Freedom of Religion

Upon looking at the first article of the survey on Americans, I am astounded by the responses that were given. Question 1 asks what the specific rights were that are in the First Amendment. Although the statistics have improved over the past 13 years, they are still extremely low. For example, only 6% of the people that were surveyed knew that the First Amendment granted the Right to Petition. In my opinion, this is an extremely low number, especially because it is regarding the First Amendment, the most common Amendment in the Constitution. The right to Freedom of speech was the most commonly known right in the First Amendment, but this too only had a 61% rate of being identified. Another thing that surprises me is that the vast majority of people surveyed believed that student speakers should be allowed to offer a prayer at public school events. 75% agreed and 22% disagreed with this, an amount that I find to be really surprising and high.

            After reading the second article about religious liberty in public schools, I happen to strongly agree with many of the points that were raised. As a country, it is our goal to ensure that the principles of religious liberty are being sustained and that people or religions are not being taken advantage of. As people are beginning to believe in more and more religions, it is becoming more crucial that schools establish concrete rules regarding religious expressions, in an effort to be sure that no religion is receiving more benefits and opportunities than another. A common consensus among 24 religious associations is that public schools “must be places where religion and religious conviction are treated with fairness and respect. Public schools uphold the First Amendment when they protect the religious liberty rights of students of all faiths and none. Schools demonstrate fairness when they ensure that the curriculum includes study about religion, where appropriate, as an important part of a complete education.” I strongly agree with this statement because I agree that it is imperative that each religion is treated with respect and is treated as equals. If one religion is forbidden to practice during school, then all other religions should be forbidden as well. If all religions are treated equally, then there will be minimal conflict between different religions, creating a more peaceful society.

 The article that I read was titled “Schools Juggle Holidays in Effort to Respect Many Faiths.” This article was very interesting because it highlighted the issues that occur in school districts in which some holidays are given days off of school when others aren’t. This becomes a very tough area for school administrators to deal with because they have to basically decide which holiday is more important than another. While there are holidays that are generally given days off across the nation, there are many other holidays in other religions such as Buddhism and Hinduism that aren’t granted as many days off as other religions, which can be thought of as being unfair towards those religions. In Florey v. Sioux Falls School District, the Court upheld the school district’s policy that stated, “It is accepted that no religious belief or nonbelief should be promoted by the school district or its employees, and none should be disparaged. Instead, the school district should encourage all students and staff members to appreciate and be tolerant of each other’s religious views.” In my opinion, this is the perfect policy for a school to establish. In order to ensure that there is no controversy amongst different religions, it is to the benefit of the school to simply take no religious belief and remain unbiased towards any religion. Lastly, another idea that was established in the article was the idea of “floating” or “choose your own holiday days.” These days allow for students to take their pick on which holidays they want to observe and what days they want to take off. By implementing this type of policy, it takes the pressure off of the school board as to which holidays should be declared as a day off. I specifically like this method because it gives students their own choice as to which holidays they are going to miss school for. While religion can become a very difficult issue to discuss because of the sensitivity that many people have on it, it is very important that no religion is favored or “advertised” in a public school setting. All religions are equal and should be treated as such.

7 Days in September

I thought that this was one of the best documentaries that I have ever seen. The entire film was very compelling and heart-wrenching at the same time. Being able to see the raw footage of what New York was like during the attacks, as well as in the days following them, was something I have never been exposed to, and thought was very interesting. After the attacks, New York was a ghost town. It seemed so eerie and dead. I never imagine New York to be like that because of the large population and the reputation that it has of being so "fast-moving". This was so interesting to me because it showed me how the entire city basically shut down and how everyone was fending for themselves. At the end, I really liked how everyone was coming together as a city to help others. In a big city, especially in New York, this is a very rare sight to see. People were bringing supplies for others, giving rides to complete strangers, and offering any help that they could, even if it was for someone that they didn't know. It is this type of behavior that needs to be more contagious and apparent throughout our cities, without the need of a devastating terrorist attack to spark this generous behavior.

Speech Codes

Throughout the past few weeks, we have been discussing he issue of speech codes and how certain actions can be considered unconstitutional as a violation of the First Amendment. One issue that we heavily discussed was about a fraternity party at Auburn University in which people were painted blackface and wearing KKK costumes. Many photos surfaced from this party, and the ways in which people were dressed and impersonating others was extremely discriminatory an caused for action to be taken against the members of the fraternity.

These were some of the pictures:

After these pictures appeared, many arguments began as to the type of disciplinary action that should be taken against the students. Auburn University prohibits “any form of discrimination or harassment related to a student's race," and by the pictures and the article, these students were clearly displaying discriminatory and harassing behavior. The way in which they portrayed others and degraded people of other races is horrible and it deserves strict consequences. The pictures displayed are in violation of the University policy, and thus, the students that were involved deserve to be punished. Although their actions may seem harmless and funny to some, they are not funny to others and can cause extreme emotional distress to a person that they are portraying. Auburn's policy of "any form of discrimination" indicates that these actions are not permitted and violate the University code. In addition to the University code, these actions can be debated as to if they are also in violation of the First Amendment. The First Amendment allows free speech, but it also doesn't allow free speech that hurts others or puts them in danger. Posting these images and acting in such a way can put others in danger because it could cause someone that was being made fun of to be emotionally distressed and to hurt themselves or others. The school should punish the students by suspending them and investigating the legality of their actions. The students should have to formally and publically apologize to those that they offended because their actions were completely inexcusable. In addition, the fraternity should be placed on probation with the university. While the fraternity may not have known that the party was going to occur, they are still responsible for what happens there. They should receive a warning about this type of behavior and be told that if any type of incident occurs again, the fraternity would be kicked off of campus. An example needs to be made and people need to recognize that this type of behavior is not taken lightly and that it will result in strict consequences.