Boston Strong

I remember the 9/11 attacks, they occured when I was in first grade and all I really remember was that we were redoing our floors and I was so upset that none of my regular tv shows were on because the news took over every channel. I was too young to feel much of an impact or really know what this meant at the time all I knew was it was called terrorism and that I was scared. Now I am older and see the true impact of the events of 9/11 and am also able to see and understand about the attacks at the Boston marathon. When I first heard none of it felt real, then I thought about all my loved ones that I knew were at and participating in the marathon. It made me concerned about them. Why would anyone think that this was an okay thing to do? To hurt innocent people at an event that is supposed to be joyous, one of Boston's proudest events. I think it was continue to be a proud event now because we saw how everyone came together to help others, we showed that we are not a city to be messed. I have never been more proud to call Boston my home than after the attacks. The strength of our city continues to amaze me.

Boston Bombing

Boom. In a second everything changed, there are 3 now dead and over 140 injured from the bombings that took place on that Marathon Monday 4/15/13. The dead included 8-year old boy who was just trying to watch this usually joyous event with his family, he was not the only one though many children were hurt along with many adults, the responders were fighting victims lose of blood and limbs. Two bombs exploded damaging not only people or property but the sense of security of where many call home. After the two bombs were set off, the race was called off and in that time there were another two bombs found and disposed of before they had the chance to hurt anyone else. Immediately this was known to be an act of terrorism. The police and other officials worked tirelessly to help everyone, no matter how grim they looked they would continue to try to help and it is because of this that so many are still alive. They did not only pull together to help the injured but also to find the monsters responsible for the bombings. It was with this that they were able to shut down the whole city of Boston to find the ones responsible. Now all there is to do is wait, wait to see what punishment will be dished out to the one remaining bomber, 19 year old Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. His older brother was the other bomber and has since been killed.

There are no real words to describe such a tragedy. None of the people hurt or killed were anything other than innocent civilians, there was no reason that this should have happened. These “men”, if you can even call them that, killed innocent people and ruined many others lives. Even after the victims wounds heal they will never be the same, they will have to carry this pain with them always. Everyone I knew was either there or had a loved one at the marathon and those moments of fear not knowing if you would ever get to see your loved ones again was a real enough pain that I don’t think anyone will soon forget. Whatever Dzhokhar gets it will not be a punishment severe enough.

With all the pain there is also a large sense of pride in the city I call home. The way everyone banded together to help each other was remarkable and with the skills that the rescuing of victims and hunting down Dzhokhar and his brother, we should feel proud. With this story I heard one of the most remarkable things of my life, people who were running the marathon would finish the race only to continue running to the nearest hospital to donate blood for those were less lucky them themselves. It was being reported that the blood banks were full enough to support all the victims and they heavy blood transfusions, this is a remarkable thing. Also people who were just watching the marathon and saw the bombing went up and tried to the best of their abilities to help those who were injured regardless of the fact that it might harm themselves. We Bostonians take pride in our city and take care of our own and when someone threatens or hurts us we will do everything to get them. After the responses to the bombings and seeing how strong Boston is I have never been prouder to call Boston my home. I mean how many other places can say that they will shut the whole city down if you try to mess with them?

College Bound

"There is no way you can get into college unless you get your grades up." Chances are you have heard this from an adult in your life. Growing up, all kids hear is they have to get good grades, do extracuriculars, keep a certain GPA, and live basically a perfect life to get into a college when they grow up. This story all seems to change once one starts applying for schools though. After hearing their whole lives about how unless they get straight A's their whole lives there is no way for them to get into college, when teenagers begin their college search they automatically assume they will never get in anywhere because that is all they have ever been told.

Looking for colleges is stressful enough without it being in your head you can never get in anywhere. Much like Madie Thomson, a junior from Norton High, most people start looking at schools and going on tours their junior year in high school.

I am not saying that you can get into Harvard with all C's or anything but colleges will accept people with less than perfect grades. This process of telling children early on how they must strive for perfection if they want to have a future and attend college makes those who cannot acheive that perfection (most of us!) give up finding a college often and settle for a comunity school or sometimes even nothing.

Thomson thinks she will have "no trouble" since she has all A's and high B's which she has been told is all she needs. I am here to say I do not have anything close to perfect grades, with a 2.9 GPA and failing grade in AP Calculus I was convinced that I had no chance of getting into any college and was destined to stay at home for the rest of my life based on what I had always heard from my parents growing up and guidence councilors. The second I started actually looking at schools they changed and said I would be able to get in at least one place, after years of being told otherwise I did not believe them. Months later I have applied to 7 very different schools and have indeed gotten into every single one of them.

Moral: Try your best and then take a chance and try to forget what everyone has said before because no matter what there is still hope for a good school.

Capital Punishment

Capital punishment is more commonly referred to as the death penalty and happens to be the cause of much controversy over whether or not this should continue being practiced. Death is used as an act of retribution for the person’s crimes or as a way to prevent them from ever committing another crime. It is only used in the most severe cases and only in certain states. Many states and other countries, including all of Europe, have prohibited this use of punishment. There are currently 17 states that have outlawed the practice. The problems with this most commonly are morality, constitutionality, retribution, mistakes, cost, and inequality leading to unfair treatments.

                It can be said that capital punishment is immoral because the government should never be the one to decide to take a life. The death penalty actually treats the person accused as being responsible for their own actions and sense of morals and not as if they are being controlled. It honors the idea of freedom that this great nation was indeed based on. When someone commits a crime so awful and when there is no doubt that it was them, it is then made clear that they themselves lack a sense of morality and can no longer be rehabilitated. People often forget prisons are only there to rehabilitate really not to permanently hold dangerous people who have to hope of ever changing.

People often try to argue that prison is a worse punishment for criminals and that death would be a gift. For those people who will never feel remorse for their actions or change keeping them in jail is a gift. In jails those who commit the worse crimes are more respected, the longer someone has been in one of these facilities the more friends and connections they make. These connections make them have an increasingly good time so eventually prison is no longer even a punishment to them it is where they feel the most comfortable and happy. Keeping them locked up ends up being a good thing to them when in actuality they need to be punished and not just simply held. They deserve to have the ultimate punishment and in some cases a better idea of what their victims went through, they deserve to be killed.

                Originally getting sentenced to death meant a painful death by burning or flaying alive and of course the guillotine. The practices used today are not nearly as barbaric or painful. These people sentenced to death row are essentially guaranteed much less pain then their own victims. Before a criminal is caught their victims and the families of the victims are forced to live in constant fear of them but when caught and put in jail the victims begin being able to live normal lives again slowly but there will always be a slight sense of fear such as if the criminal gets out due to overcrowding or if there is a prison break and the criminal finds them. For the worst most painful crimes the victims cannot fully recover until the criminal is dead, that is the only way to know for sure he has been punished fully for his crimes and will never be able to hurt the victims or anyone else again.

                There is also the argument that death penalty costs more money than simply keeping a prisoner alive. This is true, however, what comes with that price is safety and a step in the right direction to get rid of all the harm in the world. By keeping them alive there is more danger to the outside world and those other criminals inside the jail, by killing a dangerous criminal it may cost more but sometimes the price of being able to sleep soundly is worth it. There is also the fact that if there was simply a donation to help the families of those who have been hurt by the criminal most people not even effected would be willing to donate just to help the innocent and protect their own from the criminal carrying on with his crimes.

                It is said that if there is a mistake and they accidentally kill an innocent person there will be no way to fix it. This is also true. What is not said is how long being on death row takes and how many different chances in courts are given. If after all these appeals and long court dates and years on death row there is still an accident after someone is put to death then the problem is not the with death sentence it is the judicial system.