Thank You, Churchill Downs

These days, it is hard to find anything positive in the news, with all the shootings and partisan disagreements. In order to find good news, one must look past the headlines and scour the Internet for good news. After six painstaking hours of scanning the internet far and wide for some positive news, I found some at last: Churchill Downs, the sight of the Kentucky Derby, has banned the use of selfie-sticks on days with live racing. Although the true reasoning behind the ban is the safety issues that come along with selfie- sticks, I think this is a good idea for many reasons.

In my opinion, selfie-sticks are one of the worst things to happen to our society. Rather than enjoying an event, people are more worried about making sure other people know that they were at said event. While the ban does not keep people from taking selfies, it at least makes them a little less obnoxious. If I were looking through Twitter on the day of the Kentucky Derby, I would much rather see an actual picture of the race itself than of a bunch of people “watching” the race. The rise of the selfie-stick is just one more sign of our society’s increasing level of narcissism. So, I hugely thank the wonderful people of Churchill Downs for standing up against the selfie-stick.

http://nypost.com/2015/04/17/selfie-sticks-banned-at-kentucky-derby/

Yesterday, April 15, 2015, Aaron Hernandez was convicted of murder in the killing of Odin Lloyd. Just three years ago, Aaron Hernandez signed a five year contract worth $40 million to continue his career as a tight end for the New England Patriots of the National Football League. Although this is the most severe, it is just one of many major legal incidents involving NFL players in the past few years. Ray Rice punched his now wife in a nightclub elevator, getting him cut from his team and a one year ban from the league. Adrian Peterson hit his child for disciplinary reasons, getting him a one year ban from the league. Greg Hardy assaulted and threatened to kill his girlfriend, but the charges were dropped. Just a few months ago, the Dallas Cowboys signed Hardy to a one year contract worth $11 million, a very controversial move. All these major legal incidents taint the NFL’s image and brand.

The signing of Hardy by the Dallas Cowboys proves that NFL teams are willing to risk their image, and much more, to help their team win. In my opinion, the league is always going to have these type of issues, because of the type of person that excels at the game of football. Football is a rough sport, you need someone who is literally willing to go out and break bones, or have their own brain damaged. You must be a very violent person to be willing to do those things. Many NFL players have the ability to turn this violence off when they are not out on the field, but for the league’s image, all that matters is the small minority that can’t turn off their violence switch. In fact, the players previously mentioned account for only .24% of players on NFL rosters at any point during the season. That is a very minuscule amount, which begs the question: Does the NFL really have a violence problem? What do you think? 

http://www.latimes.com/sports/la-sp-hernandez-guilty-analysis-20150416-story.html#page=1

Should Tsarnaev Die?

Yesterday, Wednesday, April 8^th, was an important day in the trial of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, but it is not over quite yet. Tsarnaev was found guilty on all 30 counts against him, 17 of which make him eligible for the death penalty. Now, the defense and prosecution will continue to go back and forth, with Tsarnaev’s life on the line. According to CNN legal analyst Paul Callan, the defense is “climbing the Mount Everest of death penalty cases.” It is likely that Tsarnaev’s defense attorney, Judy Clarke, will point to the fact that Tsarnaev was radicalized by his older brother and was simply following his older brother’s lead.

This case is no longer a question of what happened, the facts are widely agreed upon. For me, it is a moral question of whether or not Tsarnaev deserves to die for what he did. On one hand, he intentionally killed and injured many people. The manhunt for he and his brother wreaked haven on the city of Boston and the surrounding area, and he instilled fear in a whole nation. The most important thing to me though, is the fact that he was only three years older than me, and living in a country where he felt out of place. While he knew fully what he was doing, he was doing it for reasons that he had been taught were real and just. In my opinion, as long as he doesn’t pose a threat to anyone in prison, a life sentence is enough. He still has way more than half of his life left, which is surely long enough to grow and reflect on what he did.

http://www.cnn.com/2015/04/08/us/dzhokhar-tsarnaev-next/index.html

Germanwings Flight 9525 Crash

Just a week ago, on March 24^th, Germanwings Flight 9525 crashed into the French Alps. The plane, traveling from Barcelona, Spain, to Dusseldorf, Germany, was carrying 150 people. There were no survivors of the crash. At first, aviation experts were confused as to why a plane would make such a quick, straight descent into the ground. Information from the flight cockpit voice recorder revealed a very harrowing truth; the co-pilot, Andreas Lubitz, had intentionally crashed the plane, in an apparent suicide mission. On the recording, you could hear the other pilot banging on the door to get in, as the co-pilot sat, breathing normally as he took the plane to the ground. In the following days, it was discovered that he had been deemed “unfit to work” by a doctor. The doctor had said he was not fit to do his job, because he was mentally unstable, possibly suffering from some type of depression. The airline never knew of this, because he had passed their initial tests at the time of his hiring, as well as other routine checks.

 

Workers sift through the wreckage, looking for the flight data recorder or other clues. 

Aside from the mental state of Lubitz, many are questioning how the system could let this happen. Why was there only one pilot in the cockpit and why isn’t that against the rules? It is believed the pilot probably left the cockpit to use the restroom or take care of a matter in the cabin. In the wake of this accident, new rules have been put in to place to prevent a similar future catastrophe. All European airlines must now make sure two pilots are in the cockpit at all times. That same rule has been in effect in the U.S. for quite some time now. As unfortunate as this horrible crash was, aviation will surely learn from it and improve, as it has with numerous accidents in the past.


http://www.cnn.com/2015/03/27/europe/france-germanwings-plane-crash-main/index.html