Juveniles Must Accpet Responsibility For Their Action Essays

Juveniles Must Accpet Responsibility for their Action Are juveniles as under control today as they were in the past? Crime plays a major role in today's society. The government follows the policy and has always followed the policy that no crime goes unpunished. The controversy that surrounds the United States courtrooms today is whether or not a minor needs to stand trial as an adult for committing a serious offense. These decisions made by the judge or jury in the preliminary hearing affect the rest of the suspects life. The opposing argument to the issue of juveniles being tried as adults remains that the minor is too young and immature to understand the consequences of what he or she did wrong. Juveniles need to be punished according to the severity of the crime in which they committed. Ultimately, juveniles should stand trial as adults. The opposition believes that holding court cases where juveniles remain tried as adults undoubtedly violates the rights of the juvenile. Initially, the age of a person when the alleged crime occurred decides whether or not he or she will be tried as a juvenile. ?Definitions of who is a juvenile vary for different purposes within individual states as well as among different states? (Rosenheim 36). Children, ages seven to seventeen, who are suspected of crime, must be treated as children in need of guidance and encouragement, and not as vicious criminals (Emerson 6). Also, the opposition feels that the juvenile cannot accept full responsibility for his or her actions. Some people insist that each minor who committed a crime was influenced in some way or another (Emerson 8). Not only does the opposition believe that the minor was influenced, but they also believe that the juvenile was not able to control his or herself (Emerson 8). In addition, juveniles have not yet reached the necessa ry maturity level to share a prison amongst other adults. Minors, isolated for punishment, do not deserve this radical treatment (Staff Report C13). Numerous lawsuits are filed annually to fight the improper incarceration of juveniles who were tried as adults (Staff Report C13). Most importantly, courts must not rely on prosecutors to prove that a child knew whether or not that the crime committed was right or wrong. ?The court is exhorted to treat children brought before it with the same kind of care, custody, and discipline that they would receive from good parents? (Emerson 6). Young offenders should be tried as minors because they do not know what is right from what is wrong (Fox 20). Juvenile crime has mushroomed into an enormous dilemma for the legal system. The juvenile court system needs to devote more time to backing up what the judicial system stands for. ?The courts allow the majority of juveniles off of the hook for committing crimes instead of arraigning them as adults like they should? (Stapleton 117). Due to the overflow of cases in lower circuit courts, the courts cannot handle the cases with the diligence necessary (Snyder 3). Moreover, a boom in juvenile crime poses a threat to the way that the judicial system conducts itself. Crimes that need to transfer to adult criminal courts are instead dealt with in the misdemeanor court (Snyder 3). Howard Snyder, Director of the National Juvenile Court Data Archive, in his report, demands that the courts must not continue letting minors leave the courtroom with minimal sentences for dangerous crimes. Most importantly, juvenile crime forces the courts to neglect time from the adult criminal courts. Juvenile cri me has done nothing but increase in the past, and because of the increase in crime by minors courts have been forced to place less emphasis on lower criminal cases (McPolin 26). Increasing crime amongst minors will be the primary cause for the ?downfall of the American judicial system? (Stapleton 119). The statistics pertaining to the crimes that juveniles committed in the past proves that a statement must be made by trying more serious juvenile offenders as adults. First of all, minors believe, and the statistics show that the system lets the juveniles off easy because they have not yet reached adulthood. Teenagers feel that because they are young and innocent they can beat the system (Howard

Display the Last Modified Date Using JavaScript

Display the Last Modified Date Using JavaScript When youre reading content on the Web, its often useful to know when that content was last modified to get an idea of whether it may be outdated. When it comes to blogs, most include dates of publication for new content posted. The same is true for many news sites and news articles. Some pages, however, dont offer a date for when a page was last updated. A date isnt necessary for all pages- some information is evergreen. But in some cases, knowing the last time a page was updated is important. Even though a page may not include a last updated date, there is a simple command that will tell you this, and it doesnt require you to have a lot of technical knowledge. JavaScript Command to Display the Date of the Last Modification To get the date of the last update on a page youre currently, on, simply type the following command into the address bar of your browser and press Enter or select the Go button: javascript:alert(document.lastModified) A JavaScript alert window will pop open displaying the last date and time the page was modified. For users of the Chrome browser and some others, if you cut-and-paste the command into the address bar, be aware that the javascript: part is removed. This doesnt mean you cant use the command. You will just need to type that bit back into the command in the address bar. When the Command Doesnt Work Technology for web pages changes over time, and in some cases the command to find out when a page was last modified wont work. For example, it wont work  on sites where the page content is generated dynamically. These types of pages are, in effect, being modified with each visit, so this trick doesnt help in these cases. An Alternative Method: The Internet Archive Another means of finding when a page was last updated is using the Internet Archive, also known as the Wayback Machine. In the search field at the top, enter the full address of the web page you want to check, including the http:// part. This wont give you a precise date, but you may be able to  get an approximate idea of when it was last updated. Note, though, that the calendar view on the Internet Archive site only indicates when the Archive has crawled or visited and logged the page, not when the page was updated or modified. Adding a Last Modified Date to Your Web Page If you have a webpage of your own, and you would like to show visitors when your page was last updated, you can do this easily by adding some JavaScript code to your pages HTML document. The code utilizes the same call shown in the previous section: document.lastModified: This will display text on the page in this format: Last updated on  08/09/2016 12:34:12 You can customize the text preceding the date and time displayed by changing the text between the quotation marks- in the above example, that is the Last updated text (note that there is a space after on so that the date and time arent displayed abutting the text).

Universal Design for Learning As It Applies to Early Childhood Special Essay

Universal Design for Learning As It Applies to Early Childhood Special Education - Essay Example Universal design for learning does not offer single solution however, it is a combination of various approaches designed to meet the requirements of children with different kinds of disabilities. One of the major challenges that the universal design for learning faces is the concept of inclusion. Inclusion refers to innovative forms of teaching methods in a regular classroom setup that caters to the educational requirements of the children with disabilities. This method does not involve the movement of children in a set up that offers these services rather it brings these innovative methods of teaching in a regular classroom set up. This new form of teaching ensures that all children attain education equally and understand the contents of the syllabus more effectively. There is lot of controversy about inclusion of universal design for learning in a regular classroom setup. Some consider that it is not a good practice to enforce inclusion on all children while others consider it most appropriate since it meets the requirements of all children irrespective of their disabilities. The educational institutions are recognizing the need for identifying innovative methods of education service delivery. These new techniques of teaching practices will help in imparting equal opportunity of education for the disabled children. ... Moreover, it is not ethical to enforce a certain kind of teaching to students in order to cater the needs of certain segment of students. Since new challenges emerge everyday for the teacher in teaching the disabled children, there has to be reforms made in the field of education. There are both positive and negative impacts of inclusion of the universal design for learning on the current education system. Hence, a holistic understanding of this issue is required in providing effective education to both the categories of children. The proposed study will investigate the students and teachers concepts and beliefs about universal design for learning and the data will be generated using qualitative research method. Artifacts, simple observation and interviews will be the main strategies utilized to generate data. The data generated will be analyzed on an ongoing basis so that new ideas emerge from the data accumulated. This study will be of utmost importance to the children with disabilities and without it. It will also be relevant to the special educators and general teachers. Literary review According to Doty, a strong supporter of Universal design for learning recommends that it should be implemented for all children in a classroom. All the children have different ways of learning. Universal design for learning will provide a broader opportunity of learning to children with disabilities and without it. [Jaehnert, O Malley and Robinson, n. d]. The concept of educational equality can only be attained from a regular classroom setup by introducing universal method of learning. There are teachers who are implementing this technique of teaching

Philosophy of mind Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Philosophy of mind - Essay Example Summary of Searle’s Claim Searle’s (1980) reply to the query: â€Å"Could a machine think?† is built on two propositions, which he stated as follows: â€Å"(1) Intentionality in human beings (and animals) is a product of causal features of the brain. (2) Instantiating a computer program is never by itself a sufficient condition of intentionality.† Searle explains that the strict logical consequence of his first two propositions is (3) the explanation that the manner by which the brain produces intentionality invalidates the claim that intentionality is also produced by instantiating a computer program. Hence, a computer program cannot produce intentionality. He furthers that the trivial consequence of his first proposition is (4) the need to possess causal powers similar with those of the brain to enable any mechanism to produce intentionality. Hence, a machine should have a human-like brain to be able to think. Lastly, he explains that what follows to his propositions 2 and 4 is the proposition (5) that any literal attempt to create intentionality through artificial way would fail to do so if it will only design programs like the AI; what it needs to succeed is to recreate the human brain’s causal powers. ... Hence proposition (1) can be stated as human beings have intentionality because they have the causal powers of the brain. This way of saying it is to state Searle’s argument in another way – that intentionality is the mental activity that human beings are capable of doing because of the causal powers of the human brain that they biologically possess; for a machine to think it must have intentionality which can only be possible through having the causal powers of the brain. Hence, not unless the machine has the causal powers of the brain similar to human beings, the machine could not think. Thus, to say that AI, as what functionalism and computationalism persistently assert, can fully think – with the understanding that thinking here has intentionality – is short of saying that AI can also be human beings – a claim that obviously Searle does not want to accept, rejecting every possibility that AI could think and consistently defending his position th at intentionality is a mental characteristic inherent to human beings. Actually, AI’s claim seems harmless, but perhaps Searle has perceived its dangerous implication that’s why he obstinately opposes it. Hence on his part, Searle simplifies his proposition (1) in a way that does not allow an AI to become capable of thinking: â€Å"†¦ certain brain processes are sufficient for intentionality† (p. 417). Searle’s way of simplifying his proposition (1) is to emphasize his point that intentionality requires necessary causal features of the brain that is far more than the information processing system that computationalism is so proud of or the formal symbol manipulation of functionalism, because these causal features of the brain are in fact

See order instructions Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

See order instructions - Case Study Example Whichever way the debate goes, the obvious fact is that in manning the college sports, the NCAA earns a lot of revenue and as such, a little token of appreciation would be necessary to the contributing athletes. This paper will argue that the NCAA has been unfair to college athletes, and since it benefits in many ways from college games, college athletes should receive part of the income just like employee athletes of the body do. The tussle between the NCAA and the college athletes make headlines in April when the Northwestern University Basketball players presented the National Labor Relations Board with a proposal to form a union. The idea of the union is to protest against the NCAA which does not treat them like employee athletes. The debate was further ignited by government officials stating that the NCAA was in no way liable to the students since they were not recognized as employees of the body. The reiterations further claimed that the students should be awarded by their colleges since it is they who benefit most from participating in the games. Normally, the only rewards offered to successful college athletes are scholarships, medical covers, and expert coaching. According to Bowen (n.p.), the students’ demands are deep-rooted, largely being influenced by the fact that schools themselves have to struggle much to make more money out of sports. Again, it seems like coaches of college teams are t he biggest beneficiaries, reaping from the students’ games more than they do. For instance, the coach of the University of Kentucky basketball team makes approximately $5.5 million every season. Broadcasters on their part make an approximate $1 billion off the games. This happens even as schools try to accommodate more tournaments and games every season just so their athletes can be better exposure and earn some rewards from their skills. One

Analysing The Importance Of Female Political Participation Politics Essay

Analysing The Importance Of Female Political Participation Politics Essay Though women have made great strides in the last fifty years, it has been easier to gain rights, or descriptive representation, than to fully implement them. Countries where women are well represented seem to have more pro-women policies, for example, the governments of Sweden, Norway, Finland and Denmark, have the highest levels of womens representation in Europe, and have shown the effects of that expanded representation through policies that address some of the conflict in female roles between work and child rearing (Stockemer 2007 p477). Ideally, the representation of women in legislatures would reflect their numbers in the population, however, even partial representation can generate gains in government response to the needs of women (Schwindt-Bayer and Mishler, 2005 p424). Greater representation for women, even when it is far lower than the population ratio can provide an ideal focus group for testing how democratically consolidated a country is (Schwindt-Bayer and Mishler, 2005 p408). All minority groups have identifiable interests and may be underrepresented, but it is much more difficult to compare them systematically because these groups are so varied; a group that is a minority in one country can be a majority in another and absent altogether in a third. Women, however, constitute approximately 50% of the population and live virtually everywhere (Schwindt-Bayer and Mishler, 2005 p408). If the interests of half the population are underrepresented in the legislature, the policies of the state are less likely to represent the interests of women, and result in less legislation that meets their needs. More broadly, the state is less democratically consolidated. Political Parties and Groups The importance of political parties in the democratic sphere seems to revolve around the idea of institutionalized competition, an alternate government in waiting. Conflict between the governing and opposition parties helps democratic consolidation by establishing democratic norms and rules, so a strong presence in political parties may be one route towards substantive representation for women. Institutionalized party competition helps permit the largest possible part of the population to influence major decisions. Conversely, political parties must have an almost permanent base of support among a significant segment of the population if they are to survive, which means that political parties should be motivated to include such a large portion of the population as women. In order to gain greater representation, women must be selected as candidates, and be elected. In most countries, political parties are the primary means by which individuals are selected and supported in their bids for the public office (Lipset 2000). The ratio of effective parties to all operating parties may influence how many women participate in politics. The higher the ratio, the more likely all parties will be elected to a meaningful number of seats. Parties that typically win a meaningful share of seats may be unwilling to go against the status quo and do things differently than in the past. A high ratio of effective parties indicates a system with mostly comfortable, possibly complacent, parties. In such a situation, the promotion of women as candidates and their support in elections may not be a high priority. In contrast, if the ratio of effective parties to all operating parties is low, it indicates an increased presence of marginal parties that may be more likely to take risks on fielding and supporting women as candidates (Kunovich and Paxton 2005). The presence of women in elite party positions would also seem to increase the overall number of women fielded as candidates. High percentages of women in party elites may indicate a greater supply of qualified (or perceived to be qualified) women for the parties of a country, membership in such positions may be seen as a stepping stone towards candidacy, and female party elites may use their influence directly to facilitate a greater number of female candidates. (Kunovich and Paxton 2005). Political groups outside of electoral institutions may be just as effective at pushing for greater representation of women as parties. The Brazilian National Council on Womens Rights between 1986 and 1989 acted as an effective de facto womens lobby and coordinator for the womens movement, holding conferences, seminars and public forums all over Brazil where proposals for constitutional amendments were being formulated that culminated in a Carta to the Women in Constituent Assembly. The Carta included a range of proposals, such as changes in labor legislation, family law, day-care and other improvements in womens rights such as the explicit recognition of equality between men and women. Eighty percent of the demands made in this movement, ranging from the recognition of womens sexual and reproductive rights to 120 days paid maternity leave, were accepted (Waylen 2006). Ideology or Political Culture Do ideological compositions of national legislatures influence womens effective representation in those legislatures? Political culture could be described as the embodiment of the attitudes and values of a society, which define the roles an individual may play in the political process. Cultural and traditional values promoting gender inequality seem to remain a major obstacle to the election of women in more traditional societies because female participation in legislative politics is likely to be discouraged by elite opinion leaders and the public, both of whom want to maintain a male-oriented status quo. However, in more progressive, westernized cultures secular trends towards post-materialist values seem to challenge traditional sex roles and facilitate the entry of more women into power. On the level of political parties, Leftist parties espouse more egalitarian beliefs than right-wing parties and are known for their greater support for gender equality. Parties to the left might also feel the need to be sensitive to groups traditionally excluded from the circles of power (Stockemer 2007). Women tend to vote more liberally than men, but this may be attributed to differences in party identification and regional representation (Hallett 2001). If ideology is a decisive factor, then the percentage of seats held by leftist parties in a country could be an indicator of feminine influence, and this proves to be a highly insignificant. 21 out of 27 states of the EU have left-wing parties with a higher number of female representatives than their right-wing counterparts, but the impact of these findings on the overall representation of women is very limited. Electorate System Proportional systems tend to make use of multi-member districts, which means more than one candidate can be elected from a particular district. In contrast, plurality/majority systems like the United States ask citizens to vote for single candidates, typically in single member districts. An electoral system that uses a proportional representation list system and multi-member districts offers several advantages to female candidates. Since parties operating under proportional representation list systems publish lists of candidates, they may feel pressure to balance their partys ticket across genders, leading to greater numbers of women. Balancing party tickets is used to attract voters but also to achieve equity across different factions of the party and to resolve internal party disputes through compromise (Stockemer 2007). A womens position in a political party seems to translate into gains for women as candidates only under proportional representation systems (Kunovich and Paxton 2005). Electoral systems with greater proportionality and higher district magnitudes also tend to elect larger percentages of women to legislatures (Schwindt-Bayer 2005). Investigations have consistently shown that womens representation is higher under proportional representation than under a plurality system (Stockemer 2007). Conclusion There seems to be general agreement that electoral institutions are an important factor affecting the level of womens representation. Formal representative structures and processes exert powerful influences on the extent of womens descriptive representation, policy responsiveness, and symbolic representation. One important thing to consider is to differentiate the levels of representativeness for measuring the success or failures towards greater female representation. Institutional representativeness does not automatically translate into greater substantive representation for women, though conversely is seems difficult to have greater substantive representation without institutional reforms. When considering the impact of different electorate systems on womens representation, the realms of political parties and electorate institutions seem to blend together for proportional representation systems, while pluralistic/majoritarian systems have fewer mechanisms to ensure greater female p articipation. Annotated Bibliography Bano, Saira. (2009). Women in Parliament in Pakistan: Problems and Potential Solutions. Womens Studies Journal 23, no. 1 (September): 19-35. In this article, the author focus on the role of Pakistani women in the political arena, an interesting test case considering widespread belief that Islam is hostile to greater feminist rights. The article also provides good hindsight about the state of womens representation around the globe, what works and what doesnt. Hallett, Stephanie L. (2001). Truth and Fiction: A Study of the Gender Gap in the US National Legislature. Politics 21, no. 3 (September). In this short and simple article, the author attempts to link political ideology with gender, and finds that indeed women are more likely to vote liberal, but that it likely can be attributed to other factors such as party affiliation or regionalism. This article is useful for considering variables besides electoral systems that effect womens representation. Kunovich, Sheri, and Pamela Paxton. (2005). Pathways to Power: The Role of Political Parties in Womens National Political Representation. American Journal of Sociology 111, no. 2 (September): 505-552. The authors were interested in theories about how to examine political factors affecting womens political representation over time and investigates how electoral systems, national-level gender quotas and growth of political rights and civil liberties impact womens legislative representation. Found that national quotas do affect womens political presence, but at a lower level than legislated by law; second, the impact of a proportional representation system on womens political representation is steady over time; and third, civil liberties, do not affect the level of womens political representation in the earliest period of democracy formation, but do influence the growth of womens political representation over time. Lipset, Seymour Martin. (2000). The Indispensability of Political Parties. Journal of Democracy 11, no.1 (January): 48. This article helped me consider political parties by themselves as factors affecting womens representation. The article also helped provide a working definition of democracy and the factors that determine the makeup and strength of political parties in the framework of democratic government, Important for considering electorate systems and womens representation in the larger framework of society. Schedler, Andreas. (1998). What is Democratic Consolidation? Journal of Democracy 9, no. 2 (April): 91. The article helped provide an expanded definition of democratic consolidation to include familiar democratic values and helps shape the argument that greater representation of women means greater democratic consolidation. The article is also useful for pointing out how flexible and relative our definitions of words like democracy are in the grand scheme of things. Schwindt-Bayer, Leslie A., and William Mishler. (2005). An Integrated Model of Womens Representation. Journal of Politics 67, no. 2 (May): 407-428. This article examines the many dimensions of what it means to be represented. The authors point out the difference between symbolic, institutional, and substantive representation. The article relies on evidence that refutes any directional correlations between the different states of representation. Stockemer, Daniel. (2007). Why are there Differences in the Political Representation of Women in the 27 Countries of the European Union? Perspectives on European Politics Society 8, no. 4 (December 15): 476-493. An interesting analysis of what influences womens representation in the EU. Some of the factors considered include electoral system, quotas, economic affluence, and political culture. This study may be more relevant than others because it considered only EU countries, which helps cut down on extraneous variables. This article also helped provide perspective about what is means to be represented and the state of womens representation today. Waylen, Georgina. (2006). Constitutional Engineering: What Opportunities for the Enhancement of Gender Rights? Third World Quarterly 27, no. 7 (October): 1209-1221. This article examines the function of a constitution in regards to expanding womens representation. It finds that constitutions, and other mechanisms like gender quotas, definitely help expand the representation of women, but by no means ensure it. This article also points out that framing the usefulness of these mechanisms are important today because of efforts to build democracy after war in places like Afghanistan and Iraq.

Philosophy - Impact of the Leviathan in Hobbess Leviathan and the Book

The Impact of the Leviathan in Hobbes's Leviathan and the Book of Job Throughout the early chapters of his Leviathan, Thomas Hobbes employs metaphorical devices from such diverse fields as mathematics, mechanics, and even the biology of the human body to describe his political community. In reference to the inception of the body politic, Hobbes compares its artificial origins to the Leviathan, a monster in the Book of Job: "For by art is created that great LEVIATHAN called a COMMONWEALTH, or STATE" (Hobbes 3).1 A biblical monster may initially seem to be an implausible metaphor for Hobbes to choose as a means of advocating his political regime. In addition to Hobbes’s animosity towards conventional Christian practices, the metaphor of the monstrous Leviathan holds negative connotations about the brutal force of the political community for, according to the Book of Job, "None is so fierce as to stir him [the Leviathan] up" (Job 41:10).2 However, the depiction of the body politic that emerges from a comparison with the Leviathan in the Book of Job reveals inherent benefits of Hobbes’s political system that might not be readily perceivable. By using the Leviathan as a metaphor for the commonwealth, Hobbes emphasizes one of the most beneficial, though potentially oppressive, attributes of the body politic: its immense strength. According to Hobbes, the political community will function as a unified whole when the power is concentrated in the sovereign, making him the seat of incredible strength: "The greatest of human powers is that which is compounded of the powers of most men, united by consent in one person, natural or civil, that has the use of all their powers depending on his will, such as is the power of the com... ...ciety of the utter necessity of voluntarily handing over their individual rights is somewhat unlikely. Even if one could convince all citizens that this relinquishment of power were desirable, after the initial creation of the body politic, the cohesive unity indicated by the metaphor of the Leviathan seems highly improbable because one sovereign will be hard-pressed to accurately embody the will and to serve the interest of such a vast multitude. Thus, the very mortality and physicality that would allow for the strength of the Leviathan to be implemented to serve the interests of the people make it equally likely that the strength could be misused in tyrannical oppression. Works Cited 1. Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan, ed. Edwin Curley (Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Company, 1994). 2. The Holy Bible, King James Version (New York: American Bible Society).

Post Mortem results and findings of the entire project Essay

This MEMO will cover the benefits and drawbacks of a Post Mortem review. It will notify all who are going to be required to partake in the final review meeting. It will also go over what we hope to discover after the termination of the project. Post Mortem Review Pros and Cons Pros: Gives an unbiased review of the project’s life. Enables project manager to analyze the findings of the review and improve on certain aspects in the next project that need attention. Gives a good perspective of everything that was accomplished. This enables the team and manager to feel a sense of pride and satisfaction from job well done. Once the review has been analyzed, it enables the project to officially come to a close. Cons: Hard to ensure all key players, stakeholders, and managers attend the meeting during such an early time of the newly integrated system’s life. Personnel Required to Attend: Certain people within the company are expected to attend the post mortem review meeting either in person, or by telephone conference. These people include: all of the managers who attended the training and were involved throughout this project. Stakeholders, owners, top officers, the project team, and the developers of the new system need to be in attendance. Hopes: The project team and manager hope to discover the following: The overall success of the project. Any downfalls or shortcomings that came up. The owners’ opinions of the end result. The managers’ opinions. The developers’ notes on how well the managers’ were trained. The thoughts of the project team and how they feel improvement could be made.

guns and control essays

guns and control essays GUN CONTROLGun Control can be called the 'acid test' of liberalism. All true liberals must favor stricter gun controls. After all, doesn't the United States have the most heavily armed population on the earth? Are we not the world's most violent people? Surely these facts must be at least casually connected. Therefore the apparently desperate need to "do something" about the vast quantity of firearms and firearms abuse is obvious.Guns are employed in an enormous number of crimes in this country. In other countries with stricter gun laws, gun crimes are rare. Many of the firearms involved in crime are cheap handguns, so-called Saturday Night Specials for which there is no legitimate use or need. The public is polarized on the issue of gun control, Anti-gun control activists believe that it is each and every American's individual right to bear arms. After all, the Second Amendment to the Constitution states that:A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.Advocates of gun control say that even with 20,000 gun control laws already in existence, the serious problems due to firearm misuse continue. Obviously, the controls that have been designed have not been sufficiently effective. Therefore the pro-gun controllers argue, we need more uniform legislation, more extensive gun controls, and effective enforcement. Various pro-gun control organizations disagree on methods of gun control needed. For example, there are individuals who would ban all handguns' as well as those who take a less radical stand and who would simply increase the controls on firearms. The moderate gun control groups propose measures such as requiring an individual to successfully complete a firearms safety course before being allowed to possess a gun, or to wait for a mandatory period of time before taking possession of a gun.Today, there are approximately 20,000 differe...

Affirmative Action as Reverse Discrimination

Affirmative Action as Reverse Discrimination Free Online Research Papers America is the land of opportunity, but to be fully qualified for the status, it needs to be color-blind, race-blind, and gender-blind. Affirmative Action began as a way to stop discrimination, but as new laws have been added to it, it has become reverse discrimination. Everyone has the opportunity to be a great addition to society. It is an immense injustice for people to say that someone of a different race or gender is not capable of achieving the same status in life as a white male. Through this paper, the concepts of affirmative action will be analyzed and discussed. Affirmative Action began in 1965 when President Johnson signed the Executive Order 11246 in to law. The Executive Order 11246 prevents Federal contractors from discriminating against any employee or applicant for employment because of race, color, religion, sex, or national origin. This is when the phrase affirmative action was first used, because it requires federal contractors to take affirmative action to ensure that applicants are not discriminated against based on race color, religion, sex, or national origin. When Affirmative Action was created, it only included minorities. In 1967, Johnson decided to expand the program to include women, because women have received some of the same discrimination as men in the workplace. There were also earlier laws that were passed to ensure equal rights. The 1964 Civil Rights Act and the 1965 Voting Rights Act are two examples of these laws, but they were a little behind considering the Fourteenth and Fifteenth amendments to the Constitution were passed much earlier. The Fourteenth amendment guarantees equal protection under the law and the Fifteenth amendment forbid racial discrimination in access to voting. Also, there was the 1866 Civil Rights Act, which was passed one hundred years earlier to ensure equal rights to all men. Secretary George Schultz and Arthur Fletcher, a top deputy, were the architects of some federal hiring and contracting regulations that added to the Affirmative Action regulations. In 1969, Schultz and Fletcher created these regulations under the Nixon administration to redress the unfair treatment of minorities and women in the workplace.4 Even though America is the land of freedom, minorities and women did not fully receive these freedoms until the mid 1960s. The Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs was established to require compliance to affirmative action. The Executive Order required that companies with more than fifty employees and doing more than $50,000 in business directly with the federal government or as a subcontractor prepare goals and timetables. Periodic reports are also required to show progress toward these adversity goals. The OFCCP investigates into the complaints and lawsuits against companies that have been accused of discrimination. It requires that annual reports be submitted to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. The OFCCP analyzes these reports and then audits about 4,100 firms in connection with the federal government each year. So, not only can a company get into trouble by people filing complaints, the OFCCP looks for companies that it thinks are not abiding by its rules, which are not always written clearly. The general public, because of how the OFCCP has gone about auditing companies, has c ome to know some of these goals, as quotas. Goals are the precepts of affirmative action, but the goals are sometimes enforced to the point of looking like quotas, which are numeric targets for the racial composition of the work force. An example of how the OFCCP works is in the case of Aaron Woodson, an African American. He applied for a job at Solectron Corporation, but did not get the job. He was a qualified applicant, but there may have been a better one. When the reports were analyzes, the OFCCP decided that the company had a low percentage of minority workers compared to other similar companies in the area. At the end of the case, Solectron offered jobs to the nine qualified minority applicants, payment totaling $237,000, and a promise to refine its affirmative action goals. Woodson did not accept the job, because by this time, he already had another job. This is not the right way to conduct business, because Solectron was following all the rules and the OFCCP decided that the company did not meet the goals. In 1972 and 1973, Allan Bakke, a white male, applied to the University of California at Davis Medical School. He was denied admittance, but his test scores and GPA were higher than students admitted through the affirmative action admittance program. The affirmative action admittance program set 16 of the 100 opening aside for minority students that did not meet the standards of the normal admittance process. Bakke sued for admissions on the basis on the Fourteenth amendment and Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Bakke claimed he was a victim of reverse discrimination. The University of Californias logic behind this policy was that it is necessary to compensate for past injustice suffered by members of certain disadvantaged groupsIt was one way to open new opportunities for individual groups that in the past had not enjoyed these opportunities. The vote was five to four in favor of Bakke. Justice Lewis Powell wrote, The guarantees of the Fourteenth amendment extends to all pers onsThe guarantee of equal protection cannot mean one thing to one individual and something else when applied to another. This case was very controversial, because four justices believed that race should not be a consideration at all, while four others believed that affirmative action was a very good idea. The final decision of this case was that Bakke should be admitted to the school and that race could be a factor of the admissions process, but not the main criteria. This reinforces the questions about the legitimacy of affirmative action. This judgement was a step in the right direction, but was not totally constitutional, because the constitution is supposed to be race-blind. Not only does Affirmative Action affect the hiring goals; it also regulates how the government contracts its business. The 8(a) Program is designed to give minority and women owned businesses government contracts. If a firm is given 8(a) status, it is able to get a contract without competitive bidding. Participating companies must be 51 percent owned, controlled, and operated by individuals who are socially and economically disadvantaged. Minorities and women are usually considered to be socially and economically disadvantaged. This means that minorities and women should qualify, but that is not the only qualification. The applicant must also demonstrate that their net worth is not above $250,000 to qualify. This criteria means that not only white males are automatically excluded, but also some minorities do not qualify. This criteria not only affects the person who is applying, it also may apply to the spouse of the applicant. For example, Rep. Eva Clayton was denied a contract, bec ause her husband made too much money. Even with this, 46 percent of the programs 5,330 participants are black23 percent are Spanish-speaking and 21 percent are Asian, but only seven white women have qualified. In society, this means that the applicant must learn to play the system, because the qualifications tend to vary between applicants. To be eligible for any government contract, not just the set-aside program, a company must also make a good faith effort to meet their goals and timetables. There are several very influential people who think that these program requirements are not fair. Rep. Jan Meyers is the chairman of the House Small Business Committee. She stated: A black Harvard graduate with a net worth of a quarter of a million dollars stands a better chance of getting into the program than a poor white woman from Appalachia. There is something wrong with that. Also, the government allows the participant to stay eligible while his net worth steadily climbs during his nine-year tenure in the program. Every area of government is affected by Affirmative Action from the EPA to the Department of Transportation. In the Department of Defense, five percent of its entire procurement budget is to be awarded to socially or economically disadvantaged individuals who own firms. The Navy is cleaning up environmental damage on the Kahoolawe, a Hawaiian Island, and gives special preferences to businesses owned by native Hawaiians. In the Education Department, special consideration is given to minorities and minority colleges when applying for grants. Also, public colleges and universities offer scholarships, tutoring, and outreach programs for minority and female students. Not less than ten percent of the money appropriated for diplomatic construction shall be allocatedto minority contractors. That rule also applies to the Department of Transportation.8 These goals are designed to give minorities and women more opportunities. This is not constitutional, because in the Fourteenth amendment, equal protection of the law is guaranteed to all people, not just minorities and women. California decided to question the laws on affirmative action and make them more constitutional. In 1996, California lawmakers presented proposition 209 to its voters. The purpose of proposition 209 was to eliminate affirmative action on the state and local level where the federal government permitted. The court would decide exactly what programs have preferential treatment and what programs the federal government requires that California maintain. California Governor Pete Wilson, Newt Gingrich, Pat Buchanan, and many other people from around the country support this proposition, because America will reach its potential when the Constitution is considered color-blind. Proposition 209 also has exceptions to the rule since the federal government has not yet passed this law. One exception is to meet privacy standards based on sex. Another is to keep the state eligible for federal money. The state must also stay in accordance with the United States Constitution and the federal law. It has eliminated state affirmative action laws and voluntary rules that are strict quotas. This is Constitutional, because the interpretation of the Constitution cannot change when it is affecting different races of people. Proposition 209 effects public employment and contracting, public schools and community colleges, and state universities. In public employment and contracting, this would save California money spent by not using the lowest bidder on contracts and hiring based solely on qualifications, not race or gender. Funding for public schools would be decided on need, not on the number on minority students. Proposition 209 will affect up to $75 million spent on schools. That money would not leave the school fund, but it might be reallocated to other schools. Proposition 209 would also require California State University and the University of California to restructure its admissions policy. This would also change the requirements such as outreach, counseling, tutoring, and financial aid programs. Proposition 209 would affect about $50 million each year spent at the university level. This is a good idea, because it would put all applicants and students on the same level. With affirmative action, students and applicants are separated by their race and gender and that is not fair, because no one is better than someone else because of their race or gender. Fortunately, California voters passed this proposition with 54 to 46 percent vote. Table 1 shows further demographic breakdown of the state vote on Proposition 209. As visible on the chart, the traditional white male, protestant or catholic, conservative voter voted yes, but the minorities that had the rights taken away from them voted no. It can be assessed from the table that the minority voters are the main critics of proposition 209. Moderates and female voters were the closest vote, because 52 percent is barely a majority. It is also important to remember that the main California supporters were not reelected like Governor Wilson. Conservatives 77% Yes Latino 76% No $60,000 to $75,000 65% Yes Black 74% No Male 61% Yes Less than $20,000 59% No California has recognized the problems with affirmative action. They have recognized that it teaches that if you are a minority, you do not have to be as smart to get into college or bid as low to get a government contract. It is wrong that minorities can get more scholarships and get in to the university of their choose easier than the average, middle class white student. At some universities, an African American can get into a university with a lower GPA and lower test scores than a white applicant. Not only can they get into college, that student is eligible for scholarships that are based on race, not qualification. As the demographics change in the United States, the definition will also have to change, because then that group should not get to be listed as a minority. In the year 2010, it is expected that Latinos will be in the majority in the United States. At that time, white Americans should get to be called minorities, because they will no longer be the majority of the United States population. If white Americans were minorities, it would be with in reach for them to receive the same benefits that minorities are presently receiving. Affirmative action should be done away with totally before we get to this point in the future. If affirmative action still exists, that will mean that the nation is still seeing race and gender, not the person. Just about everyone has heard of affirmative action these days, but just what is it, really? Is it something only minorities really benefit from? Is it really as controversial as some people seem to think? Affirmative action is a term people use, but wh at it really means can be very misleading. The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy defines affirmative action as positive steps taken to increase the representation of women and minorities in areas of employment, education, and business from which they have been historically excluded (Affirmative Action). Positive steps can mean many things, but here, they are meant to mean that women and minorities should enjoy the same rights and opportunities that anyone else in this country enjoys. It sounds simple, and it was meant to be simple, but the entire idea of affirmative action has become very controversial. Affirmative action was not a widely used term until the Civil Rights Act of 1964 passed into legislation. The term was associated with the Act, but still was not very common. It really came into use in the 1970s, when the American Secretary of Labor finally fully defined who was affected by the ruling, and what businesses, institutions, and educational facilities had to do to implement affirmative action and ensure women and minorities had the same rights as anyone else in the system. This is when the term began to become controversial, because many people began to see affirmative action as a kind of quota system, that forced businesses and education to admit certain numbers of women and minorities, even if they were not as qualified as other applicants. The Stanford Encyclopedia continues, Affirmative action, if it did not impose preferences outright, at least countenanced them (Affirmative Action). Therefore, affirmative action became increasingly controversial and disliked by many people. That did not stop affirmative action from gaining ground across the country. It was the law, and it was commonly used for educational admissions, employee hiring, and even guaranteeing that all people could qualify for decent, affordable housing. It continued to be controversial, but it also allowed many women and minorities to gain a foothold in the educational and business communities. Many people who companies and schools might have overlooked got good educations and decent jobs because of affirmative action. However, that did not stop other people from saying it was preferential and kept qualified men and whites out of jobs they were highly qualified for. Even President Clinton acknowledged the dilemma of how to choose between a white and a black using affirmative action procedures. He said, Imagine a college admissions committee trying to decide between the white [son] of an Appalachian coal miners family and the African American son of a successful Pittsburgh neurosurgeon. Why should the black applicant get preference over the white applicant? Many people came to hate the idea of affirmative action, and challenge it in the court system. In 2003, for example, affirmative action made headline news when students at the University of Michigans Law School finally had their day in the U.S. Supreme Court. They had initially filed a suit in 1997 that challenged the Universitys affirmative action admissions process. The two white students alleged that the university used race as a major factor in admissions to the Law School, and that it actually acted as reverse discrimination against more qualified white students. Eventually, the case made its way to the Supreme Court the first such affirmative action case heard in 25 years, and the Court supported the Univeristys admissions procedures. This opened up the topic for current debate and made it even more controversial. One thing is sure, affirmative action can be defined differently by different people. Some see it as a postive step for women and minorities, and others see it as a way to discriminate against white people Affirmative Action may have been a short-term solution to discrimination, but it has out lived its benefits. It is now encouraging reverse discrimination by setting quotas on the number of minorities required for a firm, contract, or school. America is now ready to become a color-blind society, and judge people on their merits, not their race or gender. We need to come together now as one nation, one world and one race the Human race, then and only then we will truly be a free country and a free people. Research Papers on Affirmative Action as Reverse Discrimination19 Century Society: A Deeply Divided EraQuebec and CanadaTwilight of the UAWRelationship between Media Coverage and Social andWhere Wild and West MeetComparison: Letter from Birmingham and CritoDefinition of Export QuotasOpen Architechture a white paperInfluences of Socio-Economic Status of Married MalesResearch Process Part One

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