The 5th gives rights to the accused. You do not have to testify against yourself and can't be tried twice for the same crime. This amendment is known for the one that gives you the right to remain silent. It also protects private property being taken by the government.You've probably heard people say "I plead the fifth" before. This amendment was introduced on the date of September 5, 1789 but the idea of the fifth amendment states back to 1215 document Magna Carta. The Founding Fathers created this amendment so all the accused has rights and protection, unlike how the British treated their way of crime and investigation. This amendment is still heavily used today because we still have a court system and people go to court everyday. People are not being tried two times for the same crime just because the government may want different results. This amendment is over 200 years old yet it is still very important.
Our 10th amendment is based of the concept of federalism. It states the Federal Government has powers that the constitution gives while the remaining powers remains with the states and the people. This would be the last of the Bill of Rights. It was ratified December 15, 1791. It was created to fend off anti-Federalists and their intellect and persistence. Just like any of the Bill of Rights, federalism is still used today. Our government is based off of a federalism platform.
Wednesday, September 30, 2015
Tuesday, September 29, 2015
BARNGA Q&A's
Tuesday, September 22, 2015
Bacha Bazi a.k.a. "Boy Play"
You think you know a person, especially if their your allies in an ongoing war on terrorism. According to this article, the Afghan police force practices what is known as "bacha bazi" or translated in English as "boy play". The Afghan police officers or even army commanders take boys back to their base and sexually abuse them. Even though we Americans may find this barbaric and very risqué, it's only a normal practice in Afghanistan. Quite a different practice that their police or army demonstrate compared to ours. Even though many our soldiers would like to interfere and try to do something about it, they can't. In fact, our soldiers have been ordered not to intervene at all! Our soldiers are there to fight against terrorist groups like the Taliban and not some ribald issue.
In America, any type of child abuse is a huge issue. Of course as Americans when we hear a story like this we are appalled by this type of behavior the Afghan forces exercise. We are all probably wondering why we haven't tried to at least try to step in and stop such conduct. Even for me, I wonder how a soldier of the U.S. just doesn't do anything about it. Sure, they are following orders which is very important and shows great grit, but with an issue that has become more widespread in our motherland, how come we are just letting innocent children get abused? We are told not to intervene because that would mean we would come between the Afghanistan way of doing things. We would be disrupting something that the Afghan culture believe is the right thing to do. Our soldiers fight everyday to preserve our freedom and keep our way of life intact. If soldiers are trying to keep our way of life and everything we believe is right, why would they do that to our allies? It would be hypocritical of us otherwise. Don't get me wrong, I believe what the Afghan forces are doing to those kids is absolutely wrong in so many ways and do not agree with it. However, as an American citizen, I understand that it's acceptable in their culture and there's nothing I can really do about it.
In America, any type of child abuse is a huge issue. Of course as Americans when we hear a story like this we are appalled by this type of behavior the Afghan forces exercise. We are all probably wondering why we haven't tried to at least try to step in and stop such conduct. Even for me, I wonder how a soldier of the U.S. just doesn't do anything about it. Sure, they are following orders which is very important and shows great grit, but with an issue that has become more widespread in our motherland, how come we are just letting innocent children get abused? We are told not to intervene because that would mean we would come between the Afghanistan way of doing things. We would be disrupting something that the Afghan culture believe is the right thing to do. Our soldiers fight everyday to preserve our freedom and keep our way of life intact. If soldiers are trying to keep our way of life and everything we believe is right, why would they do that to our allies? It would be hypocritical of us otherwise. Don't get me wrong, I believe what the Afghan forces are doing to those kids is absolutely wrong in so many ways and do not agree with it. However, as an American citizen, I understand that it's acceptable in their culture and there's nothing I can really do about it.
Lord of the Flies
Dear Aunt,
I'm trapped with a bunch of English boys on a remote island. Our plane carrying us was shot down and now I'm trapped, but alive. There are some interesting kids on this island. The first boy I met on the island was Ralph. Ralph is fair-haired and seems to be the voice of reason and leadership on the island. I found a conch shell and Ralph blew into it and all the other kids came out from hiding. We now use the conch for calling all boys to order for a meeting or if there is food. During meetings, the one holding the conch gets to speak while the others have to stay silent and listen. Anyways, lines of choir boys and a kid named Jack protruded from hiding. Jack is a jerk and is always making fun of me for being overweight and having asthma. Jack seems to represent savagery and is responsible for gathering a team of boys to hunt for food and keep the signal fires going. Simon is a well-mannered kid and is very spiritual and peaceful. He tends to help the younger group of kids around the island.
Since we are trapped here for a questionable amount of time, we tried to set up a type of civilization. We elected Ralph as the leader to Jack's dismay. All Jack wants is power and is just savage. Both boys each have groups that follow their ways since both have different views on how to run a civilization. Ralph preaches on building shelter and finding what we can do with what we got. Jack on the other hand focuses on hunting and violence. Since his crew is the one's in charge of hunting, Jack vows that he will kill a pig that keeps escaping from him and his band of boys. We tried to start a fire on a mountain to signal for help. We reflected the hot sun's heat from one of my glasses lens and we had a fire. However, the fire did not last long. Fire tends to be a symbol of a start of civilization but we are using it as a distress signal. Nights tend to get scarier for the little ones. They keep thinking the vines on the trees are snakes, or "creepers". They are just frightened and their minds are deceiving them. Not only that, but now they are believing that their are beasts that live amongst us on the island. Maybe so, but maybe it's just us. Maybe we are the beasts that everyone is afraid of.
Hopefully we will be found soon before everything becomes chaotic. Ralph and Jack's differences are becoming more apparent and are straining how we work together. In fact, we already lost a kid and it seems like I'm the only one that cared. We all shrugged this off as if it never happened. Nobody takes me seriously. I'm making you proud Aunt, I'm always saying words of wisdom that you say but nobody listens to me. It seems to me I'm the weakest link. I just hope I make it out alive.
Sincerely,
Piggy
I'm trapped with a bunch of English boys on a remote island. Our plane carrying us was shot down and now I'm trapped, but alive. There are some interesting kids on this island. The first boy I met on the island was Ralph. Ralph is fair-haired and seems to be the voice of reason and leadership on the island. I found a conch shell and Ralph blew into it and all the other kids came out from hiding. We now use the conch for calling all boys to order for a meeting or if there is food. During meetings, the one holding the conch gets to speak while the others have to stay silent and listen. Anyways, lines of choir boys and a kid named Jack protruded from hiding. Jack is a jerk and is always making fun of me for being overweight and having asthma. Jack seems to represent savagery and is responsible for gathering a team of boys to hunt for food and keep the signal fires going. Simon is a well-mannered kid and is very spiritual and peaceful. He tends to help the younger group of kids around the island.
Since we are trapped here for a questionable amount of time, we tried to set up a type of civilization. We elected Ralph as the leader to Jack's dismay. All Jack wants is power and is just savage. Both boys each have groups that follow their ways since both have different views on how to run a civilization. Ralph preaches on building shelter and finding what we can do with what we got. Jack on the other hand focuses on hunting and violence. Since his crew is the one's in charge of hunting, Jack vows that he will kill a pig that keeps escaping from him and his band of boys. We tried to start a fire on a mountain to signal for help. We reflected the hot sun's heat from one of my glasses lens and we had a fire. However, the fire did not last long. Fire tends to be a symbol of a start of civilization but we are using it as a distress signal. Nights tend to get scarier for the little ones. They keep thinking the vines on the trees are snakes, or "creepers". They are just frightened and their minds are deceiving them. Not only that, but now they are believing that their are beasts that live amongst us on the island. Maybe so, but maybe it's just us. Maybe we are the beasts that everyone is afraid of.
Hopefully we will be found soon before everything becomes chaotic. Ralph and Jack's differences are becoming more apparent and are straining how we work together. In fact, we already lost a kid and it seems like I'm the only one that cared. We all shrugged this off as if it never happened. Nobody takes me seriously. I'm making you proud Aunt, I'm always saying words of wisdom that you say but nobody listens to me. It seems to me I'm the weakest link. I just hope I make it out alive.
Sincerely,
Piggy
Friday, September 11, 2015
Micro/Macrosociology & Lifeboats
We did a little experiment in our Sociology class regarding who would live and who would parish if there was a group of twenty people and you could only save nine. A majority of us decided to keep the youngest of the bunch or females. Our society values youth and anything appealing to a gender. In this case, since most of our class is made up of the male species, many good-looking women on the list of people were saved. I believe that if our class was more female dominated it would be the other way around.
Microsociology is looking at the small picture of sociology. It mainly focuses on human beings, the roles they play and how they interact. This includes how they interact with other people, conditions and the environment. Macrosociology, on the other hand, focuses on bigger things. This not only includes human interaction but war, poverty, and distress in other human fields are also looked at. Both of these branches of sociology help us understand more about how humans function as an individual or as a unit in our big world.
How does this stuff tie with the lifeboat. I guess it all comes down to being judgmental as a human race. There are so many stereotypes and cliques that we are all caught up into that everyone has a different opinion on who should leave and who should die. As humans, we only interact with the people they make feel comfortable and not to the people that we believe may pose as a threat to our stereotypical minds. In this case, if we are not aware of their background and personal life, we started judging the cover instead of reading the whole story. We judge the people, and we make our decisions based on what our censorious minds tell us to do.
Microsociology is looking at the small picture of sociology. It mainly focuses on human beings, the roles they play and how they interact. This includes how they interact with other people, conditions and the environment. Macrosociology, on the other hand, focuses on bigger things. This not only includes human interaction but war, poverty, and distress in other human fields are also looked at. Both of these branches of sociology help us understand more about how humans function as an individual or as a unit in our big world.
How does this stuff tie with the lifeboat. I guess it all comes down to being judgmental as a human race. There are so many stereotypes and cliques that we are all caught up into that everyone has a different opinion on who should leave and who should die. As humans, we only interact with the people they make feel comfortable and not to the people that we believe may pose as a threat to our stereotypical minds. In this case, if we are not aware of their background and personal life, we started judging the cover instead of reading the whole story. We judge the people, and we make our decisions based on what our censorious minds tell us to do.
Tuesday, September 8, 2015
Empathy & Sociology
We watched a video of Sociologist Sam Richards preaching about stepping into other people's shoes and feeling empathy for others. Sometimes we are too selfish and only care about how we perceive things and not step into the shoes of the other person's point of view. An example Mr. Richards gave is a couple of Iraqis who were captured by the American Army during the Iraqi War. The two Iraqi men were captured for retaliating against our forces. As Americans, we probably think, "Yeah, that's good that we captured those radicals! They deserve it everything given to them." Now take off your 100% Patriotic shoes and step into the shoes of an Iraqi citizen. How do you feel now? You probably think, "They tried fighting for what they believed in and that trying to retain our independence. What brave men." They have the same viewpoint that we Americans have of our Armed Forces. There really isn't a difference. It really made me think.
We look into the big picture and we all try to figure out how we fit into it. The world is like one big sociological puzzle. We are one small piece out of seven billion. When are we going to step out of our shoes and figure out what is our purpose in our society? In my short time I have spent alive, I really never pondered that question. You learn about many figures in History class and how they all impacted others with their leadership; for example MLK or Roosevelt. Could we ever achieve a special legacy like these historical figures engraved in history? The chances of everyone to leave such an impact on the lives of millions is slim, but sometimes you don't need to be a revolutionary or president to leave a great significance behind. You could be a doctor or a teacher and one day when you're gone, people might still recollect about how great of person he/she was and how they touched the lives of the people they worked with or how great they were at their profession. If you leave a positive mark on the people you got to share the circle of life with, you will leave a legacy worth cherishing. It all starts by showing some empathy.
There's a few instances in my life that I have put on other peoples' shoes. Every time someone tells me a problem they might have or when someone is having troubles and they come to me, I open my ears and listen to them. I try to put myself in their shoes and try to feel where they are coming from. Sometimes when you show empathy to others who are sad or mad, it makes you feel good about yourself and knowing you're doing a really good thing. One of the best feelings I could ever feel is cheering up someone and putting them in a good mood when they were feeling down. Not only does it make someone happy, but you also feel happy you made someone's day.
I see myself fitting into the big picture of society as a regular citizen of the United States who will hopefully someday be remembered in a positive way by the people I was grateful to share my life with. I could be a teacher or a journalist, maybe a business mogul or garbage man. Heck, I could be a bum on the street, but I just hope someday when I'm gone, I will be remembered as an optimistic light, as an empathetic individual. That really matters to me.
We look into the big picture and we all try to figure out how we fit into it. The world is like one big sociological puzzle. We are one small piece out of seven billion. When are we going to step out of our shoes and figure out what is our purpose in our society? In my short time I have spent alive, I really never pondered that question. You learn about many figures in History class and how they all impacted others with their leadership; for example MLK or Roosevelt. Could we ever achieve a special legacy like these historical figures engraved in history? The chances of everyone to leave such an impact on the lives of millions is slim, but sometimes you don't need to be a revolutionary or president to leave a great significance behind. You could be a doctor or a teacher and one day when you're gone, people might still recollect about how great of person he/she was and how they touched the lives of the people they worked with or how great they were at their profession. If you leave a positive mark on the people you got to share the circle of life with, you will leave a legacy worth cherishing. It all starts by showing some empathy.
There's a few instances in my life that I have put on other peoples' shoes. Every time someone tells me a problem they might have or when someone is having troubles and they come to me, I open my ears and listen to them. I try to put myself in their shoes and try to feel where they are coming from. Sometimes when you show empathy to others who are sad or mad, it makes you feel good about yourself and knowing you're doing a really good thing. One of the best feelings I could ever feel is cheering up someone and putting them in a good mood when they were feeling down. Not only does it make someone happy, but you also feel happy you made someone's day.
I see myself fitting into the big picture of society as a regular citizen of the United States who will hopefully someday be remembered in a positive way by the people I was grateful to share my life with. I could be a teacher or a journalist, maybe a business mogul or garbage man. Heck, I could be a bum on the street, but I just hope someday when I'm gone, I will be remembered as an optimistic light, as an empathetic individual. That really matters to me.
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