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[moisblogs]

Walk OUT!!!

So today, a bunch of high school students are staging a walk out in protest of gun violence. Earlier on FaceBook, I see posts that say to walk up not out. Instructing kids to walk up to the lonely kid at the lunch table, and to chat with the wierdo from science class and blah blah blah. No a walk out is better.

This kinda of propaganda is to change the reason for the walk out in the first place. The purpose of a walk out is to bring awareness to gun violence that HAS killed kids on school property. A walk up is what I would call the “lazy alternative” to a walk out because it focuses on something that is barely relevant to the issue at hand. From this point on, it will get personal for me, so bear with me for a moment.

I have been a victim of bullying from Kindergarten to Junior year High School. Not Junior High, 11th Grade. My story may not apply to all victims, but it’s still a perspective of being a bully victim. I’ve had people come up to me during, want to know what happens? They’re nice one day and then mean the next day, sometimes the next 40 minutes. Walking up to the loner is simply a checklist. It doesn’t do anything, kids will do what they want when no one’s looking. No one cares for the odd-ball because there’s a status quo that everyone either meets or are cast out from. I was cast out. Eight years later, I still don’t feel like buying an AR-15 and 100 5.56 mm rounds and going to every school that I got bullied in and just open fire. What does that accomplish? Fun fact: bully victims are more likely to commit suicide than mass shootings.

I have no interest in shooting up my high school. I was the number victim of bullying, and I have no interest in causing a mass shooting. I don’t have an interest in harming another person. Why is that? In 2006, I found a safe space known as South Central Emmaus XVIII. There I was allowed to be myself without anyone judging. Everyone there shared their struggles, and no one was judged. There, people are genuine. Not much comparison with high schoolers. In High School, kids are genuine when no one is around. Telling someone to walk up is just an item that can easily be checked off and then we’re back to square one. My experience tells me high schoolers are least likely to be genuine, because playing by the rules only gets you so far. At least a walk out tells authorities that something needs to be done, because bullying isn’t the issue that’s at hand.

If you’re school is doing a walk out, by all means WALK OUT.

[moisblogs]

Since this is still a Hot Topic...

...bellow are my list of reasons (along with reasoning for each) about how arming every teacher in schools won’t work. Trigger warning to those who religiously believe that Gun Control = Gun Ban.

1) Teachers will become a priority target! Think about it: at a school, you couldn’t even have a knife on you. Which makes everyone an easy target. If all of a sudden teachers are armed, then the next school shooter will know who to hit first: the teacher. Students then are at least collateral damage. The Fight response in our Fight or Flight response says to take out the biggest threat first. Answer me this: who is a bigger threat to a shooter than someone who can easily kill them back. If all these shooters have something in common: they open fire without warning.

2) There are some teachers who shouldn’t be armed! This does not apply to all teachers. Regardless, think if you’ve had a teacher that gets aggravated easily when someone “steps out of line.” Those kinds of teachers have the job in part for the control aspect, which often times doesn’t make for a very good teacher. Put a Glock in the mix, and all of a sudden, the students become too afraid of their teacher to even learn anything on the subject.

3) Students will get distracted! Regardless the teacher or whether or not they are armed, just the thought that there’s a gun in classroom will have students worry more about their safety, especially after these past shootings. It now becomes a matter of “Is there actually a gun here?” “Is the teacher armed?” “Will the teacher shoot me if I misbehave?” “Does anyone else know about the gun?” etc. etc. How are they expected to learn anything when there’s an immediate threat in the same room.

4) Not all teachers believe that being armed will solve anything! A lot of the better teachers decided to become one because they genuinely care about the education of their students. You can tell because those kinds of teachers will adapt their teaching methods to how the student learns. They are aware that if a shooting comes out on the news, their students will be afraid, and while most of those teachers will do anything they can to protect their students, they have to put the student’s education first.

5) More school officers won’t work either! Let’s remove the titles of criminal and students for a moment. What’s the difference between a school and prison? If you get sent to either one, it’s mandatory that you stay in the facility for a pre-determined time. In either case, the people “trapped” has and takes time to learn and reflect. Officers will be around more so to patrol the facility and if something breaks out, they will be the first to respond to break it up. So what is the difference?

6) Where’s the money?! Often times, when it comes to funding public schools, schools don’t have the money to afford pencils, paper, printer ink, etc., and the common response to increasing funding towards school is “why should my tax money to things like that?” If you really care about your kid’s education, then funding school supplies for public schools is a non-issue. Now all of a sudden you want to make sure that each classroom has a Glock, Colt, Smith & Wesson, Walther, Beretta, or any brand of firearms? To me, there’s a disconnect here, which begs the question: in a school environment, what’s more important? Education or Safety? (Key phrase: school environment)

7) Let’s face it, this isn’t about being armed! This is about forcing your personal belief and interpretation of the Second Amendment onto others. Every conservative person quotes the part of the Amendment that says “the right to bear and keep arms shall not be infringed.” I want to point out that the Amendment says “A well regulated militia”. How can something be well regulated if absolutely everyone has access to it? Even then, a militia back then was referred to the colonists when they ready to fight back against the British Empire. There’s no need to have a militia since no country can invade the US. We have too strong of a military for anyone to try.

Gun Control does not mean “Let’s ban all guns.” It means if you shouldn’t have a gun, you don’t get one. Common Sense Gun Control looks like:

If you are diagnosed with a mental illness/disorder that makes you a low functioning person, no gun for you.

If you are under medication for said mental illness, no gun for you.

If you have a history of substance abuse, including alcohol, within a certain time frame, no gun for you.

If you have a history of domestic violence, no gun for you.

If you are a convicted criminal, no gun for you.

If you live with or near someone with any of the above conditions, no gun for you.

“Okay, jackass, then how would I get a gun?” Simple:

If you are trained in using a firearm and pass a licensing exam, gun for you.

If you pass a mental exam every 6-12 months, gun for you.

If you keep your guns secured in a safe in which only you have the “key,” gun for you.

The issue that I have with the “Good Guy with a Gun” theory is that it assumes that the good guy will be able to stop a mass shooting before it even starts. Take the small church in Texas, for example. There were good guys with guns that immobilized the shooter, but the shooter still took 20+ lives. Most mass shootings happen without warning, so trying to be the hero doesn’t save lives. Control who has access to firearms does.

[moisblogs]

Where We are with Immigration

In case you haven’t been keeping with the news lately, we’ve just ended (temporarily) a government shutdown. The cause of this shutdown was primarily a case about immigration. Republicans wanted to get rid of one of two programs: CHIP, which guarantees healthcare to millions of children, and DACA, which protects undocumented youth from deportation and authorizes them to work provided they meet certain requirements. Those Republicans effectively gave the choice to the Democrats for them to decide which to ditch. Democrats responded with a third option: none of the above. That led to a shutdown on Jan. 20, 2018 and it lasted for three days. Since then, however, there has been a lot of arguments about the reason to shutdown the government in the first place, and I believe that is primarily due to how little the mass understands about our current immigration policies. So I’m going to try my best explain the policy and the events leading up to where we are.

Over 17 years ago, immigrating to the United States was a lot easier to manage and do. Immigrants would have to apply for Permanent Residency, and once approved, they could move to the US and if after 10 years they pay there dues and keep a clean record, they could apply for citizenship. The Permanent Residency needed to be renewed every so often and often required someone (like a member of the immediate family) to vouch for the applicants. All that changed after September 11, 2001. The hijackers were discovered to be undocumented immigrants from the Middle Eastern Area (which included most countries surrounding the Red Sea), and because of that, the entire immigration process had been stopped leaving millions of families unable to renew their Permanent Residency, and for the immigrants/families that could renew their Green Card, they couldn’t apply for citizenship, and still can’t unless they have a parent who is a US citizen (which isn’t the case for most people) or they have a kid who’s 21 years or older and was born in the US vouch for them.

Jump to 2010, then President Obama heard some of the cries of the immigrant families of how they came to the US “X” amount of years ago to be able to provide a better life and opportunity for their children. Children that the President even went on saying that they grew up in the US, go and graduate American schools, pledge allegiance to the American flag, and is in every way American...except on paper. That was the first push to the DREAM Act of 2010. The DREAM Act was a pathway towards citizenship for undocumented youth that were brought into the US as children under the age of 16, is under the age of 35 at the time of the Act becoming law, has a clean criminal record, and was a full-time college student at the time of applying. Since this was an Act, it needed to be approved by the House of Representatives, which it was, and by the Senate, which ended being short a couple of votes. There was another attempt to pass the bill, but it ended as quickly as it started.

Seeing as how the mid-term elections led to Democratic President Obama having a House and Senate that were Republican majority, the President thought the next possible step was if not to provide a pathway to citizenship for these undocumented youth, then at least protect them from deportation. By the end of 2012, President Obama made the Executive Order known as the Differed Action for Childhood Arrivals, better known as DACA. This program would allow undocumented youth who fit the same requirements as the DREAM Act of 2010 to be protected from deportation for 2 years, and lets them work and apply for a driver’s license. There is a catch: the program did NOT grant those youth legal status, the approval can be renewed after 2 years, which includes having the DACA recipient’s bio-metrics retaken each time it’s renewed, and if the recipient loses the approval if they commit an act of crime. Before you say that they’ve committed an act of crime by simply coming into the US without going through the immigration process, the program defines a crime as an act of defiance that threatens society. Simply immigrating is not an inherit threat to any society.

Jump to nearing the end of the Obama Presidency, the President wrote another Executive Order similar to DACA, but designed for undocumented parents of children who were US citizens: DAPA. Like DACA, DAPA required that the recipients have a clean criminal record, but unlike DACA, the DAPA recipient needed to have a child under the age of 16 who is a US citizen to be eligible. This Executive Order was met with major backlash that went as far as having it heard by the Supreme Court of the United States. Normally, SCOTUS would have nine judges to avoid Court rulings becoming a draw. However, during the time of the DAPA hearing, SCOTUS only had eight judges. The President did nominate a ninth judge, but the Senate Majority leader said that the Senate will not give their consent unless they get a Republican President. Because of this decision, SCOTUS ruled 4-4 on the DAPA Executive Order, which meant that the previous court ruling stood. That court ruling said that DAPA was unconstitutional.

Jump to today, the argument in Congress is what to do with DACA. The Majority of Congress wants to get rid of it, but the majority of Americans say to keep it. So Congress knows that if they get rid of DACA, they run the risk of losing majority the next mid-term election. Unfortunately, media doesn’t help this issue at all. Few mainstream media comment on DACA about what it actually is and what is required to apply, and there is a lot of propaganda against DACA because to those people, it prioritizes illegal immigrants and neglects American citizens. In which case, they’re right, but they fail to realize that the program was designed for undocumented youths, not American youths, and it doesn’t grant citizenship at all. My goal with this post was to try to clear up some of the events leading up to what’s going on today and to help people understand what DACA and the DREAM Act actually is/does. The government shutdown of 2018 ended, but I said it was temporary. My understanding is that Congress has until Feb. 8th to come up with a bi-partisan bill leading to an Immigration reform. Also, to those of you who believe that Obama went above the law with these Orders, keep in mind one thing: he also deported more undocumented immigrants than any of his predecessors. DACA was the compromise.

[moisblogs]

2017: A Wrap-up

There was a post that I saw that goes along the lines of “2017 was both my best and worst year.” I can relate to that. Over the year, I had a successful internship, passed my classes leading to my final semester before getting a BA in Media Arts, and was given a niece that is growing smarter and stronger each day (and most recently got her first tooth!). The only complaint about my personal life was regarding my finances. My internship was unpaid, and I worked only one day a week because of it, meaning that my paycheck per week was about $50. I feel very lucky to have the family that I do, and I wouldn’t want to have it any other way. I wish I could say the same for this administration currently occupying the White House.

While my personal life was one of the best year that I’ve experienced, like the yin-yang circle, good doesn’t exist without bad. This year definitely felt like as a nation we’ve fell back 50 years. I haven’t posted much because given everything that happened during 2017, I felt like I have no reason to post anything. So might as well speak my mind about this year now and what has happened.

Starting with the whole Net Neutrality ordeal. Net Neutrality says that Internet Service Providers (ISP’s) must treat every piece of data equally, regardless of the source. The bill had 2 parts: Title I and Title II. In general, Title I says that the internet is a utility, and should be treated as such. The Federal Communications Commissions (FCC) had no problems with Title I when it was first implemented, but then ISP’s started to mess with data, specifically tamper with the flow of competing apps and websites to promote their own app/site. Under the Obama Administration, Title II was put into play, and to sum up how Titles I and II work together: Title I sets the rules of the game, Title II sets the players. Title II enforces the rules of Title I to ISP’s to keep the use of the internet fair and balanced. Effectively allowing the internet to be a medium for Free Speech. It’s why you can go to any social media, video streaming service, or blogging website to post whatever is on your mind and no one can force you to take what you said down. The Trump Administration recently repealed Title II under the claims that Net Neutrality hasn’t existed before 2015 and the internet was just as open and free as it is today. That’s only partially true. What that claim fails to consider (much like most claims involving a historical frame of reference) is the context of time. Before 2015, the internet as was starting to grow. People didn’t know what would come of the internet or what it was capable of. By the early 2010′s, the internet became a common tool that I’m willing to bet that no household is without. The problem became when businesses purposely block or slow down certain services (keep in mind that while the internet was common, it was still new), to promote their own products. An example would be a payment app now known as Softcard, formerly called ISIS, was a service by AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon to compete with Google Wallet. Before Title II, Verizon was able to block anyone from getting Google Wallet and promoted Softcard (ISIS). Back then, this was perfectly okay to do, until 2015, when the FCC said it wasn’t okay. If you’re wondering what happened to Softcard, wonder no more. I’m not saying it’s bad to promote your own product, but it is sketchy to have to block a competing product in order to promote your own.

Now, that’s one aspect of Net Neutrality that I’ve spoken about. Another aspect is a Pay-to-Play aspect (as I’m calling it). As a gamer, Pay-to-Play is common, because to play a game, sometimes you need to pay for it (price varies depending on what you’re getting and for what). If I don’t like the price, then I’m not forced to get the game. However, with ISP’s, the story changes. The major ISP’s have already monopolized certain regions in the US. If you look at where you can find ISP’s across the US, you’ll notice that different ISP’s “dominate” different states. This was not an accident. The ISP heads made an agreement with each other to not compete in those states. You will find other smaller ISP’s in your state, but they will often be more expensive mainly because they’re trying to keep up with the “big boy.” Making ISP options very limited. These ISP’s can then categorize the services they provide and charge you more based on what you want to access. It’s been a few weeks since the repeal, and nothing major has changed yet, but I have heard talks about Comcast making a change price-wise regarding the internet.

Next thing on my mind has to do with the Tax bill that got signed into law. From an economical stand-point, I say this bill is going to flop. There is an economic theory called “Trickle-Down Economics.” If you’re not familiar with this theory, it says that if you allow the wealthy to accumulate more wealth, then whatever wealth they have in excess will “trickle” to their inferiors, eventually reaching the bottom of the hierarchy. There’s an immediate flaw with this theory, can anyone guess? No? It assumes that the wealthy are willing to share their wealth. Don’t get me wrong, Bill Gates, the richest man in the world, does share his wealth via donations to charities and helping college students obtain school books for free, but not every wealthy person is Bill Gates. Most of the people with the most wealth, A.K.A. the 1%, will pocket whatever penny that is given to them. I mean, why wouldn’t they? They have no obligation to increase wages, or feed the hungry, or even spend money on things they don’t need. Why? They’re business people. The goal of any business is to make the most profits with the least costs. You’re only helping the 1% by giving them a tax break, not the other way around. We live in a society where there is no incentive to helping the needy. Morality isn’t enough anymore.

Last thing has to do with the President himself. There’s no sugar coating it, the man annoys me, and I don’t think he is fit to be our President. By the way, I’m talking about Trump, not Obama. There’s a certain level of expectations that comes with being President (in my mind), and Trump is far from meeting those expectations. I have heard a few of his speeches and what comes to mind is either “He’s not fit to be President with how he’s writing his speeches” or “That was a good speech, but I doubt that he wrote it.” And while I don’t follow Trump’s personal twitter, I do follow the POTUS twitter, and I would often see his personal tweets retweeted by the POTUS account. In my mind, that is not acceptable by any means. If there’s one thing the President should not be allowed to do is promote themselves. Especially if what they’re promoting is something that in the bottom line is degrading something that is constitutional just because they doesn’t agree with their content. Or promote a movement that’s happening over seas while belittling a similar movement going on domestically. I seriously hope that Trump is a one term President, because I gave him a chance, and I don’t believe he deserves a second term, let alone a second chance. Here’s to 2018.

[moisblogs]

Let’s Talk Extremism, Shall We?

Extremism. Noun. The holding of extreme political or religious views; fanaticism. At least, that’s what Google says when you look it up. Bottom line is that extremists take a view-point and blow it up to extreme measures. Every group has their sub-group of extremists, but for now, let’s talk about the two trending groups of extremism: the Alt-Left and the Alt-Right. If I were to sum up both of these view points, I would say that the Alt-Left push for the vague details of the human rights views. What I mean is that is the topic of, say, Black Lives Matter come up, normal people say that Black Lives Matter is not a group against white lives, but a push to end [unnecessary] police brutality on minorities when the majority do worse law-breaking acts and all they get is a verbal warning at best. This doesn’t count for black criminals that are armed and did commit ACTUAL crimes towards their neighborhood or towards the police. The Alt-Left see BLM as “stop arresting black people.” Very vague, but that’s why it’s an extreme viewpoint (at least to me it is). The Alt-Right, however, have a different mentality all together. Their form of extremism can be summed up to “It’s MINE and YOU can’t have!” With that mentality, they see everyone who doesn’t look like them as inferior. Hence the KKK, White Supremacists, and Neo-Nazis. Both sides of extremists have one thing in common, though: they take topics at face value.

One thing to note about extremists is that out of every large group of like-minded people, only a small percent of them fall under extremists. That’s both good and bad. It’s good because people generally know that the small group of people doesn’t represent the majority of the group, but it’s bad because of the media. The job of the media is to inform people of events that’s happening either locally, nationally, internationally, or any combination of the three. They tend to report rare stories, or stories that you generally don’t here of every day. When it comes to politics, normally the stories go by statistics vs practice between the Parties, but since Trump announced his candidacy for President in 2015, things got interesting. More and more extreme viewpoints start showing up on the media, and it got worse as time progressed because these extremists get so much exposure that people would buy into them. Some would say that Trump himself is an extremist, but as much as I don’t like the guy, I don’t think he is one, I think he’s misinformed because of his media outlets of choice, but that’s neither here nor there. Since Trump represents the Right-winged Americans, his rhetoric gets a lot attention and that fancies the Alt-Right’s ears. Now that Trump is the President, it’s a green light for the Alt-Right to come out and spew hate speech and spark violence and even take a life or two simply because Trumps image in a leadership role lifts off the feeling or being confined to what society has become. They’re still extremists, nonetheless, but with the amount of exposure they get, they’re being represented as part of the Republican Party all because they support the Republican President 110%. What’s worse is that they act claiming Free Speech.

In a movie I watched a long time ago, movie’s called Demolition Man, the main cop in the story says a few times “You got to send a crazy man to catch a crazy man.” Basically fight fire with fire. In the paragraph above, I was going off of what I saw from left-sided media, so in talking about the Alt-Left, I’ll be going with what I see from right-sided media. I must admit, the Alt-Left do look like a bunch of crazy drug addicts. They are still extremists. The Alt-Left is where you’re find Femi-Nazis (extreme feminists) promoting women superiority, Extreme BLM, and Social Justice Warriors. These are the kinds of people that right-winged media and comedic artists make fun of, but the issue remains that their exposure makes it seem like the entire Democratic Party. What is crystal clear from the 2016 Elections is that Democratic leaders bend the rules to favor a single candidate, regardless of whether or not their voters want a different candidate. It’s also true that Democrats and Liberals push for topics like Universal Health Care, Tuition-free Public College, and Immigration reform, just to name a few. However, the extremists of the Liberal side push it even further to say that we want you to pay for my doctor’s appointment, free college period, and complete open borders. I see that and I’m thinking “no, no, that’s not what I want at all!” but that’s the extremist mindset.

There was a point in American history where people just shrugged at any extreme idea, but society as a whole grew further and further apart from each other to the point where people are ending long-term friendships because of minuet arguments. I may be lucky, but I’ve had conversations with Republicans about certain topics like the ones I mentioned above, and we were civil about it. It didn’t matter that they were either in my age group or not, we had civil conversations and on the topics we share an end-goal with, we compromise. On topics we don’t see eye-to-eye, we at least understand where the other is coming from. The only sad part about our conversations is that none of us have connections to Capitol Hill. It’s even harder to get any point across now because the extremists on both sides are being represented as the majority of said side, and that’s not okay. So I urge people to talk to someone of the different Party, forget what you think you know about the Party, and just talk. The non-extremists majority of each Party want the same ending, it’s just a matter of working together to reach that ending.

[moisblogs]

Where’s the Line?

A while ago, I made the comparison that 1930′s Germany was Darth Vader and 2016 USA was Kylo Ren. I still stand by that comparison because in a sense, certain traits are apparent. Darth Vader lead the Imperial army with some sort of class and control. Everything he did was planned from the start, and he used fear to control those who try to oppose him. Vader also keeps his promises even if what he promised is secretly stacked in his favor, and he was successful at what he tries to accomplish. Kylo Ren, on the other hand, only made one promise: to finish what Darth Vader started. However, Ren had a lot of temper tantrums, and his methods were more wild and random than that of Vader’s. Ren has little to no class and sometimes couldn’t even control his own army. Not to mention that he would butt heads with his General. The only thing that Ren managed to succeed in was killing his father, but to be fair, his dad made it easy. Ren can make promises, but often shows little regard to actually keeping them. Any of this sounding familiar?

If we look at the real world leaders, the traits are very similar to those of these sci-fi characters. World War 2 started because of Hitler’s invasion of Poland. That wasn’t the first country that he conquered. Before Poland, Hitler, and/or his administration, used diplomacy to obtain countries like Chezoslovakia, Hungary, etc. Not to mention, he made alliances with Stalin and Mussolini. Hitler knew what he was doing and had control of every scenario that came his way. He even kept his promise on restoring Germany’s economy after the Treaty of Versailles destroyed it. He used fear to rally people together for his cause and it worked. In today’s world, we have Trump. My observations tell me that he has no class, his methods are random, and like Kylo Ren, he has anger management issues. Trump’s goal was never to finish what Hitler started, but his goals are selfish nonetheless. Trump has made a lot of promises. I have yet to see him keep one.

My biggest question right now is “Where’s the line?” I never liked history as a subject in school. Not elementary school, not high school, not even college. It wasn’t my best subject either, but regardless, I believe that knowing WORLD history is important. I emphasis “world” because America, despite popular belief, is not the center of the universe. There are a variety of different beliefs and cultures that it’d be stupid not to understand their concept. Right now the biggest story on the news is the White Supremacist, AKA American Nazi, rally in Charleston, Virginia. A lot of people got injured and 1 person, at least, died. The death isn’t news, we’ve had other forms of hate crimes leading to homicide, but that’s the point of my question. How many people have to die for people to realize that White Supremacy is real and alive? How many more people have to die for the Majority to step in and say “enough is enough”? How many more people have to die for people to realize that at our current rate, we’re no better than Nazi Germany during World War 2? Where is the line drawn?

This is what boggles me the most, though: Christianity is the biggest religion in the USA. The core of Christianity is based on loving our neighbors as Jesus loved us. Jesus never made any exceptions. Jesus healed people that preachers thought deserved their disability. Jesus broke laws to do what was right. Jesus ate with the worst sinner society had to offer. Jesus took care of the people that the society thought wasn’t worthy of care. While our Founding Fathers weren’t Christian, they did believe in the historical Jesus as opposed to the religious Jesus, and there was recorded evidence that said Jesus did exist, expect he went by Joshua of Nazareth. Hence, our Founding Fathers signed a document that said that everyone was created equal and 3 truths were unalienable: The Right to Life, The Right to Liberty, and The Right to Pursue Happiness. From the start, it was believed that anyone who wants to seek a better place or refuge should come to America. That’s what the Statue of Liberty stood for.

Nowadays, fear is telling us to keep all foreigners out or at least check and vet to make sure that they won’t back-stab us. America is being lead by fear. I never wish harm on anyone. I never would seek revenge on those who harm me. I’ve been knocked down so many times in my childhood and I chose not to stay down. Now, I’m choosing to stand up for those being knocked down because when I see people unable to defend themselves, I see myself in that position, and I refuse to tolerate picking on people. No exceptions. As a species, we are beyond the point of needed to fear for our lives. North Korea threatens us with nukes? We have the better military. Homeless people are reaching an all-time high? We have even more empty homes and enough food to feed everyone. We have the resources to take care of our own.

The problem is people capitalize on the necessities. We pay to exist and it doesn’t have to be that way. I’m not saying give people nice things for free, I’m saying things like a place to live (be it an apartment or a house), food that can be home grown, and even health care shouldn’t be capitalized on because those are basic things and services people need to be able to live. Homeless people can’t get food because they need a job to have an income to pay for it. They can’t get the job because they need a home address in case they need to mail a check. They can’t get the home address because they can’t afford a home.

So many issues shouldn’t be the case but because enough people are fear driven, groups that represent everything America doesn’t are coming out in full force and the worst part: they’re growing. On a list of things that shouldn’t happen, that should top the list. Yes, certain things like the Confederate flag represent American history, but it represents the bad parts of America. The part where owning slaves was a common practice. The part where the government was an entity to contest regardless of who was in charge. The part that I’m worried will cause another civil war. Where is the line drawn? I think we crossed it on more than one occasion, but where is it drawn?

[moisblogs]

Cooperation is Key

I haven’t posted anything political in a while mainly due to not wanting to put up with whatever backlash comes my way. However, for this one, I’ve been thinking a bit on how can both sides actually get things done. Fact of the matter is people think differently, which we all agree is okay do. People interpret issues differently, which is also okay. People want what’s best for those around them. Arguable. However, the reason why that’s arguable is because of this mental barrier everyone has that’s “Us vs Them.” This barrier says that we as social animals tend to hang around people who are like us, and within our social groups, we have a variety of people with a variety of skills and talents. Ranging from artists, to scientists, to engineers, etc. That’s great to have, but for anyone that’s not a part of this social group, they’re referred to as outsiders, as “those guys.” However, this goes without thinking that “those guys” also have artists, scientists, engineers, etc., but because the two group never communicate, no one knows how much they have in common. They only know of how much they differ.

This can be up scaled to the political system that we have. We have Liberals who are artists, scientists, analysts, researchers, public speakers, etc. We also have Conservatives who are artists, researchers, public speakers, scientists, analysts, etc. However, there is little to no cooperation because Liberals and Conservatives only see what they differ, as opposed to what they have in common. Talking with Conservatives from my generation, I learned that me being on the Liberal side and them being on the Conservative side, we want the same thing: the best for America. And we have conversations about touchy topics like healthcare, immigration, national security (in the broadest sense of the term), and international affairs. We both exchange what we know about the issue(s) and guess what happened. We found a common ground. We found compromise. We found the best solution to a problem. The only thing we can’t do is implement those solutions because we virtually have no power to do so, but the fact of the matter, if we did have the power, we can change our system for the better.

Through observation, I’ve noticed a few things from both the Liberal and Conservative sides (excluding any and all extremism from both): Liberals tend to think ahead, and think long term “how will think affect the mass?” Conservatives stay “grounded.” They stay to what they know as facts. These ideals are PERFECT for coming up with great solutions to the most difficult problems, so what’s the issue? The issue is compromise. None of the sides want to compromise anything. It’s all or nothing. This is dangerous, but it’s also the outcome of a much bigger problem: extremism. Both sides have extremists. Liberals have violent protesters that show no regard to other people or their property. Conservatives have people who perform hate crimes claiming religious freedoms or because a certain someone is President so they have the right to. This is why both sides are often viewed very negatively because of these extremists AND because the mass media highlight these extreme “values” which causes other people to believe it’s the norm for that side. That’s why people believe that Liberals are self-entitled and Conservatives are racist, because the actions of the few are showcased as the ideals of the whole. I know Conservatives who are pro-LGBT+ and I know Liberals who condemn the use of violence in protesting; the point is not to say these extremists don’t exist, the point is that extremists are a small group of people that misrepresent the mass of the group they’re a part of.

I believe that there can be political cooperation, but in order to do that, everyone must be willing to compromise. It’s not enough to say “okay, I’ll hear you out,” you need to listen to what the other side is saying and give them the benefit of the doubt. From there offer modifications or point out where it can fail, but be ready to admit that your ideals must be put aside for the sake of the nation. Think that Pope Francis once said that gay people have the right to be married while not believing so himself. The mass is that people can love who they want because of 1 Corinthians 13:4-8. What the Pope feels at this point is irrelevant because he wanted to help the many, not the few. That’s how it should be with political issues. Many people benefit from the Affordable Care Act. Many people benefit from going to clean energy as opposed to fossil fuels. Many people benefit from a college degree without going into debt. A lot of the moves from the Trump Administration don’t benefit the mass, they benefit the few, and those few don’t even need it.

I remember there being a post regarding why people of older generations stay in relationships for as long as they do, and the common response was something along the lines of “We grew up where if something was broken, you fix it together. Not throw it away.” I still agree with this mindset: “If was broken you fix it together.” Politics, much like relationships, is a give and take. You don’t run a government by appealing to who has the deepest pockets, you run a government by taking care of those who put you in that position in the first place. That’s something that I believe my generation of youth can practice, while those currently in power got deeply corrupted by it. If we could afford a government reset, I’d say push the reset button until we get brand new politicians who can and will compromise with each other in every seat that makes up the Executive, Legislation, and Judicial branches. Teamwork makes the dream work. It isn’t all for one. Never was, never should be.

[moisblogs]

Enough is Enough

Each day since the Inauguration of [President] Trump, things have been spiraling out of control. Ranging from protests to hypocritical name calling like "Snowflakes." However, my thoughts aren't about all the wrongs coming out as a result of something, it goes closer to the root of the problem: the Party System. I know that there are many Parties in US politics, Libertarian, Independent, Socialist Party of America, Nazi Party of America, Green Party, etc., but this blog post will go over the two dominant Parties: Republican and Democrat (I'll be referring to them as Conservative/Right-Wing and Liberal/Left-Wing respectively every now and then).To both of them, I say "Enough." I'll start with the Republican Party. Quick disclaimer: I am not saying this applies to everyone in the party, but I am addressing my observations with the Republicans currently in Congress aside from the President. A while ago, I was talking with a friend who highly suggested that I look at right-wing media as closely as I do left-wing media. If you're reading this, I can't bring myself to do that, and here's why: I'm very detail oriented. In music, I can tell when something is off at the lowest of volume, in graphic design I can tell when something is a pixel off in a 16:9 aspect ratio image, and in video, a frame going at 60 FPS. In media, I can tell the agenda of a source by how the source is written. For normal news, Fox is the same and NBC to me. For political news, so far every right-winged source I've read has the underlying message/rhetoric that I fear people buy into "hook, line, and sinker": Fear Everyone. "But I need to protect the people I love" yeah, I get that. I want to be able to protect my friends and family too, but expecting the worst out of anyone who looks, speaks, prays, and act different than you only brings you closer and closer to paranoia. I can't get myself to follow right-wing media because I can't get myself to fear people who are culturally different. Excuses aside, I am not going to allow conservative fear mongering to control who deserves to exist in America. This is not to say that Democrats have the right idea either. I have the same disclaimer with Democrats and I do Republicans. When people from the DNC say that Clinton worked hard to get the nomination, I call bullshit. My generation knows that Clinton had ties with people in the DNC so the nomination was gift wrapped to her. Most of the people I talk to say that they supported Bernie Sanders, and what happened to him? He got cheated. Recently I saw a video of a college student asking a Democratic Representative about how a lot of Millennials feel that Capitalism isn't working for them. The response, "that's just the way it is." Capitalism promotes hard work in order to be successful, but we've reached a point where to be successful you need to be born into success. Trump inherited everything about the Trump Franchise. In the '60s, it was possible to work your through college. We're in 2017. Things have changed. People are graduating college with thousands of dollars of debt. Yes, there are people that saved money and graduated debt-free, but those are what we call "rare case scenarios." The common case in the US is that students come out college with a degree and a whole lot of debt. It is possible to pay off that debt, but usually the job desired is not guaranteed. Before immigrants are blamed, the job issue is not because immigrants steal them; you can't claim theft if the thing being "stolen" was given to them. Regardless, Democrats are just as out of touch with society as Republicans are. However, through observations, I've reached the conclusion that both Parties have a lot in common, but for the time being, Republicans has an agenda that appears to simply say "F You" to Democrats. Don't believe me? Dem: we need to make sure people who should not have guns can't get them. Rep: F you! We'll loosen up the background check process. Dem: we need to make sure people won't be denied proper health care regardless of pre-existing conditions. Rep: F you! We'll force it to fail just so we can get rid of it after you realize that it doesn't work (Affordable Care Act). Dem: We need to lower the cost of public college and make it more affordable for young adults. Rep: F you! We won't let your communistic view points affect our American way of life. I can keep going, but I'm pretty sure this gets the point across, and like I said: this is through observation. As far as what they have in common: the elected leaders of both Parties refuse to change, what they consider, the status quo. The same leaders that have been in office for 30+ YEARS refuse to back down and make room for new leaders. Both Parties don't know what society really wants as a whole and don't care either. Republicans are pro business while Democrats are pro profit. Etc., etc., etc. There is one trend that I noticed: the opposition from both sides are based off of the affiliated Party. Meaning Republicans won't agree with Democrats simply because they're Democrats, and vice versa. With that comes stereotypes. Stop me if you heard these before: "They're just a bunch of Liberal Snowflakes." "They're White Supremacists." "They just take from those who actually work hard." "They pay less in taxes than the average citizen." "They don't know anything about politics." Get the picture? That last statement, by the way, applies for both parties. If simply being in a Party is causing these issues, then maybe we should get rid of the Party system entirely because NOTHING IS GETTING DONE. These past "laws" were put in effect because they are Executive Orders. They don't need to go through Congress, and Trump issued a lot of EOs in one month alone. Trump is looking more like a dictator than a President, and so far, Republicans want to keep it that way. Enough is enough!

[moisblogs]

I’m Worried

this has been on the back of my mind for a while, and considering what’s going to happen in less than 24 hours from the time of this post, I figured now would be a good time to talk about it. I’m worried. I’m worried about the next 4 years because even though I’m willing to give Trump a chance at the Office, I don’t know what to expect from him. Last thing I want is for millions of people to have their lives ruined because of a piece of paper that they can only apply for through either marriage or a parent/child that meets the requirements asked. Last thing I want is for millions more to be oppressed and denied basic necessities because of their skin color, religious beliefs, or income level(s). Last thing I want is for the one country I call “Home” to come apart because of ideas and political beliefs that our political leaders, and sometimes people themselves, only see as Black or White. No Grey area. Right now, we have a Republican Congress with a Republican President(-elect) and a soon-to-be Republican Supreme Court (I know the Supreme Court is supposed to be unbiased, but it’s human nature to be subjective). I’m not saying in ANY way that all Republicans act the same, but I am worried for those that I believe have lost grasp on what the Party, as well as the Country, was founded on. (From this point out, I will be interchanging “Republican” with “Conservative” from time to time, so bear with me.)

I’ve seen a lot of my Conservative friends post things like how it was Republicans that supported the 13th Amendment, it was Republicans that gave the newly freed slaves a right to vote, that it was Republicans that supported giving every man AND women a right to vote, and that Republicans don’t support the Affordable Care Act (I’m not going to call it Obamacare because they are one in the same) because it was going to fail from the start. Recently, I looked up the Preamble to the Declaration of Independence, and if there’s one thing that stood out to me was how everyone had the Right to Life, Liberty, and to Pursue Happiness. That is the very core of the foundation of the United States of America. Now I’ve seen a lot of Conservatives also bash on Liberals for being too radical, but when you think about it, the Right to Life, Liberty, and Pursue Happiness were very Liberal ideals. Everything about the Bill of Rights were set with Liberal mindsets. Yes, they were set mainly to separate the Colonies from the United Kingdom, but at the same time, it’s what the People demanded. They demanded to be free from King George’s rule, they demanded to have freedoms that were later mentioned when Jefferson wrote the Declaration. You’re probably wondering how does that tie with the ACA, well, if everyone has a Right to Life, why not make certain that the life they have is a healthy one? 

Think about it: the purpose of the ACA was in response to increase in insurance premiums. Nowadays, if someone needed to go to the Doctor’s office, they would need premium because even getting a physical is expensive, so the ACA was written to make sure that people (mainly without any insurance premium) can go for a regular check-up without breaking the bank each and every time. This was the original purpose. What got passed was a revised version that only met part of the original intent. That doesn’t mean that the ACA is a complete failure, it means that it still needs to be fleshed out, but the issue becomes that people want it gone because they only know it as Obamacare, which automatically makes people think President Obama, which a surprising amount people think that he did a bad job as President so no thank you. (I personally believed that President Obama did what he can given he’s a Democratic President with a Republican Congress, but that’s besides the point). The point that I’m trying to make is that if we agree that everyone has the Right to a healthy life, then why is it okay for insurance premiums to charge a significant amount of money for the basic of health coverage? I also want to bring up that I’ve seen Republicans say to their political leaders and even give public speeches that without the ACA, their life would have been over (just something to think about).

“Because it’s costing us tax payers a lot of money.” So is paying taxes to the military which is at a state of creating so much surplus that who’s buying them? The police. That’s another topic entirely, but if it all boils down to money and profits, then hear me out on this one. I get that we are a Capitalistic economy, so we thrive off of wealth and profits, I get that. However, this economy is at a state where the rich get richer and the poor gets poorer, and no one wants to live a poor life. That’s not the American Dream, but it is the reality we’re living in. Call me a Socialist, but I do believe that more rich people should contribute in helping the middle and lower class actually develop in life. “I started with nothing to get to where I am,” okay, but this generation of youth are starting with LESS than nothing. Earlier today, I was in a class where we talked briefly about the average student loan debt. The average student loan debt is about $30k. I’m gonna be roughly $50k by the time I graduate, and I’ve heard of people being hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt to student loans. I’ve also heard of people graduating with $0 of debt, but the common case is that a student is in debt because of college. Theoretically, we do have the resources and “finances” to have free/affordable public college education, but the thing about economy is that if a small group of people hold all the wealth for themselves, then money is not flowing properly in and out of the system. Plus even with the argument of how a Baby Boomer was able to work part time and pay off college that way, the cost of an education was at least 10 times cheaper than what it is now, and wages were well above the federal minimum.

This ties in with the Right to Liberty. You’re not free if you have a debt with someone. I’m not talking about how criminals have a debt to society, I’m talking about civil debts. Debts like student loans and credit card loans. I’ve seen a post that said “College is the only necessity that’s priced as a luxury.” Every generation of people that I know ALL agree that having a college education is important, however the issue with college is a simple one: it’s too expensive. Public colleges and State Universities are supposed to be cheaper options as opposed to Private college, but they’re still too expensive. One semester at my state college is roughly a year’s tuition at my Community College. I didn’t start taking out loans until after I had graduated from said Community College. Once I graduate from my State University, one of the first things that’s gonna come to mind is where can I get a job for the purpose of paying off my debt. Yes, I should go with the field of my degree, but my experience is that no one is going to hire someone fresh out of college. I may have a remote chance if I graduate Suma Cum Laude, but it’s not a guarantee. This isn’t just my case, a lot of other cases are like this where people graduate from college and start off with (or keep) an entry level job like working at a Fast Food place or a supermarket. It used to be that you have a degree, you’re set for whatever life throws at you, but now you need to know what you’re gonna do with your life by Sophomore year of High School, and even then, nothing is guaranteed.

Lastly, the Right to Pursue Happiness. Everyone wants to live their dream job, but in today’s world, if you’re dream job is to be an internet entertainer, which is possible, I know, I’m friends with a YouTuber, then you’d get laughed at because most people don’t believe that’s a real job. People always say “do what makes you happy,” but it’s looking more like “do what makes you happy, as long as it follows our set of social norms.” Happiness is probably one of the most subjective emotions, but it’s an internal emotion. You’re happy because something happened that gave you a joyous sensation. Whether it’s something you did or something someone did for you, you can only make yourself happy. If working in the Industrial Industry makes you happy, that’s fine. If being an Internet Sensation makes you happy, that’s fine. If living the retired life with your loved one makes you happy, that’s fine. If taking family vacations every other month makes you happy, guess what? That’s fine. What you define as happiness may not be what someone else thinks happiness is, and that’s fine.

All of this is what I worry that our Republican political leaders are missing. At one point, Republicans were about being progressive and pushing towards equal opportunities for EVERYONE. That was a long time ago, and I fear that the modern Republican will completely lose sight of that. The Party was created on the notion of following facts and figures, but nowadays, it seems like they prioritize personal emotions over facts. Example: I had to do a research paper, and I partially brought up immigration. I found PLENTY of academic sources saying that everyone should be able to immigrate to whatever country they want freely, but when I tried to find the opposition, basically stats supporting the fears a lot of Americans have for [undocumented] immigrants, the closest that I found was along the lines of “there is no proof [those fears] happened, but they need to be considered anyways.” (I’ll link my paper down bellow if I can). During the RNC when they officially nominate Trump for President, a reporter from CNN was talking about how figures show that America is the safest place to live, and the interviewee (a person running the RNC) said, “yes, but the people don’t feel safe.” I worry that our Republican leaders will also prioritize subjective emotions over objective facts. I worry that Republicans forget that their Party once thought the same way the modern Democrats are thinking in terms of progressive policies.

I just worry......

Research Paper: https://1drv.ms/w/s!AoD9I_rFbbYyiTpmdCPaJysr8uKR

[moisblogs]

If I were President

So this election got me to think about some of the policies the candidates have for certain and how I would handle them. This isn’t the full list of policies, but it’s what I have for now, and considering today is Election Day, I’d figure it’s now or never. Quick disclaimer: I cannot be President of the United States because I am not a US born citizen. I am also not 35, but give it time. So if you wanna read my policies anyways, feel free to.

First thing that I feel is important is Immigration. Currently, people are saying that they support immigration as long as they come in legally. The current legal system says that you would need to marry a US citizen or have a kid or parent who are US citizens. Kind of explains why there are roughly 11 million undocumented immigrants, but on top of that, statistics show that about 40% of undocumented immigrants today have come into the US legally. Work Visas still get distributed and currently, people who do come in via visas overstay said visa, and those who do come in through illegal means are still hard workers. I believe they earned their stay. So what I’m proposing as an immigration reform is to have the undocumented show proof that they lived in the US for at least 10 years, they have a 4-year diploma or any US college degree, they have been accepted by DACA in the past 2 years, or they have served in the US military. Any combination works, and the more the merrier. I also don’t believe that we need more border control because, unless you are a Native American, one of your family members brought you here. It could be your parents, grandparents, great-grandparents, etc., but you were brought here from somewhere either directly or indirectly. So to have more border control is to be afraid of yourself and your family heritage. So on top of reducing border control, I want to make it so even US born citizens can have dual citizenship with the country of their parent(s). I know that eventually, people with a different heritage want to go back to the country their family came from, but if you’re undocumented, currently, you’re not allowed re-entry. I would also propose for allowing, at the very minimum, undocumented students re-entry for studying abroad. Eventually, I want to make it so undocumented immigrants can travel anywhere in the world and still be able to come back to their home that is the United States of America.

Now I talked a bit about students in that last segment, and I’m on the side of making education more accessible. I say it that way because currently, the #1 cause of debt is in student loans. 50 years ago, people could work part-time and still be able to pay for their college education, but today, even full-time workers have to take out a loan for the semester. So I will push towards making public colleges, state universities, and community college free of tuition. You’re probably wondering “how will I pay for that?” I’m glad you asked, because I plan to implement a progressive tax of 5% to go strictly to the Department of Education. I know no one wants to pay taxes, but we have to pay them anyways, so why not have some tax money go to one thing that many Americans agree we value highly: education. Now this progressive tax will apply to everyone, from being a part-time worker to being a member of Congress, or even the President of the United States. No tax breaks. No excuses.

Now we move on to military. I respect our veterans, and I want to help them readjust to society after they’ve finished their tour. What I propose is to treat veterans like accepted refugees (more on the refugee crisis later). They come home, they get guaranteed housing for 3 months, they get free healthcare FOR LIFE, and if they choose, they get training to get into the workforce. As far as our active military, the ones currently serving their country, I think it’s time for them to come home to their families. My overall agenda is to reduce military spending because another statistic says that for every $1 that goes into Health care, education, and other departments, $876 goes into military. Think about that. For every $1 we spend on things that improve our society, $876 goes to sending troops to another society without assurance that we’re improving their lives. So what I want to do is convert our active military to a more passive military. If you don’t know what I mean, I mean that I would continue to fund the Department of Defense, or even increase their funding, and anyone who wants to continue to serve their country, I would let them serve, but closer to home.

I mentioned the refugee crisis, and to me, this is a no-brainer: I want to accept more refugees into the country. I know that there have been cases in Europe where there were terrorist attacks from people who passed as refugees, and I know that France happens to be one of those countries, but I want to follow France’s example and not let terrorists affect how we screen refugees. One of the objectives of a terrorist is to strike terror in society. If we tighten our already tight screening process, the terrorist wins. I say we have a tight screening process because with our process, a whopping 0 out of however many refugees we’ve accepted actually commit terror acts. Even if we have no obligation to help refugees, we believe ourselves to be a Christian nation and Scriptures say in Isaiah 55:1 “Is anyone thirsty? Come and drink - even if you have you money! Come, take your choice of wine or milk - it’s all free!” (New Living Translation). If you want Jesus’s words, “And the King will say, ‘I tell you the truth, when you did it to one of the least of these my brothers and sisters, you were doing it to me!’” (Matthew 25:40). As a nation, we may not have an obligation, but as Christians, we do.

I’m gonna move on to Health Care, because if there’s one example of things going wrong with the Big Pharma industry is the price hike of the Epi-pen. If you don’t know what happened, the CEO of the company that makes Epi-pens increased the price of a 2-pack Epi-pen product from $100 to $600. That is not right, and to make it worse, one of her comments was “I’m running a business here.” To that, I respond with pushing towards making any industry working in the medical field Not-for-Profit. Even if I have to make an Executive Order to present to the Supreme Court. What I propose instead is having patients provide proof of their house-hold income to settle on a price for their services. If no price can be settled, and the patient has no health insurance, then I will attempt to work with Congress to transform the Affordable Care Act into a public option of Health Insurance. I do recommend that if you already have Health Insurance, that you don’t apply for the public option. If you want to apply for the public option, you must drop your private insurer. I also want to fund organizations like Planned Parenthood because it is still a health care provider.

Now comes the topic of payment. I’m saying payment as in “how am I going to pay for my policies?” I’m saying payment as in minimum wages. I believe that the minimum wage should be increased to $15 an hour. It’s as simple as that, and I know that there are arguments like “prices will go up if minimum wage increases,” but about 10 years ago, a Big Mac meal, as an example, costed about $5 and minimum was $7.25. Today, minimum hasn’t changed, but the Big Mac meal is now $8. Prices are going to go up anyways, so why not raise the minimum bar? “Business owners will fire people.” Well that’s on the business side. If McDonald’s replace workers with touch-screen devices to take orders, that was going to happen anyways regardless of what minimum wages are. “People already making $15 still struggling to make ends meet.” Their wages will be increased, too. In my eyes, a paramedic doesn’t deserve $15 an hour, they deserve at least $30, and likewise, no one deserves to struggle to make ends meet, they should afford their bills and then some for vacations. I also support equal pay for equal work, so I will push towards getting women paid $1 for every $1 a man makes on the same job.

Now comes Social Security. I do believe that Social Security was something workers put money in to later use for when they retire. Nowadays, Social Security is struggling despite more workers paying into it than taking out from, remember that undocumented immigrants that do work pay into it, but don’t get anything out of it. One of my proposals is to lift the cap a worker pays into Social Security. Another proposal is to make it so if you don’t need Social Security, meaning that you can live off the interest of your bank, then you don’t get Social Security. In short, I will push towards expanding Social Security for all Americans.

I saved this next topic for last because it is probably the most controversial topic that I can think of: The 2nd Amendment. I want to make this VERY clear: I do not plan on disarming law abiding citizens. I’ll say it again: I DO NOT plan on disarming law abiding citizens. So what I plan to do is lifting the ban on Assault weapons as one thing. “Oh that’s really generous of you, what’s the catch?” The catch is that citizens are only allowed low-caliber bullets in the house (9mm, .45 ACP, etc.), and they are to be used for home defense only. You can keep the bigger guns, but if you want to shoot them, you could take it to an NRA-certified gun range. They will provide the bullets, and those bullets are not allowed to leave that property. I don’t believe in having guns in public, even concealed, because if everyone has a gun in public, the scare becomes who will be the first to pull the trigger, and people jump to conclusions faster than the bullet shooting out the gun. So to prevent that, I will propose that before any firearm is purchased, or any permit classes taken, the person buying the gun or taking the class takes an annual psychological exam. This exam is to provide proof that the person is not easily prone to violence. On top of doing back-ground checks, ALL gun vendors must deny sales to anyone who doesn’t provide a valid proof of the exam. I am aware that this won’t stop all crimes and gun violence, but I argue that if reduces gun violence in anyway, it’s worth implementing. A policy for a response to gun violence CANNOT be an “all or nothing” policy.

I thank you for reading what I would do if I were President of the United States.

[moisblogs]

I am #BlackLivesMatter

I have a friend who recently labeled the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement as a domestic terrorist group because of all the violence that has been associated with them. I remember asking him if he knew why BLM even existed to begin with, to which he dared me to “enlighten him,” and I explained that BLM exists as a response to police brutality. The main reason why the violence happens is because the people who oppose the BLM movement throw the first punch, most of the time.

As I’m writing this post, I’ve finished watching a movie called “13th.” The movie impacted me in a way that I never had experienced before. It’s a documentary of how today’s society was formed dating back since the 13th Amendment was made law in December of 1865. The general synopsis was that the 13th Amendment made it illegal to own slaves, except those convicted of a crime. Written in the Amendment was the loop hole that got used and abused. The documentary starts with President Obama quoting the statistics of how the United States hold 5% of the world’s population, and of that 5%, 25% are in prisons. It continues to explain the idea that the South had to abide by this new Amendment at the end of the civil war, but they immediately found a way to keep slaves without breaking any laws: criminalize the blacks.

Throughout history, people of color were always the ones being dehumanized and segregated because they “look” different from us. So many factors were being played in this all based on looks. I get that people judge based on how someone looks, but I believe that looks can be, and are, deceiving. In today’s world, we’ve experienced a lot of terror attacks among minorities: blacks, Latinos, Muslims, etc. This came from using minorities as “scapegoats.” As a nation, we are taught that certain people aren’t who they say they are. Blacks are drug lords and gangsters, Mexicans are illegal aliens that bring drugs and steal our jobs, Syrian refugees are ISIS terrorists in disguise, and the list goes on. A question I want to bring up is: How do you know?

The real answer to this question is simple: you don’t. You don’t know who are in a gang, you don’t know who’s undocumented, you don’t know who is a terrorist. You. Don’t. Know. The sad part is that some of our leaders claim that know the answer, and the solution is to not trust anyone who falls in that category. Many of my friends know that I’m an immigrant. I come from a country in South America called Chile, and I came to the United States when I was 2. My friends know that my core personality is one who cares, one who’s kind, one who has the best intentions for everyone. However, most people in this society who don’t know me would cut me off at “immigrant.” What would be worse: I mentioned South American, which means I’m a Latino, which means that I’m Mexican, which means I’m “illegal.” Just by mentioning that I’m an immigrant, people who believe the worst will see me as the worst. That’s not right.

Back on BLM, a counter group was made to combat BLM: #AllLivesMatter. At first, I thought that I would be more aligned with All Lives Matter (ALM) instead of BLM, but then a friend of mine explained to me that the purpose of ALM is to silence BLM for protesting against police brutality on innocent black people. After that, I’ve started noticing a pattern: if there’s a BLM protest, and it turns out that the victim got killed was a convicted felon, then ALM uses that to say that people of the BLM community doesn’t know anything. What seems to get lost in the message is that BLM didn’t have this information before they started protesting, and I don’t blame them.

Another movement that happened was #BlueLivesMatter. This happened after a BLM protest at a police department in Dallas that lead to 5 officers getting shot and killed. This impacted me the same way a story of police killing an innocent black man does: People got killed for no reason. Conservative media immediately blamed the BLM movement that was there, but as the investigation went on, the officers were shot with sniper rounds and the snipers were veterans. Trained veterans in an open carry state. My thoughts and prayers since went to the officers and their families.

I’m going to jump to the Republican National Convention (RNC) and the Democratic National Convention (DNC). After the RNC finished, I saw a friend of mine post an image of one of the guards holding an AR-15 with a Kevlar vest and the caption said something along the lines of how the guards at the RNC were armed and no protester was harmed. “An armed society is a respected society.” I didn’t agree with it, but I couldn’t deny that I didn’t hear of any violent protest at the RNC. It also didn’t help that I didn’t even know people were protesting at the RNC. However, after the DNC made it official that they nominated Hillary Clinton as candidate for President, I’ve heard some of my friends planning last minute trips to the convention center to protest their vote to Bernie Sanders getting silenced. I also heard that the DNC wasn’t as heavily armed as the RNC, that in general, the protest at the DNC had more protesters than the RNC, and I didn’t hear of any protester getting hurt. If both of those protests happened, then no, an armed society is NOT a respected society. You don’t gain respect out of fear, and right not, people fear guns because of the people that pulled the trigger to kill. They fear for their lives.

The fun part is that I’ve seen pictures of police with a sign saying “His life matters” while next to a black person holding a sign saying “His life matters” and the signs are pointing at each other. I’ve seen a video of a BLM movement having a cook-out with police. All of which ended with no violence. So it is possible to end violence, but it starts with understanding ALL our neighbors and what they go/went through. I am BLM because I believe that all lives mater. This includes black lives, police lives, Muslim lives, Latino live, ALL lives. BLM exist because black lives are being threatened on a day-to-day basis. It’s 2016. We are better than dehumanizing our citizens.

[moisblogs]

I got something for you

Last Tuesday (9/13/2016), I went to a discussion at my college on Media, Politics, and the Constitution. Bellow the line are my notes if you’re curious as to what was discussed.

Media, Politics, and the Constitution – Notes (9/13/2016)

Because these are notes, some things may be missed and/or unclear. If you have any questions, feel free to ask.

Speakers:

1.       Ebong Udoma: WSHU Radio’s Senior Political Reporter and contributor to the NPR National News Desk.

2.       Kevin Hogan: New London Bureau Chief, WFSB-TV Channel 3 News; WCSU Communication alumnus.

3.       Jacqueline Smith: editorial page editor, The News-Times.

4.       Jillian Mauro: news reporter for WLAD-AM, Danbury.

5.       Jim Masters: correspondent & media personality CUTV, PBS, & Connecticut Public Television.

QUESTIONS:

~What’s the primary role of contemporary news media?

Smith – Watch dogs. Responsibility to inform the public.

Hogan – Filters. Weigh statement and fact.

Masters – Sense of balance.

Smith – Obligation to look at all sides.

Udoma – Reliability is based on a track record.

~Is it possible for the media to be without bias?

Smith – Closest we can get is fair.

Hogan – Balance the 2 sides of the story (Udoma – sometimes more)

~Do the core values of journalism still exist?

Hogan – Shifted to digital

Udoma – there were certain things we were taught, reality is different. Resources are not as available as they used to be.

~What is a core value? (Aside from accuracy)

Mauro – Curiosity

Smith – Ethics

Masters – Balance

~How do you handle the claim of very little sources (government)?

Udoma – Credit the source

Smith – Be very aggressive towards the government.

~Do practices [like Trump’s and Clinton’s] pose a threat to Freedom of the Press?

Udoma – Accept and push back.

~How can you be unbiased with ad revenue?

Smith – Great managers

~Questioning the government is unpatriotic, how do you handle that?

Udoma – Had to manage without funding from the government

~No pressure to “sell” things a certain way, how?

Udoma – Let it be

~Is conformation bias a problem?

Mauro – It’s comfortable. To be educated, you should branch out.

Masters – Try to get a variety of perspectives

Smith – Yes!

Hogan – We can’t cover everything. No time.

~Why would something small be important than national/international stories?

Masters – feeling of safety.

Hogan – Can’t have so much heavy news. People will tune/turn away.

~Is it your responsibility about your viewers’ feelings?

Masters – Yes, but not fully

Udoma – Life is a lot more than how violent society is. Try to reflect how society actually is.

Smith – Reflect the community as a whole.

~Do you see threats to local/national Freedom of the Press?

Smith – More [general] 1st Amendment threats

~How do we get back investigative reporters?

Hogan – Depends on the station

~Should the audience try to stay away from any news source?

All – No

~How has social media help/hinder journalists?

Udoma – Provided a lot of information

Mauro – Public information

Masters – helped look up a person. More involvement.

Smith – Resource

~Is the news doing its job?

Hogan – yes, we’re trying

~Opinion on sources like “The Onion”?

Udoma – Not harmful. You have to educate yourself.

~Does Gov. Johnson have a shot at getting a debate/president?

Udoma – If you’re not “out there,” no

~Will [Johnson] be treated as equal?

Hogan – Most likely not

~What is an infringement of the 2nd Amendment?

Udoma – ALL UP TO THE COURTS!! Courts say what’s an infringement.

~Any 3rd Party candidate has a shot?

Smith – Public should know about them

Mauro – Commission makes the call

~Is the news station responsible to educating part of the viewers?

Udoma – It’s all a choice on the viewers

~What do fact checkers do?

Udoma – Question the story. If you can’t verify, don’t publish.

~When does the news stop seeking the truth?

Masters – Depends on the station, network, and presentation

~Does the media intimidate big corporations? (Example: Colin Kaepernick kneeling vs Dallas Cowboys having Blue Lives Matter on their helmets)

Udoma – Talk with commissioners

Masters – Report what is happening

Smith – He has 1st Amendment

I forgot who said it, but one of the speakers also said that it’s a matter of individual representation (Kaepernick kneeling) vs mass representation (Cowboys team with Blue Lives Matter on the helmets).

~What point does the media move on?

Smith – When we get an answer

~News and Media will fail to educate the people?

Udoma – No. News media is not 1 entity.

Hogan – No. Media is here to inform, not educate

Smith – No

Mauro – No

~Does celebrity play a part in elections?

Udoma – People will pick what/who they recognize.

~Is it a moral responsibility for media to not cover a story?

Udoma – That’s an editorial decision

~Regardless, should the media be monitored to not purposely mislead info?

Udoma – The liability is there

Hogan – Up to the courts

[moisblogs]

A Letter to My Past Self

Dear Moi (between age 2 - 5),

This has been on the back of my mind for a while, and for some reason, it’s taken me a while to get my thoughts together on it because so much will go on in the next 15+ years. Lots of it will come off as hard, and believe me when I say that the struggle will be real. However, what pushed me to reach out is that desire that you’ll get to give advice when you can, or to help out when you can. It’s nothing bad, but a struggle that comes with it is that you’ll be hard on yourself. To give some perspective, think of the person who has been the hardest on you that you’ve met, you’re going to be 5 times harder on yourself. You won’t notice at first, but as time goes on, the pressure starts building up, and you’re gonna want to please everyone. Take a step back. Everyone is going to try to get you to think and feel a certain way. Your teachers will act as if they don’t care of what you think, and side with the kids that are making fun of you or bullying you. Don’t take that to heart. You’re better than that. It’s not a “will be,” you ARE.

However, I know that you’re the new kid at school, and in the country, but none of that matters. You will have moments where no one is going to care, but understand that Mom and Dad had their fair share of struggles, too. It’s not that no one cares. Your parents will always care, even when it feels like you’ve disappointed them beyond repair. Not only that, but you will meet awesome people at a local church (I’ll get into that topic in a moment) that will also care for you. You are not alone. I can’t stress that enough. Even when you feel like you’re on your own, go to your parents to start off, and if they give a vague answer or it’s not clear, ask again in different terms.

Regarding church. At this point, you’re probably attending a Catholic Church every week. You’re not gonna wanna go every Sunday, and I don’t blame you. You weren’t meant to be Catholic for numerous reasons. Just bear with it, because in a few years, that local church that I mentioned will become your home church. (Another reason to bear with going to the Catholic Church is because one Sunday, the Priest will give you a really cool gift. Trust me.) Also, you’re going to experience something of a “love at first sight” thing with a girl from the Youth Group at your new church. Talk to her often. Either literally or even through text messages. I know, you’ll shy up, and that’s okay, but don’t be afraid to check in with her every now and then. You’ll know when you see her.

I feel like I should give you a heads up about something really personal, but I’m going to leave that to your parents to talk to you about after High School. Speaking of, if you’re thinking about going to Emmett O’Brien, don’t. You’ll meet a guy in your first year of college who has been there, and you’ll thank your parents for not letting you go. Derby High School isn’t really that bad of a school either. One thing I will warn you about is to keep an eye on a friend of yours. Sure he’s fun to be around, and you have a lot in common, but after graduating, he’ll flip sides at the purchase of a laptop. Be ready for when that happens.

Now, when it comes to college, you’re gonna go in thinking you’ll come out a High School math teacher. Ask Dad about what happened when he tried that. It’s fine if something feels off about your career choice. It just means that you were way off. Also, I would say be careful with your Texas friend, but if it wasn’t for him, you wouldn’t have found your passion for video editing. *wink, wink* College-wise, things will get easier. You’re going to have a lot of fun and spoiler alert: you’ll get Cum Laude on your Associate’s Degree. Both of them.

Now, I know that on the side, you’re also a gamer. I can’t leave that out because as much as other people refuse to accept it, that’s a part of who you are. There will be plenty of opportunities to incorporate gaming into your career, and one way is through this website called YouTube. While you won’t have anyway to record from your N64, there will be ways as you grow up. Tip: when you get your first capture card (which would probably be at around 16), record some Star Wars Battlefront or Battlefront 2 games to upload. Just to keep consistent, and don’t worry if your sub count is stuck at 55 subs. Things will happen that will bump it up. Just keep working at it, and I recommend doing weekly videos and just talk. Talk about the game you’re playing, thoughts that you had in mind, anything. You may find people that will genuinely like what you talk about. Also, I know that you like competing. Good. When you’re of age, you’ll get a Call of Duty game (I’ll leave the “how” part as a surprise), and you’ll discover a competitive side of the game. You’ll want to get better at it, and you will, but like the YouTube idea, you need to be consistent. Just make sure you actually put effort in your college work first.

Overall, life is going to get worse before it gets better, but it will get better. Just keep working to the best of your abilities, and you will succeed. There will be moments where you’ll feel like you’ve gave it your best and it wasn’t enough, but you can’t succeed without knowing the pitfalls, and there are some pitfalls that you have to experience first. Another thing not to worry about is resistance. Generally speaking, people will support you, but there will also be resistance from other people. Some of which you know too well. For a long time, you’ve had that feeling of wanting to be the best; use that as your motivation to get better. Be prepared, though, to feel conflicted. As in, you love what you do at the expense of being a disappointment to people who care for you. I wouldn’t say don’t bother with those people, I would say introduce them to what your interest/passion is as soon as you realize you have it. Things will work out in the end. I promise.

Love,

Moises Varas (23)

[moisblogs]

I Pledge Allegiance....

When I was a kid, I had to say the Pledge of Allegiance everyday at school. When I learned why do it, I actually had a sense of pride. That America really was the land of equal opportunity for all, land of the free, home of the brave, 1 nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Today, I still love America, but I can't find myself saying the Pledge anymore not out of fear of offending someone, but because we no longer practice the values we pledged to uphold.

Equal opportunity based on what group you're a part of. Everyone wants to believe that discrimination is all but history, when the truth is it’s not. It’s more apparent now than ever before. Legally, we’re not supposed to discriminate, but subconsciously, we do. Think that someone with the name of Dante is less likely to get a job than someone with the name of David. There was a study done that proved this. An employer was given 2 resumes, both of them were the exact same resume, expect the first name was on each was Dante and David. David was reviewed, Dante saw the trash bin. Similar mentalities goes to criminals. Blacks and Muslims, and sometimes Latinos, are seen as more likely to commit a crime, when again stats say otherwise. Undocumented are by default criminals for not using the legal system of getting married to an American or have a kid or parent who is an American. List goes on.

Land of the free provided you can take care of yourself via a "good paying" job, and if you can't land said job due to homelessness, then you're SOL. We have more empty homes than homeless families, and employers won’t hire homeless people because apparently having an address is more important than earning enough to be able to eat. If the housing market isn’t even a market anymore, and all you had to do was register a house with the city under your name, then that solves the homelessness problem, because currently, you need a job to pay bills like mortgage/rent, but you need to already be paying mortgage/rent to be able to get a job. If having the home is more important than getting an income, then why have a house market when there’s a surplus of empty homes.

Home of the brave, but let's build a wall to keep "them" out. Them could be anyone. Undocumented immigrants and Muslims are the big 2 today. If you need to hide behind a wall to consider yourself strong and brave, then I’m sorry. I’m sorry that you can’t be vulnerable enough to face your fears head-on. Same can be said about needing a rifle for self defense. You need the distance to feel safe. If you’re afraid of something, that’s fine. It’s natural to have fears. What’s not okay is letting those fears dictate who is the enemy, and what’s the “proper” way to respond. Think that everyone believes they’re the good guy, even those that are labeled as criminals or terrorists. The proper way to respond is not out of fear, but out of patience, understanding, and love. If there’s one fear everyone has in common is the fear of the unknown, and I believe the bravest thing anyone can do is put in the effort to make the unknown known. After all, we still value education, don’t we?

One nation, under God.....wait. Are we still a nation under God? My answer is no. Everyone has the right to practice whatever religion they believe in, but what ends up happening is that people try to force other people to be Christian. Christianity wasn’t the first religion. Judaism, Muslims, Buddhism, and many more that I can’t think off the top of my head have been around before Christianity. Regardless, there is one thing that all those religions have something in common: The Golden Rule - Treat Others as You Want to be Treated. Christianity, I believe, teaches us to go the next step: treat others with love and respect. When people think of love in the English language, it’s mostly romantic or family-orientated, but God, through Jesus, teaches us to love unconditionally. In case you don’t know what that means, here you go. If there’s a reason why someone shouldn’t be loved, then it’s not God’s love. You don’t have to agree on every little thing, but you do need to find some sort of equilibrium. After all, “Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. It does not demand its own way. I is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.” 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 (New Living Translation).

We believe to be indivisible, but today, we are more divided than we were before. It has nothing to do with political correctness, but it has everything to do with our politics. Different sources tells us how a policy works, however, those sources are not always objective, if at all. This is part of what’s dividing us, and Media is worsening it. Media uses small, subtle words to hide their opinions in a professional setting. For immigration reform, it’s words like “amnesty” vs “pathway.” For socialism, it’s “communism” vs *silence.* For gun control, it’s “protect our 2nd Amendment” vs “disarm everyone.” List goes on. I’ve said this is a Facebook post, and I’ll say it again here: the truth is like a cylinder. Some people only see the circle, some only see the square, and the right answer needs the truth of the circle AND the square. Sixty years ago, our House of Representatives were in full cooperation when discussing new policies or revisiting old ones. Now, the House is off doing their own thing, and the mentality is “If you’re not with me, then you’re against me.” That’s why nothing is getting done. In fact, the one topic that’s still being looked into is Clinton’s email situation despite the FBI saying that pressing charges would be inappropriate. To that I say “good” because the FBI director basically said “Here are all the reasons why we should press charges, but because they’re not ‘clear enough’ we shouldn’t.”

So given all this, do we have liberty and justice for all? I would be really surprised if the answer is still yes because to me, it shows things that I won’t even say on here because I know that not only will I be offending someone, but I would come off as opposite of what I pointed out in this post. Part of growing is adjusting, and I know of a study that says that between the age of 20 and 24 is when most people start to go against change, I believe that if you’re taught to adjust to the situation at hand, then you’re more open to change and cooperation, and by the time age 25 hits, you won’t be bothered when things conflict with what you believe as much. Then again, I’m too optimistic when it comes to society.

[moisblogs]

My thoughts......

This is being written with a heavy heart because I’m still trying to process how can someone hate a group of people so much to go to one place where a bunch of them get together, and then open fire killing 50 and scarring 53 more.......in 2016. Another thing I’m still trying to process is how can people who hear the news about it be so split as to what to do in response. Half of America say we should ban guns off the streets, and the half say we should arm everyone and fight back against ISIS. While I understand the reactions, I don’t understand the basis.

On the hand that’s pro gun control, to me, it’s looking more and more like gun control is not about disarming law abiding citizens, and it’s about making sure that people who shouldn’t have guns, like the Orlando shooter, don’t get them so easily. Unfortunately, the gun vendor that sold the Shooter the AR failed to realize that he’s been under FBI investigation for years because odds are they didn’t give a thorough background check like they should have. I am friends with gun owners, and all of them are responsible with their guns, but most of them told me that they were given a thorough background check when they got their guns. To me, having background check isn’t the issue, it’s that gun vendors who believe everyone should be armed to conduct them, and that is not okay. That is why I agree with President Obama when he said that if you sell guns, you are, by law, mandated to conduct thorough background checks. Answer me this: If President Obama is out to take your guns away, why is he instead enforcing the gun laws in place?

On the hand of pro gun ownership, most of what I’ve seen is the notion that people who are pro gun control are blaming the gun for shootings like in Pulse, like Newtown, like San Bernardino, etc., etc., when that is the wrong mentality to have. That is literally like a 5 year old crying because he doesn’t want his toy taken away. I’ve fired an AR and a Glock, and even though they are not mine, I was still safe, I was still responsible, and I had a good time, but if they were mine, and I hear of something like the Orlando Shooting, I would either hide them for good or get rid of them because I don’t want them to fall into the wrong hands. It’s not because the AR killed so many people, it’s because someone with ill intent got easy access to an AR and used it to murder people. I’ve also heard them say that it’s not a gun issue, it’s a heart issue, and I agree. It’s not a gun issue, but you can’t easily kill 50 people with a knife, or ax, or bat.

So until we reform our society to not fear people (something that at this rate will never happen because people worry about themselves and their possessions before anything else), the best solution would be to ban guns outright and abolish the out-dated 2nd Amendment. However, I don’t whole-heartedly agree with that, so my proposal would be this: You are allowed to collect whatever gun you want, however, you can only buy bullets for pistols (minus the Desert Eagle) and use said pistol for HOME defense. I know that gun owners claim they should carry a concealed pistol for self defense, but a judge ruled that concealed carry is not protected by the 2nd Amendment, so even if they shoot out of self defense, they still would break the law and have all licenses revoked. At least if it’s for home defense, they can claim trespass and if the gun owner is the landlord of the property, then they technically would be protected by right to property, and as a bonus, the 2nd Amendment was made to arm people in case of an invasion, which in today’s world, trespassing is about as invasive as it’s going to get in America.

Another thing I want to bring up is the whole fear mongering behind Orlando. I’ve seen people say that would should bomb ISIS after Orlando, and I’m sorry to tell you, but that won’t work. ISIS is a terrorist organization, and something should be done about them, but bombing them would make us seem like heartless monsters to the rest of the world, ultimately causing World War 3 where we would be considered the bad guys. That’s the path that Donald Trump is heading towards, and  that’s the path I, personally, would like to avoid at all costs. Also, terrorism is an idea. An idea that taps into the fears of people. The only way to win against terrorism is to not let their attacks scare you, and with the responses to what happened in Orlando, I’d say people are on a losing streak with terrorism, and that’s on both sides. Personally, building walls and arming citizens is probably the most cowardly thing anyone can do because it shows that you need to be behind something and at a distance to see yourself as strong. To me, the strongest people are the ones that face their fears and not even flinch.

Last thing: this whole stereotyping has to stop. The Orlando shooter represents only himself, not all gun owners, not all Muslims Americans, only himself. I pray that he finds peace on the other side, not because he deserves it, but because I believe that it’s not my call deny him the peace he thought he was looking for. I also pray that people in America have conversations with people of other faiths and beliefs. I honestly believe that people who call themselves Christians shouldn’t give in to fear of other people. I don’t believe that you can tell me you’re a Christian if you belittle anyone who doesn’t think like you do, but I will pray that God will show you what the people you belittle have to go through day to day just to survive. This is what Democratic Socialism is about. Making sure those who are struggling can still survive, and those who have plenty don’t keep them all to themselves. It’s a mentality of the Good Samaritan: What would happen to they if I don’t step in to help? It’s a mentality that Capitalism is never going to teach us.

[moisblogs]

Ignorance is Bliss! Since When?

So this is in light of a few posts that are trying to educate people on what happened when so-and-so gained power, and what happened to the nation because of it. Unfortunately, we as human beings are ignorant, and that’s okay, there’s too much information for any one person to know absolutely everything about. However, there is such a think as being too ignorant, and that is more damaging to any nation than worrying about what happened in the past when a similar idea went through.

First off: STOP LIVING IN THE PAST! It’s over. It’s done. “What happened happened, and it could not have happened any other way.” (Morpheus, The Matrix: Reloaded) Things may have worked one way 50, 60, 70 plus years ago, but think that society didn’t have the technology that we do now. If you’re going to use history as an argument for or against an idea, understand the FULL context first. Example: one of the posts that I saw was that the reason why Adolf Hitler came into power was because people were interrupting his rallies with violent protests. While it wasn’t a direct attack to Sanders and Clinton supporters protesting Trump’s rallies, the implication is still there. However, another reason why Hitler gained power was because he was feeding into the fears of the German people, saying that the reason why Germany failed was because of the Jews and Immigrants. Replace “Jews” with “Muslims” and add “Illegal” in front of “Immigrants” and who does that sound like in the 2016 Presidential elections? So when people say that Trump is basically Hitler reincarnate, they are not wrong because both of them are walking the same path, and this generation knows it.

That’s another thing: a lot of the older generation think that Millennials will believe anything, when I don’t believe that’s the case. Another example: There was a video of an interview on Fox News where a reporter was interviewing a Millennial regarding some of Sanders’ policies. In my eyes, the Millennial knew what she was talking about, while the Fox News reporter tried to “educate” her on some of the effects with said policies. One of the most memorable things of that video was that the reporter was saying that we first need to figure out where our tax money is going, and she knew EXACTLY where it’s going. TRILLIONS of our tax money is going to needlessly sending people overseas to either kill, get killed, or return home with absolutely no guarantee of a normal life again. Yes, you can argue that they were defending our freedom, and if that’s the case, why is it that Sanders has the support of a lot of Veterans? I even saw a post of a car window that had “This veteran voted for Bernie because he wants you to have the freedom he fought for” painted on it with window paint.

Also, there is a report that 2/3 of Americans doesn’t vote because their vote doesn’t matter. A) Your vote DOES matter, and B) it’s not your fault that people in the DNC, RNC, and Congress doesn’t care what you think through your votes. This system IS rigged to help people like Clinton get a nomination they don’t deserve. Millennials KNOW that Clinton is a horrible choice, they KNOW that Trump will bring America into World War 3 by starting it, and they KNOW that the only good candidate is Sanders. They KNOW! The reason why they’re being attacked for being ignorant is because the older generation that’s attacking them are, dare I say, naive enough to believe that to be a strong nation, we need to build a wall against our enemies. That’s the most COWARDLY thing you can do, because it basically shows that you need to hide behind something to be considered strong.

At this point, it’s almost safe to say that people only look at one side of the coin are more ignorant than people who flips the coin and sees the other side as well. That is why having government funded PUBLIC colleges is a good thing. That is have government funded healthcare (when NOT combined with a private healthcare) is a good thing. That is why Democratic Socialism, which is another way of saying Economic Progression, is a GOOD THING. It shouldn’t matter how things worked in the past because we’ve changed from those scenarios. This country was built to be by the People, FOR the People. Not by the People, for the Corrupted leaders and the top 1/10 of the 1%. Sanders is the only one who genuinely gets that. He’s called out that going into a war with Iraq will devastate America, he called out that if the government bails out Wall Street, then America will effectively be an Oligopoly, he called out that cutting Education, Social Security, and the Affordable Care act will be a downfall of America. If that doesn’t say that Sanders knows what he’s doing, then maybe we need him more than what I originally thought we would.

Don’t trust one side of the Media. They manipulate the uninformed by giving their opinions and calling it the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.

[moisblogs]

Don’t be Fooled by Jokers.

So a lot of what I’m going to be putting in this blog post is opinionated, but what I bring up isn’t. I go through a lot of different sources outside of Tumblr, CNN, WTNH, etc., and unfortunately, Trump has a point when he says that America is in trouble. We as a nation are struggling, but what Trump is saying with his rallies and speeches and blah blah blah blah blah and how we should build a wall and kick out all the undocumented immigrants, THAT WON’T WORK! America is struggling, but we as a community of natives, immigrants, first class, homeless people are better than to feed into xenophobia, homophobia, racism, sexism, and transphobia.

A lot of more young voters are coming out in the Presidential Election than any past election. Why is that? Youth for the longest time believe that the political system we have is rigged against the middle/working class. You know what? They are right! Every election, each candidate has been behind the money of Super PACs so they can run for President. That’s buying a Presidency. No matter how you look at it, in the past, Presidential candidates basically get money from these Super PACs, say they will make America better, only for something to happen in office that either stops the agenda from happening, or re-models the agenda to benefit those who DON’T NEED BENEFITS! Wall Street, Wal-Mart, it’s one of those “the rich get richer, and the poor gets poorer.”

This election, youth, especially on the Democratic side, are coming out as registered voters because they see something. Something that CNN, MSNBC, and SOOOOOoooooo many other Media Outlets are trying to cover up. They see hope! Bernie Sanders reminded us that democracy means every citizen has a vote, which is why despite being behind, he is NOT backing down. Unfortunately, people don’t seem to get that because we’re “kids,” we don’t know what we’re talking about, when reality is that us “kids” know more then you ever DARE ask us about. “All millennials do is spend all day on their cell phones.” That’s how we get our news and information, because TV media EASILY manipulates their viewers. I say easily because they don’t need to do much to rattle people’s emotions on a particular topic. Literally, all they need to do is put in key, crucial words to sway an opinion left or right. Unless it’s Fox News. They just yell over you if you think different than what they do.

“Millennials are just lazy.” NO! Is it lazy to apply for 20 different jobs that are hiring only to find out that ALL 20 OF THEM hired someone that actually has past experience working at those jobs? Is it lazy to spend a lot of time, and go into a lot of debt, to come out with a Bachelor’s, Master’s, or even a Doctorate’s degree? Is it lazy to on top of going to school that these students participate in after-school activities such as sports, clubs, community services, etc.? Is any of this lazy? If so, please tell me how.

“Millennials are so self entitled.” So are Gen X, so are Baby Boomers, so are any human beings! I keep seeing images over Facebook and Tumblr, mainly, of people complaining that a hispanic mother is under Food Stamps while driving an SUV, or owning an iPhone, or having some sort of first world item. Isn’t that having a sense of entitlement? The notion that “someone beneath me has it easy when I have to work hard to get what I want, so I should be the one getting it easy”? What if come to find out that that mother AND her husband are both working minimum wage jobs, working overtime, just to keep the low-income house they own and keep food on the table for their family? How would your opinion change had you known that? It’s not self entitlement to want to be able to achieve a dream without having to get shafted by people who are already well established.

“You can’t get free college.” You’re right, we can’t. We don’t want that either. We want an AFFORDABLE college. You know. The kind that you probably went to when you were in your early 20′s. Back when tuition was like $500, not $5,000+. Back when school books were like $15, not $200. If it’s been done before, it can happen again. The whole idea of a free public college is the end goal, and to reach that end goal, first colleges need to be affordable, which they are not if thousands of students are getting a degree with $50,000 of debt, not including potential interest rates of 13%.

“It those illegal immigrants. They come in and take our jobs, and don’t pay taxes.” Well that kinda says something is a person with no connections in the U.S. can easily “take” the job of an American citizen, now don’t it? As far as the whole BS that they don’t pay taxes, the IRS KNOWS who’s documented and who’s not, but they don’t care either way. They just want the money. In regards to taxes, it’s not the middle/working class that are not paying enough taxes, it’s the 1%. How? The Walton family is under government subsidies, they pay minimum wage to their Wal-Mart employees, AND they use the Panama Trade Deal as a legal loophole to avoid paying the full 33% of taxes they owe. Wall Street is just as guilty of this, if not more. “They were too big to fail.” Yeah, well now they’re too big PERIOD. They basically OWN the government and Congress because of how much money that they not only have, but give to Congress. Because of this, anything that Wall Street sees as bad, they will pay to stop it, and pay to tell the Media that it’s bad, to tell the viewers that it’s bad, for the viewers to be against it.

The list can go on and on, I could touch on Healthcare for all and Climate change, but I want to believe that you get the idea. Capitalism in America is failing us. How? By dividing us based on class, which then divides us by race, gender, sexual orientation, etc. Trump is feeding off of that, which is why he got the nomination for the Republican Party (and I’m sorry guys, but I know you can do better). I see a lot of Republicans saying that Clinton is worse than Trump, and I agree that Clinton is bad, but not worse than Trump. I want Senator Bernie Sanders to become President Bernie Sanders because he knows how to being people together. I also see that Christians want this nation to be a nation of Christians, except what do you think Christ did outside of letting himself get killed on the Cross for our sins? He sat with sinners, he had dinner with an infamous tax collector, he helped those who needed it the most, and then he said “My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you.” [John 15:12].

I don’t believe in the deadly sins, but I do believe that greed is the one sin we encourage more than anything else. In this day and age, the only way to be successful is to be born rich. Is that the American dream? Because I thought America was a nation where if you work and study hard, then you can accomplish anything you set your mind to. That’s looking more and more to be not true, and I believe Sanders wants to turn that around, and with his tone, he won’t take any crap from the Republicans in Congress that want to prevent him from doing his job as President and then have the guts to tell that Media that the President isn’t doing their job. Right now, Congress is worth around $180 per hour, per person. They are not worth it. Corporate America is failing. We need a sense of Socialism if we want to “Make America Great Again.”