Blog Post #1-Top Five Sources of News and Information

Fox News. I use Fox news frequently because it is a common channel that is often on my TV at home, and at my house at school. I have always relied on this source of news because it is legit and helps me learn about what is going on in the world without having to do much research. I grew up with it on my television because my parents use this channel as their source of news. It is easy to turn on the television and put on Fox News and be able to know about what is going on in our country and stay up to date. Even if it is on while I am doing stuff around the house I am still able to listen and pick up important information.

The New York Times. Often when I look something up online, an article by the New York Times is one of the first websites to pop up, leading me to click on it, and start to read. This occurs often, and I have found that it is always accurate and tells me the information I was looking for, without making it difficult to understand or going on and on. It is a trusted source of information that I commonly rely on. I know it is legit because of the Newspaper that also comes in the mail. Both ways of reading information is helpful when it is from the New York times.

I also find myself commonly reading information from the Washington Post. Once again, this is a news source that pops up very often when I am searching for information online. I trust this news source because it always gets me the information needed, and I was taught that it is reliable when I was young. I have never stopped using it, and when I look up something and see that there is an article on it from the Washington Post, I am happy to know I will be reading information that I can trust and know is accurate.

Another news source I find to be reliable when looking something up online, is Forbes. I find that often I find myself reading articles on Forbes and finding a lot of accurate information. It is a popular news source, so I know other people have success with it as well.

Another news channel I commonly watch on the television is Newsmax TV. For a long time now, my parents have watched Newsmax, so I have picked up on it through the years while being around the house. I still turn it on sometimes to listen to the news.

Blog Post #3- Eight Values of Free Expression

In the United States of America, we have Eight Values of Free Expression. These eight values are Marketplace of Ideas, Participation in Self-Government, Stable Change, Individual Self-Fulfillment, Check on Governmental Power, Promote Tolerance, Promote Innovation, and Protect Dissent. Each one of these values is extremely important in their own ways. They all have different aspects to why Freedom of Speech is so important, and bring all of the reasons together. While reading through these, I became very interested in the differences of values, and learned how they help our Freedom of Speech come together. A couple specifically stood out to me, and those were Individual Self-Fulfillment, and Protect Dissent.

Individual Self-Fulfillment is important to me because people need free speech in order to be their own person. Everyone has different opinions, and to be able to voice that is what makes each person their own individual. If everyone was forced to say that they believe one thing even if they really did not, everyone would be the same and we would never find what is so special about people. With Freedom of Speech, everyone is able to form their own opinions, and share how they feel. This helps people connect to each other and form special relationships based on similar opinions. I believe that differences in opinion is what makes a good Democracy. People will disagree, and that is okay. People are allowed to speak their thoughts and emotions, and if someone does not agree they have the choice to go their separate ways from that person. When people do agree, they tend to stick together, and form bonds which hold a special place because of similar ways of thinking. I read an article from the University of Virginia, and it stated how usually people do not change their political views, but it does help understand why people think the way they do and why everyone views politics in their own way. Talking to someone and voicing your opinions can make you understand why they believe the way they do. Overcoming political differences is a special situation to me, so Individual Self-Fulfillment especially stood out to me. 

Another Value of Free Expression that I found is important and stuck out to me was Protect Dissent. This is important because even if a person is in a general area where their opinion is very unpopular or they feel like they believe something most people do not, they should still be able to voice their opinion without any consequences. This is a way to open up other understanding to people who believe another way. I think that people holding in what they believe can build up resentment and more violence than if they just speak their mind. No one has to agree with them, but it is important for everyone to understand the reasoning behind peoples opinions. Someone who has a different opinion than everyone around them may get hate for voicing what they believe in, but that is their choice. No one should be forced to keep their mouth shut over something they believe and that is why Protect Dissent is an important value.

 

Blog Post #2 - Supreme Court

I did not know how many cases the Supreme Court gets. Watching this video taught me that they receive more than 100 cases a week, and about 7,000 a year. I had assumed it was well under that, which was a shock when I heard just how much it really is. Although there are quite a lot, the court only ends up accepting about 100 a year due to a lot of them being written arguments trying to persuade this court that a lower court ruling was incorrect.

The most important take-away to me was in the video, when the Justices met, and discussed how you are actually living in the fact that people who wrote the Constitution guide us in solving problems 200 years later. I have never thought about it this way, but this video enlightened me to this fact. Another important take-away is that every petition gets the same individual consideration. 

Something that I learned which completely surprised me, is that in all of American history, there have only been just over 100 Supreme Court Justices, and they all have served around an average of 16 years. This was shocking to me because I thought there were a lot more Supreme Court Justices and had no idea how rare it is to be one.

All together, this video changed the way I thought of the Supreme Court, because I did not have a full understanding of how it worked, or how much work they really do. I am now able to understand more of what exactly happens in the Supreme Court. I learned that newly arrived petitions are sent to the Justices once a week. Each Justice is assisted by Law Clerks and Secretaries, but the Justice is responsible for deciding the case. All of this I was unaware of, so it was informational for me to learn how it works.