It's Not a Trip or Vacation It's a Second Life...

Why did you decided to become an exchange student? This is the question that I was asked most since I’ve been in the United States. My answer can be really long. Being an exchange student was an opportunity that I’ve got lucky to get. Although I had to go through many exams, interviews and months of waiting for information, this is an opportunity that everyone else would wish to get. By applying for FLEX (Future Leaders Exchange) program (Click here for more information about the program), I was just trying to check my English knowledge. I didn’t even have an idea that I might become a finalist and get the opportunity to come to the United States. I’ve been waiting about 6 months to know information about if I passed the program or no. I can’t even described my happiness when I finally got the long waited call telling me that I’ve become a FLEX finalist and I’m going to do an exchange year in United States, live in American host family and go to AMERICAN HIGH SCHOOL.

It’s a dream of every student in my country (and not only) to get a chance to attend American High School. It’s an example of perfect education and also something that we could’ve only seen in the movies. I know that this sounds really funny for most of my American friends, but it’s true.

    After knowing that I’d become a FLEX finalist, it was the time for me and my parents to make the decision. Although it’d always been dream to me to live in the United States, it was the time to think more deeply and make responsible decision. I’m very thankful to my parents that they supported my dream and let me come to the United States.

   

Finally I made that step and now I’m in the United States. But not everything worked easy for me. I had some difficulties at first but I overcame everything due to my friends, teachers, and of course my host family. Living thousands miles away from family was not easy, but leaving my loved people back to Armenia brought me many new experiences that I won’t change with anything else. I became self-confident, independent and ready to overcome any difficulties.

     The time has flight, and I realize that I’ve got only a month left in the United States. I don’t even want to think about the day that I’ll have to say goodbye to my friends and host family here. I had such a great experience in U.S., and I’m going to miss every second of being here. I feel like that I’ve been living in Langford all my life. This is a great community to live and also perfect for every exchange student.

     I can talk endless about my experience and how much I’m going to miss Langford and it’s people but I’m just going to end this by saying that I enjoyed every second of being here and I’ll never forget this wonderful year of my life. 

    

                                Flat tax or Progressive tax?

 While everyone is debating about, whether the flat tax is fairer than the progressive tax, I think that the taxes are not fair, overall. People are working really hard to earn money, so why should they pay a big part of their own money to government, when government has no role in making that money? It doesn’t matter if the person is rich or poor, either way they work hard to earn the money that they have.  

     In the United States there is a progressive tax, which is a tax that takes a larger percentage from the people who earn more money; and lower percentage from the people who have lower income. According to the flat tax there is the same tax rate for all taxpayers.

      Some people think that it is not fair to tax rich and poor people with the same rate of tax. I think it’s fair and it’s equal for everyone. In this article it says that for example if a person earned $50,000 a year and another earned $300,000 a year, both would pay 17 percent of their income to the government. I think this system is fair or everyone. People claim that if a person is rich that he/she should pay taxes with more tax rate.

      But who said that it’s that easy to become rich, expect to the situations when people just get wealth from their parents. People actually worked hard to earn the money and be rich, so they deserved to control their own money. I think that government should just tax people equally, letting rich people to manage their own money. If people think that they have more than enough money they can send it to charity, so they can also know that their money is actually used or a good reason. 

                               1915...NEVER AGAIN

     

 

      100 years have passed since the day that the Armenian Genocide began. Armenian Genocide was committed by Ottoman Empire. This human disaster still remains in a memory of every Armenian. No matter gender, age and believes every Armenian recognizes the Armenian Genocide and demands justice. Such massacred happened in a world history many times, but most of the time the countries that had been committed such crime, recognized what they’ve done and apologized for it. Turkey, instead of facing their history keeps denying what happened in 1915 and claims that the deaths were part of a civil conflict triggered by WW1.

     As Turkish government doesn’t want to recognize the Armenian Genocide, the main goal of all Armenians is to make the whole world to know about the Armenian Genocide and recognize it. Only 22 countries have recognized the Armenian Genocide. The United States is one of the world’s most powerful countries and it’s really important that the US recognized the events of  1915 as Genocide.
  

  After Genocide Armenians spread all over the world, and there is really big Armenian communities in United States. During his campaign President Obama promised Armenian communities that, as being elected the president of the United States he would officially recognize the Armenian Genocide.

     After being elected, Obama is giving speech every year on April 24 about the Armenian Genocide. In his speeches Obama says that events of 1915 are “one of the worst atrocities of the 20th century.” Since his presidency Obama never used the word “Genocide”, instead he calls it “Meds Yeghern” (which is Armenian term of “Great Calamity”).

     Obama’s careful wording is understandable but not really acceptable. He does it because United States is allied with Middle East affair. Of course, Obama doesn’t want to have bad relations with Turkey, because Turkey is big and rich country and by avoiding the much-feared word Obama has pleased ally in Ankara.

     On Sunday, April 12, Pope Francis described the mass killing of Armenians under Ottoman rule in WW1 as "Genocide", which of course, provoked Turkish government, and they even called the Turkish ambassador in Vatican, back to Turkey. This step by Pope has really significant meaning for Armenians. This event can be a great example for Obama and other country leaders to do the same. 

  

   Towards to the 100^th anniversary of Armenian Genocide the most discussing question in Armenia, right now is “Will Obama say the word “Genocide” on April 24?” If he would say the word “Genocide” it would mean a lot for Armenians, but in my opinion he would not say it, because he doesn’t want to provoke a big and rich country like Turkey.

    No matter how many years will pass, Armenians are going to remember the 1915 and demand recognition. Turkish government needs to face every shadow they denied and recognize the historic events.   

NOTHING WILL BE FORGOTTEN...NO ONE WILL BE FORGOTTEN.   

            Agriculture Industry in the U.S. and the Soviet Union

The main goal of Joseph Stalin was to transfer the agriculture of Soviet Union form individual farms into a system of large state collective farms. He believed that collectivization would improve agricultural productivity. One of the Stalin’s goals was the rapid industrialization, which he achieved by forced collectivization, but it harmed people a lot. People worked hard but they didn't get the profit that they made, so it made them not to work as hard as they did before.

     The United States’ agriculture during the same period of time was quite different. There was capitalism in the US which means that they were lot of private owned businessmen and farmers. This method was more profitable. People worked hard and they got the profit that they made, which made them work harder and harder and develop the economy. 
                                                
                                                 The Korean War

     One of the most important goals of United States during the Cold War was to prevent the spread of communism in other countries. This policy was called Containment. According to Containment United States found it important to help all the countries that were oppressed by communism, and needed help. That’s why United States entered into Korean War. The Containment Policy gave United States a reason to intervene other wars, which involved communism. The United States used this policy not for just fighting for democracy, but for its own interest, which created many casualties and economic issues and also was highly criticized. 

                                                    The Red Scare

     The Second “Red Scare” in the Unites States occurred during the Cold War. The major fear of the United States population and the President Truman was the spreading of the Communism. The Democratic United States had concerns that Communists might work as Soviet spies in United States. That was the main reason that President Truman issued Executive Order, according to which all federal employees had been analyzed to determine whether they were loyal to the government. One of the efforts to investigate communist activities was called House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC). HUAC’s investigations were focused on Communists working inside the federal government and in the Hollywood film industry. Movie executives created blacklists that barred suspected radicals from employment. The same thing happened in other industries. 

     

                Richard Nixon's Presidency

     Over 30 years has past till Richard Nixon’s presidency but he is still remembered as one of the scandalous presidents of the United States. Nixon became 37^th president of the Unites States in 1969. He was well respected but not very likable. Nixon was highly intelligent. He is also famous for being very good public speaker. Nixon surrounded himself with only trusted people. One of the people that Nixon trusted most was Henry Kissinger, who was his national security advisor than he became Secretary of State.

     Richard Nixon was really good politician and he had many successes on his foreign policy. One of the most important successes of Nixon’s foreign policy can be considered the fact that he took the United States out of the Vietnam War, by keeping Americans out of the danger.

     Another very important thing that Nixon has done was to improve relations between the United States and the Soviet Union. After years of bad relationship between the Soviet Union and the United States Nixon established a policy of Détente, which focused on weapon limitations and peace between two nations. Nixon’s visit to Moscow became the first time that the leaders of two nations met each other in Moscow. Nixon also made another very important trip to China. Later U.S recognized the government of the People’s Republic of China. American Ping-Pong team, by accepting China’s invitation to visit PRC became the first Americans to be allowed into communist China since Chinese Civil War.

    During Israel’s War against Arabs, America, by the order of President Nixon, highly supported Israel, not only military but also politically. This event had really serious consequences on American economy. Because of America’s support to Israel, Arab nations declared that they would not sell oil to the United States anymore. This was the first time that Arab nations would use economy as a political weapon.

     Despite all the success and failures that Richard Nixon had on his foreign policy, while talking about him people still first mention his involvement in Watergate Scandal. On 17 June 1972, 5 men were arrested while trying to bug the headquarters of the Democratic Party inside of Watergate building. One of the men arrested was the head of security for the Republican Party, James McCord.

      Nixon kept denying his involvement in Watergate scandal but finally on 27 July 1974, The House Judiciary Committee approved Articles of Impeachment against Richard Nixon. Nixon thought that the Senate would not vote to remove him, but when the so called “smoking gun tape” became public, Nixon realized that he would not survive the vote in the Senate. So, on 9 August 1974, Richard Nixon resigned, becoming the first American president to resign. Although 30 government officials went to prison for their role in Watergate, Richard Nixon was not one of them. After becoming a president Gerald Ford gave Nixon a full Pardon.

     Watergate events also had moral impact on population. People started not to trust politicians as much as they did before.

     I think that Richard Nixon has done many important things for U.S. that should always be mentioned, and one thing I’m pretty sure that he should not be remembered as the worst presidents of United States. He has done a lot for the United States and he deserves respect.

                         WW2 Massacres

WW2 is considered one of the bloodiest pages of the world’s history. Events like the Holocaust and the Nanking Massacre has occurred during WW2. The Holocaust is considered the biggest massacre during WW2; it was the systematic persecution and murder of six million Jews by Nazi Regime. Another huge massacre during WW2 occurred in Nanking, China by Japanese Army forces.

Although doctors are called to cure, protect and take care of people, during these horrific events in both of the countries two doctors were famous for using people as a lab rats to experience new things. Those “doctors” were Josef Mengele from Germany and Shiro Ishii from Japan.  Josef Mengele became known as the ‘Angel of Death’, in charge of huge numbers of fatal and brutal medical experiments which killed over 400 000 victims. Shiro Ishii was the commander of Unit 731; his strategy was to develop biological weapons which would assist the Japanese army's invasion of south-east China.

     The way that those two doctors had acted is just unforgivable and there is nothing that can justify this kind of inhuman and terrible events.

     Both of those crimes are equally brutal and horrific, but the organizers weren't punished equally. While Josef Mengele had to hide during rest of his life, all the scientists at Unit 731 were freed and allowed to continue their careers. The reason was that Japanese were allowed to erase Unit 731 from the archives, by American government, which wanted to use it for itself.

     Germany atoned for its war crimes but japan has been able to deny the evidence of Unit 731. But denying of the history doesn't mean that it didn't happen. Some nations are just too scared to recognize their own crimes. Even after all that has happened I respect Germany and German people because they found courage in themselves to recognize the crimes they have done. Such massacres are huge crimes but the denials of those are even worse, it can make the history repeat itself. 

      Yesterday, on  February 4th my government class with teacher Mr. Reints went to Pierre, which is the capital of South Dakota. We have had a really long trip but everything was awesome and we learnt a lot. We have been in the state capitol and met the representatives from our district. One of the most exciting parts of our trip was that we had a really good conversation with our district’s representatives.  We also got chance to participate of State Affairs Committee meeting. It was very interesting to be there and see how everything that we learn in our government class is actually happening. We have also got chance to be in House of Representative’s session, say the Pledge of Allegiance with South Dakota representatives and see how  they are voting. 

     While looking at the pictures of all representatives and Senators, we have found a picture of representative from Langford, who has been representative more than one hundred years ago. It was exciting too.

     So, although the trip was really long and all of us were tired we had lots of fun. I’m so happy that I’ve got this chance to be in South Dakota State capitol. It’s going to be one of the best parts of my exchange year.

                                                                 Capitalism

    There are two types of socioeconomic systems: capitalism and socialism. Capitalism means free-market competition, private or corporate ownership of production and distribution, and personal responsibility. Capitalism produces innovation and variety in the marketplace with high-quality goods and services at reasonable prices.

     Socialism means that a few people, those with political and economic power, are in control of production and distribution. Socialism results in stagnation, limited goods and services, low quality, fixed prices, and dependence on the government.

     The establishment of capitalism was a time of upheaval and bitter struggles between new and old power-brokers. At the same time, the mass of the population were dragged unwillingly into an increasingly violent conditioning process. The new capitalists needed to be able to exert ever more pressure on their producers to produce more for less, so that the capitalists could maintain trading prices and increase profits. They looked to the state to ensure pressure was brought to bear on workers who, for the first time, were being forced to sell their labor in an increasingly competitive work environment, which was itself aggravated by the swollen ranks of the new landless and unemployed.

     A look at the history of the economic and social conditions that pre-dates the industrial revolution shows that capitalism arose from the systematic breakdown of feudalism as a social and economic system and the imposition of a wage labor system in its place. Capitalism soon spread to Europe, and to the rest of the world.

     The coming of capitalism has also brought with it the potential for workers to organize for change. Though capitalism brought with it untold misery, ordinary people were far from passive victims in the face of exploitation. Instead, they sought to resist capitalism, giving birth to the idea of an alternative world, free from exploitation and misery.

     Capitalism helps the economy to grow, rewards people on their successes, and incentivizes individuals to work hard. The free market competition allows only superior produce to exist in the market and for this, everybody has to work hard for survival which ultimately leads to better performance. On the other hand in socialism you get.

John Adams has been always remembered not only as the second president of America but also as a great philosopher. One of his quotes about Democracy states that democracy never lasts long. Adams claims that democracy soon wasters, exhausts and murder itself. He largely believes that there was never a democracy that did not commit coincide. Adams was very smart politician and his experience and knowledge about other countries caused these words. He knew about other countries which had tried this system of democracy and most of the time it failed. Many countries had turned to other government systems.

     John Adams says that democracy is more bloody than either aristocracy or monarchy. And I agree with this idea. Democracy isn’t given just for free. People needed to fight for it and as every fight it took thousands of lives.

      Democracy is a great system of government and I think that no matter what it is better that monarchy, when only one person governs the country and other people don’t have right to make decisions. But democracy makes everything harder, because different people have different views about specific issues, which sometimes can cause arguments.

     US is one of the countries that has democracy system for many years, but personally I think that it’s not the real democracy.    A real democracy is a direct and participatory democracy, in which all citizens have the possibility and the right to participate in the decisions that affect their lives and their communities.

     Today, democracy is equated with representative government based on free elections of political elites that rule on the citizens’ behalf. In old democracies of Europe the streets were full of people protesting against brutal policies that were forced to them. In real democracy the all power is given to citizens. In US and in many “Democratic” countries decisions are made by a few leaders. But, according to real democracy political decisions should be made by all citizens living in that country. Government took control of everything. All that people do is to vote and elect representatives, and representatives not always make decisions that people wanted to.

 John Adams had a great political experience that’s how he foresaw the future of America. His words were real and the same tells us the world history. The same thing has happened to other democratic countries.

I would say that United States is so lucky to still have this system, but it still doesn't work how it supposes to work.

 The assassination of Archduke Francis Ferdinand ignited World War I. However, it wasn’t the main reason of World War I. There were other causes such as imperialism, militarism, nationalism, and a tangled system of alliances. Two kinds of nationalism contributed to World War I. The first was the tendency for country such as the great power to act in their own national interest. The second kind of nationalism occurred in countries with diverse ethnic populations those in central and eastern Europe.

Militarism involved aggressively building up a nation’s armed forces in preparation for war and giving the military more authority over the government and foreign policy. The great powers of Europe spent large sums of money on new weapons and warship for expending their armed forces. Their planning for war made war much more likely.

A system of alliances developed among the nations of Europe during the late nineteenth century. Germany and Austria-Hungary were linked by treaty, as were Russia and France. Great Britain and France shared a looser alliance called Entente. One week after the war started, all the great power of Europe had been drawn into it. The conflict divided them into two sides. Germany and Austria made up the Central Powers. Russia, France, Serbia, and Great Britain were called the Allies.

     The American government protested  the actions of both sides and tried to act as peacemaker.  American business leaders welcomed the proclamation of neutrality, but those who had strong commercial ties with Great Britain urged that United States get ready for war. They wanted their country to help Great Britain if necessary.  So United States had no other choice than to be prepared to go to war.

The Constitution immediately establishes a bicameral legislature- that is, one made up of two houses. It had historical, practical, and theoretical reasons. One of the historical reasons was the fact the British Parliament had consisted of two houses since the 1300s and the Farmers knew the British system of bicameralism quite well. The other reason is practical. Bicameralism is a reflection of federalism. Each of the States is equally represented in Senate. The third reason of bicameral legislature was theoretical. The farmers favored a bicameral Congress in order that one house might act as a check on the other. In my opinion the bicameral legislature was very important. It was a way to diffuse the power of Congress and so prevent it from overwhelming the other two branches of government. It also has a huge impact on politics today.

            Does anybody have right to torture?

 

Lately the whole media is covered of news about torture of suspected terrorist at CIA's 'Salt Pit' prison. As I read in this article the first detainee interrogated in the old abandoned brick factory north of Kabul became the model for what would later unfold in the cave-like halls of a CIA interrogation facility known as the "Salt Pit." Suspected terrorists, often were left alone in the shadows, under a barrage of shrieking music, cold, shackled and hooded. Some senior leaders in the factory did not have the linguistic or analytical experience to conduct effective questioning of CIA detainees and the result was diminished intelligence.

After reading this article I thought that nothing else can surprise me about this. But then I read another article which tells about that The United States government paid two military psychologists $80 million to develop torture tactics that were used against suspected terrorists. Even if one could get past the repulsive idea of paying someone to come up with new ways to torture people, the huge amount of taxpayer dollars spent on two individuals is simply unacceptable, especially when they didn’t seem to “invent” anything. So, basically US government paid millions of dollars for nothing. Couldn’t they spend that money for making better living conditions for US citizens instead of paying non-professional people to develop torture tactics. 

Here is one more article that I read about torturing.

This torturing is being done to know more information about Al Qaeda. I think that this torturing can’t have any excuse and the torturers should be convicted. Some people think that “they are terrorists, and they deserve it”, but I’ll say NO. No one deserves being tortured. In my opinion these people who torture terrorists are not better than they. If they require terrorists not to terrorize and torture, do they have right to do the same thing with them? I think that they can use better and more civilized methods to know the information they need. 

    

                             MUCKRAKING

          Muckraking is the action of searching out and publicizing scandalous information about famous people in an underhanded way. Muckraking is considered an early form of investigative journalism. In the early 1900’s before World War I, muckrakers reported on topics concerning crime, politics and corruption in society and were often considered watchdogs. Muckraking is considered an early form of investigative journalism. In the early 1900’s before World War I, muckrakers reported on topics concerning crime, politics and corruption in society and were often considered watchdogs. They revealed scandal among the government and important issues that led to reform. The news today is constantly filled with stories of scandal in the government in politics. Journalists and reporters indulge in different types of reporting, especially investigative journalism and have turned into modern day muckrakers.

    After long research, I’ve found a muckraking article, written by one of “McClure’s” magazine’s journalists. It has been written on February 10^th, 2014. This article attracted my attention from first words. The article’s title is “The Real Story of Slavery”. The author start his article talking about that mentioning the word ‘slavery’ most people think of the American South from the 1600s to 1800s but according to black historian Henry Louis Gates Jr., of the nearly 12 million Africans shipped across the Atlantic, only 388,000 were bound for the United States. Yet as history is told, and widely believed, the United States was the demon of the world, and is held in contempt alone for this shameful period of history.
           In author’s conviction slavery was not an American problem. It was a worldwide epidemic. Throughout history, people have been enslaved because they were vulnerable, not because of the way they looked. For most of history Europeans enslaved other Europeans, Asians enslaved other Asians, Africans enslaved other Africans.
     The author insists that it’s forgiven for student of American history to believe that Abraham Lincoln freed the slaves because American education system provides wrong ideas. The worldwide evil of slavery did not come to the end because one man made a speech. Instead there were longer processes at work. It was Africans who enslaved their fellow Africans, selling some to Europeans, some to Arabs, and keeping the majority for themselves. West Africa was a slave-trading region before, during, and after Europeans arrived.  It was primarily the British, who became the destroyers of slavery not only in Europe, but in Africa, Asia, the Middle East, and everywhere else. The people who began this movement were conservative religious activists—people who today would be called the “religious right.”
     The author has also mentioned that blaming Western Culture, or America, or even racism, for slavery can only be done in complete ignorance of history. Unlike the African slaves who were at least released onto dry land, these ‘white slaves,’ were often chained to their ships or the rest of their lives.

The reason that this article has been written is to destroy people’s wrong ideas about slavery and its history. Some people still think that the slavery was America’s problem but the author assures with his facts that the slavery was a worldwide epidemic.

   

                                                       Taking Chance

  Recently in our history class we watched the movie “Taking Chance”   that grabbed
my heart in the first few minutes like no other film I’ve seen recently.  This movie quickly became one of my favorites, it truly brought me to tears.

     “Taking Chance” is a movie based on real-life events. This movie has no plot, no outward dramatic conflict.  The movie is about Lt Michael Strobl, a volunteer military escort officer, who accompanies the body of 19-year-old Marine Chance Phelps , back to his hometown. Chance was killed in Iraq while protecting his friends from enemy fire. Michael Strobl says goodbye to his wife and children and embarks on the journey.

     The filmmakers show us in striking detail many of the little rituals that are part of the larger procedure, from the gentle cleansing of the dead man’s fingers to the fastening of a bar-code tag to the black body bag.

     Rendering honor is one of the film's themes, and also one of its singular accomplishments. 

     Along the way, we saw the respect, the dignity, and the honor rightly given to fallen heroes. One of the good points of the movie is that not only people from military showed respect to killed hero but also all citizens not matter their age, sex or race.

     The movie teaches us enormous respect for the military uniform. It teaches us to love and honor those young men and women who gave the ultimate sacrifice for us. They give their lives to make us live in peaceful and safe environment. The only thing that we can give them back is the love and enormous respect.

     The movie shows the incredible gift that goes back to those who serve others without  recompense. The way Michael Strobl showed such honor and the enormous respect showed by ordinary Americans for his service and the dead soldier he was escorting was deeply touching.

     19-year-old Chance who was killed on the war is only example from thousands of victims. I think that all of us have stories of people who didn’t come back from war. They are going to war not even thinking about their own lives.

     How many of us would leave their families at the age of 19 and would join the army? I’m sure that not all of us would be brave and patriot enough to endanger our own lives to serve and make other people, living in our country, live under peaceful sky. But now we live in peace and we have to respect and honor them who make that peace for us. We should not honor only those who died in war but also those who now serve on army and put their life in danger to protect us.

     I think that one of the reasons that this movie touched me deeply is dangerous situation in my country’s border. 18-year-old boys are joining the army knowing about the forthcoming danger. Not only killed solders’ families mourn for their lost but the whole nation. Every soldier means so much for us and we respect and honor them all.

     Seeing people with military uniform make fill enormous respect. They expose themselves to inconceivable dangers under conditions of enormous hardship and fight because they want to keep the country safe. We owe them respect and gratitude - even if we think the wars they’re asked to fight are sometimes wrong.

     When his own mission is over, Michael Strobl says "I didn't know Chance Phelps before he died, but today, I miss him." Just like that we don’t know all of the soldiers who died for us be it shouldn’t prevent us to respect and miss them. 
Click here to read the essay that inspired the movie.

Throughout the history of the Constitution, 27 changes have been made through the Amendment process. Amendments are not easy to pass, and several amendments have been proposed over time, but which failed to pass the second hurdle - acceptance by the states. The last amendment of US constitution was ratified in 1992. It took over 202 years to be ratified.

One of proposed constitution amendment to the United States Constitution is Flag Desecration Amendment. This would allow United States Congress to prohibit statutorily the physical desecration of the flag of United States. Proponents of legislation to prescribe flag burning argue that burning the flag is a very offensive gesture that deserves to be outlawed.

The full text of proposed amendment would be:

“The Congress shall have power to prohibit the physical desecration of the flag of the United States”

The phrase "physical desecration" might be open to various interpretations concerning the uncertainty of the context of desecration. For example, uncertainty exists over whether the term includes wearing of the flag as clothing or as a tattoo. It is uncertain what can be interpreted as "physical desecration". Does it require that the flag be physically damaged, or made to appear damaged? I don’t think that wearing of the flag as clothing or as a tattoo would be physical desecration of flag. The physical desecration of flag is burning or defacing it in front of public. I think that this is serious crime and it should be charged.

I would also like to include one more change in this amendment. Not only the desecration of US flag shall be prohibit but also desecration of all countries’ flags. For every nation flag is a symbol and I think that to desecrate the flag means to desecrate nation. And if US wants other nations to respect their national symbols they must do the same.

                          "BOWLING FOR COLUMBINE"

So we watched documentary called “Bowling for Columbine”. The film is written and directed by Michael Moore and it explores what he suggests are the main causes for the Columbine High School shooting in 1999 and other acts of violence with guns. Moore's views are anti-gun but he tries to show the opposite side also. Moore asks why there are so many killings in America by guns comparing with other countries. He gives no real answer to this question. 

  After watching the film it made me think about that question but as most of the people I can’t give a right answer.  Some people trying to connect it with violent history that America has. But now try to remember how violent was histories of Armenia, Russia, Germany or any other countries. But there is not too many murders in those countries as in USA. Personally I think that there is something connected with national character and thinking.

  The next think I want talk about is US social media and how does it affect people. In the film Moore talked about this question and explored one of the darkest side of America - the society built on fear. He compared US media with Canadian media and I would like to compare it with Armenian media. In Armenian TV-channels you can’t see too much news about killing and murders as in US news.  It’s only one month that I’m living in USA but it was enough to understand that US social media spread fear. So I think that media affect murder rate in USA but it is not the main reason.

  Moore's views are definitely anti-gun. But the question is “Do guns kill people or do people kill people?” This question can have many contradictory answers. Some people think that if people don’t have guns they can’t kill people and they blame only gun for killing. But I think that on the killing most of all is the human factor. If the person really wants to kill somebody nothing can prevent him even if he doesn’t have gun. People can own guns just to protect themselves and their families but it doesn’t mean that they can take it school and shot their classmates. So that’s why I think that people kill people not guns.

  Here is the article about Obamas's executive orders on gun control. Obama unveiled sweeping proposals for preventing gun violence. Now if the person want to own gun he has to have background check. And I'm completely agree with this point. Obama Said "This is our firs task as a society, keeping our children safe. This is how we will be judged."

  So what can be done to make schools safer in USA? I think that this all depends on parents. They must be more careful. If they have any guns they must hide it. Because most of the minors who shot people don’t understand how serious is it and how serious consequences it can have.

What does the future hold for America and for gun laws? I’m sure that thousands of people have tried to answer to this question but no one can say what will happen in the future.

  I hope that US government will do something to reduce the number of murders is USA. However people have right to live and no one and nothing has right to take it away.

ISIS

ISIS or ISIL advance through Iraq brings with the fear of human rights atrocities against civilians. It is an unrecognized state and a group active in Iraq and Syria in the Middle East. It claims religious authority over all Muslims across the world. Its goal is to bring most of the Muslim-inhabited regions of the world under its political control. 

  They have been very active lately and have spread very fast. ISIS is one of the biggest humanitarian-disaster in contemporary history. ISIS is known for killing dozens of people at a time and carrying out public executions, crucifixions and other acts.

  As we know the worst crime in the world is killing. No one has right to kill and this crime has no forgiveness. But they killed and continuing to kill innocent people. So, something should be done to prevent this terrorist. But what should be done and who should do it? This terrorists have become really strong and it's even hard to understand if there is anything that can prevent them.

 We saw in news report video that there are many people all around the world who join ISIS. And it also become very popular among teenagers and young people. Even young girls started to join ISIS. So what's the reason? What makes them to do it? I've heard that they attracted to ISIS by its brutality. But how brutality can attract young girls when there are so many nice things in the world? I really don't understand them  and I have no idea why they do it.

  I hope someone will find the way to prevent this terrorist and one day in close future this humanitarian disaster will end.

Armenia-USA