Las Vegas Shooting

Most of us have heard about the tragic shooting in Las Vegas that occurred last night. With the death count rising from 59, and over 525 injured, this was the deadliest mass shooting in American history. It just so happens that the second deadliest shooting in American history happened less than 16 months ago, at the Pulse Night Club in Orlando. How many more massacres must occur before we realize that the current gun laws are too loose, and people should not have such easy access to automatic weapons? Even the killer's brother said, "I want to know how he got automatic weapons". We are the only country in the world that can accept 20 children being killed in their school due to gun violence (Sandy Hook shooting). In 1996, there was a mass shooting in Austrailia that killed 35 people. Due to that incident, the Australian government with different political backgrounds came together to pass legislation enforcing tighter availability of guns. Since then, the amount of gun violence in Australia has gone down tremendously. Too many people have accepted the normality of mass slaughter as a necessary sacrifice to an amendment written when guns held one bullet. Over the last 20 or so hours that this shooting has been covered, Stephen Paddock has been labeled as a "lone wolf", "disturbed individual", but very few are calling him what he really is: a terrorist. At this point, it is not enough for the President and other lawmakers to send their condolences and prayers. We need to make a change and enforce tighter gun control. People are dying.

Taking a Knee?

Now we see all these NFL players taking an knee during the national anthem. But why? They don't want to stand for a country that doesn't support them. The countless police brutality cases and constant black oppression in this country still lives today. This is not something that Collin Kapernick started, Martin Luther King would kneel during the national anthem back in the 60's for black equality. Now we have the president of the United States of American calling these NFL players "sons of bitches" because they are using their platform to stand up for people who's voices won't be heard. There is nothing wrong with using there platform to try to make a change in society. Since everyone over social media is talking about it, the one thing these NFL players do know is that its working, they are being heard.

the justice system

The justice system left me disheartened when I really started to dig in on court cases. There are instances where someone was convicted of a crime they did not do because they could not prove their innocence to the judge, or when a person was able to convince the judge their innocence when it was clear that person did it or was involved in some way. No sentiment ever comes from the court, it was just another court case. They're oblivious to the sentiments of the community that surrounded the case and often times that angers the community. Of course, it's just something we have to learn to deal with, as we learned in class it matters what you can prove in the court.

The Bad Samaritan

Today in class we watched the "Bad Samaritan" documentary. We talked about the issue of being a bystander especially in this case. Jeremy raped this seven year old girl in the women's bathroom and David Cash the bystander just watched. How can someone be so heartless and know that his friend is in a stall with a little seven year old girl. The part that I still don't understand is Cash tried to justify his actions saying how he didn't know and he said "Jeremy is my friend we were in AP English together." Who in there right mind uses "we had a class together" to justify why he didn't he stop his friend from raping a seven year old girl. Now this will forever be on his conscious. Her mother passed a petition and got 20,000 signatures that David Cash should go to jail. Then later David Cash got into Berkeley and was harassed by fellow students everyday for what he did.

David Cash - What would you do?

Recently in class, we are learning about "The Bad Samaritan" or simply David Cash. In summary, late night in a casino David Cash and his best friend Jeremy Strohmeyer were playing video games when a 7-year-old, Sherrice Iverson walked into the women's bathroom and Jeremy followed her in, and later Cash did the same thing. Jeremey followed her in and raped and killed Sherrice. The reason this is so controversial is what David Cash did. David Cash walked into the bathroom and saw Sherrice struggling with Jeremy and he simply just walked out and didn't report anything. Now if one of you were in David Cash's position, what would you honestly do? I would like to believe that you would do the sensible thing and try to stop it but when you're in the moment who knows how a person will react, so what would you do?

OJ Simpson - American Hero?

Currently, in class, we are watching a documentary about the very controversial Orenthal James Simpson. Throughout his life, OJ has always been the center of attention whether it's in sports or social issues. OJ gained fame through his amazing athletic ability in football. Coming from a rough background and becoming an absolute star in the media showed that OJ had made it in the world. He started his football career at the University of Southern California, and there that's where he started gaining popularity. OJ made that famous run against UCLA, and his fame went through the roof. Everyone started to see OJ as a hero across the campus because of how good he was on the field. In that same season OJ was so good that he won the Heisman Award, and because of this season, he got drafted by the Buffalo Bills. His first season at the Bills wasn't too great and the fact is OJ hated Buffalo. Though his first season wasn't the best, the next season he showed how good he was. That season he got 2000 rushing yards and established himself as a record breaker in the NFL for history. OJ was a national hero because of his ability. The fact is that OJ didn't see himself as black but just saw himself as OJ and nothing else. OJ was a person who cared about doing his job and being OJ. It may sound selfish but he gained success from this so it must have worked. Not only did OJ not see himself as black but the people around him thought the same way. When white people thought of OJ they didn't see him as a black person, in fact, they saw him as something much higher than them. OJ was this superior athlete that everyone looked up to. He was everyone's national hero. Even though he had such an upbringing there are still some factors that are very controversial when it comes to OJ. One thing that he did that was controversial was that he cheated on his then-wife, Marguerite Whitley multiple times. The most notable one was when he wanted to marry Nicole Brown even though he was still married to Marguerite. OJ married Nicole soon after. Another factor to which OJ was controversial was that he was a famous black athlete and he did nothing for civil rights. This caused many of the black community to be upset with him because he was a huge figure in the media but he didn't give back to his roots. It almost seemed like OJ didn't care about where he came from. Now the most controversial thing that OJ allegedly did was the murder of Nicole Brown and Ron Goldman. From the start, OJ would beat Nicole a lot, and Nicole hated him because of that. Eventually, Nicole and OJ got divorced, and she started getting close to Ron Goldman. Naturally, OJ would get jealous, and since it already seemed that he had anger issues, and even though he wasn't acquited to the murders it seems like he would be the one who killed Nicole and Ron. At the end of this all, who is OJ Simpson and who does he represent?

Leaders

This past Thursday, Lt.General Jay Silveria, who is the superintendent of the US Air Force Academy gave a speech to 5,000 of his cadets about racial slurs that were written to five African American cadets. He brought the cadets all together and explained to them about prejudice and bigotry, he wanted to let them know that he wont tolerate it at his academy. He goes on in his speech to say that "If you're outraged, you're in the right place." He also says that, "you should be outraged as an airman, but as a human being." Within his speech he explains why prejudice is wrong and that the only way to defeat it is to bring all of our diversity together because diversity creates unity. He talked about what american values are and how we should stand by them to make our country stronger as a whole. To finalize his speech and make sure his cadets got his message he said them, "If you can't treat some with dignity and respect, then you need to get out. If you can't treat someone of another gender.. of another race or different color skin with dignity and respect, then you need to get out." His speech has been shared all over social media and is getting a lot of praises from many people, Joe Biden and John McCain are just the few many that have applauded the General for his strong stance against prejudice and bigotry. Our President is the person who should be making speeches like this one, our President should be trying to unite this country to fight prejudice, racism, and bigotry. Unfortunately our President is not taking a strong stand against prejudice, racism, and bigotry so it is up to us Americans to try to solve a problem that is dividing our great country.