We the People of the United

We the People of the United States make up 5% of the world's population, a rough 320 million. In the grand scale of the entire world, 5% is but a spec on the map. But here's some relatively shocking news: We the People of the United States also make up 25% of the entire world's incarceration population. That's a whopping 2.3 million American people locked behind bars (6.9 million world wide), which is 724 people per 100,000. Just for example purposes, Russia, who's follows on the incarceration list, has "only" 581 people per 100,000.
You can close your mouths now, ladies and gentlemen...

If you're wondering if this number spiked overnight; the answer is heavens no... we've let this happen since the dawn America, just in a different form. After the passing of the 13th amendment, is was believed that finally, we were all free.... Quite the contrary. If you bother to read the constitution, thirteenth amendment, section one, it so kindly states "Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction". 
You may have noticed, there was, as you will, a clause in the "fine print" stating that slavery can and still will indeed exist, but only this time legally. The prison rates were actually rather flat and constant throughout most of the 20th century until the 1970's era began until Richard Nixon decided to declare a war on drugs (1971, when prison population was only 300,000; a 700% decrease of what we are now). In short, meaning anyone who was caught with drug possession was to be charged as a felon, therefore making it legal to be treated as a slave or involuntary servitude.
African Americans now constitute nearly 1 million of the total 2.3 million incarceration population and are incarcerated at nearly six times the rate of whites. If that doesn't give you a blow to the gut, maybe a blow to your wallet will work; you're tax dollars are going straight to funding this jam packed penal system, raining in $50 billion annually.
Can we let Houston know we have a problem now...?

The Few. The proud. The Marines. It was once my goal to become one of these brave warriors, taking arms to defend the people I love. But ironically, I never thought it was a woman's place to be amongst a man entitled profession. Kathleen Parker, of the Washington Post solidified this notion, explaining how maybe woman are in over their head. After the posting of nude female marines to a Facebook group, without their consent or knowledge, females marines are left in disarray. One marine said this had ruined her experience and she would not be signing her name across the dotted line of the reenlistment contract, which is quite the shame. Not a shame to her of course, but a shame to her fellow Devil Dogs, who would defend a male marine in a heartbeat but turn around and humiliate and objectify a fellow marine who went through the same training and spoke the same oath as them based on their sex. But, becoming a marines means you're entering a world where the only mission is THE mission, there's little room for anything other than the necessary equipment and mindset to accomplish the goal. As Russ (a retired Methodist minister who counsels veterans navigating PTSD) explains "We are trained to be killing machines, deadening all emotion except anger. We're told we don't have the luxury of sensitivity, so we objectify everything, including women," makes me sigh with relief, that I never took the oath to be this killing machine. Some food for thought though, as Kathleen poetically said, women must be treated as men but what about vice verse... should men be treated as women..? Can you make a rigorous training of 13 weeks designed to desensitize you, also somehow incorporate sensitivity? We've already declared the military ways being too harsh, but would you really want someone too busy, wrapped up in their own emotions to focus on saving a fellow marines life? If the answer is yes then more power to you, but I on the other hand would enjoy to live another day.