Oh, ABORTION! This argument again, seriously?

It’s always a hot button topic. It has been for decades now. Abortion took the stage on NAU’s Union Pedway Monday and Tuesday. There was not a single thing wrong with this group using their First Amendment right to voice their stance on “pro-life,” but how they did it was quite repulsive.

Walking north towards the union many students were greeted with large banners with pictures of aborted fetuses. A delightful sight for those eating their breakfast on a Monday or Tuesday morning one might thing. It wasn’t just the grotesque pictures that were adorning these banners, but likening abortion to the Holocaust, and genocides.

Genocide is defined in the Webster as; “the deliberate and systematic destruction of a racial, political, or cultural group.” Nowhere in that definition does it say “fetus.” When somebody hears that term “genocide” the Holocaust or the mass genocides in the African continent come to mind, again, not “fetuses.”

The group from AbortionNO.org are currently going out to colleges and universities saying that abortion is on the same level as the heinous acts of Adolf Hitler and African dictators. Playing into an ad populist card, and injecting fear into their very radical stance. This has to offend any ethnic group on campus. Being Jewish, and having family members killed in the Holocaust, of course I am offended.  

There was something very disturbing that caught my eye. Who was standing behind the barriers?

It was mostly men. Yes, males you know the ones who do not carry a child for nine months, and then give birth. Yeah, that gender. At one point the ratio was, as I counted, six males to one female. Why should a group, of mostly males, be deciding what a woman does with their body? Women do have the right to chose. As one sign read from a female pro-choice protester “My body, my choice.”

The fact that NAU allowed AbortionNO.org to come to campus, and put these barely permissible pictures up, is very disappointing. However, it was great to see the outcry from NAU’s students speaking out against them, and use their First Amendment right too.

We witnesses, we are part of history

"Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable."-John F. Kennedy 

It's not the same as say what happened in the Middle East, but it is pretty damn similar. Occupy Wall Street, Occupy Seattle, Occupy Phoenix. This idea is spreading. It has been brewing for the last eight years and is finally coming to a head. The middle class is tired with the status quo, and we are about to, we are taking a stand. There hasn't been a movement in this country like this since the 1970's and the anti-Vietnam protests. This however is much different.

It has been 30 years of the rich get super rich, and the poor get poorer. Our founding fathers would have been sickened by what is going on. In a country that was supposed to be formed around, equality, and freedom. We have gone so far south from that. It is now gotten to the point where our government isn't in control, but rather assholes like the Koch brothers, Goldman Sachs, Bank Of America, large corporations, and gigantic businesses. People are no longer in control. What once was a government for the people, by the people, is no more. We are now a government for the rich, run by the rich. We've had enough of this.

Occupy (insert town here,) is a movement. Real change that we have so long hungered. It is a call to this country to wake up, and see the mess we are in. This isn't a "Ron Paul" thing, no it is not. (One because that man is a political retard, and would argue for big business.) No, this movement is started by the people of this once great country. It was started by people like me and you that have had enough with the corruption in our government. We're not saying we want to overthrow our government, and start a new. No, we want to get the greedy out of our government and deliver it back to the people.

The fact that we have even gotten here is mind boggling. We let all of these politicians take these backroom deals right under our nose. Since when is it more important that a bank CEO should be making more money than a teacher, or firefighter. There is no reason why it should be that way. It has become an incredibly unbalanced country when it comes to earnings. When you consider the fact that the upper four percent have seen their wealth rise by about 80% over the last few years, while the other 96% have watches their savings, and earnings dwindle. Who says that tax cuts are the answer to create jobs.

Tax cuts, why are the so important. Many of the rich have spoken out that they want to be taxed more to help this country. Meanwhile some in Washington are saying that is not the case. They argue that with lower taxes jobs will be created. If so why is unemployment so high, most of these corporation pay taxes that are so small, it's microscopic, and their profit margin is in the tens of billions. The rich, and the corporations are totally struggling.

What is about to happen in this country is an unprecedented social uprising in this country. This Occupy Wall Street is just the start. This country is angry, and if you aren't you just aren't paying attention to what is going on. I'm angry, there is a fire in me, and I am ready to stand up against this true class warfare. I hope that if you are reading this you are angry too, and you want to see a change. We the people need to take back our country. "Lets raise the stakes, on the bet we made, and lets decide to be the architects, the masters of our fate." Here we go, deep breath, lets go!

Education, Learned Good

From the age of five, until the age of about 24 most go to school. Many to chase down dreams of being a doctor, scientist, or something that requires a high level of education. Let me start by saying this, reason why I haven't made any posts lately is because I have been busy with class, and sick. Yes, universities take a toll on you. I am, I guess lucky to be able to go to a university, but not so many are.

Every 26 seconds a kid drops out of high school, and never gets to get that experience of being at a university, or advance their learning. Then people drop out of college because mounting student debt, and never finish getting their degree, although higher educated than a high school grad, or someone with a GED, they won't find jobs much better than those who just squeaked by. We as a country need to educate ourselves, and stay on top of the ball.

If we don't strive to be the best educated, we will fall behind, so why cut funding in educating? If we aren't educated, we may get walked over by those who pushed us down. That is what is going on in this country today. Many who have gained power, are trying to sedate us, and water us down, dumb us up. Meanwhile, we don't do a damn thing about it. With out a education, we will be nothing more than a wage slave at a retail store or a kiosk at a mall. That will be our fate, not be a doctor, scientist, or such.

There are certain groups in Washington that wants to see us fail intellectually. Simply, look at people like Michelle Bachmann, and Rick Perry. Need I say more. The kind of people that use their power and thoughts on religion to keep us as a country from getting smarter, and having that space age future we have seen in the movies. This needs to stop. We need to fund the hell out of education, we need to push kids to their full potential and make sure they get there. I say this as I am in a class of 375 people, and the instructor honestly doesn't care about the individual student.

See the movie "Accepted." Although it is a comedy there is a scene that is all too true. Justin Long's character sits in on a class, and he bumps a student who is falling asleep, and that student babbles an answer to a question that was never asked, then he tries to ask another student in the lecture hall, and he responds to something about how he needs to understand these formulas so he won't fail this class this semester. If you are wondering, yes, that does happen.

Although, most of our attention has gone from paying attention in class, to bringing our laptops to class, and browsing Facebook, Tumblr, and other social network sites. Attention is lost. Our education system is lost. It is for the most part broken, and needs to be addressed. So, fund it, help our generation of "fuck ups" take back what has been made a mess of, and fix it. It will be up to us, and but not educating us will be the downfall of us all.

There is power in a union

The union. A term that many Republicans fear. Why? They are groups of people that they don't particularly like forming groups that force fat cat corporations to give them what they want, and have to spend extra money. Before I go on, there are downsides to unions. Biggest is is a union goes on strike, sometimes members don't have control over it, and they may lose their job. Then of course, there is the fact that a worker may have to pay X amount of dollars from their pay check to the union. It is a small price to pay when the union will step in if you are fired without a legitimate reason, or treated unfairly. There has been corruption in unions before, but not so much these days.

Without a union there is no 40 hour five day work week, minimum wage, or even a weekend. There is one candidate that is running on abolishing minimum wage, Ron Paul. What Paul is reading is flawed economics. He believes if there is no minimum wage, employers will pay more. However, that is not the case. They would pay an employee nothing because they can. Paul is not really much of a factor in this talk. There are two battle grounds right now, Ohio, and Wisconsin.

Let me side track for a moment.

Arizona is a "right to work state." According to legal-explanations.com a right to work state is:

"State labor law that permits someone to determine for himself/herself whether or not to join a labor union. The law avoids employers from making union membership a condition of employment" 

Basically what that states is that you don't have to join a union in order to be employed. What that seemingly brilliant law forgets to mention is that a employer can terminate a worker without reason, or cause. They could fire a worker because they don't like them as a person, racial, or thousands of other reasons. It is a law created to water down unions, and make these protective unions all but go away.

As we know, the state of Wisconsin had no real choice in what happened. Tea Party governor Scott Walker forced his union busting agenda down the peoples throat, and said unions are bad, and are hurting the state budget. Now Ohio is facing something very similar. Watching the Ed Schultz Show earlier, Ed seemed like he wanted to strangle governor Kasic of Ohio for his lack of courage to come and talk to him.

They want to do away with higher pay, and benefits for public workers. The have this strange notion that by creating these union busting laws, that it will somehow help their states dire budget situations, There are other ways to fix those problems. All these Republicans say they have a better job plan than Barack Obama, but meanwhile they keep on coming up with legislation that will destroy jobs, not create them.

Now just if you take one thing from this know this. Unions have downsides, but their upsides out weigh the bad 10-1. They protect your job, they help you get the pay you deserve, and they support you if treated badly. We lose unions, we will lose so many things that we have become to accustomed to. Don't let them keep the middle class down, lets not lose out minimum wage just so some billionaire can count his money in his high rise glass tomb. We're better than this!