Dead Teen Walking

If a person is convicted, without one ounce of doubt and they admit to it, of killing someone, place them on death row, but if a child is placed on death row, I think it's a little bit much.  As outsiders looking in, we have no idea what their childhood was like.  How were they treated as a child, did they suffer abuse of any kind, what went on in their life that would make them kill someone? Those are questions that only months and years of interrogating and investigating would find out.  If a child killed someone, I think the maximum punishment would be to put them in prison.  

From reviewing and reading White Fang I came up with my conclusion to that answer.  Had those children been put in a good home, without any kind of abuse or in a home with rules and discipline, the outcome would probably be totally different.  I don't think a kid in a good home will kill someone when they are young just because.  A child will probably kill someone when they are young when they are raised in a good home, with support, rules and a good family.  Look at White Fang.  When he was placed in the care of Beauty Smith and Gray Beaver, he was a bad dog.  He was vicious and ferocious.  Nobody wanted to go by him or be associated with him.  Now place him in his home with Scott.  There's a very different dog at hand.  All he needed was a little guidance and discipline to know what was right and what was wrong.  Now, at the end of the book, he's a good dog.  He can be with people and can live a great life.

Now back to the article.  Had the lives of the children being put on death row been better, they most likely wouldn't be in the situation they are in now.  They probably wouldn't have committed the murderous crimes and wouldn't be sitting on death row waiting for their appeal or execution date.  The surroundings have everything to do with how someone will act, let it be people or animals.  Place them in a bad situation and they will be bad; place them in a good situation and they will be good.

Is It Justifiable to Put Suspected Terrorists under Great Physical Distress?

I agree with the author of "The Truth about Torture," Charles Krauthammer, and I also believe that he had a better written article about this topic.  I agree with his point about the three types of military prisoners.  The first group is the average soldier captured from battle.  They are serving their country, just like our soldiers are serving ours, so they are entitled to full, ethical treatment without the use of torture; after all, they aren't planning to blow anything up or crash into any buildings.  The second group is the captured terrorist.  They aren't entitled to the equal rights.  They make a living off of killing and harming people; it's their profession, as sick as that sounds.  I believe that in that case, with the captured terrorists, that it is okay to use torture to get information from them.  Are we going to let the terrorist have the full benefits of being a captured prisoner? Absolutely not.  If they are given the chance to have website, like in 1993, how do we know what they are posting on the web? Are they sending information to other terrorists or what? They shouldn't be able to do that.  Instead, we should treat them in the same way they treat others.  We should be able to use methods of torture to gain information from them and keep our country safe.  The third group is the terrorist with information.  They are the ones that we can most definitely use our methods on.  If they have information, we need it to keep our country safe and to find where other terrorists are.  I completely agree with Charles and his article.  We do need to go to extreme measures with terrorists to gain information.  It can't be like the 1993 World Trade Center attack where they were brought to justice and were able to access the internet and have warm cells.  It just can't be like that if we expect to keep our country safe.

What Makes Us Moral

My favorite part of the whole article was the scenario about the out-of-control train. It really made me think about what I would do. If I were put into that situation, what I'd try to do would be to tell the guy on the siding to flip the switch and quickly jump back or forward to safety; then all six people would be alive. I don't know what I'd do if I had to choose between the two situations presented in the article...save the five people on my side of the tracks or save the man on the other side. This is a very tough situation and I hope I'm never faced with it; my reaction would be one of the moment.
I also like the section about the apes in the article; there are actually things that we as humans can learn from them. The give-and-take method that they use really gives the group a thriving quality. We could use something like that in our society; instead of going against each other, we could work together and thrive. I also liked the part where de Waal says that animals have rules that everyone must follow and the community enforces that. We could really use that in our society today. Instead of allowing some people to break the rules, everyone should have to follow them, and the rules should be enforced. This article gives a lot of good information that us as humans could learn from animals.
This was a very interesting article and really made me think about what I'd do in some of the situations mentioned in the article. I actually enjoyed reading this article.

One Day that Changed America

I was in 5th grade in 2001, and I remember going to school that cool September morning of the 11th. Everyone seemed really quiet and sad, and I had no idea why. I remember walking into my classroom and hearing about the World Trade Centers crashing to the ground. I had absolutely no idea what was going on. What were the Trade Centers? Where were they? How did this happen in our country? WHY?
When I got home that day, I remember watching the news about the Trade Centers. Every television station was in New York going over what had happened. Everyone was speculating how and why this could have happened. In later days and weeks, the culprits were figured out. This day, and the days and years after it, have affected our country dramatically. We have new acts, security and obviously, we are now in a war. This day is a day that will never be forgotten, along with the people who died in the planes, Trade Centers, Pentagon, and field where the planes hit. It was a sad day that no one will ever forget.