Junior Year
Junior Year
Sophomore Year
AOW #4
Gun Control?
I think seeing Andreychenkno would have worried me for sure, but if he looked like there was nothing wrong with him and he wasn’t carrying it in threateningly then it shouldn’t worry you too much. When I say threateningly, I mean he should be carrying it in a gun case or something that hides it away or had it on his back pointing it up so it doesn’t shoot anyone, which is basic hunting safety rules. Imagine if someone had a bad problem with their gun from Wal-Mart or was returning it, they would need to take it inside too what would they do, didn’t you tell us that Wal-Mart is the biggest gun seller in the United States; how would they be able to even take it inside without people freaking out and starting chaos which only makes the situation worse. I say if someone walks inside the store than Wal-Mart should give then immediate escort and take the gun from them, which is a way that they could stop things like this happening.
Taxes on Guns and really anything that is used for Hunting purposes gets a special tax that actually fund just about all of the conservation efforts in Nature, so guns or rather hunting gear, which guns are a big part of, help pay for a lot of things in Nature. Also, it’s really not the guns fault that it is there, the only reason people are scared of guns are because they have a possibility of hurting people which only 33,000 people die a year from a gun, which sounds like a lot but there are other things that take a lot more lives than that like smoking and tobacco, plus the second amendment states the right to bear arms. In reality they need to just do research into someone before they even let them buy a gun. There are a lot of problems with that, such as the fact that people could still illegally get guns, just like they get Drugs which also take a lot more lives than guns every year( Just Heroin, Cocaine, and Antidepressant overdoses kill more people). To be real guns aren’t the main concern that we should be worrying about, we should be worrying about people’s obesity, drug overdoses, alcohol problems, the homeless and things that really hurt us a lot more than guns, but we really just need people that care about each other and these things wouldn’t matter. That is what we really need to help us.
AOW #5
Do Video Games Cause Violence?
I think that video games, have ushered in at a time when humanity is very bad to each other, and it is very easy to just make an assumption and point fingers at something with no proof. In current media, all kinds of politicians and people on T.V. like to point fingers at things and make false accusations about things. We the people thinking the people on the T.V. are rich and powerful and must know what they’re talking about, just follow what they say without really thinking about it. Many places nowadays realize the mistake that we make and are starting to really challenge what people say. Video Games leading to violence is one of those things that many researchers have put to the test and every test leads to the conclusion that it doesn’t cause mass shootings. However, games may cause aggression, trying to say that it completely takes over someone and makes them commit mass shootings is ridiculous. Much research points to things that really can affect somebody’s life, parenting. 26/27 of mass shooters in the U.S. had no Dad. Not having someone in your life who should be there to help and assist you and teach you is very harming. From experience, even having divorced parents can be hard and terrible on somebody, and I don’t think it is necessarily a parents fault that their child could do something, I think they have a major affect in it. It is vital to take care of the children of the world, because it is on them that we intrust our future.
AOW #6
Are Robots Taking Over?
“Universal Basic Income,” is a term used by many to describe a simple payment to all. The idea in this article, states the idea, that many people may not have a job. While, Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerburg may have been right about people needing some sort of sustenance, it’s definitely not a polished or really good idea. Everybody in the system of Universal Basic Income would receive the same amount of money, but it wouldn’t affect everybody in the same way. First, the billionaires controlling the economy and all the robots, wouldn’t need the money. Second, some people with disabilities and so on would need more money than others. Third, wouldn’t the taxes we pay just be paying for ourselves, so what is the point in doing that.
I think in that system, it would be very important to tax the very wealthy more because of the power they ultimately would hold over the lives of the people. The rich would be controlling the pocket of cash in which our country sits in. This division of Rich and Poor, would lead to a shrinkage of the middle class which is vital to our nation. Next, how our system works now with giving money to those who can’t work or do anything helps those who really need it, and poor today still get government also, but because they can work don’t get the same benefits. It would be vital then to pay those people a little more than others, to allow there survival(Which wouldn’t be “Equal”). If we didn’t do that then it would be a”Survival of the fittest,” scenario in which we would turn back to human days that we shall not embrace.
AOW #7
Should we hate our Aggressors?
I think that Brandt Jean’s choice of forgiving him was very just and symbolic of Christ. In the Bible or at least in the Catholic Bible(NIV) it states this from Matthew 6:14-15,”For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins,” showing that what he did is truly symbolic of God/Jesus Christ. Brandt could not of been actually forgiving but to many it is symbolic of that. What I mean to say is that his heart may have not been forgiving but his actions showed he was to many of us out here.
I think there is a debate over forgiving in this case because there are many of us out there that feel cheated and don’t want to forgive someone for something that hurt us so bad. I think we all have had that feeling before some at God, some at others, and some of us at ourselves for something we did in the past or present. It is really hard to forgive something from other people that is on the higher end of bad things, and taking someones life has to be the highest thing you can take from somebody else. It is a similar experience when you move somewhere else, you lose all those friends you once had and it can be really hard on somebody. I remember when I was in fourth grade and a mexican girl moved to our school and so she didn’t really have any friends and then people started to call her name’s and I eventually became friends with her. The name calling became really bad things and she eventually left the school and went away to somewhere else.
AOW #8
Honk Kong deserves freedom!
Freedom of Speech, while being a right in the United States after the age of eighteen, is not a freedom in many places of the World including China and many parts of Asia and Africa. It’s really sad to see how this area of the world hasn’t become a free modern society. Actually China had dynasties for over two thousand five hundred years all the way up to the beginning of the twentieth century when the people of China overtook the country to make it democratic for a short period until around after World War Two. If Russia didn’t start communism, then China wouldn’t be what it is today, maybe for better, maybe for worse. I think though that China what it is today is probably worse rather than better. The fact that Hong Kong was a part of England or a sort of democracy, is disheartening to see China try to break that.
The people of Hong Kong don’t like it either, or at least so as you can see with the riots. China right now is trying very hard to oppress others to bend to their will and that’s kind of wrong. You see this not only in Hong Kong but also in Taiwan. The Taiwanese are really or mostly their population is made up of Chinese immigrants who escaped for a better life than China. So china being the goofs they want control, they think that they can somehow take control of another country. These people who escape China have been hurt in some way in China. China is not a friendly place to live and a lot of allegations from China don’t make it seem like a nice place. The fact that China hasn’t been sanctioned by the UN for a lot of things is terrible and shows the abuse China has on everybody else, and let’s not talk about all the pollution and other things they do to.
So I think we need to take a stand against this evil. China has done enough and it is time to bring it to an end. These companies are just wimps because they rely on China to sell things for really cheap and make a lot of money. Which do they think matters more they’re customers or making a little bit less money. If China wasn’t absurd communism then this wouldn’t be a problem anyways because that would be illegal. So, I think we need to take a stand and stop these companies and change their voice.
AOW #9
Tik Tok CLubs?
Tik Tok is a multiplatform social media app like many others and it is weird that people find it so special. I think like Tik Tok Social Media is a waste of time for the most part and just encourages hateful speech social judgement and overall bad things. Nowadays people obsess over getting the aesthetic picture or doing this and whether it should be that filter, when they should just be sitting back and just overall enjoying themselves and what’s around them. Although it might encourage travel and adventure I very much doubt that because it’s not like people just want to travel for a picture, they want to do it because they want to see a new place and try new things which it can take away from. Although it is cool to share an epic picture with your friends, people have been doing that for over 50 years and it’s not just social media that you need to do that. Also, Social Media apps are free so how are they making money exactly, well with may it’s selling your information and having adds. Facebook for example has been shown in many after many numerous accounts of selling your information to companies. Cambridge Analytica for example showed this in the 2016 election and we can’t really know how much it actually changed people’s beliefs. I think that Social Media is okay when you use it very moderately like 30 minutes a day or less, but when you are obsessing over something like that you have a serious problem not to mention people and videogames (Myself).
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AOW #10
Should we keep Daylight Savings Time?
DST may not be the very best thing for energy savings, but if it helps for most people and it saves energy, then why would you really care if it exists. As Dave Mosher and Aylin Woodward in their article stated “But the absence of major energy savings, coupled with the negative toll DST takes on people's health, are reason enough to do away with this ritual altogether,”(Mosher & Woodward). Even though Mosher and Aylin disagree with DST, they still acknowledge the fact that it saves energy, although the portion about people’s health makes me worry for them instead. I think if you are worried so much about gaining or losing an hour of sleep you have bigger problems than that. As a teenager, my sleeping schedule varies a lot and it doesn’t affect me very much at all. I can see how age may multiply this affect, but the fact is you can deal with it. We are the dominant species of Earth should be adaptable. If people can like in the hottest deserts on Earth and other in the coldest, then I think that a little bit of sleep could matter less, plus it’s nice to have an extra hour of sleep one day a year.
The amount of money made is also a good factor to keep DST. The article clearly states this point when they emphasize, "in 1986, the golf industry told Congress that an extra month of daylight saving was worth $200 million. The barbecue industry said extending DST would boost sales by $100 million,”(Mosher & Woodard). As Mosher and Woodards article would suggest more money spent in the U.S. only makes it better. More revenue equates to more growth. When people spend money in the U.S. it drive more taxes and makes more revenue and helps the U.S. rather than another company such as in China. Three hundred million dollars is a lot of money for almost anybody, but is still an overall gain for the U.S. and it wouldn’t make sense to just trash that for an opinion. I think as humans progress we tend to have more luxurious beliefs with technology and we have a belief of total control and that’s not true and may hurt us in the future.
AOW #11
Should Previous Gang Members be Rewarded for Being Good?
This article points out many problems that we have and some costly ways to help it but not prevent it and that is the problem with this kind of thing. The article states, “there is ample evidence that the system called “contingency management” works, including a study published Oct. 2 in the American Journal of Public Health,” (American Journal of Public Health, 2019) but that may help after these people have been affected by such things and because all the rewards can be costly but how can we keep from this in the first place? I think that this system can help people who had almost no choice in the matter like veterans, but is it really acceptable that we as a society let these people fall into addiction in the first place or let these veterans be scared at all. I think because of that it is our duty to uphold each other and help one another in the recovery but is a lot more important to keep them away from it originally. It would save those people affected time, productivity, and health if they had strayed away at all. I think that if we want to be truly effective than we need to get these things away completely. The children of the future need to be taught the damages of drugs and violence and be kept away from it. If we as a civilization as a planet could keep these things that ruin the brains of the young, who are the future, then the first option should always be prevention.
AOW #12
Should Illegal Immigrants be Deported?
Immagration was never a bad idea and never “should” be especially in a country like the U.S. where immagation is the backbone of the society.The first men and women that came here in the late 1500 to early 1700s were the people who formed the first colonies that would eventually separate us from the rest of the world. First it was the Spanish, then British, then French and Dutch and Russians. All these people brought with them a hope of the future in a better place “Dreamers” (Savage, 2019) Many of the most successful people in the U.S. were also immigrants and should be looked up to as an optimism of immigration, such as Steve Jobs, Albert Einstein, and Arnold Schwarzenegger. This can have a downfall though when you think of all the bad things that could come with it.
People wanting to flee could bring with them opposing culture’s and bad habits that could hurt us like suicide bombs or drugs and many bad things that although don’t happen very frequently still occur. I don’t think building a wall is a bad idea because reinforcing something like a border could never go wrong and usually a cement wall could last a couple hundred years. I just think that people who crossed illegally need to cross legally and that’s where the dilemma begins. People can’t really cross legally because it takes to long but also, those who cross illegally have a chance of dying and also a brighter future, and that’s what D.C. like to throw at each other. I think both sides should be able to one build a wall it doesn’t hurt the government's paycheck for the long run, and neither does helping or quickening the process to help those. I think we should do both and that defense in terms of the wall and offense in the brains that could pave the future won’t hurt us either way.
Savage, D. (2019, November 11) Supreme Court Case of Trump vs. ‘Dreamers’ May Come Down to Chief Justice Roberts. Los Angeles times