by Audrey Carroll, photo courtesy of MCT Campus

Hello, people. A lot has happened in the world recently. Since last week was short for the holiday, I decided to combine the past two weeks into one post. Prepare yourselves.

Weeks of Nov. 17-23 and Nov. 24-30

Nov. 18th 2014- Violence and conflict between Jews and Muslims continues with a synagogue attack involving guns and meat cleavers

What? Yep, Jews and Muslims have actually been in conflict for a while over a holy Jerusalem site. The Jews refer to the site as “the Temple Mount” and Muslims refer to it as the “Noble Sanctuary.” Protests and fighting over the site have broken out because right now, only Muslims are allowed to pray there and there has been conversation over whether or not Jewish prayer should be allowed there as well. But what happened on Tuesday was that two Palestinians barged into the synagogue in Jerusalem during morning prayer with guns and meat cleavers, killing and injuring several people in the process. According to Israel Prime Minister Netanyahu, there will be “a harsh response to the murders.” People are worried that this attack was a turning point, because an act of violence this large hasn’t occurred in over five years.

Talk about a wake up call.

Nov. 20th 2014- President Obama takes executive action to help pass his immigration bill

What? Large and in charge, that’s Obama’s mindset currently. Over the past couple of years and in recent months, Congress and the House have not been able to agree on an immigration policy. Seeing immigration as an issue that America needs to deal with ASAP, Obama figured he might as well take the situation into his own hands, thinking the only way he could get anything done would be to do it himself. However, Obama has tried to make it clear that his sole actions will not be enough to fix the immigration system, so he is still working with Congress to pass a bipartisan immigration reform bill (AKA a bill both sides can agree on, even though they usually never agree on anything). More details about President Obama’s plan to reform the American immigration system can be found on the White House website.

*”Why Can’t We Be Friends?” plays quietly in the background at the House Chamber*

Nov. 24 2014- Grand jury decides not to indict officer responsible for death of Michael Brown, riots and protests break out nationwide

What? After viewing loads of evidence and sifting through numerous documents, the grand jury of Ferguson, Mo. decided there was no probable cause for the indictment of white officer Darren Wilson, who shot and killed  black teenager Michael Brown. There are twelve people on the grand jury and there has to be nine votes to make a decision. Nine of the twelve decided Wilson’s use of lethal force was justified in this situation. The grand jury’s decision has caused many protests and riots in cities across the nation, and made the ones in Ferguson even worse than before. Many are outraged with the outcome for many reasons, the most popular being the issues of racism and police brutality. The National Bar Association has even expressed its disappointment in the outcome, by stating that there was not enough clear evidence to make a decision without going to court first. Currently, the case is being looked at on a Federal level as a Civil Rights Investigation.

There’s not much we can do now except pray for the safety of everyone involved in protests and riots, and wait for the Federal decision. Waiting sucks.

 Knock knock.

Who’s there?

No one’s home.

That’s right, no one will be getting home from their Thanksgiving vacation on time at this rate, because as of 6:30 p.m. on Nov. 30, over 3,000 flights have been either cancelled or delayed. The Sunday after the holiday is one of the busiest travel days of the year, so this is really bad timing. The main cause of all the cancellations is the weather and its ability to produce snow at the most inconvenient times possible. According to AAA, a lot of travelers have decided to hit the road instead of waiting for their flight. Well, hopefully all those people get home before their Thanksgiving leftovers go bad.