Tuesday, March 22, 2011

The United States Is Not A Democracy!!!

 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_republic


Yes! That's right we are not a democracy!

Actually we are a federal republic. We do however have a country that is founded on democratic principles, however that does not make us a democracy. Our founding fathers believe it or not were not huge fans of democracy. I'm sure at this point many of you are calling me a liar and shaking your heads. Well, believe it! Instead of creating a country that was governed by democracy the founding fathers favored a federal republic instead. They saw democracy as having a major flaw and that was mob rule. This means that the voices of the minority would be drowned out and not heard. I bring this up because we seem to forget that; and in watching today's political discourse seem to believe that we are in fact actually a democratic nation. I say this to tell you this, the next time someone argues that we are a democracy and that since most people agree with him/her that's all that matters, point out that in reality we are not. Our country is a Federal Republic and that means though your voice might be in the minority it does not make it any less important. Remember in the United States, Every Voice Deserves To Be Heard!!!!

Monday, March 21, 2011

Crime & Punishment - my response to a Baltimore Sun Article about new tougher sentences in Baltimore

We have the worst officers maybe in the country, I am so sure that these officers are worse criminals than the supposed, "thugs" residing within the city. I get pulled over on a weekly basis for literally the most ridiculous reasons. I go to work and, I just graduated from a very good school in Towson, Maryland. I'm originally from the Eastern Shore and though the police have their own problems there I have never seen so much discrimination in one place than I do in Baltimore City, it is getting ridiculous at this point. No wonder police officers are getting shot. Maybe if they stopped terrorizing the very citizens that they are paid, with our tax money to protect their wouldn't be so much negative sentiment against them. And to Commissioner Bealefield, you are not a very smart man, how many more studies do we need to show you that mandatory criminal sentences do NOTHING to stop crime. All it does is make the people more weary of law enforcement and go to greater lengths to get away or get some measure of payback. If an officer stopped me and I knew I was facing years in jail anyway in my mind and in the case of a lot of these Baltimorians minds why not take their chance by firing a few shots. I am bored at 8 hours of work, so do you realize what 10 years in prison does to somebody? I think we as a nation are so used to politicians calling for tougher and tougher sentences that we fail to realize how substantial it is to lock up a man or woman for "YEARS" at a time. How about we fix the underlying problems that lead to criminal behavior like schools, jobs, healthcare etc etc. ..... and stop saying over and over the same irrelevant rhetoric that only if we could lock them up for more time, our streets will be safer, they will not be nor will they ever be if we don't wake up and stop with the USELESS rhetoric!