Capital Punishment in the US

Capital Punishment in the US Katie Sawtelle Capital Punishment: Americas Blood Stained Hands In 2015, the most executions took place in China, Iran, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and the United States of America (Death Penalty 2015). What a peculiarity it is to see the U.S. included in the list alongside undemocratic nations. America is the only westernized country that still continues to put the death penalty to use. Capital punishment should be abolished for it delivers inadequate legal representation and is discriminatory toward racial minorities. It is a fundamental right for a defendant in a capital case to be assigned a competent lawyer, yet, more often than not, court appointed public defenders often lack the skills and drive for effective representation. A common characteristic of those on death row is poverty. It is estimated that around 90% of inmates on death row could not afford to hire an adequate attorney (American Civil Liberties Union). Without a competent lawyer, a defendants case barely stands a chance. In the spring of 2014, Glenn Ford, an African-American man, was released from a Louisiana prison after spending thirty years on death row for a crime he did not commit (Bright). Ford could not afford an attorney in his capital case, so the court appointed him two lawyers for his representation. One of the lawyers was an oil and gas attorney who had never presented a case in front of a jury before. The second lawyer was a recent law school graduate that worked for an insurance firm. Despite the weak case presented against Ford, the all white jury sentenced him to death (Bright). It is not equal justice when the defendant receives inadequate representation just because of the amount of money he or she has. Appropriately put, those without the capital get the punishment (Von Drehle). Those accused of capital crimes rely on lawyers to protect their legal rights, investigate, and present evidence that will doubt their guilt. It is extremely difficult for a low-income defendant to navigate the legal justice system on their own. One major reason that innocent defendants have been placed on death row and executed is due to incompetent or inexperienced court-appointed lawyers; in extreme cases, some attorneys have been found asleep, intoxicated, or under the influence of drugs during trial proceedings (Bright). Some may argue that if court appointed lawyers were much better, then guilty people could be acquitted. That may be true, however, the more important issue regarding better court-appointed lawyers is that innocent people could be acquitted. Innocent people that were convicted and executed could have possibly lived out the rest of their lives if they had received better court-appointed legal defense. In some states, people sentenced to death may receive legal representation from pro-bono (free service for the public) lawyers or from public organizations. Most of the time, there is not enough pro-bono attorneys for all of the poor defendants facing death row. This could possibly result in the defendant obtaining an inept court-appointed lawyer. To receive a new trial, a defendant could file for post-conviction relief and state that their constitutional rights were violated, however, it is usually only possible for those who can afford lawyers. Some states provide lawyers for post-conviction relief, although the majority of the nation does not. Regardless of whether a defendants constitutional rights were violated at trial, they still may have to face execution. A number of people are sentenced to death not because they committed the most heinous crime, rather, the courts did not provide them with competent legal representation. Ruth Bader Ginsburg, a United States Supreme Court Ju stice has said, I have yet to see a death case, among the dozens coming to the Supreme Court on eve of execution petitions, in which the defendant was well represented at trial (Bright). The amount of money a defendant has in capital cases can be the difference between life and death; In present day America, it is better to be rich and guilty, than poor and innocent (Bright). The death penalty in the antebellum South (1815-1861) was a tool of white supremacy. The possibility of slave uprisings haunted slave owners, therefore, the death penalty was regularly enforced to resist slave opposition. (Von Drehle). In Virginia, during the antebellum era, it was a capital offense for a slave to administer medicine, for it could have been poison. Also, an old statute in Georgia stated that if a slave left a bruise on his master, he could receive capital punishment (Von Drehle). The late M. Watt Espy, a researcher that studied capital punishment, recorded around 15,000 executions in the United States dating from 1608 to 1972 (Von Drehle). Espys research and recordings reveal racial disparity in U.S. executions. His research suggests that in a significantly white America, more blacks than whites are executed. Whites were rarely put to death for crimes that involved African-American victims (Von Drehle). A study of the death penalty done by the University of Texas pro posed that Americas modern-day capital punishment system is an outgrowth of the racist legacy of slavery (qtd. in American Civil Liberties Union). Racial bias is still very much alive in the modern justice system of America It is far more likely for racial minorities (African-American and Latinos) to be placed on death row and be put to death than white people particularly if the victim is white. A recent Louisiana study conducted by Glenn Pierce (research scientist at Northeastern University) and Michael Radelet (Professor of Sociology at University of Colorado-Boulder) indicated that defendants with white victims were 97% more likely to receive death sentences than defendants with black victims (qtd. in American Civil Liberties Union). In the United States, blacks and whites are murder victims in nearly exact numbers, which is exceptionally high considering that 13% of the population is African-American. Between the years 1930 and 1996, around 4,200 prisoners were put to death in America; more than half of those prisoners were black (American Civil Liberties Union). Americas death row has always had a large population of African Americans and they are often killed for what are deemed less-than-capital offenses for whites, such as rape and burglary (American Civil Liberties Union). It has been asserted that racial discrimination and the death penalty are part of Americas past, nevertheless, since the reinstatement of the death penalty in the 1970s, around half of those on death row at any given time have been minorities. Florida Latinos are beginning to shift away from the death penalty. The state of Florida has one of the lowest bars for sentencing someone to death by not requiring a unanimous jury recommendation, and they lead the nation in death row inmates being released due to wrongful convictions (Cartagena). For these reasons, Floridas death penalty has been struck down as unconstitutional twice in 2016. Four Florida counties Miami-Dade, Hillsborough, Pinellas and Duval are among 16 counties nationwide that have each had five or more death sentences between 2010 and 2015 (Cartagena). All of these counties have been found to suffer from prosecutor misconduct, bad defense lawyers, wrongful convictions and racial bias (Cartagena). From 2010-2015, every inmate in Miami-Dade County who was sentenced to death, was black or Latino. Yet, studies argue that in most locations across America, minorities are responsible for less than half of homicides (Too Broken to Fix). The nations largest death row capacity resides in Los Angeles County, California and statisticians expect continued growth. In 2013, reports revealed that Los Angeles County was responsible for more death row prisoners than any other county in the United States, and it has ranked as one of the two most prolific counties in imposing new death sentences each year since (Too Broken To Fix). Between the years 2010 and 2015, Los Angeles County imposed 31 death sentences, which adds up to be the most death sentences enforced in any U.S. county during that period (Too Broken To Fix). Those 31 death sentences in L.A. show severe racial disparity in their sentences: approximately 94% of the 31 death sentences enforced were directed toward minority (Latino and African-American) defendants and even though African Americans commit fewer than one-third of all Los Angeles County homicides, they comprised 42% of those condemned to death in this period. 45% of the new death sentences were imposed on Latino defendants (Too Broken to Fix). Only two white defendants received the death penalty. Unsurprisingly, a 2014 study conducted in Southern California concluded that white jurors are more probable to inflict capital punishment when the defendant is Latino and poor than in cases where the defendant is white. Latino jurors presented no such bias (Too Broken to Fix). The amount of racial minorities sentenced and executed on death row continues to suggest that capital punishment and racial discrimination are indeed still a part of modern day America. Since the Supreme Court reinstatement of the death penalty in the mid-1970s, juries in Texas have to determine if the defendant poses a future risk to the public, before applying the death sentence. Most states have the jurors consider past behavior and crimes of the defendant, however, in Texas, juries are asked to predict the future (Vansickle). In essence, these jurors are asked to predict the unpredictable. Those who are pro-death penalty may argue that experts can determine future violence, however, if juries and experts could determine future danger, then there would not be any crime. Currently, in the state of Texas, there are around 240 men and women on death row that have been determined to pose a threat to society. The question of future dangerousness has not reduced the amount of death sentences, rather, testimony on the issue has often instead introduced racial bias into trials (Death Penalty Information Center). The U.S. Supreme Court recently heard arguments for the Texas death penalty case of Buck v. Davis. In July of 1995, the defendant, Duane Buck, shot and killed his ex-girlfriend and her friend (Vansickle). At the trial, Bucks lawyer initiated testimony from a psychologist that said Buck was dangerous and posed a threat to the public since he was African-American. In 1997, the jury found Buck guilty and sentenced him to death. Before his execution, the Supreme Court halted his case due to the racial bias that resulted in his death sentence. Buck is still awaiting his new sentencing. Many studies, including one conducted by Cornell University, propose that the race of the victim and defendant play a critical part in whether a person receives the death penalty (qtd. in Vansickle). Criminologists conducted a study used in Bucks appeal that analyzed racial disparity in Harris County, Texas the location where Buck was sentenced to death. The study resulted that from 1992 to 1999, Harris County prosecutors were three and a half times more likely to seek the death penalty against black defendants than white ones. Jurors were more than twice as likely to sentence blacks to death (Vansickle). Another study led by Jennifer Eberhardt, Professor of Psychology at Stanford University, established that in cases with a white victim and a defendant with stereotypical black features, the more probable the defendant would be sentenced to death (Eberhardt). These studies suggest that race plays a detrimental role in whether a defendant receives the death penalty. Race should never be a predictor of dangerousness or influence whether a person receives the death penalty, yet, it is the harsh reality in the land of the free. With the death penalty, someone will always end up on the short end of the stick; usually that person is either African-American or Latino. The U.S. should not put value on someones life based on their skin color, however, it is the current reality. Stephen Bright, Professor of Clinical Law at Yale Law School, argues that the only way for racial prejudice to no longer play a role in the decision of the death penalty is to completely remove capital punishment in the U.S.: With the long history of slavery, lynchings, convict leasing, segregation, racial oppression and now mass incarceration that has a much greater impact on racial minorities, surely states should eliminate any chance that racial prejudice might play a role. But there is only one way to do that: by eliminating the death penalty. (Bright) In the United States Constitution and pledge of allegiance, it promises equal justice for all. Yet, race and poverty continue to influence who will be condemned to death in the land of equal opportunity. Finality not justice, not liberty is the ultimate goal of the legal system in the United States. Capital punishment desensitizes society.. It teaches the American youth that society solves its problems with violence. It displays the absence of appreciation for life. And, as the equal justice giant, Martin Luther King Jr. once said, capital punishment is societys final statement that it will not forgive (qtd. in Bright). The United States should join 140 other nations in making final the directive: thou shalt not kill. Works Cited Bright, Stephen. Imposition of the death penalty upon the poor, racial minorities, the intellectually disabled and the mentally ill. New York University Law School, 2014. Web. 7 January 2017. Bright, Stephen. Race, Poverty, the Death Penalty, and the Responsibility of the Legal Profession. Seattle Journal for Social Justice 1.1 (2002): 12. Web. 7 January 2017. Bright, Stephen. The Failure to Achieve Fairness: Race and Poverty Continue to Influence Who Dies. Journal of Constitutional Law 11.1 (2008):16. Web. 7 January 2017. Cartagena, Juan. Latinos join call to end Floridas death penalty. Orlando Sentinel. Orlando Sentinel, 10 December 2016. Web. 7 January 2017. Death Penalty 2015. Amnesty International. 6 April 2016. Web. 7 January 2017. Death Penalty Information Center. Death Penalty Information Center, 2016. Web. 7 January 2017. Eberhardt, Jennifer. Looking Deathworthy. Psychological Science 17.5 (2006): 383-386. Web. 7 January 2017. The Case Against the Death Penalty. American Civil Liberties Union. 2012. Web. 7 January 2017. Too Broken to Fix. Fair Punishment. September 2016. Web. 7 January 2017. Vansickle, Abbie. A Deadly Question. The Atlantic. The Atlantic, 19 November 2016. Web. 7 January 2017. Von Drehle, David. The Death of the Death Penalty. Time. Time, 8 June 2015. Web. 7 January 2017.

My Last Duchess Essay

In the Poem My Last Duchess by Robert Browning the heartless and haughty speaker explains a painting of his last wife while inadvertently revealing a darker side to his last marriage than one might view from they outside. The poem depicts a dense stream of conscious feel to it by using language and sentence structure common to conversation earlier to the time period it was written. The use of â€Å"’twas not† , and the English spelling of â€Å"favour† suggests the poem occurred in a time period in which husbands held power over their wives with such things as â€Å"nine-hundred-years-old names† and money. Browning’s great usage of dated speaking style creates a historical medium from which the event which slowly unfold. The poem is masked in a conversation with one person speaking in a dramatic monologue about his beloved portrait of the last duchess he married. The rhetorical questions â€Å"Who’d†¦ this sort of trifling† and end rhymes in the couplets throughout the poem â€Å"wall†¦ call† and â€Å"had†¦ glad† drive the poem from one line to the next . These techniques create motion in the poem much like the anger and arrogance that the Duke exerted towards his deceased wife to control her. The diction of this poem mirrors the force with which the Duke ruled his house as well as the social male norms at the time. The poem My Last Duchess is told from first point of view by a selfish man admiring his late wife’s smiling portrait. As the Duke entertains his guest, â€Å"you†, he tells of â€Å"My favour† after contemplating â€Å"how shall I say? † that his wife flirted with all she encountered. The biased first person account of the death of the duchess leads the reader into the center of the man’s thoughts and allows for a more in depth understanding of his desire for control toward his wife even in death. His dramatic monologue gives perhaps more information concerning the specifics of his involvement in wife’s death than he realizes. The quotations incorporated within the poem such as â€Å"Just this or that in you disgusts me† and â€Å"Her mantle laps over my Lady’s wrist too much† as well as the direct address â€Å"Sir, ’twas all one† to the guest shows the Dukes self-important attitude and his high regards for the thoughts which he believes others are thinking. The Duke boasts that he now holds the power to let others see the smile of the portrait that was meant only for him. He gets so enthralled with his own story of his wife he reveals that his â€Å"commands† ended the duchess’s smiles and possibly her life. The first person point of view for this poem explains further the thirst for power and self-love which the Duke honors himself with by controlling the women and people in his life of which he feels superior. Browning illustrates the complexity of the controlling Duke by showing his carelessness and arrogance by the words he uses to impress his guest. The â€Å"Duchess painted on the wall† has a â€Å"countenance† that only can be seen by the â€Å"command† of the Duke. When the Duke believes the Duchess finds interest in other people beside her husband, The Duke, â€Å"gave a command† which stopped â€Å"all† her smiles to everyone. When the Duke could not obtain complete power over and tame his young wife, she died in a manner which is not fully explained. The â€Å"Duke† with the â€Å"nine-hundred-year† old name is meeting with a man that is offering the Duke his â€Å"daughter† another young maiden for marriage. This offer of marriage is gladly accepted by the Duke no doubt is eager to attempt to tame yet another â€Å"sea-horse† of a wife. For the Duke this marriage is a trial of the subservience of women to their wealthy and powerful husbands. The details given in this poem bring forth the conclusion that the Duke got rid of his last Duchess and is now ready for a new one. The title of the poem My Last Duchess suggests that the Duke had had more than one Duchess. Had the poem illustrated the Dukes first wife it could have been titled My First Duchess. The startling â€Å"command† line toward the end of the poem lets the reader realize that this man has the power to make a woman be remembered by nothing more than a portrait controlled by the master of the house. This poem has themes commonly found in the local color movement and associated with feminism. Browning gives the audience a picture of the dark and distorted beginning of a new couple and marriage.

Developmental Disabilities

Developmental disabilities may become apparent before the age of 22 and thus may cause physical or mental limitations. Developmental abilities involve mental retardation, epilepsy, autism, cerebral palsy and other neurological impairments. In the result people may have either limited mobility or limited ability to take care of their physical needs. Nowadays people suffering from developmental abilities, especially in older age, face social challenges, though have the opportunity to enjoy a full and active life.All they need is understanding, encouragement and readiness of family members to help them to become part of their community. Therefore the project will work out new initiatives and ideas how to expand and strengthen the support system of family. Furthermore, the project will provide better understanding of management and support of family members and will contain relevant materials to share with families. Moreover, the project aims at assisting in future planning, trusts, will s and guardianship.The study thus will provide unique knowledge about elder people suffering from developmental disabilities. The objectives of the study are to improve family- directed support and to provide technical assistance in defining personal needs, plans as well as implementation of programs and evaluation of the results. Furthermore, the specific goals of the research is to strengthen programs aimed at providing families with abilities and proper knowledge how to take care of elder members suffering from developmental disabilities.The present project will be assessed through the methods of description, case study and desktop research. A literature search revealed over 150 articles and books on the managing and supporting people with developmental disabilities. Over two-thirds of these were prescriptive and written by practitioners, consultants and journalists. There is also a steady flow of research and ideas on how to improve the quality of family support. References Hollins S, Sireling L. (1990). Working Through Loss with People Who Have Learning Disabilities. Windsor: NFER-Nelson. Kloeppel D, Hollins S. (1989). Mental Retardation and Death in the Family. Death Studies, 13, 31-38. Stroebe, M., Storebe, W., Hansson, R. (1993). Handbook of Bereavement. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press.

Secrets of Cheating Revealed and Myths Dispelled

Secrets of Cheating Revealed and Myths Dispelled School Cheating: A Cause of Students’ Troubles or Its Consequence? People tend to blame wrongdoers by default, leaving circumstances and motivations aside. Usually, it is a plausible way to evaluate a situation, but sometimes, a second thought is needed, like in case with school cheating. But what is cheating, why does it exist, how does it affect students’ skills and can it be prevented (and should it)? We will try to find answers to these questions in the following article, so read on. What Is Cheating and Why Does It Exist Among Students? Cheating is copying home tasks from other students, from the web or asking for other students’ help while sitting the exams or midterm tests (and other kinds of assessment). Cheating is blamed on the laziness of students and is supposed to mean their total educational failure since they cannot cope with the material and so ‘steal’ it from the others. But cheating has existed probably as long as students and teachers themselves. People with excellent grades and records have poor jobs, and people who dropped from their schools or hardly managed to graduate then build successful careers and create cool things. So it looks like getting good grades or completing all homework individually does not guarantee success and vice versa. So, well, cheating is not an indication of academic failure. It indicates something else. But what? It points to the extreme loads of duties and expectations placed on children and to the total inability of the education system to account for natural capacities and limits children have. It also indicates that inbuilt creativity and smartness of children still exist, and it helps children rig the system that is rigged against them, in the first place. Put in less complicated words, if children are expected to accomplish things that are basically un-accomplishable, they will find the way out. If homework is so big that it is impossible to cope with it for the majority of students, they will find the way to obtain it from smarter and more persistent classmates or will complete parts of work and exchange these parts between themselves, so that everyone gets a complete work. Anyway, in a system where grades mean everything and knowledge and understanding mean nothing, cheating is only one of the logical step kids take to help themselves out. Common Misconceptions About Cheating Cheating is for lazy. No. Time and efforts spent on preparation of cheats are as labor intense as any other intellectual activity. Some may argue that students better be learning with this intensity, but teachers today assess not knowledge but very formal markers of knowledge, and students provide what is required from them. Cheating does nothing to improve knowledge and just brings students undeserved grades. – No. While copying homework or preparing cheats for tests students repeat the material and learn at least basics of stuff that they will not get otherwise. Cheating outwardly harms learning process. – No. It improves it. Students exchange, copy, repeat, go over the stuff, read, select, and in general do things they are supposed to do at school. Cheating makes students stupid. – Big no. Just imagine how much creativity and skills are required to prepare cheats and to use them. It requires self-control, discreetness, resistance to stress, ingenuity and many more traits that are absolutely necessary in our agile and unstable world. So instead of memorizing stuff, they do not understand, students learn skills they will apply anywhere – and be praised as valuable workers. Cheating is unethical. – If assessing formal criteria (like writing all answers to problems in a column) instead of assessing the correctness of answers and creativity of thinking is OK from an ethical viewpoint, then cheating as an adequate solution is ethical as well. Surprising Upsides to Cheating for Children Cheating is training in itself, and even more intense and useful training than writing letters or memorizing poems. To cheat, children, even in elementary school, need to develop and possess the following skills (and can every adult boast of having them all?): concentration attention to details memorizing things heard or seen only once (catching a glimpse in a mate’s handout, for example) caution fast reaction We can bet that every adult would want to develop these traits in themselves and see them develop in their kids. Hence cheating is a very positive booster for these skills – and not only for the classroom. Homework is actually useless and even dangerous for kids Despite the traditional belief into the usefulness of loads of homework, the reasons behind giving it are more of wishful thinking kind than of true science. Indeed, older students can benefit from limited amounts of homework, but not young kids and middle schoolers. Recent experiments on canceling homework altogether show that students in such classes show the same level of academic success and failures as students who perform homework daily. So what’s the sense? Besides, along being mostly useless, unregulated and abundant homework is outwardly harmful to the mental and physical health of kids. Homework harms kids’ health significantly by stealing their sleep and play/rest time. A school day is almost equal to a workday, but after this day kids are expected to work even more, and it is called ‘time management’, not overtime work, like it should be. Children lack sleep, lack exercise and simply relaxation time, they get mental health problems, anxieties, chronic fatigue, eating disorders, all for the sake of turning in an assignment that no one will bother to check. Homework steals time. Kids have their whole day mapped out for them, with no time to be kids or teens, they are treated like adults in regard to responsibilities but dismissed as children when it comes to their wishes and needs. Not very progressive approach. Hometask is also believed to discipline kids, teach them to order, but the world needs creativity today, and structured time filled with boring useless tasks is a killer of creativity. According to Alfie Cohn, a researcher, and many other reliable investigations, the impact of homework on academic success is almost negligible. So why is the practice of homework so persistent? Just because of habit? Homework destroys peace with parents. Teens already have it hard during their transition from childhood to adulthood. Homework is one more stumbling stone that makes kid and parents argue. Parents believe that teachers know what they do when they give that much homework (but it looks like they don’t). So parents make kids do every assignment instead of relaxing, watching TV or socializing. That’s enough to spark a quarrel. Sometimes parents try to help kids do cope with tasks, but parents have long forgotten the school stuff (or did not learn it properly anyway). Besides, they are not teachers and do not have skills and patience to explain and help properly, on a level accessible to a child. So instead of help, new trouble of miscommunication arises. Cheating Is a Symptom of the Problem, Not a Cause So what is the conclusion? Cheating time, everyone? Definitely, no, it is not. Students do need to learn and understand school subjects properly to be able to study in college and then move on to work. But cheating persistently indicates that the education system does not work the way it should, and instead of gaining skills students employ cheating tactics to get high grades that are demanded by parents, teachers and state/federal education bodies. If the system becomes more productive and inspiring, with less stress on failure and more pressure on the joy of discovery and learning something new, then cheating will become a negligent percentage of students’ activities. As of today, it is a bailout gear that helps students stay afloat in the modern schooling system and not lose their mind completely. Need help, and no friend can help you? Let us be your friends and provide you with a completed assignment or paper that will bail you out and bring you positive grades – and maybe some long-needed rest.

Free Essays on Billy Joel

Over the past century there have been many defining moments throughout Broadway and all of musical theater. These musicals have provided us with music, dancing, and stories that we will remember forever. But not until recently, have we seen a performance so remarkable that it will be remembered along with all the great performances. The musical Movin’ Out composed and written by Grammy winning song writer and performer, Billy Joel. Although all of the songs in this musical are fantastic, this paper will compare and contrast two of them, â€Å"We Didn’t Start the Fire†, and â€Å"Pressure.† I believe that â€Å"Pressure† is a better song for providing a sense of chaos and fighting than â€Å"We Didn’t Start the Fire† because the lyrics depict a more realistic sense of reality and make the audience believe that the song is describing exactly what is happening to the characters. This musical was written by one of the greatest song writers and performers of all time, Billy Joel. Billy Joel was born 9 May 1949 in Hicksville Long Island. He grew up in a house where both of his parents were very heavy into music and therefore played a huge part in his development as a musician. In high school, Billy Joel was very smart, however didn’t enjoy the school part as much as he should have. He got involved with music so much that he missed a lot of school and eventually did not graduate because he didn’t attend enough school. On February 21st, 1964, Billy Joel joined his first band, The Echoes. In this band, Billy Joel played the part of organ and the lead vocals. This band kept getting better and eventually signed a record deal with the United Artists label and continued to record for them. This band played for a little while but after a little bit The Echoes started to suffer. With the combination of this and even more musical failures and a bad romantic relationship, Billy Joel slipped into depression and attempted suicide b... Free Essays on Billy Joel Free Essays on Billy Joel Over the past century there have been many defining moments throughout Broadway and all of musical theater. These musicals have provided us with music, dancing, and stories that we will remember forever. But not until recently, have we seen a performance so remarkable that it will be remembered along with all the great performances. The musical Movin’ Out composed and written by Grammy winning song writer and performer, Billy Joel. Although all of the songs in this musical are fantastic, this paper will compare and contrast two of them, â€Å"We Didn’t Start the Fire†, and â€Å"Pressure.† I believe that â€Å"Pressure† is a better song for providing a sense of chaos and fighting than â€Å"We Didn’t Start the Fire† because the lyrics depict a more realistic sense of reality and make the audience believe that the song is describing exactly what is happening to the characters. This musical was written by one of the greatest song writers and performers of all time, Billy Joel. Billy Joel was born 9 May 1949 in Hicksville Long Island. He grew up in a house where both of his parents were very heavy into music and therefore played a huge part in his development as a musician. In high school, Billy Joel was very smart, however didn’t enjoy the school part as much as he should have. He got involved with music so much that he missed a lot of school and eventually did not graduate because he didn’t attend enough school. On February 21st, 1964, Billy Joel joined his first band, The Echoes. In this band, Billy Joel played the part of organ and the lead vocals. This band kept getting better and eventually signed a record deal with the United Artists label and continued to record for them. This band played for a little while but after a little bit The Echoes started to suffer. With the combination of this and even more musical failures and a bad romantic relationship, Billy Joel slipped into depression and attempted suicide b...

Does Nietzsche provide any good reasons for being sceptical about Essay

Does Nietzsche provide any good reasons for being sceptical about Christian love - Essay Example Despite being the son of a Lutheran minister, Nietzsche was a man who did not subscribe to the ideas of Christianity, especially those that dealt with love, believing that the concept of love had been completely corrupted by the church. However, he was also a great admirer of Jesus because of the manner in which he had lived his life and attempted to reform the religion of Judaism so that it could become more progressive. While this was the case, Nietzsche criticized the teaching of love in the Gospels stating that they did not hold any truth in the reality of many individuals. It was his belief that those individuals who practiced Christianity did not live their lives to the fullest because they subscribed to teachings of Gospels, which were aimed at ensuring that life was composed of absolutes. According to Nietzsche, life was not full of absolutes and the concept of love could therefore not be practiced as preached in Christianity because to do so would mean that individuals could no longer make decisions for themselves; hence remain in the fossilized hierarchy to which the church had relegated them. According to Nietzsche, because Jesus died on the cross, the concept of love died with him and this is the reason why there no longer needs to be any form of absolutes in the manner in which individuals profess love towards each other. According to him, the Christian manner of love as practiced was highly hypocritical because instead of making people happy, it made them slaves of their own actions (Hollingdale, 1999, p.21). This declaration by Nietzsche does not hold any truth because Christian teachings relating to love enabled the church to grow in strength and have continued to sustain it in the modern world despite the rapid secularization currently taking place. There have been points of view though criticized by Nietzsche that Christian teachings on love are among the elements that have ensured a continued growth in provision of charity and aid for

Program Planning, Research, and Evaluation Research Paper

Program Planning, , and Evaluation - Research Paper Example The disease shows various signs and symptoms that constitute hot flushes, breathlessness, restless legs, headaches, nausea, vertigo, abdominal pains, dry mouth, hyperventilation and palpitations. In a case, for example, students experience various anxieties resulting from their academic interactions (Cassady, 2010). In real sense, students’ assessment in particular areas of educational field results to the beginning of educational anxiety that hampers their potential to achieve success in a particular field. 3 Anxiety illness is partially passed on from parents. Several researches prove that high emotional, strung and nervous is experienced throughout a family. A perfect example is that sixty percent of children whose parents experience anxiety develop an inhibited temperament and fear (Coon, Mitterer, Talbot & Vanchella, 2010). These children have a character that is wary and irritable when young and when they become toddlers they are fearful and shy. When they enroll in the elementary they are often cautious and quiet and when they are adults they are at high possibility of anxiety difficulties for example panic attacks (p. 486). 3 This community needs the health promotion program because there is a possibility of anxiety illnesses in girls during adolescence. According to Weiner (2003), studies confirm that African American girls suffer from a higher number of anxieties (p. 40). An anxiety disorder is caused by integrating environmental and biological factors. Most families in Everett are poor which would then imply that their children can develop anxiety disorder resulting from state of poverty. 4 This health promotion program will be developed in conjunction with Everett Community Health Partnership (ECHP). The mission of ECHP is to enhance health and the standard of life of the community of Everett by generating chances for