Civil war

In “Civil war in Syria Raises Questions about When to intervene,” Ja’anai Delany from PBS News Hour Extra talks about the Syrian civil war and how people had to leave their homes because of how dangerous it was. Also about 2.5 million people are in desperate need of food, medicine, and shelter.

“Who is Involved?”

The war in Syria is between the military loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and anti-regime protest fighters.

“Should The U.S Intervene?”

The United States and their allies support the anti-regime group and they said that they won’t intervene militarily unless President Bashar al-Assad uses chemical weapons. Hillary Clinton, the United States secretary said, “A lot of people are trying to figure out what could be an effective intervention that wouldn’t cause more death and suffering. We are thinking about all of this. There are all kinds of both civilian and humanitarian and military planning going on but the factors are just not there.”

Monitoring and tracking the fighting

The Free Syrian Army has untrained men with AK-47s, rocket launchers, and homemade bombs. While the government and the Assad supporters have warplanes, tanks, and other advanced weapons. To track the violations of the international human’s right law, Amnesty International USA uses satellite images to see the real impact of shelling, road blocks and other destruction throughout the country. The pictures will make it easier for them to tell who is controlling which geographical areas.

I don’t think the United States should intervene with the war because if they intervene it would probably start more problems.

ALL WORK AND NO PLAY:WHY YOUR KIDS ARE MORE ANXIOUS DEPRESSED

In “All work and No Play: why your kids are more anxious depressed,” Esther Entin talks about how kids don’t have enough free time or that their free time are different from their parents free time when they were younger.  Peter Gray, a Ph.D. professor of Psychology said, “It is hard to find groups of children outdoors at all, and, if you do find them, they are likely to be wearing uniforms and following the directions of coaches while their parents dutifully watch and cheer.” Researchers compared the kids in 1981 to kids in 1997 and found out that kids in 1997 “spent less time in play and had less free time.” 18 percent was spent in school and 145 percent was spent doing homework. They said that children only spent about 11 hours per week of playing. When children have free time, they direct there free play and solve their own problems. Gray said, “Children who do not have the opportunity to control their own actions, to make and follow through on their own decisions, to solve their own problems, and to learn how to follow rules in the course of play grow up feeling that they are not in control of their own lives and fate. They grow up feeling that they are dependent on luck and on the goodwill and whims of others.” I don’t think kids have lost their play time. I see kids outside playing in the park. I don’t feel like homework get in the way. Teaches have been giving kids a lot of homework but they can get it done in about 30 minutes if they stay focused and then they would have enough time to play. Sometimes I do feel like the parents are guiding their kids and sometimes the kids don’t have a say of what they want to do. I never was in that situation so I wouldn’t know a lot about it.

Schools closing...

In “Philadelphia superintendent identifies schools he intends to close” Kristen A. Graham talks about the superintendent closing schools down for money savings. 37 schools are closing to save the school district 28 million dollars. 22 elementary schools, 4 middle, and 11 high schools would be closing in March. The superintendent said that the decisions for closing the schools down were made for two goals. It was “boosting academics throughout the district and ensuring its long-term financial viability.” “If we don’t take these actions now, we actually have no money to spend,” said the superintendent.  Schools would be closed and sold. Some schools would change grades k-6 to k-4. Elementary schools that went up to fifth or sixth grades would not become k-8. New schools would come out of old buildings. Schools would swap buildings. Abigail Vare Elementary, in South Philadelphia would move to Gorge Washington Elementary building because it’s in better shape. I don’t think they should close all of those schools down but if they are desperate need of money it’s the right thing. But it’s sad to see people losing their jobs and kids going to schools they don’t feel comfortable in. If Parkway was closing, I would hate to go to a different school because then I would have to meet new people and teachers.

do we have the corage to stop this

In “Do we have the courage to stop this?” Nicholas D. Kristof talks about regulating guns after what happened in Connecticut. 5 to 14 years old Americans are 13 times likely to be murdered with guns. A firearm takes a life every 20 minutes. Kristof explains how the United States won’t ban guns, but they should reduce them. One of Kristof Facebook followers said, “It is more difficult to adopt a pet than it is to buy a gun.” 10,000 lives would be saved every year if people could reduce guns deaths by one-thirds. “We’ve endured too many of these tragedies in the past few years,” President Obama said on television.  The last sentence that Kristof said in his article was that, “Some of you are alive today because of those auto safety regulations. And if we don’t treat guns in the same serious way, some of you and some of your children will die because of failure.” I agree to what he’s saying. People out in this world killing people and themselves for stupid reasons. I think they should reduce guns but not only that but I think cops should only have them. People sell illegal guns from private place or buying them from guns stores but there under age. In my opinion I think they should have something where people can give their guns away and get money for doing it. Innocent lives are gone because someone decided they want to shoot that person.

MARIJUANA LAW JUST CREATES CRIMINALS

In “Marijuana law just creates criminals” Hakeem Jeffries talks about people getting arrested every year for possession of marijuana. In 2011 50,000 people and more were arrested in New York City for possession of small amounts of marijuana. The majority of the people were black and Latino. In New York City, they spend about 75 million dollars on arresting people every year. When in New York, more than thousands of people are stopped, questioned, or searched, under the “stop and frisk” policy. When younger people get stopped by a police, the police often searched them. If the police find any marijuana, even a small of it, they are arrested and punished with up to three months of jail or a $500 dollar fine. The problem is that police are arresting people and millions of dollars are wasted from law enforcement. Also more than 1,000 lives are damaged or going to be from having a criminal record.  If the government were planning on legalizing marijuana I think there making a wrong choice. If they legalized it, people would abuse it and maybe die from it. The government won’t get any money from that. I don’t think it’s just one part of the world that abuse marijuana. It could be everywhere around the world. They should close the marijuana shops too. I don’t think there is a need for one. And what if kids into it. Their body can’t handle it and might get an injury from smoking it.