The Progressive Era

In an article by The American Conservative, sixteen-year-old, Greta Thunberg shared her opinion on climate change.  Free speech is a right to Americans but sometimes free speech isn't everything it's made to be.  It seems like people don't have an issue with free speech until it interferes with their personal opinions and beliefs.  In this particular case, Thunberg is only sixteen years of age and many who agree with Thunberg's beliefs enjoy seeing her exercising her free speech.  However, if Thunberg's beliefs differed, the same people who previously had no issue in her free speech, may have a problem with it and may even go as far as to say her opinion has no weight because she is too young to have an opinion on such a controversial issue.  It seems free speech is acceptable to people when it's convenient for them.  Thunberg made a call for change and even went as far as announcing her and fifteen other young peoples' move to sue the countries of Argentina, Brazil, France, Germany, and Turkey, in a bid to pressure them into considerable action on preventing climate change.

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Civil War and Reconstruction

Fake news has been an issue for quite some time now.  It is already difficult enough to verify if news is true or false, but now with people creating fake news headlines, it becomes even harder.  Facebook is no stranger to public criticism and scrutiny.  Over the past few years, Facebook has had its fair share of encounters with the spread of false information  and fake news and taken action against it, however; recently, Facebook users discovered a major loophole in Facebook's numerous strategies in combatting fake news.

A digital media company called 'Mashable' discovered a glitch in Facebook Groups that allows Facebook users  to easily create and spread fake news and misinformation via a feature that was previously shut down 2 years ago.  In a 2017 Facebook post Facebook said, “By removing the ability to customize link metadata (i.e. headline, description, image) from all link sharing entry points on Facebook, we are eliminating a channel that has been abused to post false news.”  Facebook has created various security protocols and taken different safety measures to protect against the spread of false information and fake news.

The biggest problem with the spread of false information is the laziness of people.  People are impatient and many just read headlines and assume any headline they read is factual.  Rarely do people actually read an article and learn information for themselves.  However, despite the laziness of people, everyone should have access to accurate information.  In this day in age, we expect people to be well-informed and well-versed in political, national, social and many other issues that may affect their lives from day to day.

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The Founding Era

Prior to watching the video about the history and workings of the U.S. Supreme Court, I had a relatively basic idea of the justice system and the responsibilities of the Supreme Court Justices, or at least I thought I did.  The U.S. Supreme Court has nine justices and the Justices have a lot of responsibility.

One famous court case, Dred Scott v. Sanford is one of the most well-known cases in history.  The court case was around the time of the Civil War.  The court case found that Congress had no power to  ban slavery and that blacks could never be citizens.  After the war the Constitution was amended to grant voting rights, abolish slavery and define citizenship.  The 14th Amendment told the states they could not deny due process of law or equal protection of law to any citizen.

One thing about the video was I thought it refreshing to hear Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist talk about how he implemented a rule that everyone must speak once before anyone spoke twice.  Supreme Court Justices oftentimes may be discussing a persons livelihood, and if there is no order or balance to the discussion, all the opinions present may not be genuinely heard.  Every single Justice is a different person with their own opinion that should be heard.  That particular moment in the video showed that although the Justices may have different personalities, perspectives and opinions, they still try to find a way to respect each other's opinions.

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In this article, Muhammad Ali's expression of his first amendment rights are discussed.  Ali expressed his first amendment rights when he was drafted to fight for the United States in the Vietnam War.  Ali refused and because of his refusal, he was sentenced to five years in prison and a $10,000 fine.  Ali appealed the decision, but while he fought his legal battles, he was stripped of his championship title and lost his boxing license.  Ali refused to fight because he was a Muslim and identified with the religion of Islam.  He deemed himself a "conscientious objector" and missed the prime of his career.  Ali is a historical figure because of his refusal to forfeit his rights.

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About Me

My name is Alex Gibson. I was born and raised in New York. I'm a sophomore at High Point University majoring in Sports Communication and Journalism and minoring in Athletic Coaching.  After school, I hope to coach a college or professional basketball team and with experience in Sports Communication and Journalism, possibly expand into creating podcasts, radio shows and appearing on sports shows like ESPN.