Stage Eight: Second Comment

As said in my colleague's blog, I agree that we should protect and honor the First Amendment right for every American citizen. People should not be condemned because of their religion. Just because they have a different belief system is no means to regard them as subordinates. People have always judged groups based on the extremists of those groups, when in reality the majority of the people are well mannered and civil. As we see almost on a weekly bases, Muslims are severely under attack by anti-Muslim propaganda, blaming all those who follow the religion for  September 11, 2001. We have seen anti-Muslim practices increased over the last few years from inappropriate slurs, to the preacher that burned to Koran publicly. this public indecency has not only not been told to quit, but rather enforced by favoring those people who speak ill about the Islamic religion. As my colleague states, "we have settled on a scapegoat." Americans are blaming Muslims for many of our country's issues, when in reality, the elites who are doing the name-calling, are the ones to blame. Our diversity is even growing, the census has proved that we are becoming more diverse in different ways. We should honor this standing achievement because in most countries, those minorities would be prosecuted just for being different. How can we call ourselves Americans when we are doing the exact same thing? How is it that America prides its self on being the country of immigrants when we do not accept them for equals?

Stage Seven: Second Editorial

The energy crisis in America has escalated to staggering heights in the past few years. Even these past few months the price of oil, and in return gasoline, has sky rocketed because of the conflicts in the Middle East. As every major politician has said, America's dependencies on foreign oil is too high. But can we really become a self-sufficient country for energy? In my opinion, American will always depend on foreign oil. The amount of dependency is debatable. For years America has researched other energy sources such as wind, solar and nuclear power. But most other energy sources are insufficient to undertake the majority of America's population. While driving out into more rural areas of Texas, one will cross many small oil drills. They might be still in production but most of the drills are at a standstill. We are depleting the natural resource that we consider so vital to our everyday lives and we do not even realize it. Instead of seeing used up oil drills, I would like to see wind mills producing energy. In the plains of Texas there is bound to be enough wind that we should at least power some of the smaller towns with. Granted that wind energy is not very reliable, it could at least cut some of the need of oil. Solar energy is also unreliable due to weather. But like wind energy it can help cut the need of oil or gasoline. We see more solar panels around than we do wind mills, for example the school limit signs, on houses, even some calculators are solar powered. Living in Texas all of my life, I can vouch that we get enough sun to produce massive amounts of energy to help our houses running. Solar energy might not be the wisest of uses in Washington state or Oregon, but in some parts of the country I truly believe that it can help reduce our energy crisis. With nuclear power there comes more risk. It is expensive as well as dangerous to produce. With the meltdown of the power plant in Japan, and all the chemicals pouring into the Pacific Ocean, it is hard to stand up for this energy source when it is causing so much damage. Like I said, there are more risks, but the power it produces is so much more compared to wind and solar energy. Nuclear power has the capability to help larger cities for longer periods of time.

Nuclear, wind and solar power are great hopes in reducing our energy crisis and dependencies on foreign oil to fuel most of the country.

Stage Six: Comment on Colleagues

As my colleague states in her blog, I also believe that marijuana should be legalized. Julie Warlick brings up many positive things about marijuana effecting the economy, jails and criminals, medical benefits, as well as stating how it could be regulated. She says that if marijuana is legalized and taxed around where alcohol and tobacco are taxed then there would be a massive revenue to decrease the country's debit. There have been many studies proving this to be true. Since California legalized marijuana they have seen a major rise in the economy. Warlick continues to talk about how that there would be less criminals in our jails so less expense for prisons and more time for the police to worry about more serious crime. I certainly agree that we would not have to spend more taxes on prisons because of marijuana, as well as legalization would make it so there would be less "criminals". As for the medical benefits of marijuana, it is shown to help glaucoma, cancer patients and depression. I feel that if people with serious illnesses benefit from marijuana it should not be illegal. It does not cure the disease, but it helps the patients cope with their illness. Warlick even describes how marijuana can be regulated. She brings to the table that the FDA can help regulate proportions and keep it at a safe strength. She also suggests that there could be an age limit like alcohol and tobacco. I feel that the age limit is a good idea. Although teenagers are the ones who smoke most often, I think that if we enforce the limit that we can keep marijuana safe for everybody.