Mid-City Christian: U.S. CATHOLIC

February 11, 2014

Should we legalize marijuana?

When it comes to marijuana matters, is America going to pot?

In 2010 the California Cannabis Initiative qualified for the state's ballot. If passed, it would have decriminalized certain offenses and permitted the personal consumption and cultivation of cannabis sativa, the drug commonly known by its Mexican colloquial name, marijuana, that goes by many names, including grass, reefer, pot, dope, weed, bud, Mary Jane, and hippie lettuce.

The debate about this ballot here in California was contentious, and ultimately the initiative failed, being opposed by 53.5 percent of voters. Though the California initiative was defeated, support for changing the laws on marijuana usage has increased nationwide. Fifty-eight percent of Americans now support legalization of medical marijuana. Read more.

What do you think? Should marijuana be available legally, or should it be a substance controlled by the law? Take our survey and let us know!

Putting schools to the test

A veteran education reporter offers a progress report on whether our education system is meeting its obligation to teach the children well.

In this interview with U.S. Catholic, journalist John Merrow explains that his role is that of a "sportscaster" in the world of education, chronicling the ideological battles, the grand experiments, the fight for resources. He spends countless hours each year in classrooms in the United States and around the world, analyzing the impact of these struggles on the children of our country--particularly those whose families have no financial means to send them anywhere but a public school. Read more.

UN demands removal of all known and suspected clergy child abusers

Will Pope Francis fully support removing all accused and the suspected, and show that he truly cares more about the victims?

Last week, the United Nations ordered the Vatican to take an enormous step in bringing justice to the victims of the sex abuse scandal. In a statement, the Committee on the Rights of the Child demanded the Vatican to immediately remove of all Catholic clergy known or suspected to be child abusers, to hold them accountable for their actions, and to turn them over to civil authorities. Read more.

All eyes on Sochi

The Winter Olympics are underway, and the world's attention turns to Russia.

It's not uncommon for Olympics to be surrounded in controversy or corruption, as cities take on the task of building the facilities and infrastructure needed to host the world's elite athletes and travelers from across the globe. But the Sochi games have fallen under a particular brand of scrutiny in the wake of security concerns, the proximity to a war zone, and--especially--Russia's anti-gay laws, which have led international human rights groups to declare the current situation in Russia "the worst human rights climate in the post-Soviet era." Read more.

Bee forewarned: Lessons from
the deaths of bees

As the bee population declines, we can either listen to the buzz or feel the sting.

For years scientists have been puzzling over a vast die-off of bees in the United States and throughout Europe. After significant drops in recent years, alarms started sounding in 2012 when as much as 50 percent of the bee population in the United States perished. Finding the answer to the bee-pocalypse is important not only to save one of the wondrous sounds of nature--the soothing hum of the honeybee at work--but because bees represent an enormous industry in their own right. Read more.

Listen: Reflektor

Arcade Fire (Merge Records, 2013)

What do you do after you've splashed onto the music scene with a monumental indie-rock sound that sparked boisterous adulation? What do you do after you make an artsy rock album that beats out numerous popular acts to win the Grammy award for album of the year? You go to Haiti and make an avant-garde electronic dance album, of course. Arcade Fire, that large ensemble of musicians from Montreal centered on the creative union of Win Butler and Régine Chassagne, have taken a step into the unknown with their new album, Reflektor. Read more.