Ordain and Establish the Constitution - Learning

The constitution is a very powerful document that is the base of which our whole government lies upon. Our founding fathers wrote this document hundreds of years ago which is why it seems to be such a sacred, untouchable document. But the truth is, in my opinion, that a lot has changed in those couple hundred years and it might be time to look over the content in the Constitution. There are many strong points in the Constitution like the first amendment which talks states that Americans have the right to freedom of speech, press, and religion while also allowing people to peacefully assemble. An other amendment that I think is a very strong one is the fifth because it grants the people the protection to not be tried for the same crime twice and to not be denied life, liberty or property without due process of law. Though there are many strong amendments to the Constitution, there are a couple which have caused many conflicts among the people and the government as years have gone by. In the second amendment, Americans are given the right to bare arms which is an example of one of the conflicts that has arose with the Constitution. It's possible that over 200 years ago, Americans should have the right to bare arms but today, in our society, this might not be the case. Many argue that the Constitution should have some changes made to it but some believe the Constitution can't and won't be touched which is why I believe the Constitution has lasted so long in our nation.

Teaching the fundamentals of the Constitution and going into depth with the document I believe is a very important thing to learn. In fact, I believe it's one of the most important subjects students can learn about because it is talked about and related back to so much in the news. A few continuing debates like the right to own a gun and whether or not the death penalty is considered cruel and unusual punishment all link back to the amendments in the Constitution which is why it is so important to know. Learning about the Constitution is one of those topics that will actually be useful information in the years to come; unlike that Geometry we all learned about in high school. I know I felt 100% smarter when I found out more and more information that had to do with the Constitution and the United States government; not to mention the information is actually interesting!

Political Action Committees

The Smith Connally Act of 1943 made it illegal for labor unions to donate money to their favored candidates or political parties. After only a year of this act in place, Political Action Committees (PACs) started to form. PACs are formed mostly by corporations and are used to raise money for a specific candidate of political party. The popularity of PACs grew rapidly and because PACs have a limited amount of money that can be raised, people began to form Super PACs (first showed up in July 2010). Super PACs are unlimited in the amount of money that can be collected but on the other end, can only support issues or causes rather than candidates or political parties. Today it is very easy to find a PAC or Super PAC to support because there are so many of them of so many causes, political candidates, parties and issues. People create these PACs to ultimately get their desired candidate elected to make their believes become realities.

The National Pro-Life Alliance is a Super PAC that believes life begins at conception and that abortion is murder and nothing like this should take place in our country. NPLA is different than many other pro-life PACs because it focuses on passing pro-life legislation rather than research, education, publications, or counseling. NPLA’s goals are not to regulate abortion, but to completely stop it. NPLA realizes that this goal is somewhat far out of reach at this point so they have focused on other legislation to help them get to that point eventually. Some of the legislation they have worked on passing are: to require a pregnant woman to get an sonogram before aborting, to allow parents of the underage pregnant girl to stop the abortion process at any time, to try stopping the supreme court from dealing with anything abortion related and instead leave it to Congress, and also to end medicaid abortion funding through taxpayers. The front page of the NPLA website says "abortion stops a beating heart" which I agree with 100%.

If I were to donate to a PAC, I would choose the National Pro-Life Alliance because I too believe that life starts at conception and that it's impossible for life to start at any other point; not at 3 weeks pregnant, not 16 weeks pregnant, not at 20 weeks pregnant, and not when the baby takes its first breath. I believe that once a woman becomes pregnant, the child has a right to live and its mother should not have a say in that. To me, this is one of those touchy subjects that I normally would not proudly come out and say that I am pro-life because I have so many people around me who have chosen abortion. And while I understand why they did it, I still believe in my heart that those children should have been given the gift of life but instead was murdered. Out of all the pro-life organizations and PACs out there, I love this one because their main goal is to not regulate abortion but to completely end it with a focus on passing important legislation to get closer and closer to that goal. I think it is very important that a women see their unborn baby in an ultrasound because I think sometimes during the early weeks of pregnancy, women don't wrap their minds around the fact that there is a REAL baby inside them; and when given the chance to see their children, I think makes it all real and changes the minds of some who were on the boarder of abortion. I also agree with the legislation to allow parents of underage girls who are pregnant to stop an abortion at any time. I don't believe all pregnant teens have the ability to make a decision that important at such a young age and her parents probably know whether she's capable to be a parent or not. Either way, I believe that child has a right to life and should be given to a family who can love that child if the mother is unable. 

The majority of the National Pro-Life Alliance's donations come from the Republican party, although of course there are some republicans who are pro-choice and some democrats who are pro-life. Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky speaks and supports the NPLA by asking the public to donate $50 or more to the PAC. One of NPLA's goals is to get as many pro-life people in the House and Senate which is the majority of republicans. 

Secure Liberty - Learning

The development of political parties in the United States has been warned about since the beginning; specifically by George Washington in 1779. He made this statement to the people stating that the creation of political parties in our government would result in the "ruins of Public Liberty."

"The alternate domination of one faction over another, sharpened by the spirit of revenge natural to party dissension  which in different ages and countries has perpetrated the most horrid enormities, is itself a frightful despotism. But this leads at length to a more formal and permanent despotism. The disorders and miseries, which result, gradually incline the minds of men to seek security and repose in the absolute power of an individual: and sooner or later the chief of some prevailing faction more able or more fortunate than his competitors, turns this disposition to the purposes of his own elevation, on the ruins of Public Liberty."

What George Washington meant by this is that when a country deals with major problems, the people of that country become vulnerable and in search of security and peace which allows the chief of some dominate political party who is more able than others to take advantage of these peoples' state of mind which destroys their freedom. This is a pretty extreme scenario but political parties can in fact influenced a nation's government because the two main political parties (Republicans and Democrats) have control of the House and Senate. Depending on whether there are more Republicans or Democrats in these positions will influence which way the government leans. This is also the same with the presidential elections. Whether a Democrat or Republican candidate is elected will allow the country to lean more towards a Democratic nation or a Republican one.

During a presidential election, many die-hard Democrats or Republicans like to help their favorite candidate with their campaign by donating money. But because there is a limit on how much money each person can give to a political party or campaign, Political Action Committees (PACs) were created, usually by corporations, to help raise money to give to their desired political party or campaign.  Each PAC is limited to raising 15,000 which is why recently Super PACs were created. Super PACs can raise as much money as they want but can not directly support a political party or candidate. Instead, they are to be for or against a cause or issue. The more money that is raised in a PAC or Super PAC, the more likely that candidate, political party, issue, or cause will be able to persuade the nation's people into their beliefs. Unfortunately, this can be a way to possibly change the results of an election but ultimately, I believe that the people already have set views and commercials probably aren't going to change these views.

Promote General Welfare Project

I created a white paper (a paper to inform viewers about a topic and help them make decisions) about the government agency WIC. WIC is a program that helps women, infants, and children receive proper nutritional foods while helping educate on health and support breastfeeding women. Click on the link to view my white paper.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1AGxKV1EQXW4p7nBjL5dXazl5JafcvJSieREWTzBpPmY/edit?usp=sharing

Promote General Welfare - Learning

When it comes to general welfare for the people, I think I am pretty neutral; or possibly don't know what I believe in yet. In my household, my family believes that government control should be very minimum, while the people around me think the opposite. I see both sides of the spectrum so some things I believe the government should control and some, I think, should be left to the people. I believe the people should be able to vote and be represented in Congress, just like it is now. Though, I do think that government should be left to control and handle money, crime, big organizations, etc. I might be saying this because I don't know any different and its hard for me to imagine any other type of government. I think there is a "right" government but I don't know what that is.

There is a limit of equality we can have in a country before it turns into chaos like in the short story, Harrison Bergeron where no one is smarter, prettier, stronger, or more talented than anyone else. Equality is achieved by making handicap laws that say good looking people have to wear masks, the strong and talented have to carry around weights of metal balls, and the smart have to wear an ear piece that makes an irritating sound every 20 seconds to stop them from taking advantage of their brains. The two main characters, George and Hazel are the parents of an imprisoned, 14-year-old boy named Harrison who is jail because of his beliefs that people shouldn't have these handicaps. While George and Hazel are watching the TV, they see that Harrison has escaped from jail and has shown up on the screen where the ballerinas were performing. Harrison announces very obnoxiously that he is the emperor and that he needs an empress. One of the dancers takes off her handicap mask and joins him but before they could leave, the Handicapper General shows up and shoots and kills Harrison and the dancer. From the way Harrison was talking about being an emperor, I think knew he was going to be killed by the officials but couldn't stand the idea of living with handicaps. He felt so strongly about his opinions that he didn't care whether he lived or died.

I have read this short story many times in different classes as it is a piece of righting I don't ever forget. I always remember different handicaps everyone has to wear and that the time period was set into the future instead of just being a "different today." This story reinforces the way I think about our government and the way we live because it shows that it's good to be different and portrays what life would be like if we were all the same. I believe people will always disagree on how involved the government should be in the peoples' lives but for now, I think the government now is good enough since I do not know any other.

Provide Common Defense Project

For my project, I created a presentation on Google Docs where I compare and contrast the foreign policy and national defense of the United States and Australia. What I found is that surprisingly there were many more similarities than differences.

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1pJkEb1npEQrELXE5YbatruFvYx5KXGIJhWyVHYcqbHw/edit?usp=sharing

Provide Common Defense - Learning

The current war has not affected me much besides frequently seeing things on TV about it. Though almost everyone I know knows someone who is either in Afghanistan or died in battle which is pretty depressing. I believe that what Obama has done to defeat many al Qaeda leaders with the beginning help of President George W. Bush was a huge success for the American people and now that 20 of the 30 big al Qaeda leaders are dead, it is only smart to start withdrawing troops from Afghanistan. To me, it does make sense to keep some troops in Afghanistan to keep peace among the country. I agree with President Barack Obama on keeping strong relationships with other countries like Israel by committing to its security and really focusing on Asia Pacific because of its potential for future growth. Sometimes I do think the U.S. gets too involved in other country’s problems, which just ends up causing more harm than good for us. I don’t know if this is possible or not but I’m sure there are situations in which the U.S. can back off a little bit. Honestly, it’s not the United States’ job to make sure there is peace and safety among all countries and I think sometimes other countries rely on the U.S. to do so because we always have. I believe that we have a lot of things to worry about and fix in our own country and to try and help out others is sometimes taking on too much.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/issues/foreign-policy  

http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=7054225n