Pages

Showing posts with label Policy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Policy. Show all posts

Thursday, May 26, 2016

Loving v Virginia

In the last unit of the Policy class, we focused on the Judicial branch of the government. We looked into what makes up that section of our U.S. government and how someone gets appointed to that position. This wrapped up the policy aspect of this class because we ties it all together with the people that decide the fate of people that disobey the laws. They are the ones who are able to explain the laws. For the last action project of my junior year we were asked to research a supreme court case and look at the verdict and create an opinion on it. I decided to chose the Loving v. Virginia case which debated interracial marriage. I decided this because once I read about this case I was very interested because I think it holds a lot of ties to things that are going on in the U.S. right now with LGBT laws and things like that.  It was challenging to pick a case in the beginning since there have been so many but I am happy I chose the Loving v. Virginia case. I am very proud of the way my project came out. I found a lot of good information on my case and I was able to put together a thoughtful argument.


Sunday, May 15, 2016

The Vietnam War: Was It Just?

In the second unit of the Policy class we talked about the Executive branch. We focused on the different types of people that work in the executive branch and what their jobs are. For the action project in this unit, we were asked to look into a war and decide if the war was just or not. Something that was challenging for my in this project was picking a war. There are so many wars that the U.S. have been involved in. I am proud of the way my essay came out and I think that the war I chose had a lot of interesting information that made my essay very well- written.
____________________________________________________________________

Wolfe, Frank. Protesting the Vietnam War. (1967). Flickr. Web.

The Vietnam War: Was It Just?

There are many reasons why the Vietnam war was fought, as well as many underlying reasons. The war was fought in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia. The main cause for fighting this war (in the beginning) was to keep France was taking back control of the Vietnamese land and to reunify Vietnam. Once they had defeated France, communism became a very pressing issue in North Vietnam The Vietnam War took place from 1955 to 1975 and involved over 21 countries including France, Japan, UK, North and South Korea, China, Soviet Union, Cuba, Cambodia (during the time of the Khmer Rouge), Australia, etc. Many of these countries were allies of the major opposing sides - North and South Vietnam. In the case of the U.S. we were allies with France so we stepped in to back them up. on March 8, 1965 to Some tactics used by the different sides were guerrilla and tunnel warfare and full-time soldiers. Tunnel warfare, in particular, was a significant feature of this war. Vietnam created hundreds of tunnels that would lead to trap doors, holding cells, etc. which were used by North Vietnamese guerrilla soldiers to get in and out of enemy territory without being detected. The south side of Vietnam wanted the entire country to become communist. The south opposed communist rule and when the U.S. saw that there was tension, we installed a government in Southern Vietnam to make sure that communism didn’t win. The Red Scare made everyone in the US afraid that communism would take over the entire world so they thought that they needed to protect their allies and any other country that they possibly could. By doing that we caused a widespread anger that caused the North and the South to go to war. We did not have a solid reason to join this war-- it was just for the Vietnamese to fight, but I don’t think that U.S. involvement can be considered just because we clearly were afraid of the possibility of communism stretching around the world, but involving ourselves and causing a lot of problems in not only Vietnam but the U.S.

The Vietnam War lasted for about 20 years, which means that there were 5 presidents that served throughout its course each of them got us more and more involved in a war that had nothing to do with us. The 5 presidents who served were, in order: John F. Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford. Beginning with Kennedy, he sent 10,000 “advisors” to train Vietnamese soldiers. Moving on to Johnson, he did quite a lot for this war. In 1964, the Gulf of Tonkin incident happened and Johnson was given the ok signal by congress to wage war. Johnson sent ground troops to Vietnam in 1965 and began Operation Rolling Thunder. In 1968, he began peace negotiations, which were continued in Paris by President Nixon, who started the retreat of the American troops right after the Vietnamisation of the war in 1969. After many violent anti-war protests, Nixon finally brought all American ground forces home Vietnam in 1971 and the Pentagon Papers were released by the Pentagon. President Johnson stated in his campaign that he would not ever send troops over to Vietnam; which he then went back on. He sent troops without an official declaration of war. In the beginning of U.S. involvement, Congress passed the Gulf of Tonkin resolution which was very important in our involvement because it started a lot of fighting after congress gave Johnson the “ok” to take any measures he deemed necessary to keep Southeast Asia (Yoshua Wuyts, What Was the Role of Each Individual President in the Vietnam War).

There were a couple policies put in place during the Vietnam war by the U.S. One of the most important policies was the draft that began on December 1, 1969 and called on all men born from 1944-1950 to participate in protect their country. President Lyndon B. Johnson proposed it so that we could have enough soldiers to serve in this army. He had previously said he would never send people to fight in Vietnam. He then was persuaded by the National Security Council to send troops without an official declaration. The National Security Council is a group that ensures the safety of all Americans and they felt that it was necessary to wage war in order to do that to their best ability. It was intended to give the U.S. more soldiers to fight in the war. There were 6,058,000 soldiers sent to Vietnam through the draft and 3,029,000 soldiers were volunteers (Bia Ku, The Vietnam War Draft).

The draft was hated by 80% of the population (Shmoop, Politics in the Vietnam War). People felt that the draft was just a way for the government to kill off a lot of people and it wasn’t fair to be forced to go out and die for their country. People became “draft dodgers,” which means that they either faked being mentally/physically ill, fled to Canada or Mexico, pretended to be gay, etc. In 1970, the draft faced its highest resistance rates ever. People began burning their draft cards, which is illegal, as a sign of protest. By 1972, 200,600 people had resisted the draft. I think that the draft was unjust. The draft was made up of 25% poor men, 55% working class men, and 20% middle class men (Bia Ku, The Vietnam War Draft). The board at the draft center would have to look through an applicant's draft status and usually would defer upper- class applicants. This is not fair because the draft forced men to go fight for something they may or may not believe in. Some people, because of their religion, did not believe in fighting in wars and were forced to because of the draft. He was initially not keen on the idea of sending troops to Vietnam, but was told by his advisors that he would be seen as a “weak and spineless president” if he didn’t send troops. He went back on his promise and ended up proposing the draft and sending over 2 million men to war. The consequences were pretty severe. The government faced a lot of backlash from the draft and people were incredibly angry about being forced to go fight and potentially die for their country. S The draft was hated by majority of the population. People felt that the draft was just a way for the government to kill off a lot of people and they thought that it wasn’t fair to be forced to go out and die for their country. People became “draft dodgers” which means that they either faked being mentally/physically ill, fled to Canada or Mexico, pretended to be gay, etc. In 1970 the draft faced its highest resistance rates ever. People began burning their draft cards which is illegal as a sign of protest. By 1972, 200,600 people had resisted the draft (Bia Ku, The Vietnam War Draft).

The Vietnam War had was fought for several underlying and immediate reasons. The war itself that was between the Vietnamese and France (which then turned into North Vietnam vs. South Vietnam) was just.France wanting to retake control of Vietnam was both unfair and unnecessary, and communism and the separation of Vietnam was a very pressing issue that scared a lot of Americans. I do not, however, support the involvement of the U.S. in this war. I think that we just nudged our way in and caused a lot more problems in both Vietnam and our own country. The U.S just jumped into a war that they weren’t meant to be in. We tried to fix something that wasn’t our job to fix. This war caused tension not only in Vietnam, but in our own country as well. It pitted people against each other and caused a giant resistance party to form because of the draft. President Johnson lost a lot of trust from the people of the U.S. after he went back on his promise and sent over 2 million men to die in a war that had nothing to do with them.

Citations:

Bia, Ku. "Vietnam War Draft - The Vietnam War." The Vietnam War. The Vietnam War, 9 May 2016. Web. 10 May 2016. <http://thevietnamwar.info/vietnam-war-draft/>.
"Guerilla Tactics: An Overview." PBS. PBS, n.d. Web. 10 May 2016. <http://www.pbs.org/battlefieldvietnam/guerrilla/>.
Shmoop Editorial Team. "Politics in The Vietnam War." Shmoop. Shmoop University, Inc., 11 Nov. 2008. Web. 10 May 2016.
"U.S. Involvement in the Vietnam War: The Gulf of Tonkin and Escalation, 1964 - 1961–1968 - Milestones - Office of the Historian." U.S. Involvement in the Vietnam War: The Gulf of Tonkin and Escalation, 1964 - 1961–1968 - Milestones - Office of the Historian. United States Department of State, n.d. Web. 10 May 2016. <https://history.state.gov/milestones/1961-1968/gulf-of-tonkin>.
War Team, The Vietnam. "From 1965 to 1973: The United States in Vietnam by Year - The Vietnam War." The Vietnam War. The Vietnam War, 18 Mar. 2014. Web. 10 May 2016. <http://thevietnamwar.info/1965-1973-united-states-vietnam-year/>.
Wuyts, Yoshua. "What Was the Role of Each Individual President in the Vietnam War?" What Was the Role of Each Individual President in the Vietnam War? Quota, 16 Mar. 2011. Web. 10 May 2016. <https://www.quora.com/What-was-the-role-of-each-individual-president-in-the-Vietnam-War>.

Tuesday, April 26, 2016

Save the Animals!

In the first unit of the Policy course we focused on the Judicial Branch. We talked about different policies that have been put in place by our government and we went into depth about who makes up the Judicial Branch. We got the chance to go to a city council meeting and see the way our city handles its problems. For the action project in this unit, we were asked to find an act or a law that we didn't like, wanted to change, or wanted to put in place and write a letter to an official explaining it. I decided to write about the Endangered Species Act and I addressed it to Senator Rand Paul. In the beginning, it was hard to find a law that I wanted to do since there are so many I am passionate about. I am glad that I chose the Endangered Species Act because I am extremely passionate about this Act and there is a lot of background about this act.
_________________________________________________________________________________

April 26, 2016

The Honorable Rand Paul

United States Senate

167 Russell Senate Office Building Washington, D.C.

20510-1704

Dear Senator Paul,

What if, all the sudden, all the animals in the world were gone. Sounds insane considering they are a huge part of our ecosystem but that is the direction we are heading since people keep hunting and poaching animals which is causing them to go extinct. The endangered species act of 1973 has not been protecting the lives and habitats of animals like it says it, and it needs to be changed. I read about your Endangered Species Management Self-Determination Act which states that you would like to take away this act and let poachers freely kill any animals they choose and I am writing this to explain why that is a terrible idea. As a senator you have a lot of power over the acts that get put in place. Putting your Self-Determination Act in place would result in many species going extinct. This act needs to be updated, but not deleted. Here is why:

Since this act was put into place in 1973, 50 different species were placed on the endangered species list. Here are some interesting facts about a couple of these animals.

The bengal tiger was becoming endangered around the time the act was passed, but the act began to save their habitat and they began to grow their numbers again; but then the demand for tiger skin began to grow in Asia and poachers began killing thousands. As of right now, there are only around 2,500 left in the wild.

The white rhino has been endangered since the early 20th century. People viewed rhinos as vermin and were set on exterminating every last one of them. This act did not help these animals or their habitats. There is currently 1 male left in the entire world and it is protected by armed guards at all times to save it from poachers. This single rhino's horn was cut off and sold because of the keratin it's made of. Even without the horn, poachers will even take toenails because they are made of the same thing. There are only 5 species of rhinos left in the world. A rhino horn is the third most sold item after arms and drugs.

The giant panda has been endangered for an extremely long time. Currently, there are only 1800 pandas left in the wild. With the growing population in China, their habitats are getting destroyed. Not only are they seen as very important figures in Chinese culture, but they help the bamboo forests continue to grow by spreading seeds and growing the vegetation. The forests where they live are also home to many different endangered species such as dwarf blue sheep, multicolored pheasants and other endangered species, including the golden monkey, and crested ibis. Without the pandas, some of these animals could have gone extinct a very long time ago.

As human beings, animals do a lot for us. I myself have quite a few animals living in my home and when I go to college I want to study to be a marine biologist. There are many marine animals that are also going extinct due to fishing nets, oil spills, etc. Animals are a huge part of our ecosystem and help us keep this Earth alive. Imagine one day waking up and never seeing any animals in the entire world. Almost every type of animal does something for the earth that keeps it alive. If we continue at the rate we are currently at, all animals could eventually end up extinct. Some people rely on animals in even deeper ways such as blind people relying on their service animals to help guide them, people with mental illnesses have animas to make them happy, etc. Clearly animals make impacts on people.

You may say that some animals need to be killed as food for everyone on this earth or to make money. That is true but animals that are just being killed for sport or for small parts on their bodies are not worth it. These animals keep us alive. If the roles were reversed, would you enjoy being poached and shot at just to get one of your toenails to sell for fifty bucks? It's not fair to these animals. We should just allow them to leave peacefully and anyone who disagrees with that law should be persecuted.

If you pass this law, the lives of all animals in the US will be in danger. Animals play an important role in keeping everyone and everything on this earth alive. If we continue to ignore this act and keep killing off all of these species, every animal will disappear. If we kill all the animals, we kill ourselves. I really hope you will consider updating this act and not following through on your idea. For the animals safety as well as our own.

Sincerely,

Maddie Fister

_________________________________________________________________________________

Works Cited:

Hartl, Brett. "Senate Republicans Take Aim at Endangered Species Act." Senate Republicans Take Aim at Endangered Species Act. Center for Biological Diversity, 6 May 2015. Web. 25 Apr. 2016. <https://www.biologicaldiversity.org/news/press_releases/2015/endangered-species-act-05-06-2015.html>.

Barnes, Simon. "Loneliest Rhino in the World." Mail Online. Associated Newspapers, 16 Apr. 2015. Web. 25 Apr. 2016. <http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3040970/Loneliest-rhino-world-Surrounded-armed-guards-s-male-breed-victim-evil-trade-s-wiping-giants.html>.

"Bengal Tiger." WorldWildlife.org. World Wildlife Fund, n.d. Web. 25 Apr. 2016. <http://www.worldwildlife.org/species/bengal-tiger>.

Dillon, Tom. "Giant Panda." WorldWildlife.org. World Wildlife Fund, n.d. Web. 25 Apr. 2016. <http://www.worldwildlife.org/species/giant-panda>.

"Species List." WorldWildlife.org. World Wildlife Fund, n.d. Web. 25 Apr. 2016. <https://www.worldwildlife.org/species/directory?direction=desc&sort=extinction_status>.