Welcome to Violent America: Est 1776

          For my critic I choose Donkeys and Elephants. For the past few months it has been very rough to watch the news because of all of the racial tension between the police and minorities. That being said it’s no secret with what has been going on with the city of Baltimore. In Mr. Ybarra’s blog he mentions the riots that have been going in Baltimore and that its people are fed up of feeling unequal. He even links the Baltimore riots to the Los Angeles riot of 1992 were Rodney King was beaten by the police and was captured on camera. I find this link very interesting because now thinking about it a lot of people on that day of the Los Angeles riot were destroying a lot of property as well as looting many stores. I can even think of going all the back as 1773 of the Boston tea party. The people decided to disguise themselves as Indians so they could sneak into a British ship so they could throw out cargo of tea. They did this because they were tired of paying high taxes as well as being treated as second rate citizens. In a way when people want to get their point across they look towards what could get anyone’s attention and that is to cause some destruction. Mr. Ybarra continues to say that destroying where you live doesn’t resolve a thing as well as looting. With that I agree because at the end of the day the only way the city will be able to pay for the damages are through the people paying taxes. I do agree with Mr. Ybarra complaining that the news isn’t covering enough of the peaceful riots because if all you’re doing is showing the violence of the city then you make it seem that everyone is reacting the same way. Hopefully though we can wake up one day and acknowledge that we need each other and that racial discrimination can be a thing of the past.

The Wild Wild West

In my last critique I took a defense towards responsible people to open carry fire arms because it’s proven that guns don’t kill people that people kill people. But after recently reading an article on CNN, “Capitol cops left guns in bathroom stalls” I said, you have to be kidding me! What is the point for citizens to carry a fire arm if people like the police can’t seem to remember where they had placed their weapon? Are we ready to have more fire arms on the streets if people keep misplacing them?

According to the article on CNN, there were two incidents in which one involved on officers leaving their Glock pistols in bathroom stalls. The other one accrued when a member of House Speaker John Boehner’s police detail left a gun after using a toilet in the speaker's suite of offices in the Capitol. The guns was loaded and found by a young child, two congressional sources told CNN. Again, Are you kidding me! In an article on Slate.com, it says that The United States accounts for nearly 75 percent of all children murdered in the developed world. Children between the ages of 5 and 14 in the United States are 17 times more likely to be murdered by firearms than children in other industrialized nations.

           We are fortune to live in a country that allows us to have freedom, but after hearing about these recent actions it makes me hesitant if we’re ready to carry fire arms around. I would be open towards the idea in people carrying fire arms if they were safer, as in the only way the gun could fire is if the person registered towards it was holding it.

Everyone is a Critic...Even myself

For my critique I choose Government: For Us orAgainst Us, I’m not a gun owner but to have the idea of people around me either in the classroom or at work really has my attention. I liked from the start that she states that guns don’t have a mind of their own and go on these rampages that have happened in the past like the Columbine or the Sandy Hook shootings. As much as we depend on the police, there are times like these unplanned events that could be prevented if responsible individuals have a firearm with them. Another thing that I liked was that she included the bill that will allow for this to happen with a few exceptions like the holder being 21 and up, taking a class, and passing a background check. Studies did show when it came to these school shootings that the gun holders had some an accusation with a psychotic problem so having these background checks would defiantly be crucial. Now the only thing I don’t like about this idea is that now there is the potential of anywhere I go someone will have a firearm with them and that makes me uncomfortable only because I don’t know that stranger or what their motive could be. Recently I saw a video about an 18 year old trying to develop a safe gun were in able to fire it uses a fingerprint scanner so only the carrier can use it. This could prevent accidental deaths as well as mass shootings from happening which would persuade people that guns really don’t kill people, people kill people.  

The Struggle Continues

Late afternoon today MSNBC released an article called “Economic recovery? Not for Ferguson or BlackAmerica.” In the article author Jane C. Timm explains that President Obama declared “with strong job creation and rising wages, we’ve risen from recession.” Yet, for Ferguson, Missouri and black America the recovery still hasn’t arrive. Connie Razza, who is the Director of Strategic Research & Technology at the Center for Popular Democracy’s, told MSNBC that “Black unemployment rates are still at the height of the national unemployment rates during the Great Recession.” Despite American unemployment is down to 5.5 percent, Black unemployment is at 10.4 percent. According to the PEW research center, Blacks have long faced unemployment rates that are double those of white workers all the way back since 1954. It even stats that the recession has hurt Black America, and the St. Louis region, particularly hard. “It’s a recession of wealth in the sense that a whole lot of homes in Ferguson are still under water.” Dave Robertson, a political science professor at the University of Missouri at St. Louis, told msnbc. “In places like Ferguson, it’s not coming back quickly. It’s not just unemployment, its poor wages, it’s the underemployment, and it’s the part-time work.”

From reading article the author stats, despite of the growth of the economy black Americans are still living in the outside of the success of the better United States. Despite black Americans having high unemployment rates there was a study that showed it has been high for awhile, but it goes further than that. It goes from not having enough money to survive for themselves and their family because of low wages. It also goes to say they’re not working long enough hours to make a living. I’d say the author did an excellent job tackling the issue with facts backing her up. What also helps her out were the people that were interviewed that know how rough it has been for people trying to live in these conditions. 

House Republicans Call One-Week Timeout on Department of Homeland Security Shutdown Drama

Earlier today the Huffington Post an article about the Department of Homeland Security. The House of Representatives voted to avert a shutdown of the Department of Homeland security. This accrued because there was a split decision between Republicans in the House and Senate, if they should choose to help pass a bill that can help up to 4 million illegal immigrants or to hold their ground and saying no to the bill. Although the legislation passed the senate 68 to 31, to keep Homeland security running for one more week, some republicans believe that killing the bill would be futile. Not all faith was lost though as Speaker John Boehner had tried to persuade those who were still on the fence of the vote, only to see 52 Republicans (from his own party) join the majority of Democrats. The House Republicans had hoped for three weeks in persuading senators to go to a conference on the Department of Homeland Security bill, but now it comes to next week if the bill gets passed or not. In this article the author really showed that there is a lot of dysfunction between the republicans and sees it amusing. Even the fact that Speaker John Boehner had hoped for three week continuation of the debate, his own members voted along side with the Democrats, showing people have changed their views on immigrants and there can be a way for undocumented illegal immigrants to live in this country. If I could change the heading for the author to summarize the story it would be “Republican’s final huddle as the Immigrates are here.”