Re-do of blog assignment #3

I never thought that I would agree with anything that John McCain says but ill have to agree with him about the CIA’s torture tactics. He states that the CIA’s torture policies “stained our national honor, did muchharm and little practical good”.  He also stated "This question isn't about our enemies; it's about us. It's about who we were, who we are and who we aspire to be. Our enemies act without conscience. We must not."

            According the article it says that the program had a knack for lying and misinforming congress on what their “interrogations” were really like.  There were 119 detainees and 39 of which were “interrogated” which I think we can assume this means that they were tortured for information. It pains me to hear that the CIA was torturing this many people never the less just one. After all this it’s also made clear in the article that we could have acquired this information in other ways. I always thought up until recently that the government was here to protect us and I looked up to the president and the various government agencies to look after the American public. After reading this article I feel like we are the ones in the wrong and now we need some one to keep us in check.

            I completely agree with the author who repeatedly quotes John McCain, the American public needs to know about what is going on behind closed doors. After reading this article I have little respect for the way our country is going about protecting us. Protection should not involve torturing others, ideas like that seem like something that a terrorist organization would rationalize. After 9/11 over reaction is to be expected but when we lash out like this it makes us the villains too.

Criticism #2

      I really liked our cohort, Andrew's blog entry about the fallout from Ferguson. It’s apparent after reading his entry that there isn't anything to loose from the police having to wear body cameras. Personally I think that everything that has been announced about Ferguson seems a bit skewed and the evidence presented at the trial for the murder of Mike Brown just doesn't add up. I honestly feel that Darren Wilson was in the wrong and if things spiraled out of control like he said they did than he should be advocating for body cameras too. Andrew uses a quote that really stuck with me "The city of Rialta California has seen an 88% drop in the number of complaints filed against officers and a 60% drop in the use of force since implementing body cameras.  These numbers should please both the police department and the community." I agree that these cameras would create more trust between the police and the communities that they "serve and protect".
It shocks me with statistics like this that any one would be against body cameras.
     After 9/11 we gave up our privacy such as our emails and phone lines to help protect our country from terrorism. I think that we are having another time of crisis, especially in Ferguson and that some privacy needs to be sacrificed again. Weren't we not told "not to worry about our privacy if we weren't doing anything wrong" back in 2001? Police officers should be no exception to this. Andrew proposed a solution to get the police to wear the body cameras. "The federal government may not be able to mandate the use of body cameras at the local and state level, but they could tie grant money to the adoption." I think that's a great idea and that the idea would become more popular when we start to see the difference in the amount of force used and complaints against the police. I agree with this blog post, body cameras are needed to make sure that the police aren't abusing their power. With the latest tragedies such as Eric Garner, Tamir Rice and Treyvon Martin in the headlines we seriously need to reassess why we think the police should be trusted and how we can keep them in check.
    I think this article was really well written and kept me intrigued the whole time. However there could have been a little bit more information about why the police shouldn't be trusted. I feel that the stronger the disdain for the police, the more likely people would want to correct their behavior. Nevertheless I think the author did a great job and the structure of this article was very strong. 
    

Child Homelessness on the rise

I feel this article ties in a bit with my last editorial about minimum wage. The United States is supposed to be one of the wealthiest nations but one in thirty children is homeless? Something there just isn’t adding up. According to Newsweek there are 2.5 million children who had “lived in shelters, on the streets, in cars, on campgrounds or doubled up with other families in tight quarters” at some point in 2013. Something needs to be done about this immediately, especially with the 8% growth of homelessness in the last year alone.

The U.S. Interagency Council had a plan come out in 2010 to help prevent homelessness among veterans by 2015 and everyone else by 2020. The program, “Opening Doors” is addressing the issues of the homeless veterans and thankfully has taken steps to help this demographic but without the same attention child homelessness has begun to rise. Most of the families are found to be just a mother with usually two children. The children are often under 6 years old.

Reports can link these rates with several causes: “high poverty rates, lack of affordable housing, racial disparities, challenges of single parenting, domestic violence and other traumatic experiences, and the lingering effects of the recession”. The effects of homelessness on children are traumatic. It changes the child’s brain in a way that can interfere with their learning, controlling their emotions, cognitive skills and social relationships. Children who have had to be homeless are more likely to drop out and consistently be homeless as adults.

Fixing this problem isn’t going to be easy but it’s obvious that the government needs to do something as soon as possible. The solution starts with affordable housing, education and employment opportunities for parents, comprehensive assessment of the family’s needs, identification, and education on prevention of homelessness. As well as parenting support and more research to identify “evidence-based programs and services.” It is heart breaking and inexcusable that 1 and 30 children in one of the greatest nations is homeless. It is apparent that not enough is being done about this tragic situation and that we must act soon with the rates rising as they are.

Review of "Border...."

I agree with our class mate Marc. He states that the "government needs to be more seriously addressed towards is what we call the "border"." I think he is right, he points out that Mexico has turned into a dangerous place where not even the police can be trusted. I think we can all agree that a vacation in a place with such a presence of the drug cartel doesn’t sound like a nice way to spend the summer. How ever if the point of the border is to keep out the “bad guys” and keep immigration under control we need to think again. The border is a complete joke! Who thinks that an incomplete 11 foot wall is a good border system? Not some one with a 12 foot ladder or a "coyote" that for a fee will smuggle you across the border. Marc talks about the fact that "more than 47,000 unaccompanied children have crossed the border". I don't know if it’s more heart breaking that these children are wandering over here all by themselves or that things are so bad in Mexico that they feel the danger of crossing the border alone is worth it. 

We spend a lot of time worrying about things overseas, which within reason is good, but we don't spend much time worrying about our own issues. I completely agree with Marc and I think especially as some one that lives so close to the border that more money, effort and thought is needed to go into it.

 I really like the lack of fluff in this commentary and how to the point it is. I think another statistic like the example with the unaccompanied children would have strengthened the point. That statistic really pulled together and strengthened the last part of the writing as well as letting the author end on a strong point.

Minimum Wage: Why can't I live comfortably too?

The topic of minimum wage is not as controversial as gay rights or as dangerous as gun control but I feel it needs to be addressed. In my opinion minimum wage has gotten out of control and seriously needs to be discussed. I understand that we all can’t start out making millions but I think that every one should be able to support themselves comfortably.

I have lived on my own since a young age and can tell you all about how difficult it is to support yourself on minimum wage. I’ll also tell you that making less than 8 dollars an hour while paying rent will leave you very hungry. Unless of course you can find roommates or receive government assistance but it’s pretty difficult to make it on your own with minimum wage. It’s near impossible to get a good paying job without a degree or some sort of learned trade. If I can barely keep from becoming homeless how am I supposed to pay for school? Besides that what is the quality of life like for some one who works endlessly and still can’t afford cost of living? I’ll tell you from experience that it’s pretty disheartening. There has to be a way to allow minimum wage to keep up with living expenses.

People expect that those who earn minimum wage are teenagers starting out with their first job but that is not the case, according to epi.org 88% of these workers are 20 years or older. If minimum wage is really for those who are just starting out that statistic glaringly states other wise. At this point when our own President states “In the richest nation on earth, nobody who works full-time should have to live in poverty.” it really shows how much attention this topic really needs. Obama also reminds us that minimum wage is “20% less than when Reagan was in office” which is shocking when you think about the inflation of living expenses since then.

Governor Chris Christie says he’s “tired” of hearing about minimum wage, I’m sure people who work for these wages and still can’t keep up with daily expenses are “tired” too. It absolutely sickness me to think that there are people who believe that I don’t work hard enough to feed, house and occasionally enjoy myself. Hopefully it can be agreed upon that some thing needs to be done about minimum wage.

Disturbing case brings up disturbing point about our justice system.

I found a disturbing article on The New York Time's website by their Editorial Board. The board consists of 19 journalists who claim to have “wide-ranging areas of expertise” several specialize in law, criminal justice and legal affairs. The article explains the tragic case of a young girl, Sabrina Buie, being raped, beaten and then suffocated. The men convicted were Henry Lee McCollum who was 19 at the time and his half brother Leon Brown who was 15. The police quickly received confessions from both the boys. Later they were found to be false confessions received under duress, but not before both men spent decades in prison. The article states "The exoneration of two North Carolina men- who spent 30 years in prison-provides a textbook example of so much that is broken in the American justice system." I completely agree with the author.

            This past Tuesday a North Carolina state judge freed the brothers after several pieces of evidence proved their innocence. These had never been turned over to defense lawyers and if they had been would have been able to convict Buie's murderer. A DNA covered cigarette at the scene would have convicted Roscoe Artis.  Currently he is serving life for a very similar murder committed not but a few weeks after Buie's murder. No physical evidence tied McCollum or Brown to the case and their statements were recently found to be false. There was even a request in to have a finger print that was found at the scene to be run against Artis's print. I feel it should be stated that by this time Artis already had a long history of sexually assaulting women.
            Thankfully the North Carolina Innocence Inquiry Commission got their hands on this case and found the inconsistencies which led to the brother’s recent release. Now McCollum and Brown whom are both mentally handicapped have to assimilate to living with the rest of society. Unfortunately in my opinion the boys spent their most critical years in prison and will have a very hard time incorporating themselves in to the real world.

The author states in regards to the innocent "How many more remain on death row today? Can the American people be assured that none will be killed by the state? For this reason alone, the death penalty must end." I agree. I think that until we have a fool proof justice system it is unfair to send possibly innocent people to their death when there are records of wrongly convicted people out there. I think every one in America should be concerned about the content of this article but I think it more geared toward liberals. However I think that until we quit sending people to prison based on uncertain evidence, racial prejudices and false confessions we have no right to be killing possibly innocent people.

CDC Director on Isolation of West Africa

I’m sure with the first diagnosed case of Ebola in the United States, especially being so close to home, we have all been thinking about this terrible disease. I have been looking for articles of what I need to know about the disease as well as plans on containment. However Newsweek provided me with an article not just with this information but also a counter argument as well from the Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Dr. Tom Frieden. In this article he is quoted from a new debriefing to the American public.

            Dr. Tom Frieden states a different solution to what many feel is necessary; isolation and containment. He claims it is in the United States best interest “not to seal off those countries but to provide services to contain the disease there.” In regards to Western Africa sealing off the country will make it difficult to treat the disease therefore making it possible for Ebola to run rampant and spread. He is confident that the United States can contain its Ebola outbreak through certain precautions.

As of right now the family of Thomas Duncan, he was the first to be diagnosed with Ebola in the United States, has been ordered to stay at home by the state of Texas. They also have law enforcement stationed outside their apartment. They are monitored and have groceries delivered to them while Duncan is hospitalized. Dr. Frieden claims that there are “systems in place” to prevent out break in the United States. The article unfortunately does not let us know about these.

            I happen to agree with Dr. Frieden, I think he is a good candidate to help make these decisions due to his title as well as his experience in the field. I also think that with containment alone the problem will only worsen. I personally think that we do not comprehend of how huge Africa is; we have to realize that this is not just affecting a few cities there, but several countries! Not to mention that this disease kills in a very painful and disturbing manner. I agree that with containment and treatment of the disease a worldwide epidemic can be avoided. Leaving another country sealed off to fester and fend for themselves seems to be inhumane. Dr. Frieden also says that containment of the West African Countries would be considered "quick, simple—and wrong."