than. Courtesy of the Great Recession.
I always had a bad feeling about my major. As did everyone else who didn't understand what I was "going to do with it" and never hesitated to demand an answer. I don't hate Communication Studies. I love mostly everything I've learned in my classes. I enjoy being able to discuss TV shows with people who actually gave a shit about what I was saying. And I was pretty damn good at just about everything. (i.e. Honors Society Invitee, Bitches. And once I scrap up $40 I'll change that to Inductee) But once you realize the likelihood of working at a major TV studio is "unrealistic," thanks mostly to the people that have told you that exact thing your entire life, you kind of start to wonder if you should have picked something more practical. Like a nurse. Or a teacher, like my mother always wanted.
I began by looking at the local TV studios websites and aside from not being qualified to apply for any of the available jobs, because I was never interested in PR, I realized that I really don't want to work for a local news station. It's depressing. I would spend 8 hours a day looking at video of houses on fire or listening to the angry geriatrics call and complain about how Tom Clark incorrectly predicted the weather. So no, thank you.
I did find two jobs at the same company that sounded like my cup o tea. Quality Control and/or Video Operator. Sitting in a room watching/editing video all day? Yes, please.
Otherwise, I guess I'll be trying to clock more hours at my current real job. Barista extraordinaire.
P.S. - Please watch my new, mildly offensive video about the Sacred Heart if you haven't already. Sorry and Thanks.
Friday, March 23, 2012
Strike a Pose.
So I was trying to make a video to introduce myself. But as I was looking through my pictures I started to notice a pattern...
Thursday, March 22, 2012
Stand Your Ground. And kill innocent people.
I am Trayvon Martin.
Obviously I am not. But unless you've been living under a rock, you know that the 17 year old boy was shot and killed in Florida a few weeks ago. Trayvon was walking home from the store with a bag of Skittles and an ice tea thinking he was going to spend the night watching the NBA All-Star game. George Zimmerman, a 28 year old, self proclaimed neighborhood crime captain, and vigilante, had other ideas.
Because Martin was wearing a hoodie, presumably to keep himself dry on this rainy night, Zimmerman decided he was suspicious looking and called the police. Zimmerman continued to pursue the minor after the police dispatcher told him not to. Minutes later, Trayvon Martin was dead and George Zimmerman has yet to be arrested.
Does that make any sense to you? Me either. Maybe because I live in a state where we don't have any ridiculous legislation that says a person may use deadly force against someone else if they feel they are being threatened. That is what "Stand Your Ground" allows people to do and this law is not only in Florida but in also in a number of other states - mostly in the south and midwest.
Of course it was no surprise to find out that the National Rifle Association (NRA) is a huge supporter of the law and was instrumental in it's passage. They believe it would be better to allow citizens to protect themselves against violent crime rather than letting the police do their jobs.
So what violent crime was the young boy committing? Other than being black in a racist state? None. There is no evidence that points to any wrong doing by Trayvon Martin. There is however quite a bit of probably cause needed to arrest George Zimmerman but the man is still walking around with his freedom and that gun that killed a child.
Martin's parents are devestated. The country is outraged and the Justice Department is now conducting it's own investigation. The "Stand Your Ground" law has been used 13 times in Florida. Six died, four were wounded but only ONE of those people was actually armed. Just one.
Now that we know for a fact that this law is outrageous, it is finally be reconsidered. But what we should really be reconsidering is gun control as a whole and the role we allow the NRA to have in politics. I'll concede that the second amendment gives us the right to bare arms but it does not give anyone the right to kill people in cold blood. And not every member of society is mentally equipped to own and carry a weapon. It's a problem that anyone can walk into a WalMart and purchase a gun without a full background check.
When you give people guns and make them readily available, you don't prevent violent crimes you create them.
Sign the petition for Justice here.
Obviously I am not. But unless you've been living under a rock, you know that the 17 year old boy was shot and killed in Florida a few weeks ago. Trayvon was walking home from the store with a bag of Skittles and an ice tea thinking he was going to spend the night watching the NBA All-Star game. George Zimmerman, a 28 year old, self proclaimed neighborhood crime captain, and vigilante, had other ideas.
Because Martin was wearing a hoodie, presumably to keep himself dry on this rainy night, Zimmerman decided he was suspicious looking and called the police. Zimmerman continued to pursue the minor after the police dispatcher told him not to. Minutes later, Trayvon Martin was dead and George Zimmerman has yet to be arrested.
Does that make any sense to you? Me either. Maybe because I live in a state where we don't have any ridiculous legislation that says a person may use deadly force against someone else if they feel they are being threatened. That is what "Stand Your Ground" allows people to do and this law is not only in Florida but in also in a number of other states - mostly in the south and midwest.
Of course it was no surprise to find out that the National Rifle Association (NRA) is a huge supporter of the law and was instrumental in it's passage. They believe it would be better to allow citizens to protect themselves against violent crime rather than letting the police do their jobs.
So what violent crime was the young boy committing? Other than being black in a racist state? None. There is no evidence that points to any wrong doing by Trayvon Martin. There is however quite a bit of probably cause needed to arrest George Zimmerman but the man is still walking around with his freedom and that gun that killed a child.
Martin's parents are devestated. The country is outraged and the Justice Department is now conducting it's own investigation. The "Stand Your Ground" law has been used 13 times in Florida. Six died, four were wounded but only ONE of those people was actually armed. Just one.
Now that we know for a fact that this law is outrageous, it is finally be reconsidered. But what we should really be reconsidering is gun control as a whole and the role we allow the NRA to have in politics. I'll concede that the second amendment gives us the right to bare arms but it does not give anyone the right to kill people in cold blood. And not every member of society is mentally equipped to own and carry a weapon. It's a problem that anyone can walk into a WalMart and purchase a gun without a full background check.
When you give people guns and make them readily available, you don't prevent violent crimes you create them.
Sign the petition for Justice here.
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