The Internet's Effect on the World

Shortly after Hosni Mubarak stepped down, an activist named Wael Ghonim spoke out on Wolf Blitzers show saying that he owed the revolution to Facebook. As one of the leaders of the protest on january 25, Ghonim said that he reached out to the youth of the country on Facebook to inspire the revolution. After years of oppression from the Egyptian government, the people rose up to fight it, and Facebook played a key role in developing the revolt. Although Ghonim insisted that he was not a hero because he was just sitting behind a computer, he said that the true heroes were the ones on the streets putting their lives on the line. The fact is that Facebook and the internet have taken over our world and anything can happen now. Revolutions can happen in an instant with the internet and the ability to communicate so quickly. The internet has shaped our world in ways that were never possible only a decade or two ago.

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Opposing Political Ads

This ad campaign is very misleading. Mitt Romney talks about how we are raising taxes and how we are in trillions of dollars in debt. The reality is, that Bush put us in to these trillions of dollars of debt. Bush got us into this mess and Obama had to come in and clean it up. The raised taxes are absolutely necessary. We have to raise taxes in order to get out of the debt.There's no way we can start making money unless we tax the American people and cut certain programs.
But, although misleading, its still effective. The comercial has a very official feel to it and makes the viewer think that Romney is the perfect candidate to be running the country.



This is a good ad. Although I am biased towards democrats I actually think this ad is better than the other. This ad interviews people from all different races and genders and gets their opinion. The opposing ad is very slanderous and makes a point to put down the opposition, while this ad just promotes the candidate. This ad has a positive message throughout and I feel is a better approach to a political campaign

The Problem With E-Commerce

   E-commerce taxation is a very difficult issue for states.The problem with e- commerce is that states cannot tax it. People selling items to each other on Ebay or Craigs List makes no money for the state, which is detrimental to their funding. With e- commerce on the rise, it will be interesting to see how they decide to tax it. They must tax it universally with the same amount so as their is not a gray area and a difference between different websites.The problem will also occur in border to border deals. Because all states have different percentages of taxation, it is hard to decide which states policy should be used. This issue will become more prevalent in our society as e- commerce becomes more and more popular.


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Brown V. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas

In 1954 in Topeka, Kansas a group of activists and lawyers in the NAACP decided to try to overturn Plessy V. Ferguson. They combined 4 different cases that all had to do with black and white integration in schools. A little black girl named Linda Brown had to walk miles to get to her all black school and lived a block away from the all white school. She was part of a test case that was taken to the Supreme Court. They argued that the schools were not "separate but equal" facilities and in the end won the case. the court ruled unanimously in their favor and ended segregation in schools. I agree with the courts decision. The fact that schools weren't integrated al the way until 1954 is astounding. America is a great country but we definitely have some bad spots in our history, and segregation is one of them. This decision, although it took a while to go into effect, overturned segregation and was monumental in the American Civil Rights movement.

Gideon V. Wainwright

In Florida in 1963, Clarence Earl Gideon was arrested for breaking into a pool hall with the intent to burglarize it. He wanted a court appointed attorney, but was refused because the crime was not considered a capital offense. Gideon, under his own defense, pleaded not guilty but was found guilty. Later, from prison, Gideon asked to appeal his case with a petition called "in forma pauperis" and the court accepted the appeal and appointed him an attorney. Gideon took the case to the Supreme Court. The court ruled in favor of Gideon and overturned the previous decision Betts V. Brady. I agree with this decision because everyone has the right to an attorney. The court said that even though the defense may be able to prepare a perfect argument, their right to an attorney is sustained. This case was monumental in establishing the right to an attorney and the 14th Amendment.


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Miranda V. Arizona

The case debated in Miranda V. Arizona involved various cases that culminated under the same idea. The title case though, involved a man named Ernesto Miranda who had been arrested in Arizona under charges of rape and kidnapping. He was not informed of his right to remain silent or his right to an attorney. After a long period of interrogation, Miranda signed a confession and was found guilty. Miranda took his case to the Supreme Court citing the 5th Amendment saying that, "no person shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself." The Chief Justice Earl Warren recognized the fact that people go through tremendous psychological pressure in the interrogation room, and that this could affect the rational judgement of a person under that amount of pressure. Warren also explained that Miranda must be informed of all of his rights and in fat, because he was not the case had to be thrown out. The court ruled 5 to 4 in favor of Miranda. I agree with the court on this decision. A person must be made known their rights no matter how bad of a crime they have committed. As we have seen this year, a some people admit t crimes they haven't even committed because of the pressure of interrogation. This case was very important in establishing people's rights and stabilizing the 5th Amendment.


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Regents of the University of California V. Bakke

In 1978 Alan Bakke, a white student applying to the medical school of UC Davis, was rejected admission. He was not admitted to the school even though he had better test scores than the minority students applying. The minority students had a different criteria for admission than white students. After getting rejected from the medical school, Bakke sued the college. He took the case to the Supreme Court citing a violation of the 14th Amendment with equal protection under the law. The court sided with Bakke in a 5 to 4 decision. They ruled that the separate criteria was a violation of the 14th Amendment. I think the court made the right decision in this case. Just because someone is of a different ethnicity doesn't mean they should be held at different standards. That seems racist in itself to think that a person of color would be held at a lower standard and be more easily admitted to a college. This decision was the predecessor to affirmative action which is being heavily debated now.


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Miller V. California

A man named Miller sent out a large quantity of "adult" books and films to the public in 1973. Miller was prosecuted for violating California's obscenity laws, so he appealed the case. He argued that this went against the 1st Amendment and the right to free speech and freedom of the press. The Supreme Court ruled against Miller with a vote of 5 to 4. They ruled that the work lacked "serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value." I think the court made a good decision in Miller V. California. Although I do believe in freedom of speech and freedom of the press, I think Miller took it to an extreme. He sent porn to people who didn't ask for it, and forced obscene material on them. He had no right to invade their privacy like he did.

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Plessy Vs Ferguson

A law in Louisiana in 1890 read that railroads had to provide "separate but equal" accommodations for white and colored people. A man named Homer Plessy decided to test this law. Plessy was 1/8th black and tried to sit in the white section of the train on a trip from New Orleans to Covington. Plessy was ordered to move but he refused and was arrested and put in jail by a local judge named Ferguson. Plessy took the case to the Supreme Court claiming that it was a violation of the 13th Amendment. The court ruled that segregation laws were widely recognized and had to be enforced. This was the wrong decision in my opinion. This court case set the stage for segregation across the United States and wouldn't be overturned for another 60 years. The fact that people were ok with segregation is appalling, and I really think the Supreme Court got it wrong here, even if it was over 100 years ago.


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United States Vs Nixon

On June 1972, 5 men with bugging equipment were arrested in the Democratic National Convention. They were later found to have been working for CREEP or the Committee to Re-elect the President. The United States Department of Justice hired a special prosecutor to investigate what would be called the Watergate Scandal. President Nixon had been taping conversations of the Republican Party so he could help his campaign. The Federal court ruled unanimously that Nixon had to overturn the tapes when he refused.I think that the court made the right decision in this case. The President has no right to wiretap the opposing party and keep the tapes from the American people. The public has a right to know what goes on behind closed doors in the US government. Later, after the tapes were turned over, Nixon ended up resigning before he could get impeached.

http://www.infoplease.com/us/supreme-court/cases/ar41.html

Roe V. Wade

In my opinion Every woman should have the right to choose to have an abortion. The court ruled 7 to 2 in favor of Roe in this case, which in my opinion is the right decision. Even if the fetus is considered a human in the later stages of pregnancy, I still think that the woman should have the right to abort it. What if the woman was raped and didn't want the baby? Or the woman couldn't take care of the baby. I think it is the woman's right to abort the fetus id the baby will not have a good life. This monumental court case made it so women could get an abortion in 46 out of 50 states, and was a big step forward socially in the United States.

Community Service Paper

Alex Towne

Period 6

April 13^th, 2011

Community Service Paper

Part 1

World hunger is one of the biggest problems we are facing in the 21^st century. From the year 2007 to 2008, food prices spiked around the world causing millions of family’s to go into debt and struggle to put dinner on the table. With over 2 billion people around the world living on less than $2 a day and over 880 million living on less than $1 a day, the rise in prices has contributed to a lot of economic hardship for many people. This is a very important issue to me because I care about others. I am a democrat and I think that everyone should have the right to eat good and healthy food. If there’s anything the world should not have to worry about it should be nutrition. Eating right is essential to life and should therefore be at the top of our list of problems to deal with. (Clemmit, 1)

            Although there are many root causes to the problem, many believe that the rise in oil prices is one of the main factors. From growing the food to transporting it, all of the machines need oil to run. With the increase in oil prices over the past decade, this has made the cost of food go up as well. President of the Asian Development Bank, Haruhiko Kuroda says, “The era of cheap food may be over.” As the world economy changes and becomes more globalized, many countries produce a large amount of just a few crops for export and import others for their own food supply. This means that transportation is becoming even more important to countries food supply and the increase in oil prices has had a very influential effect. (Clemmit, 1)

            Another reason why there are so many people struggling is because of poverty. Poverty goes hand in hand with hunger, because if you don’t have money, you are going to struggle to buy food. According to the National Poverty Center, in 2009 over 14.3% of Americans lived in poverty. (National Poverty Center) The recent economic downfall has rendered millions to be below the poverty line. As more and more people fall below the poverty line it will be important for the government to step up and provide a way of getting cheap food to them.

The government has taken a few steps to help. As of December 2, 2010 Congress passed the Healthy Hunger Free Kids Act, which enabled more kids to have access to meal plans in their schools and also raised the health regulations on meals in schools. Under this act 21 million more meals will be given out each year to struggling children. (Hunger Free Kids Act) The government is definitely aware of the problem and is somewhat doing their part to help. Although it is very hard to pass legislation at this time in Congress, world hunger is an issue that both Democrats and Republicans can agree on. I still think that the US government needs to pass more legislation so that no person in or great country has to struggle to find food.

Part II

Although the United States government has taken some initiative in helping fight hunger across America, the new budget deficit would eliminate some programs that help feed people. The proposed budget would eliminate the program called WIC that provides over 18 million meals to women, infants, and children. Although our deficit is huge in the United States, this cut would hardly make a dent and is not a good option. (Bittman, 1) Personally, I think we should cut military programs to get out of debt. Our people’s health is far more important than our weapons production, in my opinion.  The federal government needs to protect the people’s health with food and medicine rather than guns and bombs.

My community service at the Contra Costa Food Bank related to what we studied this year with supply and demand. We learned that as supply goes up, demand goes down and thus, so do prices. It appears we have a low supply of food in the world, or at least an unequal distribution. This is why food prices are so high. People in the Bay Area need help to get food because food prices are so high, so the food bank serves as a great way for them to get cheap food. As the supply of food is lower, the price goes up. Just like the classic example we saw earlier this year of guns and butter, the United States has decided to spend more of its funding on guns rather than butter.  I don’t think the United States should be as concerned with military as they should with health. Also, the United States is one of only 3 well-developed countries in the world not to have a system of national healthcare. (OECD Report) We currently rank 37^th in the world in healthcare according to the World Health Organization. (World Health Organization Rankings) I think that the United States spends far too little funding on its own people. After watching Sicko this year in class, I felt like the insurance companies were screwing over the people. It is our duty and is stated in the 14^th Amendment that everyone deserves equal protection under the law. If everyone deserves equal protection then why should people be denied the right to get treatment at a hospital because they can’t pay for it? Why should people be denied meals from the government if they can’t pay for them? It’s the same idea, and something needs to be done.

America has a system in place that allows people of low-income status to receive food at low prices. This system of food stamps, although a valid option, is not perfect by any means. People who apply for food stamps must meet certain requirements (be legal citizens, have a social security number, have less than $2000 worth of property in their households, etc.). (Social Security Fact Sheet) Many people who have food stamps aren’t getting enough food. Stacy Dean, the director of food assistance for the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities remarked in 2008, “We know food stamps are falling short $34 a month” (Kaufman, 1) This equates to about 2 fewer bags of groceries every week for poor families. This is a huge amount of food considering the people we are talking about. The steady rise in prices has led to people not being able to buy as much food, even the people on food stamps.

I think Obama could really get people on his side if he tried to hammer out a bill that helped Americans have better access to food and health. He pushed through the healthcare bill, but that was a tender subject and had to be toned down because of all of the greedy insurance companies. Especially with the recent natural disasters occurring in Japan and other places, people are willing to help. World hunger is a huge problem, but a fixable problem. Every little bit helps.

This brings up a big question. Is it the government’s fault that food prices are rising? As the US is in trillions of dollars of debt, it cannot just be the food prices. This is a bigger problem. The national debt is so large that the government theoretically can’t do anything. This is a larger problem than just food supply and food prices, this is a fundamental problem of our government. This is why every little part we can do in our communities counts. Volunteering just a little bit of your time can really go a long way. If the government isn’t going to get the job done then we can.

Part III

A filmmaker from Portland, Oregon says, “Feeding 6 billion people is really hard. I don’t think we’ve figured out the right way to do it.” (Clemmit, 1) Although we may not have figured it out, there are things we can do to help. This is where organizations like the Contra Costa Food Bank come in. I worked the majority of my hours at the Contra Costa Food Bank in Concord. There, we helped package a wide range of foods and categorize them so they could be distributed to people of low-income status. Even in a well-developed country like the United States, there are still a lot of people who are struggling to put food on the plate. In the bay area alone are hundreds of thousands in poverty. Because of this, there are many people who need help putting food on the table. The Contra Costa Food Bank’s goal is to give everyone at least 1 nutritious meal per day. (CCFB Website) While working there, I saw how much I could make an impact. By just volunteering a few hours a week of my time, I helped other people receive that one meal they needed.

            Last year alone the Contra Costa Food bank distributed 12.6 million pounds of food. With our help, they can distribute even more and make a larger impact. The Hunger in America Study reported a 46% increase in the number of people in need of food since 2006. More and more people are in need of food in our nations economic crisis. The Contra Costa Food Bank and many other organizations are doing everything they can to make that number go down. (CCFB Website)

            A few of the people who I worked with were actually volunteer’s there full time. It’s amazing to me to think that someone would basically devote their life to helping others. It gives me a sense of hope in the world that people are willing to help others without a cent of money earned. I knew there were people like this, but to actually meet them so close to us was great. There are so many less fortunate people in the world that need help, and its nice to know there are people willing to help them out.

            Overall I learned a lot after doing my community service at the food bank. It felt good to know that I was helping people who are less fortunate than I am.  We live in such a privileged area in Lamorinda, it’s easy to forget that not everyone can live like we do. There are tons of people around us that are not as fortunate who need help, and doing community service is a great way to help them out. We live in a very culturally diverse are with all different kinds of people, and it’s nice to know that we can help them out.

            This experience definitely made me want to volunteer more. I felt a great sense of accomplishment and fulfillment once I finished my time at the food bank. Whenever I help out other people for community service, I’ll be honest I don’t normally look forward to it. I always just want to get it over with and move on to whatever else it is I am going to do that day. But this time was different. Maybe it’s because I’m older now, or because I’m more mature, but I didn’t get that feeling this time. I actually got the opposite. I liked doing community service and helping out others. You don’t always have to be paid to lend a hand. Sometimes its good to work out of the good of your own heart and not for a paycheck. The community service I did at the food bank was humbling. It was good to be reminded that not everyone has it as good as me. Driving to the warehouse, listening to my iPod, in my car that my parents paid for, my clothes that my parents paid for. This experience really put it in perspective how good I have it. I hope to continue the fight to end global hunger and fight for the cause. All it takes is a little bit of help and anyone can make a huge difference.

Milk Madness

   Chocolate milk has been stirring up controversy lately in schools. Typically it has been regarded as a great way for kids to get their vitamin d and other nutrients, because many kids don't drink milk on a daily basis. Now many nutritionists say that it is unhealthy for kids. The high fat content and high sugar content are the main reason for the controversy. Many kids would skip milk altogether if school didn't have chocolate milk. A parent of 3 elementary students remarked, "If we want to fix childhood obesity, chocolate milk is just one of the things we need to get rid of it. Its a treat, not something you have everyday for lunch." I don't agree with this at all. As a student, I drink chocolate milk everyday at lunch, and I would hate it if it got taken away. The majority of kids at our school go for chocolate milk, and even though it does have more calories, it contains just as much nutrients as regular milk. The food supply is low right now, and there would be a lot of wasted milk if we did away with chocolate in schools because kids wouldn't drink it.

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Budget Cuts in all the Wrong Places

   An opinion writer for the New York Times named Mark Bittman decided to fast to oppose the newly proposed budget cuts in congress. The new budget would cut the WIC program which feeds over 18 million women, infants, and children. It would also deny over 4 million people the access to malaria medicine. Bittman makes it a point to say that this would hardly make a dent in the budget and is not worth it. It would cause people to starve who are struggling and put that money into defense. Why does our government always spend so much money for defense. At a certain point, being able to feed people in the US has to be more important than building weapons. I think we should use some of our military funding and transfer it to help the poor and people who are struggling to put food on the table.


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Supposed end to Corruption in India

   On April 9, 2011 an activist in India named Anne Hazare decided he would end his hunger strike if the Indian government would adopt a new law. The activist had been fasting for four days but agreed to stop once the government called a committee to implement a new anti corruption law. Hazare's strike brought thousands of onlookers to New Delhi to look at the spectacle. The Indian government finally gave in and said they would draft a new law by June 30th. Hazare said of his hunger strike, "Its a victory for the people of India."

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