The Death Penalty is a Violation of Human Rights Essay -- Capital Punis

Are we playing God? Have we totally forgotten humanity? When I think about death penalty it reminds me about Jesus and when he confronted the people who gathered to stone a woman who had been caught committing by saying, â€Å"If any of you have never sinned, then go ahead and throw the first stone at her.† (John 8:7) This action clearly demonstrates that Jesus believed that there was a problem in imposing death penalty because no one is sinless. Jesus did not say that adultery should not be a crime punishable by death, but he did point to a problem with imposing such a penalty. Those valuable teachings on human rights have been entirely ignored by society in the United States. During the last decade more than 500 prisoners were executed in the United States. Another 3,500 wait on death rows. The United States is one of the very few industrialized countries in the world, which executes criminals. It is one of the few countries in the world, which executed mentally ill persons, persons with very low IQ, and child murderers (i.e. persons who were under 18 at the time of their crime). How can a first world country that embraces Christianity, as it’s main religion also embrace death penalty. Death penalty is an archaic and barbaric form of punishment whose existence should be relinquished from all legal systems of civilized societies. Let’s set the pace and protect the human right to life from such an inhuman or degrading act. In the United States, about 13,000 people have been legally executed since colonial times. By the 1930’s up to 150 people were executed yearly. Lack of public support for capital punishment and legal challenges reduced the execution rate to near zero by 1967. In 1972 the U.S. Supreme Court banned the practice, however, in 1976 the Supreme Court authorized its resumption. Each state decided whether to have the death penalty or not. As of the end of 1997, only 12 states do not have the death penalty; Alaska, Hawaii, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, North Dakota, Rhode Island, Vermont, West Virginia and Wisconsin. From 1976, when executions were resumed, to the end of 1997, there were 432 executions in the US. As the end of 1997, there were about 3,222 prisoners on death row in 34 states. 47 (1.5%) are women. Recent laws have expanded the number of crimes for which capital punishment can be applied. Other laws have reduced some of... ...ich would outweigh the human rights, and furthermore the death penalty contradicts the internationally accepted goal of rehabilitating the offender. I believe that it is more important for the convicted of the capital punishment to pay for it throughout the rest of his or her life. By eliminating a person through the death penalty, people will forget about the person and the act the person committed, which would not serve the purpose of punishment as a deterrent. By letting the convicted of capital crime to live to be reformed and to work on reparation for his or her crime is far more meaningful and effective as a deterrent to similar crimes by others. Stop playing God. Stop violating fundamental human rights. Lets give closure to one of the degrading chapters of our society and prove to the world how civil we really are. Work Cited Amnesty international http://www.amnesty.org/ â€Å"Rights for all† http://www.rightsforall-usa.org/ â€Å"The Annual Report† http://www.amnestyusa.org/ailib/aireport/ar99/amr51.htm Death Penalty Links â€Å"Human Rights Death Penalty† http://www.derechos.org/dp/ Sandoholzer, Kuno Death Penalty USA Pages http://www.agitator.com/dp/

In What Ways and with What Results Did 19th Century Nationalism?

During the 19th century, nationalistic thoughts began to infiltrate Europe, which eventually lead up to unifications, as well as the First World War. Nationalism began as each ethnicity began to feel a sense of individuality and identity. Nationalism was the start of independence and revolutions, even after the Congress of Vienna, which sought to continue conservative ways. With the rise of nationalism in the 19th, it catalyzed many wars including World War One.At the beginning of the 19th century, the Congress of Vienna was a reaction to the French Revolution, in which they wanted to preserve the monarchies in Europe as well as conservative ways. Nationalistic ideas were surfacing across Europe however the Congress of Vienna did not prevent the nationalism uprisings of 1848. By combining the Netherlands with Belgium, and continuously not giving Poland it’s freedom, the Congress only furthered the nationalistic movements. Revolutions began to take Europe during the year of 184 8, the year of Revolutions.Up until then, different ethnic groups began to pride themselves in nationalism, and in their identities. Countries such as Poland, Belgium, Italy, and Germany started revolutions in order to gain independence. Each country was fighting for nationalism with their new sense of identity however many of them failed. Nationalism ultimately caused the independence of countries such as Germany and Italy. It encouraged people of each state to think about their ethnicity as well as identity. Even though many states benefited, other states were suppressed and unable to break free.This is one of the factors that led up to the First World War. As the Ottoman Empire began to decline, it was right in the 19th -20th century, which was the prime time of nationalism. States wanted freedom from their reigning countries due to their national pride, yet the reigning countries were uncooperative. The Balkan areas were under the Austria-Hungary Empire’s rule, yet Serbia wanted to create a new country with states that mostly contained Serbians. Their nationalism became ultra-nationalistic which led to the assassination of the crowned prince of Austria-Hungary.This was one of the reasons of World War I starting up-nationalism. The seed of nationalism in Europe not only created many new independent nations but also created a sense of identity within states. Without nationalism uprisings in Europe, many of what the world looks like now would not be here and unified countries such as Germany and Italy may still be tiny states instead of a large country. Nationalism shaped Europe’s geographical state, and the course of events that led up to the 20th century.

Abstract Expressionism Essay - 1089 Words

abstract expressionism It was a full 170 years after Americans had their political revolution that they won an aesthetic revolution. American art to get rid of its inhibiting mechanisms- provincialism, over-dependence on European sources, and an indifferent public- and liberate itself into a quality and expressive force equal to, or exceeding that of art produced anywhere within the period. Few would argue that the painting and sculpture that emerged from the so-called New York School in the mid 1940s was the foremost artistic phenomenon of its time and was labeled as the Abstract Expressionist movement. Abstract expressionism was a reaction to social realism, surrealism, and primitive art in the 1940s; this is a turning point in†¦show more content†¦Sacred signs overlaid over unconfined surfaces were appealing because the artist was not restricted by a framing edge. They also admired the scale of cave paintings. They were very big and encouraged their followers to paint big. The most significant impact of primitive art was the cave paintings admirable freedom, which influenced the free, unbound style in which the abstract expressionists painted. The revolt of fascism and realism is freedom, which is articulated in the free form style of the Abstract Expressionist. Americans for generations had sought to achieve their own artistic maturity and had largely failed, either by inadequate assimilation of European models or by Americas own provincialism. The Abstract Expressionist Movement was so influential because it was the first time that American artists were doing something new and different from Europe. American Artists for the first time had an advantage over Europe, which virtually transferred the center of the art world from Paris to New York. Ironically, it was the paralyzing poverty of the Great Depression that gave younger American artists their first advantage. Beginning in 1935, with the Federal Art Project organized under the Works Progress Administration, artists could earn a living as artists and do so free to create in whatever manner they might choose. They could even gravitate to New York, traditionally Americas safe haven for the revolutionary, and there band together as a beleagueredShow MoreRelatedEssay on Abstract Expre ssionism1814 Words   |  8 PagesAbstract Expressionism New needs need new techniques. And the modern artists have found new ways and new means of making their statements ... the modern painter cannot express this age, the airplane, the atom bomb, the radio, in the old forms of the Renaissance or of any other past culture. Jackson Pollock Rarely has such a massive transfer of influence has ever touched the world as did in the Paris to New York shift of the 1940s and 1950s. All of the characters of American art wereRead MoreAbstract Expressionism1371 Words   |  6 PagesAbstract Expressionism is making its comeback within the art world. Coined as an artist movement in the 1940’s and 1950’s, at the New York School, American Abstract Expressionist began to express many ideas relevant to humanity and the world around human civilization. However, the subject matters, contributing to artists, were not meant to represent the ever-changing world around them. Rather, how the world around them affected the artist themselves. The works swayed by such worldly influencesRead More Abstract Expressionism Essay1465 Words   |  6 PagesAbstract Expressionism Abstract Expressionism started in America as a post World War II art movement. It was the first art movement that arose from America and put New York at the center of the art world. The term Abstract Expressionism was first applied to American art in 1946 by art critic Robert Coates. It is most commanly said that Surealism is it’s predecessor because of the use of spontaneous, automatic and subconscious creations. Abstract Expressionism gets its name from the combiningRead MorePop Art vs. Abstract Expressionism1854 Words   |  8 PagesPop Art vs. Abstract Expressionism †¢ Characteristics of Abstract Expressionist Paintings-optical buzz, all-over composition, Matisse sometimes painted images on large canvases, as did Picasso but paintings still retained an object like character- the viewer needed to stand back to see the complete composition. Abstract expressionist paintings, on the other hand, draw the spectator into them. The field of vision is thus larger than the field of vision of the spectator, who finds himself in a worldRead MoreAbstract Expressionism and Frank OHaras Writing2155 Words   |  9 PagesAbstract Expressionism and Frank O’Hara’s Writing While researching everything about American cotemporary poet Frank O’Hara, it became very apparent that art was a driving force in both his personal life and his professional writing career. This can be proved by merely trying to find information about him in the literature section in a library. Only his collected poems can be found, but much more information about Frank O’Hara can be found in the art section. Many art books dedicate entireRead MoreAbstract Expressionism And Dada873 Words   |  4 Pagesmovement in response to World War One, while Abstract Expressionism was in response to World War Two. Dada was an art movement launched in protest to the political, social, and cultural norms that were thought to have caused the war by its disillusioned creators. Dubbed the â€Å"anti-art movement†, Dada works were irrational and outrageous. More emphasis was placed on the politically charged messages inherent in Dada works than the aesthetics. Abstract Expressionism is viewed as the first purely AmericanRead MoreEssay The Art Cowboy1439 Words   |  6 PagesArt of the Century gallery, a gallery set up to promote young artists involved in surrealism (52-53), Pollock was working abstractly, yet pictorially as well. Although his painting still had a quality of â€Å"Benton’s heroic and mannered regional expressionism† (Rugoff 44) he had still rocked the Art of this Century Gallery and made himself known in New York (National Gallery of Art 1). According to Rugoff, his career did not change until he and Krasner moved to Long Island. He had been painting withRead MoreAutumn Rhythm, By Robert Rauschenberg, And Marilyn Diptych1243 Words   |  5 PagesAbstract Expressionism began in the 1940s and the 1950s in New York after World War II from the ideas of Surrealism about art that looks to examining the unconscious mind, and the feelings people hold that makes us all humans. Through the discussion of Autumn Rhythm (Number 30) by Jackson Pollock, I will define Abstract Expression and why this work is part of this movement. Then, through the discussion of Canyon by Robert Rauschenberg, Target with Plaster Casts by Jasper Johns, and Marilyn DiptychRead MoreThe Dissolution Of Pollack s Vision Of Non Representational Art891 Words   |  4 Pagesanalysis will define the dissolution of Pollack’s vision of non-representational art/action painting to identify the reduction of rhetoric found in the color field art of Mark Rothko and Barnett Newman during the middle of the 20th century. Abstract Expressionism was typically defined by Pollack’s â€Å"action painting† methods, which sought to objectify the painting process in a complex and busy style of â€Å"rhetoric† applied to canvases laid on the ground and dripped or splashed with paint. Rothko and NewmanRead MoreJackson Pollock Essay2268 Words   |  10 PagesThe dominant figure that steered the course of the Abstract E xpressionist movement was the infamous painter Jackson Pollock. He was born Paul Jackson Pollock in Cody, Wyoming on January 28, 1912. He was the fifth and youngest son and grew up in Arizona and California after his family left him when he was a little over one year old. Pollocks artistic journey began at the Manual Arts School in Los Angeles, California where he joined two of his brothers. From there, he went on to New York to attend