Zeitoun: The Final Pages

Fortunately after a month of Zeitoun's wrongful incarceration he was set free due to efforts by a lawyer and his wife and friends. This book sheds light on how ineffective our Government can be during a time of crisis. While an entire city was underwater with people suffering, the law enforcement agents were more concerned with a Muslim man in a canoe. The legal system was also messed around with to keep Zeitoun from his even basic rights like a phone call to his family. Reading this story was a huge blow to my faith in our Government, the reaction time to Katrina was so slow and unprepared, but we easily conjour up the money to fight a futile war across seas. We live in a country based off of basic rights and freedoms, but the people of New Orleans were not even treated like citizens of America, but refugees in a foreign country. Zeitoun's story is one of many unfortunate ones, but it sheds light on the ignorance of American society and how botched and terrible it was during and after hurricane Katrina.

Zeitoun: Fourth set of 68 pages

After reading these pages in the book Zeitoun I am furious with the reaction of the American Government and American people towards people of Middle Eastern decent. Zeitoun was taken captive solely on his looks. When he was arrested he was not in the process of committing a crime or had committed a crime in the past. The only cause of his arrest was his race and religion. This is what infuriates me about American society after 9/11 and the wars in Iraq, Americans have this belief that all Muslims are bad people, just because the KKK existed it does not mean that all white Christians are terrible people. It is a horrible injustice that many American Citizens are subjected too. Zeitoun is not even told what he is charged with, he gets ideas on the charges when he is referred to as al Quida and Taliban by racist soldiers. I am just very angry that in a time of need for Americans, the aid they are supposed to get is going towards arresting innocent Muslim men solely for being Muslim.

Zeitoun: Third 68 pages

These third 68 pages of Zeitoun focus mainly on Kathy's mental struggle when she cannot get in contact with her husband. During this time Kathy is playing out all worst case scenarios while getting desperate calls from Zeitoun's family in Syria. Personally I cannot even fathom what Kathy is going through, to deal with the emotional stress of not knowing the well-being of ones spouse must be extremely stressful. It is actually so stressful on Kathy that she starts developing mass amounts of gray hairs. She also has to stay strong not only for herself, but for the sake of her children. I cannot stress enough how much I cannot even imagine going through this kind of emotional suffering. We later find out that Zeitoun has been in fact arrested. This gives Kathy some peace at mind knowing that he is indeed alive, but now she has to worry about her husband being imprisoned. This is another emotional roller-coaster that I cannot fathom riding. I am very impressed with Kathy's will power and ability to stay sane during those trying two weeks of not knowing. I am very excited to continue on reading the novel.

Zeitoun: Second 68 pages

The second 68 pages of Zeitoun speak toward the actual hurricane and the days to come afterward. I can totally understand where Zeitoun is coming from when he decides that he will stay home to ride the storm out and maintain their house. Zeitoun feels that as the man of the house that it is his duty to stay behind and protect his home of many years. This is very understandable, like what we saw in the move "When the Levees Broke" many people who have lived in New Orleans have lived through many tropical storms with no damage to their property or lively hood. Zeitoun had this exact mindset. But as we all know the hurricane itself was no so terrible for New Orleans, but it was the levees breaking that destroyed the city. Zeitoun experiences this when the entirety of the first floor of his house ends up underwater. Surprisingly Zeitoun stays calm and moves upstairs what he can before his house is completely flooded. It is amazing that Zeitoun goes around in his old canoe feeding dogs and strangers his food. What Zeitoun does for people of New Orleans is simply stunning and selfless.

Zeitoun: First 68 pages

The beginning of Zeitoun is very interesting and captivating. The beginning of the Novel gives a great brief summary of both Zeitoun and Kathy's childhoods and how they came about meeting. The book starts out with describing the life Zeitoun has made for himself as a Muslim-American in Louisiana. Zeitoun runs a very successful painting and carpentry business. It describes his and his wife's brief brushes with Americans view on Muslims and how it has and mainly has not affected their lives. But I have thoroughly enjoyed reading the beginning to this book. I am very much captivated by the story being put in place in front of me. I would truthfully suggest this book to anyone, it has a great story so far and the writing is great that it is easy to keep reading while not feeling like you are reading something for an eighth-grader. I am excited to continue reading this book and am kind of bummed out that I did not start it earlier. 

Abortion

Since the decision of Roe vs. Wade in 1973 the debate between pro-life and pro-choice has been a constant battle. NARAL-Prochoice America  and National Right to Life are two of the leaders in their side of the debate. When researching each website and reading each article it was easy to see that Nation Right to Life had a better argument. On the site they had detailed information telling the whole abortion process, of course with some bias. While NARAL-Prochoice America gave a brief synopsis of an issue and said how pro-life legislation wants to shut it down, they did not go into great detail on very much, unlike the pro-life website. Based on the websites it is hard to tell which side of the argument is winning, but based on the movies and literature we saw in class it seems that it is a very close debate, but it is leaning towards the pro-life stance. After reading both sites my opinion on the matter has not changed, I am very pro-choice and will remain so because I believe that it is the woman's right to chose and her choice should not be based on peoples religious or personal beliefs. In addition I believe that any piece of legislation that is backed even a little bit by religion should not be permitted in our constitution because we separate Church and State.
As a 17 year old High School Student I believe that the parent deserves to know if their child is getting an abortion, but I do not believe that as a requirement to receive the abortion the parents must be notified. I believe this because the child my be embarrassed due to the nature of her getting pregnant and my be set on getting an abortion, but does not want her parents to intervene and try to convince her otherwise. They also should not have the right to decide for their daughter because it is her body and her life so she has the choice. With the father being notified I believe he should be contacted to know what is going to happen to his unborn child. I believe he should have a say, but not have that be the deciding factor in whether or not a woman gets an abortion.
I mostly agree with Illinois' position on abortion. I agree with the legislation that is permitting woman to get an abortion, but they have put up some stumbling blocks like parental and spousal consent. They also made it not allowed to use insurance for abortions as well as no state funding for abortions. Because I am so pro-choice I would get rid of the spousal and parental consent laws. The website gives Illinois a B- on their scale which is good, but it could be better for helping women get abortions.

More Death for the Death Penalty

Stages of the Death Penalty:

The Stages of the conviction process in court are somewhat designed to protect the accused. The whole process is set up to almost be fail proof because all evidence must be conclusive as well as the witness statements. Also the Jury is carefully selected so that they will not hold a bias towards a defendant and so that they can make the right/fair decision. I do not believe that the system is set up to only convict the guilty. I believe this because there is always human error that can mess up an entire case and convict an innocent man/woman.

Methods of Execution:

Of the five methods that were discussed the most human seems to be lethal injection. This is so because it puts the prisoner asleep and has marginal room for error. It is also the most human because with most the body is seriously harmed with defecation and eye balls popping out. The gas chamber, electrocution, and hanging could be considered the most inhumane because they seriously harm the body during and after death. Also they can cause the prisoner to feel extreme and prolonged pain.

Death Penalty Conclusion and States:

From this data one can conclude that the south has the most deaths with the death penalty and the most inmates on death row. One can also conclude that many states have inmates on death row, but do not execute due to all of the issues that revolve around it. These trends show that justice may not always be served. Because maybe someone was not guilty, but convicted anyways. Also it shows that the families of the victims my never see justice because the inmate who is on death row my not be executed.

Death Penalty information Center:

This information presented has changed my opinion greatly. I never thought of the death penalty as a race issue, but the information clearly shows that when the victims are white, the defendant is more likely to get the death penalty. Also I never new how much it costs to kill someone, I always believed that the death penalty could be more economic because you do not have to care for the inmate, but it actually costs more to kill them. This brings me to the conclusion that we need to make the death penalty more cost effective i.e. a single bullet to the head. From this given information from The Death Penalty Information Center I would say that they are against the death penalty, most of the carts and evidence given is in opposition of its use. This website is very convincing because it gives valid information that shows how costly, ineffective, inhumane, and unjust the death penalty is. Some additional information that I would like this source to provide is what kind of crimes got the death penalty and what kinds did not. And also circumstances of the defendant.