Swann v. The Board

Last Friday, my litigation team debated our last court case, Swann v. the Board. My team was on the side of the board, and upon first glance of the case, we noticed that it wasn't going to be an easy case to debate. This case was going to challenge us not only intellectually, but mentally. We were going to have to think outside of the box to try and come up with ways as to why the Finger Plan was not going to be an effective method to achieve integration. From reading about the outcomes of the case, we knew that Swann won, but we didn't understand exactly what he won. We also realized that there were several expansions on this case, which included the Finger Plan, and several later court cases that came about years after the Swann case.

All confused, we went back to our sources of busing, and redistricting, and asked ourselves why? Why is this a bad idea to achieve integration? Well, there's time, money, distances, district zones, traffic flows, etc. Students would be on the bus for up to two hours sometimes, depending on traffic, and how far their house was from the school. Not only that, buses require gas, and gas requires money. Money that we don't have. Due to this, we decided that there has to be better options to acheive integration. All that was left was for the courts to agree with us.

What is America Coming To?

In a world where freedom of speech is allowed, and people have the right to vote, and the right to protest, why is there so much anger and hate? I log onto Facebook and all I see is one angry post after another. I get that some are mad about Trump being President, and I get that some rather have Hillary, or someone else, but there's nothing that we can do about it now. The election has passed. All that we can do is give Trump a shot and hope that it all turns out okay, just like we did with all the other President's that we have had. No President will ever be perfect, and of course some president's are absolutely horrible. Either way, Trump was voted in, and if he's really that horrible then in 4 years we can vote in someone else. Either way, if we want to make a difference then we have to make an active difference. We have to work together, instead of sitting behind a computer screen caught up in the fake realities of social media. 

An Interesting Day in the Court on the Case of Brown v. The Board of Education

For many years, America has operated under a segregated system. Blacks would go to one school, and whites would go to another. Unfortunately, for many blacks this was denying them the priveleges that many whites had. Black schools were no where near equal to the white schools. Teachers weren't as educated, supplies were lacking, and schools weren't as prepared. 

Today thats all changing. Today, we are making history. With the decision of the Supreme Court, schools will no longer be segregated. Blacks will be allowed to go to white schools, and vice versa. No more discrimination. How will America respond to this? Well, it all depends. America could respond very poorly to this happening, but at the same time, everything requires a change. America is being held back by the past. People are embarrassed to be in our country, and that is not okay. America is a wonderful place to be, and we should not have people be embarrassed because of our decisions. Lets all work together to make a positive change. 

Plessy v. Ferguson... Justice Harlan and His Dissenting Opinion

As I was sitting on the floor of my dorm reading Justice Harlan's dissenting opinion I couldn't help but think to myself, "Wow not only does this apply back then, but this applies today." Think about it; how many times are we told one thing, but presented another? Now relate that to the 14th amendment. The 14th Amendment granted blacks citizenship, and gave them equal protection under the law, meaning that the states can't treat them any differently. With that in mind, why did the states separate them? The blacks were told one thing, but presented another.

Justice Harlan was a smart man to write what he wrote. Not only was it powerful, but it was motivating and eyeopening. It brought to light issues that people turned a blind eye to. Justice Harlan refused to go with the norm of everyone else, and instead did his own thing. Now, I'm sure that people in 1896 didn't take too kindly to Harlan's opinion, and I'm sure that he got a whole lot of backlash for writing what he wrote, but hey look where we are now. Current day, 2016, is a whole lot different then back then. We are a generation full of a lot more acceptance and understanding. We're constantly moving towards new reforms and changes. I mean look how far we've come. We had the first black president, slavery is abolished, no more segregation, and we live in a free country protected by the Constitution.

Without people like Justice Harlan writing down their opinions, and saying that the current way of doing things isn't acceptable, then nothing was going to change. We can't be afraid to state our opinions because when we're afraid to state our opinions, than all were doing is saying that we accept every little thing that happens. We have the freedom of speech. Lets use that freedom of speech on issues that we feel are unjustified just like Justice Harlan did. You never know how powerful your words can be. Maybe years from now you could develop new laws and students like us will be reading you're dissenting opinions. Anything is possible. Use your voice, and lets move towards new reforms, Stick up for what's right just like Justice Harlan did in the Plessy v. Ferguson case.

Plessy v. Ferguson Debate

So, today, November 2, 2016, was the first time I debated in class today, and even though I forgot about the slaughterhouse cases, it went alright considering. The whole idea of litigation teams works wonderfully, as long as the team works as a team, which my team doesn't. My team needs to work on communication, and start working together to get everything done. Having to do this project by myself, I learned a lot about not only the Plessy v. Ferguson case, but myself as a person. I learned that team projects don't always work out, but that's okay because if it can be accomplished with a team, it can be accomplished alone. I learned that I can only control so much, and that when something isn't going right it's okay because there's always other options.

Regarding the Plessy v. Ferguson case, its an interesting, but morally difficult case. You have to battle with yourself about what you think is morally right, and what the law is. We all know that segregation is wrong, but at this time period, there is nothing that we can do about it, because its the law. When it comes to court cases, precedent always supersedes morals.

Should John Mann Be Responsible for What He Had Done?

On September 28, 2016 we had our first in class debate on State v Mann on the issue of slavery. This case was based on a slave named Lydia who was brutally beaten by her owner John Mann. Mr. Mann is saying that he has the right to do what he did because Lydia should obey her master since she is owned by Mr. Mann. The state is saying that this isn't the case, that even though slavery is legal, slaves are still property. It is wrong to damage property, and what Mr. Mann did was simple battery and assault which is against the law. Throughout the course of the class we debated many different aspects of each side, and in the end slavery ended up winning which in my opinion isn't right. Although I had to accept this outcome, it still makes me mad because I feel the state had a stronger argument. Mr. Mann assaulted Lydia and should pay for what he had done.

The First Presidential Debate

For my American Politics class I had to do a Film Assignment on the First Presidential Debate. In this debate there were a lot of topics that were covered, some that I felt were more relevant than others, but nonetheless were all interesting to hear about. I thought it was funny how each of the candidates were low-key attacking each other at first, but then attacking each other harder as the debate went on. Hillary was purposely trying to get Trump mad and off topic and she succeeded. Both of the candidates have very different views and opinions about how they want to achieve everything for the future. Hillary wants to make things better for the middle class and work her way up from there, whereas Trump wants to start with the wealthy and have everything trickle down. I think the reason why Hillary won the debate is because Trump very rarely answered the questions. He was too worried about defending the accusations Hillary used as a fish hook to throw Trump off course, which he took each time. I'm looking forward to watching the next political debate to see how each candidate acts, and what topics they discuss.