It's an incredibly surreal feeling to see someone you knew from high school being charged with murder. It's a feeling I imagine most of the twenty-somethings in my town of Effingham felt when we saw the sad conclusion to the story of Willow Long. In less than 48 hours, after over 300 volunteers from the community searching the Watson area for seven-year-old Willow Long, her body was found in a plastic bag near a pond. Later, her twenty-two year old uncle, Justin Deryke, was a

Six-year-old Cassie Mitchell stepped off of the school bus wearing a t-shirt with a silk-screened monarch butterfly on the front, purple sandals with butterflies on the sides, and her favorite denim jeans with butterfly outlines stitched into the pockets. She carried a butterfly backpack filled with butterfly notebooks, and her pigtails were secured with butterfly hair clips. “The Obsession,” as her parents called it, was probably harmless enough. It’s normal, other parents a

Dirty Wars, the documentary film counterpart to the book of the same name, begins its investigation of the secretive world of U.S. counterterrorism operations with a disturbing episode set in Afghanistan. The book’s author, Jeremy Scahill, was working as a war correspondent in Afghanistan when he looked beyond the limited flow of information provided by the American and allied military authorities to report on the killing of Mohammed Daoud, an Afghan police officer, and other

WARNING: This film contains explicitly sexual scenes. Please watch responsibly. Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s first foray into directing, “Don Jon,” has received a mixed critical response. Some have found it inspiring; some believe it unfairly stereotypes men, women, or both; and some (entirely missing the intended point of the film) categorize it merely as a “funny sex comedy.” Gordon-Levitt’s swaggering, sexually charged character Don Jon begins the movie by bluntly describing his

The pope’s weekly Angelus message, named for the prayer it accompanies, is generally a routine occurrence akin to a Sunday homily. On September 1st, however, Pope Francis chose this venue to make an important announcement: the proclamation of Saturday, September 7th, 2013 as “a day of fasting and prayer for peace in Syria, the Middle East, and throughout the world.” Not only Catholics but people around the world of all faiths were encouraged to participate “in whatever way th

Mark Hare is not the kind of person who strikes you as being aware that he played more than a minor role in changing the world. When I interviewed him for this article, he downplayed his role in the Women’s Peace Encampment, which was established in the summer of 1983. The encampment was in remote Seneca County, NY, a 55-minute drive from Rochester where I live. It was 51 acres of farmland that abutted the Seneca Army Depot, which Hare’s research revealed, was the eastern sea

Concern about the death penalty in America is beginning to move through Evangelical and pro-life communities across the country. It’s happening at churches in Texas, Florida, and Tennessee, across neighborhoods in Philadelphia, and even around the halls of power in Washington. Christian and pro-life pastors, activists, policymakers, and lobbyists are all expressing considerable doubt about how the death penalty system actually works. They are concerned about the fairness of t

The worsening violence and repression in Syria has left many analysts and policymakers in the United States and other western countries scrambling to think of ways our governments could help end the bloodshed and support those seeking to dislodge the Assad regime. The desperate desire to "do something" has led a growing number of people to advocate for increased military aid to armed insurgents or even direct military intervention, as the French government has said it will co

There has been an increase in suicides of military personnel in recent years. It has become quite a major issue. In fact, more veterans die from suicide than combat. Some statistics say that it is at least 22 per day who have taken their own lives and the number could in fact be even higher than that. [1]The big question is, why is this happening? The most frequently attributed explanation to the problem is posttraumatic stress disorder, or PTSD for short.[2] [3] The conditio

Abortion advocates were outraged when Texas legislators decided to advance a law restricting abortion after 20 weeks of pregnancy and ensuring that clinics could not be turned into Gosnell-esque butcher shops. Calling it "Battleground Texas,” they descended onto the state in droves, led by the likes of Cecile Richards and Planned Parenthood. They managed to interrupt the democratic process by shouting down the vote. Governor Rick Perry called a special session, though, and th

BY AUDREY SAMPLE As someone who fiercely defends the preborn, people sometimes try to stereotype me as being anti-women's rights. Some might even go so far as to say I'm altogether anti-woman. That's far from the case, though. I consider myself an empowered, liberated young woman. Someone who has strong (sometimes controversial) opinions, but isn't afraid to talk about them. My pro-life opinion on abortion doesn't come from my upbringing, religion, or any man in my life.

BY ALEX* *Names in this piece (including the author's) have been shortened or omitted to protect privacy. Photo provided by the author. Here in Kauai, the senses are overwhelming: the warm and gentle night air, the sounds of families playing, and the sweet smells of exotic flowers fill me with a sense of sublime happiness as the waves repeatedly embrace the shore in a song that conjures all the poetry of antiquity in my mind. Only a short while ago, a cousin of mine request

BY MARY KRANE DERR The right to access the full range of voluntary family planning methods is often neglected or actively undermined in the name of prolife, especially but not exclusively in the United States. Yet there are nine good reasons -- at least -- why fostering this right is essential to respect in practical deed for all human lives, already born and unborn. 1. Family planning freedom prevents millions of human deaths every year. Voluntary access to modern methods o

BY LILIANNA SERBICKI Swollen, a dream on its way to fruition; Nothing romantic. Lense (soft-focus) gone. Real fruit bruises; a real fruit stays the motion We make ourselves. Our unkempt pieces drawn Into alignment; some beings are too real To smudge with soft words. Some beings delight In waking up the small pith in the chest With beating limbs. It is a sudden sleight Of soul, not hand; the itch will soon persuade Myself to love my stippled skin far more Than when it held jus

BY AIMEE BEDOY I am writing this ten years to the day that those towers fell. And ten years later, I want us to discuss what we have learned from September 11, 2001, and where we as a nation must continue to grow. I am speaking as someone who grew up in this culture, immersed in it wholly from the time I was 12 years old. Perhaps I am not the wisest, or the most sage member of society to speak on these points, but this is what I have learned from my childhood to the present

BY NICHOLAS NEAL The abolition of the death penalty in Illinois began when Governor George Ryan placed a moratorium on capital punishment in the state in 2000, after seeing an alarming number of death row inmates being exonerated. Eleven years later, the Illinois General Assembly passed a bill officially abolishing capital punishment in Illinois. It was then up to Pat Quinn to sign it. Now, although Governor Quinn is a Democrat, he had previously spoken in favor of capital

BY AIMEE BEDOY & STEVEN OETJEN A quandary of major proportions faces our nation in this day and age. It could be a matter of life and death for countless persons -- we cannot truly be sure. This paper seeks to examine abortion through the lens of Constitutional law, science, and justice, and lastly to apply these faculties to the Pain Capable Unborn Child Protection Act recently passed in Nebraska. In brief, our recommendation is always to stand for justice and ultimately

BY NICHOLAS NEAL & AIMEE BEDOY On Tuesday, August 23rd, the rebel forces in Libya stormed Gadhafi's capital of Tripoli, thus declaring victory over the tyrannical leader who had once imposed unjust and inhumane purification laws against his own people. After 42 years in power as an autocratic dictator in Libya, Muammar Gadhafi has been removed from power by rebels within his own borders. Gadhafi is currently out of power and in hiding from NATO forces, but in an effort to k

BY BILL SAMUEL What should our attitude -- as individuals, social movements and nations -- be toward war? When, if ever, is war justifiable either as to our own participation or as a decision of a nation or social movement? How do we get to a meaningful peace? These questions have been discussed and debated for millennia, and may be even more vital in this day of advanced weaponry. They have been discussed by people from many different religious traditions, and from none.

BY OLIVIA MELDRUM While I am mistress of my mind, You will sleep safely every hour. No morning will you wake to find My warmth turned cold, or sweetness sour. A fragile burden do I bear (O precious visitor; flesh brand-new) - I forget my face and clothes and hair In pain and consciousness of you. My little one, your mama hurts. She shakes at every strange man's gaze. You've joined the Dance - this you deserve; But our dance, dear, limps through a maze. I am not mistress of my