Freedom of Religion a Useless Debate

There is no question about it, America is a free country in which our Constitution clearly states the freedom of Religion. In order to have complete freedom of Religion, there must be a complete separation of Church and State. This is why I see all debates about Religion that involve the Government as useless and a waste of time. Unless the institution is Religiously affiliated, Religion should not be brought up unless it is talking about History. I realize that people are in titled to speak their mind about Religion, but Government institutions should not be able to force Religious opinions on the public. At my school during my Freshman year, the administration tried to force a "Moment of Silence" on us during Homeroom as a time for personal thoughts and prayer. This was a direct slap in the face to separation of Church and State. 
 There should never be debate about Religious rights in a Government institution, it is clear- do not mix the two.

7 Days in September

The film 7 Days in September was very powerful and caused me to think back to how I felt nine years ago. The terrorist attacks that took place on September 11th occurred when I was only in third grade. Back then I could not really put two and two together and fully grasp what had happened; and up until seeing this film I had never thought about or really researched Sept. 11th 2001. The film provoked so much emotion out of me because at this age I can fully comprehend the after math of the attacks. The movie nearly brought me to tears when to footage of the second plane stuck the second twin tower. What I was most amazed by from watching this movie was how New York banded together as one to help restore the area around ground zero and to help the injured and emergency personal. I was surprised at all of the public debates that erupted between complete strangers and were resolved with a hug. Overall this film opened my closed eyes to the true and horrendous events that unfolded around 9/11.

Scare Tactics: 7 Reasons to Leave a Party

This past Monday (9/13/10) our school had an assembly on seven reasons to leave a party. Pretty much it was a giant scare tactic for the Seniors and Sophomores of Deerfield High School. The seven reasons were the worst case scenarios. They included: No money, no time, death, no privacy, no trust, Criminal record, and no Car. All though very possible the examples they used would only happen if everything possible goes wrong. I am not promoting hardcore partying because that could be dangerous. But the assembly was disorganized and horribly presented. It was forty minutes of two judges rambling about two or three horrible incidents. The worst of all is that there was no debriefing just, "Oh, we're out of time, go to fourth period." They left us with an image of a girl who was hit by a drunk driver. Even in homeroom today we had no time to discuss what went on and how to handle it because we were hit with announcement after announcement about irrelevant issues.
Overall the assembly was poorly handled.

Speech codes in our colleges

I believe the speech codes set in place by Universities are fair. Though speech codes can some what limit your freedom of speech, they are set in place for the personal safety of other students. The codes set in place are used to keep harassing and harming of other students to a minimum. The codes are also reasonable, much like the real world in order to protest and picket in a public area you need a permit. This happens in colleges, people may argue that they have the right to assemble, but it has to have a proper time place and manner. Although schools cannot severely punish someone for speaking their mind, they can put someone who is a repeat offender on probation of some sort. This is not in violation of someones first amendment rights because it is voided if harm is done to someone (physically or emotionally) or if it incites violence.
I believe that Speech Codes do not limit someones freedom of speech because they are reasonalbe in the fact that they protect all of the students safety eqaually.