Murder by law

The article To Kill Or Not To Kill, by Patricia Smith shows us that there is nothing a person can do that deems them worthy of nothing short of a slow and painful death. However this is what Clayton Lockett and Joseph R. Wood faced. Instead of the allotted death by a lethal injection, both faced an agonizing and drawn out execution due to a malfunction of the injection. The death penalty is a less and less popular choice as the opposition has risen sharply in the last few years.

The ability to lawfully kill someone is the ability no human being has the right to possess. However that is the meaning of the death sentence, the ability to kill another human free of repercussions. "Are some crimes so horrific... That any punishment short of death is simply inadequate?" No, there is no possible position in which the murder of a potentially innocent human being, no matter how heinous the crime of which they are accused, is morally justified.

However the party opposing the death penalty is on the rise. The amount of states refusing to back the murder of another human being has risen by almost one per year for the last five years. And "the number of annual executions in the U.S. has declined from 98 in 1999 to 39 in 2013." Another 11 states are close to the same conclusion. If people are being executed for the murder if others, why doesn't the death penalty apply to those administering it?

There is no activity in which we can partake that is so brutal and cruel that for it we deserve to die. A life taken is no excuse to take another. Similar to the idea that we let violence lead to more violence, we are letting death lead to more death. As a nation, by justifying the death of criminals, we are saying they killed someone and that that's illegal, why don't go ahead and kill them.

A trip to the museum of the city of New York

During our trip to the museum of the city of New York we began to explore the topic of activism. Though words, like Martin Luther King; violence, like Malcolm x; or strikes, like occupy wall-street. The museum tour was a great start for a unit on activism. It gave me a good understanding of how a protest or riot might get started. While we were there, you could see displayed everywhere the things people were fighting for. From small petitions, to women's suffrage marches. Everywhere people stand up against oppression and get others to stand with them. Through activism power is brought back to the people.

We saw everything from makeshift, spur-of-the-moment riots to long, thoughtfully planned out boycotts and marches. It opened my eyes to the true problems of the world around me because if something isn't right people will fight it. People will join to get her against it whether they are a group of well organized strikers or a mob of enangered gay people. Someone will always match or strike or stand outside a building with a sign for an hour, and someone will always jump into the fray ready to punch someone. That's the way activism works and from this exhibit, I have so many more questions about it.

Carrie by Stephan king

The religious references in Carrie

The book Carrie by Stephan king is a horror novel exploring the possible effect of extreme bullying. The main character, Carrie White is a secret telekinetic who has grown up with an insane and religiously fanatical mother. At school she's bullied and altogether isolated. Carrie snaps and kills half of her hometown after a cruel and elaborate prank is pulled on her. But the main source of Carrie's humiliation and pain is the presence of religion in her life.

Carrie's mother often abuses her on the grounds of religious justification in addition to drilling into her daughter the idea of many common occurrences being caused by her "sins." Carrie's mother tells her that showering is sinful and that "your pimples are The Lord's way of chastising you." When the book says "momma leaned forward, and the knife came down in a shining arc," the reader can see how deranged Carrie's mother really is, that she would kill her own daughter to repent for her sins. Carrie grew up in a problematic home focused around religion, and religion is always associated with humiliation and pain for Carrie. Every time religion is brought up in the book, something bad happens.

It's not just her abusive mother that causes pain for Carrie that's associated with religion. The way religious presence is portrayed in Carrie, it's a bad thing. When Carrie is remembering all the times she's been humiliated or made fun of, the book says that when she was "on the church picnic and kneeling down clumsily to pray and the seam of her old madras skirt splitting along the zipper like the sound of a huge wind breakage." Carrie is publicly shamed in this scene and this is taking place at a religious event.  Her mother says "I almost killed myself," when she found out that she was pregnant with Carrie. This couldn't have been a good thing to hear for Carrie, and the first was humiliating and extremely public, religion is only mentioned in the book in association bad things like these.