Nelson Mandela

       Nelson Mandela is the epitome of justice. He is a peaceful freedom-fighter. He is a world leader. He is a supporter of many human rights groups and humanitarian organizations. He is a civil rights activist. He is a Noble Peace Prize Winner. He is, and will always be, the first black president in the history of mankind.

      Unfortunately, he is also on life support. What is worse is that people are denying the truth.
 
      You know, when my grandma was on life support, of course we all prayed for a miracle to happen and for her to be revived. I remember that particular night. My parents were crying; my uncles, on the phone with us, were sobbing-- but they didn't deny the truth of her condition. They didn't try to give us false hope. They told us, straight up, that Grandma was dying, and we should say our goodbyes. I acknowledged that my grandma had had a good run, and it was simply her time to go.

       That's not what is happening with Mr. Mandela. He's being kept on life support, and therefore technically still alive. His hospital and his family members keep trying to hide his true condition.

       I think Mandela, like my grandmother, has had a good run. He's 94 years old, for goodness sake. If he needs to leave now and end his suffering, why should we still hold on to him so tightly? What is so wrong with death? If he ever returns from life support, which would definitely take multiple miracles, he will never be the same person.

      Mandela has already done so much for mankind. Why can't we do something for him in return and let him go when his time has come? One can only live for so long; although his numerous charitable deeds and noble achievements may make him seem godly, he is not immortal. Nobody is.

     God bless you, Mr. Mandela. May your sufferings end. Thank you for all you have done. You leave a legacy behind.

For more information on the life and legacy of Mandela, please visit:
http://www.biography.com/people/nelson-mandela-9397017

Ignorance

The most violent element of society is ignorance.

If you really think about it, it's true. How many crises could we have prevented if we knew about them? If we made the effort to search them up or observe?

Most of us live such sheltered lives, away from everything that goes on outside of our bubbles. In a world with so much capability to communicate, we're still so ignorant.

Educate yourselves and make a difference.

Syrian Rebels Have Hope

         So today I just want to share a quote to you from Wael Ghonim, an activist who helped spark revolution in Syria with his Facebook page "We are all Khaled Saeed." (Khaled Saeed was a young Egyptian man who was tortured to death by the police in Alexandria, by the way, which sparked much controversy.)  

       Ghonim once said, to the rebels of Syria, "We are going to win because we DON'T understand politics. We are going to win because we DON'T play their dirty games. We are going to win because the tears that come from our eyes actually come from our hearts. We are going to win because we have dreams, and we're willing to stand up for those dreams.We are going to win because the power of the people is so much greater than the people in power."

         It struck me, once I heard these words, how extremely true this is. Although the government led by Bashar al-Assad is getting all these weapons from Russia and foreign aid from various countries, do they really believe in what they are fighting for?

         True spirit and grit will always prevail. The rebels may not have much, but at least most of them are fighting for a cause. They are fighting to keep their families safe. They are fighting for religious freedom, social structure, the right to a voice in their government. They are more powerful in their unity than the government is with all the weapons in the world.

Please continue to support their cause, and aid the families of the rebels who seek refuge in neighboring countries through unicef.org. Thank you, and have a great day.

Foreign Intervention in Syria

The conflict in Syria has been going on for more than two years now. It has become not only a political conflict, but a humanitarian one. Syrians have been forced to flee their homes to neighboring countries in search of safety.

Now the main issue in the US is, should we intervene?

Foreign intervention could prove to be detrimental, and increase conflict instead of establishing peace. Bashar Al-Assad, the leader of the government, has a lot of allies. For example, Russia regularly provides the government with weapons and arms to fight the rebels with. If the US were to intervene and help the rebels, that could cause the allies to not only increase their aid to the government, but become enemies of the United States.

Also, there are many rebel groups linked with Al-Qaeda, and in aiding the rebel groups with supplies it would be almost impossible to avoid helping these groups. The US could then be helping their enemies.

On the other hand, the conflict is pretty much going nowhere, and peace must be established as quickly as possible. People are dying. There is evidence of chemical weapons being used against the rebels, and that in itself is a huge crime against humanity.

Civilians want to go back home. Conditions in camps are far from being good-- there are not enough basic resources for everyone, such as food, water, and clothing. They just want to go home and lead normal lives.

Do we have the moral obligation to intervene?

We are a very influential and powerful country with the means of helping Syria. We have the "white man's burden" to help less powerful countries in their time of need. The people of Syria have often asked, in their cries for help, "Where is Obama?"

And the answer to that question is, behind a podium, talking to the American people about intervening, and doing little else.

Although we should NOT be intervening militarily, we need to aid them with resources that will help them survive, such as food and water. We need to be doing more of that, giving them hope for a better future, and hope for survival.

Thank you and have a great day.

America's Overcrowding Prisons

Prisons in America have been overcrowding. It's a known fact. And with overcrowding comes problems with security and lack of resources for every prisoner.

Prison isn't just a place for punishment. It's a place for criminals to learn a trade that will sustain themselves in society, and to rehabilitate. It's a place that gives them a second chance.

Well, it should be a place for those things. But the issue with overcrowding is that prisoners don't have access to all the resources they need, and security is dwindling. With so many prisoners to look after, security guards can overlook crimes that occur in prison, like rape and abuse among the prisoners.

Prisoners can also more easily escape with less security watching them.

Overcrowding prisons are a serious threat to society. But what can we do about them? Well, there's no easy short-term solution. Overcrowding has resulted in the early release of some prisoners by the government to make room, which can definitely cause problems. These prisoners may not be ready for a release yet.

Some criminals with an extensive criminal record do not belong on the streets. Yet they are there, free to commit more crimes to society. They are there because of overcrowding prisons.

We can't just make more prisons-- those will fill up eventually, too. And what does that say about the US as a country? That we'll simply contain crime, not do something to prevent it?

Besides, we don't have the money to make more prisons. It takes about $80,000 to maintain one prisoner every year, and if you take that amount and multiply it by the thousands, it really adds up. That is our tax money, going to give criminals a place to live.

Instead, we could take the $80,000 a year and put it into education. We could use it to create better environments for the next generation, to make them more successful so that they won't commit as many crimes because they don't grow up in an environment riddled with crime. This is only a long-term solution, and we'll have to wait for the next generation to prove it to be true.

For now, our prisons stay overcrowded and dangerous. For now, there is a higher risk of prisoners escaping. For now, prisoners are released early and before they are ready to create more room for others.

I just thought that would be something you'd want to be aware of. The reasons there is so much crime in the first place, is that people with extensive crime records are our streets. Those people should be locked up.

They should be, but it's not that simple.

Thank you and have a great day.

Gun Restrictions

So recently Obama has been talking about setting gun restrictions. He's been pressurized by the Sandy Hook incident to something, anything, about gun laws as his reaction to the tragedy.

There has been ongoing debates about gun restrictions as well. (The heated debates with Piers Morgan on CNN are very entertaining to watch, by the way, because he gets angry really quickly. You guys should go check them out.) Anyway, I'd like to tell you what I think about gun restrictions.

I completely support the Second Amendment, and the idea of using guns as weapons for self-defense. I would also like to defend the use of semi-automatic weapons for self-defense. Here's why.

Do you know how many bullets it takes to kill a person? 

In a lot of movies today, we see one or two bullets as sufficient enough to kill someone. Contrary to popular belief, it can take one bullet or more than twenty, depending on where the bullet hits.

If the bullets miss vital organs like the heart and the brain, it can take more than twenty bullets to kill someone. Case in point, according to the New York Times, a man in North Carolina was hit by twenty bullets-- and he survived to tell the tale.

So in a highly pressurized situation such as someone coming into your house to kill you, the average person won't be able to think as clearly as they normally do. What is the chance, then, that you'll hit the invader in the first few shots with your rifle? Assuming your name isn't Katniss Everdeen (her aim is flawless), you'd have to depend on your luck to hit them in the brain or the heart. There's an 80% chance that you won't.

If you had your semi-automatic gun, you could fire more shots in less time, decreasing substantially the time it takes for you to kill the person. But if you had an ordinary rifle, you would run out of ammunition very quickly; and if you are unlucky enough to not have hit the vital organs, your invader could still come over to you and kill you instead.

I want the freedom and the right to own semi-automatic guns for my safety. I want the right to be able to sufficiently protect myself. I don't want to have to take chances. 

Like the NRA said in an earlier conference, "Guns don't kill people. People kill people."

Adam Lanza, the murderer at the Sandy Hook shooting, had a problem. Normal people don't go and shoot 20 children and adults at an elementary school. He was the exception. 

And America can't afford to make laws based on exceptions. 

Thank you and have a great day.

Empowering Women Together

I found something interesting recently when I was looking online for mother's day gifts (it's coming up soon!) and I'd like to share it with you.

Walmart launched a program recently called Empowering Women Together, and basically it supports small businesses owned by women all over the world. Because Walmart reaches such a wide range of customers across the globe (hello, globalization) this program helps these businesses grow and gives them a large global marketplace to sell their products.

Some of these products come from urban cities in industrialized countries, and others come from villages in more impoverished areas like Africa and South America. These women all have a common goal: to be able to step up in life and provide for their families. Through this program, they will be able to reach a wider range of customers and earn more money to support their families.

This dress is from Gahaya Links, which is a Rwandan company that employs impoverished women who suffer economically from the effects of the Rwandan genocide of 1994, in which 80,000 people were systematically executed. You can get this, as well as many other beautiful products, online at walmart.com in their "Store for Good" or in some stores across the US. I honestly think it will be one of the most rewarding purchases you will make in your life-- not only will you have a great gift for the woman who raised you, but also help the women who need the monetary support to raise a family themselves.

Thanks for reading and have a great day!