Free Reading Post 4

Crawford writes about his squads activities during the Fourth of July. The day before he and a few others went to the medic tent. They lied to the medics and each of them was injected with morphine. They were still under the influence when the medics let them leave the tent. They could barely make it back to their barracks. After they returned they slept for the remainder of the day. I do not find it surprising that they were able to obtain the medicine so easily, but I do believe that the medics should have been more careful about who they give it to. The soldiers who abuse the medicine they have put everyone around them at risk. On the fourth, the soldiers went out on patrol and stole beer from civilian partygoers. They snuck it back into their bunks and they drank all of it. The squad was unable to do their basic chores let alone be effective in combat. I know that alcohol is hard to find while one is serving, and many soldiers are tempted to drink. I think this shows a lack of discipline among our armed forces. These men are supposed to be protecting us back home. How can they do that if they are all drunk?

Free Reading Post 3

Crawford writes about his sleeping conditions during the early summer months. There would be 9 men to a small apartment without power. At night it would be so hot that they would all sleep naked with bottles of water next to their heads for them to drink during the night so they don’t die from dehydration. He says that puddles of sweat would spread several feet from their bodies. I find this to be awful. How can we do this to the men who are supposed to be fighting to save us? I think they should be treated like heroes. They shouldn’t have to sleep like that, nine to a room, and fighting dehydration. I understand that war is tough and the men who fight have to be even tougher. I understand that circumstances may not allow the soldiers to have the best possible lives while in country, but I feel like while they are on base, they should at least get a little love. I hope that our soldiers are receiving better treatment from the people they have sworn to protect.

Free Reading Post 2

John Crawford enlisted in the Florida National Guard before the war in Iraq. He thought it would be like the reserves, mostly training and sitting around. John was on his honeymoon in 2002 when he learned that his unit was being deployed to Iraq. He was forced to terminate his honeymoon early and return to Florida for immediate deployment. John lands in country the day of the Invasion of Iraq. I think it is unfortunate that he was forced to end his honeymoon and leave his wife behind to go and fight in Iraq, but I feel that he should have been ready for anything when he signed the contract with the FNG. When I read that I learned that the National Guard is not only a domestic branch of the military. I have been considering signing with the National Guard to help keep the peace in the country and provide assistance for those who are in need. But upon reading this I have second thoughts about deciding to serve. I have no interest in foreign wars, I want to serve in the military, but help in America.

Invisible Children

After watching the original documentary for Invisible Children, I have become very interested in their cause. They are hoping for an end to the 17 years’ war in northern Uganda, in the meantime they provide aid for civilians affected by the LRA rebel’s activity. They help children who have to hide from the LRA for fear of being abducted, forced to kill their family, tortured, brainwashed, and trained to kill for the LRA. Below are some pictures of children who have survived encounters with the LRA with awful scars to remind them of the event. THEY ARE GRAPHIC!!!!!!!!

I apologize for the graphic nature of these photographs, but I am a supporter of the Invisible Children movement and I wanted to spread the word as well as get the point across about what is really happening to these children. Invisible Children has multiple aid plans in action. The most recent one, “Free Timmy”, was an attempt to make $2,000,000 to fund their new protection plan. Invisible Children wants to build new radio towers to increase their early warning broadcast system. The towers are monitored 24 hours a day and they are used to alert the civilians of any LRA activity as well as to send messages to child soldiers asking them to come home and providing them with a way to do so. The funds they raised are also going to be used to build a rehabilitation center for children who have escaped the LRA. Another goal of theirs is to provide money to rebuild the country after the devastation of the war. Lastly they are promoting the arrest of Joseph Kony, the leader of the LRA and the man responsible for the child soldiers. Recently, IC developed a system called the LRA Crisis Tracker. It is a live map of all LRA crimes in the country. It is a very good idea but it needs some work. I felt the only reason the dots with a one word description of the crime affected me is because I know what the dots actually mean. To someone unaware of the horrors these children experience, each rape, theft, abduction, murder, is just another dot on the map. If IC develops a way to make users more aware of what the dots really mean, I feel it will make the tool more useful. My school has decided to raise money to support invisible children. Our goal is to raise enough to have a radio tower built in our name. I think this is a great cause for us to be raising money for because for the first time, we have decided to donate to a cause that doesn’t affect us. I always felt that giving to charities that were likely to affect us one day is selfish. I am ecstatic that we have chosen to help an organization that will most likely never affect us. I feel much better about donating this year because of this. Also, I think it is a big step in the right direction towards a better world where every person helps the people around him, and they help him. If you are interested in learning more about the Invisible Children organization or even want to donate, the link to their website is as follows.            http://invisiblechildren.com/

Death Penalty Final

                I feel that getting rid of the death penalty in Illinois was unjust. Letting a man who has killed someone live the rest of his life in prison where he can watch television and live a simple life is wrong. Giving a murderer life in prison is a waste of space and money. He should not be allowed to live and, when we allow him to live, it costs money that comes from the general public including the family of the victim. Clearly it is cruel and unusual punishment to make the victim’s family pay for the life of the man who ruined their lives. Gov. Ryan said “Some inmates on death row don't want a sentence of life without parole.” The wants and needs of a killer should not matter. They give up their rights the second they take the life of another human. The governor says that the death penalty is only enforced on people who cannot defend themselves. This issue can be avoided by enforcing death on all non-accidental murder cases regardless of who the killer is. In his speech Gov. Ryan says, “And while many people believe Illinois never executed an innocent man, others disagree. The 1995 execution of Girvies Davis for a downstate murder was long controversial and relied heavily on a disputed confession, one the police got when they took him out of jail in the middle of the night and, according to Davis, threatened him. In fact, Davis confessed to numerous crimes that night and, authorities later acknowledged, many of the confessions were false, with other people later convicted of those crimes.” Even though this is true, the issue is not with the death penalty. The police made the mistake and convicted an innocent man. The law enforcement officers need to make sure they have the right man. This is not something the death penalty can do. It is just a punishment, when it is enforced it is assumed that the police caught the right person. Gov. Ryan believes that the death penalty doesn’t discourage murderers from acting. If we had a much harsher concept for punishment, more murders would be deterred. Anton Szandor LaVey states in the Satanic Bible, “If a man smites you on the cheek, smash him on the other!” Meaning we should do worse to the killer than what he has done to his victim. I feel it will strike fear into the minds of anyone plotting murder and haunt the murderers who have not yet been caught. I feel this will be a more active deterrent than just execution. There is nothing wrong with the death penalty or the people who enforce it, they are told to assume that the defendant is guilty. If anything, the problem is with the people who investigate and charge the wrong people with the crime.