The Page: Boston Marathon

                The Boston Marathon terrorist attack has outraged me. How could something so terrible happen during such an important event in a city so close to home? Tragedies happen all over the world, and I always hear about them on the news but I didn’t think it would ever happen in our city. Watching the news and seeing hundreds of police officers hunting for this awful person didn’t even make me feel safe, I was scared. However, it has made the community put aside its differences and come together as one to mourn the tragedy.   

Terrorism far too close to home

            On Monday May 15^th during the Boston Marathon, Boston experienced its first act of terrorism which claimed three innocent lives and injured over 100 people. Around 2:45 in the afternoon, four hours into the race when most people finish, two bombs went off within twenty seconds of each other. Tamerlan Tsarnev (26) and his brother Dzhokhar (19) were the ones responsible for all the chaos that broke out in Boston. Besides the two bombs that actually went off, many more were found during the week that followed. Thursday night they engaged in a gun battle after shooting an MIT police officer, and Tamerlan was killed during the whole ordeal. However, Dzhokhar, a student at UMass Dartmouth was able to escape for a short period of time. Friday evening he was caught hiding in a boat somebody’s backyard, where he was sent to the hospital with gunshot wounds but is expected to live.

            Now the question is, will Dzhokhar be sentenced to death? Massachusetts does not have a death penalty, but since terrorism is a federal crime he may face it. Personally, I think since he is only 19 years old and has his whole life ahead of him, he should be sentenced to life in prison. Therefore, he will live out the rest of his life behind bars and miserable. The death penalty is the easy way out; he doesn’t really have to pay for what he did because either way he is going to die. I think the most important factor would be to find out why they did it, and if they had any other accomplices. I don’t think it is possible for two people to carry out such a devious plan without any help what so ever. Tamerlan was said to be the weird brother, but people who knew Dzhokhar said he was normal and nothing seemed out of the ordinary. The government basically funded the whole thing however, since their whole family was on welfare.

            The two men caused extreme chaos in a city which is way too close to home. Not only is it the capital of our state, but it is our home. However, the incident has caused the city and state to come together in an extraordinary way. For once, everyone is putting aside their differences and coming together to mourn the tragedy. It is scary to think that something that we would normally hear about on the news could happen so close to home, and makes the danger of the world way more realistic. However, we are Boston strong and will overcome the tragedy and live on to never forget the lives that were lost, and the sacrifices that people made to keep our city safe.

Interview Assignment

Last week Alicia Mello saved a dog on her way to pick up her father from the train station. She was driving through the center of Mansfield when she saw a helpless dog dodging traffic during rush hour. She was scared that the dog would get hurt so she stopped and picked it up. Alicia brought the dog to it's home which was three city blocks away from where the dog was found.

When Alicia was asked why she stopped and saved the dog she responded with, "If it was my dog, I would hope someone would do the same thing. The poor dog didn't stand a chance." Lukily, the dog had the proper tags so she had no problem bringing the dog home to it's owners.When asked what the owners had to say about the situation, Alicia said, "They were estatic that the dog was home safe and they couldn't thank me enough."

Alicia felt very accomplished that she was able to save the dog. She was also happy because she made other people happy. She was very thankful that the dog had proper tags, because if not she would have had to find something to do with the dog. Alicia is now a hero to the dogs family; she brought their prized possession home safely.

When I Was Your Age....

Technology has shifted the typical norms of social life. Communication is based off of social networking sites and text messaging, instead of picking up the phone and actually calling someone. I constantly hear adults saying "When I was your age..." and then proceeding to state what was so different when they were teenagers. Social skills are definitely being lost due to the social media craze and text messaging addictions. Nobody needs to actually speak to anyone anymore, everything can be done just by typing on a keyboard. Previous generations did not even have cell phones, they couldn't possibly send texts. They actually had to call people's houses and actually talk to people. Now a days, everything can be done way quicker, and sometimes even more efficiently. 

However, there is a down side to the technology craze. Social networking sites can often destroy lives, and aren't always used for the good of things. It creates an outlet for cyber bullying, and there is nothing that can be done to actually stop it. Also, social networking sites can destroy future careers. Although something may be deleted, it is still on the internet forever and it can be found with the right tools. Anything that is posted can never be taken back, no matter how hard you try. 

Also, most job applications are done online now. Call me crazy, but if I was going to hire an employee I would definitely want to see who they are when they turn in an application rather than calling up some random person and having them come in for an interview. The internet can be dangerous, and you may never know what you get yourself caught up in. There are so many scams, fake profiles, and misleading information  that may severely harm a person in some way. 

With the rate that technology is moving, who knows where it might end up. There are now smart phones that are technically smarter than humans. Most smart phones today can do almost anything except for teleport things, literally. With future generations, more children are gonna be harmed and sucked into this crazy world of fast growing technology and addictive social networking sites.