Civil Rights and Responsibilities Essay Example for Free

Civil Rights and Responsibilities Essay The Bill of Rights was added to the Constitution shortly after its ratification. These amendments guarantee certain political, procedural, and property rights against infringement by the national government (Patterson, 2009). â€Å"A bill of rights is what the people are entitled to against every government on earth, general or particular, and what no just government should refuse, or rest on influence (Thomas Jefferson). The First Amendment provides the foundation for freedom of expression which is the right of individual Americans to hold and communicate views of their choosing (Patterson, 2009). The motivation of the Bill of Rights was to guarantee individual rights and freedoms. The First Amendment reflects this tradition, providing for freedom of religion along with freedom of speech, press, assembly, and petition. The three provisions of the First Amendment are the freedom of speech, assembly and religion. The freedom of speech states that you are free to say almost anything except that which is obscene, slanders another person, or has a high probability of inciting others to take imminent lawless action. The freedom of assembly states that you are free to assemble, although government may regulate the time and place for reasons of public convenience safety, provided such regulations are applied evenhandedly to all groups. The freedom of religion states that you are protected from having the religious beliefs of others imposed on you, and you are free to believe what you like. Freedom of religion simply means citizens have freedom to attend a church, synagogue, temple or mosque of their choice, or not to attend at all. The First Amendment allows us to practice our religion the way we want to. When talking about freedom of religion and the First Amendment I think about religion in the schools. Every since the Supreme Court held school-sponsored prayer unconstitutional in the early 1960s, there has ben a concerted and well-funded campaign to reintroduce religion in public schools. Public schools themselves should not be in the business of promoting particular religious beliefs or religious activities and they should protect children from being coerced by others to accept religious (or anti-religious beliefs. A Saskatchewan Human Rights Commission inquiry ruled in July that the Saskatoon Board of Education must end a practice of giving teachers the option of conducting prayers in public school classrooms and assemblies. In practice, the choice has been primarily the Lords Prayer. The ruling will not change practices in separate schools. The inquiry followed a complaint six years ago by nine parents, including Muslims, Jews, Unitarians and atheists. About 20% of the 550 public school classrooms in Saskatoon begin the day with prayer. The decision may be appealed in court (Globe and Mail, 1999). The relationship between religion and government in the United States when it comes to the United States Constitution is governed by the First Amendment to the Constitution, which both prevents the government from establishing religion and protects privately initiated religious expression and activities from government interference and discrimination. The First Amendment thus establishes certain limits on the conduct of public school officials as it relates to religious activity, including prayer. Prayer should not have been taken out of schools. Parents should be sent home a letter opting out of religious activities and employees should be given the same option, but taken it out of schools was ridiculous. The case of Engel v. Vitale (1962) went to the Supreme Court and the case was about a time in 1951 the New York State Board of Regents (the State board of education) approved a 22-word â€Å"nondenominational prayer â€Å"for recitation each morning in the public schools of New York. It read: â€Å"Almighty God, we acknowledge our dependence upon Thee, and we beg Thy blessings upon us, our parents, our teachers and our Country.† The Regents believed that the prayer could be a useful tool for the development of character and good citizenship among the students of the State of New York. The prayer was offered to the school boards in the State for their use, and participation in the â€Å"prayer-exercise† was voluntary. In New Hyde Park, New York, the Union Free School District No. 9 directed the local principal to have the prayer â€Å"said aloud by each class in the presence of a teacher at the beginning of the school day.† The parents of ten pupils in the New Hyde Park schools objected to the prayer. They filed suit in a New York State court seeking a ban on the prayer, insisting that the use of this official prayer in the public schools was contrary to their own and their childrens beliefs, religions, or religious practices. The State appeals court upheld the use of the prayer, â€Å"so long as the schools did not compel any pupil to join in the prayer over his or his parents objection† (infoplease.com). The Freedom to Assemble gives people the right to assemble peacefully without causing any harm to others. As much as I do not agree with the KKK views and opinions they should be able to assemble if they do it in a peaceful manner. The First Amendment prohibits government from abridging the right of the people peaceably to assemble. This basic freedom ensures that the spirit of the First Amendment survives and thrives even when the majority of citizens would rather suppress expression it finds offensive. Over the course of our history, freedom of assembly has protected individuals espousing myriad viewpoints. Striking workers, civil rights advocates, anti-war demonstrators and Ku Klux Klan marchers have all taken to the streets and sidewalks in protest or in support of their causes. Sometimes these efforts have galvanized public support or changed public perceptions. Imagine a civil rights movement without the March on Washington or the womens suffrage movement without ranks of long-skirted, placard-carrying suffragists filling city streets. The U.S. Supreme Court recognized the importance of this freedom in the 1937 case De Jonge v. State of Oregon, writing that the right to peaceable assembly is a right cognate to those of free speech and free press and is equally fundamental. â€Å"According to the Court, † the right to assemble is one that cannot be denied without violating those fundamental principles which lie at the base of all civil and political institutions† (archive.firstamendmentcenter.org). The KKKs right to assemble peaceably was secured by the famous 1977 case of National Socialist Party v. Skokie, in which the American Civil Liberties Union successfully argued that the First Amendment prohibited officials of Skokie, Ill., from banning a march by the National Socialist Party. Skokie is a Chicago suburb that is home to many Holocaust survivors. One federal judge reasoned that â€Å"it is better to allow those who preach racial hatred to expend their venom in rhetoric rather than to be panicked into embarking on the dangerous course of permitting the government to decide what its citizens may say and hear† (archive.firstamendmentcenter.org). In conclusion, the First Amendment of the United States protects the rights to freedom of religion and freedom of expression as well as freedom of assembly from government interference. Freedom of expression consists of the rights to freedom of speech, press, assembly and to petition the government for a redress of grievances, and the implied rights of association and belief. The Supreme Court interprets the extent of the protection afforded to these rights. The First Amendment has been interpreted by the Court as applying to the entire federal government even though it is only expressly applicable to Congress. Two clauses in the First Amendment guarantee freedom of religion. The Establishment Clause and the Free Exercise Clause are two clauses in the First Amendment that guarantee freedom of religion. The Establishment Clause prohibits the government from passing legislation to establish an official religion or preferring one religion over another. It enforces the separation of church and state. The Free Exercise Clause prohibits the government, in most instances, from interfering with a persons practice of their religion. The right to assemble allows people to gather for peaceful and lawful purposes. Implicit within this right is the right to association and belief. With that being said, all people should be having some kind of freedom. They should be able to boycott and assemble peacefully without causing any harm to anyone. People should be free to have their different views and opinions of religion, be it that they religious or anti-religious. To sum it all up I would love for everyone to feel that they are free. References http://www.oyez.org/cases/1960-1969/1961/1961_468 http://www.aclu.org/religion-belief/program-freedom-religion-and-belief-government-funded-religion Religion in schools (teachers in Saskatchewan will no longer have the option of conducting prayer services in class). Humanist in Canada 130 (1999): 4, 39. General OneFile. Web. 25 June 2012. http://www2.ed.gov/policy/gen/guid/religionandschools/prayer_guidance.html

The Importance of Misunderstanding in Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison Es

The Importance of Misunderstanding in Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison    In Ralph Ellison's novel Invisible Man, the main character is faced with challenges that he must overcome to survive. Most of the challenges he faces are straightforward; however, he ends up losing to his surroundings. When he makes a speech to calm a disorderly group, he ends up unwittingly naming himself their leader, thus, changing a slightly rowdy group into a mob primed for racial rioting. How can someone's speech be manipulated into having a meaning the complete opposite of the original intent? The Invisible Man's audience decides that they are only willing to listen to a speaker presenting what they want to hear. Due to a handicap of inexperience in public speaking, his effort to calm the crowd is used by the crowd, to forcefully name him the leading figure of an unreasonable mob. While walking down a New York street, the protagonist bears witness to the eviction of an elderly black couple from their home. While a Marshal conducts his job of ordering trusties to pile the couple's belongings on the sidewalk, a crowd gathers and watches in sympathetic disbelief. The Invisible Man becomes mixed in with the crowd and feels that the older couple is much like his own mother and father because they too are hard working and honest people. Soon after his realization, the woman being evicted becomes angry over the fact that she is unable to pray on the floor of her home. When she and her husband try to run past a defending trustee, the woman ends up falling backwards down her steps, which causes the spectators to become enraged. At this point, the Invisible Man becomes the center of attention when he rushes to the steps and makes a speech. His intentions... ...ed judgment and inexperience, he is unable to carry though with his original intentions and give rational judgment to the crowd. The misunderstandings that happen at the eviction shape the Invisible Man's future, causing a milestone in his life to be covered without even giving the least amount of effort. Irving Howe was right about stumbling to individuality; the Invisible Man's future is shaped by the wishful thinking of other people. Outcomes would have been vastly different had purposes been straightforward, actions been true, and emotions been clear; however, had conditions been better, the Invisible Man might have simply prompted serenity, or been the victim of a crowd turning against their leader. Works Cited: Ellison, Ralph W. Invisible Man. New York: Vintage International, 1952. Howe, Irving. "A Negro in America." The Nation 10 May 1952:454.

Great Wall of China

The Rise and Fall of China's Great Wall The rise and fall of China's Great Wall: the race to save a world treasure – Special Report Current Events, Sept 27, 2002 Save a personal copy of this article and quickly find it again with Furl. net. It's free! Save it. MADE OF BRICK, STONE, and dirt, the Great Wall twists and turns across China's landscape like a giant dragon. It seems to rise out of the sea at Bo Hal gulf, a place known to local people as Laolongtou, or â€Å"the old dragon's head. † The wall then stretches across the plains, crawls along the sides of mountains and scales their peaks as it spans the Asian countryside.This ancient wonder, built entirely by hand, often overwhelms visitors. On a trip to the wall in 1909, French scholar Auguste Gilbert de Voisins said, â€Å"Nothing stops it, nothing gets in its way; seeing it at this point, one might believe it to be eternal. † Today, however, neglect, misuse, and modernization threaten the giant dragon. Al though the wall once stretched nearly 4,000 miles across China's northern border, only about 1,500 miles of China's Great Wall remain. The rest has fallen apart and disappeared. This year, the World Monuments Fund placed the Great Wall on its list of 100 Most Endangered Sites.The group hopes to protect what's left of the wall and to encourage the Chinese government and others to save the historic structure. According to a World Monuments Fund report, â€Å"[The wall] was built to protect China; now China must protect it. † The Great Wall of Qin China's Great Wall didn't start out so great. Begun nearly 2,300 years ago, the structure was a series of small fortifications. As early as 600 B. C. , people in China built small walls around their homes and cities for protection. Soldiers guarded the gates around the city walls during the day and swung the gates shut at night.During the Warring States period (475-221 B. C. ), leaders struggling for control of China built walls around entire kingdoms. Soldiers occupied forts and towers on the wall and fought to protect the borders of the independent states. In 221 B. C. , Qin Shi Huangdi unified the kingdoms and became the first emperor of China. Qin Shi Huangdi gave orders to build the chang cheng, or â€Å"long wall,† to protect China from northern nomads who were trying to invade China. Laborers built the wall by joining walls constructed earlier and extending the length of the wall to nearly 3,100 miles.With the help of General Meng Tian, Qin Shi Huangdi ordered 800,000 men–soldiers, prisoners, and peasants–to build the wall. Where stones were plentiful, workers used stones to build parts of the wall. Where stones were scarce, workers used dirt. To build the wall, laborers dug up large amounts of dirt and carried it to the wall. The workers then piled dirt into wooden frames about 6 inches deep. They used wooden instruments to pound the dirt until it became a solid mass. This process was repeated until the wall reached a desired height.Workers then moved the wooden frames to the next section of the wall and began the process again. According to legend, Qin Shi Huangdi condemned workers to death for making the slightest construction errors. Today, few traces of the Qin wall remain. After Qin Shi Huangdi's death in 210 B. C. , workers abandoned the wall and it eventually crumbled into ruins. The Ming Fortress Nearly all of Qin Shi Huangdi's successors built walls along China's northern frontier. The fortifications, however, never fully protected China from invasion.During the early 13th century, Genghis Khan, leader of the Mongols, a nomad group from the north, united several nomad armies and conquered much of Asia. In 1279, Genghis Khan's grandson, Kubilai Khan, overthrew the Chinese emperor and established the Yuan dynasty (1279-1368). The Yuan emperors did not maintain the old wall or build a new one, so the wall began to fall into ruins. After Khan died in 1227, a Chinese farmer named Zu Yuanzhang led a rebel army and helped overthrow the last Yuan emperor. When Zu Yuanzhang seized power, he established the Ming dynasty (1368-1644).Zu and his successors decided to rebuild China's Great Wall, which lay mostly in ruins, to keep the Mongols from returning to reconquer China. For nearly 200 years, thousands of workers toiled away on the Ming wall–reinforcing the Great Wall with bricks and stone. The Ming wall eventually blocked mountain passes that Mongol soldiers had used to invade China. When Mongol tribes attacked the wall, Chinese soldiers alerted others by lighting signal fires. When guards from a signal tower saw the fire, they built another fire, passing the warning along the wall.The number of smoke plumes and cannon shots fired indicated to Chinese soldiers how many enemy soldiers were approaching. The Ming government taxed the people of China heavily to pay for construction of the Great Wall. In 1644, the Manchus, a nomad tribe from northeast of Peking, helped rebels overthrow the Ming rulers and started the next era in Chinese history–the Qing dynasty. During the Qing dynasty, Manchu forces drove out Mongol invaders and extended China's border farther north beyond the Great Wall. The wall no longer protected China's border, so construction stopped and soldiers abandoned the fortresses.The Wall At Risk Today, Chinese officials warn that the Great Wall is once again under attack. But this time the wall is not in danger from invaders. Instead local people and tourists alike threaten the wall. Dong Yaohui, head of the Great Wall Society of China, recently persuaded a local government to levy a fine on residents in a small village after they demolished part of the wall to obtain bricks for new houses. And in 1999, officials in the autonomous region of Nei Monggol (once called Inner Mongolia) plowed through the Great Wall to build a highway. Nature has also taken its toll.At the wall's western end, dese rt sandstorms have worn down much of China's great wonder. Dong Yaohui said, â€Å"Saving the Great Wall is now the most urgent task facing our country. Its splendor must be rebuilt. † Preservationists also argue that commercial developers are destroying the aesthetic beauty of China's Great Wall. Developers have turned parts of the wall into a tourist destination. Visitors to the wall at the Badaling section near Beijing can take one of five cable cars to the top of the wall, bungee-jump off a section of the wall, paraglide along the wall, or ride a toboggan down the mountain.William Lindesay, an Englishman living in China, organized a group to protect and preserve what is left of the wall. Lindesay's group, the International Friends of the Great Wall, works with local villagers to pick up garbage along the wall and make sure the wall is protected from vandals. â€Å"The wall is in grave, grave danger,† Lindesay said. The Chinese government also hopes to protect the n ational treasure. Officials in Beijing are considering legislation that, if passed, would convict anyone caught littering or defacing the Great Wall to a jail term of up to seven years.Arthur Waldron, a historian, wrote, â€Å"Whatever the future brings, the image of the wall †¦ as a symbol of China †¦ seems bound to endure. † Get Talking Ask students: why do you think the Great Wall of China was built? What is the approximate length of the wall? What might have been some of the challenges faced by the wall's builders? What might the wall be threatened today? Background The Great Wall is among the most popular tourist destinations in China, along with the Forbidden City in Beijing, and the Terra Cotta Warriors at Xi'an.Qin Shi Huangdi (the first emperor of China) unified the nation of China and built the first Great Wall. After Qin Shi Huandi died, he was buried in a tomb with an army of terra cotta warriors and horses at Xi'an. In 1974, Qin Ski Huangdi's tomb was d iscovered by a group of archaeologists. During the Qin Dynasty–when the first Great Wall was built–workers toiled for ten years to build the wall, at a rate of about 25 miles per month. Portions of the wall have been rebuilt during the past century–including the section of the wall at Badaling, near China's capital of Beijing. Many myths surround China's Great Wall.One of the most prevalent is that the Great Wall is the only man-made structure visible from the Moon. However, according to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), â€Å"The Great Wall can barely be seen from the Shuttle, so it would not be possible to see it from the Moon with the naked eye. † Doing More After students have read the story, ask them to research other sites listed as endangered by the World Monuments Fund. What are the biggest threats to those sites? Why are the sites considered important? When students have finished gathering the information, have them presen t their findings to the class.

Decker Surname Origin and Family History

The  Decker surname most commonly originated as an occupational surname for a roofer or thatcher, derived from the Old High German word decker, meaning one who covered roofs with tile, straw or slate. The meaning of the word expanded during the Middle Ages to encompass carpenters and other craftsman and was used to refer to one who built or laid the decks of vessels.  The popular Dutch surname Dekker has the same meaning, derived from the Middle Dutch  deck(e)re, from  decken, meaning to cover. The Decker surname may also derive from the German decher, meaning the quantity of ten; this may also have been a name given to the tenth child. Alternate Surname Spellings: DEKER, DECKER, DECHER, DECKARD, DECHARD, DEKKER, DEKKES, DEKK, DECK, DECKERT Surname Origin: German, Dutch Where in the World Is the Decker Surname Found? According to World Names PublicProfiler, the Decker surname is the most commonly found, based on percentage of population, in Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada. It is also a very popular surname in the countries of Luxembourg and Germany. The Forbears surname distribution map for 2014 identifies the Decker surname as being very popular in Sierra Leone, based on frequency distribution. Famous People With the Decker Surname Jessie James Decker -  American country pop singer-songwriter and reality T.V. personalityEric Decker - American National League Football wide receiverDesmond Dekker - Jamaican  singer-songwriter and musicianThomas Dekker -  English  dramatist and pamphlet writer Genealogy Resources for the Surname DECKER Decker Family Genealogy Forum — Search this popular genealogy forum for the Decker surname to find others who might be researching your ancestors, or post your own Decker surname query.FamilySearch - DECKER Genealogy — Explore over 1.3 million results, including digitized records, database entries, and online family trees for the Decker surname and its variations on the FREE FamilySearch website, courtesy of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.GeneaNet - Decker Records — GeneaNet includes archival records, family trees, and other resources for individuals with the Decker surname, with a concentration on records and families from France and other European countries.Ancestry.com: Decker  Surname — Explore over 2.4  million digitized records and database entries, including census records, passenger lists, military records, land deeds, probates, wills and other records for the Decker surname on the subscription-based website, Ancestry.com Resources and Further Reading Cottle, Basil.  Penguin Dictionary of Surnames. Baltimore, MD: Penguin Books, 1967.Dorward, David.  Scottish Surnames. Collins Celtic (Pocket edition), 1998.Fucilla, Joseph.  Our Italian Surnames. Genealogical Publishing Company, 2003.Hanks, Patrick and Flavia Hodges.  A Dictionary of Surnames. Oxford University Press, 1989.Hanks, Patrick.  Dictionary of American Family Names. Oxford University Press, 2003.Reaney, P.H.  A Dictionary of English Surnames. Oxford University Press, 1997.Smith, Elsdon C.  American Surnames. Genealogical Publishing Company, 1997.