Today in my theology class, we had a very interesting discussion with everyone. We had just watched the movie by Mel Gibson, The Passion of the Christ. So the discussion led to talking about what are some things that we can protest about. Therefore, my teacher put abortion, hunger and capital punishment on the board. Of course my theology professor who just happens to be a priest mind you, absolutely disagrees with the use of capital punishment. He was expected everyone to agree with him being that all the student in the class, well almost all of them are Christians and they would probably follow the teachings of the church. But that is not what he got.

So all of my class got into the discussion whether capital punishment should be legal. One of the students blurted out “Hell yea” and my professor just stopped and looked at him. I think at that point everyone was in awe and very uncomfortable. Then others started to get their words in. some said that we don’t have the right to take someones life so therefore capital punishment should be illegal. Everyone started getting into the conversation and literally spend the whole class time on it.

Now the topic is very controversial because we have those who think that it should be legal and practiced on those that commit horrible crimes as punishment. But when should people receive the capital punishment if it is legal, raping someone or murdering someone? Why is it that sometimes when one murders another, they receive capital punishment and when another commits the same punishment, they just get time in prison.

I don’t think that we should be able to decide who dies or who lives. Of course there are some crimes that are horrendous and deserve to be punished but as my professor said, the worst punishment someone could get is to be a prisoner for the rest of their lives. We wont be any better if we do exactly what the criminals have done. Just last year, 42 males were executed in the US. 26 of them were in Texas. Are we god? Should we decide who lives and dies? My professor were trying to make us see his side because of him being in the church and their beliefs but we all have to come up with our own decisions on issues like capital punishment. Should capital punishment be legal or illegal?

Hey guys, underneath i have the first essay we had to do about remembered events. The event i chose is something so special to me but I’m not going to ruin the topic. I felt good about writing this essay but some concerns that i had about it is that the professor said that my topic is hard to express so any feedback would be great…anything that i can improve so readers will like it better and understand the emotions better. Hope you guys enjoy reading it.

121-shehu

About two weeks ago, I received a call from my aunt about a blast in Albania. She has Albanian channels at her house and she saw the news first straight from Albania cameras. The moment she told me what had happened, my heart started beating so fast. About 10 years ago, arms opened in Albania and the year 1997 became so tamed because people had arms and were shooting for no reason. They would see people on the streets and just shoot them for no reason. Kids, the elderly were no exceptions. It was a devastating year that took so many lives and at that time, I used to live there. That is when my family decided it was time to go because the chaos was too much and they did not want that for me and of course they were scared.

So going back to when my aunt called me, that’s the first thing that came to my mind. I immediately called my father because he was in Albania for a few weeks. I needed to make sure that he was okay which he was. Then I directly went on-line and I tried to keep up with the news and make sure I had the story straight. I went to CNN and I found out that it was accidental. I was so relieved, the fact that people were not trying to hurt others intentionally. According to the Prime Minister Sali Berisha, the explosions were accidental when they were trying to destroy excess ammunition stockpiled during Albania’s communist past. They were in the right direction on trying to destroy their communist past but things went wrong. It was another devastating event that up to date took the lives of 15 people and injured more than 300 others.

The whole country was in a state of shock. The blast were heard as far as 120 miles from the base. Over 2000 houses and business buildings were damaged because of the blasts. What happened that day was a misfortune for the people that lived near there. I, for one that lives across the world from there was very distraught about the news. I still have family and I was praying to God that everyone was okay. I felt so bad for those who suffered and who are still suffering. When I imagine children hurt, my heart aches. Being that a I was born in Albania makes it more hard to see the catastrophe that happened that day. Many people thought that someone had set it up, just as I did but it was an accident. Lives were lost and the country is trying to deal with the event as sad as it was.