Recently, news of torturing captured terrorist has made national and international spotlights in the media. Although the news of such events may be shocking to some American people, there have been American prisons that have used torture methods for decades. Information states that two former psychologists, Grayson Swigert and Hammond Dunbar, were paid 40 million dollars each to devise new torture tactics. These tactics were used on 9/11 suspected terrorist. Some of the tactics included waterboarding and mock burial. They were performed on the CIA’s most significant detainees. What just makes the situation worse is that the money to pay the psychologists is American taxpayer dollars.

Ridha Najjar who was once a bodyguard for the Al Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden was one of the detainees interrogated in the facility north of Kabul known as the Salt Pit. When he refused to comply, he tortured by being left alone in the shadows, with blaring music, a cold room, and was often times shackled to an overhead bar for 22 hours a day. Another prisoner was killed due to extreme abuse and hypothermia with lacerations and bruises on his face, legs, shoulders, and waist. Some torture tactics may be useful but when people are being killed and they still are not talking something needs to be changed.

After doing some research an article states that in some cases the CIA interrogators were often untrained and in some instances made up torturous techniques as they went along. If this is the case, the CIA needs to have some changes in its code of conduct and maybe strengthen its morals. There needs to be better leadership roles and there needs to be people that know when torture crosses the line. There is no wonder why America is one of the largest terrorist targets. But just because these people are terrorist does not mean they should be tortured to death, they are people to.

Sororities and fraternities have been a part of a number of large and small universities all throughout America for many years. Although most of the clubs have no academic bonuses, they seem to have grown in popularity over the years. With the rapid growth of fraternities and sororities there has also been a spike of sexual assaults and molestations on college and university campuses. These instances have caused the post-secondary schools to warn students, especially females, about the dangers of walking alone at night. The way to bring down the percentage of rapes and molestations could be to limit or ban the clubs known as sororities and fraternities, or at least the ones that have no academic value or gain from them. Most young adults going into college are unaware of the dangers they could face while attending college.

A report At Oregon University on October 23 stated that school officials and leaders are trying to stop any plans to expand or create new sororities or fraternities on campus due to the high rates of sexual assault. In recent years the number of attempted sexual assaults and sexual assaults has become known at Oregon University as “Twenty Students Per Week”. This number is too large for any college and needs to be lowered. Many people including myself believe that if Fraternities and sororities were banned from college students and from the towns that campuses reside in, sexual crimes would most likely dramatically decline. Universities would not have to have self-defense classes for women or take other dramatic steps to keep the female student body safe. If 13% of the female student body is sexually assaulted every year security needs to increase and policies need to be revised.

Clemson University has banned there Fraternities from hosting social events and recruiting new members after a student was killed in a hazing incident earlier this year. None of these incidents have made national headlines and it’s about time they have because there needs to be a change at Universities. With one out of every five individuals being sexually assaulted during their college years, the White House labeled sexual crimes to be an epidemic. If the White House is labeling these crimes an epidemic why are they not making headlines and why are there not more drastic security measures taken at the campuses? Finally it has reached the pubic but now the colleges nee to step up and try to protect the students.

These crimes have been going on for years, and they have not been brought out to the public till maybe the last decade at most. If an individual wants to make his or her life better by going to college and getting a degree to start a career and gets sexually assaulted that is a true shame. If 13% of all women get raped in at a University, the college needs to change something or those numbers will never improve and the University’s enrollment will start to decline. All I can say is, there needs to be a change.

The lessons that I learned from watching this movie range from things every day average people notice to the small details that no one ever notices. This movie shows how much respect most American people have for the troops that give up their lives for the country. American troops give up their time with family, with loved ones, enjoying hobbies, and sometimes even their lives. They give up these four things and many others so regular people like you and I have the privilege of living freely and peacefully in this great country. Our troops do not accept fame or glory. They do not show off or gloat about the services they have performed.  Average people would not be able to tell what people were soldiers and which ones were not out of a crowd of people if those individuals were not in uniform. These people do not get noticed for their service enough. There are so many people around our community that are veterans that unknown to many people and that is a true shame.

During the movie it was incredible how many people PFC Chance Phelps had touched. He changed every body’s day and life and he never even knew. All the people that saw Chance being taken home showed their respects and showed Chance the respect he deserved for putting his life on the line for his country and his comrades. These people had never even heard of or seen Chance before in their lives but they still stop and remember him showing him how much he meant to each and every one of them and that is just incredible to me.

On the day that Chance died he was working on his day off. He was not even supposed to be on duty but he knew that his fellow troops needed him and he would not let them down. They put their lives on the line every time they put on that uniform. He was always out in the open and that was the job he always wanted to do. When they were attacked all of the troops started to panic. Chance started to fire to draw the ambushers away from the rest of the troops so they could regroup and in the process his life was taken. On that day he showed the type of courage that only certain men have. He directed all the fire towards himself on a day he was not supposed to be working, but it makes you think… If he had not been there on duty that day how many casualties would there have been? He most likely saved dozens of lives sacrificing his own.

After Chance had died and was being loaded onto the plane to come back to the country the soldiers preparing for the trip made sure each one of the flags around the soldiers was perfectly wrapped. When Chance was being cleaned and all of his items were being cleaned as well, the people made sure everything was perfect. When checking Chance’s uniform before the funeral, Mike noted that the people preparing his body knew that he was not going to be viewed but they still made sure his uniform was absolutely perfect. It is important that these soldiers be treated with the same respect when they pass as when they are living.

All veteran, young and old, past and present, no matter what their skin color or nationality, deserve to be treated with perfect respect living and passed away. They all fought for our country and all put their life on the line, some of them were fortunate enough to walk away from it but others had a more tragic ending. I am ever grateful for all the American troops that have ever put their life on the line for the country and the people that thrive in it.   

Guns have always been a large part of many American lives because hunting is very popular in areas of the United States. People have the right to own guns for hunting and protection, but in society some people are using them to cause harm to other civilians. The big question throughout the entire scenario is whether guns kill people or if people kill people. Many of us would like to assume it is a portion of both. Recently, we watched the documentary “Bowling for Columbine” produced by Michael Moore. This film has brought forward large controversy over topics such as: gun rights in the United States, 2^nd Amendment rights, Obama’s executive orders on gun control, and how the media plays a role in the tragic events that happen throughout America.

 

The 2^nd Amendment states, "A well-regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed", after reading this most people think that all citizens of the United States should be able to acquire any gun of their choosing. When the constitution was written our forefathers most likely did not foresee automatic weapons or handguns being manufactured. In their time they had muskets and had to reload after every shot they fired. Over time things change and we as humans have to adapt. The rules and regulations that were written up and adopted when America first gained its independence should have some adjustments due to new inventions and discoveries in technology over the last 200 years. Over the next 200 years, times will change even more and the government may just come up with a whole new Constitution completely. The laws may have to get more specific on topics such as gun control because of all the advances in technology.

 

Technology has gotten to be extremely advanced to the point where the entire county can have knowledge that an event has occurred merely minutes after it occurs. The media plays a persuasive role in how people’s opinions are based because they twist the truth to make a story more interesting to the public. The media focuses so much on negative events that happen throughout the county and the globe. People can become famous by going out and shooting other people or causing them physical harm because the media would make that there top story. If they would not have the negative events of every day being broadcast to large amounts of people, the crime and murder rates may start to slowly decrease, and America might become a more safe land for the citizens.

 

Many people that own guns and hunt say usually use the saying, “guns don’t kill people, people kill people”, they have the right to believe what they want just like you and me. Yes, people do kill people but having the adrenalin of having a loaded gun in your hand even when you are hunting in exhilarating. How would it be different if it was the same way, accept person to person. Most likely murderers get the same feeling right before they commit there crime.

 

To make schools a safer environment I believe that certain staff members in the school should be allowed to have an unloaded concealed weapon for safety purposes. This may be coming in the future if more tragedies happen on school grounds. The future of gun laws depends on events that happen in the future and there location and the number of casualties and injuries. I believe that is the only way that gun laws will become stricter.

 

Obama made a critical decision that in the long run will be better for the country’s school systems safety. Making it more difficult to acquire guns and ammunition will discourage most people from trying to do something crazy. If the person is crazy or has done something in his or her past it will be harder for him or her to get cleared after the background checks. He also hired more people to council children so they can get help before they do something drastic.

 

Guns have always been a large part of many American lives and will continue to be. Gun rights may become stricter or more limited but they will never be taken away completely. The 2^nd Amendment will always allow people guns but it did not specify what kind which may be add in the future on certain types of guns you may own. The media may be one of the reasons things like this happen but no one knows what could have possibly been going through Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris’s minds when they decided to gun down there classmates and underclassmen. We only hope that tragic events like this do not happen repeatedly.