Supreme Court Revisits Renewing Voting Rights Act

The last time the Supreme Court revisited the Voting Rights Act and renewed it was in 2006. Now in 2013, they are reviewing at it again. A lot of individuals and states are complaining that we should not need the Voting Rights Act in 2013. What this Act initially did in 1965, passed by former president Lyndon Johnson, was to rid of barriers Southern states especially would create to prevent Blacks form voting. Even after black men could vote by 1870, via the 15th Amendment, Southern states weren't having it so they created barriers such as poll taxes and literacy tests. These were forms of blatant discrimination, that helpless, powerless blacks could do nothing about, so the Voting Rights Act abolished these discriminatory barriers. The Act also provided and still provides that any time a state wants to change regulations surrounding the way they conduct voting, they must first consult with the federal government.
If the Supreme Court does not renew this, the outcome may not look very good for minorities, Democrats and maybe even women. If the Voting Rights Act is allowed to expire or is lawed no longer relevant, individual states can shorten the time period for early voting, which Democrats usually take advantage of and they may also require photo id to be shown at the polls.
What do you think? Should the Supreme Court renew the Voting Rights Act, or let it expire? Do you believe that states will/will not go back to instilling discriminatory barriers in any kind of way such as shortening the early voting period and enforcing photo ids to be shown?
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-18563_162-57570996/voting-rights-act-faces-supreme-court-challenge/

Emmett Till: Lil Wayne Makes Terrible Rap Reference, Family Responds by Letter

Am I shocked to hear this? No...but it's quite disheartening. So Lil Wayne made a degrading reference in one of his rap lyrics to Emmett Till saying, "Beat that p---- up like Emmett Till."Emmettt Till's family wrote a powerful open letter in response to this lyric, but before I get into the letter let me just share the significance of Emmett Till's story for those who do not know. At the innocent age of 14, Emmett from Chicago was visiting some family in Mississippi. (Mississippi was known for it's extreme racism and ranked among one of the Southern States during the Jim Crow Era with one of the highest rates of hangings of black folk.)
Emmett was accused of whistling/flirting with a white woman. At night two white men came to his home, dragged him to a barn and beat him till his death and until he was unidentifiable. They gouged out one of his eyes, shot him in the head and disposed of his body in the Tallahatchie River. The salt in the river caused his face and body great swelling. When his body was found, it was returned to his mother in Chicago. She demanded a public funeral and for his casket to remain open so people would witness would had been done to this poor, young man.
Pictures of his disfigured face were posted in many newspapers and magazines, and it noted as a pivotal point in the fight for Civil Rights!
So here we are in 2013, with pea brain, knuckle head rappers, making nonchalant references and even worse sexual innuendoes in reference to a most tragic, grieving moment for blacks in America suppressed by Jim Crow and the Ku Klux Klan. They took the lyric from the original song, but here's some of what Emmett Till's family had to say in their open letter...
"...not only are you destroying the preservation and legacy of Emmett Till’s memory and name, but the impact of his murder in black history along with degradation of women.
It is critical that we stay true to urgency of the hour… our youth! Your “celebrity” thrusts you into the spotlight affording you the opportunity to embrace your role as a black man, father, friend, and artist that has the ability to reach international audiences. Are you bothered in the least by the staggering statistics of the extinction of our children?" --Huffington Post
They ask is he bothered, the unfortunate answer is no....because I believe he's part of the Illuminati and that evil entity has no regard for being respectful and considerate. It's all about the money, fame and brainwashing minds. You may believe that this entity is make believe and that it's ideologies are too extreme to possibly be real, but whether he is or he isn't, as well as other modern day rappers...what kinds of messages are they promoting? One thing's for sure...most of their messages aren't positive.

Overachievers, The Motivation to Succeed

"People with high achievement motivation have a strong desire to master tasks, and they experience great satisfaction when they achieve success.

Psychologists believe that people with high achievement motivation tend to set challenging, but realistic goals for themselves and they are willing to take risks to achieve those goals.

They experience intense satisfaction from success, but are not discouraged by failure if they feel they have tried their best." Bedford/St. Martin's Exercise Central for AP Style

Interesting Facts About Juries in Capitol Crime Cases

WOW, OK...so I am doing English grammatical exercises on Exercise Central for AP Style and I'm trying to figure out where to place commas in each sentence only to realize that this grammatical exercise is actually teaching me about the process of selecting a jury. It says that when a case is taking place, dealing with a capital crime, the judge and lawyers can screen out potential jurors who are opposed to the death penalty. I kind of knew this because I remember my grandmother telling me that when you are called to jury duty, they ask you a series of questions. They generally don't like if you are particularly biased about anything such as religion, death penalty etc. They may prefer to select a non-opinionated, non-religious person, because I guess to them this means that the trail will be more fair?!
So the exercise goes on to say that minorities and women are two groups who are generally more in opposition to the death penalty and are therefore inevitably excluded from being on the jury...and they look up and their jury "contains a disproportionate amount of white men." Isn't that something? So much for trying to prevent bias...LOL
The Supreme Court has deemed that it is of course illegal to discriminate against jurors on the basis of race, but THEY CAN death-quality their jurors, which means they can choose to exclude people who are against the death penalty which inevitably "eliminates many of people of color from the jury pool." "However, some legal experts are concerned that death-qualifying a jury, can lead to wrongfully convictions, which in turn means the execution of innocent people."And haven't we seen this many of time in our legal system? Hhhmmm. There's my legal lesson for the day...yeah, grammatical and legal lessons all wrapped into one!

Another Birthday, Turning 20

I've been getting a little taste of what it means to be in the public eye...When you're personal information is visible to anyone who has a computer and a Google search engine (lol, If you have a computer you have this anyway) it's automatically up for scrutiny...not that I didn't understand that in the beginning, but I am seeing it now more than I have ever before. But I will say that though it's not always to be desired, I appreciate constructive criticism because it helps me to become better...however, how one person may perceive something, another person may perceive a totally different way, so then what do you do? lol Well, I say use your best judgement. Considering that I am only a sophomore in college, I will likely see this even more before I graduate. The other day when out to eat with family, a group of teenagers recognized me from tv...lol. CRAZY! My birthday is February 17th and I'm turning 20...I promise you that every birthday after my 17th, I stopped getting excited. I truly miss the excitement of knowing that your family's going to treat you extra nice that day and you know at the end of the day you'll be greeted with a delicious cake that bares your name in addition to tons of wonderful new gifts.
Two of my motivations are giving back but also trying to climb up out of poverty/struggle...tell me how does that work, lol. If I can do this before I graduate I will truly be "The Master of my fate and the captain of my soul!" No matter how vague or distant it may seem, America still allows us a gleam of hope that we can make it in this world, and make it big. My concern is not the fame, but yes, I'd like to be able to be independent and take care of my family, but then again, who doesn't want this?
Anyways, I'm taking everything one step at a time. Praying that the Lord leads me every step of the way. I've been trying to improve my health and get in shape (not that i'm unhealthy but there's always room for improvement right?). Still drinking veggie juices and going to Zumba, I've lost a few inches, but nothing drastic yet...it's only been a month or so, so I just need to be more patient. There are a lot of fundraisers I'm having to prepare for this year, on top of 18 credits, in addition to extra curriculars so you could say my schedule is jam packed, but I'm nevertheless grateful.
Enough of my blabbering  just giving an update.
Happy... birthday....to...me?