Promoting Tolerance

      It has been said that freedom of speech, or the freedom to exchange ideas, will promote tolerance in our lives and in our society. The first amendment extends protection to hate speech and that is argued to teach us to be more tolerant in some aspects of life as well. Lee Bollinger, who came up with this idea, says that tolerance to hateful speech or ideas provides a shield to more political discourse. Since tolerance allows people to have more respect for others, it is said that racial and ethnic tensions will decrease as well. 

    Recently in the news, hate speech has hurt our nation. I believe there are two ways to go about hate speech. You can either be hurt by it, or you can take it as constructive criticism and become tolerant to it. The first option allows you to become sensitive and that will ultimately cause you to be easily offended by other things such as political discourse. I am not saying that being sensitive is a bad thing, but I am saying that being sensitive and becoming easily offended when people are trying to provide constructive criticism or their opinion to some topics can be toxic. Our country has let our history and some of the leaders from our past affect our future. We have become too sensitive to what has happened in our past instead of learning from our mistakes and becoming tolerant to them. For example, there has been news all over the media referring to our past regarding slaves and slave owners. We continue to be hurt by this while we should learn from it and treat blacks better than we did in the past. Yes, our nation has made terrible mistake in the past and we continue to make them in the future, but we should be able to learn from these mistakes and move on from them. We need to become tolerant to the political discourse and hate speech that is going on so we can be able to listen to other people's ideas without getting offended. 

    One of the hot topics in the media today is the Black Lives Matter Movement. I do believe that black lives matter, but I also believe that we have gone about this change in a poor way. I believe that if we were to grow tolerance to some of this hate speech and to the ideas some people are "threatening", then we would be able to live in a more stable and open society. We would have more respect for people and the problem of treating black people as less than would eventually decrease. 

The History of Facebook

    Did you know that there are 2.7 billion users on Facebook? It is the largest social media network worldwide. Facebook has grown tremendously since it first launched. So, here is the history of how it all got started:

    Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook, got into Harvard in 2003. While at Harvard, he started Facemash, which let students at Harvard judge the attractiveness of others by creating rankings for them. This was a big hit for Harvard students with 22k views within the first few hours of the launch. It got shut down by the university, because Zuckerberg did not get permission from the school board to start it up. The Harvard Administration Board wanted to expel him, but they let Zuckerberg stay and that motivated him to start his next big project. 

    His next project was Thefacebook and it launched in 2004. This was a site where you could upload a photo, share your interests and connect with others. It was open to people with a Harvard email address and had a lot of success right away. Unfortunately, Zuckerberg was being sued. His three friends claimed that they came up with the idea, and that Zuckerberg stole it. Eventually, they reached a settlement where they got 1.2M shares in the company. Thefacebook was an instant hit and by the end of 2004, it was open to all Universities across the US and Canada. It started to receive more funding and then they dropped the 'the'. Because of all the funding it received, it started opening to high schoolers and employees of Microsoft and Apple. Zuckerberg started out as the programmer of Facebook, then in 2005 he left Harvard and became the CEO. Facebook kept making more money and growing more and more when Zuckerberg became CEO. 

    After hearing of the history of Facebook, many people may wonder why it grew to be so popular and how it has stayed to be so popular. Facebook established itself as a safe-space by opening first to college and then high school students. Its gradual opening stood out to people as it being a safe and protective company. Facebook also had a reliable technological infrastructure that avoided technical problems. Unlike other websites, such as MySpace, this technology attracted engineers that then helped Zuckerberg handle the demand for his company. Facebook triumphed over all other social media and it continues to still be the most popular network by far. 

Blog 3: The First Amendment in Today's Society

    The First Amendment has become one of the most talked about Amendments of the Constitution.

The First Amendment has six main clauses/freedoms:

1. Freedom from Religion

2. Freedom of Religion

3. Freedom of Press

4. Freedom of Speech

5. Freedom of Petition

6. Freedom of Assembly

    Even though these clauses seem pretty straight forward, there have been some disputes about what is condoned and what is not condoned in the First Amendment. For example, hate speech has been repeatedly ruled by the Supreme Court that it is protected under the First Amendment. Hate speech is abusive or threatening expressions that is prejudice against a group of people. Since it is not an act of violence, it is considered free speech. The Court has also ruled that obscenity, child pornography, or speech that constitutes what has become widely known as “fighting words” is not protected by the First Amendment. Fighting words are words that are meant to inflict injury or harm people. It is meant to physically harm someone; therefore, it is not protected by the First Amendment.

 

    Since the Black Lives Matter movement picked back up, the Supreme Court has had to clarify some of these rights that are protected by the First Amendment. Many people have tried to say that hate speech is not protected by the First Amendment all because they disagree with this movement. Right-winged people have tried to shut down this movement while the left-wings keep it up and running. Some of the BLM movement has turned into a political battle and both sides are looking for someone to blame. People are trying to use the First Amendment to say that what some of the protestors are doing is not protected by it. Needless to say, the protests are protected under the First Amendment and so is hate speech.

Blog 2: The US Supreme Court

The Supreme Court of the United States is the highest federal court in the country. It is the head of the judicial branch and if necessary, can check the actions of the executive and legislative branch. It has the power over all the laws in the United States and evaluates those laws.

Here is the history of the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS):

The Supreme Court was established in 1789 and the legislative branch first exercised its power with the Judiciary Act of 1789. It was signed into law by George Washington and said that there will be 6 justices who serve on the court. The six justices of the Supreme Court handed down its first case on August 3rd, 1791. The Supreme Court justices are nominated by the President of the United States and are confirmed or denied by the US Senate. The first Supreme Court chief justice was John Jay. The chief Justice is the highest judicial officer in the nation and holds several responsibilities from weekly meetings to impeachment trials.  The seats on the Supreme Court have changed throughout the years but it has now settled at nine seats. The Supreme Court has held a number of important cases such as Marbury v. Madison and Dred Scott v. Sandford. 

As you can see, the Supreme Court holds many responsibilities and plays a very important role in our nation.

 

Blog 1: My News Sources

Here are my top 5 sources of news and information:

1. My main source of news comes from Facebook. Growing up in the age of social media, this is the most popular news source for me. Most people in my generation have Facebook or some other form of social media so a lot of news gets put on these sites. I am on Facebook to keep up with friends and family, but I also get news from there which is super beneficial. Some of the news may be fake news, so it is important to check the source and quality of the story.

                                                                

2. The next source that I get news from is Apple News. About every morning when I wake up, I get a notification on my phone from Apple News. It is an app on your phone and one of the most convenient ways to stay in touch with what is going on in the world. If you are an avid news reader, then Apple News also has an Apple News+ option. It is a subscription that provides you with more in depth news stories. I prefer regular Apple News because it is free of charge and provides just information for me to know what it going in the world. I love it because you can access it from your phone or computer which makes it so easy.

3. I also get my news and information from The Winston-Salem Journal. I was born and raised in Winston-Salem so this was the most popular source of news for me when I was growing up. They provide local news from the Piedmont Triad. We get newspapers delivered to our house and it also has an easily accessible website to get news from. This was the best way for me to know what was going on in the city around me.

4. If I want national news that is dependable, I go to Fox News. This is a very popular news source for people, but especially Republicans. Fox News tends to lean a little to right side of the spectrum on their bias. They are constantly updating their website with accurate news and information so I can always count on getting the most up to date news.

5. Lastly, I go to CNN to get news. CNN is also very reliable to get news and information from. CNN leans a little to the left on their bias. I go to Fox News and CNN so I do not just get one side of the news story. Going to both websites allows me to get both sides of every story so I do not get any bias. These sources are a little less convenient for me, but I can always count on them for accuracy.