We have spent the last two days analyzing six democratic principles established in our founding documents and how they are relevant to a present day issue. To reflect on and use what you have learned, please consider other current issues or challenges that our country is facing and discuss how one of the six democratic principles (limited government, popular sovereignty, checks and balances, separation of powers, equal protection, federalism) can be applied to that issue.
In responding to this post, you must:
1. Explain a present day issue in our country.
2. Reference a specific current event article that you have used to better understand the issue you have chosen (provide a link to your article so others can read it if they want to learn more).
3. Show how one or more of the democratic principles is demonstrated in the example you have chosen (please pick a principle that is DIFFERENT than the one you focused on in class).
This blog response will be worth 10 points for history and will be assessed based upon your effort, application of concept to current event, and depth of analysis.
A present day event is US preparing massive arms for Saudi Arabia. This is a problem in our country because we paying for all these helicopter's and fighter aircraft's. http://www.cnn.com/2010/POLITICS/09/13/us.saudi.arms.deal/index.html
ReplyDeleteI'm not too sure what democratic principle this would be, but I'm thinking the president can do this even is our country doesn't want him too.
A present day issue that is in our country today, would have to do with the whole controversy over the mosque being built only a block or 2 away from Ground Zero. This is a topic that is outraging everyone over all of the US. This is being planned by an Imam, who is a supposed Muslim extremeist. People have also found ties that possibly link to the Taliban (money-wise). This is a very sensative topic, and now this Imam has just stated that this site is not "hallowed ground" meaning that it is not a memorial site for the victims of 9/11. Also meaning that this site is worthless, and has no memories behind it of the World Trade Center.
ReplyDeleteThe article that I used for this is:
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2010/09/13/imam-says-nyc-mosque-site-hallowed-ground/
I believe that this topic is under the "equal protection" principle. I say this because, everyone in the United States has the right to religion, and the right to express it. Even though most people do not want this to be built, some say that these Muslims have a religious right to build their Temple of Worship.
A present day issue occurring in our country is the push for renewable energy sources. An example for that would be the "Cape Wind Project", that is happening in Nantucket, Cape Cod. Once this is built, it will make a start to cleaner air. It will also reduce the use of fossil fuels and somewhat of pollution in the air.
ReplyDelete"We're trying to pioneer a new path to move America forward in obtaining cleaner energy."
--Jim Gordon, Cape Wind CEO.
http://www.cnn.com/2010/TECH/04/29/cape.wind.ceo.profile/index.html
The federal government permitted the interior secretary, Ken Salazar to allow the new construction of it. It in some way, it falls under the federalism category because the federal government is trying to break our reliance on fossil fuels, which can prevent getting oil from the middle east.
There is a major issue going on in America today having to do with freedom of expression. There is a preacher residing in Florida who is threatening to burn the Koran to show his disapproval of a moscque going up on the land near Ground Zero.(Muslims believe the Koran is the word of God transmitted to Mohammad, and therefore is a very sacred possesion to the religion.) Someone wanting to burn a sacred book is causing great controversery, as it could be seen as an act of hate against Muslims. Many people believe this could cause future acts of terrorism toward the United States and are outraged by this preacher's idea.
ReplyDeleteInformation found at: http://hashhs.blogspot.com/2010/09/foundations-wrap-up.html
I believe this deals with the "Limited Government" principle, because technically this preacher has freedom of expression and can do to his own property whatever he wishes. With this being said, the government really has no authority to prevent him from doing this.
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ReplyDeleteA current issue in the United States is the loss of jobs due to the current state of the economy. The Small Business Jobs Bill is one way in which the government is trying to createmore jobs and help the economy get back to where it was. The bill was recently passed in the senate and is coming closer and closer to being passed for good. If the bill is passed it is expectd to open up 500,000 jobs. Max Baucus the Senate Finance Committee Chairman said"When we help small businesses, we help to get Americans back to work." That quote shows how much the senate is pushing the bill and that it could really help the people of this country.
ReplyDeletehttp://money.cnn.com/2010/09/14/smallbusiness/small_business_bill/index.htm
I beieve that this current event falls under the category of Seperationof Powes. This is because the bill has to go through all of the different branches of the government before it can be put into use.
A present day issue in many large cities is that rape cases are being underestimated. In many cases it shows that the rapist gets away and keeps raping other women because the police just overlook the cases. A recent victim was Sarah Reedy, she was involved in a robbery and held at gun point, soon after sexually assaulted. She told the police detective her story but he REFUSED to believe her and arrested her for it, not only that he accused her of using drugs at the time and stealing the money from the store herself. These accusations were unheard of to Reedy her was pregnant at the time.
ReplyDeleteread more here
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/Blotter/senate-hearing-police-departments-underestimating-rape-cases/story?id=11632702
This topic goes under the checks and balances area because these certain rape cases were just "swept under the rug" and not treated like any other rape case that gets to go through an investigation. Traditionally in the checks and balances system the people with higher authority should have checked on these police detectives and figured out that they were ignoring so many rape cases. This is violating the "equal rights" in the 24th amendment because each person that was raped was not given the chance to put their assaulter in jail where they belong, or in this case they were wrongfully accused and put in jail themselves for doing nothing wrong, just by reporting the truth.
An important issue in the world today is abortion. Abortion can kind of be seen as a similar scenario to Gay marriage rights, in that people are trying to make abortions illegal in the United States. This issue concerns many people because getting abortions is killing off innocent fetus. Some statistics can be seen in this article...
ReplyDeletehttp://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2010-01-26-1Ateenpregnancy26_ST_N.htm
A government policy that can be seen here is equal protection of the law. At the moment all have the right to get an abortion, but many in the future may not be protected against this law, and violators will go to jail. Also, Every citizen has the right to vote on what they think should be the law concerning abortion; the 1st amendments rights are protected by the constitution so that people can freely speak their minds over the topic.
One issue going on in America today would be the unrest about President Barack Obama's health care reform policies. Taken from http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/39177510/ns/health-health_care/ : "A federal judge said Tuesday he will likely dismiss only parts of a lawsuit by 20 states challenging the Obama administration's health care overhaul as unconstitutional, though he didn't specifically say what portions.
ReplyDeleteThe Obama administration had asked U.S. District Judge Roger Vinson to dismiss the entire lawsuit. The states and the administration disagree over whether people should be required to have health insurance, and whether states should pay additional Medicaid costs not covered by the federal government.
The judge said he will issue a ruling by Oct. 14. The lawsuit is likely to wind up before the U.S. Supreme Court."
I couldn't find any articles that really were informative or current so I had to use this one. I know you said we couldn't use the topic we covered in class, but I think this was a really good example of Federalism.
The article "Conn. Man Whose Family Was Murdered Testifies at Trial" is about a father whose two daughters and wife were raped and murdered. The family was at home after a long day together when this attack happened. They were forced to give away a large amount of money along with their lives except for the father's. Today the father, Dr. William Petit, went to court to testify against the who is thought to be the murderer. Petit is able to incriminate whoever caused such harm to his family along with himself. The murderer may be put on death row.
ReplyDeleteThis article was found on http://www.aolnews.com/surge-desk/article/dr-william-petit-testifies-in-trial-of-steven-hayes-accused-of-murdering-petits-family/19633103?icid=main%7Cmain%7Cdl1%7Csec1_lnk1%7C170606
This story shows the Seperation of Powers. This incident is being covered by the Judicial Branch which deals with carrying out laws and creating consequences for breaking the law. This is one of the three branches of government. Also, the Seperation of Powers has to do with Judicial Review which is shown in this article. Since this case is being looked at in court the judges will review what happened and make decisions.
The current event I chose was the legalization of Marijuana in California. In the November elections, one of the questions that Californians will have to vote on is whether or not marijuana should be legalized for recreational use. If the majority vote yes, marijuana will be legalized and taxed, bringing in an expected 1.4 billion in tax revenue for the state. Many growers of California are against the legalization because they will stop earning as much profit. While some law enforcement and politicians are for the legalization because it will free up jail cells and give the state more money.
ReplyDeleteThis article shows popular sovereignty because the people are voting on whether or not they want marijuana to be legal. If the majority vote of people favor it then it will be legalized. This shows that the people have power, not just the government.
http://www.cnn.com/2010/POLITICS/09/13/california.marijuana.legalization/index.html
An important issue in America at the moment is the “don’t ask don’t tell” policy in the military. This policy prohibits anyone who is considered to seem as though they are gay, lesbian, or bisexual to join the United States military. Your sexuality should not matter if the person is willing to risk their lives to help save their country. This case might just make it to the Supreme Court if the lower courts continue to appeal it. This has been a major issue in the California area, and is very similar to Proposition 8 and the ban for Gay Marriage in the state of California.
ReplyDeleteThe source of the current event can be reached at the following link:
http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/09/09/dont.ask.dont.tell/index.html?npt=NP1
One of the democratic principles that is demonstrated in this current event regarding people of different sexualities joining the military is equal protection. Equal protection is meant to give everyone the same amount of equality. In this case, the gays and lesbians are not equal to the others who can join the military all because of being gay or lesbian or bisexual. I think that it is good that the “don’t ask don’t tell” policy has been ruled unconstitutional because it will give the gays and lesbians a chance of equality by being able to fight for their country in the military.
One of the major issues in the world today would be the oil spill in the golf coast. The justice department may sue the BP for the excessive amounts of damage in the golf. Federal lawsuits might come into account for this
ReplyDeleteThis lawsuit has involved the Oil Pollution Act, which was established in 1990. BP has to pay excessive amounts of money for the damages that they have done. "BP has already agreed to set aside $20 billion over several years to pay for claims resulting from the oil spill."
http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/09/14/bp.justice.legal.action/index.html
This story shows the separation of powers and how the federal lawsuit has to get involved. This shows that it is the separation of powers because each part of government has to look at each of the principles of the problem and look into the past documents to see what happened and they have to figure out which thing is suited to do to BP for there mistakes.
One of the current day issues in America is the worry of other countries making to many nuclear weapens. Today I found an article about how President Obama is sugesting we make a peace treaty with Russia about nuclear weapons. The article can be found at...
ReplyDeletehttp://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703376504575491922857601124.html?mod=WSJ_WSJ_US_News_5
This article shows the democratic principle of checks and balances. The way it shows the principle of the checks and balances is that the Executive branch makes a decision on wanting to make a peace treaty with Russia, but the Legislative branch has to vote on it.
An issue that may affect the United States today is the "Record level of US airstrikes hit Afghan militants." The Unites Starts army has dropped two missels in Afghan in the last 2 weeks killing a near 100 people. I feel that if they keep doing this that they may be endangering our own country, targeting ourselves to get bombed.
ReplyDeletehttp://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/as_pakistan
I feel that limited government applies to this article because the government did not step in and stop the bombing, because they cannot overrule every decision of the U.S Army unless voted on upon the people
One principal we learned about was equal protection among people. When a Florida pastor announced he was going to burn the Quaran on 9/l1 some supported him while other were outraged. Because of equal protection everyone no matter their beliefs is protected under the constitution. This means that those who follow the Quaran are allowed to under U.S. law and while burning the it wouldn't be illegal it would be very disrepectful, It could even endanger some people who are discriminated agaisnt because of their faith. While we have the equal protection law it is hard to enforce at all times.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.cnn.com/2010/OPINION/09/13/quran.case.roundup/index.html
One of the many present day issues is the immigration law in Arizona that was recently passed. Due to a lot of controversy, this law is still being picked at by Judge Bolton, who still continues to block key parts of the law. Judge Bolton filed an injunction on the law due to response about the issue from the Obama administration. This law is causing a lot of stur in the civil rights department and other issues of racial ethnicity, and it has been predicted that this case will continue on to the Supreme Court.
ReplyDeleteThis information about this topic can be found at this site:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/29/us/29arizona.html
In this topic I believe that the democratic principle demonstrated in this article is seperation of powers, because each branch has the right to either deny or pursue this law, and this lawa seems to withold the title of racial profiling, something that civil rights activists think is against the rights of all people from different ethnicities and nationalities. I believe that this will continue to be a huge debate, being based on immigrants and how police have the right to stop anyone they suspect of being an illegal immigrant trying to gain passage into the United States.
An issue that is going on within our government is the impeachment of a federal judge, one G. Thomas Porteous Jr.
ReplyDeleteHe is being impeached due to "intentionally made material false statements and representations under penalty of perjury, engaged in a corrupt kickback scheme, solicited and accepted unlawful gifts, and intentionally misled the Senate during his confirmation proceedings"
http://www.cnn.com/2010/POLITICS/09/13/judge.impeachment/index.html?npt=NP1
This article shows the principle of checks and balances in the government.In this situation, the House of Representatives "checks" the Judicial branch and prevents it by overstepping its power by impeachment
A current event in the United States is the challenge against the "don't ask, don't tell" policy of the military. The "don't ask, don't tell" policy prevents people from serving in the military while allowing those who hide it. This policy has rejected over 12, 500 gays from military service. This, to those affected, is discrimination. In California, a federal court ruled that the policy was unconstitutional. U.S. District Judge Philips said it defied the first amendment. As the battle against the policy continues up the chain of courts, it has met great opposition. Among notable opposition to the policy is the Pentagon and the White House. This fight against the discriminatory policy is another step towards true equal rights and equal protection.
ReplyDeleteI think that this current event is tied to equal protections because the military's policy encouraged the concealment of sexual orientation, which can be viewed as expression. In addition, the policy deprived specific individuals from opportunities. This policy is against the 1st amendment; freedom of expression and speech.
Source: http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/09/10/dont.ask.dont.tell/index.html?iref=allsearch
One of the elements of government that we learned was about equal protection. A prime example of this is in Washington, where just a few months ago they "eliminated policies that have resulted in significant racial segregation". This shows how equal protection is being upheld by the government, because they are trying not to segregate the students, and are making policies so the kids are more integrated.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/2010/April/10-crt-400.html
A current event that I chose was the issue of the burning of the Koran. A pastor from Florida wanted to get his congregation to burn the Islamic Holy Book on the ninth anniversary of September 11th. The pastor was wrong to even consider burning the Koran.
ReplyDeleteIn a way, equal protection is shown here, because no individual should feel discriminated against or disrespected. If the pastor proceeded with the burning, the state of Florida would be in big trouble. They would be because people of Islam would sue the state for allowing a group of people to be discriminated against.
http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2010/09/15/lessons_of_the_korans_non_burning/
The current event that I chose is how the Guinea presidential vote hangs in balance. Ben Sekou Sylla, the electoral commission head was arrested earlier this week on charges of fraud - pertaining to the first round of the election.
ReplyDeleteI am linking this event to checks and balances. Because they exist in Guinea, this issue was easily solved and the personw o was behind it was sentences to jail time. Something even better, he died in jail due to an unamed illness which is a good consequence fro infringing on democracy.
http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/africa/09/14/guinea.election.turmoil/index.html
Marijuana was recently legalized in Massachusetts. According to masscann.org, “Last November 65 percent of voters endorsed a statewide initiative reclassifying marijuana possession as a fine-only offense under state law.” This current issue is an example of popular sovereignty because citizens have the power. As I said 65% of the state voted yes to this act, showing that the legislative power resides with the people (doe.sd.gov).
ReplyDeleteOne issue America faces today is domestic violence against women. Women all across America are being beaten every day. Whether it be from a boyfriend, friend, husband, father, etc, domestic violence is a big problem. It leaves women hurt both physically and emotionally
ReplyDeletehttp://www1.umn.edu.humanrts/domesric/explore/index.htm
This issue pertains most to the equal protection issue. When women are beaten, their right to equal protection is taken away. Both men and women should have equal protection and nothing should stand between that. When women are beaten, it shows that men think they are inferior and deserve more rights and have a higher protection level than women.
Hi Everyone,
ReplyDeleteSome brief and generalized comments. You all have good ideas. Make sure you pay attention to the following: first, give more detail in your summary and your analysis. Also, some entries did not properly connect to the principles of American democracy.