Trick-Or-Treat-Or Not

Is anyone else excited that Halloween is this week? I love Halloween! It’s definitely one of my top three favorite holidays along with New Year’s Eve and the 4^th of July. There is nothing better as a kid, than running around in costume in the dark getting tons of candy. As an adult, I love getting dressed up and waiting to scare the children that come to my house.

Which is why it really disturbs me that some public schools aren’t even allowed to celebrate Halloween anymore. According the Seattle Public School district, “costumes could offend or upset students who come from other cultures”. The pagan origins of modern Halloween can be found in the Celtic celebration of Samhain, or "End of Summer." The Celts believed that on this agricultural harvest festival the dead revisit the land of the living and communal fires were needed to ward off evil. Many feel that celebrating Halloween is somehow promoting paganism, witchcraft and the occult.

I’m not sure how dressing up as a comic book hero and knocking on doors for candy is related to paganism, but it did get me thinking. In a few weeks, we will be discussing our First Amendment rights, and the separation of church and state. Halloween isn’t the only holiday that schools have banned in the interest of not offending anyone. So my question to you this week is, “What do you think of school’s celebrating holidays? Should they celebrate all holidays, some holidays or none at all?” For an added twist, “What are your Halloween plans?” I’d love to hear what you’re dressing up as! Answers are due no later than Wednesday, November 2nd, 2016. Have a happy and safe Halloween!

Row Over Roe

I was shocked earlier this summer when I opened my latest issue of Glamour magazine to read an article on at-home abortions. You can read my thoughts and your fellow students’ comments here:  http://historicalandpoliticalissues.blogspot.com/2016/08/diy-abortions.html  Then, after reading many of your responses last week, and watching last night’s Presidential debate, I realized abortion is more of an issue this election cycle than ever before. 

In the past 5 years, Targeted Regulation of Abortion Providers (TARP) state laws have shut down 162 clinics, or prevented them from offering abortion services.  Here in Indiana, a federal judge recently suspended our new abortion law deeming it unconstitutional.  The Indiana law would’ve prohibited abortions on the basis of disability or race, and required abortion providers to bury or cremate fetal tissue.

The next President will certainly have the opportunity to appoint at least one, if not two or three justices to the Supreme Court of the United States.  In last night’s debate, the candidates were asked about their stance on abortion, and whether or not they would like to see the groundbreaking case Roe v. Wade, which made abortion legal in this country, overturned. For his part, Trump, who has stated he is pro-life, said, “That'll happen automatically, in my opinion, because I am putting pro-life justices on the court. It will go back to the states, and the states will then make a determination."  For her part, Clinton, who has a long pro-choice record stated, “Politicians have no business interfering with a woman’s personal health decisions.”

Abortion is a hard topic to come to terms with, at least for me.  I’d like to think if I were pregnant, my faith would prevent me from considering abortion, but I’m also realistic enough to know that if I were young, and scared, abortion would certainly be on my mind.  I think it’s just a sad situation all around, and I’m glad I don’t have the responsibility of legislating what is a personal and very emotional decision. 

Soon we’re going to discuss the right to privacy that most Americans feel they are entitled to.  As part of that discussion, we’ll look at some of the groundbreaking abortion legislation that has come out of the Courts over the years.  So, I’m interested in knowing what you think – “Do you think we should continue to place restrictions and limitations on when, where and how woman can obtain abortions?  Should Roe v. Wade be overturned? Please explain your answer.”  Answers are due no later than Wednesday, October 26th, 2016.

Mudslinging

Like a lot of you, I’ve been feeling pretty disillusioned with the candidates this election cycle.  I know politics and campaigns can get pretty nasty, but this year has topped any year in recent history.  Between the vile, misogynistic and discriminatory language coming from the Trump campaign and the shadiness and dishonesty surrounding the Clinton campaign; even I have started to avoid discussions surrounding the candidates.  This week a decade old tape was released of Donald Trump bragging about sexually assaulting women.  WikiLeaks followed by releasing hacked emails in which Hillary Clinton seems to allude to the fact that she is misleading voters about her stances on some of the issues.

So my question to you this week is three-fold: First, I would like to know “Do you think these revelations about either candidate will make a difference in how people vote?”  Second, I would like you to take this quiz, which will ask you about your thoughts on certain topics, and then tell you which candidate most closely matches your own viewpoints.  It also allows you to tell it how important an issue is to you. You can access the quiz here:  https://www.isidewith.com/ Then tell me “Which candidate’s viewpoints did the quiz match you up with?  Did that surprise you, or were you already planning to vote for that person?” 

You must answer all three parts to earn full credit.  Answers are due no later than Wednesday, October 19, 2016. 

Choose Your Own Adventure!

I hope you all enjoyed a nice break.  It's always hard coming back to school after break. Don't get me wrong, I love teaching and being surrounded by all the crazy, creative energy that is all of you. That being said, it's still hard to get back into the grind. So for our first blog post, I'll go easy on you.

This week we will start our study of the Constitution and the freedoms that make us uniquely American. You can order your own free copy of the United States Constitution from: http://www.constitutionfacts.com/index.cfm?section=bookstore&page=freeCopy.cfm

A good portion of this class will be spent discussing current events and political issues that affect our everyday lives. For this post, I would like you to tell me at least one issue that you are interested in studying. To help you out, you can look over the blog posts that we've had in the past several years to get an idea of the type of things we've covered. Many of the topics are pretty controversial and I do my best to not censor the information available to you.

So my question to you this week is, "What is one issue that you are interested in studying in this class?" Answers are due no later than Wednesday, October 12th, 2016. I'm looking forward to a great quarter!