Response

In the latest article in my classmate’s blog, “With Liberty and Justice For All”, they discuss the delicate subject of abortion. Although I consider myself one to tend to have liberal views, this is a subject that I consider myself conservative on. With the only exception of rape, I believe that all abortions should be illegal. My classmate brings up the point of abortions almost encouraging promiscuous behavior, and I agree. Actions have consequences (and I don’t want that word to have an entirely negative connation.) Abortion also is contrary to the Constitution stating that all human beings are equal and entitled to the undeniable right of life. C’mon people.

I participate in debate at my high school and we do various activities that promote the use of debate skills, such as logic and reasoning, negating, etc., and an activity that we did once was the whole “There’s 15 people on a sinking boat, you can only put 7 on the lifeboat, who do you save and why?” deal. One of the people that we could have saved was a teenager who was five months pregnant, but if you choose her, her child would have taken up one of the seven places as well. This immediately divided the class. An argument created by affirmative side -- the side that said yes to choosing the pregnant teenager -- was that if we didn’t choose them, the teenager would die, as well as her baby who could have the potential to do the greatest good in the history. Yes, it was an extreme, but I believe that this is the case for any unborn. Abortion strips away any chance of knowing the outcome and that’s remarkably unacceptable.

There are so many alternatives to “getting rid” of a child. Like my classmate said, there’s closed adoption. After nine months, the child is out of the mother’s life, and making someone else’s life happier.

1.21 million abortions were performed in 2005. That’s 1.21 million lives that could have been something wonderful, could have done something great, could be living right now.

What if I give my first born? Free college then?

So, it's that time of my high school career where I have to start applying to college. This isn't the hard part. The hard part is figuring out how I'm going to be able to afford college. The majority of the colleges I'm looking at are out of state, and it's not like I'm trying to go out of state, it's that those are the colleges that have the best programs for what I'm interested in majoring.

Dream: Attending Emerson College in Boston, MA, majoring in Film and without a care in the world.

Reality: Emerson’s Tuition plus Room and Board is 41,000 dollars a year and their average financial aid package is $15,000. I have a mom in graduate school and three siblings that will be in college at the same time I’ll be.

Cool.

I would really, really, really hate for money to be the reason that I couldn’t go where I want to be. According to the article “How Obama Can Help Pay Your Tuition”, President Obama said that he was to make education one of his top priorities. He has two goals that would execute his plan to assist students in paying for college: American Opportunity Tax Credit and using public loan providers.

Okay, cool. Maybe Emerson College is more within my reach than I thought. Let’s read on further in the article.

…“The first $4,000 of a college education is completely free for most Americans, and will cover two-thirds the cost of tuition at the average public college or university.”

Since when has $4,000 been enough for even the cost of tuition at an average public college or university? What is the criterion for a college to be “average”? And who are the Americans that don’t fit into the “most” category? Don’t get me wrong, something is better than nothing -- if you fit the requirements of receiving the money -- but I still feel as if more could be put towards something that’s so important and imperative to our society.

Racist Boston Police Officer Response

In the post in the blog, "Red, White & Blog" titled "Racist Boston Police Officer", the tone of the situation facing the Boston police officer versus Henry Louis Gates Jr. is very well captured. First off, I must be living under a rock because I had no idea of this whole deal occurring. But I agree with everything that was said in the post. I believe the author, Daniel Vasquez, captured the tone of the whole state of affair in his question, "…how can such strong words not been intended with a racial connotation?" Someone that is held to a high regard, such as a police officer, must be able to maintain themselves under all types of pressure, whether it's outside pressure or pressure from their feelings within, and be aware of their actions and the consequences that they may have. They must maintain themselves especially if their opinions are sent out to a mass. I'm very sad that something like this is still happening here in America where we are all equal, but we must accept the fact that there is racism is all groups, majorities and minorities. There's always going to be faults in our society no matter how hard we try to diminish them.