You can fight for your country at 18 but can't order a drink

When you are eighteen you become entitled to certain things: the ability to purchase tobacco, the ability to go to prison, and the ability to go and fight for your country. Now many of these things don't sound to appealing to me and I'm sure there are others who agree with me. Since an eighteen year old can have the ability to ruin their life with tobacco, possibly get put into jail with men three times their age, and the possiblity of being killed in combat why can't they buy a beer when they go to a restaurant?

This doesn't seem right to me at all. Now some may be thinking "Oh this is just another young person trying to get the legal age lowered because all they like to do is party." However you couldnt be more wrong. My motivation behind getting the age lowered wouldn't be so I could get drunk easier but rather to prevent many deaths that occur due to unresponsible drinking.

Kids under the age of twenty one are practicing more effective and dangerous ways of acheiving their desired level of drunkeness. Many are taking to drinking games such as beer pong and flip cup. Drinking games are much more denagerous than regular drinking because of the increased amounts of alcohol one consumes in such a short amount of time. Another dangerous practice popular among youngsters is "pre-gaming". "Pre-gaming" is drinking before you go out to avoid getting caught with alcohol on your person. Often times people consume hard liquor in larger quantities when drinking beforehand, and don't realize that they've consumed more than they should have before its too late.

I believe the most effective way to prevent these dangerous practices is to lower the legal drinking age. There are many positives that could come from doing this. Lowering the age would lessen the adrenaline rush attained from getting alcohol illegaly thus taking some of the fun out of drinking for most. Also being able to drink at a younger age would allow for parents to teach their children ways to moderate their drinking. Building this relationship between parent and child would be important because then the child would be more comfortable calling their parents for a ride when to intoxicated to drive. All in all lowering the age would have a postive effect on how younger people perceive and use alcohol.

Legalize it?

According to the National Survery of Drug Use and Health roughly 25.8 million people have admitted to using cannabis a.k.a marijuana at one point in their lifetime and 15.2 million have admitted to using it in the past month. With this staggering amount of people using this drug it has the potential to create a 10 billion dollar tax revenue for our country. On November 2nd of this year (2010) Proposition 19 was put on the ballot to be voted on for legalization of marijuana in California. This proposition was voted down with 54 percent voting No and 46 percent voting Yes. However with so many people using this drug and the potential money it could bring in being so high, why hasn't our government legalized marijuana yet?

Well there are always two sides to the story.

Lets explore marijuana's pros and cons before you decide what should be done about the drug. First off the pros, if the drug would be legalized then our police forces could focus their efforts on arresting more serious criminal offenders, such as rapists and murderers. With marijuana being an underground drug there is potential for the product to be tampered with before people use it, if legalized the FDA would be able to regulate the quality of the drug making it safer for people to use. Lastly, large drug cartels would ultimately lose business because states could cultivate their own plants. This could decrease drug related crimes and murders happening in our country.

Now the cons. Marijuana is often used by most people as a gateway drug to more dangerous drugs such as cocaine and heroine. Legalizing marijuana would also raise the amount of car accidents that occur while being high. This would also increase the likelihood of younger kids getting ahold of the drug at an earlier age similar to problems we face with alcohol nowadays.

With the pros and cons, what is your stance on the legalization of marijuana? Is there any hope for it being legalized in our country? Or is marijuana doomed to be forever illegal?

Leave the ghost hunting for late night

Television shows about chasing ghosts and evil spirits seem to be all over the television now. But how many of these shows are actually real? Are these so called ghost hunters actually encountering ghosts and spirits like they say they are? Or are they just acting for the part for the shows sake?
In my opinion these shows are completely fake and full of over dramatic acting by the hosts. And might I add that the acting is less than sub-par at best. Now I’m not debating the fact that the stories of the haunted houses and mental asylums aren’t true because they might be I just think that the shows are coming across as way to fake to be even somewhat believable. The hosts are constantly hearing so called voices which sound to me like gusts of wind or static on the microphone. Yet the hosts hear all sorts of threatening messages that seem so farfetched it just seems comical to me. These shows show no hardcore evidence that anything that they are experiencing is actually happening so I find it extremely hard to believe.

However I seem to be alone because there seems to be an uprising in ghost shows on television with the addition of Ghost Hunters on the SyFy channel and Ghost Adventures on the Travel Channel with prime time slots. I think that these shows should be left to late night television at best because they take away from time that should be spent on shows that actually entertain people.
Leave the ghost tours for people to experience first-hand and not through their television screens.

Tattoos for Teenagers

Teenagers are always looking for ways to express themselves. What better way to express yourself then a tattoo right? Well that’s the debate with many people nowadays whether or not teenagers should be able to get tattoos. In my opinion tattoos for teenagers are great, but only if they have true meaning to the person. Some people may argue that tattoos should wait until the person is older so they can truly develop a strong idea of who they are. According to some psychologists people usually solidify their self-identities between the ages of 21-23 so if teenagers are getting tattooed earlier then that then they may regret those decisions later.

However I believe that tattoos with meaning should be gotten if the teenager wants them. One of my friends got his first tattoo at 17 of his mother’s name with two cancer ribbons on either side which definitely has meaning and will for the rest of his life. On the contrary another friend of mine recently got a tattoo of M.O.E on the top of his hand. M.O.E stands for money over everything but will this saying really have enough meaning throughout his life to be kept on the top of his hand? I highly doubt this, especially when you’re older and much more mature then you are at eighteen.
So the question I leave you with is: should teenagers get tattoos? Are they mature enough to get something that will be meaningful for the rest of their lives?

New Jersey Takeover

Fake tans, blowout haircuts, high heels, and loud hairstyles these are just a few things that now being tied in with every person from New Jersey thanks to reality T.V’s recent obsession over New Jersey based show Jersey Shore. The show starting in 2009 brings together 8 people from the New Jersey area to live under one roof for a summer. The lives of Vinny, Angelina, Snooki, Ronnie, Pauly-D, Mike the Situation, Sammi, and J-Wow are put under the microscope being filmed all twenty four hours of the day. Not much else consumes the lives of these so called young adults other then eating, sleeping, and drinking.

This is where my problem with the show comes in; the people on this show get paid ludacris amounts of money for a show broadcasting their stupidity. Mike the Situation had made himself a teenage icon for simply being an arrogant and disrespectful person. Each member makes on average $30,000 per episode! This is more than the average high school teacher makes. Not to mention all the money made for making apperances at clubs which is supposedly around five to six thousand dollars per hour! All this money being thrown at these "guidos" for simply partying is wrong. I completely disagree with people being paid to party and act outrageous for entertainment.

Fantasy Football season is here...

Now that the NFL season has begun every average joe has started their own season. That season is fantasy football. Hands down, fantasy football is the most popular activity to partake in throughout the 6 months of the NFL season. Fantasy football is a game that turns the regular person into the owner/coach of their very own “fantasy teams”. Every fantasy football league has one draft at the beginning of the season where the members of the league pick their players before the actual NFL season starts.

Once the teams are set then the real fun begins; every week the coach of the team can choose which people to play and which sit the bench (players on the bench cannot gain points for their team). Teams go head to head against each other every weekend just like regular football teams and at the end of the regular season whichever team has the best record is deemed the champion.

However…

With all the hype about fantasy football, is it really that good? Granted you can take the reins of your own fantasy team and act as coach for the season, but in the end it is only fantasy and you are only acting as a coach. What do you think about fantasy football? Is it really worth the buildup or is it something that we can do without?

Maybe that gum won't stay in your stomach so long after all...

Growing up I’m sure most of your parents told you, “Don’t cross your eyes or they’ll stay like that!” or “You have to wait one hour before you can go swimming after you eat!” And like most people I’m sure you believed your parents when they told you these things. Well think again a recent article on CNN.com provides the proof that not only are these two myths wrong but so are ten others that every mom or dad has told their child.


Coming across this article was particularly eye catching to me because growing up I heard these sayings all the time, whether it be from my parents or my over protective grandparents. A bunch of things crossed my mind while reading about the truth behind the myths; why have these sayings been used for so long if there’s definite proof that they’re not true? Or was it perhaps that my parents just liked to watch me cringe when I ate my bread crust for the so called “vitamins” inside? Then I caught myself. I realized why they did pass on these sayings and that was for one reason, tradition. Just like my grandparents grew up hearing the sayings from their parents, my parents had to do the same, and just like my parents my brothers and I had to do the same. You could almost think of the sayings as a part of growing up, and even though they may not be true they’re always there to remind you of your childhood.


I thank my parents for telling me these sayings, even though they’re just myths, so I can pass them on to my children. Because it’s not always about what is being said but just the fact that you’re saying something. So next time someone tells you not to swallow your gum it’ll be in your stomach for seven years, just smile you know better.

Faithful Zeitoun

One of the passages that provoked me the most was when Zeitoun and his friends were imprisoned at Camp Greyhound. The part that intrigued me the most was how Eggers showed Zeitoun’s extreme faith in a time when most would give up.

When the prisoners of the camp were given their MRE’s and they contained pork Zeitoun wouldn’t eat them. I thought this was really amazing that after all the body checks and searches he still kept his faith. He still believed that God would overcome and help him get out of his horrible situation.

This passage was especially meaningful to me because of the underlying meaning of keeping your faith in what you believe no matter what the circumstances are. I’m a good example of this. Throughout my high school years I had to undergo two ACL reconstructions on the same knee, one in my sophomore year and one in my junior year. Being a soccer player these injuries were devastating to me, I thought my career was over for sure. But through strong faith and determination to reach my goals I came out of my surgeries better than ever. Now almost two years out of my surgeries I’m playing division one soccer at one of the top schools, athletically and academically, in the country.

My faith in myself and belief that I could make it through even the worst of circumstances relates to Zeitouns situation in New Orleans. Even though he was in terrible conditions with almost no hope left he persevered and made it through. Anyone can give up but not everyone can keep going when the road gets rough.