In our fourth edition of Ask The Editors, we will discuss effects with bullying in adulthood, the death penalty, and the editors’ future plans.

If you’d like to ask the editors a question, you can do so here: https://lasallefalconer.com/ask-the-editors/

Question #1 from CoolCats101:

What do you think the effects of cyberbullying are on children? How do you think this affects children later in life?

Veronica’s Response:

Dear CoolCats101,

I think that many people will say that there is no such thing as cyberbullying, however, I think that this is not true, due to the fact that people find ways to mentally hurt someone behind screen and behind their backs. There are countless stories, on the news or heard stories through the grapevine about people getting cyberbullied and even sometimes, ending their lives because it has gotten too much for them to handle. I think that most bullying will start over the internet, and then people will take more serious actions to make people’s life a living hell.

I think that depending on what people say, it can be hard to forget what negative words people have said about you or to you, and especially when it is anonymous sometimes. These effects can mentally and physically hurt someone during their times at school. Even though sometimes people can walk away or turn off the screen, some people go further than just sub-tweeting or commenting on pictures. I’ve known from personal experience that people will go as far as calling anonymously, emails, and other ways to cyberbully a person. I think there is more effects on bullying and rumors than actual cyberbullying, which can cause the most damage to a person’s mental state. People can develop different issues with social anxiety, depression and for some girls, eating disorders. Physically, people can commit self harm, or even end their own life because they feel like there is no way else to end the bullying.

This is not okay. People should not have these effects from bullying go into their adult life and allow struggles of recovery. Any mental illness can cause issues when older, including not wanting to seek help because they either don’t want it or believe they do not have an illness. Another reason is that they do not want to share problems because they feel like there is no one who can help them. It’s important to realize that there are true negative effects that can cause problems later in a child’s life who has been bullied.

Lets remember something: it is important to not watch and allow actions such as bullying happen to someone around you. Even over social media, do not be a bystander. You do not know what other bullying could be taking places towards the person getting bullied, nor do you know the effects that the bullying has had on the person. Bullying can easily change someone’s life, or even end it if it gets too out of hand. However, anyone has the power to end bullying.

Question #2 from Anonymous,

What are your future plans?

Veronica’s Response:

Dear Anonymous,

I plan on attending Linfield College for four years, studying psychology, and then going on to get my masters and perhaps my Ph.D. There are many different career paths or fields of psychology that I could go into, but what interests me is the mental illness side and private practice. I hope to be successful and change people’s lives with helping them overcome mental illnesses or and other situations that are stopping them from achieving their goals. I do not know where I’ll end up living when I’m older, due to the fact that I could earn my masters in a school in Florida. But I always will love Oregon and will probably return if I do not fall in love with another state. I want to travel as much as possible, either with a significant other or husband before I settle down to have a family and adopt my many munchkin cats.

Clarice’s Response:

Dear Anonymous,

My future plans are lengthy and somewhat undefined. I am attending University of Oregon next year and majoring in political science, but hopefully will be able to transfer to the international business program my sophomore year. I’ll probably go to graduate school. I’d like to learn/be fluent in 4 different languages. I want to travel. I hope to publish a book of poetry by the time I’m 30. My dream is to live in a big city in an apartment amidst it all after I graduate college. Somewhere along the lines, I’d like to meet someone I semi-like and maybe go through a matrimony ceremony with them. But you know, priorities.

At the end of the day, I want to be happy and successful. Hopefully those definitions coincide.

Alex’s Response:

My immediate future includes attending the University of Oregon and earning a bachelors or masters in accounting. There are several reasons for choosing an accounting degree. The first is that, when tax season comes along, I won’t melt in a ball of agony and tears when I realize I don’t know how to file taxes. Instead, with my superior and dominant accounting knowledge, I’ll be able to work my tax magic to reduce my tax bill as much as possible. To those who say not paying a lot of taxes is wrong and unpatriotic: it’s not. Remember the Boston Tea Party? You know how to spend your money better than the government does. There’s no sense in sending the corrupt bureaucracy called Washington D.C. more money to waste and steal.

Secondly, I’ll be able to learn how businesses work and how to read and analyze financial statements. Perhaps I’ll use those skills at the NSA and spy on financial mischief in our nation (and others of course, NSA knows no bounds). Maybe I’ll spy on my grandma and help her out a bit or I could expose massive financial fraud (Enron anybody?).

My ultimate goal however is not to conduct unconstitutional spying on American citizens but to launch my own investment fund where I can use my accounting knowledge to find the best investments for my partners. From here I can hopefully make enough to buy various successful businesses and build my own version of Berkshire Hathaway (most likely without the billion dollar balance sheet but who knows?). I want to start my own business so that I can be self sustaining and not need to rely on a job for the rest of my life.

Question #3 from Anonymous,

What are your opinions on capital punishment?

Clarice’s Response:

Dear Anonymous,

My opinion of capital punishment is a complex one. For the most part, I’m not a fan.

However, I think there are a set of circumstances that qualify capital punishment as the appropriate punishment.

My two qualifiers for the death penalty are as follows:

1. If the convicted is a diagnosed sociopath who has been found guilty of murder

OR/AND

1. If the convicted is a serial killer.

Under the first qualifier, we must define exactly what a sociopath is. A sociopath is somebody who does not feel pain. The difference between a psychopath and a sociopath is that psychopaths actually can’t differentiate from right and wrong, and sociopaths can, they just don’t care if their actions are wrong. They don’t feel pain, remorse, guilt, etc. My reasoning on them deserving the death penalty is this: A life sentence in prison is to make people suffer or feel guilty and pay retribution to society for their actions. However, if a sociopath does not have the ability to suffer because of their predicament, what is the point of keeping them in the prison and spending federal money for them to live?

I strongly believe in rehabilitation for criminals. Often, people make mistakes. Some are caught, others are not. But if you choose to murder somebody and it is found that you are a sociopath, there is no chance at rehabilitation. You will not change your mind, you will not learn from your mistake.

Under the second qualifier, I simply believe that all serial killers either are sociopaths or are people who have chosen to break the law and take an innocent person’s life multiple times, regardless of being aware of the consequences. Their chance at being convicted for less than a life sentence is impossible. There is no reason that they should take up the space and the resources of our tax dollars if they will ultimately rot in prison anyways.

Alex’s Response:

Dear Anonymous,

Capital punishment is a controversial topic that receives substantial emotional and philosophical elements within debate. It is often seen as a way for the families and friends of victims to inflict revenge upon the one who killed their loved one. The world varies widely in its execution of capital punishment (pun anyone?). Some countries have a maximum penalty of life in prison and some use capital punishment liberally. Singapore, for example, uses capital punishment for a variety of offenses including, but not limited to, robbery which results in the death of a person, drug trafficking, rape, and firing a weapon illegally. As a result, Singapore is one of the safest and drug free countries in the world.

Whether the death penalty serves as an effective deterrent is unclear and would be very difficult to figure out so I air on the side of caution and say that it is probably ineffective.

I am officially against capital punishment for several reasons. Firstly, capital punishment is vastly more expensive than giving life in prison in large part because cases seeking the death penalty have a much longer, more expensive process.

Secondly, life in prison is a pretty awful sentence in and of itself. I can’t imagine prisons are happy places with all good people and friends to be made. A more realistic portrayal of prison would include a more dangerous and violent lifestyle. I also believe prison would be pretty boring especially when you consider inmates cannot go out to dinner, see family, go on vacation, buy the latest iPhone, or partake in the advances of society. It’s the rest of your life, and I’m sure it’s boring as hell.

Veronica’s Response:

Dear Anonymous,

I personally believe that if the death penalty was not so expensive, and did not have as many complex ordeals within it, I do would support the idea of capital punishment.

As fellow editor Clarice has stated, I would agree with what should qualify as someone who should face the death penalty. I do not see the benefit of keeping them alive in our jails and allowing them to live, when they truly will not be able to get better nor learn what they have done to the families who have been affected by their killings. Serial killers have no remorse, pain for others or guilt for actions, therefore, having a life in prison will not have them feel this either. Of course, people could argue that they probably want to be killed in the end or that they do not want to live anyways, there’s no reason in trying to get them to understand what they have done is wrong, when they are truly mentally ill and will not be able to recover or change from it.

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