I'd like to use this final blog post as a way to express my feelings for this blog and how I think this semester went in First Year Seminar. Blogging did not at all come naturally to me, simply because I couldn't find things that were interesting enough to me to talk about. I always tried to get ideas about first amendment rights and racism to go along with the theme of the class, however these honestly aren't things I am very passionate about. It may have gone better for me had I worked a little harder to find things I am really interested in and passionate about.

However I do believe that blogging is a great way to get us into the habit of writing, especially for those who didn't have to do a lot of writing in high school. Constantly writing these smaller posts as opposed to writing large essays every couple of weeks is a great way to get us started and get used to doing college level writing. It also helps us get ideas for how we can get our names out there for the future when trying to get into a career. It is like a stepping stone to making a website or something that one could use to show future employers to show who you are and why you should be hired. I believe blogging in this class was a great way to get us acclimated with college writing.

The class itself went well throughout the semester. We learned a lot in terms of history along with racism and constitutional rights in America. Besides that we also learned a lot about how to succeed as a college writer, and how to start getting ready for your career. I took a lot out of the classes where a guest came, like when the students came to talk about resumes. This class was a success and I am happy I took it and was able to learn all these new things.

Recently there has been an incident involving freedom of speech in the town directly next to my hometown. There was an incident in Duxbury high school where a gym teacher was fired and had his teaching license revoked for reasons that were not all that clear. This isn't the real problem though the real problem came after he was fired. To show their distress as the teacher was loved by many students and no one believed he should have been fired, students began to wear "Free T" shirts they made, because his name was Coach T. The school administrators have told the students that they cannot wear them and they cannot do anything to express their feelings about the issue. This is completely against the students' first amendment rights to freedom of speech, as they are being told they cannot speak there minds about the issue, and are punished if they do. Students are given detentions if they wear shirts, and are being threatened with suspension. I couldn't believe something like this was happening in the town right next to mine, and I am shocked by the way the school is dealing with this situation. First amendment rights do count in public school, and the administration has no right to tell the students what to think or what they can or can't say.

The NSA has been part of a campaign recently trying to make it legal for them to spy on Americans by tapping into their phones, reading their texts, and basically knowing everything we do. To them this is a way to keep everyone safe from the evils in this country. They believe they would be able to stop crimes before they are committed by using this spy technology. However, is it right for them to be able to listen in to all of our private calls? As shown by this article, there is a bill going to Obama's desk giving the NSA unprecedented authority to collect and store data belonging to American citizens. They are also insisting that tech companies redesign their products to make them more surveillance friendly. Basically they are making it so no one will be able to have any privacy anymore.

No one in this country should have the power to know what everyone is doing and thinking. We as Americans deserve to have some privacy, and this is practically violating our fourth amendment rights against unreasonable searches. Our information is being given to the government for no reason, other than the fact that they want it. This is a very dangerous situation we are in, as it is almost like we are turning into George Orwell's 1984, with everyone being watched and listened to at all times. This NSA spying needs to stop soon, before it gets out of hand.

There has been a lot of upset recently about the Ferguson incident, and now another problem has erupted in New York. In July, an unarmed man was killed when he was put in a chokehold by an NYPD officer. He was being arrested for selling untaxed cigarettes, and things quickly got out of hand. The case has gone through the courts and they decided not to indict the officer for the killing of this man. This has caused an outrage among society as it is another instance where police officers get away with doing something illegal.

It is absolutely ridiculous that the police officer will get off scot-free for this atrocity. The man was unarmed, and based on the video he didn't seem to be resisting arrest much. The man continually saying that he can't breath should be a sign to stop choking him, and the police officer should know this. Things got completely out of hand, and this police officer is not getting punished for doing something completely illegal. The fact that it was a white police officer killing an African-American man does not help the situation either. Now more questions arise, like why don't we see nearly as many white people being killed and arrested by the cops as black people. Events like this and Ferguson are raising a lot of questions that the government is not answering well. If things like this continue to happen, there will be a lot of problems for our country.

Watch this video to learn more about the incident:

Yesterday in class we watched a documentary about the progression of racism in America. It made some interesting points that many people don't think of. Although slavery ended years ago and African-Americans are technically equal, racism is still a thing that seriously affects this country. It highlighted the racism that was show in the Obama election. People were calling him names and refusing to vote for him simply because of his race. With how progressive we have become, how can there still be people who say "I won't vote for a nigger."? The narrator was a man who has long spoke for African-American rights, and he made the point that race is not something we can simply ignore. So many politicians say everyone should be colorblind when it comes to race. However what they don't know is that this is impossible. We can't simply ignore all the things black people have had to deal with over the years, they should be treated fairly, but race is not something that can be ignored. We should be aware of race and the things that have been caused because of it, trying to continue to improve the ways we deal with differences, not pretending like it has never affected anything and that nothing ever happened because of it. That isn't fair to all of the people that have worked to get us to a place where we can elect a black president.

Tim Wise - documentary filmmaker

My group was part of a Moot Court case about the Supreme Court Case Brown v. Board of Education today. We argued for desegregation, while the other group argued that segregation is okay. Both groups gave there three points, and it ended up being a tie between their arguments.

The opposing team, Team Schenck, argued for segregation in schools, and made good points anticipating arguments for the other team. They said that is was completely constitutional to have separate but equal facilities for African American children because of the Plessy v. Ferguson case. They also pointed out that although black children may feel inferior because they are separated from whites, they would still feel inferior if they were in the same schools because they know that whites don't like them, so if anything it would cause more of a problem. There were some very strong arguments from this group for segregation of schools.

Team Sullivan, my team, argued for the desegregation of schools. I argued that although Plessy v. Ferguson said separate but equal is okay, the situations black children and white children are in are not truly equal, which undoes the decision in that case. Also, the way being separated that African American children are is detrimental to their learning because of the "badge of inferiority" that is put on them. We also made the argument that because African Americans are citizens, they have rights based on the 14th amendment saying that they should be able to attend the same schools. These arguments were very good and worked well with the time we were thinking in.

Both arguments were very well thought out, and although it was decided as a tie I believe Team Sullivan had a better argument because they had arguments for what the other team was saying, as well as speaking well for the time that we were thinking in.

Ebola is a disease that has been affecting the country recently in more ways than one might think. It originates from certain parts of Africa, and the first man in America to die from it was a Liberian man, Thomas Eric Duncan. Obviously the threat of Ebola is putting stress on the country as a whole, and the media doesn't exactly make people's anxiety about it go down, but there is another aspect to this new disease that many aren't thinking about. Ebola is starting to cause people to discriminate against african people.
Two students from Nigeria were recently refused admission to a Texas college simply because they were from a country with Ebola. The college's reasoning was that they don't want the disease to spread through their school, but is it fair for them to discriminate against these people? If they are refusing applicants from countries that have Ebola, shouldn't they not allow American applicants since there have been cases of Ebola here? Read the full story about the college here. From these questions much debate arises about what the right thing to do is and how to keep Ebola from spreading while trying not to discriminate on others. The possibility that any person originally from one of the Ebola countries, or possibly anywhere in Africa, could be discriminated against and treated unfairly is very much alive.
Should people from these countries not be allowed to come to the United States? Should anyone from these countries be quarantined, along with people who have been in contact with them? These are questions that need to be answered. Ebola causes much controversy because while the ideas that people have to stop it could be effective, they may infringe on certain people's constitutional rights. Ebola is definitely a serious issue and needs to be taken care of immediately, but the government as well as society needs to keep in mind the other affects that it is having and must not discriminate on people just because there is a possibility they have Ebola, because technically there is a possibility for any of us to have Ebola.