Poem About A Day Without Civil Liberties

Reawaken

What if our words could never be used

And if they were, we would be accused?

What if our prayers could never be said?

We would be left with only our tears to shed.

What if we weren't able to read the news?

Opinions would be lost, we'd all be confused.

What if in public we couldn't protest with signs?

Even if our intention was not to undermine?

What if we couldn't petition a cause?

All of our actions would be put to a pause.

Without civil liberties our freedom would be taken,

Knowing the reality makes us all reawaken.

Flag Burning

Can you Legally burn a flag....???

According to Mr. Johnson's case, the burning of a flag is okay because it is a protected expression under the First Amendment. The court can't justify prohibitions of speech.

Apparently, it is okay to legally burn a flag. to somepeople it could be disrespectful and hurful, but to others, it could simply be a way of expressing feelings of happiness and thankfulness and celebrating. So Flag burning is a form of protected speech. This is a good thing because people should be able to express their opinions or their freedom of speech because that is what the First Ammendment states.

Should flag burning be allowed as free and protected speech??

We think that flag burning should be allowed as a free and protected speech. Some people think that flag burning is a very bad thing and it is cruel to America, but others do it as a symbol of celebration for our Country. Some people are even superstitious about if a flag is dropped, it should be immediately burned. So there are many different perspectives on this issue. Sara and I both agree that people should have the right to express their opinions of the matter by doing what they feel is necessary. If that person feels like they need to go take the effort and burn a flag to portray their thoughts and feelings about the United States, that should be okay because it is simply expressing their freedom of speech. We both enjoyed watching the short video because they basically explained in magic form, that flag burning is simply a way of expressing a person's freedom of speech.

Dress Code?!

Dress code is always a controversial subject...especially in this day of age where there are fashion magazines practically at every store and more and more people are experimenting with their look as a form of expression. So when we picked to study this civil liberty lab we were given the opportunity to view some YouTube videos of different stories that involve dress code. Both of the videos that we viewed were surprising and just...weird. One high school is making their students wear jumpsuits as a way to protect their dress code while another school in Florida banned students from wearing anything with a rainbow on it because the school felt it supported gays.

Fortunately, UNCSA is not going haywire with their dress code restrictions like these two schools. Our school is not like other schools though. We are not a public school, so we have less restriction when it comes to dress code. Our school dress code is not very limited. If one wanted to show up in the school building naked, that would not be allowed. However, other than that we can wear what we wish. Our dress code is not even listen in our planner, like most other public schools. Personally, I have never seen our dress code policy in written form but it has, indeed, been talked about. However, when it comes to our art classes. There is a dress code for some of the arts such as dance and drama. We have to wear specific colors and/or leotards and/or shoes for our art classes, but not for our academic classes.

Our school's dress code does in fact abide by the constitution in being that we have the freedom of speech, but it is, in a way, restricted. We cannot be tasteless with what we wear and present ourselves in nudity or close to it. But we have the freedom to express ourselves with our clothes in a not so restricted fashion. I do not think that in the two years I have attended UNCSA that I have ever seen a problem with dress code. With no problems, I don't think that there is anything to change about our dress code because it is great, and I know a lot of students appreciate it.

Luckily we don't have to follow specific rules such as these----

First Amendment Test

After taking the test on the First Amendment, we realized that we weren't that familiar with it. Yet, we didn't do too bad, scoring a 21 out of 30, we found some of the specific details of the 5 freedoms listed in this Amendment familiar and also surprising at the same time. All in all, we felt we needed a little refresher on the First Amendment, so we were looking forward to learning more about our freedoms and restrictions with the civil liberties lab.

Freedom of Religion

Rastafarians!

Should Rastafarians be able to legally smoke marijuana in the United States as part of their religious practice??

It is definitely not right, but Rastafarians are able to legally smoke marijuana based on their religious practice because of The Religious Freedom Restoration Act, passed by congress in 1993. This law blocks the federal goverment from unjustifiably infringing on a person's practice or religion. This law does not protect the importation of marijuana even if it is for religious use. But, according to the Ninth Circuit, while the practice of this religion sanctions the smoking of marijuana, the religion doesn't sanction the importing of marijuana.

This is actually an article about a man that was at an airport and got caught with Marijuana. This man claimed his religion was Rastafarian.. Read it to see what happens!

http://www.cognitiveliberty.org/news/rfra_rasta.htm

What are Rastafarians? Where did it begin? What exactly does it include?

The Rastafarian religion originated in the 1930's by Marcus Garvey. He directed the philosophical ideologies which eventually directed into the Rastafarian movement.

There are 6 Rastafarian principles that most should follow.

• Have Hatred for the white race


• Give revenge on the white race for their wickedness


• Superiority of the black race


• Prepare to go back to Africa


• Believing that the Emperor Haile Selassi is the only ruler of the black people.

A physical feature that sets the Rastifarian religion apart from most groups is the wearing of their hair in the dreadlocks form
So.me information about the religion is here:
http://www.rasta-man.co.uk/religion.htm

Freedom of Speech??

Freedom to say anything at any time? hmmm.. maybe not!

There's a Time and Place for Everything!

Civil Liberties gives us the freedom of speech. The freedom of speech is a good thing to have but if not used properly, it can be affective. There is a time and place for everything, meaning that there are times where you can say what you want and times when its best you just keep your thoughts to yourself. This is out of a matter of respect. There are limits that people should have to what they can't and can say.




We thought that the videos that were posted were very disturbing and nauseating. It makes you almost speechless because you are so disturbed, and it's hard to know what to say. We believe in the freedom of speech, and how everyone should be able to express their mind but, sometimes, things that are hurtful and mean shouldn't be tolerated. People shouldn't have the freedom of speech if they are going to obuse it by offending others. It was out of line for that family to go to funerals of the loss soldiers and say what they did. Friends and families that were at the funeral, greiving for their loved ones definitely did NOT appreciate that family interupting the funeral service and disrespecting them. This family wasn't only being rude, but it was inappropriate. The family wasn't even making progress. No one agreed with their beliefs. Most drivers that passed flicked them off or cursed to the family because it made them so angry. Obviously no one agreed with the family in that video. It is definitely okay for people to have their opinions, and to believe what they want to believe, but their beliefs don't need to be expressed in a mean, and cruel way. What they did was crossing the line. The video upset both Sara and I and we would never even think of participating in any event like this.


Solution:
We came up with a suggestion to any who has crazy, hectic beliefs and wants them to be expressed!

If a person, or group is wanting to express something mean, weird, or disturbing like the people in the video, then they can create a blog, showing all about their religion and beliefs, and post it on a google site. By posting this, they can be happy because the group or individual will feel like they are "sharing their beliefs" or "spreading the word". Also, whoever wants to join this can, but it doesn't have to affect other people that want nothing to do with it.
Great Idea RIGHT!!