On April 23, Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer signed Senate Bill 1070 into law. The bill requires that police detain any person suspected of being illegally in the state of Arizona.
A week later the law was modified to state that police could only detain an individual and question them about their alien status while the were committing another offense, such as speeding, or loitering. SB 1070 also says illegal immigrants cannot be present “on public or private land in the state” or be traveling through the state of Arizona.
That is the biggest insult to human rights since separate but equal was said to be legal. This law is a slap in the face to the civil rights marches of the 1960s. The people who are immigrating to the United States are doing it for one of three main reasons: to make a better future for themselves and their families, to escape persecution from their homeland or to start a new life, whether through education or marriage.
The Arizona government is telling these immigrants that it doesn’t matter why they fled their country. It is not important to them that they left behind all they knew, possibly leaving behind family members so they can work jobs that we don’t want to do.
Here is a rundown of the law. Police have the duty to question anyone about their residency status while the person is being questioned about another offense. A police officer has the right to arrest a person without a warrant if the officer has probable cause to believe that person committed a public offense.
SB1070 prohibits officials or agencies from adopting a limit to immigration enforcement less than the full extent permitted by federal law.
Basically, this law allows police or any government official to question anyone they suspect might be an illegal immigrant while they are committing another offense. But how many police officers are really going to be pulling over light-skinned, blue-eyed people for small infractions that no one really remembers are laws?
Supporters claim this law is not racial profiling, yet a Juan Martinez is much more likely to get pulled over and questioned about his status than a Jacque Saint Pere or a Jamal Warsamé or even Petrović Živković – even though any of them could be in the United States illegally...
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America is losing its capability to communicate with the spoken word. More people prefer to text their friends and relatives than to spend the time to call them.
In a little less than five years, texting has become one of the most widespread forms of communication, and within that world of communication, real words are not used. And now with Twitter and Facebook taking over the way we communicate, our correspondence is being limited to 140 characters.
Some teenagers don’t even feel they can stay connected to the outside world if they don’t have their phones for texting. Many feel invisible if they are not constantly connected to their friends, even if it gets them into trouble in class. People no longer have the common decency to not talk to someone else while on an outing – as if the world will stop spinning on its axis if we turn our phones of for an hour...
In recent years, an increasing number of people have chosen to get plastic surgery. For some, the reasons include reconstructive surgery due to illness or accidents that have deteriorated their quality of life. Many others risk everything for aesthetic improvements. The topic of controversy is this: Should people undergo invasive procedures for superficial motives?
Risking one’s health for a nose job seems absolutely ridiculous. How did this practice of self-mutilation, masquerading as a search for beauty, become not only a society-sanctioned addiction but also a $15 billion industry?
Economic greed and insecurity in women are such a potent combination that plastic surgery now rivals, economically, the much-criticized pornography industry along with almost every celebrity in Hollywood.
The desire to look like a star is one of the most prevalent motivations for high-society ladies to indulge in cosmetic surgery. This obsession with beauty goes against our 150-year battle of American feminism to empower women...
The end of the semester is fast approaching, which means stress is not far away. End-of-the-year projects, final exams and that last crucial push for a higher grade -- everything piling up on you until you are positive there will be no end. Slowly, the weight of everything will end up crushing you and then all the hard work you have done the last three weeks of school will be late.
According to the Student Stress Survey, students experience the most stress when they change sleeping and eating habits, return from vacations or breaks, increase their workload and add new responsibilities.
College freshmen are particularly susceptible to higher amounts of stress and, according to the SSS, “They must adjust to being away from home for the first time, maintain a high level of academic achievement, and adjust to a new social environment. College students, regardless of year in school, often deal with pressures related to finding a job or a potential life partner. These stressors do not cause anxiety or tension by themselves. Instead, stress results from the interaction between stressors and the individual's perception and reaction to those stressors.”
How people deal with that stress is crucial in how it will affect them. Allowing stress to become the focal point of your life is what leads to illness and for many people, it can lead to dropping out of school...
Look at the lineup for any of the major networks. The day is not really important. On any channel, it will look like this: 5 p.m. to 7 p.m., news; 7 p.m. to 8 p.m., some reality TV show that somehow always manages to interrupt the show you really want to watch; 8 p.m. to 9 p.m., a comedy that kind of resembles a show on one of the other competing networks or a drama that has been running for way to long and has several spinoff shows
From 9 p.m. to 10 p.m., a medley of shows that a network wants to try to launch, or kill off, or news. Followed at 11 p.m. by their own late-night comedian or syndicated shows that people still like but for some reason got canceled.
If the programming schedule is ever not like this, substitute more reality TV or national emergency for the blocks from 7 p.m. to 11 p.m.
Every day it is the same thing: There is no originality in network television anymore. Producers and network executives are content to use faux tension to drive ratings higher.
There is no real stretch to try to write creative and intriguing dramas or comedies – just the same thing every night.
What happened to actual good TV, shows that we would wait for anxiously every week, knowing that something great was going to happen?
Barack Obama promised us change. Now that change has arrived, the moral majority seems to fear it.
Well, I for one am ready, as are many soldiers who have been repressed for quite some time.
The Military Personnel Eligibility Act of 1993, more widely known as “don’t ask, don’t tell,” is under scrutiny by our commander-in-chief as well as many high-ranking military officers.
I believe it is deservedly so. This policy does not deny homosexuals and bisexuals the right to serve, but it is intended to prevent them from serving openly. Consequently, it prompts the removal of anyone speaking of gay lives back home as quickly as people caught in the act.
The amendment to the former ban on gays in the military and the current debate drip with bigotry and fear. Originally President Bill Clinton was aiming at completely removing the ban, but when met with extreme disapproval from his constituency, a compromise was made and thus the current policy.
In the debate at hand, many right-wing talking heads bring up the notion of showering together, sharing bunks and foxholes. Do they not share those situations with homosexuals as the law stands?
Just because they don’t know that their fellow soldiers are gay doesn’t mean they are not. Is the “bliss” of ignorance justified? A soldier I had a chance to talk to – who must remain anonymous – says no. “Well, there are myself and probably six or seven others that I know of that the DADT policy applied to,” he said. “I think it’s absurd that any of us should have to act any differently than who we are.
“My contract is up next month with honorable discharge. I’ve done everything expected of me, and my orientation had absolutely no impact on any of it. I wasn’t silent about it. Lots of people in my unit knew about me. It’s more acceptable to soldiers than people might choose to believe. In my opinion, all of us had the right to defend what we believe in, and our freedoms, just the same as anyone else.
“This policy is a gross violation of the freedoms our country claims to have. Anyone who says otherwise disrespects me, several others that I’ve served with and the job we performed.”
This belief stands true with many of our armed forces, including the more than 12,500 service members, according to the Service Members Legal Defense Network, who have been discharged since the enactment of the policy in 1994..
More than 73 percent of college students between the ages of 18 and 25 have participated in binge drinking in the past 12 months. Binge drinking has been a growing concern on college campuses and has played a major role in affecting every aspect of students’ lives, including grades, relationships and sports performances.
When the Century Council partnered with the American Advertising Federation’s National Student Advertising Competition last year to create a campaign to reduce binge drinking on college campuses, mass amounts of primary and secondary research was dug up.
“The facts that I found while conducting some of this research were mind-boggling, and the responses we got from surveys were just ridiculous,” said Stephanie Underwood, a NSAC participant. “People thought that binge drinking was just getting drunk.”
According to the government, binge drinking is defined as the consumption of five or more drinks for males and four or more drinks for females in a two-hour time period at least once in the past two weeks. NSAC participants found that 93 percent of college students did not identify with that definition and that more than half claimed to be knowledgeable of what a drink consists of.
“A drink is whatever can fit into my cup,” said Kelsey Chambers, a college senior...
When was the last time someone said, “I don’t have a Facebook,” or “Twitter is just too hard,” or even “I have never used MySpace.”? Social Networking has revolutionized the way we keep in touch with each other. Friends on opposite sides of the globe can log on and instantly know what is going on in each other’s lives. We are allowed the instant gratification of being able to spy on the lives of our acquaintances while not actually having to talk to them.
Yet with all the ease that social networking sites have afforded us, there is one aspect of most of our lives that the constant availability of social networking has made worse. It is drama, that defining element from high school that everyone wishes would just go away, but t won’t, because people can’t seem to stop talking smack behind each other’s backs.
And with Facebook leading the pack, telling all your “friends” exactly what is going on in your life, drama is bound to happen. Take, for example, the status of relationships. Sure, we all want to know when Bobby from high school gets married, but having his old high school flame, who happens to also be on your friend list, send him a scathing wall post about things we never wanted to, or should have to, hear about, is both a hilarious story to share with mutual acquaintances and an example of much that is wrong with our society. Yet we, as un-included third parties, can’t help but read it, because they made the mistake of not sending a private message.
It is becoming more and more common for people to use Facebook as an open window into their private lives. It becomes harder to separate what should be public information and what needs to stay private. With all of us living our lives on the Internet, it is no wonder that most of the things we were raised to believe to be so inherently private suddenly are all over the Web...
I had a small heart attack last week. While getting my daily caffeine and news dose one morning, I stumbled across a CNN article about Japanese computer games in which the objective of the game is rape.
Players can choose where to rape the virtual woman, how to rape her and how often. Such games are commonplace in Japan, and a recent effort to stop sales has caused the game to go viral – even appearing on YouTube. The first response I have toward these games (called “hentai” by the Japanese) as a female, and as a feminist at that, is outright disgust and outrage.
I quickly reposted on Facebook and seethed while turning the issue over in my head. Rape is a heinous crime with long-lasting, far-reaching effects, and it is all too common in our society. In the constant fight for social equality between the genders, there have been many obstacles to overcome – including those that are imposed by culture, class or even other women themselves.
I’m a constant crusader along with other women to overcome those obstacles, but sometimes in my fight for equality, I forget about a more far-reaching right: the right of free speech. I was reminded of that by several of the comments that were left on my Facebook post.
Initially, I would have argued for the outright banning of the games by all governments everywhere, but after further consideration, I came to the conclusion that it would be the worst thing to do. Human beings, for all their flaws and shortcomings, are intelligent beings capable of knowing right and wrong...
I was delighted to see Colin Robinson’s opinion in The Ranger. (“Ceasefire in war on drugs possible,” April 1, 2010.) I was even more delighted that it was printed in unison with the lead story on DUI simulators. I actually thought I would find that Robinson was an import from Southern Cal or Colorado State, not the Bible belt of the world, Amarillo, Texas.
Having written a similar piece for the Amarillo Globe-News a few years back, several books on the issue and now being as substance abuse student with Dr. Robert Banks, I have a uniquely different opinion of these issues.
I too think the war on drugs is lost, but not from the same legalization standpoint as Robinson.
As the price of the war on drugs reaches a trillion dollars, Americans continue to purchase 70 percent of the world’s illegal drugs; these billion- dollar overseas operations are indeed failures.
That money is better spent elsewhere in the substance abuse fields. My delight in Robinson soon died when I realized that he is really a legalization liberal who does not fully grasp the severity of this process. Legalization works in other countries because their laws are much more strict.
In Turkey, you are allowed your “dose” of hashish each day. Yet at the same time, if you have more than your daily dose of hashish, you are ushered into the court square and killed as a drug dealer.
So, to agree with Robinson and the other liberal legalizers, we first must be rid of the right-to-lifers who go about stopping all capital punishment warrants.
Next is the absurd idea that medical cannabis is supposed to be smoked. Medical cannabis comes in pill form, and when you sincerely need cannabis for pain, you are then willing to take the pill, not light up.
To watch as Southern California liberals and Colorado Springs hippies cry for legalization only so they are able to “toke with the buds” is an assault on my senses as a substance abuse specialist.
To know that toking is nothing more than an addiction in itself and has nothing to do with pain or eyesight suggests that you and I are stupid and the stoner is the only one with any intelligence...
In every decade, there is an artist or a genre of music that defines that generation.
In the ’50s it was Elvis; in the ’60s it was the Beatles. The ’70s had the disco kings and Kiss. In the ’80s were the hair bands, Boy George and Duran Duran. The ’90s brought about grunge and the infamous Nirvana.
Yet in our generation, it seems that artists are more worried about the almighty dollar than about their craft.
With the music scene dominated by acts that are spawned from reality TV, it seems that the public is stuck listening to artists who are looking only for commercial success instead of influencing listeners...
With the war in Iraq coming to a close and the war in Afghanistan still ongoing, it’s easy to forget about another war the United States has been in since before 9/11: the war on drugs. Illegal drug use has not slowed, and the number of harmful substances has only increased.
Illegal drugs can be found in almost any community and despite many arrests, little progress is being made. I think it’s time we rethink the war on drugs.
The current strategy involves squashing illegal drugs, destruction of any illegal substances found and the incarceration of anyone in possession – which is an utter failure.
The fact of the matter is that destroying the supply of the drugs isn’t going to help anything if the demand remains strong. Anyone can make almost any illegal drug at any time in their home with products found at a grocery store.
If a man is addicted to methamphetamines, he is going to get his hands on some, even if he has to cook it himself.
If said man is arrested with meth on him and sentenced to time in prison, he’ll be back on it once he is released.
The same can be said for marijuana.The government can burn as many crops as it wants, but people always will be able to find some.
Addicts are treated as the worst kinds of offenders. Drug users aren’t criminals, however; they often are people who have lost their way, who are missing something, and drugs fill that hole. If we can manage to help those people, we will eliminate the demand and therefore the supply.
What exactly do we do to win the war?
First off, we should legalize marijuana. Let’s forget that marijuana has killed zero people in recorded history, it contains no addicting substances and it has an almost infinite number of uses in the medical and textile industries. Marijuana is the most widely available illegal drug in the world.
Major drug dealers know it, and that is where they get the majority of their money...
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It’s next to impossible to watch TV without seeing one ad asking, “Are you struggling to lose weight?” Our society is obsessed with weight. Gaining weight, losing weight, childhood obesity and celebrity weight issues; if there is a chance to talk about weight, we all will join in and share on the subject.
According to the Journal of the American Medical Association, 68.3 percent of the population over the age of 20 is obese with a Body Mass Index of 25 or higher, which means that a quarter or more of their body is fat...
That is the controversial mantra that model Kate Moss says she lives by.
While some may take this as “thin-spiration,” many people, especially young women, are self-conscious and vulnerable as it is, and irresponsible statements such as this one could encourage them to stop eating.
The Oscars are the culmination of award season when Hollywood’s best and brightest come out in hopes of walking away with a gold statue of their own.
As a nation obsessed with the actions, style and lives of celebrities, the Oscars are like the holy grail of award shows.
There will be hours of television dedicated to an in-depth look at the fashion of the Oscars. Full magazines will discuss the merits of every outfit and person in attendance. Some shows might actually discuss the winners, but that is not really important.
The Academy Awards are the last bastion celebrating true artistic achievement. For years, they have staunchly refused to bend to the ways of modern cinema and have stayed true to celebrating excellence.
It’s next to impossible to watch TV without seeing one ad asking, “Are you struggling to lose weight?” Our society is obsessed with weight. Gaining weight, losing weight, childhood obesity and celebrity weight issues; if there is a chance to talk about weight, we all will join in and share on the subject.
According to the Journal of the American Medical Association, 68.3 percent of the population over the age of 20 is obese with a Body Mass Index of 25 or higher, which means that a quarter or more of their body is fat...
The Oscars are the culmination of award season when Hollywood’s best and brightest come out in hopes of walking away with a gold statue of their own.
As a nation obsessed with the actions, style and lives of celebrities, the Oscars are like the holy grail of award shows.
There will be hours of television dedicated to an in-depth look at the fashion of the Oscars. Full magazines will discuss the merits of every outfit and person in attendance. Some shows might actually discuss the winners, but that is not really important.
The Academy Awards are the last bastion celebrating true artistic achievement. For years, they have staunchly refused to bend to the ways of modern cinema and have stayed true to celebrating excellence.
That is the controversial mantra that model Kate Moss says she lives by.
While some may take this as “thin-spiration,” many people, especially young women, are self-conscious and vulnerable as it is, and irresponsible statements such as this one could encourage them to stop eating.
Love: a four-letter word that means so many different things to different people.
Love can mean to feel affection for or to like someone or a particular object. To a normal, single, young woman, love can seem only a far-off dream.
In movies, love always is portrayed the same way. Guy meets girl, they fall in love, something bad happens, then they overcome it. As young girls, we are shown movies such as Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty and Beauty and the Beast. When girls grow up, they like to watch, read or listen to anything that shows that kind of love. They think Prince Charming is going to come and save them. The odds of that happening in real life are slim.
Take music: It has a lot of love songs in circulation. Love is the topic of choice. From Disney to pop to rock, love is in the music. It makes people think love is just going to come out and announce itself.
Love songs tell people that love is not a dream, that it happens all the time. For some that might be true, but it doesn’t happen the same way the songs say it will. Love is not something you wish for and it just happens. Remember, love has to be worked for. Few artists mention that in their lyrics...
It is almost impossible to go anywhere and not be bombarded by Twilight. It’s an infection sweeping the nation and an international phenomenon that spawned the cult of twi-hards.
Stephenie Meyer, author of the Twilight series of books, is slowly but surely taking over the world. While Meyer tries to dazzle the reader with images of sparkly heroes, the heroine of her quartet of top-selling novels is a shallow, insecure, clumsy, whiney pushover. This is the girl that millions of young ladies around the world now aspire to be like.
Twilight is teaching young women that, to be happy, you need a man to control your every action, a man who clearly has issues with jealousy and a woman’s independence.
According to the National Center for Domestic Violence, overly controlling jealousy is one of the indicators of domestic violence. Yet Meyer makes it seem all right that Edward the vampire sneaks into Bella’s bedroom most nights and “watches her sleep” or tries to kill himself because they are not together.
It completely does away with the ideals of equality and feminism that so many have fought for. Bella is more than happy to let Edward, her father, Jacob, the vampire high council and Edward’s family all run her life and tell her what to do and when to do it in the name of protecting her and the world. Then, when left alone, all she can do about the situation is fall into a deep and debilitating depression that causes her to act out in impulsive, dangerous and life-threatening ways...
Debt is an issue for all of us. If you don't have it now, you can be sure it is in your future.
The current economic climate makes it that much more difficult to find work that can pay off loans. Regardless of investing thousands of dollars in education, many students are left with massive debt and not much else. Too many students have used credit to float themselves through the entanglements of techno-lust or unemployed nights on the town.
How do those of us who don't qualify for the free money from the government evade the shackles of debt? The only way is through the use of credit, which causes more problems than it fixes. Beware, "the borrower is servant to the lender." The reality of high unemployment, low savings rates and ever-increasing consumer debt levels suggests that credit has, in these modern times, been used by the lender to hold everybody for ransom. The current system of subsidizing education loans through taxes, with banks reaping the interest regardless if the loan is paid off by the indebted or by the taxpayer, is crooked. Paying for school this way only keeps the crooked system crooked with no way of fixing it.
The president is working with House and Senate members to pass the Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibility Act in an attempt to reform student aid and educational lending. College financial aid offices are buzzing with excitement over the changes...
According to the Amarillo College Student Rights and Responsibilities handbook, “... scholastic dishonesty shall constitute a violation of ... rules and regulations and is punishable as prescribed by Board policies. Scholastic dishonesty shall include, but not be limited to, cheating on a test, plagiarism and collusion.”
“Cheating on a test” shall include: “Copying from another student’s test paper. Using test materials not authorized by the person administering the test. Collaborating with or seeking aid from another student during a test without permission from the test administrator. Knowingly using, buying, selling, stealing or soliciting, in whole or in part, the contents of an un-administered test.
“The unauthorized transporting or removal, in whole or in part, of the contents of the un-administered test. Substituting for another student, or permitting another student to substitute for one’s self, to take a test. Bribing another person to obtain an un-administered test or information about an un-administered test.”
The handbook is clear about what is and what is not cheating. It spells out for students what the administration defines as cheating.
Yet every semester, it inevitably happens that some students think they are smarter than any other student who has ever cheated before.
They think they will never be caught and, when they are, not only do they destroy their own academic careers, they cause everyone else to suffer with tighter regulations and higher scrutiny from professors.
Everyone student here is an adult and should be treated as such. Even if a student is not 18 yet, this is a college. Teachers shouldn’t have to spend test days walking up and down the aisles making sure students aren’t sharing answers...
Since the Jan. 12 earthquake that left Haiti in shambles, a surge of aid has flooded the island nation.
I’ve encountered quite a bit of naysaying about whether Americans should donate (monetarily or otherwise) to help Haitians survive and ultimately overcome the devastation. In my opinion, donating if you are able is a no-brainer. Yes, you should help if you can.
When Hurricane Katrina ravaged Louisiana and other Gulf Coast states in August 2005, Americans stepped up to show their patriotism and loyalty to one another by donating a record- breaking $3.27 billion to relief efforts, according a Washington Post report. A similar outpouring of generosity, $2.8 million, had been recorded following the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001.
Those totals make me proud to be from a country that takes care of its own. But I feel that many people fail to realize that before we’re Americans, we’re human beings. And despite our poor economic standing in recent years, we lead pampered lives compared to a country like Haiti, even before a natural disaster strikes.
On average, each Haitian survives on about $2 a day. It is the least developed nation in the western hemisphere. More than half the population is illiterate and, according to the Human Developmental Index, more than 80 percent of the population lives in poverty...
Viral videos, Tweeting and Facebook status updates. Social media slowly but surely are taking over our lives.
We all are plugged in constantly to all our sites instead of doing what we need to get done. What would life be like without the instant gratification of being able to post exactly what is happening in your life every second of every day? How did we get through work and school without YouTube to pass the time during lectures or staff meetings? People might actually pay attention. The horror.
But a series of rumors have been circulating around the Internet that sites such as Facebook, YouTube and even Hulu are considering charging for their services. What has made those sites so successful as opposed to their competitors is partially due to their not charging to use the sites. Would so many people continue using Facebook if it had a fee?
Certainly it would cause a substantial number of members to switch to less popular sites that don’t charge. How many people would go back to using Myspace as their primary social networking site?...
I am a slave to caffeine. I will admit it. I crave Red Bull even after a restful night.
Starbucks, Monster, Rock Star and every other sugar-packed energy drink has been marketed like mad to keep everyone going and going. You can find their labels slapped across the helmets of motocross racers and atop the hoods of race cars.
It’s the best kind of subliminal messaging: the in-your-face kind. The kind that exhausts you into thinking, “I can use one of those right about now.” So why is everyone in such a hurry?
I never understood the phrase, “There aren’t enough hours in the day.” As a kid, the days dragged on forever. An hour of extended playtime was a brand new adventure. Now it seems the best way to get by is to hurry through life’s obstacles...
The new phrase all over Facebook is “fist pumping like champs,” but I don’t understand how this Jersey Shore dance move has become so popular.
Jersey Shore is the latest reality television show that has made quite a stir in the entertainment industry. Is it the hair gel, ripped abs, partying or fake tans that has made these people so famous? I think the eight young adults have become famous for absolutely nothing but acting ridiculous on national television.
Yes, I’ll admit, I’ve watched the show and also caught myself wanting to go to the tanning beds. Later, though, I asked myself, “Why am I watching this crap?” Then Jersey Shore began to appear everywhere – even on the news. Apparently I wasn’t the only one watching it.
The cast has received a ton of attention and been invited to make guest appearances on other shows. They recently got a taste of A-list life while attending the Golden Globe Awards. Matt Donnelly of the Los Angeles Times: The Awards Insider raved that “At ‘The Hospitality Suite,’ hosted at jeweler Pascal Mouawad’s home in the West Hollywood Hills, the cast got gems from Mouawad’s collection,...
A great man said, “If you don’t stand for something, you’ll fall for anything.” In Amarillo, there’s a group that is standing and trying to change the “evil” ways of more than 65,000 people in the Panhandle, from Muslims to Buddhists to Scientologists to Methodists, even Episcopalians. Homosexuals, Masons, New Age believers, pro-choice advocates and the sex industry. No group is safe from the scrutiny of Repent Amarillo.
Now this desire to save people is no longer confined to the Panhandle. The citizens of Houston recently elected Annise Parker as mayor. Why should that affect people more than 700 miles away? Is it because Parker is the second female ever elected mayor in Houston?
Maybe her political aspirations to bring Houston more prosperity in her years in office?
No, Parker being elected mayor in Houston has nothing to do with her qualifications or her political positions. The only thing that matters about this monumental election to Repent Amarillo is that Parker is the first ever openly gay individual elected mayor of a U.S. city of more than a million people. And that is something that cannot be, according to Repent Amarillo.
This religious group claims to be an army for God fighting on the front lines, fighting for Jesus Christ through prayer. However, its “holy war” seems more like an exercise in ignorance and intolerance than a real effort to spread the message of Christianity...
What is Iraq like?” “Did you ever shoot anyone?” During my five years in the U.S. Army, those were and still are some of the questions that always seem to come up when people learn about my service.
While people seem to be interested in the glory of war, they never stop to think what goes through a soldier’s head when he is deploying to a combat zone.
When preparing for deployment, it’s more mentally than physically demanding. After completing two deployments, the first being single and the second being married with a child on the way, I have experienced both sets of extremes.
While being single and deploying I was thinking more about missing out on sporting events and the occasional beer pong. But when you have a family and you’re deploying, you start to ask yourself questions suh as, “Will my wife be able to handle everything on her own?” or “What’s going to happen if I don’t make it home?”...
On April 23, Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer signed Senate Bill 1070 into law. The bill requires that police detain any person suspected of being illegally in the state of Arizona.
A week later the law was modified to state that police could only detain an individual and question them about their alien status while the were committing another offense, such as speeding, or loitering. SB 1070 also says illegal immigrants cannot be present “on public or private land in the state” or be traveling through the state of Arizona.
That is the biggest insult to human rights since separate but equal was said to be legal. This law is a slap in the face to the civil rights marches of the 1960s. The people who are immigrating to the United States are doing it for one of three main reasons: to make a better future for themselves and their families, to escape persecution from their homeland or to start a new life, whether through education or marriage.
The Arizona government is telling these immigrants that it doesn’t matter why they fled their country. It is not important to them that they left behind all they knew, possibly leaving behind family members so they can work jobs that we don’t want to do...
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