Invisible Children

     Invisible Children is an organization founded after three young filmmakers took a trip to northern Uganda in 2003 and witnessed the effects of the atrocities occurring there. Children were being abducted and forced to become soldiers for the LRA, the Lord’s Resistance Army. The LRA is led by Joseph Kony and travels throughout these remote nations in search of villages that they can exploit and strengthen their force through the use of child soldiers. Literally, children are taken from their homes in the middle of the night and forced to handle weapons and commit terrible actions. For the last 23 years the LRA and the government of Uganda have been waging a war in which nearly two million innocent people have been caught in the middle of violence and international crime, their families and villages being torn apart by murderous thugs. The LRA for the most part has left Uganda due to the increased awareness and support of Invisible Children but has gone on to other nations such as the Democratic Republic of Congo as well as Sudan.

     The LRA was formed from what was known as the Holy Spirit Movement. A woman named Alice Lakwena believed the Holy Spirit had spoken to her and ordered her to overthrow the Ugandan government for treating her people unjustly. The movement gained support but Lakwena was exiled and Joseph Kony, a supposed cousin of Lakwena, took over leadership by forming the LRA. The LRA did not receive nearly the same amount of support that the Holy Spirit Movement did which motivated Kony to abduct children in order to form his army. The LRA has abducted an estimated 66,000 children and displace well over two million innocent people during his reign of terror.



Children soldiers in Uganda

     Invisible Children, through increasing awareness about this issue and the raising of funds, have greatly changed the situation in Uganda. After their trip to Uganda in 2003, the founders of Invisible Children made a documentary in which they explained and gained support for their cause. Volunteers and activists tour their film all over the United States and have been well received by their audience. Largely unreported by the media, Kony’s atrocities have been ignored for far too long and Invisible Children is trying to stop that. They have through the funds risen, provided many of these remote villages with radios so that they can contact one another and warn each other of the LRA’s presence. This along with efforts in education and the long term development of war torn areas has already shown significant improvement for Ugandans.

Westboro Baptist Church

Fred Phelps, the scumbag patriarch behind the WBC

    The Westboro Baptist Church, or the WBC for short, is a hate group posing as a religious practice centered in Topeka, Kansas. They have an anti-American agenda that focuses on condemning primarily military personnel and homosexuals. One of WBC's favorite methods of attention mongering is picketing the funerals of our nation’s military heroes and those that live any sort of nonconforming lifestyle. By gathering large numbers of protesters, they effectively demonstrate their lack of moral basis and insane assumption that should a god exist, that entity favors the exploitation and hatred towards fellow man. Led by founder Fred Phelps, the organization has grown both with the aid of the internet and the growth of his family. The WBC is primarily controlled by the various members of the Phelps family who have defended themselves with legal degrees. They are notorious for playing the victim in legal situations to exploit whoever necessary to gain funding.

     The purpose of the WBC's message is rather unclear. In my research for this blog post I was not able to find a stated purpose for the church's existence other than to spread the message that god hates america and our ways. They claim America is immoral for our acceptance of deviant lifestyles and our support for our nations military. One thing however that nobody seems to understand is, how the WBC can justify their obvious lack of human dignity and still retain the fallacy that they will be "redeemed" or "saved" by their non-existent sky friend. Even if a god existed what kind of monster would condone these actions and reward them with eternal life? The WBC's ever tasteful (sarcasm) website domain, gadhatesfags.com, is a testament to their outlandish attention hogging. They know people will be outraged by their coarse language but yet that pleases them, knowing that they are being noticed. In response to the WBC, many prominent celebrity figures have donated large sums of money to charities that benefit the gay community as well as aiding families of deceased soldiers. They claim that they are trying to show America its transgression and abominations but yet the only abominations most people notice are the church's almost insane dogma. Personally, I consider Christianity and most other forms of religious worship to be insane but the actions of the WBC are far more horrific and intolerable than that of those who simply keep to themselves.

WBC protesters 

     If it has not been abundantly clear already, I believe the Westboro Baptist Church is a disgrace to humanity however I am a firm believer in the protection of personal rights and liberties. Therefore I understand and acknowledge their right to free speech despite my utter resentment and disgust for each and every one of them. Generally the response most people have to the WBC is one similar to mine. Counter protests usually occur right next to WBC protests in an effort to outnumber and block out the negative messages they spread. The complete lack of moral standards within the WBC is shocking yet these are the kinds of things that can happen to the world when crazy people are given a foundation to speak off of. The WBC is just another reason why religion is detrimental to our world.

Cyber Bullying

An example of a hateful text

     Bullying in the 21st century has taken on a new form, a more cowardly but equally hurtful form. With the use of modern technology such as computers, mobile devices, and other electronic communication, kids are being bullied in ways they have never been before. Bullying has transformed from being physically involved to more of an emotional hurt. Since it is taking place in a cyber space instead of face to face, it can be very difficult for the bullying to stop and it tends to be more persistent than it used to be. Since bullies can now have access to their victims 24/7, the overwhelming distress that bullying can put on someone is amplified. They feel that they can't escape and this thought is often what leads bully victims to their own suicide.

Differences in bullying

     There is no "one size fits all" solution for cyber bullying because each individual case is very different. Taking action against a cyber bully is difficult because unless it happened on school property and during school hours, the administration really has no authority. Schools are not effective at disciplining cyber bullies simply because interfering too much may infringe upon a students free speech. Legislation in New York, Missouri, Rhode Island,  and Maryland has been passed to help prevent cyber bullying. These laws aid in deterring bullies but also punishing offenders who have already done damage. Ultimately it is the responsibility of parents and teachers to ensure that this cyber bullying comes to an end. The fact that this form of bullying is not face to face makes it harder to find out about for authority figures so it is also the responsibility of victims to come forward and seek help. Together we can help one another put an end to bullying.

Link One:http://www.safetyweb.com/stop-cyber-bullying#Cyber
Link Two: http://www.stopcyberbullying.org/

Bullying and it's terrible effects

A example of bullying

Bullying is the epitome of defensive behavior. It stems from the insecurities and bottled up hate of an individual to be expressed as a menacing attack upon someone else. Bullying, especially in schools can cause much traumatic damage to kids. The harassment can get so extreme that students feel unsafe in the school environment. One high school student named Delaney Escher got on the bad side of a group of classmates when she failed to invite them to a party. They began sending Delaney hateful texts and harassing her at school. She was so emotionally distraught that she had to go seek help from a therapist. Eventually, the problem toned down a 

bit but she still gets mean looks and hurtful things said to her now and again. Fortunately, some bullying situations end happier. For six years Jim Harold Jr. was relentlessly bullied at school. His parents would get frustrated with him because he failed to report the incidents every time they occurred. It wasn’t until his parents took him to see a mental health specialist that they found out he had Asperger’s, a mild form of autism. This turned out to be the reason he could not communicate his bullying. After being diagnosed and changing schools, Jim found a circle of friends that helped develop his social skills. Now he is a senior at Webster Thomas High 

Jamey Rodemeyer

School and happier than ever before. Administrators from several Rochester area districts said that more bullying incidents are being reported than ever before. This may be the cause of the awareness bullying programs have given the public or possibly the economic decline of our nation is cause for more stress at home and results in kids acting out at school. States are beginning to pass legislature in order to reduce and prevent bullying and that’s good news for kids like Elise Groth, a 12 year old who was bullied relentlessly on the bus and at school. The emotional and physical attacks became so bad for Elise that her mother took her out of school and homeschooled her for the remainder of the year. It’s tough for schools to regulate disciplinary actions because it can become difficult to discern who is lying and who is telling the truth. The reoccurring failure of schools to prevent bullying and the additional stress of cyber bullying often leads to kids taking drastic measures to end their suffering like Jamey Rodemeyer. Jamey was endlessly harassed online by kids from school about his sexual orientation. It became so bad for him that he committed suicide. Lady Gaga, his idol, even dedicated a song to him and took a moment to remember him. She also started an effort on twitter to raise awareness and attempt to form a bullying law.

Kids preventing bullying

     Bullying is an issue that many young people deal with everyday. Bullies often get their personality due to some form of traumatic experience or insecurity. Dan H., a classmate of mine said “It is unfortunate that bullying has to be a part of school but it represents the insecurities of youth”. And Dan couldn’t have been more correct unfortunately. Bullying is the cause of many kids’ lifelong struggles. Joe W. stated that “it ruins people’s lives and should be prevented more” while Chris D. responded with “it can be very difficult to near impossible to end bullying, but we can try”. Bishop Kearney, my high school, enforces a fairly strict code regarding bullying and retains the opinion that any form of harassment can be bullying and that the offender will be punished accordingly. Mr. Miller, our schools dean of students, came to speak to us and said this inspiring quote: “Bullying is bad, don’t do it”. Prevention and awareness are vital to minimizing and ending bullying. Change begins with the individual.

First Article    http://www.democratandchronicle.com/article/20110925/NEWS01/109250359/Hateful-texts-voicemails-end-after-visit-school-psychologist
Second Article http://www.democratandchronicle.com/article/20110925/NEWS01/109250357/It-wasn-t-fear-kept-bullied-teen-from-talking
Third Article http://www.democratandchronicle.com/article/20110925/NEWS01/109250354/Bullying-leaves-tormented-students-helpless-parents?odyssey=tab|topnews|text|Home

Separation of Church and State

     Our nation was founded upon the very principle of freedom. We have unalienable rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness among others, our protected constitutional rights. One of the things about the new world that appealed to so many early settlers was that it was a place to start anew. Where one could live their life as they pleased without the threat of religious tyranny destroying their way of life. As our nation grew and gained its independence, these rights became ingrained in our society to be protected and most importantly, respected by both government and citizen alike. Fundamentally, our nation was constructed by religion but that does not mean that we are a nation of religion. The purpose of granting religious freedom to citizens was to remove the issues of religious differences from ever entering the realm of debate. If everyone can believe what they want, what is there to ever disagree about? Keep to yourselves and do not force beliefs upon other people and little problem will be had. The issue of the separation of church and state is a dangerous thing to dabble in. The real problem is that eventually, the state religion might not be your religion. Terrible things tend to happen when people become heated over topics and the fact that most religious people are not true followers in that they are not loving and kind as they are taught, could cause much conflict. We are not a nation under god. We are a nation where we are free to practice anything we desire or abstain from the evils of religion all together. Religion is the wall between progress. Religion is the one thing that has caused more discord in the world than anything else. Why jeopardize the remaining rights we have by essentially giving one away? Why disgrace our constitution by soiling it with the idiocracy of people who believe in creationism, that our planet was created 2,000 years ago by a creature in the sky. Let's be realistic. Religion is the barrier to all that can be accomplished.By letting it be officially incorporated into our society is a step back and a threat to both our nations intelligence and prosperity.