A Moral Dilemma

123 Main Street
Happyville, British Columbia
V2A 3T1

May 30, 2011

Mayor
City Hall
666 Elm Street
Happyville, British Columbia
V2A 3Y2

Dear Mayor:

We have come across some horrifying evidence that Gunther Grass assisted Nazi's in killing a large amount of people. I believe you should not exposed Gunter nor should you destroy the evidence. Even though Gunther committed horrible crimes, I believe he paid for it by being a good citizen by giving to his community. He made sure no one was in poverty and that everyone who was struggling were able to pay their bills and keep food in their bellies. He donated various amounts to several charities. He built a very profitable factory where many of the citizens of the community work, so if  Gunther were to go to jail many people would be out of a job and would not be able to make ends meet.

Gunther is no longer major of this community and poses no threat of any one's safety. He is 92 years old, and therefore does not have a lot of time to spend with his children and grand children.

The Afterlife

What happens when we die? Many religions have different believes on what will happen to people when they die. The ancient Egyptians believed when the body died, parts of its soul known as ka (body double) and the ba (personality) would go to the Kingdom of the Dead. While the soul lived in the Fields of Aaru, Osirus demanded work as pay back for the protection he provided. Statues were placed in the tombs to serve as substitutes for the dead. To go into the after life, a sin free heart was needed. And the ability to recite the spells and passwords from The Book of Dead was also needed. The deceased persons  heart was weighed against the Shu feather of truth and justice, taken from the headdress of the goddess Ma' at. If the heart weighed lighter than the feather, the deceased could pass on to the after life. If it was heavier, the dead would be eaten by the demon called Ammit. Egyptians also believed that being mummified was the only way to have an afterlife. Only if the corpse had been properly wrapped and put in a mastaba, could the dead live again in the Fields of Yalu. The Book of the Dead was placed in the tomb with the dead, also food and jewelery was placed in the tomb. To the Egyptians, death was just temporary.

Christians believe after the soul leaves the body, it journeys to hell. There are exceptions, such as the Virgin Mary who was born by the angels in heaven. As for the rest, we must remain in this condition of waiting. Because some have a vision of the glory to come and others forget their suffering. The state of waiting is called "Particular Judgement". They believe that when Christ returns their soul will rejoin their body and will be judged by Him, this is called "The Final Judgement". The good and faithful servant will inherit eternal life, the unfaithful with the unbeliever will spend eternity in hell. Their sins and their unbelief will torture them as fire.

Sikhs also believe in reincarnation.They believe that the soul belongs to the spiritual universe. The amount of good done in life will store up blessings, and then when one dies they are united with God. A soul may need to live many lives before it is one with God. There are four classes that are included in this belief. Above these four classes is God Waheguru and the soul can choose to stay with him it wishes, or take another step and go to its people and serve them. Below these four classes are non-humans such as plants and viruses. Souls move up and down according to their deeds, a good life and death moves them up to a higher class and a bad life and death ends in going down a class.

Tuesdays with Morrie

In today’s society, we are led to believe if we aren’t skinny, we are not beautiful. If we don’t have enough money to buy expensive cars and houses, we’re poor. The main places all this negativity is displayed is on television or in magazines. All the commercials and magazine ads have extremely young, beautiful, skinny women or huge jacked up men in them. This gets people in the mind set that they have to look exact like the models in the ads, or the actors in the commercial. When really, if you sit down and actually take a look and think of how those commercials and ads are made, they are photo shopped and the people don’t even look anything like that. Morrie is dying, and he can still manages to be happy, he looks at the bright side of things. “And you have to be strong enough to say if the culture doesn't work, don't buy it. Create your own culture.” What Morrie really means is, if you don’t like the culture in today’s society, try to change it. You have to be strong enough to say, “I don’t want this.” People these days live very boring lives; we don’t take a second and really look where we are in life. All we worry about is our next pay check, and the next toy we’ll buy next.