Homosexuals and Their Treatment

“I can’t stand the way that homosexuals are treated. It makes me bloody sick. They are human beings, just like us. It shouldn’t matter what sexual preference the have. Pathetic; people who make fun of homosexuals, or people who make fun of anyone who is slightly different make me sick, and it goes to show you that there is a serious issue with the world.”

These very words, which were uttered by a friend of mine, can stir up quite a controversy.

Today, the treatment of homosexuals is out of control. They are harassed, abused, and shunned on a daily basis. Just because they are different doesn’t give us a right to treat them like that. They ARE people, after all.

While I necessarily don’t agree with homosexuality, I still accept it. I have friends who are gay, and does that change my view of them? Nope, not one bit. In fact, I support them. I even respect them because of it. Why? Simply because they knew what kind of crap that they were going to have to put up with, and I seriously doubt that I could handle all that heat.

So, if you are reading this, and you are in the closet, go ahead and come out. There are decent people in this world, and we will support and respect you. Know you will get made fun of, but in will go away in time. In the mean time, however, go to your family and friends for support. They love you for WHO you are, not WHAT you are, and that should never change.

Stop Blaming the Games!

It needs to stop. ”What?” you may ask? It’s simple really. And it’s one of the things that annoys me most. That is, the blaming of many crimes, deaths, and illnesses on video games.

Being an avid gamer, as well as one who reads about 10 different news sites every morning, nothing annoys me more than seeing a headline that says, “Boy Killed in Video Game Shooting.” Really now? Okay, he was shot, but that doesn’t mean it was due to video games!

Take the Virginia Tech shooting, for example. The shooter played Counter-Strike. What?!? Oh no! He played Counter-Strike! That MUST be why he went and murdered all those innocent people. Yeah, right… Just because some kid snapped and decided to go on a killing spree, doesn’t mean the game was the reason why.

When there are more important things going on, some people are trying to take too drastic of measures. Remember when Hillary Clinton was trying to completely ban video games? It was shot down as being unconstitutional. Several states have also tried to do the same thing. The result? The same. It was said to be unconstitutional.

So, in reality, there is nothing anyone can do about this, besides be as logical as possible. Don’t go and automatically blame the videogames, when it might actually have been a psychological issue. Don’t take the easy route, blaming something that is just there. Take the path that actually requires some effort on your part, and that might actually lead to a valid conclusion.

Music Piracy

Ok, admit it. Pretty much every single one of us has downloaded a song or two from the Internet illegally. And we probably all had the same thought in our heads when we did it. Oh, it’s only one song. It won’t hurt. Well, the truth is, it does hurt. A lot.

Let’s put things into perspective, shall we? So, there was a total of 281,421,906 citizens in the United States as of the 2000 census. Of that, an estimated 27.4% are between the ages of 0 and 19. If we take that from the total to make things a little easier, and that leaves us with a total of 204,312,304 citizens ages 20 and over. If we assume that each one of these people is capable of, and I know that’s pretty unrealistic, downloading one song, and they do, That’s over 200,000,000 songs downloaded. And with most songs costing about a dollar each, we now have a total of $200,000,000 stolen from the music industry that could have been put to good use. That one song seems like a much bigger deal now, doesn’t it? It should. I know that in reality, these numbers are no where near close to being accurate, but it’s the closest one can manage.

But what can the world do about music and software pirates? The answer is simple. Nothing. No matter what actions the government takes on the issue, they will be, one, violating the pirate’s rights if they completely revoke Internet access, and two, the pirates will simply find a new way to download or make a new website if the government were to shut them down.

That is why I propose a crazy solution. Make all music a download and make it absolutely free. Insanity, right? Let me explain my reasoning. The best, or shall I say, most critically acclaimed artists, are usually those who preform, sing, and make music for one reason. They love it. They love writing songs, they love preforming them, they love recording them. To those few artists, the millions of dollars they make is a perk. If all music is free, they will hopefully stay and preform and make music, simply because they enjoy it, not because they are getting paid millions of dollars. Hell, just drastically decrease the price of music. That way, people are still getting paid, but at the same time, it allows for more leniency with piracy.

Who knows? It might just work.