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Global Citizenry (week 11)

6/9/2014

9 Comments

 
Answer the following prompts below
  • I believe that in the future the notion of being a global citizen will take hold and change how we build our communities. As someone living in the United States, in your own words define what is means to be a global citizen. Use your experience to guide your perspective.
  • Describe three aspects of what global citizenship looks like in your dream society.
  • This is your dream world blog. We wont know what to work for if we can create a vision for the change we wish to seek.

For example:


A definition of a global citizen is a person that can equally identify their impact on another person not based on their geographic location but the social, economic, and political impact they have on others based on their own access to power and privilege. One aspect of being a global citizen in this evolved society is that people all over the world no longer pay for food because it is a basic need we all voted that it would keep us alive longer and be better for families if food was just bartered for and not attached to any economic market.

Requirements for BLOG POSTS
  • You must write 250 words (minimum) each post (due Friday @ Midnight), Responses to another student 50 words each (due Monday @ midnight)
  • Students must post during the week the blog is assigned or it will not be graded. All blog grades are calculated at the end of the term.
9 Comments

How does change happen? (week 10)

6/2/2014

48 Comments

 
Describe two central themes in Ms Davis' speech on "How Does Change Happen?" Within  a 250 word (minimum) post write about Angela's words and work as they relate to two new ideas that you learned in this course.

Requirements for BLOG POSTS
  • You must write 250 words (minimum) each post (due Friday @ Midnight), Responses to another student 50 words each (due Monday @ midnight)
  • Students must post during the week the blog is assigned or it will not be graded. All blog grades are calculated at the end of the term.
48 Comments

Civil Liberties & Civil Rights: The End of America (week 9)

5/27/2014

45 Comments

 
Watch the video below and answer the following prompts.
  • Name and describe two tactics that Naomi Wolff presented as ways that our open society has become a closed society. 
  • Give one example for each “tactic” used to close an open society. What does that look like in the United States today? Give specifics examples for each tactic.
  • How can people become more aware of these political and social strategies? Will the tactic described by Wolff strengthen or weaken our democracy? Why or why not?


Requirements for BLOG POSTS
  • You must write 250 words (minimum) each post (due Friday @ Midnight), Responses to another student 50 words each (due Monday @ midnight)
  • Students must post during the week the blog is assigned or it will not be graded. All blog grades are calculated at the end of the term.
45 Comments

Final exam outline blog (week 8)

5/19/2014

54 Comments

 
For this weeks blog I am asking you to review the final paper assignment on blackboard. Each student will post their responses to the questions below regarding the case study of your choice. Below are the case studies. Review them, choose one and answer the questions below. This activity will help you write your final paper and prepare you to make a plan.
NOTE: You may need to do additional research to learn about the issues in each case study.

  • Why is this a social or political problem? What two ideas did you learn from the reading that apply to your problem?
  • How does what you have read or discussed in class helped you understand the issue presented?
  • Why do you think this political problem exists?
  • Who benefits from this problem persisting and who wins if the problem is addressed? From your perspective explain why?



For this blog post you will be asked to respond to another persons post. This is your opportunity to support one another in developing your own personal political ideology. Your ideology will highly influence the route you take to address each issue.

Case Study #1

An ongoing campaign in a low-income, immigrant neighborhood has succeeded in uniting a coalition of residents, local businesses, youth groups and faith groups to stop developers from using the neighborhood as an illegal dumping ground.   The environmental coalition, Quality for Life, is strong, but lately participation has waned and the group has spent the majority of its funds on the anti-dumping campaign. Though the dumping has stopped, the coalition would like to address a long-term concern with several industries nearby that they suspect are not complying with pollution caps and limits. The neighborhood in and around the industries has a higher than average childhood asthma rate. 

 Case Study #2

After a rise in robberies at gunpoint and other violent crime with weapons in a downtown area, the local Police Department has adopted a policy of “stop-and-frisk” on demand.  A newspaper investigation recently found that male police officers have been stopping a high proportion of women and subjecting them to humiliating body frisks, even though the rate of guns found on men and women is very low.  Civil rights leaders are now arguing that the bulk of stop-and-frisk encounters are legally unjustified. 

 Case Study #3

A developer has submitted plans to build a mall including a grocery store, drugstore and several retail shops.  The grocery store is needed in the neighborhood, which currently has only small markets that don’t sell any fresh produce.  However, developing the land in question would require building an access road that would divert traffic into a nearby residential neighborhood where many families live.  It would require widening roads in the neighborhood by claiming some land in front of houses.  No one has calculated how much traffic would increase, but the road near the mall is a major artery.

 

54 Comments

Minimum Wage in the Bay Area (week 7)

5/13/2014

59 Comments

 
The minimum wage debate in the United States has been a continued struggle for working class people. After reading Chapter 15 and after you watch the videos below answer the following prompts to begin your discussion on the necessity of minimum wage changes.

  • What were three major themes that you have learned from the reading and videos regarding the debate on minimum wage?
  • What are the conflicts between community and corporate interests regarding minimum wage? How, if at all, can they be resolved?
  • What do you believe are the consequences of having a low minimum wage vs. a higher rate like $15?
  • What connections, if any, did you find with the issue of minimum wage and your own experience of income inequality?

Requirements for BLOG POSTS
  • You must write 250 words each post (due Friday @ Midnight), Responses to another student 50 words each (due Monday @ midnight)
  • Students must post during the week the blog is assigned or it will not be graded.
59 Comments

Comparing Presidential Influence & Behavior (week 6)

5/4/2014

52 Comments

 
Watch the clips below. Each short video gives an example of various forms of Presidential leadership.

What are the major differences you see in how each president chose to address the political and social problems during their terms? How were these issues defined? Who was impacted by the issues being dealt with and what were the consequences of Presidential decisions on those communities?

The videos below highlight President Clinton, President Bush (senior), President Bush (junior), and President Obama. In your post this week pick two of the videos below.

Compare and contrast what you learned from the textbook about Presidential power and what you learned from the clips below. Use the questions above as your guide.

Requirements for BLOG POSTS
  • You must write 250 words each post (due Friday @ Midnight), Responses to another student 50 words each (due Monday @ midnight)
  • Students must post during the week the blog is assigned or it will not be graded.
52 Comments

Mass Surveillance in the United States (week 5)

4/28/2014

57 Comments

 
Watch the video above and review the timeline here. Edward Snowden released documents that showed the large scale surveillance waged by the U.S. government. Your task this week will be to examine the Snowden case and the place of surveillance in our American democracy. Answer the prompts below to guide you when writing your post. Share any other perspectives you have on the topic.

  • Describe the various forms of surveillance that Snowden exposed.
  • What are the potential uses and abuses of surveillance?
  • How does this level of surveillance impact our democracy?
  • Should the government have this information? Why or why not?
  • Do you believe Snowden did the right thing? Why or not why?
  • Can we have a true democracy with that level of centralized surveillance?


Requirements for BLOG POSTS
  • You must write 250 words each post (due Friday @ Midnight), Responses to another student 50 words each (due Monday @ midnight)
  • Students must post during the week the blog is assigned or it will not be graded.
57 Comments

Power and Political Participation (week 4)

4/21/2014

50 Comments

 
'Power is rooted in the control of coercive force and in the control of the means of production. However, in capitalist societies this reality is not legitimized by rendering the powerful divine, but obscuring their existence.' - Poor People's Movement Article
Read this article on the relationship between power and class. Within the political system participation is highly regulated by access to a variety of resources. This article highlights the various barriers to political participation and the use and misuse of power within the government. Read the article attached here.

In 150 words (minimum)
answer the following questions. Be sure to respond to ONE other student.
  • What were the three major themes from the reading?
  • What did you learn about American political institutions?
  • How do you see yourself and your family within the framework provided by the author? What does political participation look like in your community?
  • What connections, if any, did you find with the article and your own experience of power and powerlessness?
50 Comments

States Rights and Federalism (week 3)

4/14/2014

69 Comments

 
A defining characteristic of the United States is our federalist stance. Our model of government enables states (and sometimes territories) to have a partially autonomous legislative and legal system within the national structure. The relationship between the federal government and the states has been contentious from the start. Issues of constitutionality and morality are generally at the center of these debates.

This nuanced relationship between the federal regulations, laws and practices with the cultural differences in each state has shown to be tenuous and draining on our political system.

Below there are two excerpts from online publications that highlight a historical and contemporary issue that provides additional context to this central question in American political institutions. Choose one and comment below answer the guiding questions.


Marijuana Reform/ A Statement by -
Ethan Nadelmann:
    The suggestion that reform of marijuana prohibition laws in the United States must start by focusing on federal and international law is simply an excuse for inaction.  Federal law in this area will only change as a result of political pressures associated with changes in state laws.  This does not mean that no efforts should be made to change federal and international laws, just that reforming state laws is an essential part of the political process by which federal and international marijuana prohibition laws will ultimately be reformed and repealed.  Keep in mind too that this country has a long tradition of states serving as incubators for innovative policy reforms.
     Kevin makes two other mistakes in his commentary.  It’s not true – although I wish it were – that "most places punish the use of small amounts of marijuana similarly to a speeding ticket."  Few people are handcuffed or taken to a police station or incarcerated in a jail for speeding tickets, but all those indignities routinely are applied to people arrested for possession of small amounts of marijuana.  Government employees won’t lose their jobs for a speeding ticket but they may very well for a marijuana possession arrest.  Punishment can be even more severe if the person arrested is among the roughly five million Americans on parole or probation, often for very minor offenses.  Millions of Americans have suffered much worse than the equivalent of a speeding ticket in recent years for nothing more than being caught with a little marijuana.
     As for the comparison with alcohol, the costs of alcohol abuse are so great in good part because alcohol can be a remarkably dangerous and destructive drug for a minority of consumers – much more so than marijuana.  There is no basis to assume that the costs of marijuana misuse would be anything comparable to those of alcohol misuse if marijuana were made legally available.

Ethan Nadelmann is Executive Director of the Drug Policy Alliance. Excerpt from: http://reason.com/archives/2012/10/09/marijuana-and-states-rights-a-reason-deb.

Dred Scott v. Sandford (1857)
    In Dred Scott v. Sandford (argued 1856 -- decided 1857), the Supreme Court ruled that Americans of African descent, whether free or slave, were not American citizens and could not sue in federal court. The Court also ruled that Congress lacked power to ban slavery in the U.S. territories. Finally, the Court declared that the rights of slaveowners were constitutionally protected by the Fifth Amendment because slaves were categorized as property.
    The controversy began in 1833, when Dr. John Emerson, a surgeon with the U.S. Army, purchased Dred Scott, a slave, and eventually moved Scott to a base in the Wisconsin Territory. Slavery was banned in the territory pursuant to the Missouri Compromise. Scott lived there for the next four years, hiring himself out for work during the long stretches when Emerson was away. In 1840, Scott, his new wife, and their young children moved to Louisiana and then to St. Louis with Emerson. Emerson died in 1843, leaving the Scott family to his wife, Eliza Irene Sanford. In 1846, after laboring and saving for years, the Scotts sought to buy their freedom from Sanford, but she refused. Dred Scott then sued Sanford in a state court, arguing that he was legally free because he and his family had lived in a territory where slavery was banned.     In 1850, the state court finally declared Scott free. However, Scott's wages had been withheld pending the resolution of his case, and during that time Mrs. Emerson remarried and left her brother, John Sanford, to deal with her affairs. Mr. Sanford, unwilling to pay the back wages owed to Scott, appealed the decision to the Missouri Supreme Court. The court overturned the lower court's decision and ruled in favor of Sanford. Scott then filed another lawsuit in a federal circuit court claiming damages against Sanford's brother, John F.A. Sanford, for Sanford's alleged physical abuse against him.         The jury ruled that Scott could not sue in federal court because he had already been deemed a slave under Missouri law. Scott appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, which reviewed the case in 1856. Due to a clerical error at the time, Sanford's name was misspelled in court records.
(Excerpt from: http://www.pbs.org/wnet/supremecourt/antebellum/landmark_dred.html)


Guiding Questions
  • Define the purpose of state rights in American politics?
  • How has the debate over state sovereignty and federal control displayed itself in the excerpts above? What role do you think public entities and private/capitalist interests play in the decision making regarding federal or state control?
  • What are the major moral questions in the political debates presented in the excerpts above?
  • What did you learn about american politics through researching this particular issue regarding states rights?
69 Comments

Social Contract Theory: Consent in American Politics (week 2)

4/9/2014

66 Comments

 
"Social contract theory, nearly as old as philosophy itself, is the view that persons’ moral and/or political obligations are dependent upon a contract or agreement among them to form the society in which they live."
Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy

Social Contract theory explains how political authority can arise in a governing system. According to social contract theory, consent is the basis of our government's control. It is because people have agreed to be ruled that governments are entitled to rule.

Based on this theory of consent, name three examples of government actions from U.S. history that U.S. residents have given consent to? When describing these three historical or contemporary moments please tell why and how the people have given consent. Tell who was or was not impacted by the government action taken that we have given consent.

NOTE: These moments in history should be directly related to the U.S. governments action or lack thereof.

Requirements for BLOG POSTS
  • You must write 250 words each post (due Friday @ Midnight), Responses to another student 50 words each (due Monday @ midnight)
  • Students must post during the week the blog is assigned or it will not be graded.
66 Comments
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