Saturday, January 18, 2020

Women 100 Years Ago and Women Today

Loftus 1 How Religion Has Affected My Life I've been going to church with my grandparents for as long as I can remember. I've always been a part of church related activities. We always said grace before we ate a meal. I said my prayers before I went to bed. I was baptized when I was born. I had my first communion. I was a very religious little kid and I always had God in my life. Of course, I only did all those things because I thought I was supposed to. I just thought it was something that everybody in the world did. But, as I got older I learned that it was all just a part of my religion.I also learned that not everyone had the same religion as I did. There were many different religions. There were even some people that didn't have a religion. Once I realized all of those things, I started asking questions. Why was I catholic? Why did I have to go to church every Sunday? Why is it so important? I asked my grandmother these questions and her only response was, â€Å"It's because Je sus died on the cross for us. † But I still had the question lingering in my head: Why? My mother and father never went to church with us. My mom would drop us off a religion classes but that was about it.When I asked my mom why she'd never gone to with us she had said, â€Å"I don't believe that you have to go to church every Sunday to show your appreciation for God. † That really had me thinking, if my mom and dad never went, did I really have to go? I certainly didn't like sitting in the cold for an hour listening to people singing terribly and other people talking about things I never understood. Always standing up and sitting down every couple of Loftus 2 minutes. It got very old, very fast. By the time I was a teenager, I got really tired of the same old thing.That's when it all started. At the age of thirteen all I wanted to do was hang out with my friends. They weren't the best of people but they accepted me and that's all I cared about. I started being more lik e them. Wearing all black, doing my make up really heavily, smoking cigarettes, drinking alcohol, experimenting with drugs. I turned into the complete antithesis of the girl I was when I was younger. My family definitely started to notice. My mom and dad said it was just a phase but my grandmother thought I was starting to become a â€Å"devil worshiper†. She orced me to go to church with them. I was forced to go to religion class. I got the you-need-Jesus-in-your-life talk every time I was around my grandma. That is when I really started to resent everything that had to do with my religion. My grandmother had pushed me to my breaking point. I didn't want anything to do with God or Jesus. When asked, I always told people I didn't have a religion. I was against it. I refused to go to church or religion class. I stopped saying grace before I ate. I stopped saying prayers before I went to sleep. I even stopped believing there was a God.This caused a lot of tension between my gra ndmother and I. We never saw eye to eye on anything. We were always arguing over something. She always told me that she never thought she'd have a granddaughter like me. She expected me to be more of a lady. I couldn't stand being around her. I didn't tell her anything. She had forced religion on me to the point that I didn't want to have a religion anymore. It even caused me to think I hated her. You could only imagine how much harder it got once my mom lost our house and we had to move into my grandparent's house.I got so angry when my mom told me the news. All I wanted to do was scream. The thought of having to see my grandma every single day was terrifying. My life had gotten significantly more tough Loftus 3 at that point. When we moved in, I stayed in my room all the time. If I wasn't in my room, I was either at school or out with my friends. When dinner was ready I ate with my head down. Not speaking to or looking at anyone. My mom caught on real quickly. I remember one night she pulled me into her bedroom after dinner and asked me why I was acting so strangely.I poured my heart out and told her everything I was going through. She told me, â€Å"You need to stop hating your grandmother. She is getting older and her health is declining. She won't be here one day and you're going to regret not having a good relationship with her. You don't have to go to church every Sunday. You don't even need to go to religion class. You just need to respect the fact that your grandmother is just leading you by example. That's how she was raised. So, you need to stop getting angry at her and you need to start building a better relationship with her. That is the night that things got better. Every time I want to get angry with my grandma I remember what my mom told me and I haven't gotten angry with her since. I never got my faith back and there are still some things I can't tell my grandmother due to her being so religious. I would love to tell her that I'm engaged but, I can't because I'm a homosexual and I'm sure she'd disown me. But despite that, my grandmother and I are now on good terms. We talk on the phone more often since I moved away and I plan on visiting her whenever I make my trips back home.

Friday, January 10, 2020

Police Brutality Essay

When one thinks of a cop what should come to mind is â€Å"hero†. Cops should be a sign of safety, when a cop comes around you should feel safe and protected. Although a few years ago it was that way it is no longer true. Now day’s cops are seen as people you want to stay away from, people are afraid of them. Cops are now abusing, assaulting, and killing innocent people, this is called police brutality. Police brutality can be caused by policeman’s ability to assume everyone is up to no good, racism, and thinking they have the power to do whatever they want, and it results in falsely accused young adults, death, abuse of power by troubling the lives of others. All over the world people are getting falsely accused and charged with crimes they did not commit, abused, and even killed because of police brutality. When police cars drive around in certain neighborhoods and see a bunch of teens standing around or just any type of people around in groups they automatically start to assume that they are up to no good. In the video I am Sean Bell a child said â€Å" There’s been a lot of times where people got shot over nothing. Like one guy he got shot just for pulling out a brush.† This shows that even though the man wasn’t doing anything wrong and didn’t have anything illegal on him the police just assumed that he was up to no good and was going to fire a weapon. Now days you can’t even pull out a brush without getting shot by police officers. In my eyes they are not protecting us they are taking us down. Nationally 83 percent of police are white; this is most likely why black males are locked up and get pulled over daily. Racism is something that is still a huge problem in America. White people are always seeing blacks as criminals and anytime there is a crime blacks are the first ones who are blamed. â€Å"Tonight there is anger here in New York City as 5 police officers fire 50 rounds into a vehicle last weekend killing one man, injuring two others. Victims were all black and unarmed.† – I am Sean Bell. Why was it necessary to shoot 50 rounds into a vehicle? What did they do that was so wrong for police to fire 50 rounds into their vehicle? The men in the  vehicle were not armed so why were two of them injured and one killed. Police see black people and see them all as criminals that lead to situations like this. If cops weren’t racist maybe so many black people would not be locked up or killed. When a person becomes a police officer they all a sudden thinks they have all the power in the world and can do anything they want and get away with it. Policemen think that they can do anything in the world, they think they have godlike powers and when they do certain things they will get away with it, and the truth is most of the time they do get away with it just by saying â€Å" I thought it was the right call†. Just because they think something is up doesn’t give them the right to start shooting or arrest someone. Everyday people are getting searched without consent, with no warrant, with no reason whatsoever for their actions other than they wanted to. A lot of policemen will pull citizens over for no reason; the biggest reason is to meet their quota. At the end of the month when they don’t have enough tickets to give to their chief they just start pulling people over for going 2 miles over the speed limit, which is unnecessary. â€Å"Some of the interacti ons are entirely situational and unpredictable, driven by each party’s immediate constructions of the others motives or actions. Voice may be expressed and altercations may occur when officers show disrespect towards a citizen or when officers refuse to provide reasons for their actions.†(Weitzer) Policemen go around and tackle citizens to cuff them when all they had to say was put your hand up. By watching numerous episodes of cops I’ve learned that cops don’t give anyone any time to follow their instructions. If you don’t comply within a second they result to force which is completely unnecessary and may injure innocent citizens. Police use unnecessary force before they even find out what the story is. In my view police really need to tone it down and do their job the way it is supposed to be done and not hurt or kill innocent people. In conclusion policeman these days do not know how to do their job without injuring, or killing innocent or even guilty citizens. The job of a policeman is to clean up the streets effectively and with the least amount of casualties possible. The police are not doing their job the way it is  supposed to be done. They are being extremely violent, and killing innocent people, they don’t give people the chance to do what they want them to do. For the safety of others the police need to change, Cops are now abusing, assaulting, and killing innocent people, this is called police brutality. Police brutality can be caused by policeman’s ability to assume everyone is up to no good, racism, and thinking they have the power to do whatever they want, and it results in falsely accused young adults, death, abuse of power by troubling the lives of others. Sources Christina, Lund, et al. â€Å"Violent Criminal Recidivism In Mentally Disordered Offenders: A Follow-Up Study Of 13–20Years Through Different Sanctions.† International Journal Of Law And Psychiatry 36.Special Issue on Prisons and Mental Health (n.d.): 250-257. ScienceDirect. Web. 6 Nov. 2013. Media That Matters: Films I Am Sean Bell. Dir. Stacey Muhammad. Media That Matters Film Festival News. Media That Matters, n.d. Web. 06 Nov. 2013. Goodman, Amy, and Denis Moynihan. â€Å"October 24, 2013.† Democracy Now! Democracy Now, 24 Oct. 2013. Web. 06 Nov. 2013.

Thursday, January 2, 2020

Stoicism Epictetus Seneca - 1141 Words

Stoicism: Epictetus Seneca Born of different backgrounds, upbringings, and experiences, Epictetus and Seneca are Roman philosophers who outwardly appear very different. Epictetus spent most of his youth as a slave while Seneca was born into money and became a tutor of Nero. Although these two men seem to be very dissimilar, they each shared a common purpose in studying philosophy and teaching people on how to live well. Each suggested different paths for how to do so. Epictetus suggests in his book, The Discourses and The Enchiridion, that living a life in accordance with nature could be achieved by living moderately. Seneca suggests in his work, Letters from a Stoic, that a happy man is self-sufficient and realizes that happiness depends only on interior perfection. Despite the differences, both Epictetus and Seneca are considered Stoics because of their shared belief in the idea that character is the only guarantee of everlasting, carefree happiness. The world outside ourselves will never give us happiness, nor will it be responsible for our unhappiness. It doesn’t matter what’s happening outside ourselves, Epictetus and Seneca claim that the only thing that matters is how we interpret those events. Further evaluating Seneca’s, Letters from a Stoic and Epictetus’s, The Discourses and The Enchiridion, we will clearly be able to differentiate the two in their ideas and opinions regarding stoicism and the keys to living a well, happy life. The correct path to happinessShow MoreRelatedEssay Marcus Aurelius and Stoic Philosophy1270 Words   |  6 Pagesand Stoic Philosophy Stoicism is a belief that the universe, despite its appearances, is completely rational and guided by fate. Within it, individuals can, by conforming themselves to divine reason, find their proper place, learn to accept whatever happens with a strong and tranquil mind, and fulfill their obligations to society. 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