Argument of the Final

          I would like to try and explain my argument within my final project for my class. My project was a pretty simple Excel spreadsheet with some VBA Macros to make it perform a certain function. It was a short quiz over certain aspects of an individual with dropdown boxes to choose a response. Once filled out, the user would hit the "Calculate" button to see the output. The output would be a year in America's history in which the user would have gained full legal equality. It would also have side notes for certain responses to show if their was any controversy surrounding a particular answer currently going on. The point of this was not only to inform, but to also demonstrate how small, unchangeable features of someone could drastically change when someone would have been treated as an equal in the eyes of the law. It also demonstrates how most of the dates when people gained equality are very recent in history, leaving generations of people without that fundamental right. The notes on the side further the argument by showing how so many aspects are still being debated today and if their still socially being treated as unequals. I kept the number os questions low to show how very simple features can throw the results way off. I think it is important for people to understand the message I'm trying to convey to create a society motivated for change and progress.

Background Behind my Choice

          For my second essay, I chose to use Frederick Douglass's "What to a Slave" speech to argue the importance and significance if giving African Americans citizenship and equal rights. I chose this over the other two choices of women's suffrage and the Native American struggle for equality for several reasons. The first reason is because I think African Americans were living in the worst conditions America had ever put its people through. This would just make my argument stronger and help with a lot of the points I made. The bigger reason I chose this is because I felt the most empathy towards the African American movement. I don't mean to sound ignorant, but since I'm not a woman or grow up knowing any anyone from Native American decent, those two movements don't resonate with me as strongly. I find it harder to put myself in the shoes of those that fought those battles back then; however, I grew up in a predominately black neighborhood and school so relating to them comes easier to me. I was one of only a few non-black students in my elementary school and had black friends throughout my entire childhood, even until moving to Norman I surrounded myself with black friends. Growing up, I saw the conditions some of my classmates were growing up in and I can recognize that struggle. I knew young men that aren't here today because of their choices and the environment they were brought up in. I thankfully never experienced the hardships they had to face, but just seeing it taught me a lot and helped me to empathize with their cause. This is why I chose to write about this subject and hopefully motivate change in those communities across America.

Depression Epidemic (Guest writer)

       I believe mental illness is becoming a serious problem for younger adults in America more so than ever experienced. There's so many diagnosis and self-diagnosis for things such as ADD, ADHD, Depression, and bipolar disorder. With these diagnosis's comes medicine that seemingly everyone's on now. Most of my colleagues I know take some sort of medication for a mental disorder to help them out with school and life. A friend of mine had recently admitted themselves into the care of a mental disorder hospital that helps rehabilitate and take care of patients. They had been feeling very depressed and have bipolar disorder with taking any medication, so their mood was all over the place. They wrote this poem right before they drove to the clinic.

Curled up in bed 

in a room so picturesque we ought to drown in the light. 

the room’s 3 white walls were purposeful in their choosing of tone. 

one green wall to scare off thoughts of visitors questioning the “nut house vibe” of monochromed creams.

They'd be right. 

everyone is usually right they just lack the courage to face a lion 

never fonded a leo, they’re too loud for me 

irony.

In bed trying to breathe. the blue pill taking any glimmer of light from my corpse 

feeling dead. 

a living version of dead i suppose

this just got morbid fast didn’t it..?

funny how you don’t consider death until 

death is sitting next to your soul on public transit trying to see up your skirt 

Death is everywhere and he doesn’t fit the stereotypes 

my thoughts seem scattered today.

 it’s only fitting

apologies for those following along.

 we won’t be long 

just jotting down more nonsense on a page 

because this page is my life and my life feels 

nonsensical

curled up in bed so shivered it's a triumph just to write down letters

forming words 

forming some sort of proof that I was here

scared and alone but typing nonetheless

 here.

Curled up in bed.

The Realistic Nature of Bipartisanship

            Over Spring Break, I went down to Dallas with my two cousins. While driving down with my older cousin, Harry, he put on some political discussion podcast he had been listening to prior. This sparked a debate between us about whether exaggerating information is ok to do when trying to persuade a broad audience to side with your beliefs or at least look into the subject. My cousin’s stance on it was along the lines of it being ok because it gets more people to look into a subject themselves, thus becoming more informed and able to refute any misconceptions themselves. I tried to refute this because I believe most people don’t become interested in the topic enough to do any research on their own and usually take anything they hear as a fact. When someone who is famous or speaks publicly about political problems often, their listeners rarely question their sources or statistics they throw out during a debate. I think this is partly due to the bipartisan nature of this country currently. Most individuals who align themselves with a political party tend to only listen to the news outlets that feed into their existing beliefs. If a fact is stated that goes against what someone believes of their party’s stance, they just think it’s a false claim from the other side. In an ideal scenario, everyone trying to make up their mind on where they stand regarding a new subject would do all the research on their own prior to joining the debate, but that’s just not realistic.

My Take on Government Surveillance

This week, I wanted to discuss my opinions on government surveillance on American citizens in a more informal way. I have been interested in cyber security since I was in high school and am now pursuing a career in that field. Because of this, I have been doing research and keeping up with current affairs regarding the topic in order to have a better understanding of what I’ll be getting into. I also know some guys that have been working in the field for a while and are known for being good at what they do. This is where I draw information from when discussing my opinions. I currently believe that there should be more laws being created that protect citizens and their right to privacy, which the constitution guarantees. It seems to me that the government has been continuing to take advantage of new technological advancements to increase their power over the people without any repercussions. This is creating an imbalance that favors the side of the government without the consent of the people. The new technology doesn’t really have rules over how it can be used, so government agencies basically have free reigns over how they want to use it. The only real way to fight against this at the moment is to try and spread awareness to the public enough for a large shift in public opinion and to vote for politicians that have their voter’s privacy in mind. I believe that the reason most people don’t actually care that mush is because they don’t really feel its effects. It’s easy to look past a problem if the effects are so minor. But the effects are building and will continue to change how people live their lives the more advanced our phones get. This is why I want to try and spread awareness of the problem, as many in this field do, in order to try and change the way the government controls citizens.

Morality of our Military

I believe that America’s military role in other countries is an extremely complex subject that had been debated by many in the past hundred years. I won’t pretend to know all of the nuances of why and how we get ourselves into so many conflicts we originally have no part in, but I do think it’s the civic duty of Americans to discuss the morality of it. I will be approaching the topic with the arguments from both supporters and those against military expansion into overseas affairs. I think both sides make a very strong case, but I obviously have my own opinions and bias towards a particular side. I think since America is currently invested in some overseas conflicts; I should go over some of the reasons why. One of the main reasons to be why morally we are there is to protect those that are living under oppressive forces. A lot of the civilians in third-world countries are being abused by their governments and local leaders. They don’t have any real way to help themselves so you could argue that America stepping in to remove the oppressive leaders is our moral responsibility since we are capable of doing so. I more financial reason to do so is because going into a lot of these countries often provides us with some of their natural resources. A lot of the Middle Eastern countries tend to have oil that the American military can obtain or take once we have entered these countries. You could turn that into a moral argument of the military providing resources for citizens back in the country. Another huge moral argument made is that we’re simply eliminating those that wish to harm us. This was used a lot after 9/11 in order to rally America behind the cause of going into Afghanistan to search for Al-Qaeda. It’s what the military is primarily there to do, protect us.

            As for protecting us, one argument opposing military intervention is that going into these countries that have very little threat to the homeland isn’t actually keeping us much safer and is instead just throwing soldiers into battle for purely monetary gain. That is a very strong argument because the death of American soldiers is what most people disagree the most when talking about war. Another opposing argument is that the conflicts overseas aren’t really our business or our moral obligation because we’re threatening American lives in the process.