Drugs Activity/"Justice" System

The government justifies making certain substances illegal by claiming that they are helping the public by eliminating something that can hurt them. The activity that we did in class showed that
some drugs that are illegal are much less harmful than some that are completely legal. If you take a look back to the history of illegal drugs, and at legal onces, such as nicotine, alcohol, and caffeine, you'll see that the legality of drugs is based on the government's economic and political interests.

A politician running for office and promising to "crack down on drugs" is going to automatically get votes from ignorant soccer moms. Politicians just say what the public wants to hear
; they are basically afraid to govern or campaign based off of personal opinion because of intense political competition and constant reelections.

Anyways, I think that all drugs should be legal. It's a person's own business what they put into their bodies. Public intoxication and ingestion of drugs should be illegal, though. I don't want to breathe anybody else's cigarette smoke and I wouldn't want my kids to see people doing lines a table over at restaurants. Not even so much to see them, but I wouldn't want intoxicated people
, off of anything, in the same place as my children.

But anyways, if the government's logic is that harmful things should be illegal, then alcohol and tobacco should be illegal as well. And why stop at drugs? When a little emo boy gets caught cutting his wrists, he should be tried as an adult and sent to prison. Am I right? He's harming himself and is therefor unfit for society. No, he gets counseling. Then why shouldn't a drug addict get counseling? Why should they be imprisoned and forced into potentially-dangerous withdrawal? But what if the drug user is content being a drug user? That's cool, too. Leave him alone, I say. If somebody isn't harming anyone, then it's nobody's business what they're doing.

The Rise and Fall of the American Teenager

This article left me amazed and amused by how far people will go to keep up the appearance that everything is okay. This girl nursed a child inside of herself for nine months only to give birth at her senior prom and dump the baby into a trash bag. Didn't she feel any type of maternal connection with the child after enduring the hardships of pregnancy for nine months? Or perhaps she was indirectly angry with the child due to the misfortunes that her pregnancy has brought upon her.

I find it very difficult to believe that this story is completely true. I just can't imagine the parents that watch their daughter go from zero to nine months of pregnancy without noticing anything. And if not them, at least her friends or teachers would have noticed something. And how about when she walks into the bathroom and walks out completely different? There are just too many variables to even consider this...

Next is the fact that she risked her own life and gave up the life of her child just to keep anybody from finding out that she was pregnant. If she had just told her parents, yes it would have been uncomfortable for a while, but at least she would not have had to kill her own child. I can't think of much worse than that...

The article also explained how the "teenage brain" and the "adult brain" do not exist, but rather, the brain is constantly developing and changing. There are just many common variables, mental and physical, that generally occur around certain time periods for people. I thought that this was common sense and needed no explanation. The body and mind have no idea how many calender years they are. They develop at their own, hormonally and environmentally-dictated pace. But laws are formed around ages because it would be practically impossible to measure maturity for every single individual.

I think that it's important to do what you feel comfortable doing at your age, because only you truly know what you're ready for. But be careful not to try and act "all grown up" when you're not. The consequences of failure could be permanent.

Aikido: The Way of Harmony of Energy

I thought that what Sal told us about Aikido very interesting. It really clicked when he showed an example using Jimmy as a mock attacker. I think that the basic principles of this martial art can be applied to everyday life. In Aikido, you use the negative energy of your attacker against them. While your own power may be limited, and not sufficient in overpowering your opponent, your opponent's own power is surely enough to overpower him, and drain him of his negative energy.

When you encounter a negative or difficult situation in life, you could, and sometimes should, try to face it head on; but you'll often be overpowered. But if you learn to manipulate situations in your favor, life becomes much easier. Basically, this is taking an advanced look on a "glass half full" mentality. This goes to show how some martial arts go far beyond the physical aspects and impact your entire life and how you live it.