Clifford Boggess: For/Against Death Penalty

        Clifford Boggess, a victim of killing two shopkeepers, deserves to be sentenced to the death penalty. In my opinion, I believe that Clifford has committed such a horrid act by killing these two innocent people, that he should be punished by recieving the death penalty. If Clifford were not to be put on death row, people in in the society would feel like they are put into danger and something like this may happen again. I think that prison is not be enough of a punishment for Clifford, since he seems to be enjoying it by creating art and having people sell his art for him.
         In the case of Clifford Boggess, there were a few aggravating factors which may have led Boggess to killing two innocent people. Clifford really idolized his uncle as he was growing up. However, his uncle had shot someone years before and recieved jail time. I think that since Clifford really looked up to his uncle and thought of him as a role model, he committed a crime just like him. I think it is so shocking to hear that the uncle of Clifford stated that Clifford "had a problem", when in reality, he had a problem and failed to teach his nephew values and morals. Clifford Boggess stated in the film that he felt much remorse after killing the two shopkeepers. This mitigating factor in my opinion, was a way for Boggess to try to escape from this big problem he put upon himself and not recieve the death penalty. Boggess seems to be passionate about his art and loves what he's doing. I think that letting Boggess live his life in happiness after committing a murder is letting him off to easy.
        In my opinion, I do not believe people can change especially after committing such an outrageous crime. Killing one person is wrong enough, and killing two is even worse. It is quite clear that Clifford Boggess must have been pathological to even think of murdering two innocent shopkeepers. Once a person commits one crime, it is a high percent chance that they will do it again. In my opinion, Clifford had not changed after murdering the two innocent people. I think he was very sneaky and pretended he learned his lesson, when in reality he had more consequences coming his way. I believe that Clifford's way of showing he was a normal and sane guy was by creating wonderful art pieces.
         I believe that Clifford Boggess is not a true Christian or true artist since he had done something so horrible that will follow him for the rest of his life. No matter how many times Clifford could go to church and apologize to God and take back his sins, he is still a cruel man who deserves to be killed. I believe that anyone who has some sort of religious belief were to murder someone, it clearly means they are psychologically disturbed and are not loyal to God.

My View on Bullying/Cyber Bullying

After watching the documentary about Jamie Nabozny and reading about cyberbullying, I felt that bullying is a huge issue that should be taken care of right away. This problem of bullying may involve parents and school officials or maybe the court if the case becomes dangerous.
In the documentary of Jamie Nabozny, Jamie tells his story of being bullied from when he was a young child up until high school. When he was in middle school, many kids noticed that Jamie was a homosexual and made fun of him constantly for it. He would get poked and get verbally abused by the other middle school students. At first Jamie didn't say anything or get anyone involved with the bullying that was going on. However, the bullying became a bigger issue and Jamie began getting slapped, kicked and punched to the point of taking a trip to the hospital. Jamie was so depressed from all that was going on, he tried to committ suicide which was unsuccessful. Jamie and his parents warned school officials like the principal who simply stated : "Boys will be boys". This statement made me furious because there is no excuse for bullying another peer, especially when Jamie was getting physically abused to the point of going to the hospital by these kids. In my opinion, it is the school's responsibility to handle issues that happen on school grounds. The school officials should suspend these students for the way they treated Nabozny, however the principal just stated "Boys will be boys". It's horrible to see how a student could be so abused by a few kids, and witnesses choose not to speak up and help out while the bullying that occurs. I believe that if other peers got involved in helping out Nabozny and supporting him, he wouldn't feel as depressed or have suicidal thoughts ever. From the packet we read, "When Cyberbullying Turns Deadly", there were various incidents of adolescent people being cyberbullied. Many of these victims became so depressed that they committed suicide and not even therapy could help them. One victim named Ricky Alatorre who was 16 years of age from Indiana, was made fun of for being heavy and someone in his class secretly took a picture of him while working in class. The boy became devastated to the point where he had suicidal thoughts, however with the help and guidance of his family and school he became stronger. He stated " I had thought about suicide, it looked very welcoing at certain times." It makes me feel happy to see that school officials and his family got involved in helping Ricky and not letting him get to the point of killing himself. On the other hand, in the documentary about Jamie Nabozny, school officials stated "Boys will be boys", which is not a solution to assist a student being bullied.

Students and the fourth amendment

         The fourth amendment protects citizens unreasonable searches and seizures. In the case of New Jersey vs. TLO , TLO was accused of smoking in the school bathroom. According to Theodore Choplick, the assistant vice principal, smoking in the school bathroom is violating school rules. Since TLO had violated the school rule of smoking in the school bathroom, I believe that the school had the right to search TLO's purse in result of her poor decision.
        In the Constitution, the fourth amendment does protect citizens unreasonable searches and seizures, however when any student is on school grounds, the rules may shift a little. Public schools in the United States are run by the government, which allows schools the right to search students if they are performing a suspicious act. I think it would be crucial to allow all students at any high school they attend, to be randomly drug tested. According to the article I debated from,  random drug testing reduces violent behaviors, classrooom disruptions, and criminal activity. I think that from this study, random drug testing would give fear to the students leading them not to participate in the act of using drugs. I belive that students would not get involved in criminal activity later in life, because there would be random drug testing stopping students from doing drugs leading them to possible psychological problems later in life. In the article "Student random Drug Testing -one compoment of a drug prevention program", student random drug testing would get parents involved in the school drug-prevention efforts. I think this would be crucial because parents would not have to try so hard to get their children in line, and they would know what their children are doing on the wekends.

7 days in September

This movie caught my attention and made me think about all the innocent people who lost their lives on 9/11/01. Everyone in New York was devastated and were caught completely off guard when the two planes hit the twin towers, killing thousands of people. As we watched the film, I noticed all that was left after the twin towers melted, were papers and documents swarming the city of New York. I think it is so depressing that many bodies in 9/11 were never found, and all that was left behind were belongings of people.
The first amendment includes freedom of speech, freedom of press, freedom of petition, and freedom of religion. The terrorists of 9/11, the Al Qaeda, performed their violent act so that people all over the world would sympathize with their cause. The terrorists belive that they are fighting for a just cause, namely for religion, the Islam religion. They do not belive in freedom of religion. The terrorists feel that all Middle-Eastern countries should unite, and practice the Islam religion. Al Qaeda desires to overthrow any government in a Muslim country that does not rule by Islamic principles. This concept is against the principles of our first amendment.

Speech Codes assignment

I believe that my universities policies on free speech restirct the way I view school. I belive that speech codes impact my ability to express myself and my views on different issues. As a student, I feel that I should be able to express my views on topics suchas politics, law, philosophy, and science. However, I disagree with the manner in which these students in the fraternities at Auburn University presented themselves in costumes and make-up that was offensive to other races. I feel that these fraternity students were being unfair and poking fun at people that were racially different from themselves.