Blog Stage 7

Whether we legalize marijuana or not, many people in the world are still going to use it. Many people paint marijuana as the worst thing in America, but it is slowly taking over many states including Texas. Texas is about to get its first marijuana dispensary, which in my opinion is a huge step. It is clear that marijuana may sometimes have negative effects on people but so does tobacco and alcohol, but I don't see anyone talking about taking those things away from us. It has been years since marijuana has been legalized in Colorado and according to the Colorado Bureau of Investigation, the state saw a decrease of 2.5 percent in the crime rate. Homicides also dropped more than 50 percent along with many other things such as burglaries, automobile break-ins, and sexual assaults. The only problem with legalizing marijuana in Colorado is the increase in arrests for public display and public consumption of marijuana, which technically they aren't harming anyone. Although the Compassionate Use Act was signed by Greg Abbott, there are many limitations which makes it very hard for people to even use marijuana for medical purposes. The prescription dosage only allows a low THC level, which is only 0.5 percent. Marijuana isn't just used for people to get high when one feels like it, it is also used for many people that are in severe pain and seizures. People must stop generalizing marijuana and realize that it can also help people who are in need to get out of severe pain.

Blog Stage 6

In response to one of my fellow classmate's blog posts, , I would like to state my opposing opinion. For starters a common misconceptions is that birth control is free; however, no birth control is free. See free birth control is free when covered by insurances or federal programs but even then one has to pay 30 to 250 dollars for a birth control prescription from a doctor or nurse. Now to address the religious right to not believe in contraception. Most people against birth control and condoms also oppose a women right to abort. Making them pro life, meaning they believe in a fetuses right to live, if morals are aligned birth control is preventing countless unnecessary abortions. Meaning there tax payer money is being spent well, eventually preventing hundreds if not thousands of murders. Lets say someone still isn't convinced that there tax payer money should be helping fund safe sex, well now we should address crazier ways our tax payer money is being spent. For example our government is not funding safe sex but instead funding fun sex, long lasting sex, in 2014 the U.S. department of defense spent 125.84 million dollars on drugs for erectile dysfunction such as viagra. I don't know about you but Viagra doesn't help an average American such as myself, but birth control does. Birth control helps prevent people from birthing babies they can't afford to raise who will eventually go into the system and continue to live off the tax payers money. I believe the argument should be for a voting say in what our tax payer money is funded into, instead of voting against affordable birth control.

http://heathersusgovernment.blogspot.com

Blog Stage 5

            As a normal person in the world, many people may not have time to go out and vote. Everyone wants their voice to be heard whether they say it or not. Making Election Day a national holiday will make it easier for Americans to go out and vote.

            Although the total voter turnout rates from 2014-2016 have increased to a little over 58 percent of eligible voters, we can possibly make this number go up by making Election Day and national holiday. Yes, some people will stay home and not take advantage of this but we should be doing everything in our power to give everyone the chance to vote. Even though the total voter turnout from the 2016 election is more than 50 percent, we should not be pleased with this number. We should be trying to get the number as high as we can. Some people may not have the chance to make time for this. People have jobs and may not be able to get off in time to go vote.      

Some may argue that making Election Day a national holiday may be way too expensive but we don’t know if the total voter turnout will drop drastically in the near future. If this were to happen it would be a shot in the dark. Everyone should have the right to have their voice to be heard. Having a holiday specifically for voting can give people an equitable chance to have their voices heard. Making Election Day a national holiday will only help us in the long run and give people the chance to participate. 

Blog Stage 4

In the New York Times, Roxane Gay published the article, "Dear Men: It's You, Too". Roxane is an associate professor at Purdue University, who seems pretty credible. In this article Roxane argues that men need to take rape more serious and some woman need to stop brushing off rape. She says that, "accountings do little to capture the true breadth and scope of harassment and assault women face.", which is very obvious. As some may know about the Brock Turner story, Turner raped an unconscious women. he was indicted on five charges, which of the two were rape. His max prison time was 14 years but yet he was released just after a couple of months. There are many other cases similar to this and this just goes to show how poorly our world views rape .Roxane says that, "Women are being hysterical, they say. Women are being humorless. Women are being oversensitive. Woman should just dress or behave or dress differently." She also states that just because "boys will be boys", it doesn't mean that we aren't allowed to act or dress as we please. This is a clear problem that we are facing and will continue to face if we do not take this matter more serious. She says that, "Skeptics are willing to perform all kinds of mental acrobatics to avoid facing the vary stark realities of living in this world as a women". I completely agree with this because everyone seems to dance around the fact that this is an actual problem that is taken as a joke.

Blog Stage 3

In the New York Times, The Editorial Board published the article, "How Long Until We Debate Real Gun Laws?". In this editorial, The Editorial Board talks about how congress must address gun laws. They also state that Congress and Republican leaders like to beat around the bush when it comes to discussing gun laws. On Wednesday when Trump was asked about the mass shooting in Las Vegas he simply replied with, "We are not going to talk about that today". In this article it states that Republican leaders in Washington tried to blow off the public's need for someone to address this and "not to 'politicize' a tragedy by debating gun controls that might, you know, avert mass killings from happening again". I believe that that would be the right time to talk about gun control considering the mass shooting that just happened. Surprisingly, the Las Vegas mass shooting did bring attention to the Republican legislators. They were stunned about the bump stock, which is a device to fire dozens amount of rounds. Although this did cause some scrutiny, Congress has still not addressed this serious matter that the public demands. This editorial states many obvious reasons that the leaders of the U.S. are not taking the correct actions on real gun laws. It has been 481 days since the mass shooting at the Pulse Night Club in Orlando with 49 being killed and there has not been any action taken on gun laws. This article states that there has been multiple shootings more than 600 days ago and nothing has been said. Whether 58 were killed or 3 were killed, nothing has been said about real-life gun laws.

Blog Stage 2

The Los Angeles Times published an interesting article about Trumps travel ban. As some of you may know, just after a week President Trump took office, he signed an order banning any entry from the U.S. This caused some outrage at airports causing people to protest. Many of these protesters were confused and angry about this. This travel ban kept families from seeing each other, even though they had the correct documents to enter the U.S. National security advisor H.R. McMaster, said this would be "the first step into better screening". This is understandable considering all the tragic events that were going on at the time causing them to react fast. Although this ban is about to expire, there may be another one put into effect. I think this article is worth reading because it informs others who may not have much understanding on the travel ban.

http://www.latimes.com/politics/la-na-pol-travel-ban-20170921-story.html

Hello!