What is interesting in this map is that at first all of the battles were of a rather small explosion size and in similar areas, and slowly they began branching out to other countries and areas of the world. After this occurred, there were constant small wars in these places, such as South American and the United States of America, but majority of the battles and by the far the ones with the largest explosion sizes were in the area where all of the battles began. I am not exactly sure what this says about the world and the reasons we fight. I suppose these are the areas where there are things that are desirable for the world, such as resources. I know this is true, for our current war in the Middle East are as much about oil, if not more about oil, as it is about the other issues that made us enter into these wars in the first place. You could also see how around the time when World War II was going on there were the largest explosions. This shows how the advancement of technologies and the advancements the world has made in firearms and bombs have changed warfare. It is also interesting to think that if we had not advanced to the point we are at today with weaponry, could these conflicts have been handled in similar fashion to the small explosions from the beginning of the video one thousand years ago and saved millions of lives? This video also shows how more and more wars and battles are occurring today than were one thousand years ago, showing that the world has turned to war to solve many if not all conflicts. It is almost as though countries enjoy war because it makes them feel powerful to fight, win, and show off new weaponry they have created. This explosion of war has not only been negative for civilians and soldiers who have lost their lives, but also for the economy of the United States of America. If we did not engage in as many wars and spend as much on them as we do, we would not be so far in dept. The bombing in Libya cost us millions of dollars and it is not even a war we want to fight, it is other countries that want to fight the war and we were just helping and showing our support. This video is very eye-opening and interesting.

Before I had a family friend come back from Iraq injured and a completely changed person, for the worse, I would have never knew or thought about soldiers being depressed and changed when they return from war. It is something the government never posts when they update casualties of war, even though suicides that are the result of a soldier having been at war are very much so casualties of war. My friend Jeremy was 22 when he left for Iraq, and he was one of the bubbliest, happy people I knew. He was around an explosion and had his ear severed and was in a coma for a period of time. Now he has no hearing from that side of his head and can’t see very clearly. These physical losses are not the biggest thing he lost, he also lost himself. He’s depressed and quiet now, he never wants to be around anyone, and he has become an alcoholic. If the fact that so many soldiers experience depression and many even take their own lives upon their return to the States was more well-known, maybe there could be more of an effort by the public to help them re-enter society. There could be counseling, I am sure many people in the profession would offer free services to our troops. Furthermore, I’m sure business would allow space for groups to discuss their feelings and for them to come together. Also, if family and friends were told about what the person may experience when they return to the states, maybe they could help notice the warning signs and get their loved one help because it snowballed out of control. Another thing this article made me think about is the reasons why this information and these statistics are not made readily available to the public. Is this because the government does not want it to affect the number of people they recruit? Or is it the fact that they do not want people in our country or in other countries to think that we do not know how to handle our military properly? I am unsure as to the reason, but I think it is the very least the Government can do for the men and women who so bravely served our country.

I think that this letter does exactly describe all of the things our society considers important and desirable to be in love, but the issue I am having with this letter is the fact that he learned this stereotype and what is acceptable, although he was unable to do this in his previous relationships. Although it is easy for him to read and watch TV and gather this idea of what an ideal man should do and how he will do it, I feel as though it would not be quite so easy to just begin trying to be the model boyfriend, especially when his past relationships were clearly not relatable to this model at all. I had a friend who had a boyfriend who was abusive, physically and emotionally, for years of their on and off again relationship. Every time she finally got the courage to dump him, he always came back spewing things similar to what is written in this letter. As frustrating as it was to watch, she always got back with him and was so excited when he treated her so nicely for the first week or two, but his true colors always came back out. Maybe I am being too hard on this prisoner and his nice letter about what an ideal man should do for the woman he is in a relationship with merely because it reminds me too much of what happened to my friend. I have been in a relationship for several years now, and these qualities are things I admire, love, and value in my boyfriend. This prisoner has clearly learned how a woman should be treated, and things that women like and admire in men, and it is my hope that he some day actually can follow through with his hopes of treating a woman in this way. If all men read this and held themselves even partially to this standard of respect his letter sets for women, only to the parts that are really essential, like being a protector and always being there to listen as opposed to being monetarily able to provide for every outing, relationships would be much better as a whole. Many relationships in today’s society are abusive, not just physically but emotionally, and this may help to cut down on this number.

This letter made me ponder a few things I found to be interesting. The first was what this man did to get his life sentence. I do not think I have read a letter that has not been an inmate who was murdered someone, and it is surprising to me that if he had murdered someone so many people would keep in contact with him. Also, he has been in jail for 10 years, and he said he is 28. Furthermore, he said his family and friends are not from the state of Pennsylvania, making me wonder if he was living on his own, far from his family at the young age of 18 and if this in some way contributed to his ending up in jail. Again, if he was living on his own at 18, he probably was not that close to his family or his home town- thus I wonder if there is some extraordinary circumstance for why he is in prison, thus leading to people such as his high school teachers keeping in contact with him this much later in life and under the conditions of his jail sentence. Aside from the curiosity of his personal situation that this article sparked, I was also yet again interested in the inter-prison relationships that form. Through this class, I have heard time and again that older prisoners befriend and become father figures to new inmates and try to make them better people. This is very curious to me, because I’m sure no one on the outside world would think another inmate sentenced to life could cause anything but a negative impact on an incoming inmate. When I used to think of prisoners, I thought of the show “locked-up” that my boyfriend and I are always amused by. These men fight, act like animals, throw food at each other, throw feces, etc. If the general public got to read these letters or here these men’s stories and transformations, I wonder if more people would be for parole for prisoners sentenced to life in prison. I think this would also make more people realize prison is not a scary place (for the most part) and that most of the men there are interesting and not that different from many people in the outside world, aside from one large, life-changing mistake.

My first thoughts when reading this article was that I did not know accessories to crimes could be sentenced to life in prison. Even if he had known about the crime, even if he had helped them cover up what had happened, he still did not actually murder or really help them murder the man. I watched a show once about a murder for hire plot, and in this plot the people who actually murdered the woman in the show got 20 years in prison and the man who paid them to do it got life. After this original though, I felt pity for this man. When you are a young teen, especially from 13-15 like this inmate was when the crime happened, you go along with almost anything in order to feel like you belong. Furthermore, since the inmate was not close with his family, I feel as though he looked up to the adult who planned the murder and wanted to believe that the adult would not lead him in the wrong direction. It is sad to me that an adult can lead a child into being an accomplice to the murder merely by putting him at the scene of the crime and that child can be sentenced to life for being there. Although I know he should have thought things through or reacted to his suspicions that they were going to kill the counselor, he still had nothing to do with the planning or murder of the man. He had no one to turn to, no way to get to the police and explain what had happened. I can’t say that if I was in his shoes and realized something bad had happened that I didn’t want to happen or know was going to happen happened I would act any differently. His youth and immaturity at the age of the crime is so evident in his story. I wish the court system sometimes did not go by procedure or the book in every case, for in this case any person with compassion would read this story and realize this man/boy does not deserve life in prison. Yes, he should have received some type of sentence and punishment, but life in prison? Is that really necessary, or helping him or anyone else? I do not think so.

My first thoughts when reading this article was that I did not know accessories to crimes could be sentenced to life in prison. Even if he had known about the crime, even if he had helped them cover up what had happened, he still did not actually murder or really help them murder the man. I watched a show once about a murder for hire plot, and in this plot the people who actually murdered the woman in the show got 20 years in prison and the man who paid them to do it got life. After this original though, I felt pity for this man. When you are a young teen, especially from 13-15 like this inmate was when the crime happened, you go along with almost anything in order to feel like you belong. Furthermore, since the inmate was not close with his family, I feel as though he looked up to the adult who planned the murder and wanted to believe that the adult would not lead him in the wrong direction. It is sad to me that an adult can lead a child into being an accomplice to the murder merely by putting him at the scene of the crime and that child can be sentenced to life for being there. Although I know he should have thought things through or reacted to his suspicions that they were going to kill the counselor, he still had nothing to do with the planning or murder of the man. He had no one to turn to, no way to get to the police and explain what had happened. I can’t say that if I was in his shoes and realized something bad had happened that I didn’t want to happen or know was going to happen happened I would act any differently. His youth and immaturity at the age of the crime is so evident in his story. I wish the court system sometimes did not go by procedure or the book in every case, for in this case any person with compassion would read this story and realize this man/boy does not deserve life in prison. Yes, he should have received some type of sentence and punishment, but life in prison? Is that really necessary, or helping him or anyone else? I do not think so.

My first thoughts when reading this article was that I did not know accessories to crimes could be sentenced to life in prison. Even if he had known about the crime, even if he had helped them cover up what had happened, he still did not actually murder or really help them murder the man. I watched a show once about a murder for hire plot, and in this plot the people who actually murdered the woman in the show got 20 years in prison and the man who paid them to do it got life. After this original though, I felt pity for this man. When you are a young teen, especially from 13-15 like this inmate was when the crime happened, you go along with almost anything in order to feel like you belong. Furthermore, since the inmate was not close with his family, I feel as though he looked up to the adult who planned the murder and wanted to believe that the adult would not lead him in the wrong direction. It is sad to me that an adult can lead a child into being an accomplice to the murder merely by putting him at the scene of the crime and that child can be sentenced to life for being there. Although I know he should have thought things through or reacted to his suspicions that they were going to kill the counselor, he still had nothing to do with the planning or murder of the man. He had no one to turn to, no way to get to the police and explain what had happened. I can’t say that if I was in his shoes and realized something bad had happened that I didn’t want to happen or know was going to happen happened I would act any differently. His youth and immaturity at the age of the crime is so evident in his story. I wish the court system sometimes did not go by procedure or the book in every case, for in this case any person with compassion would read this story and realize this man/boy does not deserve life in prison. Yes, he should have received some type of sentence and punishment, but life in prison? Is that really necessary, or helping him or anyone else? I do not think so.

The fact that Pennsylvania is not only the state with the highest number of juveniles sentenced to life in prison, but also has the highest number in the world is something that is very hard to wrap one’s mind around. For a 16 or 17 year old kid I can see how the justice system can make attempts to justify their life sentences for murder, but a 13 year old? Kid’s are, especially those who commit homicidal crimes, product’s of their environments. I can not imagine that the court system does not feel like a 13 or 14 year old kid can not go through any program that will allow them to re-enter society as a changed person. At 13 years old, merely putting a kid in solitary confinement without comic books or video games for a year would be torture, and for many eye opening enough to allow them to realize this is not where they want to be and how they want to spend their lives. It would be much cheaper to have some kind of juvenile prison where younger kids were housed in cells as adults to show how awful being housed this way is without the fear and dangers of children being in an actual adult prison. I feel as though they could be taught about what they did, made to talk to the family of the one the hurt, and stripped of anything fun or luxurious. Kids at such a young age are still so easy molded and influenced that such things would be more than enough to change them and make them realize they never want to come back to a place like this or do what they did again. Although murder is a heinous crime and cannot really be written off as a mistake, in the case of young children it really is a mistake. A 13 year old does not have the reasoning to realize what they’re really about to do until after the fact. I feel as though our state is being very lazy and heartless by merely sentencing juveniles to life in prison without giving other alternatives any though or consideration. If money is a factor as to why they are not looking into other alternatives, they should look at the figures above and this will certainly change their minds.

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Many of the letters I have read on the topic state that the person committed murder in a moment of passion, or rashly without thinking- if you did this once there is no way to say that if exposed to the same situation you would not do it again without thinking. Life sentences are not only about safety for the public, but also about justice and punishment and I think this fact has been ignored and needs to be kept in mind.

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If you took another’s life in a selfish, awful act, why should you get to re-enter society and life a normal life? Furthermore, if people who have murdered and sentenced to life are released back into society, they are clearly going to still be a drain to economic funds. I have friends who cannot even get part time jobs because of drug convictions, and if this is the case who is going to want to hire a murderer? I feel as though his whole letter and motive for writing it was to try to convince other people that he should be allowed to be released. Maybe he is an exception, someone who has repented and made right with himself, the world, and the family of the person he murdered, but this is an exception. I feel as though murdering someone takes a certain type of person, a certain type of heartlessness and cruelty, and if you were able to do it once who is to say, no matter how changed you claimed to be in prison, that you will not ‘accidently’ do it again in a split second. *CONTINUED IN NEXT POST