The Death Penalty

Did you know... In 1636, the Massachusetts Bay Colony listed 13 crimes punishable by death. In 1888, New York adopted Thomas Edison's invention of death by electricution and the Electric Chair as the death sentence. In 1924, Nevada is the first state to adopt lethal gas as an execution method in a specially designed chamber. In 1977, Oklahoma is the first state to adopt lethal injection as a method of execution. You may, or may not have know those facts. I found them on clarkprosecuter.org. There are other death penalty facts there. As you might have guessed, I am not writing about myself today, but instead about the 'comfort' given to criminals with the Death Penalty. Death has always been one way of punishing criminals. When America was younger, we used hanging in front of the whole town. This was changed to the electric chair, on to lethal gas, and on lately to lethal injection. Each change came, because of the "inhumaneness" of how we punished criminals. As time went on, we moved to more "humane" forms of the Death Penalty. This reasoning makes no sense at all. This criminals just committed murder, or any one of a multitude of other horrendous crimes, and then we worry about if it hurts them in the process of ridding them from our midst. There is no reason why we should worry about them, they made their choice to take the death sentence when they committed the crime. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying we should torture them. What I'm saying is, I believe that the form of death does not matter, as long as they are punished adequately for their actions. I also believe that making the deaths "private occasions" only takes away from the fear that criminals back in the day felt. Back then, one could watch someone be hung and understand the punishment that was received for the person's actions. I think having executions like that would work well in preventing many people from taking up a life in crime. Thanks for staying with me through the last two posts and this one on a more gloomy subject. I'll try to pick a happier topic next post. Look Out for my Next Post, Benjamin Hudson

The Pre-Banquet Experience

Here we are, in the Pre-Banquet stage at school. For those readers who do not know the term "Banquet", it's basically a Prom, except without the dancing. Luckily, this year there will be dancing, though it will be kept at a minimum it seems. I don't know how many of my readers have prepared for a Banquet/Prom before. The guys have to ask the girls to go with them to, and that's always interesting to watch. I am an introvert, in case you didn't know that about me, so I get nervous just thinking about asking a girl to Banquet. Each time I feel like it's a perfect time to ask that cute girl over there, voices jump into my head, each telling me what I should do. "Walk up to her and ask her straight forward." "No, no, you don't want to just walk up to her. You should write her an extravagant note and ask her that way." And then there is always that voice saying "What if she says no? Then you look like a fool." This is my first year that I get to ask someone to banquet, and I was excited for a while. I had one certain person picked out and, as other guys and girls paired, I planned the perfect way to ask. Parents bothered me at home, and most any other time they were around me, asking me when I would talked to her about it. Just as my parent's bugging got worse, I heard rumors of another guy in my class asking the same girl I was going ask if she would go to Banquet with him and, as I later found out, she said yes to him. As I think about this occurrence, I ask myself, why didn't I ask sooner? I know that this girl I have a crush on didn't do anything wrong, I just hesitated. If I could have another chance, I would definitely have asked sooner. Luckily, I still have my Senior year. So, as others couple up in the next month or so before, I continue learning knew things every day. Look Out for my Next Post, Benjamin Hudson

Hopes of Mine

"There is only one trait that marks a writer. He is always watching. It's a kind of trick of mind and he is born with it." ~ Morley Callaghan I would like you all to know that I am a writer. That's a crazy thought, isn't it? Me being a writer and writing this blog. But what you need to understand is that I am the writer Morley Callaghan describes. I am always watching everything around me. I just take it all in. My first hope is that My writing side can be expressed to you, the reader, and that you may also take part in this awesome phenomenon constantly occurring in writers like me. I would also like to tell you that you may not always be interested in my experiences. I may have an item that I feel important enough to talk about, but is quite bland to you. My second hope is that you will continue reading my blog from time to time. Lastly, I hope that you will walk away from your computer with more than you sat down with. I encourage every one of you to think about what I say, ponder over my statements, and decide what you think of the topic. My topics will vary from my critiquing of movies, books, and music, to even politics, religion, and philosophy. Remember to look out for my Next Post, Benjamin Hudson