Global Warming is Becoming a Problem

Global warming is becoming an even bigger issue as the years pass. The government doesn’t seem to do anything until it’s too late, always waiting for the last possible second to fix problems instead of dealing with them from the beginning. Now we are fighting a war that is much bigger than Iraq and may become a battle we cannot win. Even now there are organizations that are trying to prevent additional effects that society has been causing for generations.This disaster is destroying the habitats of polar bears, thus driving them to extinction; affecting weather, and creating more monstrous storms than anyone could comprehend. These events may seem like nothing but that is far from true. Over the past few years, we have been continuously bit by natural disasters such as Hurricane Katrina, the California fires and Washington floods. Global warming it’s caused by the “greenhouse effect”, which is when “greenhouse gases” trap energy within the earth’s atmosphere and causes the temperature to rise. But to make matters more confusing the “greenhouse effect” is a very important factor to human survival. We need it to regulate earth’s climate; otherwise the temperatures would become unbearably cold. It’s ironic that we need the greenhouse effect to survive, but it is also the very thing that could destroy us. More information on the greenhouse effect can be found at http://epa.gov/climatechange/kids/greenhouse.html. There are so many ways to help prevent a worse off future. All you have to do is use better gas, carpool, use energy-saving light bulbs, and many more ideas found on http://www.nrdc.org/globalWarming/.

Control guns, kill Americans

March 1789, the Congress of the United States gathered to add on to their Constitution. They would create a Bill of Rights written in straightforward and restrictive language, to prevent any abuse or misconstructions of power.

A well-regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.

During this time Americans were spread far and wide. There was little transportation, making it hard to get from one place to another. This made law enforcement extremely difficult, and a person would have to fend for himself. There was just no way for help to arrive in time. It would make sense for an average person to have a gun. 200 years later, average cars drive 100 miles an hour and there are police stations situated in every city. Some would argue times have changed; there is just no need for Joe Average to have a gun anymore. All guns do is kill people.

For every life lost to a gun, 65 lives are saved. That is five lives protected every minute. Guns are the safest and most effective mode of defense. A gun is much better method of defense than not resisting at all, and it keeps the user further away from the threat resulting in fewer injuries.

Citizens use their guns to stop crime and apprehend criminals seven to tens times more frequently than police, and do so with a better safety record. A person who keeps their gun permit legal and up to date usually takes the weapon seriously. They know what sort of power they are wielding, and know they just cannot whip it around. A responsible gun owner considers about how much aid their gun would actually be in a situation. They have to consider others in the area, and have to ensure the attacker could not potentially take their gun from them. They do not want to be responsible for theirs or other innocent’s injuries or even death.

Many believe that gun control will keep guns off the street. It will keep many citizens from carrying firearms, but that just means that only those who are breaking the law, also known as criminals, are the only people carrying. Murder, robbery and rape are against the law, but that does not stop it from happening. Wishful thinking will not keep criminals from breaking the law, but they will affect good people who honor the law. Washington, DC does not allow guns, and also has the highest crime rate in America.

Actually, in the District of Columbia the African-American teenage male homicide rate is 20 times the national average. For over 20 years now it has been illegal for a teen to carry or even own a gun. And yet, middle-aged white men, who have a homicide rate of less than half of the national average, own the majority of guns.

“A homeowner is 43 times as likely to be killed or kill a family member as an intruder,” is Dr. Kellermann’s much repeated and long discredited claim. It is unlikely that a person’s use of a gun in defense will result in a death; only 1 in 1000 do. Kellermann did not take into account any lives saved, and he only studied groups with high rates of violence, alcoholism, drug addiction, and domestic abuse. Kellermann has since changed his figures to “2.7 times” as likely, and admitted that if his wife were attacked he would want her to have a gun.

Gun control saves futures

Guns are pointless. The chances of actually jumping out of bed, running to the closet, opening the safe, pulling out the gun, and putting in a full magazine, all between the time you actually hear the intruder and before he gets to you is slim. The only way to ensure a person can protect their family in time is to put the gun in a more accessible place.

That is when people get hurt.

When a gun is put in a place that would be logical for self-protection, a child in the house could find it. A gun is 2.7 times more likely to kill a family member than an intruder. A child has the right to grow up without the threat of guns and gun violence.

Something needs to be done about the accessibility of guns. As it is now, people with criminal records and those who are mentally unstable can easily gain access.

What needs to be done is increase gun control laws. When access to guns is limited, not only will there be less accidents but less crime as well.

Getting rid of guns will reduce violence and save lives. Sounds good to me.

Abortion

A lot of people get Pro-Choice confused into thinking its “Pro-Abortion”. You are either Pro-Life or Pro-Choice, you can not waver to and fro between the tags. From my personal thinking, being Pro-Choice, you are not advocating abortion. It is the right that a woman has a choice, as simple as that. In a better world, there would be no need to have an abortion, and I’m sure everyone agrees that would be the ideal situation, but it doesn’t work like that. We have to take into consideration that being pregnant in a school setting or out of a school setting is a very hard thing to do, if you are unable to support yourself, how are you suppose to support another human being? We tend to focus on school settings because as an adult, its more commonly assumed that you can take of yourself; while girls in high school or maybe younger, are put through a lot of ridicule. And even when they overcome the judgment that the other students have burdened them with, it is difficult to get their lives back together. Being pro-choice is not the favoring of abortion over other alternatives, it is the agreement that there are other options out there.

On the other hand, with Pro-Life, there comes the belief that every human life is sacred. As soon as the egg has been fertilized; that is defined as someone's existence. With this belief, everyone should have the chance to exist. "It is God's will," as many have retorted. There is always the option of adoption, or some church's have had a pregnancy help center, where they will take care of the woman through her pregnancy and after as long as they do their share of chores and participate in the religion.

Con: Universal Health Care

A major issue in the 2008 presidential election will be Universal Health Care. Health Care is something that affects us all; at one point or another every person will need to go to the doctor. That is why the concept of not having to pay for a trip to the doctor sounds so appealing. The problem with this is while your care is being paid for; you are paying for everyone else’s through taxes. This includes drug addicts, bums, and people who are in this country illegally.

In the countries that have already made Health Care universal, doctor appointments are set up by ranking the person’s ailment. A person with a pencil stabbed into their spleen will be treated before the person with a broken leg; one is simply more life threatening than the other. But as a result the person with the broken bone may wait weeks just to have it set. The rule applies to people with life threatening diseases. A person with cancer is not going to drop dead if they do not get treatment that day. So again, they have to wait months, even years for treatment. The United States does not have Universal Health Care and has the highest survival rate for cancer in the world.

Everyone should bare the cost of his own Health Care. And while the concept of employer based insurance should be revisited, we should not switch to Universal Health Care.

Pro: Universal Health Care

One important 2008 Presidential Campaign political issue is the Universal Health care. Everyone has the right to affordable and high quality health care. Basically, Universal Health care is a system that is managed by the government. It provides equal coverage of health benefits for all citizens of America. In the current system, most small or starting businesses can not afford health care for their employees due to ever increasing insurance premiums. If there is a universal health care system, these businesses can afford and provide medical benefits accordingly.
The problem with our health care system today is that if you are unemployed you won't get any health care at all because you can only gain it through your employer. For example, if a father were lose his job due to sickness and the mother is the only source of income. He no longer has health care and now the wife has to provide for both her husband's medication, necessities for their family and bills. Then the wife had to quit her job to take care of her husband, leaving the family with no source of income and no means of health care.