Abortion: Pro-life vs. Pro-choice

After looking at both the Pro-life and Pro-choice websites, I found a lot of similarities, and a lot of differences. One similarity that stuck out to me was that each website spent a lot of time away from the issue at hand to talk down the opposing side. This seemed childish to me because when people are looking at websites to find out information on abortions, they are looking for factual information to be presented to them and to see the pro's of that choice. This bad talking of the people with opposite opinions from both sites, irritated me because it went in a different direction than the issue at hand. I think that this similarity is one that each website should try to fix, and clean up. If the website is presentable and displays the pro's and con's of their option, it would be doing the right thing and helping young women make the choice that is best for them. I also saw many differences between the two websites. The pro-choice website was much more opinionated in my choice, and played off the emotions of a women and her possible situation. They tried to make the women realize the "burden" of a child if you're not ready to support and care for one. The pro-life campaign went more in depth on the factual evidence that they had, though not all of it was relevant. Each of these websites presented good information and made a impact on the way I feel about abortion today. After reading the two articles, I feel I would still have to characterize myself as pro-life. Though I would say I'm pro-life, I would allow for abortion in cases of incest and rape. This may seem wishy washy as to what side I am on becuase I am allowing some pro-choice beliefs, but this is only becuase I can't find any reason in my heart that would make a person who was forced to conception, have to have that baby. My core beliefs are still that all people are created equally and that we need to protect all people the same way, even those that are most vunerable and in the womb.

As a 17 year old, I think that the parents of a child that is under 18 years old should have to sign off that they approve of the abortion. For our entire life, our parents have been responsible for us, and have made hard decisions for us becuase they know that they are the right one. I dont feel that this decision should be any different. Many teenagers don't know what is best for them and what choices they should be making and for that reason, our parents are in charge of us. This decision is probably if not the most, one of the most important choices somebody would have to make, and because of that, our parents should be included in the decision making process.

As a male, I think that the to-be father should be notified as soon as the realization of a baby is made. The baby is as much the father's as the mother's and for the mother to make any decisions without the father's conscent or understanding is not fair. For father's to-be it is hard to be involved in the decision making because they are not the one's carrying around a baby for 9 months, but you have to remember that without the male, there would be no baby. It takes two people to concieve a baby, and for that reason the father needs to be involved from the minute a baby is known of. The right to conscent should be necessary for an abortion for a father and should be made to be had before an abortion.

The state of Illinois has an abortion ban after 12 weeks of conception. This seems fair to me. Three months is a long enough time to make the decision to have a baby or not. I agree with this law and would not like to have it changed. My opinions on abortion are that I'm pro-life. That doesn't mean that I think that other people shouldn't have their own opinions too and feel differently. In life there is a marketplace of ideas, and everyone has their own. For someone to reject and idea is to be stubborn and will not help find the best possible answer. I feel that the laws set in place are perfectly fine.

Bullying

In class we watched a film called, Bullied, which told the story of Jamie Nabozny, a kid who was bullied and harassed every day while at school. Jamie, went through very difficult times. He was yelled at, joked about, and even beaten up while at school because of his homosexuality. This caused Jamie to run away multiple times, and cause a deep depression to creep into not only his but his families life. Jamie tried to get the school involved with constant meetings Witt school officials but change never happened. Finally, Jamie decided to sue the school for failure to act upon his safety. Jamie won the case and 900,000 dollars from the school district. I think that Jamie had every right to sue the school. The presented school officials who were there to stop harassment's like the ones that Jamie faced, did nothing and said merely that, "Boys will be boys." This negligence lead to more brutality that Jamie had to face, and did not protect the students that entered the school. Any and every school is supposed to have a harm-free learning environment, and Jamie did not have a harm-free learning environment while at school. For this reason, Jamie Nabozny had every right to sue the school, for the failure to protect him from the harmful environment he faced while at school.

In class we read and talked about the Rutgers student, Tyler Clementi, who committed suicide because his roommate left a video recorder in his room while he was with another guy, to publicly out Tyler of being homosexual. Tyler's suicide has caused a huge stir and has brought the mere reality of bullying that is going on all across the world. Currently, the the roommate and another student have been charged with invasion of privacy, and authorities are considering whether to add a hate-crime charge. What seemed to be merely a joke in the eyes of the roommate, has turned into a situation where he may face charges of manslaughter, and face time in prison. This in my eyes, is a punishment that the roommate and his accomplishes should have to face. It is not okay to invade someones privacy and publicly show parts of their life they would like kept a secret. This form of electronic bullying is too prevalent in schools, and hopefully this act of injustice will be acted upon and show the consequences of bullying kids and pushing them over the edge.

After reading and writing about bullying in other schools, i was brought back to the bullying right here in DHS. Is it as bad here as it is at any other school? Yes. There is bullying that's goes on at DHS everyday. The problem is that the kids here think that if its a joke, its okay. Just because it may be a joke to one person, doesn't mean it is a joke to another. At school and out of school I was bullied by one of my best friends and he didn't realize the emotional distress he put on me. When I tried to approach him about it, he grew very defensive and said that it was my fault that i didn't understand his jokes. What he didn't understand was that his jokes were hurtful and constant. This form of bullying was one of innocence but of negligence and of the society today. Because of the constant bullying, I had to stop talking to one of my best friends, and I ha vent hung out with him since about Sophomore year of high school. Abandoning that friendship was hard but for me it was necessary, and has made me a happier person. This is just an example of all the bullying that goes on. Most of it is intent ed to be a "joke" but ends up hurting many people in the process. There are many ways though, for this to stop. Schools need to take time to not just talk about extreme bullying, but normal everyday bullying that can really affect the other person. If students could see how those "jokes" really hurt the people around them, i think it could make a difference.

Drug testing in school

“The Marion county public schools district compiled statistics on its random testing program demonstrating that drug-use among students has dropped by one-third since the program’s inception in 2004.” Since the first day I walked into Deerfield High School, teachers, parents, and even an unexpected tragedy that had an effect on so many of the student’s, has not been able to keep kids from making the wrong decisions, and using drugs. Being a senior at Deerfield, I can tell you that out of the twenty five to thirty kids in each class, I can name about twenty that have tried or currently use drugs. This sad realization has made it clear to me that drug testing is necessary in our school for kids who want to participate in extracurricular activities.
Participating in extracurricular activities is a privilege that we students have. In these extracurricular activities we are representing Deerfield High School. Because of this, I think that to be able to have these privileges, we as students should have to meet certain requirements so that we can represent our school to the best of our abilities. In my opinion, it is understandable to think that while students are under the influence they will not be representing the school to the best of their ability and actually creating a liability for the school. While at our respective sports, the school is liable for all the activities that we participate in. It is very unsafe to be participating in rigorous activities while under the influence and for this reason, the school has the right to make sure that the students are being smart and keeping themselves from dangerous situations.

Is religion a part of school?

In San Diego, Tyler Chase Harper was suspended from school for wearing a shirt that stated, "Homosexuallity is shameful." Because of this, Harper filed a law suit against the school district saying that they were in violation of his first amendment rights of freedom of speech. This action taken by Harper was a result of a bible passage that stuck out to him and he believes that because of it, " homosexual behavior is immoral, damagin to the practitioners and to human scoiety in general, and is demonstrably contrary to the teachings of the bible," which was written in Romans 1:27. Religion is aa very influential part of each and every one of our lives, and should be a part of school. It is important for each of us to know the teachings of different religions and to learn the backrounds of religions. This information is important and can help bring some people guidance they have been looking for all their life. Also, the school place is a marketplace of ideas where students can challenge themsleves and think critically about which ideas and beliefs hold true to them. By wearing his t-shirt, i believe that Mr. Harper helped bring an idea into the very active marketplace of ideas even though his words may offed others. It is important to bring vulgar ideas to the surface to question what is truly right because, "one man's vulgarity is another's lyric," and without the opposing side, choices are biased and made rationally. It is very important to have religion in school and to be learned about.

7 Days in September

The film, 7 days in September, was very moving as it gave an in depth summary of what happened on September 11th and the days after and how it affected the people of New York. In the beginning of the film they showed the planes crash into the towers and showed the magnitude that it had on the city. I hadn't see the crashes in video until the movie, and seeing them on the movie was one of the scariest things i have ever seen. Until seeing the crashes on video, i didn't fully understand how large and how much area the crashes wiped out. As you watched the buildings fall down, your heart could only dropped and your eyes can only water. It is painful to watch something so destructive happen in our own country. After watching the buildings fall down, which from this day on is something i will never forget, they showed the aftermath of the collapsed buildings. There were clouds of dust and ash everywhere and people had to hide in buildings because they couldn't breath outside it was so bad. This made me feel even worse as i could see the damage that had been done and the aftermath was just as bad as the buildings falling. This movie, 7 days in September, was very moving and made a huge impact on me as i truly understood the devastation of September 11th.

Speech Codes

After reading and learning about the speech codes, i would have to say that if i was a President of a University, my school would be a yellow light school. This is because i think that it is important to allow people to express their opinion even if it it vulgar because like in the case of Cohen vs. California, Paul Robert Cohen wore a jacket that said, "F*** the draft, and was tried for breach of peace. The courts ruled in Cohen's favor saying that one, "one man's vulgarity is another's lyric." This shows that people like Mr. Cohen should be allowed to wear vulgar shirts and clothing that do not intentionally disturb the peace. The reason that i chose to be a yellow light school though is because for instance someone wears a shirt that insults a certain race or has racial profiling, that is simply unacceptable because it directly disturbs the peace, and makes an uncomfortable and unsafe environment for some students in the community. Freedom of speech is very important, but there comes a point where people take too much advantage of their freedom of speech and should be prohibited from taking certain actions that are socially and should be legally unacceptable. The speech codes are a great thing because they allow people to speak their mind, but they are also a great thing because they help set standards for what is alright to be said and what is not alright to be said. This structure helps make everyone feel safer and feel comfortable in society.