In-State tuition for illegal immigrants

I responded to Josh Huston's editorial on illegal immigrants now receiving in-state tuition in the state of California.

I have to fully agree with the point of view that this is a disaster and is completely unfair to full U.S. citizens. I feel a little on the fence about the situation due to the fact that I desire for every person to have the opportunities to educate and better themselves, but when it comes to being at the cost of my education it seems incredibly less important. The only requirement is that illegal immigrants attend a California high school for 3 years and successfully graduate? What about the rest of us who have been here our entire lives working towards our future and our college careers? This reminds me of what we just finished reading about affirmative action in chapter 5 and how it can turn into reverse discrimination or how it can prevent every day citizens from achieving their goals not based on merit, but on fairness. In my opinion merit is fair and so is becoming a full U.S. citizen before you reap the benefits of our country. I would also like to point out that in going to ACC I, an American citizen, would have to pay double or triple tuition fees if I even moved out of the district...let alone the state, but an illegal immigrant can cross our borders, spend a few years here and all of a sudden they have as equal opportunity as we do. The issue of illegal immigrants receiving this benefit may not cause big issues in most undergraduate schools, but what about higher education which is more competitive and whose schools accept fewer students? The fact that there are more people added to the competition who don't even legally have the right to be here is completely unfair to those of us that were born here and expect our government to serve us first.

FDA and Four Loko

I’m sure most people have taken notice of the rapid growth in popularity of alcoholic energy drinks among younger generations recently. Drinks such as Joose, Sparks, and Tilt seem to have popped up overnight as the widespread drink of choice for college age people. I wasn’t even aware of the existence of these drinks until recently, but since then can hardly go anywhere without seeing someone holding one at a party or buying one at a convenience store. One brand of alcoholic energy drink, Four Loko, has been receiving an immense amount of negative attention as of late due to the string of deaths involved with its consumption. There is some debate over the physical effects that the combination of alcohol and caffeine can have on a person. Some debate that consuming these drinks is equivalent to drinking a cup of coffee followed with a few alcoholic beverages, but others estimate that combining these two beverages into one drink can be dangerous. Caffeine’s ability to mask the effect of alcohol can lead to people not noticing how intoxicated they actually are and the FDA is not entirely sure at what point this becomes a danger. Recent cases include young men and women entering the hospital with cardiac arrest and in some cases, dying from it. The FDA is currently investigating Four Loko, and other alcoholic energy drinks, to better understand the effects that these drinks can have. The problem existing is that they must rely on accepted scientific evidence that these beverages are harmful in order to remove them from the shelves of our local corner stores and liquor stores. I think that the fact that there are people losing their lives in connection to drinks like Four Loko should elicit some emergency act on the FDA’s part. Isn’t there some way of stopping the sale of these drinks until further investigation has been completed? I understand the long process that the FDA has on their hands, but how many more irresponsible youths with die during the wait? There has been mention of sending disclaimers to manufacturers of these products warning them of their potential danger, but in the end it is up to the manufacture not to distribute them. I think in the end distribution will continue as long as it coincides with the amount of money companies are raking in due to the high sales volume, so this small gesture will only create a dent in the availability of these drinks. In my opinion, the FDA should have more power to remove products from the market that have such a reputation for hazard even if their investigations have not been completed.  

Minors and Murder

My response to a colleague's blog was Patrick Mendez's evaluation of minors accused of murder and the penalty involved. 

I completely agree with your opinion on the inability of the courts to charge minors to the full extent for murder. Is it really true that just because you are 18 years old that you all of a sudden have the maturity level to control their behavior? I don't remember being any more of an adult at 18 than I was at 16. The question arises of what would be a proper age limit to enforce life sentencing? I don't know that their is one. I believe every case of murder should be treated individually. The law that acts as a safety blanket for anyone under the age of 18 is ludicrous. Take the case of the group of teens in Queens, NY that ordered Chinese food delivery and beat the delivery man to death just for a free meal. Does the law really expect us to believe that these kids didn’t know what they were doing when they, no doubtfully, planned this, called in the order, waited for the food to get to their house and then beat this man to death with bricks? That’s a pretty far-fetched version of a child’s impulsive behavior. We were all teenagers at one point and have made mistakes. Some of us sneak our parents car out at night or skip school. How many of us go out in the world and kill? It is my belief that any child that is capable of murder at a young age is just the huge, glaring red flag that this individual will grow up to be a deeply disturbed and dangerous adult.