President Candidate Muckraker

                In this article it talks about how the some people think that the United States will see the creation of a white ethno-state within the next couple decades. According to William Daniel Johnson, a Los Angeles-based lawyer, he thinks Donald Trump’s candidacy is helping us move in that direction. William Johnson also said that “whether Donald Trump is elected or not, his candidacy is a big factor in helping destroy this middle-of –the-road Republican mindset.”

                Johnson is also the chairman of the American Freedom Party which is a white nationalist political party. He also founded the PAC which he used to encourage people, voters, to turn out for Donald Trump. Trump later went on with his campaigning and shared his ideas about how he wants to deport all the eleven million illegal immigrants in the United States. Though Johnson helped Trump in different ways, he never communicated with him or any member of his campaign. The article goes on saying how “Donald Trump’s campaign may help remind Americans that all genocide, even against white people is evil.” Over all this article talks more about William Daniel Johnson but it refers back to Trump and his ideas and beliefs as he runs for president.

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/muckraker/william-johnson-jared-taylor-trump

NRA / Gun Control / White Privilege

What is white privilege:  Myth or Reality.   Can you connect it to the essay topic?
Who are mass shooters likely to be.  Why?  How does it connect to the essay topic?
What do powerful groups like the NRA do?  What are their political influences?  What is the future? How do all of the above influence gun control laws?  How about the future of politics?  Of us as white people?  Of us when we become the minority.

            What is white privilege? White privilege is a term for societal privileges that benefit people identified as white in western countries. It is also something that white people do not create or enjoy on purpose, most of the time they don’t even notice it. It can just happen at any time in everyday life.  There are many ways in which white privileges are portrayed, and today in time most of them can go by unseen and unnoticed by many different people. White privilege provides white people with benefits that we do not earn or necessary deserve. Colored people do not enjoy that because it is unfair to them. It also creates real advantages for white people because we are immune to a lot of challenges that colored people are not immune to. This privilege also shapes the society and the world we live in by the way we, as people, interact and deal with one another. White privilege is definitely a reality not a myth.  It’s a reality that happens even when we don’t mean for it to. It has become a form of everyday life for some white and colored individuals. But white privileges could all change someday. One day white people may become the minorities of the United States and the whole white privilege thing will change and possibly even flip right before people’s eyes. That would change the lives of everyone, especially the lives of colored individuals and the rest of the minorities.

            Today, in the United States, we hear a lot on the news about school shootings and other terrible mass murders all around the nation. There have been quite a few school shooting in the past here in the United States and the rate has been going up. One thing most people notice when they hear about a school shooting is that the shooters are commonly white American males with personal problems and obviously some mental problems. 97 percent of school shootings have been actions of males in the United States, and out of that 97 percent, 79 percent of those males being white Americans that are usually middle class and not too old. In one of the articles it says that “these shootings are a direct reflection of white male privilege and the consequences that occur when groups like the NRA control influential conservative leaders.” The articles also point out that when colored males commit a murder it is usually because they think that the person they were after had wronged them in some way and so they go after only them. These males also don’t commit suicide after committing these crimes either. But when white males do it they have a whole different mindset. They think if I am going to die, then so is everyone else. This is what causes the mass murder suicides like school shootings. They go and kill or injure as many people as they can before killing themselves. School shootings are one of the biggest reasons why some people think we need stricter gun control laws here in the United States. American citizens want automatic weapons of the streets and out of dangerous people’s hands. This is causing a big “uproar” between some of the people and the government. One argument that the people have is that even though you make those guns illegal, doesn’t mean that they murderers and other bad people aren’t going to get their hands on them. It is just like drugs. Drugs are illegal yet almost anyone can get their hands on some if they wanted to. I personally hope that they don’t make new gun laws because according to the constitution we have the right to own them. 

            The NRA, or National Rifle Association, is an American social welfare organization that supports gun rights. They NRA organization started in 1871 and has been going strong ever since. However, within the past few decades the National Rifle Association had been seeing a down fall in there organization. This is because of the people, including the government and the minorities that want more gun control with stricter laws. Though the National Rifle Association has lasted for a long time, it has been said that the NRA organization may not last for much longer. The reason for this is because according to polls, whites tend to favor gun rights over gun control by a certain amount. But whites, who are 63 percent of the population, think differently from other races. African Americans say that gun control is more important than gun rights by 72 percent. With the increase of African American population, gun control is getting more and more supporters. Whites won’t be in the majority for long and when we, whites, become the minorities things will change. So in the future of the United States, there will most likely be stricter gun control because of the minority change that is expected to happen.

I am sure that if whites become the minorities in the United States that there is going to be a lot more change than just gun control and possibly the end of the NRA organization. I could even see white privilege going down and fading away. Becoming the minorities could change the everyday life style by the way we think and interact with each other. I know my life would change if the government took my guns away because of all the fun times I am able to have with others being able to hunt and shoot. Gun control could become way more strict because of not only the school shootings but because of the minority growth and them wanting gun control over gun rights along with the federal government.

Freddie Gray

             After reading the article about Freddie Gray’s life and hearing learning about the struggles he went through ever since he was born, I believe that it wasn’t Freddie Gray who let himself down but it was the society and the government that did. Freddie Gray was born in 1989 premature by two months along with his twin sister. His mom later spoke out on how she was a user of heroin since her early 20s and that she might have been using even when she was pregnant with Freddie and his sister. Then to add to that, before Freddie’s second birthday he was tested positive for concentrations of lead in his blood caused by peeling of lead infused paint from the walls and the windowsills. His was so bad his level was more than seven times the level that child health experts now believe can cause severe and permanent brain damage. But being poisoned by lead didn’t just happen to him. In fact lead paint exposure is a widespread national problem, mainly in the communities where people have low income. Lead poisoning was affecting so many people in these communities that the government tried to get local and private buildings fixed up but a budget cut kept them from completing that project.

                As Freddie Gray grew up and went to school he began to struggle with his classes and learning. This was the result of being born premature and being exposed to damaging lead. Freddie and his sister were later diagnosed with attention deficit disorders (ADD) and impulse control problems which made him have to be moved to special education classrooms at school. Unfortunately Freddie never graduated from high school. But where he grew up he was not the only one that didn’t finish high school. A large percentage of kids from that school did not graduate and had problems during school. Freddie did not have a good foundation when it came to education, and education is important for a person’s future.   The teachers missed multiple days for no reason and they were usually unexperienced.

                By the time Freddie was eighteen years old he had already been suspended from school several times and besides that he had some problems with the police. As he got older things kept getting worst. He was caught multiple times by the police; a couple times he managed to get out free from court by being found not guilty.

                Early in Freddie’s life he went through a lot that the government and the committee could have prevented. But as Freddie got older I believe it was then that he gave up on himself. After a rough childhood and growing up in a bad place he didn’t change or leave his problems behind him. Freddie Gray… sorry Society gave up on you.

Deviance Article

A professor at Texas Tech University, Jerome R. Koch, has been doing a new study suggesting that people who have multiple tattoos or body piercings are more likely to engage in risky and criminal behavior. His research shows that people who have four or more tattoos, seven or more body piercings, or one intimate piercing, which I think is totally not okay or necessary, are more likely to be arrested, drink, have sex with multiple partners, use illegal drugs, or other illegal substances. It also says that in his, Jerome R. Koch, research he surveyed a total of 1753 American college students. He asked them all the same questions about how much body art they have and where do they all have piercings.

After surveying all of the college students, he found out that there was a positive outcome to his study and that students with multiple tattoos, like “sleeves,” and students with multiple piercing or intimate piercings had an overall higher incidence of social deviance. These students were more commonly reported to having been arrested, doing an illegal drugs other than marijuana, or had multiple sex partners within the last year. Koch’s research shows that only fifty -five percent of the college students that were surveyed had piercings, were tattooed, or have multiple of each. The author of the article ends by stating how years ago people who had tattoos were part of a subculture. But today tattoos are becoming more common and they are being used to help people feel different.

Passion (E.C. Blog)

Throughout my life I have always been passionate about sports. Ever since I can remember I have been active in at least one sport at. The first team I was actually on was a soccer team for a Sioux Falls league when I was around the age of five. I continued to play soccer every year for the Sioux Falls league until the eighth grade when I had to move from Hartford up to Langford. I had to stop playing because there isn’t a team up here for me to join that won’t interfere with my school related sports. I loved to run up and down the soccer field scoring goals and working with my team mates to get better. A couple of years we were really good and I still have my trophy and metals from when I played.

Not long after I started soccer I was finally old enough to start basketball and baseball. Part of the reason I’m so passionate about sports is because while growing up I got to play them with my brothers. My mom and dad also played a huge role in my sports as a kid. My dad coached my older brother and I for a couple of years when we played baseball as kids, and my mom coached us in basketball for multiple years.

Another sport that I got into early was football. I started playing when I was in the third grade for a Sioux Falls league with kids from my school. I did that until I was able to play for our schools middle school team in Hartford, and now I just finished my senior year of playing the game. I’m sad that it’s over, but I couldn’t have asked for a better way to end it.

Throughout my years I have also done track and swimming. I’ll just tell you now that swimming makes track seem easy. I was only out for swimming for one year. I enjoyed getting to try it and having experienced what it’s like but it is not my sport.

I started track in eighth grade, after I moved to Langford, having to do whatever events the coach wanted me to do just to fill in events. Throughout my years of track I personally find myself liking track practice better than track meets. I don’t know why that is but it just seems like I do better and run faster at practice than when I’m at a meet actually racing.

The main reasons I am passionate about sports are all the memories and the fun times you have along the way meeting new people and getting to play with those you know. I also really enjoy being active and being able to be a part of a team.

 

                      

Is it possible to be too nice? (E.C. Blog)

Is it possible to be too nice? That is something that I wonder every time someone tells me that I am too nice. I believe that everyone needs to be nice and care for one another, but I do think that there is a point to where someone could be too nice. But I also think that most people are so worried about themselves these days that they forget to take time and see what’s going on around them.

I personally love helping others and being able to make someone’s day even just a little bit better. I was raised being taught that I should always help others and to think of others first and myself last. I was also started in the cub scouts at a young age. After cub scouts I became a webelos, and then became a boy scout. I recently received my Eagle Scout award which is the highest rank a person can get in the scouts. And one thing I had to learn and follow, something I have to live by, is the scout oath which is, “On my honor I will do my best to do my duty to God and my country and to obey the Scout Law; to help other people at all times; to keep myself physically strong, mentally awake, and morally straight.” The scout slogan also read “do a good turn daily.”

After reading an article on being too nice it was made clear to me that to other people being too nice is unattractive and can lead to different problems with others in today’s world. In another article it talks about how being too nice can make you look weak to others, how you can forget to be nice to yourself, how you can attract the wrong kind of people, how some people with distrust you, and how you could warp your expectations.

I think in today’s world people are so worried about what others think of them and everyone wants to fit in to the “cool groups.”  Even if that means doing something they wouldn’t do, or in this case not doing something that they would do. Like helping someone in the hallways at school or helping someone with a problem they have.

We as people need to care for and be nice to one another. Because taking time to listen to some one and to listen to what they have to say is a way for everyone to get along with one another and a way to be able to understand the other person.

I believe that there is a line that shouldn’t be crossed when it comes to being nice, the line where someone trying to be nice becomes kind of creepy. I think it’s just that some people today just don’t care about others anymore and are too self-centered to take time out of their day to help someone else.  Matthew 5:16 “In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.”

Veteran's Day Blog

First things first, I would like to say happy Veteran’s Day to all of the veterans out there that have served in the United States military so that we, as civilians, can be safe and have the freedoms that we have today. After reading this article I can see how this topic could go both ways. There needs to be some set limits so people don’t just go around shooting other people and then say they were a threat just as an excuse to shoot someone with no real reason. But then again, by the time you can get hard evidence it may already be too late and could put the lives of people in jeopardy. I couldn’t imagine having to make that kind of decision knowing that if I make the wrong one other people’s lives could be put in danger including my own. Or if I make the wrong decision, knowing that I could be dishonorably discharged from the military and put in jail for a decision that I made trying to keep those around me and those that I love same.

The second part of the blog, citizenship is a duty not a privilege. I believe that they say this because it talks about how it will require dedicated efforts and that the efforts may lead to discomfort and suffering on some citizens. So even though being a citizen is awesome and we have our freedoms and rights. Some people had to suffer for us to get us to where we are today.