Death Penalty is Unconstitutional (Stage 5)

     People have killed one another since the very existence of humanity. Therefore, I see the act of punishing another by death as uncivilized. The Death Penalty has been around for many ages and it's something that must be stopped. The act in itself seems inhumane when you think about it. We're not wild animals. We're intelligent beings that are able to comprehend the fact that taking another life is not right. Not only that, but personally I think that the Death Penalty is a form of "cruel and unusual punishment" that is strictly prohibited based on the 8th Amendment. Therefore, this penalty can be seen as unconstitutional.

     Another downside is the wasted money spent on the process of a Death penalty. We could be using that money for other forms of crime control but instead we focus it on a single individual and determining whether they live or die. Then there comes the other downside which is human error. Sometimes an innocent person is wrongfully convicted and thus is wrongfully punished. With the Death Penalty, there is no going back if there was a mistake determining the person who committed the crime.

     I do understand that some people seek justice and turn to the Death Penalty for that. It might be that the criminal killed one of their loved ones. I understand the hatred they must feel towards that person, but we all need to stay strong and not go down to the criminal's level where we resort to killing someone. Justice can be achieved through other ways. We don't have to kill one another. We don't live in the past anymore. We don't have to practice such barbaric methods of punishment.

Response to "Guns and Politics in The United States"(Stage 8)

     I agree with my classmate's post on his blog, "Guns and Politics in the United States", mostly because people in general don't have necessary experience to handle weapons. Like my classmate stated, most people believe that they are able to defend themselves if they were able to carry a weapon on them. However, not everything goes out as you want it to. There are times when the person carrying the weapon to defend themselves, might not be able to shoot the attacker at the heat of the moment. A problem with that is, that you'll only bring attention to yourself and therefore expose yourself to even more danger. Let's say that the defender does decide to shoot at the suspect. It's not a guarantee that the bullet will hit. There's slight chance it'll miss and maybe even hurt another person because of the missed shot.

     My classmate also brings in another good point about people not having a successful attack on a mass of people because they are unable to receive a weapon. Here in the US, our mass shootings have taken the lives of many poor innocent citizens. If the killers were unable to have those guns in the first place, then we would have lost less lives or perhaps prevent any life from being taken away. One last thing I would like to add to the argument is the fact that most people, including myself would feel rather uncomfromtable if someone around them was carrying a gun on them. Even if they claim that it's for self defense, you never really know what could happen and to you, they're some random stranger that just happens to be close to you. Most people don't trust random strangers, so arguebly you wouldn't trust someone that well if they had a gun on them. At the end of day, I don't think it's worth the risk to allow citizens to carry guns

                                  Original Editorial #2

     For the longest time, Americans have accepted the fact that we should remain with the system of the Electoral College. However, the system has clearly shown us its flaws and has failed us multiple times. It has ran its course and the time for a new system is now.
     Many Americans like myself were displeased with the outcome of the election. Sadly however, some people cannot comprehend the fact that the popular vote does not automatically determine who is the President, rather it's whichever candidate reaches 270 electoral votes that determines the winner. Then that opens another world of problems, and that is the issue of Gerrymandering and the representation we have on our districts. Sadly, most Americans are not well educated to know these issues. Perhaps media can help solve the problem by educating the general public, but we all know that won't happen.
     I've also come to notice that people are protesting or denying who our president is. While I do support people's involvement in politics and their right to protest, I think we should rather shift our focus on to protesting a new system of voting. What better time to change out system than now. At a time when millions of Americans felt cheated out of their vote. At a time when we've experienced another failure in the Electoral College. Even though the opposing opponent had won the popular vote, they ended up losing. This isn't the first time this has happened. Back in the 2000 election, President George W. Bush had won the election even though he did not win the popular vote.
    Then comes the question of what should we replace the Electoral College system with? The answer isn't so simple, and many have argued on what we can replace it with. We certainly can't do direct democracy because the general population of the US is rather stupid when it comes to politics. What we could do, is apply the rule of the shortest line method. That way, we would be able to eliminate the issue of Gerrymandering and the other issue of unequal representation of our districts. That way, we won't have any parties have any kind of advantages or disadvantages. Of course, this new method isn't the best solution there is, but it's certainly an improvement.
     Now is the time to act, It's time to act  as one and make our voice be heard to our government. The Electoral College can't stay here forever. As we continue to develop and grow as a society, we will need better or upgraded systems to keep up with out developments. However, we shouldn't waste time and push it off to the side, the best chance we have of making a change is now.