Every time I go to church, I hope to praise and worship God. I want to learn something new about my religion and leave feeling uplifting. I do not want to go to church and listen to my preacher talk about politics. I believe that churches should not speak about politics or endorse a certain candidate. I believe that by doing this, you may push away some of the members of the church. A church should be a welcoming place to anyone who wants to walk in. By talking about politics, it could mess up the openness of the organization. I hope that as the elections nears, that these religious organizations will take a stand by not discussing these candidates on the pulpit.

Palin links 9/11 to iraq

Governor Palin made a statement linking 9/11 to Iraq while giving a speech to soldiers bound to Iraq. This is a problem that is still carrying on today. There is no link between 9/11 and Iraq. We do know that Saddam Hussein was a horrible person, but he did not plan and carry out the attacks. President Bush once believed that Iraq was behind 9/11, but has come out and said this information was wrong. This just shows the inexperience that Governor Palin has with common foreign policy. Al-Qaeda was behind this attack and not the country of Iraq. This is just one of the reasons why I am against the start of the War in Iraq.

No Choice Palin

There is a lot of talk dealing with the choice of Governor Palin pulling some of the Hilary Clinton supporters her way. I don’t think that could happen because Governor Palin does not support women’s rights. She is totally against a woman’s right to choose what to do when she gets pregnant. Governor Palin is quoted saying that abortion should only happen if the mother’s life is in endangered. Palin also said that if her own daughter was raped, she would want her daughter to carry the baby to term. Governor Palin is strongly against having sex education in schools. She wants abstinence only sex education even though the statistics shows that abstinence education has no affect on the teens. This nation needs sex education in our schools. We need to have a dual abstinence and sex education program. This nation needs to teach our young people that you should wait to have sex, but if you do, use a condom. According to National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy, every day 10,000 U.S. teens contract a sexually transmitted disease, 2,400 get pregnant and 55 contract HIV. I believe that statistic alone should be the reason why every single school teaches sex education. I believe if we had more sex education, that the rate of abortion would drop. I think everyone would like to see that number drop. Vote for women rights, vote for Obama

When the troops donate

I believe that if you haven’t served in the war, you really don’t know what is happening over seas. We each have our own opinion about what should happen with the war. The troops are the only ones who know how the war is progressing. Recently, the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics did an analysis of campaign contributions made by troops who were overseas when they made there contributions. The analysis shows that the troops gave 6 times more to Barack Obama over John McCain. Even Ron Paul, who is anti-war, received four times more money then John McCain. As we all know, Obama wants to make a plan to withdraw most of the troops, and McCain does not want to withdraw the troops. I think it says a lot that the troops are giving money to a candidate who wants to pull the troops out and to another candidate who is totally anti-war. The troops know what is best for this country, and it seems like they think Barack Obama is right for this country. Obama 08!

Reading

Now that I am starting my junior year at MTSU, I understand why the school system made me read books when I was younger. Reading books is the best way to learn new words and to have fun while you do it. My mom forced me to read one of the Harry Potters book when I was younger. Since then, I have read all those book and I am now reading other books on my own. I hope that more parents are like mine, and make your kids read books, it will help them out in the long run. I am going to try to read atleast three books a semester, starting with Barack Obama's "The Audacity of Hope." So I hope that more young people will pick up a book, it could change your life

The Death Penalty

Here are some statistics about the death penalty:

Executions cost more then life sentences. It costs 2 million per person on death row vs. $500,000 per person that is sentenced to life.

The innocent could be executed. Since 1976, when the death penalty was reinstated, 82 inmates have been freed from death row. That is 1 person to be found innocent for every 7 executed.

The government says that killing someone is wrong, but the government is doing the exact same thing they say not to do. So the government is basically saying, “Do what I say, not as I do.”

So if you want the government to spend less money, you should be against the death penalty. It will save money, have fewer appeals, and save innocent lives.

Autism is real

I was shocked when I heard that syndicated talk show host Michael Savage said 99 percent of autism cases is a brat that hasn’t been told to cut the act out. I can’t believe that a man of his stature believes that autism is a fraud. Autism is very real, so real that 1 out of 150 people children are diagnosed with autism. Autism is a complex neurobiological disorder that typically lasts throughout a person's lifetime. It is part of a group of disorders known as autism spectrum disorders (autismspeaks.org). Last summer I worked with two autistic kids for four weeks. I can guarantee you that they were not brats who needed to cut the act out. These children had a real disorder, and needed help. On September 13, 2008, there will be a fundraising event at the Nashville Speedway. Walk Now for Autism is a family walk and fair to raise awareness about autism. Also, Walk Now for Autism is an event to raise money for the ongoing research on autism. I ask all of you to look up this event and walk to raise money. I will be there that day, and hope to see many or you there.