Should the Death Penalty be Abolished?

The argument on whether or not the Death Penalty should be abolished or continued has been questioned and spoken about for years. The information that I have accumulated states valid reasons as to why execution should not be allowed. These reasons include wrongful executions, cost, and harm to the prison workers. The Troy Davis Story is an great example of wrongful executions, he was an innocent person who was accused of a crime that he did not commit. He and a friend by name of Sylvester Coles went to the store that night, Sylvester got into an altercation with a homeless man. An off-duty cop Mark McPhail came to resolve the issue and ended up being shot and killed. Although there were witnesses who saw Cole commit the crime Troy Davis was still convicted; in the article it stated, “Coles admitted to carrying a .38 that night and several other witnesses implicated Coles as the shooter. Yet Coles was never treated as a suspect. Davis was convicted of murder based on scant physical evidence and the testimony of nine witnesses, seven of whom later recanted their testimony or admitted it was false” (Langley). Troy Davis was sadly executed years later, a great way to prevent any wrongful executions from happening would be to get rid of the death penalty all together. A man by the name of Freddie Lee Pitts was also accused of a crime he did not commit he stated, “You can release a man from jail but you can’t release him from the grave” (Pitts). Luckily for Freddie they actually caught the right person and released him from death row. Freddie Pitts was one of very few who have been accused of a crime they did not commit and exonerated from death row.

The next reason people wish for the death penalty to be abolish is because of the cost/expenses. The death penalty is indeed expensive and most people aren’t t too happy about the funds for it being taken out of their taxes. They believe that its unnecessary spending In the NCADP article it stated, “Funding for the death penalty could be redirected to support expanded services for victims and their families, including grief counseling, funeral costs, school tuition scholarships or grants for children of murdered parents, paid leave from work to attend court proceedings, crime scene cleanup, emergency funds, and medical treatment” (ncadp.org). Not only is it unnecessary money being spend but it’s also harmful to the employees at the prisons. These executions take awful tolls on the prison workers especially those that are in the room and directly hands on. One man by the name of Ron McAndrew who happens to be a retired Warden at Florida State Prison mentioned how sometimes at night he would wake up and envision executed inmates on the edge of his bed. Mr. McAndrew was not the only worker having nightmares and flashbacks of the execution, more workers confessed their experiences. Being a part of a job like this force you to realize that you are knowingly participating in killing another human being and most people cannot handle that kind of pressure. Mr. Jerry Givens who is a retired Executioner at the Virginia Department of Corrections quoted, “If you let the judge be the executioner, I think he would give a second thought about sending somebody to be executed” (Givens). I too believe that they would look at things a little different if the shoe was on the other foot, my judges probably couldn’t even imagine what these people have to live with.

If you want to read my about Abolishing the Death penalty click this link AbolishTheDeathPenalty

My favorite Movie

I have so many favorite movies but the first one that came to my mind was “Clueless”. Clueless is a movie that was released in 1995 based on a rich, stylish, hip teenager named “Cher Horowitz”. She lives in Beverly Hills with her father who is a successful lawyer, her mother died when she was an infant after a bad surgery. Cher is juggling school, growing up, boys and having a social life. This pretty much sums up what most high school girls are facing and just about anybody can relate to a character in this movie disregarding the fact that they are rich. Alicia Silverstone plays the character “Cher” and her bestfriend “Dionne” is played by Stacey Dash, you’ll mainly see them both through out the movie.

I love everything about “Clueless” the style, the slang, the locations and how well each character played their role. The styles in each of the scenes were amazing, Cher and her best friend Dionne served looks throughout the entire movie. I’m in love with the whole 90’s era so pretty much everything in this movie was cool to me, even the huge flip phones and pagers. I feel like I relate most to the character Cher because she’s dramatic, likes to have fun, and nonchalant but yet still care about her grades, friends, and family. In high school this was literally all I cared about and even now I’m still carefree just with slightly more responsibility which is fine because that comes with growing up. Being that Cher is the daughter of a lawyer she has developed extensive conversation skills. She is very social and can pretty much talk herself out of anything, she even convinced her teacher to give her an “A” on her report card. Also I love how realistic they made the characters in the movie, the accuracy in the school scene when Cher and half the girls in her gym class tried to talk their way out of playing softball, that was so me. I can honestly watch “Clueless” just about every day and not get tired of it.

On Sunday February 12^th the 59^th Annual Grammy Awards ceremony was aired and quickly became the most talked about show that night. Most people turned their attention to the “Album of the Year” category when they heard the nominees and the winner being announced. Adele’s “25” album was announced as the winner over Beyoncé’s “Lemonade” album and social media went wild. People were confused as to how Adele won over Beyoncé when “Lemonade” was not only a great album; it came with visuals, a message, and not to mention it was a secret album. Beyoncé did not give any warnings meaning there were no signs, no interviews were made, or album promotions and she still topped the charts when her album was released. When things weren’t adding up the people started to question the voters that were in charge of declaring the winner in the category. The next morning an article was released and confirmed how unaware the voters were, in the article it stated “The members of the Recording Academy, who decide which musicians receive Grammy’s, aren’t necessarily the most diverse group of individuals, critics often claim. One Grammy voter told Billboard earlier this month that many voters are older white males, while others are out of touch with some of the newer genres, therefore limiting the artists awarded” (Hautman). Judging by the given information it would be safe to say that the votes are indeed a little unfair.

There are many things that can make voting unfair when it comes to music but in this case it would be the lack of knowledge and voters that only like one genre/sound. A grammy voter by the name of Rob Kenner explained how unfair the voting is and how he chose to go about it. In the article Rob quoted, “The vast majority of the nominations are chosen by people who have little real expertise in a given field. I refrained from voting in heavy metal and classical because I know very little about those genres. But I could have if I wanted to, and that strikes me as a problem” (Kenner). Now that articles are surfacing about the unfairness, people began questioning if this is history repeating itself racially. In this article Nicholas stated, “The Grammys have historically overlooked black artist through the years. The last black artist to win Album of the Year was Herbie Hancock in 2008. The last black woman? Lauryn Hill in 1999” (Hautman). Although race may not be the case, it became a popular question after hearing about what goes on behind the scene.

Adele and Beyoncé both had great albums and according to the billboards they both held the number one title when their albums were released. However, their strategies were a bit different and could have been the reason why “Lemonade” did not win. Beyoncé did a more modern day release and made it exclusive to hear; she released her album on Tidal and blocked any other sites from downloading it as well as any physical copies being made. Adele on the other hand did the opposite in the article it stated, “It’s also possible that voters simply appreciated the old-school release of Adele’s 25. The album was originally sold only as a physical CD and on digital retailers, such as iTunes, rather than streaming platforms like Spotify and Tidal. The strategy worked as Adele sold nearly 7.5 million units by the end of 2015, a near impossible feat in today’s streaming age” (Hautman). Being that most of the voters were older white males made a little more since to me than any of the other accusations. There is a possibility that they are just a little out of touch with “Lemonade”, it is an album made to empower women.

If you want to read more here is the link to the article usmagazinearticle .

Does Drawing out your Future actually work?

In this Ted talk Patti Dobrowolski proved that drawing out your future and training your brain works; you can change your reality into your dream life in just three bold steps. Before continuing on the steps she explained what the odds were and the research showed that you making a change in your life is 9 to 1, even if your life depended on it. She then continued on to explain how we can beat those odds “In order to achieve it you have to see it, believe it and then graciously ask and train your brain to help you execute your vision.”(Dobrowolski). The very first step is to draw out your everyday life, by you drawing a description of your life it will expose all the things you like and dislike about it, which will make it easier to correct the changes you want to make. Once you have completed that picture draw out another one but this time make it a picture of the life you wish to have. A few people would probably think this is silly but it actually helps, in the ted talk Patti told us that at Roche Pharmaceutical the president asked them to create a picture of his vision. In the video she stated “prior to having one, less than 40% of the employees understood the company’s vision and strategy. After seeing the picture, 96% people understood it and 84% noticed that what they did in everyday life aligned to the picture” (Dobrowolski). Taking the extra step drawing out your vision can help you become that much closer to the life you desire to have.

If you’re having a problem with creating your vision board try the method where you trick your brain into allowing you to dream freely. The left side of your brain is labeled as the critic side, the side that reminds you of reality and the side that tries to eliminate risk. However, this is where the tricking begins Patti quoted, “tell the left side of your brain that you’re just going to use your imagination and using your imagination activates the right side of your brain which makes you creative and filled with possibilities”(Dobrowolski). The vision of your future is already in formation you can now start making that picture come to life by adding color, emotion and imagining yourself living that life. Most people become even more determine about a goal when they can physically see progress, they start to believe that it’s possible. Pattie quoted, “Your brain actually emits serotonin and oxytocin when you draw and dream, so you feel happy, capable, creative and cool.” (Dobrowolski).The most asked questioned right now is “how can you transform your written dream into a reality?” the answer is to act on it. In order to complete these steps and beat the odds you must take action; a plan with no action is useless. In this ted talk it has been proven that drawing out your future does indeed work and you can train your brain.

How can we win the fight Against Poverty?

Most people don’t know how to take effective action when it comes to extreme poverty and hunger; they see it as a problem that is just too big for them to solve. Andrew Youn is the story teller in todays ted talk and is going to explain how we can end poverty by using three powerful levers. Andrew has been living in East Africa for about ten years now and within those ten years he detected the problem and came up with a solution. One of the major problems was of course not having any food; children need food in order to survive, function, and grow. However, there is lack of money and it causes the less fortunate severe problems, Andrew stated, “Amongst the extreme poor 1 in 3 children are permanently stunted from a lifetime of not eating enough. When that’s combined with poor health care 1 in 10 children die before they reach the age of 5 and only 1 quarter of children finish high school because they lack the fees” (Youn). In order for them to climb out of poverty they must work with what they already have. Majority of the poor are farmers and farmers are the number one source of income also making them the top leverage that can help overcome poverty. In the ted talk Andrew stated, “When more farmers become productive more than half the world’s poor earn more money and climb out of poverty” (Youn). Once the farmers become productive they can earn money, overcome poverty, and help feed their community.

The second powerful leverage on the list is Humanity, humanity is “already knowing the tools to end poverty” (Youn). The three effective tools to end poverty are Hybrid seed, Fertilizer, and Planting practice; they are also known as the three basic factors of farming. For those who have access or can find access to these tools can now start grown food and providing for their family and community. However, there is a downfall to this particular lever there are people who can’t get the tools they need and there are people who can’t physically do the work. Most people who can’t physically work are the elderly people, being that this may be many of the poor’s problem they would have to rely on their family to help provide and/or delivery. Andrew quoted “Wherever the world’s companies governments and nonprofits setup delivery networks for life improving goods we eliminate poverty” (Youn). Delivery is the last powerful leverage that Andrew figured will help end world poverty. Andrew has his own organization called “One Acre Fund” and he supplies farmers with tools they need to help them earn money. As they earn money they start to pay back the organization while still being able to keep some of the money to invest in their farming business. In the ted talk Andrew stated, “We need more visionary philanthropies and global leaders who would take problems in human development and lead humanity to wipe them off the face of the planet” (Youn). This ted talk has proven that it is a way to overcome and fight against poverty.