Inauguration day

Today was a very historical moment as not only is it Martin Luther King Day but also Inauguration day where the 44th president of the United States was officially/finalized the president for the next 4 years. Barrak Obama not only being the 44th president of the United States but what is known to be the first African American president of United States. I was able to watch Obama's speech as it was made official he was the president. I was packed in a classroom with many other student and teachers, everyone was a lot more inattentive then they usually are in a regular teaching class. By judging from the atmosphere and mood of the room, half the people were bored out of their minds as the others seemed enthusiastic, cheerful, they cheered and clapped to Obama's words. As well as being able to watch his speech I was also able to watch a part of the parade on CNN news and a news reporter showing us a satellite birds eye view image of the vents taking place. Firstly, it amazed me how advance our technology was, being able to see such a clear image of the millions of people gathering, they appeared to look like swarms of ants on the image. Secondly, I was surprised how much people were curious and into this year's election and Inauguration then any other. They didn't have the same enthusiasm for George's Bush's election and Inauguration day as they did for Obama ("I wonder why..."). I heard from a friend that this year was in the Guinness worlds records of how many people were actually watching Obama. This big event brought up many discussions and questions in history class today. The first of which I remember was brought up by a fellow student (I think, if i remember correctly was Yazmin Pina), she asked how come there was around 180 million dollars spent on Inauguration day even when the US is already in such a economical crisis. This made me wonder as well of why can't Inauguration just be a simple rally listening to the president taken oath and his speech? Is it because America doesn't think? Personally, while relating it to the American way of life, Americans are known for there waste in money (personal opinion), families and people tend to spend money on luxury and leisure before solving any crisis's'. Looking at the Inauguration, it is a enjoyable show everyone can see. It is a way for every person in America to feel a part of History and have that feeling of "togetherness". This being up another topic in class of "National Unity". In many of the speeches heard today brought up, many of the words such as "we", "we the people", "freedom", etc. These words give the citizens of the United States a sense of dignity and equality, as if they took part of this great history, as if they had a sense of power. Although this is the good side, there was mention of the evil side of National Unity. One example is the military force, before Obama people avoided drafts, no one wanted to fight for George Bus which everyone saw as "stupid". Now that we have what most people see as a "cool" president since he is black and "hip" and be able to relate to citizens, now people are more willing to risk there lives and join the military. They would more likely want to fight for the "cool president". To wrap it up, this blinds people from seeing social classes. This can be bad because many people will sink deeper into their class, making the poor people poorer and rich people even richer, creating no balance in social class and a expansion of military force.

Karl Marx

Karl Marx was a philosopher and mainly researched on capitalism and didn't necessarily approve or disprove with the ideas of capitalism but more likely tells the future of where society is heading. A few things that caught my attention during history class was primitive accumulation of capital, alienation of labor, empiricism, and the crashing of capitalism. First off was the primitive accumulation of capital. None of the capital we have now in our modern society would have become if it wasn't for the accumulation of capital through stealing, enslavement, genocide. An example of how these things was the primitive accumulation of capital, by stealing another person's labor or enslaving people to work for you helps build the capital which in result causes industrialization. As workers are exploited for there labor this causes the theory by Karl Marx of vampire. "Capital is dead labor which, vampire- like lives by sucking living labor, and lives the more the more labor it sucks"(-Karl Marx). This quote basically means that in order for capital to survive it sucks labor from workers such like a vampire sucks blood from a person to survive. This was the ideas that caught my attention the most as it compares captial to a vampire, this giving me the idea that if there was no labor there would be no capital, so why is it that workers work for such a little amount then what they should be getting? According to Marx he stated that "Capital is going to grow and suck until everyone becomes a proletarian." A Proletarian is someone who sells there labor in order to survive, they have nothing else to sell to survive but there own labor. This giving the idea in class that since capital needs labor it produces proletarians, as proletarians grow it eventually will cause everyone to become proletarian. I think this will one day be true as the more people find work and sell there labor it gives capital more of a oppourtunity to get more labor. This will eventually cause all of society to be selling there labor and just the very few that are capital. Marx also gives an idea of alienation or alienation of labor, this is when someone does not work for themselves or because they want to but because they work in order to survive thus making a person and there work alien to each other. Marx did not see this theory as a good thing. I think this is a very big idea about society because most people today don't really end up working to be something they want to be but working in order to earn a living. This is a big part of the American way of life, these makes me think back to the interviews we did with random people on the street, when asked what they think the American way of life is most of which answered back "work work work!" instead of personal values, dreams, and goals and none of which mentioned enjoy there job but describing it as "tiring". This shows how people will get any work they can no matter at what wage which causes the idea of alienation and capital taking over. This makes me wonder what if one day people start to realize that they are being paid at a low wage just for capital to earn the rest of the higher pay that the workers make for them, what will happen? Would we ever have a crashing capitalism where there is exploitation of works. This usually goes towards the direction of socialism. Would this ever happen to America?

Christmas Break

Christmas break is probably the best holiday for students mainly because of the long amount of time we are able to spent sleeping in and wasting time. Christmas this year was no different then any other this year. Now that I think about it I realize that it wasn't as different to Thanksgiving Holiday either. This Christmas/ New Years I spent it with my boyfriend and his family. This supports my idea that no matter what culture Asian, Hispanic, or Caucasian, Christmas is primarily celebrated the same way. Christmas in the american way of life mainly includes family, gifts, and parties. Typically in the American way of life, people dominantly spent new years including things like gatherings of some sort, thoughtlessness, family, and alcohol. From what I personal know Christmas was celebrated by many Christians for it was the day for the birth of Jesus Christ(I'm not saying this is a fact, this is what i personal heard). Although I don't exactly think this is the case now in the American way of life as much as it was in the past. Now in modern day I think people mainly celebrate Christmas as a time to get together with family and just like Thanksgiving an excuse to SHOP.I didn't get any new outfits this Christmas although i managed to cough up some dough to get new shoes. This shows me that in the typical American way of life people tend to spent more of their time on personal items and necessities rather then survival. During Christmas, Chanukah or whatever it is people tend to look forward to gifts rather then quality time. Now the American way of life is a lot revolved around buying, as things are on sale people bombarded the stores for things that they see as on sale. Just like Thanksgiving Christmas is a wonderful excuse to have get-together and shop for things that are able to have an excuse to be on sale. As new years is a excuse to have big parties and get drunk and celebrate what I think is just "time". In conclusion Christmas Break is definitely a big part of the American way of life for every year it is the same, it is as well the same for every family or person as well.

Ebay

Ive always heard a lot about eBay but never really took the time to really look at the website. I always thought it sold items that weren't really of any important. When i got the assignment to take a look at eBay and try to do an auction for an item i was interested in. I happen to find a lot of items that was either surprisingly expensive or surprisingly cheap. Many of the items I saw was from common stores such as American Apparel. Most clothing from that store is ridiculously expensive, for example a colored hoodie would cost around 40 to 60 dollars, on eBay I saw a lot of the same exact items selling at a ridiculously cheaper amount around 20 dollars. When i found a sweater that I was interested in (no a item that was taken from American Apparel) I attempted to bid for it, as there was zero bids placed on it I bid it in the very beginning. I wasn't really anxious or anything because I thought I wouldn't have won the bid as no one seemed interested in biding on it as well. The next day as I check back I had surprisingly lost the bid. This taught me that no matter what it is crucial to bid at the very beginning which is a strategy i learned in class. This made me think that the other person who had won the bid most likely had used that strategy.

This very much relates to the idea of capitalism. The first thing that came on my mind was supply, demand, scarcity, and oppourtunity cost. On eBay, as many people bid on the same item this is the idea that there is a limited amount of supply as demand is more because there are more people who want the item. Scarcity is when you get what you get when you buy something. As i search through eBay there was a certain amount of money that I was willing to spent which also meant I only had a certain limited amount as well, this meaning i also only had a limited amount of items i could get with my certain amount of money. As lastly relating it to opportunity cost, when I didn't get the item that I wanted I went on the the second best thing that I had my eye on.

Part C

Amendments 12, 13, 14, & 15 are often referred to as a major turning point in US government policy. Why?


In the amendments 12,13, 14, 15th it introduced ideas such as the electoral college and abolishment of slavery. These few amendments are often known to be what caused major turning points for America. It was most important probably because it made certain changes in how the government was runs. Firstly it was a major turning point because in the 14th amendment it made it so the government cannot rob people of their freedoms, slavery is basically robbing people of their freedoms. Letting the African Americans have their freedom and abolishing slavery sets a huge turning point for the US. As the 15th amendment allows all citizens to be able to vote even the African Americans. Although at that time women were at that time not able to vote. This, in personal opinion, contradicts the 14th amendment at that time. Of course it has changed and women are allowed the same freedom and rights. As people know, "freedom" and "equality" is how America is viewed, it is what America is meant to go by. If it wasn't for these amendments it wouldn't have made such a big turning point for American towards it's goal is a country with freedom and equality.

Does the 14th combine with the earlier "no religious test" clause to guarantee a vision of a diverse and equitable society with no government discrimination?

The 14th amendment states that laws made against liberty, freedom, and citizens property are not allowed. As the "no religious test" clause states that a person in office cannot discriminate against the religion of others in the office. Although i do not think they combine together to guarantee a vision of diverse and equitable society but I do think that it in some ways it supports the idea of a diverse and equal society. As the 14th amendment supports diversity and freedom by abolishing slavery, this guarantees a vision of a equal society. Having the "no religious test" clause keeps diversity of culture and religious beliefs, not making anything mainly based of raise OR religion.

Part B

Full Faith and Credit(Article 4)

In article four under "Full Faith and Credit" the constitution states that congress has full responsibility for following each state's own legal actions. Each individual state can have there own individual laws that the citizens must follow. The laws from each state must be respected by the congress. The congress must leave the laws of the state to itself, giving each state it's own freedom to do as it pleases with the laws. A good example of this is the gay marriage law. A big issue in all the states is whether to allow or ban same sex marriages. Today in American, the majority of the states have banned gay marriage, many of these decisions are made by the citizens of the state. For example, California used to be a state that allowed same sex marriage but up until recently California has just had a referendum (which means the people of the state vote for whether they want the law to be adopted or not, the popular vote wins) making gay marriage banned from the state of California. Although this brings up the idea of whether this part of the constitution can be contradicted. In a way people find ways to tweak and work certain laws. An example of this is the gay couples that travel to the very few states that allow gay marriage such as Massachusetts to get married, once married they move back to the state that they take actual residence in whether the state banned gay marriage or not. I think that is the part of the constitution that ables same sex couples to be able to get married in a different state and yet live in a state that has banned gay marriage. These laws i guess are not always adopted by the people of United States, finding ways to work around them.

Highest Law of the Land/Oath of Office
The "Highest Law of the Land" is the constitution itself. The clause stating that no other government can enforce any law that will go against the constitution. After the "Supremacy of Laws" the constitution then mentions about religious beliefs, this is under "Oath of Office". It states that no persons should be excluded based on their religious beliefs or background, in my personal opinion I think of this in two different ways. First, I think of this as a good way to keep the government less judgemental towards a certain religious belief. Making it one less problem for the government to be worrying over. If they exclude a certain religious belief then they might as well start exclude people of different ethnic backgrounds as well. This makes a more "equal" and diverse government which brings up my second thought; maybe it was not just a way to make a more fair government but actually a way to win the "hearts" of the people of United States. It is a way to get the citizens of the Unite States to look upon the constitution and the government with a sense of trust and awe, trying to gain the trust of the people as well as their support. In a way it seems to me as a similar way companies try to buy their customers money. Although, not want to be such a devil's advocate, I do think that it is a pretty fair and "nice" idea to NOT exclude people of religious backgrounds thus proving my second idea of convincing people to trust the government because it sure convinced me for a second.

The 4th Amendment: Searches and Seizures
In the fourth amendment, it states that the government does not have the right to invade the privacy of the people by searching a person's home or personal belongings unless being able to provide a warrant for the searches. It also states that no person can be arrested unless they are able to provide a warrant for that as well. Although the constitution states this, there are many examples where people can find it to contradict the fourth amendment. These examples included airport searches, library searches, and random MTA searches. It definitely does contradict the amendment but it depends of a person's viewpoint towards the issue. Airports searches can be annoying and take forever to get through but it can be understood for the fact that they are searching not to invade people's privacy and annoy the people but to search for anything that can be a harm towards the people. They search for the safety of the people. Every since the incident of 9/11 airport searches have been on a much higher alert then before. There searches are to ensure there would not be another terrorist attack of any sort. Libraries on the other hand, i never really understood why they must search through people's book bags and purses. Is it because they think people might steal from the library or bomb it? What is the original purpose to searches in libraries? Personally I think the searches in the libraries very much contradict the 4th amendment without a warrant let a lone a good reason. It always depends on the viewpoint of which is more significant, the safety of the people or the safety of privacy and personal belongings.

6th & 7th Amendment: Criminal Proceedings/Civil Trials
Starting with the 6th amendment, it states that any person who is accused of a crime can have the right to defend their selves by requesting a public trial within the district. A person being accused also has the right to a lawyer to represent them in court. If a person is found guilty then they must be told of their fate or consequences for their accused crime. Following after is the 7th amendment which states that during a trial those who are involved have the right to be tried by the jury. The jury is known to have no biased views on any cased. The jury in the end decides the fate of the one who is being accused based on facts and questionings in court. This can show how the US may fear of unfairness and a bad government, it is feared that the government may use its power to unfairly convict a person of a crime whether they may be innocents or guilty. They try to keep it fair by ensuring a sense of being equal from both the accuser and the one being accused. They do this by allowing each to have a lawyer to defend their case. And by placing a jury that would not take sides and have a biased view, this ensures that a persons is not just convicted by favorites of the jury. This ensures they are not convicted the innocent person and instead the guilty person.

ThanksGiving and Black Friday

I'm not a person that usually celebrates thanksgiving as a family. I hop around to different events people host because of the food they have prepared. I think thanks giving a a big part of the American way of life, it is a holiday where family and friends gather around to celebrate and give thanks to all the opportunities and things they have been set in front of them. They usually give thanks to the food they have, the friends they have, and there family. Although people don't exactly realize that Thanksgiving was set on a day where the Indians were killed by the Pilgrims. Why is it that we celebrate thanks on a day where there was a genocide? I think thanksgiving was not originally set to give thanks for the pilgrims killing the Indians. When I asked my boyfriend why people still celebrate thanksgiving when it was a day where many Indians where massacred, he answered in a joking manner "we are celebrating because of that reason". I think thanksgiving is just an excuse for people to have a party, eat, and get fat. Not to mention the excuse to have a ridiculous amount of sales the day after the holiday. This year, i celebrating thanks giving with my boyfriend and his large Hispanic family. It was quite interesting to me how many people with different ethnic backgrounds still celebrate thanksgiving. Whether it is black, Asian, Hispanic, or white, all of them celebrate thanksgiving even if they are not even born United States Citizens. Which brings back my idea that people don't see it as "Thanks for killing the Indians" day but see it more as a "Excuse to have a party and thank everything" day. Not forgetting about black Friday which is the single most manipulative way companies can get people to spent money on a ridiculous amount of junk. Although it is sad how people are sucked into it so much, I myself must admit it works. On black Friday I didn't wake up early in the morning to go shopping like most people do. Around the evening I got bored so I took a walk with my friend around 86 Street to see what kind of "amazing" sale that stores were having. I stepped into a Victoria
Secret and saw that they were selling bras for 34 dollars rather then there super expensive prices of around 50 dollars. I noticed that they also put up an add saying that if u spent more then 60 dollars you get a free Victoria Secrete bag with a whole bunch of goodies inside. Since i was broke i was not able to buy anything but my friend bought 63 dollars worth of underwear (which I'm not sure why anyone would spent so much on underwear) which means she was able to get the free goody bag. This amused me because the free gift was basically a crappy bag with what looks like a whole bunch of left over sample gifts of lotions, perfumes, etc. It never yet amazes me how everyone can get so hyped up over "free" things or things that my be cheaper then its original price. It made it even more ironic when I heard on the next day that a worker from Walmart died from being trampled by the mop of customers hungry for sales. It made me think the people were like zombies to have trampled a 6 foot 5 man without even noticing. It makes it really sad how society can be sucked in by companies and luxury items.