Even though religious instruction in public schools was ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court because of separation of church and state, prayer should still be allowed in public schools. A writer from Religious Tolerance declares that although the Supreme Court ruled religious instruction unconstitutional, students may take part in “non-disruptive personal religious expressions.” Students are allowed to pray during school, alone or with a group. Also, teachers are allowed to “teach about religion,” but they cannot teach any “religion as truth” (Religious Tolerance). Even if the government tried to ban prayer from school, their rulings would not ever be successful in removing prayer from school. A person can pray without anyone ever knowing. The government can take away the voice of the person praying, but they cannot take the religion and prayer out of the person. Any form of religion should be allowed in the public schools as long as the person praying is having respect for the people around them.

Prayer in public schools is becoming a great controversy in the United States. In 1962, the Supreme Court ruled that there was no place for prayer in public education. The court rulings did not “remove prayer from school,” but the court took away “government-sponsored worship.” School employees, as government workers, should not be able to influence students in religion.

According to the Anti-Defamation League, religious activities cannot be supervised or participated in by school employees. “Promotion and endorsement” of religious activity by a school official is unconstitutional. Students have the right to engage in religious activities with other students when they have free time as long as they are not disrespectful or disruptive. Also, the League says that the Supreme Court does not allow a moment of silence “which students could use for silent prayer or meditation” because it was “enacted” to advance religion (Anti-Defamation League).

The group, Americans United for the Separation of Church and State, believe that public schools should “respect the beliefs of everyone and protect parental rights.” By banning teacher-initiated prayer, public schools cannot sponsor religious worship, leaving “decisions about religion” to the family. The Supreme Court did ban prayer in public schools out of animosity to religion, but they ruled that prayer showed “examples of unconstitutional government interference with religion,” which violates the First Amendment (American United for Separation of Church and State).

Although prayer is not being banned completely, the removal of teacher-initiated prayer will end all conflicts with this issue. Because of the violation of the First Amendment to the Constitution, which is the law of our land, prayers led by government officials should not be allowed.

Because the First Amendment protects religious activity of individuals, the U.S. Department of Education says that students can read their Bible or other scriptures, say a prayer before meals, and study religious materials with other students during a non-teaching time. Students cannot be denied their religious privileges that are protected under the Constitution. Although individual students are allowed to practice religion at school, the school officials are not allowed to coerce students into participating in religious activities (U.S. Department of Education). As long as the students are not being disruptive or disrespectful, prayer, as well as any other religious activity, cannot be banned because of the rights guaranteed by the Constitution.

James Skillen, a writer for the Center for Public Justice, believes that the First Amendment does not give the government or any citizen the power to ban prayer or religion from public schools. All citizens have the choice whether to practice religion or not, so prayer in school is no exception. The Center for Public Justice also believes that families should be able to choose different schools to meet their “differing educational needs (Center for Public Justice).” Opening different schools would give many families a different option, yet that is why we have private schools.

Even with this evidence, the debate about prayer in school will forever continue. For as long as the citizens of the United States are following the Constitution, prayer should be allowed in public schools.

Claim:   Prayer should be allowed in public schools.

Data:  Freedom of speech is guaranteed by the 1st Amendment and the freedom of religion is a form of free speech protected by the 1st Amendment.

Warrant:  Because religious freedom is a privilege that is protected by the 1st Amendment, then as a citizen of the United States we should be able to pray in public schools.

Backing:  The Constitution of the United States protects U.S. citizens rights and freedoms.  Because of this protection by the Constitution, prayer cannot be banned from public schools because that would be taking guaranteed and protected rights away from citizens. 

Qualifier:  Prayer is acceptable at school most of the time, unless the person praying is being disruptive during class or the people around them.

Rebuttle:  Prayer should be allowed in public schools, although there are private religious schools that are available for people to attend if they would like to practice religion openly.

As Christmas time approaches, people are bustling around filling their house with the Christmas spirit. Streets and houses are lined with bright lights and tinsel. Decorated trees are seen in almost every window. Every show on television is beginning to revolve around Christmas. Just like Christmas joy during the holidays, rhetoric is everywhere. Some is easier to spot than others, just like picking out the perfect present for that special someone. As a person spends more time learning and studying rhetoric, they will spot an example of rhetoric everywhere they look! Just like people decorate their house for the holidays, writers are decorating their work with the language of rhetoric.

Examples of Rhetoric (all found in the RUNNER’S magazine):

•   Rhetorical Question: Do you have what it takes?  (Navy Seal Advertisement)                       
•  Antithesis: Small Changes, Big Rewards  (Cover of the magazine)
• Parallelism: Train Smarter, Run Easier, Recover Faster  (Cover of the magazine)
•  Anaphora: There’s the humanitarian who used a kids’ race to help restore peace and hope in Africa. There’s the high school track coach who turned a team of underdogs into state champions – and college-bound success stories. And there’s the double amputee who is forcing us to rethink our definition of disabilities.  (Heroes Article)   
•  Epistrophe: You went through it. You decided to be a man about it. You decided to be a woman about it.  (Nike Shoe Advertisement)

Rhetoric is all around! Once a person gets an eye for rhetoric, they will be greeted with an abundance of these wonderful examples. Readers often skim pages to find these devices just like a shopper scans aisle after aisle for the biggest and best sales. Try decorating your work with rhetoric!

     Mother Jones is a magazine that I have never heard of until now, so I decided to subscribe to its feeds to learn more.  As I started reading, I realized that this magazine is not the type of magazine that I would typically read.  I occasionally read the latest gossip and news about celebrities or the current events of the world.  Topics such as these are not what I found in Mother Jones. Prison is a topic that was written heavily about in this magazine.  I guess this is the magazine that prisoners would be most happy to receive while they are serving their time because sometimes very useful information and advice is given in this magazine.  The articles “8 tips for an easier prison stay” and “Which works better behind bars, scuba or Buddha?” are two of the articles that may appear helpful to prisoners.  I become sort of skeptical of this magazine when I think about the writer.  I may turn away from reading this magazine if I discover that the writer is a former prisoner who is trying to give other prisoners “helpful” hints somehow, although the writer seems to have just done his research because the articles involve interviews from prison workers.  Maybe the writer is really trying to help his fellow prisoners.  I am not sure.  Since I am not very fond of this type of magazine, a person will probably not find me at the nearby store purchasing a copy of Mother Jones.

   While searching through several sources of RSS feeds, I came across the L.A. Times.  Knowing that this is a very popular newspaper, I subscribed to two of their feeds: sports and top news.  Since the LA Lakers are one of my favorite basketball teams, I figured that I would easily stay updated with all the latest team news.  Not only was I informed of the Lakers, but also I was updated with news from surfing to the Olympics.  One sprained ankle will not happen without the writers of L.A. Times writing about the incident.  Subscribing to the top news section has really helped me keep up with all the events that are going on in the world we live in.  I am not much of a television person, so subscribing to this feed has allowed me to easily keep up with all the latest news. Many top news articles are written every day.  The writers cover topics from deaths to the recent presidential election.  As far as the talk about the election goes, I have discovered that the L.A. Times seems to favor Obama.  Every article that is written about the election or the candidates is always about Obama.  The writers seem as if they are trying to sway the readers in Obama’s direction since every article written about him is positive and never negative.  Also, the other candidates are never being written about.  Articles, such as “200,000 Germans gather to hear Barack Obama” and “Obama works to rally Jewish supporters,” talk about the ways that Obama is gathering more and more supporters in his campaign.  Overall, I enjoyed reading the feeds from L.A. Times because I received all my information very easily on my computer and I did not have to spend all my time trying to listen to every piece of news and all of the commercials on television.  I am going to continue to read these feeds to stay on top of my world today. 

    Scientific American is the second feed I chose to subscribe to.  Since science is my favorite subject and the field that I hope to go into, I thought that this magazine would interest me.  Although there were several good articles, I was not very impressed with this feed.  Unlike most feeds that are overflowing with new articles, Scientific American is only updated with new articles two or three times a month, however, the articles were very interesting, so I was very disappointed that I did not have much to read.  Catchy titles like “Parasitized ants get berry sick” and “Smoking can’t buy happiness” steer me toward reading these articles instead of the ones with plain and boring titles.  As I began reading the articles, I caught myself stumbling across several words that confused me.  The writers had included very scientific words with no explanation.  These words are fine for people with science backgrounds, but the magazine maybe could attract more readers if they explained these difficult words.  If a person without a science background read these articles then they might have trouble getting any understanding out of what they are reading.  People may begin to not enjoy reading these articles anymore if they cannot understand them and they may start veering away from reading this magazine.  I really enjoyed reading this feed because science really fascinates me and I hope to someday pursue a career in science.

     Every second of every day someone is on his computer blogging his life away.  Millions of various types of blogs are floating around in the cyber world.  Students are hustling at the last minute to submit their homework that is due.  Others are leisurely scanning through blogs in their spare time or just updating their blog with their daily entry.  Each blog has a different personality.  Each blog is meant to achieve something different.  While searching through the blog world, three interesting blogs that are written by students at my high school caught my eye.

    iThink, the catchy title of a blog written by upcoming senior JM Poff, was the first blog that received my attention.  iThink resembles the name of the highly popular iPod, which is adored by everyone.  In case some readers are not familiar with the iPod, Poff has thoroughly explained his title choice within the first section of his blog.  When a blog has a catchy title, readers become curious of what information the blog may contain, therefore they dig deeper into the blog just as I did.  Upon entering the blog, I was greeted with a very exhilarating layout.  The blog is not bland.  Instead, the blog has unique graphics, which grasped my attention.  iThink was very well thought out and planned.  Poff designed the blog so that when readers open the blog, they are not overwhelmed with so many items on one page.  Readers can easily search through several categories and choose the piece that they would like to read.  In many of Poff’s blog entries, he voices his opinion an all current events and hot topics in the news.  Some topics that Poff speaks about are the presidential candidates, problems in school, and abortion.  Poff eagerly interacts with his readers through comments on his post.  He almost always replies to comments that readers have left on his blog.  Poff’s blog iThink definitely inspired me and I look forward to reading more!

     Got Words?, another blog with a curiosity-catching title, is a blog written by another upcoming senior Audrey.  When entering Audrey’s blog, a person will enter a very subtle, organized blog, which is different than Poff’s.  Every post is organized into groups on the right side of the blog.  Organizing blogs in this way helps the readers navigate through a blog much easier.  Not only does Audrey make her pieces informative, but also she makes her posts entertaining to read.  When Audrey writes, she writes about current events, yet she puts a twist on them and includes stories that relate to her in some way.  Adding these pieces of her life makes reading her posts a lot more interesting.  Another aspect of Audrey’s blog that really makes her blog different from everyone’s is that on almost every post she has a picture or graphic that relates to the topic that she has written about.  Audrey has definitely “got words.” She is a very thorough writer and she always fully informs readers on her thoughts about a  subject.  Seeing how Audrey puts her thoughts out into the world has really encouraged me to try some of these ideas on my own blog.

     Wonderful, mind-boggling titles for blogs are very common for young people these days.  Another upcoming senior, Elizabeth, has created the blog Read..Think..Live.  My mind wandered in several different directions when I read her title.  Does she talk about the books she has read, the thoughts she thinks, or the life she lives? Elizabeth actually covers every one of those topics in some way.  Elizabeth has added a different feature to her blog by adding links to video clips and graphics to further explain her posts and let outside readers really feel like they are a part of what she is talking about.  While reading Elizabeth’s blog, one particular aspect caught my eye.  Seatbelt Safety, one piece of Elizabeth’s writings, really intrigued me.  She told about her own personal experiences with seatbelts.  Since I have read a real-life scenario about wearing seatbelts, I have been more persuaded towards the use and benefit of a seatbelt.  Seatbelts save lives and Elizabeth is luckily here to tell us her story.  Although Read..Think..Live is not one of the most creative blogs that I have seen, I found myself searching farther into Elizabeth’s blog to read more of her posts.

     In the world today, there are many different kinds and types of blogs written by a wide variety of people.  Three blogs that have been created by Poff, Audrey, and Elizabeth have inspired and encouraged me to do so much more with my blog!  I enjoyed reading their blogs and I hope they will continue to write and let the world hear their thoughts.

Callahan, Elizabeth. ”Seatbelt Safety.” Read..Think..Live.  20 June 2008. http://readthinklive.learnerblogs.org/2008/02/24/seatbelt-safety/#comment-26.

        Death by murder is a horrible, gruesome subject.  Murderers kill children not out of love, but out of hatred.  “Murder is wrong, because life is valuable.”

            The most unjust reason why murderers are killing children is because the child may have some type of disease, such as Autism.  Autistic children are being killed simply because they are autistic. Even though murder is wrong, the murderers of these autistic children are making excuses of why killing their child is acceptable.  A single parent may say that their life is too stressful because they have to raise a family on their own, work fifty hours a week, clean the house, and make meals without any support.  Even if a person has no support to raise an autistic child, death is not the way to deal with that problem.  Another excuse people are using is that they are doing the autistic a favor by murdering them because they will never have a high quality of life.  Even a non-autistic person may live their life unhappily.  A low-functioning person can enjoy life, even if this person does not look like they are enjoying life.  Sometimes autistics are confined to an institution, but this is still not a sufficient reason to kill them.  In an article from “This Way of Life,” an autistic said, “I am happy to be who I am, and that I consider autism to be a key part of my existence.”  He believes that every autistic cherishes and enjoys the distinctiveness of their personalities and abilities, even though they have to grasp their differences and weaknesses.  Every autistic has the right to live, and their life should not be taken away from them under any circumstance.

            Every person in this world deserves the right to live their life, no matter how different they are from the rest of the world.  In our malicious world today, innocent children are getting their lives taken away because they are being used to punish someone else, their parents do not want them anymore, or they have some type of complication.  “Murder is not done out of love, but out of a desire to impose one’s own opinions on another, hatred, or selfishness (J. Smith, 2007).