Amendment I Your Basic Freedoms
By Avyah Sharma
Freedom of Speech
My Opinion
I think that amendment 1 has its limitations, but sometimes I think it may get out of hand and its getting to a point where people are having to much right to say as much as they want.
The History Ex. 1
"Macy's Urge to 'Dump Trump Line' After Anti-Obama Stance"
"Macy’s Inc. (M), the second-largest U.S. department-store chain, is under pressure to ditch Donald Trump- branded apparel after the billionaire mounted political attacks on President Barack Obama in the election campaign.
Almost 500,000 people have added their names to an online petition urging Macy’s to end its partnership with Trump, SignOn.org, the hosting site, said yesterday in an e-mailed statement. The petition was started by Angelo Carusone, who claims credit for TV anchor Glenn Beck’s removal by Fox News through his StopBeck effort, said the site, which lets anyone start and run their own online campaigns and is linked to MoveOn.org, a group that supports Obama.
The petition picked up steam over the weekend after Trump, a real-estate developer, repeatedly called for a revolution following Obama’s re-election last week, SignOn.org said. By doing business with Trump, Macy’s isn’t living up to its own standards of social responsibility, Carusone said in the statement.
“If I stood inside a Macy’s store and said the things that Trump has said, security would escort me out,” he said, describing Trump’s statements as sexist, bigoted and mean.
While many vendors express political opinions, Macy’s merchandise and marketing do not represent any political position, Jim Sluzewski, a spokesman for Macy’s in Cincinnati, said in an e-mail."
TC. & AR. (2012). Macy's Urge to Dump Trump Line After Anti-Obama Stance. Businessweek.com. Retrieved January 15, 2012 from http://www.businessweek.com/news/2012-11-13/macy-s-urged-to-dump-trump-goods-after-anti-obama-statements
The Problem and My Opinion
I really think its okay for Trump to say that, but it is just immorally wrong to say anything. I also think that it is okay to start a petition if he is going to say something mean.
The History Ex. 2
Taylor Swift Gets Interrupted at the VMA'S
Freedom of Religion
"Freedom of religion is a principle that supports the freedom of an individual or community, in public or private, to manifest religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship, and observance; the concept is generally recognized also to include the freedom to change religion nor not to follow any religion.[1]"
Freedom of Religion . (2013). [APA]. Retrieved January 17, 2013 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_of_religion
My Opinion
The History Ex.1
Women In Face Veils Detained as France Enforces Ban
“At least two women have been briefly detained in France while wearing Islamic veils, after a law banning the garment in public came into force.
Police said they were held not because of their veils but for joining an unauthorised protest, and they were later released.
France is the first country in Europe to publicly ban a form of dress some Muslims regard as a religious duty.
Offenders face a fine of 150 euros (£133; $217) and a citizenship course.
People forcing women to wear the veil face a much larger fine and a prison sentence of up to two years.
The two women detained had taken part in a demonstration outside Notre Dame cathedral in Paris. Police said the protest had not been authorized and so people were asked to move on. When they did not, they were arrested.”
Hg. & SH. (2011). Women in face veils detained as France enforces ban. Bbc.co.uk. Retrieved January 17, 2013 from http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-13031397
My Opinion
The History Ex.2
Mosque on or off Ground Zero
“There has been vehement criticism of a Muslim group's plan to build a cultural centre and mosque near Ground Zero, but what does the tone of the debate reveal?
Some opponents of the Cordoba House project, the Islamic cultural centre and mosque planned near to the World Trade Center site, have coined jarring juxtapositions to press their point.
"Nazis don't have the right to put up a sign next to the Holocaust museum in Washington," former US House Speaker Newt Gingrich said. "We would never accept the Japanese putting up a site next to Pearl Harbor. There is no reason for us to accept a mosque next to the World Trade Center."
Radio presenter Rush Limbaugh compared the mosque with the idea of putting a Hindu shrine at the USS Arizona memorial at Pearl Harbor, later correcting himself to make clear he meant a Shinto shrine.
Those behind the Cordoba House project, such as Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, say they want to build something which would assist inter-faith understanding. But some are worried about knock on effects of the debate over the mosque on relations.
"It has exposed a very nasty streak in our society," says Ibrahim Hooper, of the Council on American-Islamic Relations.”
RF. (2010). Is 'Ground Zero mosque' debate fanning the flames? Bbc.co.uk. Retrieved January 17, 2013 from http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-11076846
My Opinion
Freedom of Press
“The right to publish newspapers, magazines, and other printed matter without
governmental restriction and subject only to the laws of libel, obscenity, sedition, etc.”
Freedom of the press. (n.d.). Dictionary.com Unabridged. Retrieved January 17, 2013, from Dictionary.com website: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/freedom of the press
My Opinion
The History Ex.1
Subway's Not So Foot Long
Subway customers are whipping out their measuring tapes after Internet postings that claim a short-shifting of the worldwide chain's famous footlong sub, putting the Milford, Conn.-based company in the hot seat.
The controversy began Tuesday in Australia, when a very precise customer, identified as Matt Corby of Perth, ordered a footlong sub and then pulled out a tape measure. Corby found the sub measured only 11 inches long and took his outrage to Facebook, where he posted a photo of his sub alongside the tape measure on the company's page with the caption, "subway pls respond."
The page with Corby's photo appears to be no longer available on Facebook. Screengrabs taken of his image and reposted online show the photo quickly received more than 131,000 likes and thousands of comments.
The photo also sparked an abundance of photos on Facebook of subs being measured and countless comments on Subway's page, ranging from "I think they [Subway] owe us some," to "there are way more thing in life to worry about then 1 inch of sub."
The New York Post followed up on Corby's complaint with a New York City-based investigation of its own and found Corby's experience to be more the rule than the exception.
According to the Post, four out of seven "Five-dollar Footlongs" purchased at Subways in Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens, measured only 11 or 11.5 inches. A local franchise owner told the paper the chain has cut the portions of their cold-cut meats by 25 percent recently and raised the cost of food to individual store owners.
Subway attributes the discrepancy in sub length to the fact that the bread is baked fresh daily in each of their 38,000 restaurants. They do say, however, they are looking into the matter.
"We are committed to providing a consistent product delivering the same amount of bread to the customer with every order. The length however may vary slightly when not baked to our exact specifications. We are reinforcing our policies and procedures in an effort to ensure our offerings are always consistent no matter which Subway restaurant you visit," the company said in a statement provided to ABCNews.com today.
KK. (2013). Subway Foot-Longs Coming Up Short. Yahoo.com. Retrieved January 17, 2013 from http://gma.yahoo.com/blogs/abc-blogs/subway-foot-l ongs-coming-short-191925939--abc-news-deals.html
My Opinion
The History Ex.2
Freedom of Press Problem
My Opinion
Freedom to Assemble
The right to hold public meetings and form associations without interference by the government. Freedom of peaceful assembly is guaranteed by the First Amendment to the Constitution.
Note : Segregation has been described as a violation of freedom of assembly.
Freedom of Assembly. (n.d.). The American Heritage® New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition. Retrieved January 17, 2013, from Dictionary.com website:http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/Freedom of Assembly
My Opinion
The History Ex. 1
Chinese Protesters
“IN April of this year, a group of Chinese workers, frustrated and angry at their employer’s long-standing refusal to pay their pension contributions, stormed into their manager’s office and demanded payment. The manager prevaricated and made empty promises. When he realized the workers were not going away, he called the police and had the ringleaders arrested for imprisoning him in his office.
Only a few years ago, that might have been the end of the story. The workers would have been cowed into dropping their claims and their leaders would never have been heard of again. But China is a very different place today and the workers at this jewelry factory on the outskirts of Guangzhou did not give up or give in. On the contrary, they rallied around their detained co-workers and demanded their release. Not only that, they persisted with their pleas for pensions, and in the end it was the company that gave in and acceded to their demands.
In the recent past, local governments in China might have clamped down on protests like the one in the jewelry factory. But nowadays they realize that such protests are not an overt political threat. Many local officials are giving workers and employers the space they need to resolve their differences.
Perhaps more significant, employers are increasingly realizing that they need to listen to and act on workers’ demands if they want a stable and productive work force.
Economic realities account for part of these changes. China’s manufacturers can no longer rely on an unlimited supply of rural migrants to run their production lines. They now have to offer higher wages, better working conditions and improved benefits in order to hire new workers and keep existing staff.
Meanwhile, a cultural shift is also under way. Young workers have greater expectations and higher aspirations than their parents’ generation. Simply getting by is no longer good enough, and they are increasingly demanding a lot more than the subsistence wages that have been the norm for so long.
It is not just better pay and working conditions that young workers are demanding: Fundamentally, they want to be treated with dignity and respect. As a striker at a handbag factory in Guangdong last year told a reporter for The South China Morning Post: “Management treats us as less than human beings. ... We can’t contain our anger anymore.”
The use of new media has helped their cause. Just about every worker has a camera phone and many make use of microblogs on which they post real-time updates of their strikes, their list of demands and the response of the boss and the local authorities to those demands. This kind of publicity at one factory can embolden other workers around the country and attract the mainstream media, which is increasingly willing to report on worker protests, often in a sympathetic manner.
Local governments and employers could try to ignore or even fight these trends — but it’s too late. This is a political and economic reality facing China’s next generation of leaders. It is in their interests to foster the workers’ momentum for positive social and economic change.
Because it is not just in the southern province of Guangdong, the “factory to the world” as it is known, that workers are taking action. In the central province of Henan, which has traditionally exported workers to the factories of the south, workers at the Xinfei electronics factory staged a four-day strike in October, which only ended when the company reportedly acceded to all eight of the workers’ demands, including the dismissal of two unpopular managers.
As one Xinfei employee told the official Chinese media: “This is a preliminary victory for us workers. Although it is not a big achievement, it does show the strength of the workers.”
At China Labour Bulletin we count about 35 strikes each month in media reports. But this is only the tip of the iceberg. Some estimates put the total number of strikes and worker protests at around 30,000 each year.
The demands of striking workers range from better food in the factory cafeteria to proper compensation for overtime, but essentially everything boils down to decent pay for decent work. Although wages are rising, there is still a long way to go before workers on the production line can even think about earning enough money to buy an apartment — or even enough to get married and raise a family.”
DH. China’s Workers Unite. New York Times. [CHINA CHANGES LEADERS]. 3. Retrieved January 17, 2013 from Opinion. http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/09/opinion/chinas-w orkers-unite.html?ref=freedomofassembly&_r=0
My Opinion
The History Ex.2
Protesters in Egypt
“(CNN) -- Riot police fired tear gas at protesters in the Egyptian city of Alexandria on Friday, according to state-run Nile TV. Shortly after morning prayers, clashes broke out between supporters and opponents of President Mohamed Morsy.
Read more: Morsy backers accused of beatings, detentions
There were at least 1,000 people in the crowd, and about 300 of them threw rocks at police, a witness said.
The fighting broke out new the Al-Qaed Ibrahim Mosque, the site of similar fighting last Friday. The clashes were apparently inspired by the mosque's imam, Sheikh Ahmed El-Mahlawy, according to journalist Abdelrahman Youssef, who was at the site of the protest.
Read more: Egypt's prosecutor general quits amid protest
The imam encouraged people to demonstrate about a dispute among Egyptians and their government over whether the country's new constitution is legitimate, he said.
Last month, the constitution was drafted by an Islamist-dominated assembly that included people from all walks of life, including judges and religious leaders. Egyptian citizens are going to the polls to give it final approval.
Read more: Islamists claim victory in first round of referendum
Many in Egypt felt the draft constitution was passed too quickly. They are suspicious that it uses vague language and will not guarantee the rights of the people that Egyptians fought for during a revolution that unseated President Hosni Mubarak in 2011.
The draft constitution, some said, was a way for Morsy to give himself unchecked power.”
FA. (2012). Protests turn violent in Egypt ahead of vote on constitution. Cnn.com. Retrieved January 17, 2013 from http://www.cnn.com/2012/12/21/world/meast/egypt-cl ashes/index.html
My Opinion
Most of the Protesters in Egypt
Protests in Egypt
Chinese Flag
Right to Petition
“The right to petition government for redress of grievances is the right to make a complaint to, or seek the assistance of, one's government, without fear of punishment or reprisals.”
Right to Petition. (2013). [APA]. Retrieved January 15, 2013 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Right_to_petition
My Opinion
The History Ex.1
Anti-War Movement
An anti-war movement (also antiwar) is a social movement, usually in opposition to a particular nation's decision to start or carry on an armed conflict, unconditional of a maybe-existing just cause. The term can also refer to pacifism, which is the opposition to all use of military force during conflicts. Many activists distinguish between anti-war movements and peace movements. Anti-war activists work through protest and other grassroots means to attempt to pressure a government (or governments) to put an end to a particular war or conflict.
Right to Petition. (2013). [APA]. Retrieved January 15, 2013 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-war_movement