How Big is the Racism Wave?

     I've been reading about this shooting in Pasadena, CA involving multiple police officers and a young black man.  In an attempt to draw attention and blame from the local police department, charges have been brought against the man who made a 911 call to inform the authorities of a robbery.  The VICTIM of the robbery claimed that he was robbed at gunpoint.  This triggered the local police to be on high alert as they sought the perpetrators.  As local law enforcement officials pursued the suspects of this ROBBERY, they attempted to stop the suspects in an alley, however, the suspects continued to flee and disregarded the warnings the law enforcement officials gave them.  After cornering the suspects and continuously warning them to halt, one of the suspects reached toward his mid-section triggering an offensive attack from the authorities.  Unfortunately a young man died.  With the recent outrage of the shooting death of a Florida youth, this occurrence is also being regarded as another racial profiling issue, however, this story is much different.  The young man who was shot to death in Florida committed no crime.  He was simply minding his own business on his way home from a trip to the convenient store.  He was confronted (and most likely attacked) by a rogue security watch captain and inexplicably shot to his death.  The young man in Pasadena was a party to a ROBBERY.  He stole another person's belongings and fled.  The police were notified.  Yes, it has come to light that the VICTIM of the ROBBERY exaggerated the situation by saying that the robbers had a gun, but even after attempting to peacefully acquire the assailants, they chose to flee.  Even when these thieves were completely cornered and had no where to turn, they did not give up on their beliefs that they could evade the police.  When one of the young men reached towards his waste line, the officers felt the need to imply force.  Multiple shots were fired from two different police officers, resulting in the death of a young black man.  This was, by no means, a racial profiling problem.  This was a matter of THIEVES trying to escape JUSTICE.  The sad thing is, if they had gone peacefully, no one would have gotten hurt.  The lack of respect for authority in this situation led to the death of a young man.  His actions speak a thousand times louder than words.  You do not steal from others.  You do not run from the police.  You do not attempt to pull something from your waste line when you are being pursued by police.  When authorities are chasing you and warning you to FREEZE, you should freeze.  Owing up to the robbery of a backpack would have been severely less consequential then the outcome of this tragedy, but by no means was this young man's life lost due to negligence or "racial profiling".  This young man reaped what he sowed by stealing and attempting to flee from the authorities. 

Are "Common Core" Standards Good for Our Kids?

     I have been recently made aware of the fact that my daughter, who is currently in kindergarten, is part of the first class of students within the Joplin R-VIII School District to start learning Math and English based upon the newly found Common Core program.  This program was designed by 48 states of the U.S. as a measuring guide to determine the educational success of each states' students.  It is equally appealing and exciting to find out that the nation has come together to create a universal set of educational goals and my child is part of the first class that will be raised on these ideals.  According to this article on national review, the new standards surpass English expectations of 37 states and Math standards of 39 states.  Students will be veered from old standards that created an environment of memorization and regurgitation of information and steered into an environment of complete understanding of vital skills that will contribute to a more successful life.  Even though this program has had minimal opposition, there are always those in doubt.  The funny thing is, the people in defiance of this extremely innovative way of educating our children, are those who feel intimidated by it.  Based on this article on truthinamericaneducation.com, a teacher in California is concerned about the measurement of success of teachers based on former testing guidelines.  He goes on about how he has prepared his students for state testing and his job performance is also measured by the students' performance on these tests.  He is concerned about the funding of this new format and how it will translate into his job.  I find this extremely selfish!  I thought that educators were supposed to put the children's needs above their own.  This new format will expose poor teaching habits and get rid of teachers who are not competent in teaching our children skills they will need to develop into successful adults.  According to the New York Times, the state with the highest regard for education (which is Massachusetts) is on board with this program because it will propel our kids into greater lifetime success.  Along with the 48 states that developed and adopted this program, I believe it will create a better society.  Children will be able to comprehend concepts they were previously forced to "breeze" through.  They will need to comprehend many comprehensive and mathematical situations that they were able to avoid in the past.  This will not only improve our general educational standards, but it will also begin to take an effect on higher learning as well.  The kids that excel within the new Common Core format will be able to move through the educational process more quickly and begin building careers that will have massive intangible impacts on our communities as a whole.
    

Slain Florida Teen's Parents Seek Justice

     On February 26th, a Florida teenager named Trayvon Martin was confronted and then shot by a neighborhood watch captain named George Zimmerman.  The teen, an African-American, was on his way home from a trip to the store when Zimmerman, who was on watch in the neighborhood that night, saw him and deemed him "suspicious".  After contacting the local authorities to notify them of the suspicious person, the police told Zimmerman to stop following the suspect.  Zimmerman did not follow this course of action.  Instead, he confronted the teen.  According to multiple 911 calls that were released for the first time this weekend, Trayvon can be heard screaming for help and then a single gunshot can be heard.  By the time the police arrived on the seen, Trayvon was dead.  Zimmerman claimed that he was being attacked by the teenager and shot him in self defense.  A story that local police have stood behind when trying to explain why Zimmerman has not been arrested.  However, the child was unarmed.  All he had on him was a bag of skittles and an iced tea.  Because of the outrage of Trayvon's family, this story is getting a lot more national public attention.  This new attention is also what prompted the release of the 911 tapes.  Even though it would appear that this shooting was not an act of self-defense, Zimmerman has not been charged with any crime.  The local authorities have made statements at press conferences claiming that an arrest of Zimmerman would result in a lawsuit.  After hearing the 911 tapes, many conversations of lawsuits are coming up.  Some anticipate Trayvon's family to sue the police department, the homeowners' association responsible for the neighborhood watch, and possibly even the city or state.  Many believe that this shooting was the result of racial profiling on the part of Zimmerman and believe the shooting should be considered a hate crime worthy of 2nd degree murder charges.  At the very least I would think that there is enough evidence to charge Zimmerman with wrongful death or possibly manslaughter.  It is very odd that no charges have been filed and Zimmerman is still free.  The only thing that I could think of after listening to several of the 911 conversations is that, even though you can hear Trayvon yelling for help, it is unclear what was going on.  It is also unclear what Trayvon did immediately leading up to the single gunshot that took his life.  Even though these questions are unanswerable from the tapes and witness testimonies, it is clear that Zimmerman was advised not to pursue the boy by the police, but he chose to confront him anyways.  It is also clear that Trayvon had not committed any crime.  He was simply going home after picking up a snack.  It is also clear that the boy was unarmed, which leads me to think that this shooting was definitely not in self defense.  Zimmerman was the one who confronted Martin, not the other way around.  It was then Zimmerman who fired a shot.  This sounds like straight up aggression, not self defense.  With the attention this story is getting, I am hoping that Zimmerman will be behind bars soon.

Well, It Didn't Take Long

     Today I read about the newly mentioned plans of North Korea to launch a missile into space on bloomberg.  The North Koreans are claiming to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the birth of their nation by launching a new satellite into orbit.  Only a few weeks ago, North Korea agreed to halt any long-range missile tests, among other agreements, in exchange for a large, much needed food donation from the United States.  The North claims that this launch is completely harmless, however, it is eerily similar to the launch they performed in 2009.  This launch was also supposed to propel a satellite into orbit, but after inspections made by the U.S. and Japan, no satellites were ever released.  The United Nations deemed this act as a long-range missile test and it ultimately led to the end of the six-nation nuclear disarmament act.  Due to the questionable state of North Korea's government and the fact that they possess the technology and resources to manufacture atomic bombs, many believe that this launch announcement will completely halt the food-aid deal between North Korea and the U.S.  According to an article on usatoday.com, State Department spokesperson, Victoria Nuland claimed that the U.S. has "grave concerns" about this launch.  She went on to say, "we made clear unequivocally that we considered that any satellite launch would be a deal-breaker."  These remarks make it clear that this announcement is being highly scrutinized by our government.  The U.S. is not the only country concerned with this announcement.  Japan and Russia have also come on board in an attempt to negotiate with North Korea and prevent a "deal-breaker" from taking place.  These countries have continued to state that they are concerned with instability within their region of the globe and they will not tolerate this kind of defiance.  They have also claimed that if North Korea follows through with this launch, they will consider it a violation of UN regulation.  The thing that is so peculiar about this is that none of the before mentioned nations know what is on that rocket.  It is very difficult for me to comprehend that the United States, Russia, and Japan have the authority to tell a nation that they cannot take advantage of satellite technology.  Imagine if China had told the U.S. that if they put a man on the moon in 1969 they would put sanctions on all imports from China to the U.S.  It is not our place to restrict the advancement of other countries.  Another thing to consider is the motives of North Korea.  The U.S. continues to keep tens of thousands of military troops on location in South Korea ever since the conflict we had there in the '50's.  We also have ships carrying nuclear weapons lurking around the North Pacific with the ability to completely annihilate the North Koreans.  Why wouldn't they try to keep up with us?  Why would they bow down to us?  They won't!  We never defeated them in the '50's, and as long as they can continue to advance their nuclear technology, along with their other military strengths, they will never have a reason to think they are doing anything wrong.  This writer on the washingtonpost.com agrees that in order to turn this relationship around we need to give the North Koreans the freedom they deserve while providing them with assistance we can afford.  In the event that this launch is proven to be anything other than a satellite launch, then we should be hasty, but for now, we should be building a relationship of trust so that we can globally move on without worry of a nuclear apocalypse.  

THE FLU!!!!!!!!!!

     I decided to write my second post for this week as a gripefest about the flu!  I came down with the virus two Mondays ago.  I had a high fever, chills, aches and pains, and even a fun time vomiting.  This condition kept me out of commission for the better part of three days.  I had to go into work for at least a couple of hours on Monday and Tuesday, but I didn't leave my bedroom from Tuesday afternoon until Thursday morning.  I did my best to try to keep the virus from spreading to my wife and children.  I slept on a different bed, I washed the sheets, pillows, and blankets, and I even disinfected everything I could have possibly touched while I was sick.  Unfortunately my efforts were unsuccessful.  My seven year old son woke up last Monday morning with a fever of 102.  I kept him home from school and did my best to try to nurse him back to a healthy level.  His temperature fluctuated throughout the day and then peaked at 103 at seven o' clock that night.  Shortly after that, the vomiting started.  Poor guy didn't know what hit him.  Needless to say, I kept him home for two more days.  I kept him quarantined from the rest of the family and I, once again, did my best to prevent the spreading of germs in an attempt to protect my wife and my daughter.  By Wednesday afternoon his fever was gone and he was back to being himself.  I thought it would be perfectly fine to send him back to school on Thursday morning.  At 12:30, the school nurse called me to tell me that he had been complaining of a sore chest and had a pretty bad cough.  The good news was that he still didn't have a fever.  I went ahead and picked him up from school so that he could get some more rest.  That night he was fine.  The next morning, he had no fever.  I went ahead and sent him on his way to school.  At 2 o'clock, I got another phone call from the school nurse.  This time it wasn't the cough, his fever was back in full force.  I called my mother and asked her if she could pick my daughter up at school while I took him to the hospital.  By this point I thought he might have something worse than the flu, like pneumonia.  After spending three hours at the hospital, I was told that it was just the flu and that I prematurely sent him back to school which caused the symptoms to come back.  Although this was somewhat of a relief to hear, I could have taken care of it by doing what I had been doing from the beginning.  Ready to get home and take care of my boy, I check my voicemail.  My mother had called several times while I was at the hospital, but I didn't want to interrupt the conversation I was having with the nurses and the doctor.  As I'm almost home, I get the dreaded news; my five year old daughter had a fever of 102 and had contracted the FLU!!!!!!!

Will the $25 Billion Mortgage Settlement Help Homeowners?

     I was reading about this issue on google and found it very interesting.  The five major home lenders in the U.S. have been forced to pay a combined total of $25 billion in fines for failing to properly process home loan modification applications.  Being from California, I witnessed this ordeal first hand.  My in-laws as well as several friends and family were promised that their loan modification applications would be approved and that they didn't need to worry about making payments.  Several months later they were all forced out of their homes with thirty days to vacate.  Now, three years later, the government is stepping in and trying to do something about it.  According to this article on huffingtonpost.com, up to one million homeowners will benefit from this settlement through the actions of lowering payments, reducing principal balances on loans and offering unemployment forgiveness.  This sounds great, but this article on cbs.com points out the fact that over eleven million homeowners are currently underwater on their mortgages which means that, even at its best, this settlement won't even help 10% of these Americans.  Another issue that was mentioned by CBS is that there are many restrictions on what loans can will be eligible for benefits under this settlement.  For example, loans owned by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac do not qualify.  These loans consist of nearly a third of all mortgages that are currently upside down.  Only loans owned by the five major banks qualify, so if you don't have a loan through them you will not be getting any help.  Based on these restrictions, an economist from the Brookings Institution has estimated that no more than 500,000 borrowers will receive assistance.  This is less than five percent of homeowners who are in trouble.  Not to mention this does not include any of those who have already been forced from their homes due to the negligence of these profiteering, scandalizing banks.  Even though it seems as though this settlement will not help as many people as originally intended, there are still many people who are enthusiastic that it will help.  According to the Detroit Free Press, HUD secretary Shaun Donovan is excited about the settlement is positive that the minimum, one million homeowners will benefit.  Donovan has been very critical of the banks and has stated that this settlement will not only require the banks to "act" like they are helping borrowers, but it will penalize them for not showing results.  In the end, I do expect to see some assistance to homeowners through this settlement, but after seeing the number of people who have already been forced from their homes due to negligent foreclosures, I think that this administration already let the majority of people they could have helped down.  It is a little too late to start holding these financial monsters accountable for their actions.

Israel/Iran in a Brand New Funk

I read this article on google and the headline read: Obama Warns Both Iran and Israel, "I don't bluff". 

I find it very interesting that a president who is facing the reality that he may lose his position as the leader of the country that honestly believes they are entitled to govern the rest of the world, who pulled our troops out of Iraq, who is working on nuclear disarmament negotiations with Russia and North Korea, is now committing our military to oversee a backyard fight that has been long overdue.  Now that the middle east's populous is focusing on earning their own rights, Iran seems to be short of allies.  Israel has been sitting back like a tiger waiting for the perfect moment to attack its prey and lay its hands on a superb feast. 

Nevertheless, it appears that Israel is ready to strike.  The biggest fear that I have is that Israel will continue to EXPECT the U.S. to support them in their militia endeavors.  Yes, we want to know what is going on with Iran's nuclear developments, but we do not want to start bombing their cities, killing innocent people, and invoking world war three.

I understand the presidents' statements and I hope that the rest of the world understands as well.  If Israel wants to brawl, let 'em brawl.  We aren't here to protect them from that, but when nuclear force is a danger, we should only be held responsible for protecting ourselves.  There are many resources in the world and there are many relationships in the world, the question is, are we ensuring that we have enough resources and the right relationships to survive in this newer, smaller world.

Is New Leader in North Korea Going to Work With the U.S.?

     I found this story on cbsnews.com yesterday and there are definitely different points of view surrounding this matter.  What has happened is North Korea has agreed to stop performing missile launching tests, suspend nuclear testing, hold off on uranium enrichment, and even allow the International Atomic Energy Agency to resume inspections of the country's nuclear programs.  In exchange for these actions, the U.S. has agreed to provide 240,000 metric tons of food to help feed the famine and poverty stricken nation.  These negotiations are the first between the U.S. and North Korea regarding nuclear disarmament since North Korea pulled out of the Six-Party Agreement in 2009.  Since then, long time ruler of North Korea, Kim Jong-il has passed away and his 28 year old son, Kim Jong-un has taken over the leadership role of the country.  Many have speculated on how the new, young leader will address global powers such as the U.S. and it seems as though we are beginning to find out.  Although this would seem to be an intelligent move to help the people of his country while earning the respect of very powerful nations, many believe that this is history repeating itself.  According to this article on cnn.com, the decision to provide North Korea with aid is complete "insanity".  The article goes on to mention how many times the North has taken aid from the U.S. and has not followed through with its end of the bargain.  The article continues by claiming that the Koreans are planning to take the aid, allow the inspectors from the IAEA to visit predetermined and staged sites, and continue to secretly develop weapons of mass destruction.  The article also proclaims that in doing this, they will gain more support from China to back them in developing what will appear to be a nuclear program to generate energy, not weapons.  Although there is some truth to what CNN is saying regarding learning from your mistakes, the real truth is that this is a completely different situation, with a new leader, who has a new agenda, who must find a way to maintain power in an already struggling country.  The remarks that I found in this article on reuters.com seemed to make a little bit more sense.  Of course we cannot expect North Korea to just give up their nuclear program, but that doesn't mean that we can't try to befriend this new leader and begin working together to find middle ground.  We have been on edge with North Korea for decades, but now is our chance to change all of that and progress as nations.  "I believe it is very unlikely that North Korea will give up its nuclear weapons," said Jeffrey Lewis, a director of the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies in California.  "But we have no choice but to try."  Hillary Clinton makes the comment, "this is a modest first step, but it is also a reminder that the world is transforming around us.  I understand that our relationship with North Korea has been rigid and tense for so long, but that doesn't mean that we should give up hope that we will never be allies.  What's it going to hurt to deliver some much needed food and supplies to this country in an attempt to befriend their new leader?  If they do not follow through with the agreement they have made, then things will be no different than they were before.  I think that at this moment, this appears to be a step in the right direction to mending the differences between the United States and North Korea and if it proves successful, it could also be a step in building even stronger relationships with other nations such as China.  If it fails, then everything will be the same as it was before Kim Jong-il perished.