Communism arose in Russia in 1917, exactly one hundred years ago. This is why it has always been the enemy of American Society and we continue to fight it in Korea.

The Las Vegas hotel security guard(middle) who was the first to respond to the gunshots

appearing on the Ellen Show with Ellen DeGeneres

The Las Vegas Massacre, as it is now known, was the deadliest of all mass shootings in United States history. Pearl Harbor, Nine-Eleven, and now Vegas. Everyone will remember where they were and what they were doing when they found out the terrible news that dozens of people were killed while hundreds more were injured in what has been credited to a lone crazed man, who accessed and smuggled dozens of weapons and thousands of rounds into his hotel room in Mandela Bay, from whence he proceeded to maniacal actions. I hope this is the case. We all do. Insanity is the most comforting explanation to this terrible tragedy. But what if it wasn't an accident? What if this was planned? And what if the perpetrators are still at large?

Interestingly enough, at the end of this month the government is due to release the top secret documents concerning the Kennedy assassination. Whether or not they will, and whether or not those documents will shed light upon any long held conspiracies is yet to be seen. But many believe that the Vegas incident could be another "Kennedy Level" government cover-up. 

Now I am always extremely skeptical when reading into conspiracy theories, because there are legitimate crazy people, who will write and believe just about anything on the Internet. Therefore, I refuse to believe or embrace any theory right now, first because its too soon after the fact for all the details to be explainable by the government anyway. In addition, I want indisputable proof, not a bunch of smoke signals, because smoke isn't fire, I'm my book. Everything the government does has smoke on it, but I want to see the fire.

However, all that being said here are three questions that must be answered by the F.B.I. if they want to keep even the most skeptical of conspiracy theorists off of their trails.

1. How did someone manage to break into the house which was inhabited by Stephen Paddock before the assassination? Who was this person? What did they want? What did they get? And how is our F.B.I. so incompetent as to allow the scene of a federal crime be infiltrated by an amateur, and if it wasn't an amateur than what did THEY want?

2. The man pictured at the top was the first to respond to the an alarm on the 32nd floor of the hotel. Earlier this past week he was scheduled to do a series of interviews with various news parties. However, he canceled last minute, disappeared for a week and then suddenly appeared on the Ellen show, which is normally a lighter show than what would be expected of such an important issue. And this is supposedly his first and last time speaking publicly about the event. So why did he disappear? And why is he only talking about it once? And what testimony did he provide to the F.B.I.? Again no fire here but lots of smoke. It at least deserves clarification from the F.B.I

3. Finally the authorities still haven't provided us with any motive whatsoever. What do they expect us to think about that? Are we to assume that he was crazy and had no reason to attack that crowd in particular? Another important thing to note is that his "insanity" claims have been analyzed by judges who claim that if he were still living, it wouldn't even be close enough grounds to win an "insanity" plea

Anyway, I hope not to upset anyone with what could be some very grave questions, and I hope the government is just biding its time while the sort all the details themselves. However, these three questions among the dozens that surround the Las Vegas shooting, are the most basic to me that need answered. Most importantly prayers for the family. But our recovery demands that we assure this never happens again. The first step in that case is to figure out who did it and why. That question might be more complicated than it seems.

Jacob McDonough

College Writing 1 @ 9:00

Dr. Kyburz

17 October 2017

Patience is a Virtue

         I am a flawed human being. We all are. One of my bigger faults is patience.

         Every morning when I wake up, I have to wake my brother up too. It takes two seconds as I walk out of the room to say, “Hey Anthony! Get up.” Yet it is one of the most bothersome tasks of my day. I come out of my room and make breakfast. It takes so long. Then I’m out the door to school.

          I drive myself most days.s. I cannot stand driving. When I am supposed to 45 I go 55. Why can’t I slow down just a bit. What’s the rush?

          I’m a clock watcher. You know that kid who always knows exactly how much time is left until the class ends. That’s me. Lunch is even worse. I go to the den a couple of times a week. I do not have a good relationship with the vibrating notification thing, that tells you when your food is done. We hate each other, and once he finally brings me good news, I leave him in the dust.

         I work a lot even though I am in school. My job is not very good about keeping us off our phones. I listen to music the whole time. Its part of how I count down. Approximately thirteen songs and hour, including commercials 65 songs a shift. Then I drive home, five miles an hour over the speed limit, and that is on a good day.

         Finally, I cannot wait to crash. Dinner, shower, final texts to friends, and I am out like a light. The process repeats.

         However, I ask myself, “What are you so eager to do, that makes everything you do everyday so unimportant.” It is probably a question most of us can ask ourselves. What is so important on our schedule that causes us to rush through everything we do. Maybe, if I choose one thing a day to do slowly, methodically, and patiently, I can curb the habit. Then again, I would probably rush through everything else all the more to make up for lost time.

Freedom

This semester I have been taking a philosophy course with Dr. George Miller. This past week we had an interesting discussion about the nature of freedom that I though I would share in this weeks post.

We have a lot of debates these days about whether there is equality in the world and whether or not America is really free, etc. However, one argument which many of us do not consider is whether or not true freedom is even realistically possible.

Some would say, "Well I want to fly and I cant so I'm no free."

Others say, "I cannot go as fast as I want on the freeway, so therefore, I cannot truly be free."

Try as we might the class could not come up with an example of something that could do completely free of limitations. This led them to conclude that there was no way we could truly ever be free.

I have three responses to this.

First, if we cant ever truly be free, then why do we continue to strive after perfect freedom? What is the point if it is so impossible? I believe if we give up on freedom as a possibility than we must give up on striving to obtain it, which would make the two hundred plus years of American history entirely in vain.

Secondly,  I believe we need to make a distinction about freedom which my class was missing. We are free to choose, however we are not free from the consequences of our choices. We can choose to speed, however, we are not exempt from paying our speeding tickets. Its the same with every other choice we make each day. We choose to act, and through that we choose the consequences.

Thirdly, if we cannot truly be free, than how can we hold anyone accountable for anything they do. We cannot punish the evil nor reward the good because every decision they make is not their own, but one embedded into their natures as human beings. By this line of reasoning we wouldn't be able to put murderers in jail, nor reward incredible soldiers with medals of honor, because neither of those actions would be their own.

Just some interesting thoughts on the nature of freedom. Let me know what you think!

The Tragedies of Vegas

Mourners place candles, flowers, and signs at the site of the Las Vegas Shooting

Every week in my blog posts I have attempted to take the time to discuss controversial topics. I choose to do this because I believe that shying away from these discussions only leaves people ignorant and prolongs the issue. The more we talk, the more we can learn from each other and hopefully reach an agreement that is best for everyone. 

This week, in reverence for the poor men and women who were so brutally mowed down in Las Vegas, I will try to be brief, succinct and to the point.

Every time there is a mass shooting, the United States quickly descends into a panic, and everywhere talks ensue about whether or not America is strict enough in her gun laws. Overwhelming statistics are given. I saw one CNN article estimated that almost 12000 people had died from gun related violence this year alone. Obviously, the solution many people suggests are stricter laws. They suggest the elimination of automatic weapons, military weapons and sometimes ask that we overturn the Second Amendment all together and remove guns entirely from the American people.

Here is where people make a mistake though, and its completely understandable that they do, because events like this are just so completely traumatic to us, who wish to see nothing more than the United States lead the world into an era of peace and prosperity for our children to grow up in. 

When the founding fathers wrote up the constitution, they had many things on their minds. Obviously, they wanted to create a democracy, a system of government that in no way modeled the totalitarian English monarchy that had just overthrew. In order to guarantee the longevity of this government they gave the people ways to ensure that their government remained one elected by the people. One thing they did was establish terms. Of course, every government office is subject to a term limit, and if you do not do what the people wish, when your term is up you are not re-elected and someone better takes your place. In the spirit of this, Dwight D. Eisenhower limited presidential terms to only two, ensuring that the government would remain an every shifting power to preserve the democracy and interests of the people of the United States.

Another thing the founding fathers did was establish the second amendment. This would guarantee that, even if a man in the government or the military decided to attempt to assume all the power and turn the US into a dictatorship, the people would always have the means necessary to protect their rights and democratic country. 

The minute you take away the weapons from the people of the United States is the moment we are in more danger that what any one crazy man could ever put us in. What happened in Las Vegas will be a tragedy that will not be forgotten certainly in my lifetime. However, the tragedy that would be the ending of democracy within the leading free country on our planet would be much worse. If you think that the US government is incapable of being infiltrated or corrupted and could never fall apart then you are naïve. Our government had done shameful things in the past and all it would take is one man to overthrow it if the people were all unarmed. Sadly, that's all it would take.

So in a time of mourning, lets not point fingers and say, "Country fans who voted anti gun laws deserved to die at the whims of a crazy man." Lets not politicize the thing and demand sweeping gun laws which would put us in more danger than we are in now. Instead, lets work together and find the warning signs. There had to be some. Lets work together to figure out how to stop these things from happening again. The answer surely doesn't lie in making ourselves more vulnerable that we already are.