Voters and Non-voters

As you learned today in Chapter 6 Section 4, there are many reasons why people decide not to vote or just plain can't vote. Give one very detailed way or a couple of general ways that we as a country could get more people out to vote. Especially considering that some elections see as low as 50% of the electorate voting in elections for the President. This doesn't take in to count that local elections for mayor, city council, school board, etc... sometimes sees as low as 10-20% voter turnout. Think about the ways we could try and get more people involved. What would you do if you were in charge or could wave your "magic voting wand"?

Health Care Bill

Summarize your learning of the Health Care Bill. Include: 1. What you learned about it, or think you learned about it. 2. How you think it will affect you now. 3. How it will affect you in the future. 4. Things you see that are helpful to our country. 5. Things that are not helpful to our country. 6. Your overall feelings about what you learned about the Health Care Bill.

Free Speech

I can see that you all have the same problem that the Supreme Court has with Free Speech. It is hard to literally define what Free Speech is. Some of you are assuming that people will say things that someone else doesn't like but might not hurt them or harass them. For example, how do you define something as harassment if someone calls another person "gay"? I have heard people say "that's gay" all of the time. If you say it in a crowded room that has a person that is gay in the room is it considered harassment? If the entire room is straight does it mean that no one is harassed? Another one for you...what if someone was to walk into a room and start calling a girl a bunch of names, but specifically about that girl and not any girl that is in the room. What if another girl hears it and says "I am offended by that". Does that constitute a limit on free speech? Because SHE is offended? What if a KKK member says some of the hateful things that they say, does it mean that we stop their free speech because the majority does not like what they are saying? What if someone is walking around saying that "U.S. military sucks". Do we let them speak their peace or shut down their free speech? Just thoughts that show how hard it is for the Supreme Court (let alone a school or a city government) try and figure out what should be monitored or "legal" within a school or a city. We will talk more about these types of issues throughout the school year.

Welcome to Mr. Mac's Government Blog

Welcome to our class blog.  I am hoping to accomplish a few things with this particular blog this semester.   

1. To acclimate you with the use of blogging to interact in a collaborative and professional way through writing about topics related to government.

2. To expand on our own thoughts on government related issues discussed in class or experienced, read about, or watched somewhere out of class.  

3. To create a location where you can ask questions or share information with each other and myself.  Especially for those that are uncomfortable saying something in class or don't think about until later in another class or when they get home.