Don't Ask, Don't Tell

Gay rights are a controversial subject in itself, however when you add the army into this subject, the nation is in for a sticky situation. Last month Judge Virginia A. Phillips of Federal District Court said that the ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ law was unconstitutional.

The don’t ask, don’t tell law was implemented in 1993 when President Bill Clinton was in office. Designed to protect closet gays, don’t ask don’t tell or DADT was put in effect. While President Clinton thought he was doing the gay community a favor, there were a number of gay activists that thought otherwise saying that it is not okay to deny someone’s sexual orientation just for liability reasons. Furthermore, allegations that the military is willing to look past a future recruits sexual orientation when being able to recruit gets a little harder wrote Mark Thompson in a 2008 article titled ‘’Don’t ask Don’t tell’ turns 15’.

Two weeks ago Judge Phillips issued an injunction which required the military to stop enforcing the DADT law immediately. This is easier said than done however. President Barack Obama said “I agree with the basic principle that anybody who wants to serve in our armed forces and make sacrifices on our behalf, on behalf of our national security — anybody should be able to serve, and they shouldn’t have to lie about who they are in order to serve.” Obama also went on to say, “It has to be done in a way that is orderly, because we are involved in a war right now. But this is not a question of whether the policy will end. This policy will end, and it will end on my watch.” With Obama firmly taking a stand in for gay rights, it is without reasonable doubt that the law will disappear within due time.

When is a whole different ball park, the time frame is not yet set however. As stated, there is a way to go about changing the laws that have already been in effect for so long. With this being said, the law cannot be changed overnight without bumps along the road. Different steps must be taken so that everything goes smoothly.
Clifford L. Stanley, the undersecretary of defense for personnel and readiness, gives a list of rules that would have to be considered upon changing the law in the Obama Seeks A Stay on Don't Ask Don't Tell Ruling article by Charlie Savage including:

· Housing
· Benefits
· Re-accession
· Military equal opportunity
· Anti-harassment
· Standards of conduct
· Rights and obligations of the chaplain corps

Stanley goes on to say, “Amending these regulations would typically take several months”.
Taking the next step is in the hands of the government. Gay activists have been very vocal during this whole process and they are expected to keep up their voice to ‘speed along’ the momentum of getting the law changed. Being able to be oneself is a right that all American’s have. Whether they serve in the armed forces or not, hiding their identity should not be part of the description of being ones true self.

(other source used. picture from)

Alchol and Caffeine, a Mixture for Disaster

Caffeine itself is a powerful drug that is very addicting, however combine with alcohol it can be deadly. The combination of alcohol and caffiene is becoming more and more popular for college-aged crowd and other under-aged drinkers. A study done in 2008 by the Journal of American College Health concluded that 26% of surveyed public university undergraduates reported consuming energy drinks mixed with alcohol in the past month. The survey was done by Kathleen E. Miller, a research scientist at the Research Institute on Addictions at the State University of New York at Buffalo.
Now it is common to find drinks such as Four Loko on Liquor store shelves. Four Loko is an inexpensive beverage that comes pre-mixed with alcohol and is becoming increasingly available to the underaged crowd it is targeted to.
Since Four Loko comes pre mixed with caffeine and alcohol, sources say that it is even more harmful than just plain alcohol alone. Miller also said, "The caffeine stimulates the system while the alcohol depresses it, making students feel less drunk than they actually are."
Four Loko alone has been the cause of more than 20 student hospitalizations since fall semester started at Ramapo College in New Jersey. Officials for the University say that it is becoming more and more of a problem and intend to get the drinks banned from surrounding bars. Although they know that it is nearly impossible, they have to begin somewhere.
Ramapo officials are making other efforts to curb the consumption of alcoholic energy drinks. They have increased after hours security measures in residence halls, tightening visitor policies and holding student focus groups according to the USA TODAY story.
College campus' across the United States should look out and take precautions on their own terms. Waiting for more of the same accidents to happen on more campus' would simply be ignorant because the evidence is overwhelming. This trend needs to be stopped in its tracks before more students are hurt by the harmful effects of such a drug.

Alchol Awareness Week at BSU

While in past years the theme of Alcohol Awareness Week was more-so to abstain from alcohol, this week's theme was slightly different.
Mike Gillilan, director of Student Rights and Community said, "This year, we're not saying to not drink or even to not drink illegally, while we certainly don't condone that. We want people to not get hurt."
Letting students and faculty know about the harm that alcohol can do to you is always a purpose, but this year it was more important to encourage safety is a top priority also.
The week of events consisted of activities everyday, to promote awareness and to provide more information to students. Some of the activities consisted of golf carting through the Quads while wearing drunk goggles, Alcohol tic-tac-toe, as well as seeing how alcohol would affect someone via a virtual bar on a laptop.
The virtual bar was the last of the events held. After putting in your gender and weight, students were allowed to drink as many ‘virtual’ drinks as they wanted. They then proceeded to guess what they thought their BAC, blood alcohol content, would be. Gillian said, “It is neat to have students guess and think what they think their BAC will be after a drink. It also helps them think, 'OK, I can have two drinks before I hit the legal limit to drive, but if I have three, I will be above .08.'"
There were also multiple showings of the film “Tell Me Something I Don’t Know” throughout the night. The short film was a story about a student from a Massachusetts Institute of Technology who died of alcohol poisoning at a fraternity initiation event in 1997.
The week of activities were able to promote awareness and encourage safety among not only students the attend Ball State, but also students in general.

Elementary School Shooting

A gunman arrived at Kelly Elementary School in Carlsbad Calif. and opened fire injuring two children.

Witnesses said around noon, the gunman jumped a fence and began to shoot into a crowd of children playing on the playground. After running out of ammunition, he was then chased and restrained by witnesses until the police arrived.

Looking out his bedroom window, Terry Lynn saw the whole scene. "I saw a guy walking across the field with a handgun, shooting randomly into the crowd of children," he told a local news station. "I immediately screamed, 'No, no!'"

Right away Lynn got in his car to drive to the school to help. Upon arrival he witnessed what appeared to be construction workers running after the gunman. Lynn assisted in subduing the gunman.

Although two children were injured, the injuries were minor. The two children were taken by plane to Rady Children's Hospital, were they will be treated for minor grazes'. Witnesses say they saw one of the children wave to onlookers.


source article

Shooting at University of Texas

Shots rang out tuesday morning ending in one fatality. A 19-year-old gunman, Colton Tooley, began shooting between eight and 10 shots a little after 8 a.m..

While this act was seemingly random, this is not the first shooting in the University of Texas' history. In August of 1966 Charles Whitman killed 14 and wounded 32 others.

Decades later history is repeated, however this time, there is a different outcome. There are no reports of any injuries caused by Tooley and some think new technology is to thank for that.

Numerous texts and emails went out to students, faculty, and staff warning them of the shooter. After the Virginia Tech massacre in 2007, several universities and colleges adopted text and email alerts to send warnings out.

Although Tooley was found dead on the sixth floor of the Perry-Castaneda Library UTPD ended that afternoon after concluding that he acted alone.

"The university canceled classes for the day as law enforcement officers patrolled the campus with dogs searching for suspects and explosives. Police and university officials locked down the campus for several hours and early afternoon issued an all clear." - Associated Press

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