Introduction to American Government and Politics

Brandon McNeal

Professor Jenkins

Intro to Government and Politics

28 April 2021

Blog Post 4

For the fourth and final Blog Post I have decided to not talk about any of the physical or noticeable problems we see in Division III. I am going to talk about something that people may believe is not important or non-debatable, but I believe it makes perfect sense. In my previous blog posts, I discussed the obvious issues we tend to see in Division III. In my first one, I discussed on how there is a lack of overall resources and total lack of funds. Next, in the second blog post, I reiterated the same idea. Although, I talked about how if we were to have much more money, we could then make the experience better. I said that we could combine the culture of a small school with the overall magnificent experience of a large state school. Then finally, in the latest blog post, the third one, I talked about how the already low funds in Division III is put strictly to classes and academics opposed to sports. All these topics have a common ground; they all make the college run smoothly. Now, for my fourth and final blog post I would like to express the importance of the reputation of Division III schools nationwide.

For starters, what is the general overall though of small Division-III schools? I can tell you what I thought when came on my visit and was thinking about coming to a small liberal arts school. I was thinking aren’t they small? I’m not going there; I will be miserable, and there’s no benefits of going there. Well, I think the belief of Division-III institutions should be drastically reimagined. Division-III colleges like Birmingham-Southern are mostly liberal arts. They also have, if not, fewer, close to fewer students than I went to high school with. Although, what students, especially high school kids, don’t realize is the education is legit. I remember hearing on my visit the education is great, and if I decided to go to Birmingham-Southern it would open so many doors. Almost 2 years down, I now understand what they meant, because school at Birmingham-Southern College is straight-up difficult.

Its difficulty doesn’t consist of odd tasks that I’m not accustomed to from high school, but it is very challenging on how hard I have to work along with football. Not only do I have to work hard on assignments and manage my time very wisely, but the courses here really challenge the brain. I came from the county in Alabama, so the school workload and school systems weren’t all that stimulating. Therefore, I really had to catch up to people that jumped in without slowing down; it was an immense culture shock for me my second semester when classes really started picking up. When I talk to my friend either I grew up with or I went to high school with, and they tell me what they’re doing at a state school or community college, and it is almost laughable. Yes, the big schools do have some perks, which I talked about in the previous three blog posts. Although, I am getting so much more out of my time and money while I’m in college. It really clicked for me this semester, and I feel that I truly understand why my parents really wanted me to go here. With that, I’ll without a shadow of a doubt, understand it that much more once I get into the work force. It makes sense though; it is a very simple equation. Employers will want to hire me if I get a diploma from here, because not only is the name attractive from prior knowledge, but they also understand the type of work that goes into a degree from an institution like BSC. We are simply using all the tools needed in the task force: group cooperation, work ethic, time management, and so forth…

Why is this all so important? I say all that to say that there is a common misconception that Division-III schools are bad and if you are not good enough in sports or you need to improve your GPA to get into a higher-level state institution, you can go there then transfer. These are some of the thoughts that went through my mind when deciding what college to got to. We have let social media and wrong judgements affect the way everyone thinks how Division-III schools are. What is a good way to stop it? I think it is slowly getting better. I think the best way to accomplish this goal is to inform people. This goes back to the first blog post: we try to get as many people as possible to attend your institution, because the people that love D-III are D-III graduates. Then, we get more people, which means more money for better resources and a better experience. Another way goes back to blog post 3, and we make sports a priority. We want to make sports a priority, because everyone loves sports, but about 90-95% of students play a sport at Birmingham-Southern when they first arrived. Therefore, if we prioritize sports, more people will come here. When people go the Division-III route and graduate, they tend to love it, allowing to spread the love. Finally, this will make division-III much more famous and relevant, and people will understand why Division-III is just as viable as Division-I or Division-II.

In conclusion, it is important to orchestrate the correct opinion of your college and Division-III as a whole. We all know that reputation is everything, especially in the business world; it is what the makes the world go around. Therefore, we must take effective measures like making sports a priority and trying to improve the graduation totals every year, so the reputation of Division-III is improved. Finally, it works both ways. The more students and graduates you get, the more money and resources the college can allow. This will then lead to a better campus all around and nicer things.

King Henderson

PS 101

Professor Jenkins

April 28, 2022

Private vs. Public sector – Blog post 4

            In the economic world, healthcare is what is considered a “merit good”. This is because it not only brings value to the consumer but also others. So, because healthcare is considered a merit good people look at it as only a societal gain; but forget its impact on the individual, thus undervaluing it. But some economists feel healthcare issues should be left untouched, as they will work themselves out. This economic principle is described as the “Invisible Hand Theory”. In a privatized healthcare system, the consumers, and forces at be cause the supply and the demand. Many believe it should be left this way, but is it the right choice?

            The United States healthcare debate mostly centers around Medicaid and Medicare. With these policies taking everyone’s attention, there is little effort expressed towards finding alternatives. A third option, which is Incremental healthcare. It establishes a normalized check-up routine with a healthy doctor patient relationship. It is stated that incremental healthcare leads to lower mortality rates, lower spending costs, and better treatments for chronic diseases. All of these improvements listed are what describe emergency cares weak points.

In a privatized healthcare, emergency care is most important. It is the kind of healthcare system that deals with problems quickly, thus producing fast/visible outcomes. To some people, this form of healthcare seems somewhat short sighted. So, you might ask, “why isn’t incremental healthcare implemented”? This is simply because people don’t know they have a choice. More times than not conformity occurs, leaving people seemingly without options, when in reality this is not true. So, because of society/conformity, healthcare is still shifting towards an emergency-based healthcare system instead of incremental. In short, allocating more funds towards incremental care would, if not anything else, improve the longevity and efficiency of our healthcare system.

If privatization doesn’t work, what about nationalization? If you look around the world to look at nationalized healthcare systems, some are not faring well. In the UK, their National Health Service (NHS) is what is described as, “a black hole of funding.” This is because nationalized healthcare services pull from the government as well as its people. The UK spends so much money on healthcare that it takes up 9.1% of its GDP. What makes this worse is that not only is it crazy expensive, but the quality of service is incredibly poor. This is due to the lack of incentives that the system provides for healthcare workers. Nationalized healthcare means there is no incentive for free-market entities to provide better quality.

Maybe if both private and national systems have their downfalls, why not combine them?

In doing so, this would create a private-public healthcare system. This might seem to obvious to have any validity but its true. Countries around the world do have successful public-private systems: a good example being France. France has a unique healthcare system in which it provides arguably the best healthcare in the world; and this is because its incredible dual system. But, keeping in mind, the French pay exponentially more in taxes than we do. So, in conclusion, in a privatized healthcare there in truly more to be discovered and experimented with. While on the other hand you have private-public healthcare which only seems achievable through high taxation. Each option is appealing, but which yields the best results?

Cam McNearney

Dr. Jenkins

PS 101

April 28, 2022

Blog Post #4

            In the last blog post, I talked about the crime in Atlanta and how that crime in Atlanta has spread into surrounding sub-cities like Kennesaw. This has been affecting the locals in a negative way and crime rates are hard to see by the naked eye. This is only something you realize when you look at the new, statistics, or are around the crime itself. More than just violent crime occurs in Atlanta and the main one is Graffiti. Graffiti is a type of writing or drawing done illicitly on a wall or some other surface on public property. Graffiti, in the state of Georgia, breaks the Georgia law and falls under Vandalism. Graffiti causes damage to decorative and delicate surfaces of all kinds. Even if the surface is not delicate, it is very hard to cover up or remove, especially if the building is one that might be considered historic. Graffiti has a negative effect on incoming customers for the area, businesses, or companies that may have graffiti near it or on their building. Graffiti has, at times, been an issue of being offensive, threatening, gang-affiliated, racial, or inappropriate. Graffiti can be seen all over the city of Atlanta; from road signs to buildings, there is hardly a trip taken to the city where one would not encounter some form of vandalism. Many people have begun to notice it does not even take a trip into the city, as vandalists have begun to take their craft to the outer limits. Having known that Atlanta’s crime has bled over into Kennesaw, it has also caused its graffiti issue to bleed over.

            The city of Atlanta is a very large and diverse city. With a population of over 490,000 people, the streets of Atlanta have many different types of people and emotions roaming around them on a daily and nightly basis. Nowadays, people tend to express their emotions, feelings, and thoughts through virtual forms of expression like social media, or physical forms of expression like art. Atlanta is known for many types of expression, but one that is popular is graffiti. Graffiti covers the walls of buildings, doors, street signs, and bridges across the city. Often, graffiti is known as “street art” and is professionally done for murals, special occasions, etc. Examples of this could be pictures of Martin Luther King Jr. on MLK Street downtown. Yet it is important to note that graffiti and street art are not classified as the same thing. Street art is typically a form of storytelling or peaceful protest. The issue comes when people begin to vandalize these murals, walls, budlings, etc. with vulgar images and profanity. In Midtown Atlanta there is a large population of LGBTQ+ citizens and this area is often vandalized with homophobic slurs. An example of this is the famous pride-themed crosswalks getting vandalized with derogatory wording and inappropriate sexually targeted innuendos.

            Much like the crime rate of Atlanta leaking into the city of Kennesaw, the same thing can be seen with graffiti. More and more we are seeing racial slurs and vandalism occurring throughout this suburban area. What does this mean for Kennesaw? This means that the graffiti is creating a less than optimal atmosphere in which families would want to raise their children. It is exposing young minds to a new form of discrimination through sexually and racially targeted slurs that are open for public viewing. Consequently, this has negatively affected the housing market in Kennesaw. As discussed in previous blog posts, Kennesaw is an upcoming family-friendly neighborhood. With these undesired graffiti artists vandalizing public property, it is obvious that this deterred future homeowners. A recent incident in one Kennesaw neighborhood included families waking up to a swastika and racial slurs in bright orange paint across the street. Many neighbors were outraged to see this and shocked that this has occurred in their neighborhood. Some even wondered if there was a problem that they were unaware of. Situations like this have affected these neighborhoods for the worse. This idea that Kennesaw is a family-friendly place to move has been altered considering recent vandalism. Citizens of Kennesaw are outraged that children must witness the atrocities of racism and discrimination in their neighborhood where instead they should play outside. Many families have worried that these acts of graffiti will decrease the value of their homes in Kennesaw and prevent new and diverse groups of people to move there.

            While some people may view graffiti as harmless form of self-expression, it is clear now that this is not a victimless crime. The city of Kennesaw is the victim, and with each incident, the city hurts more. While vandalism and graffiti may not be solely to blame for issues occurring in Kennesaw relating to its future prosperity, it is more than certainly a contributing factor. As stated above, families have been hurt and the city’s reputation has been altered.

https://www.wsbtv.com/news/local/cobb-county/kennesaw-neighborhood-outraged-at-racist-graffiti/408091073/

https://patch.com/georgia/kennesaw/cobb-county-neighborhood-scarred-racist-graffiti-report

https://www.ajc.com/things-to-do/whats-behind-an-uptick-in-defaced-public-art/Y4D4SV6G3JDYZP7IPJ4C2VNWHI/

Josh Childers

Dr. Clinton Jenkins

Intro to American Government

28 April 2022

Blog Post #4 – WNBA Wage Gap

            On April 24, 1996, the NBA’s Board of Governors approved the idea of creating a professional women’s basketball league. This league became known as the Women’s National Basketball Association, or the WNBA, and became the home of the greatest women’s basketball players on the planet. The WNBA has served as an inspiration to many young girls who love the game of basketball; however, there is a looming issue. WNBA players do not earn nearly as much money as their male counterparts in the NBA. The average salary of an NBA player is $7.5 million while the WNBA’s average salary is just $116,000. This has become a hot topic recently as many of the WNBA’s players have become much more outspoken about their situation.

            On the surface this seems like an easy fix. The WNBA should simply pay its players more since they are doing the same thing as the men. However, this issue is much more complicated than it seems. NBA Commissioner Adam Silver discussed the WNBA’s problems saying, “The WNBA players are still paid significantly more than the G League players, certainly the top players, but ultimately this is not a Title IX issue, this is a business issue and we still have a number of teams losing money. … We haven’t figured out a winning formula, to be quite honest.” The NBA’s total revenue in 2021 was $10 billion while the WNBA’s revenue in 2021 was $60 million. Many people have the misconception that WNBA players what to be paid the same amount as their NBA counterparts. What they are really asking for is that they receive the same share of the league’s revenue that NBA players receive. This is still a complicate request because businesses have fixed costs and the WNBA is no exception. Silver has reported that, on average, the WNBA has lost $10 million every year of its existence and the NBA has covered their losses.

The cause of this is that the WNBA is simply not as popular as the NBA. The average attendance for an NBA game is 17,760 while an average WNBA game has 6,535 fans. In the 2019 NBA Finals, each game averaged over 20 million viewers. During the 2019 WNBA Finals, the games averaged 400,000 viewers. Its not surprising how much more popular the NBA is because it has been around so much longer than the WNBA. It took time for the NBA to develop into the well-established league that it is today. Another reason why the WNBA is not as popular is because their product is not as exciting as the NBA. While the quality of basketball in the WNBA is good, casual fans are more drawn to the high-flying dunks and extreme athleticism of the NBA.

Like Commissioner Silver said, the easiest way for WNBA players to grow their salaries is to grow the WNBA as a whole. In order to do that, the WNBA has to find a way to become more entertaining. One possible method to make the WNBA more entertaining is to shorten the length of the courts. This would allow for teams to play at a faster pace and speed the games up. This change would result in nonstop action which should attract more fans. The most popular way to make the games more entertaining is to lower the rims to nine feet. Most casual sports fans watch games for the highlights. Everyone wants to see the crazy dunk or the insane block. Lowering the rims to nine feet would greatly increase the frequency of highlight plays in the WNBA which would attract more casual fans. More highlight plays would also bring more notoriety to the league’s top player which could cause more people to tune into the games and could cause an increase in jersey sales.

Most people hear about the WNBA wage gap and assume that it is and equality issue, but as you can see, the issue is much more about the economics of the league. In order for the players to make more money, the league has to start generating more revenue. For the league to star bringing in more money, it has to find ways to make the games more entertaining, such as shortening the court or lowering the rim. The WNBA inspires many young girls all over the world who love the game of basketball. That is why it is paramount that we find a way to increase the salaries of players in the WNBA.

https://www.deseret.com/sports/2021/4/7/22367915/pay-disparity-between-nba-wnba-is-a-numbers-game

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/early-lead/wp/2018/04/20/adam-silver-one-of-the-wnbas-problems-is-that-not-enough-young-women-pay-attention-to-it/

https://www.wnba.com/history/

Hailee Bryan

American Government and Politics

Dr. Jenkins

Blog Post 4

4/28/2022

Florida’s New 15-week Abortion Ban

April 14th, 2022, Florida Governor, Ron DeSantis signs a 15-week abortion ban into law. This new law bans abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy with no exceptions to rape or incest. This bill goes into effect July 1, 2022. The only exemption allowed are “high risk” pregnancies to the mother or child and must be confirmed by two doctors. The infamous Roe vs. Wade has paved the way for modern practice of abortion and has given many young women a choice over their body. 

Being a young woman who resides in Florida and plans to after college, this topic is very important to me and other women like me who face these struggles every day. I grew up in a very small town in Northwest Florida. The area is very rural and highly conservative. Growing up, I was always told that abortion is wrong and murderous, and it was not until I got to college and away from my small-minded hometown that I realized it was not. There are many women, not just in Northwest Florida, but all around the nation who were taught the same ideals that I was. Some people, like me, are lucky enough to get away and find new experiences, meet new people, and change their viewpoints; however, some are not. Some remain and pass down generations of ideals and skewed views to their children, all of whom get to vote at some point in their lifetime. Here you can see how passing down views can affect laws and policies, by who the people vote for.

This affects the community because it restricts women’s rights. While 15 weeks is longer than the original ban, many women feel as though they do not have enough time to make a life-altering decision like that on such short notice. On average, women do not find out they are pregnant until the 5–7-week mark. This allows at most, 10 weeks for a woman to make one of the most difficult decisions of her life. A decision that many of her friends and family may judge her for. She then has to decide whether she will confide in someone, or go through this difficult process alone. Although this decision mostly affects the woman since she will be going through the medical procedure and dealing with the emotional aftermath, it also affects the male counterpart if he is actively involved in the decision making process. 

Some solutions to this problem is expanding the time frame in which women can choose to get an abortion or giving different options for birth control. Although it may seem irrational to suggest more forms of birth control, it is rational to suggest different forms of birth control such as male contraceptives. Currently there are only two form of male contraceptives: condoms and a vasectomy. One new form of birth control currently being researched is the non hormonal male birth control pill. This seems to be the obvious answer to preventing unwanted pregnancies considering on average women can only have one pregnancy per 9 months whereas men can impregnate at least one women per day. Using this new form of birth control would greatly decrease the amount of unwanted pregnancies. In addition, since the men will be taking the birth control there should be no controversy in governing ones body since men seem to be in charge of everyone’s choices when it comes to the human body. Regarding the other solution of expanding the time frame in which a women can chose to get an abortion, ultimately this decision will continue to go back and forth depending on who is in office at the given time. Giving women more time to choose will also decrease the amount of unwanted pregnancies since women do not have to rush to make an appointment, decide to go through with the abortion, and having a better support system in place since they have more time to decided what was the right choice. 

Making a big life decision such as buying a house, changing jobs, or getting married doesn’t have a maximum time frame required to make these decisions, so why should having a child have these ‘due dates’? Limiting women in the time they have to make these decisions and carry through with the medical process severely limits their abilities to get the medical procedures and should be considered illegal since it inhibits and infringes on a women’s right. 

https://www.acs.org/content/acs/en/pressroom/newsreleases/2022/march/non-hormonal-pill-could-soon-expand-mens-birth-control-options.html

Dr. Jenkins

PS101

28 April 2022

Arguably the most dangerous problem facing refugees and undocumented immigrants is the lack of health care services available to them and the fear of deportation that discourages the use of what little is offered. This fear has existed in undocumented communities for a long time, at least since Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) was moved from the Department of Justice to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) after 9/11. But when the Trump administration implemented new deportation guidelines in early 2017, there was a noticeable spike in anxiety in communities nationwide.

Under President Obama, ICE was instructed to prioritize those with criminal convictions for deportation, under Trump, they began targeting all “removable persons” across the country. Under these new guidelines, there was a dramatic increase in workplace raids, especially in states that do not have a foreign border, and many began to worry that public facilities that have traditionally been considered “sensitive locations” (medical facilities, schools, places of worship) by DHS would be next. According to Alex Armstrong, CEO of Alliance Medical Center, a community health facility outside Santa Rosa, CA, AMC’s appointment cancellation numbers were double the weekly average the week the new guidelines were implemented. Many patients who were asked why they were canceling said either they or the person who has supposed to drive them to the appointment were afraid of ICE officials (PBS Newshour). One spokesperson for King’s County Hospital in Brooklynn, New York who spoke to PBS said their facility experienced a similar phenomenon that same week. Someone had spread false rumors in the nearby LatinX community that ICE officers were prowling the halls of the hospital and patients canceled appointments en masse because of the fear of deportation. 

It’s not just the fear that ICE officers might be in the hospitals themselves, but also that they might somehow get their hands on documents containing sensitive personal information, like Medicaid and CHIP enrollment records, and the lists that hospitals sell to debt collection agencies, which typically contain patients' personal and/or work phone numbers, and home addresses. This became a real danger during the worst days of the COVID pandemic. One anonymous Bostonian did not seek medical attention until it was almost too late. She spoke to GBH (Boston’s NPR affiliate), under the name Esmeralda: “There have been many times when I have been scared to get medical care,” said Esmeralda through a translator. “I’m afraid I won’t be able to pay for the medical care and this will lead me to being flagged for not being able to pay bills. I’m always afraid I will get put on a list many times when it comes to medical care” (GBH News). In the United States, refugees and asylees are granted health insurance for the first eight months after their arrival through the Refugees Medical Assistance (RMA) program run by the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Refugee Resettlement, some are then able to apply for and receive Medicaid and Child Health Insurance Program (CHIP) benefits if they are eligible. Undocumented non-asylees however, are ineligible for all of these programs. Thus discouraging undocumented people from seeking medical care until they can no longer avoid it.

At this time, there has not been an official study into the effect of Trump administration policies on the willingness of undocumented individuals to seek medical care, but there is evidence that immigration policy at the local level can lead to an increase in hesitancy. In 2010, Arizona passed a bill giving state and local law enforcement the authority to open investigations into individuals they suspected were in the country illegally. When it was passed, researchers studying childhood obesity noticed that their participants stopped showing up. “Several providers described a drop in health maintenance, such as regular doctor visits, diabetes education, vaccines, prenatal care, HIV education, and procurement of medications, as the result of [the law],” (PBS Newshour). 

While comprehensive care will likely remain unobtainable for the foreseeable future, access to basic services has been improving in recent years thanks to medical students. In 2014, nearly two-thirds of all medical schools in the United States had at least one student-run clinic for the uninsured, and many schools in the border states are partnering with non-profits to provide migrants stuck in Tijuana under the “Remain in Mexico” policy with care and medications they had been foregoing as they made the journey north (AAMC). While this is nowhere near enough, especially since the beginning of the pandemic, it is a good start. 

Sources:

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/health/immigrants-trump-deportation-doctor

https://ajph.aphapublications.org/doi/10.2105/AJPH.2011.300541

https://www.wgbh.org/news/local-news/2020/06/15/despite-the-pandemic-immigrants-in-mass-say-they-are-afraid-to-seek-medical-care

https://www.aamc.org/news-insights/people-seeking-asylum-united-states-have-little-access-health-care-medical-schools-are-working

West Neill

Professor Jenkins

PS 101

April 28, 2022

Blog post 4

              We have talked about many Major League issues that have troubled the baseball community. But I think it is time to look at some major events that have happened at the collegiate level of baseball. Rarely do we see major political issues arise in college baseball. but, in the 2021 College World Series, we experienced one of the biggest political issues college baseball has ever seen that completely erupted the baseball community.

             Political issues are far less frequent at the collegiate level compared to the Major leagues. This is because of the way college athletics are financially structured. College sports are funded through the school that generates most of its capital from tuition, ticket sales, capital campaigns, and donations from alumni. Unlike the MLB, which receives most of its revenue from corporate sponsors and license agreements.

             In 2021 the Covid-19 pandemic heavily obstructed college sports over the past year. College baseball took its biggest hit on June 25, 2021, when North Carolina State was disqualified from the semi-finals of the College World Series. On the morning of the big game against Vanderbilt, NC state reported that due to Covid protocols only 13 of their 27 players were eligible to play. Missing four of their starting position players NC state struggled to fill players into the starting lineup. The game was then delayed as the NCAA board conducted an emergency meeting to discuss North Carolina’s ability to continue in the playoffs. Ultimately the NCAA announced an hour later that NC state will no longer be able to play in the College World Series. The Covid-19 protocols for the College World Series were that any player that had not received the vaccine will be tested every other day. Since NC state’s roster was almost entirely unvaccinated, when one player got sick it spread amongst the team like a wildfire. Any player that exceeds the social distancing rules was also quarantined. This took NC state’s roster from 27 players to 13 thirteen in a flash.

             So why was this such a big deal in the baseball community? Like any playoff series, the College World Series is something thousands of collegiate athletes dream of competing in. When NC State was scheduled to play Vanderbilt in the semifinals. NC State only had to beat Vanderbilt one time to advance to the championship. Vanderbilt on the other hand had two-beat NC state two times consecutively to advance. Nonetheless, it was safe to say that NC State has a very good possibility to advance to the CWS championship for the first time in over 10 years. So, to have this rare opportunity stripped from NC state, infuriated the baseball community. NC State head coach, Elliot Avent, was especially furious at the NCAA’s decision. He stated that they enough players to play a game and that his players should have been given a fighting chance instead of completely crushing their opportunity to make school history.

             Looking at this situation from the NCAA’s point of view, I understand they must follow set procedures about health and safety issues concerning Covid-19. If they allowed NC state to continue in the playoffs, they risk players from other teams also getting sick, possibly jeopardizing the entire World Series. And if that would have happened the NCAA would have been slammed by the media for not taking the necessary safety precautions going into the tournament and risking potentially thousands of lives.  So, the NCA, representing all college sports had to show authority not only to ensure the best outcome from a political standpoint but to the teams not following the right safety measure and protocols during a pandemic.

             From the North Carolina state and the baseball communities’ standpoint. They felt that they were cheated out of potentially one of the biggest moments in their school’s baseball history. The baseball community was very unpleased by the way the NCAA handled this situation. Their main argument was that both teams were dressed and ready to play and NC state had enough players to play the game. Both the fans and NC state stated that the game should have continued, which would have given the NCAA more time to consider their options.

             In conclusion, I think the ultimate solution for this situation would have been for the NCAA to implement covid protocols weeks before the tournament. And when the teams arrived at the College World Series the NCAA should have created a “bubble” like the NBA used in the finals. This would have completely separated the player from other teams and fans. I believe if the NCAA would have implemented these precautions there would have been very low possibilities for something like this to happen and the College World Series would have happened flawlessly. And maybe NC state would have been national champions for the first time in school history.

John McCall

Dr. Jenkins

Intro to American Government and Politics

April 28, 2022

Fourth Blog Post

            Iraq is an interesting country. Carved up and created by the British after the first World War, with a periodical history of coups and despots, dealing with its rich oil fields, and much more. Iraq also has the third largest Kurdish population in the Middle East after Turkey and Iran. If there is one Middle Eastern nation wherein the Kurds have the best chance today, in terms of practicing their own culture and traditions without fear, it is Iraq. Why is that? First of all, if you look at a map of Iraq, an ethnic map, you will see that the whole northern region is filled with a Kurdish population and is considered the Kurdish region of Iraq. Some call it “Iraqi Kurdistan,” and one advantage Iraqi Kurds have there is acknowledgement from the Iraqi government, no matter who is in charge at the time, that that is the region where Kurdish Iraqis live. That sentence may seem unnecessary, but it is not when one considers the treatment of Iraqi Kurds by the Iraqi government in the last century. After Kurdish Ottoman hopes of an independent Kurdistan were quashed in the 1920s, there occurred in Iraq a series of uprisings and rebellions by Kurds in that northern region. All failed and none was suppressed more brutally than by Saddam Hussein, targeting them with chemical weapons in 1988. But when Saddam Hussein was finally overthrown in 2003, things got better. A new Iraqi government was formed and, perhaps more importantly, a new constitution was ratified in 2005. This constitution assured the rights and legal protection of the Iraqi Kurds. In addition to Arabic, Kurdish was acknowledged as an official language of Iraq. And that northern Kurdish region I mentioned earlier, it was granted autonomous status, remaining a part of Iraq but enabled to rule itself. This was glorious news to the Kurds at the time. Now, all of this sounds like good news. It certainly was, but the issue written about here is the illustration that even if and when Kurds in the Middle East have a modicum of self-rule, as they do in Iraqi Kurdistan, they still face backlash and discrimination.

            Iraqi Kurdistan is led by the Kurdistan Regional Government, or KRG. From 2005 to 2017, the leader of the KRG was a man named Masoud Barzani. In 2017 he announced to the world that later that year they would hold an “independence referendum” to discuss, debate, and vote on the question of whether or not to seek independence from Iraq. During the independence referendum the vote was largely in favor of seeking independence from Iraq. The reaction to this in the world was one of shock, to the neighboring Middle Eastern countries, reaction was spiteful. The federal government of Iraq, based in the capitol Baghdad, denounced the vote for seeking independence and made aggressive moves against the KRG. Masoud Barzani resigned as leader. The federal government seized a fraction of land from Iraqi Kurdistan in what some may call an intimidation move. While the independence referendum made clear the desire of Iraqi Kurdistan to seek independence, it was a failure in terms of making a plan on how to pursue that goal. Leaders of the neighboring Middle Eastern nations bitterly criticized the referendum. Recep Erdogan, the President of Turkey, said in an interview that Iraq would be foolish to allow separation and that Iraqi Kurdistan would receive no welcome into the family of nations. That may or may not be so, but it shows that if Iraqi Kurdistan did in fact become an independent nation, it would be not only surrounded but geographically landlocked by nations harboring hatred for it.

            It is easy to understand why leaders in Turkey, Iran, and Syria were and are opposed to the establishment of an independent Kurdish region in modern Iraq. Think for just a moment on how inspirational that would be to the Kurds in their countries. Ideas of seeking their own Kurdish independence, or perhaps migrating in massive groups to Iraqi Kurdistan, no doubt crossed their mind when news of the independence referendum spread. Looking at the viewpoint of Iraq, it makes sense to me that the federal government decided to crack down on one of their regions as soon as it publicly announced that it intended to start seeking independence. What country on Earth wants to lose a fraction of its territory, no matter who or what is in it? While I am sure that many of those leaders would like to get rid of their Kurdish populations, they would never do it at the cost of losing territory. The whole thing is a conundrum. After Masoud Barzani stepped down, Nechirvan Barzani became the new leader of the Kurdistan Regional Government. Since 2019 he has tried to foster better relations with Baghdad and bring the international community more into the issue. As to potential solutions I am not sure. As I mentioned before, since 2017 it has been crystal clear that the people of Iraqi Kurdistan do not just want to be autonomous, they want to be independent of Iraq. This desire and hope should be taken into account by all. I think that the nations of Turkey, Iran, and Syria can tough talk as much as they like against the independence referendum or Iraqi Kurds, but I believe they have no say in the matter. They do not dictate the affairs of Iraq, only of their own countries. But I fully understand their worry about their own Kurdish populations getting inspired and maybe one day attempting to become independent. Perhaps more talks between the KRG and Baghdad should take place and maybe, with diplomacy and tact, common ground can be found.     

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-28147263  

https://minorityrights.org/minorities/kurds-3/

Austin T. Johnson

Blog Post #4

Dr. Jenkins

04/27/2022

The Influence of Mental Health and Substance Abuse on Student-Athletes

With the increase of NCAA athletes competing every year, athletes are faced with a tremendous amount of pressure to better their performance each season. This pressure is felt not only on the field or court but also in the classroom. Coaches, teachers, and friends of athletes can confirm this occurrence. The lack of mental health support for students is leading them to substance abuse and the issue is that both of these problems need to be brought to attention. Consequently, this means that student-athletes are the most susceptible to having mental health issues. For instance, athletes have a greater risk of having substance abuse, social anxiety, eating disorders, or mental health disorder than regular students because some feel the need to take illegal performance enhancers or modify their bodies to be deemed successful. 

Off the field, in my free time, I enjoy watching broadcast sports. Watching each of the teams play against one another and seeing each of the professional player matchups is entertaining for me. Citing a real-world occurrence of this issue is professional athletes coming out and talking about their mental health difficulties. Most recently, Kevin Love, the center for the Cleveland Cavaliers has come out and talked about sitting out games because of mental health problems. Another example was in the recent summer Olympics when Simone Biles went to the games but was unable to perform in all the events because of her mental health not being stable. In recent years student-athletes have been more open about the mental side of things and it helps non-athletes and athletes understand what it takes to compete at every level of play. According to a medical article published by Dove Medical Press, athletes may turn to substances to cope with numerous stressors, including pressure to perform, injuries, physical pain, and retirement from a life of sport (which happens much earlier than retirement from most other careers). Additionally, athletes may be significantly less likely to receive treatment for underlying mental illnesses such as depression. Athletes receive comprehensive treatment and rehabilitation for physical injuries, but this is less often the case for mental illness because professionals view mental illness as a sign of weakness. (Reardon and Creado 2014). In recent years, athletes are opening up about mental health issues. This is helping get rid of the stigma of mental health as a weakness in the professional realm. 

One perspective on this issue is my own, the stigma of young athletes seeing mental health as a weakness is changing because of professional athletes speaking out about their struggles. As a student-athlete myself, I have to deal with a lot of stress. An example of my average day here at Birmingham Southern College during lacrosse season is, a long day of classes that begins at 8:00 am sharp. Then after my 8:00 am and 9:30 am classes, have a small window of time to tackle my responsibilities for the day. Afterward, I go to film and practice which can last around 4 hours. Once this is all complete  I decompress by going to my apartment and playing games or cracking open a nice cold Coca-Cola. Whenever I deal with stress outside of lacrosse I like to go to the field and shoot or throw on the wall by myself and get time to think. When I get in my head while playing lacrosse, I think of what I executed during practice that week, or I remind myself that it was only one play that had gone bad and it does not define my overall level of play. 

A second perspective on this issue is from a coach's perspective. Coaches do not typically address mental health as for some individual athletes it “opens up a can of worms''. In their mind exposing one's mental weakness is a signal of overall weakness. This is a stigma within the sports industry that must be broken. Coaches always talk about strengthening the mind and to never giving up, however sometimes they need to shift the discussion to the mentality of how it builds mental toughness, understanding and improving on weaknesses. Coaches need to heighten their awareness because if student-athletes are unwell enough to compete how will their programs continue to run. During my time here at BSC, our coach was kind enough to take us to do something fun mid-season like paintball or taking us out to hibachi allowing everyone to relax off the field. After our longer seasons, our coach gave us a break with a light week of practices and a fun weekend where we got hibachi and paintball. Keeping a balance between being hard on an athlete and understanding their needs outside of practice is key. Coaches only want athletes to perform their best. Sometimes they know they need to push athletes to play better. Not saying that mental health awareness needs to turn around 180° overnight, but every effort towards improvement is necessary. 

One solution to help address this issue is campus awareness. Students can hand out buttons or stickers that show student-athletes mental health awareness solidarity throughout schools to spread the word about it. Another idea is to hold student-athletes mental health week, this is a week directly focused on  giving out treats or easy week of school work to help them out. A second solution to address this issue is mandating the school or the NCAA to give teams a resource of mental health counseling. I do not think there is one great big solution to mental health and addiction for student-athletes as of right now, but I believe there can be a better understanding of the issue that will help. If we can get rid of the stigma around mental health and encourage athletes to open up there will be fewer indices of substance abuse and mentally unwell student-athletes. Another idea I have to address this issue is if the NCAA were to mandate that all competing sports teams have licensed mental health counselors come to the schools to discuss all topics related to substance abuse and mental illness. Schools can be more equipped to handle mental problems by adding support groups that athletes need to attend or bringing in mental health specialists to speak to the teams. 

--------------------------

Citation

Reardon, Claudia, and Creado, Shane. “Substance Abuse and Rehabilitation.” National Library of Medicine, Dove Medical Press, 14 Aug. 2014, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4140700/

Cade Robinson

Dr. Jenkins

PS 101

4/28/2022

Student athletes grades 

         Student athletes are always told “You’re a student first, athlete second.”, but that just isn’t true for most athletes. According to Maloney McCormick “The average GPA of an athlete was 2.379 while the average GPA of a non-athlete was 2.681”. Most student athletes put athletics first. They will skip class for practice even though 99% of student athletes won’t have a career in their sport rather they will have a career in what they major in. Student athletes commonly face the problem of whether they go to class or focus on their sport. This problem stems from the lack of time they have and how you can’t be in two places at once. They are commonly asked to skip class or leave class early for their sport, which negatively affects their grades. Student athletes often have less time to do homework and projects negatively impacting their grade too. This is sad due to how one of the biggest points of college is to learn, and student athletes are choosing their athletics over learning in class. 

          Student athletes are affected by the bad grades in many ways. One main way student athletes are affected by these bad grades is when they become ineligible. Being ineligible means that you are not allowed to play during the season, which is a punishment for not passing classes. Becoming ineligible can really affect athletes' mental health in a negative way too. It can cause them to become depressed due to the fact they can’t play the sport they love. Another way student athletes are affected by these bad grades is when they are trying to graduate. It is getting more and more common to have to go to college over 4 years to get your bachelors degree, but it’s the same for student athletes too. Many student athletes have to take summer classes to graduate on time, or take another semester to get all the credits they need to graduate. This is due to the fact that student athletes focus in general on school less, so they are more likely to fail classes. Student athletes are also affected by the bad grades when looking for their first job. Many student athletes have lower GPAs than they could have due to them missing classes and getting bad grades. Their GPA doesn’t reflect how truly smart they are, or how much they know. This could lead to student athletes getting passed up for jobs due to the inaccurate representation of their intelligence by their GPA. The final way getting bad grades negatively impacts student athletes is just mentally. When you get a 55 on a test it makes you feel bad. Failing never feels good, and it’s the same with student athletes.

          From a teacher's perspective, it could be worrying to see a student athlete getting bad grades. It can make them wonder if the student is actually understanding the class and learning. It can make teachers wonder if there is something wrong in the way they are teaching, or if there is something wrong with the student athlete. It might also make the teacher think the student athlete isn’t trying and frustrate the teacher. All these things teachers face due to student athletes getting bad grades sometimes. Coaches are also affected by student athletes getting bad grades. It can cause coaches a lot of stress if a student athlete is getting bad grades because they might become ineligible, which could negatively impact a team. This impact could be so big that the team loses games which isn’t good for the coach also. Coaches might have to start trying to come up with solutions, and change game plans that they spend hours on if a player becomes ineligible. These bad grades also affect coaches, because their athletes reflect directly on them and their program. If a student athlete is under performing in the classroom it might make it look like the coaches don’t care about school and could bring down the team GPA which makes the coach look bad if it’s too low. Another problem the bad grades student athletes get may cause for coaches is having to figure out how to help them in that class. Students' parents also are affected by student athletes getting bad grades. If parents are paying for student athletes' college then they might have to pay for them to retake classes which impacts the parents financially. Parents also may become worried that their kid may drop out or fail out of college. Overall student athletes under performing in the classroom can have negative effects on many people in their lives and it isn’t a good thing for anyone.

     There isn’t one solution that can fix the under performance of student athletes in the classroom, but there are some things that may help. Having tutors available in the morning, middle of the day and at night could help them be able to get help where they are struggling. Student athletes going to office hours to ask questions and being engaged in class could help their performance too. If a student athlete goes out of their way to form a connection with their professor, and is willing to ask questions to them to show they are trying, it can also help them at least pass the class due to the teacher liking them and wanting to help them. Many teams have study hours if your GPA is under a certain number. This forces student athletes to focus on their classes during that time which could help. Many study hours let going to office hours and tutoring contribute to them so it also pushes student athletes to look for help.  Student athletes also should be educated on the academic resources they have. There are many academic resources that many students and student athletes don’t use and don’t know about. These resources can be very helpful and really help improve your grades. Another solution to help underperforming student athletes in the classroom is to partner them with someone on the team that is good at that class and let them help. Although many student athletes struggle in the classroom many also excel in the classroom. Partnering up these two types of athletes can positively affect both of them. This may also make it easier for the struggling student athletes to ask for help, because it’s their friend and teammate they are asking so they may be more willing to ask. Overall though there is not just one clear cut solution for helping student athletes in the classroom, it is a case by case circumstance. 

David El Masri

PS101-Dr.Jenkins

April 28, 2022

Lebanon's corruption

Lebanon’s independence always seems to find its way through every blog post but since this is the last one it won’t be as bad. Lebanon’s so-called independence granted back in 1920 left some responsibility for the population to pick out a set of leaders that will effectively lead Lebanon. This period of Lebanon’s governance didn’t see much corruption because France had still a major impact on every decision taken, so there wasn’t much room for any of these leaders to find personal gain or benefit. However, during the second world war and while France was weakened, they decided to grant Lebanon its independence being afraid of Germany sending its military to take control of the allies’ colonies. The population of Lebanon was too divided for this to be true independence, the mix of different religions wanted to control Lebanon. From that point on every governmental decision was filled with some beneficial gain to certain religious groups over others. This is where corruption started and how every group started slowly but surely negatively affecting the population as a whole. Lebanon’s case includes a lot of problems and all these forms of governmental intrusions can be considered pure forms of corruption. This is extremely evident through the war against Israel that the Muslim population of Lebanon joined while the rest of the population completely opted out of interfering. This same exact war pushed the entire Lebanese population to suffer economically socially and mentally, it pushed it so far that international help was needed to actually stabilize the country and get the Israeli army out of the country.

After this traumatic experience was inflicted on the entire population, the religious-political communities wouldn’t try to settle their differences but actually create more problems. These problems progressively pushed each one of these groups to find a way to exploit the entire system to their advantage. This translates to creating plans something for the population for everyone to benefit from and over budget for this project so whichever group came up with it will go ahead and take part of the budget. This happened a lot and the growing tensions between these different groups lead to a civil war, that caused Lebanon's government to become a complete work of corruption. Each institution within the government had then been strictly associated with a specific group and nobody from any other religion would be hired to work in it. These boundaries were pushed even farther; these same institutions would become an easily exploitable opportunity for these groups to receive government-funded money for their own personal growth. This personal growth happens constantly throughout the multitude of governments formed and the fact that every single religious and political group ends up taking advantage of the system to grant themselves power and wealth slowly shows how corrupt the entire system as a whole was. People would be assigned and spend their entire time in their governmental position building their social image and wealth. This didn’t stop any certain group which progressively corrupted the population itself. Each citizen among the Lebanese population becomes so absorbed with their own benefit regardless of the entire population’s beneficial development that they would to extreme levels to make sure they aren’t being used by the system. Something the typical Lebanese citizen went ahead and did used and abuse the system for their own benefit in a form of rebellion against the system itself. In every form of a governmental institution, employees were demanding all forms of bribes to simply do their jobs. These political and religious groups found a very good way to gain even more public support. They would use the power they had in the government so that only members of their group would receive the bare minimum of governmental services that each citizen should receive. This level of corruption that has been growing since the civil war has been developing too much and has spread to a point that people aren’t granted the minimum unless they belong to a certain group. This slowly but surely affected the population as a whole and this made everybody turn against each other and this situation in particular made people worried about their own survival and neglected the development of the entire population. The country as a whole was suffering from this form of corruption. This ongoing and widespread corruption lead to massive mistrust in the government and all forms of affairs started becoming much more on an individual level and stopped being processed through the government in legal ways. This lack of organization on the governmental level made people working in the system quite dysfunctional and lead to even more problems and division.

The entire problem of corruption can be fixed through a lot of work that needs to start from the system itself. The system itself needs to apply the laws in a much better way that would stop letting people do whatever they want and abuse the system itself to create more beneficial situations for themselves and not the public. Alongside this enforcement of laws, a new reform should be done to stop somehow discontinue how things were and stop this entire form of corruption. To do that, an entire system must be rebooted from the ground up to slowly but surely create new forms of laws to be enforced. These laws should be accepted as the solution that will fix how people interact with the government itself and they would put aside their selfish desires and focus on the development of the country as a whole. This same example of creating a new functioning system from the bottom up that will make sure all interactions happen on a public level clear to everyone especially the public is seen in Sri Lanka which saw an entire transparency reform that lead to major improvements. Another way of dealing with corruption is by empowering citizens by making sure these citizens keep demanding a clean system that doesn’t exploit the government’s resources for the elected politicians to gain more things. This also means making sure all forms of public elections are monitored. The citizens that are looking to revolutionize the entirety of the system into a better corruption-free system will have to make sure that whatever activity that violates these newly formed ideas that are concerned with change would be punished through a fair judiciary system. This case can be seen in Slovenia; the public made sure to keep every single election as clean as possible by informing the public about what feeds into corruption and how politicians are able to rig and destroy the fair system. This showed some true progress and let people know some of the actions the politicians were taking were violating the system as a whole. The use of public funds in elections leads to the same system the public is trying to abolish. Lebanon has this form of revolutionary ideas brewing and wanting a big change and that growing population should be able to learn from its mistakes and try to imply what was effective in other systems.

Alex Sprague 

Dr. Jenkins

PS 101

28 April, 2022

Blog Post 4

An issue that has been affecting the Deaf and hard of hearing community are the communication barriers athletes face in sports. When on a sports team communication is a major component that leads a team to success. Whether it involves someone calling for the ball, discussing plays with a coach, the referee blowing his whistle, or stopping the game can be very difficult for a Deaf person to comprehend if signs are not used or they cannot communicate with others. Since American Sign Language is a visual language Deaf athletes need to be facing the individual that is signing to them so they know what is going on. If they are on a team with only hearing individuals the odds of them knowing ASL is slim to none, which makes communication between teammates and coaches very difficult. There is also a lack of officials or referees that know basic sports signs to where they would be able to communicate with a Deaf or hard of hearing athlete. 

These issues affect the Deaf community because it makes it very difficult for them to play a sport where they are treated as equally as their other teammates. When it comes to communicating on the court or field one needs to be able to call for the ball or talk to their coach from the sidelines while the game is still in play. Being Deaf makes these interactions difficult because many Deaf individuals are nonverbal and the people they need to talk to do not know sign language. Many think a quick solution to this would be to create signals so they can avoid verbally communicating; however, a survey was conducted and the researcher stated: “though it may sound like an effortless task, it actually requires twice as much focus during a game” (Houinato 3). Athletes need to be focused on the game and what their next steps are to win, but also to prevent injuries. If teams only use signals it can make it very difficult to communicate if it is a sport where they are constantly moving such as soccer. The individual with the ball should only be concerned with running the ball down the field and passing to who is open. If they are not looking at the ball and instead looking for a signal from their teammates then this can cause many mistakes. 

The two perspectives of various members from the community are ones that involve communication with a coach and others with referees.  These communication barriers make it difficult for Deaf athletes to talk to their coach from the sidelines or even in practice. If athletes are not listening to the advice coaches are giving them to succeed it can make the coach and athlete very frustrated. One if the athlete is not seeing results at competition after putting many hours into practicing then they can lose passion for the sport and quit. On the other hand, if coaches are not getting the results they want it leads to those players sitting on the bench and not getting allowed to play. The same study by Houinato researched the communication barriers between Deaf athletes and referees and stated: “Some problems that tend to arise from this are false starts, athletes not stopping when there is a foul, continuing to play when the end of the game is pronounced” (3). Athletes are disqualified and placed at a disadvantage because there are not enough accommodations to ensure that they get a fair start or provide visual cues that help them understand what has occurred.

A solution that has been very helpful for Deaf athletes are vibrating arm bands or rings that they can wear during games. This invention is called the “Tech Spec” created by Charbel Houinato and it helps communication issues between referees and Deaf athletes because the referee will be able to send a signal to the device which initiates a vibration to let them know they stopped the game (2). This creation should be used more because it will help break the communication barriers and hopefully encourage more Deaf athletes to join sports with hearing teammates. Another solution is to add visual cues such as lights to help signal the Deaf athletes to start a race. In swimming the starters box has a light on the top of the box which flashes to signal to the timers when to start their watches. Even though this was created for a different reason, Deaf athletes rely on this light to tell them when to start a race. However, when there is a Deaf swimmer officials are trained to know what signs to do to start the race. They learn to shake their hands at the different whistles blown and to quickly move their arm down once the buzzer goes off. More officials from other sports should be required to learn simple signs to notify or communicate with Deaf athletes so they are on an equal playing field. 

Sources

1. https://www.lifeprint.com/asl101/topics/deaf-and-the-sports-community.htm

2. https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/155271573.pdf

Lucy Thompson

PS101 – Jenkins

4/28/22

Blog Post 4

            An issue that affects the female community is the gender pay gap. I feel as if I have heard this term in the news and in class and never knew what exactly that term meant. I used to think that the gender pay gap mean that a man and a woman that work at the exact same company doing the exact same job got paid differently. However, after doing more research I learned that it is a little more complex than that. The gender pay gap is the difference in wages earned between men and women, with men being paid substantially more. This has and can be calculated in several different ways. Bleiweis explains, “Analyzing the most recent Census Bureau data from 2018, women of all races earned, on average, just 82 cents for every $1 earned by men of all races” (Bleiweis “American Progress”). The issue is that women are earning less than men, not because they are not working, but I think there are several factors that can explain the cause of this. Some of these may be that women are not offered the same roles men are in the corporate world because female leaders are stigmatized. Our society views women as nurturing and emotional and struggles to see women as powerful and commanding as men are in leadership roles.

            The gender pay gap affects women because they are the group that is earning less than men across all races. Women have gained more and more rights and recognition over the past 200 years. We have seen this with women gaining the right to vote in the early 1900s, women becoming more involved with the workforce during war times, more women seeking full-time employment and not being confined to household duties, and the sexual revolution for women with the creation of the birth control pill. Women have gained more and more rights and privileges that used to only be available to men. All this being said, women have proven themselves countless times to be just as valuable as men in our society. So why are women being paid less? The groups affected by the gender pay gap are women of all ages and races. The difference is 82 cents women make for every dollar men make. This may seem like a small difference of 18 cents, but that can really add up if you look at it in terms of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of dollars. Women of all walks of life are affected because in today’s society it is rare for us to see women holding the same leadership roles that men hold, which leads to women experiencing the glass ceiling effect. Lockert explains the glass ceiling as, “The term ‘glass ceiling’ is a metaphor for the barriers that women and people of color face when striving to move upward in the workplace” (Lockert “Business Insider”). With this glass ceiling in the workplace and social norms pushing women towards managing a household, it is no wonder that women would be paid substantially less than men.

            There are several different perspectives that can be taken on this issue. The first is women who would like to see the wage gap close, these women see the wage gap as an injustice to all women and see it as a societal issue that needs to change. They think women need to have the same job opportunities and economic opportunities as men. There are also women that do not care about the wage gap. This could be due to them not being in the workforce, not being educated extensively on what the wage gap is, or they are comfortable and want to take on the role of a household manager. There are men looking from the outside perspective that are against efforts to close the wage gap because they think it will lessen the number of job opportunities for them. And there are men that are in favor of closing the wage gap because they want women to have the same opportunities they have, and they appreciate the value female employees and colleagues bring to a company or team.

            An evidence-based solution that I would offer up to solve the gender wage gap issue would start with society. We must start at the root of the problem in order to tackle the entire issue. If society can see that the gender wage gap causes many issues and has a profound effect on women, then I think more companies would strive to hire women. If there could somehow be a national movement that gains substantial media attention in favor of closing the wage gap, I think that would help. We have seen this to be effective with the “Me Too” movement. I also think it could be solved through legislation. This could look like a requirement by law that companies must have a certain number of women employed or they could be required to interview a certain number of women for positions per year. The latter solution I think would be more difficult to implement.

Sources:

https://www.businessinsider.com/personal-finance/glass-ceiling

https://www.americanprogress.org/article/quick-facts-gender-wage-gap/

Thomas Caleb Pruett

4/28/2022

Prof. Jenkins

American Gov. & Politics Blog Post #4

Racism Within World Futbol (Soccer)

July 11, 2021, in Wembley England, was supposed to be a glorious day for all English soccer fans. This was supposed to be a day that would go down in history for breaking the drought of international trophies for the English national team since their last world cup win in 1966. Despite so much potential within the team in the years following that victory England just could not quite seem to grasp that elusive national tournament trophy. They had come close on many different occasions like in the 2018 world cup where they lost in the semi-finals to finalists Croatia, despite all this potential they never could deliver on the big day. It was at the 2020 European Nations tournament that England came closest. After a slow start against neighboring country Scotland in a 0-0 draw, England ramped up a level and started on a hot streak of victories. These victories carried them to the championship game against the seemingly unstoppable Italian squad. The stage had been set for the iconic Wembley stadium in England of all places, the country where the game of soccer was born. Right from the get-go, England was off to a blazing start with Luke Shaw scoring in the 2nd minute of the game. However, this lead was short-lived for England supporters everywhere with Italian captain Leonardo Bonnucci equalizing and setting the game up for extra-time after regulation and the eventual penalty shootout to follow.

           It was in this penalty shootout that England would expose the so-called “rotten underbelly of English football”. English squad members, Marcus Rashford, Jaden Sancho, and Bakayo Saka, were in charge of taking the final kicks to decide the victors of the tournament. It just so happened that these three players were three young black men as well, a fact that would shortly overshadow any other major headline coming out of the game. The three teammates would all go on to miss their kicks ultimately handing the victory to the Italian squad and causing England to yet again miss out on a trophy. Almost immediately after the game ended social media erupted, bombarding the trio with despicable racist remarks about the color of their skin. This is sadly one instance of many throughout the history of the game where racism shows that it is soccer’s greatest demon.

           Soccer has been facing the immense issue of racism for decades. It is not just an issue that plagues England but the entire soccer community across the globe. Most remarkably Italy, Spain, Portugal, Belgium, and France have all had notable cases of football players being abused because of the color of their skin. On August 3rd, Zenit St. Petersburg displayed a banner in the stands that was directed at a new signing of a Brazilian black man ‘Malcom’ that stated black players are not welcome at the club. The sign read “RIP Section 12”, a reference to a manifesto created by some extremist supporters that discouraged the club from having black players. Following the match, the fans made a statement claiming, “We are not racist and for us, the absence of black players is just an important tradition”.

           On April 2nd, Juventus (Italian league team) striker Moise Kean, was racially abused by Cagliari fans after scoring a goal. In the post-match interview with Juventus player, Leonardo Bonnucci commented that Moise Kean was 50/50 to blame for the racist remarks made towards him. Only later did Bonnucci backtrack on Instagram stating that he was “misunderstood”. In Italy that same year, Brecia FC’s forward Mario Balotelli thumped the ball into the stands and threatened to leave the match after monkey chants were directed at him. Verona FC’s boss Ivan Juric’s only remark on the incident was that the chants were nothing more than “whistling and teasing”.

           The list of racist events that have taken place within the beautiful game of soccer over the past decades goes on and on. There are many problems within the sport that much of the world has come to know and love from corruption, rules, scandals, and more, but there is no greater issue in this sport and the world than racism. Black players across the world and officials have taken a stand to end racism as a whole, proposing ideas like deducting points from the opposition in the case of racism. However, the only true way to end racism within the sport is to make statements, promises and then act on those promises to enforce strict rules and regulations against racism. Racism is a worldwide issue in every regard and can only be stopped when the world as a whole realizes that regardless of skin color, ethnicity, religion, or national origin we are the same and equally important.

Maddi Stewart

PS 101

Blog Post #4

28 April 2022

Blog Post #4

            As my time as a student-athlete comes to a close, I thought I would reflect on the daily struggle that many student-athletes face throughout their time at school, especially college. Being able to attend a school while playing the sport you love is an extreme blessing. Not only are there chances to get athletic scholarships, but you get a team that becomes your family, as well as many important life skills such as time management, discipline, and the ability to communicate and work together in a group environment. However, many student-athletes also experience downsides when it comes to going to school and playing a sport. Student-athletes tend to feel more stress and pressure in both their academic life as well as their athletic life, they don’t receive the proper amount of sleep, and balancing obligations can become a problem.

 With the increased stress and pressure as well as the lack of sleep, student-athletes can end up risking not only their physical health, but their mental and emotional health too. For many student-athletes, their day starts early, either with morning practices or workouts. After that, they go straight to attending classes, and by the time classes are over, it is about time for them to go back to practice. It may seem like after their practice ends, student-athletes finally have a chance to take a break and enjoy some downtime, however, that is not the case. These student-athletes now have to do homework for multiple classes that could end up taking hours upon hours. At this point, it may seem like these student-athletes’ days are completely full, and they have no time to do anything else. However, what I didn’t mention is the time they spend in other organizations such as Greek life or SGA, or the study groups they may have to attend, or professor’s office hours, or even something as simple as eating lunch or dinner. Student-athletes’ days are almost always crammed and balancing both academic and athletic commitments can be challenging and stressful. Most student-athletes also don’t receive the proper amount of sleep due to all of their commitments. Not only can this cause problems in their athletics but in their academics as well. Student-athletes may start to lack energy when they are practicing or when they have games, and if they continue to not get enough sleep, they may start to fall behind in school and their grades may suffer because of it.

When it comes to these student-athletes’ lives, there are few different perspectives, the first, most importantly, is the student-athlete themselves, but there are also coaches and professors that play a part and may hold a different perspective as well. Every student-athlete wants to succeed both academically and athletically. They want to make good grades and get a degree, but they also want to perform well in their sport. However, most of the time, in order to make that happen, other aspects of their lives tend to suffer. Aspects such as their sleep schedule, their social life, or even their ability to have some casual downtime. These student-athletes can end up risking some of their happiness in hopes of succeeding in both their academic and athletic life. Of course, every student-athletes’ lives won’t be the same, but I know from personal experience how draining it can be to try and always excel in the classroom and on the court without the ability to take some breaks or do something fun throughout my day. I have no doubt that coaches and professors want to see student-athletes do well in all aspects of their lives, however, at the end of the day, coaches want the student-athlete to perform well in practice and in games, and professors want the student-athlete to perform well in the classroom. There are many occasions where student-athletes have to miss class due to athletic events which can lead to them missing assignments, tests, projects, etc. Most coaches don’t even think twice about pulling their athletes out of the classroom, however, for the student-athlete, the work they are missing will always be in the back of their mind. This can also be frustrating to the professor because they are having to go out of their way to make sure the student-athlete has a way to complete the assignments.

Unfortunately, there will always be a little bit of a struggle for student-athletes as far as balancing commitments between their academic and athletic life. However, there are a few solutions that can ease that struggle. The first solution is for student-athletes to create a daily or weekly schedule. This schedule can help students organize all of their commitments as well as keep them accountable for any upcoming assignments or events. It also allows them to plan their time accordingly in case they need to block off time to prepare for those specific assignments or events. The second solution is for professors to be more understanding and more lenient when it comes to missing class or assignments for sports. It would ease a lot of stress off the student-athlete if the professor showed some understanding when the student-athletes comes to them to let them know they won’t be in class. I know it can be irritating or frustrating for the professor but showing that frustration to the student-athlete can end up making them feel bad. At the end of the day, it isn’t the student-athletes fault they are missing class when their sporting event requires them to do so. The third solution is for coaches to schedule practice and/or workouts for only a specific amount of time. Filling the student-athletes’ day with long practices and workouts will only add more stress and pressure into their lives. By limiting the amount of time student-athletes spend at athletics, they will have a little bit more time to focus on other aspects of their lives, whether that be schoolwork, other organizations, or even just some downtime. This will help limit that stress as well as help balance academic and athletic commitments.

Gentry Scott 

Professor Jenkins

PS 101

April 28, 2022

A major issue in the state of Alabama is the education system. The main concerns of our education system are low paid teachers, test scores, and shortage of teachers. I attended a public high school in a rural area in Alabama and can say that the Alabama school systems do not prepare their students for college. At my high school in particular many teachers did not care about their jobs or would not teach the course material properly. I believe many of these issues could be improved with proper teaching, self motivation by teachers, and more money. 

In Alabama many school teachers have either already left the profession, retired, or are planning to leave. In the education system we are desperate for science and math teachers to teach our children. So far in our state, 1,623 teachers have enrolled in the TEAMS act which provides teachers with more money to teach math and science. Although Governor Kay Ivey has announced she plans to raise the salary of teachers by 4% and wants to push to provide teachers with even larger salaries. The state of Alabama has also changed the teaching certification to potentially allow more people to teach but this makes concerns rise as to will the teachers provide the appropriate teaching criteria for the students. 

In our school system one issue tends to lend to another for instance the lack of teachers has caused our test scores to decline. The state of Alabama is last in the nation for math and scores and is near the bottom for reading scores. Although our teachers do not receive the salary that they deserve, many teachers are in the profession for the children, not the money. As of February of 2020, 8,000 educational providers had completed an intensive math training to improve their teaching skills. Our state superintendent has a hard drive to increase these math scores and wants to see our students succeed. A goal for our education program is to place a math coach in every school to improve these scores. Although the state is last in math, I think we need to give reading the same attention so students do not let their reading skills slip away. Another way our superintendent wants to increase these scores is by providing productive and efficient after school programs to assist students in subjects they may struggle in.

Although many schools have struggled with low paid teachers, low teacher count, and test scores, covid 19 has affected school systems even more. When covid hit and our school systems transitioned into online school this affected many students, especially in rural areas. The state superintendent had to put the health of students and faculty over education which was a tough decision to make. The students in Alabama struggled due to many students not having wifi or access to a computer to do their homework which caused them to fall behind. When students returned to in person school they were always at risk of getting sick and missing more school. Also, many school systems had issues with teachers having to miss work due to covid exposure or them having the disease itself. This created instances where  many students were without their teachers for two weeks at a time so the students were provided a sub who did not know their course material as properly as needed. 

The state of Alabama needs to evaluate their education system closer and check in with each school to see where their weaknesses are. Our state superintendent and other educational providers need to raise the salary of our teachers to promote the career. In our state we also need to provide students with all resources to allow them to succeed at their maximum potential such as after school care, parent teacher conferences, and tutoring. I believe most of our issues could be resolved with more money. Additional ways to improve the education system in the state include summer programs for elementary students to include tutoring so they do not have a summer lag in their learning. Pre-K programs will promote early learning for children to better prepare them for school. For upperclassmen, there should be a focus on improving standardized test scores and college readiness as well as technical education to prepare students for the workforce when they do not intend to attend college. At the middle school level it has been proposed to require a computer science class to better prepare students for the cyber world. Access to high speed internet for all students in the state is also necessary so that students in rural areas have internet availability for virtual learning and homework.

https://www.al.com/politics/2022/01/teacher-pay-school-choice-6-education-issues-to-watch-as-alabama-legislature-starts-2022-session.html

Markie Nelson

4/23/2022

Professor Jenkins

American Government and Politics

Blog Post 4

            Lack of proper education and healthcare is a problem across the world but is mainly a target of the homeless community. Lack of education “can be defined as a state where people have a below-average level of common knowledge about basic things that they would urgently need in their daily life… Especially in poor developing countries, educational inequality is quite prevalent” (environmental-conscience.com). On the other hand, lack of healthcare is a problem that affects nearly everyone, not just the homeless community. According to an article, “Society then bears these costs through lower productivity, increased rates of communicable diseases, and higher insurance premiums” (www.urban.org). Many people do not realize how much the lack of education and healthcare run hand in hand, and this is extremely hard for the homeless community to gain access to. This is due to the preconceptions that people of higher SES have.

            The homeless community does not have the kind of access that higher SES people do. Without proper healthcare people’s lives are at stake, depending on the severity, but without even just medication the illness could spread. According to a PubMed Central article, it was said, “Homeless people are a heterogeneous population whose diverse health promotion needs are poorly met” (ncbi.nlm.nih.gov). Not only are homeless people affected by healthcare ailments but are also limited to access to education. Another article mentioned,” … unsure of where their next meal will come from. But hunger isn’t the only setback that poverty brings. It also prevents access to something we often take for granted: education” (forgottenchildren.org). Without education, it is hard for people to find a living, so this is especially harder for homeless people. An article wrote, “Research has shown that education is a key stepping-stone to rising above poverty and pursuing a better life” (forgottenchildren.org). As stated on another website impoverished children experience, “Moreover, these children also often have to work instead of attending school since they have to contribute to the family income to support their family members financially” (environmental-conscience.com). Also written on the same website quoted above, “A lack of education and the resulting low income may also often lead to insufficient health insurance… they may suffer from serious long-term consequential effects since they are often not able to afford medical treatment due to their lack of health insurance” (environmental-conscience.com). Another toll on the homeless community because of these problems is the mental and physical distress caused by not being able to provide in a beneficial way for their family. These are just the beginning of the hardships that this community faces every day of their lives.

            There are many different reasons people are homeless, but not growing up sufficiently can have a major toll on one’s mental and physical well-being. Many homeless people turn to crimes to provide for themselves and/ or their families. These crimes can stretch from many different aspects, big or small, but this usually results in them being put in jail or social isolation, thus making it even harder for them or their families to have the luxury of education and healthcare. Many times, as well children are having to work in some ways, to help provide for their families, so they do not even have the time to go to school sadly. In the same article referred earlier from PubMed Central,” Health promotion among homeless people should be practical and educative, taking into account their hierarchy of needs and specific housing environments” (ncbi.nlm.nih.gov). In a scientific paper from PubMed, it was written that” There was emotional distress over social exclusion and depersonalization. Participants wanted to work and to be housed, yet felt trapped in a dehumanizing system” (pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov). People of higher status do not see first-hand or consider how people in the homeless community want a way out, and in our economy today there is barely any opportunities that will even consider them.

Some solution to the lack of education problem is the access to many different programs that consist of volunteers that will teach poverty children. Another solution is improving health insurance for impoverished groups, which can result in a better education for homeless children. Public schools also are a good way for kids and adults to gain access to free education. Many people within the school systems try to provide financial support and/or awareness for people that are of lower economic status. Another solution that sounds so small, but has a large movement, is awareness. People cannot make a change without knowing what problems are going on. Written in a scientific article it was mentioned, “Healthcare professionals, particularly community nurses, have opportunities to collaborate respectfully with these clients and work for changes in public policies, such as national housing and addiction treatment policies, and for streamlined, humanized services to smooth the processes of social reintegration” (pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov). Sadly, all these solutions are easier said than done, and change will not happen without a movement of people striving to desolate these problems. Hopefully in the future it will be easier for the homeless community to gain access to these things. 

Sources:

https://www.urban.org/sites/default/files/publication/50321/1001001-Consequences-of-the-Lack-of-Health-Insurance-on-Health-and-Earnings.PDF

https://environmental-conscience.com/lack-of-education-causes-effects-solutions/#:~:text=A%20lack%20of%20education%20can,%2C%20writing%2C%20spelling%2C%20etc.

https://www.forgottenchildren.org/how-poverty-impacts-education/?gclid=CjwKCAjwsJ6TBhAIEiwAfl4TWAzvyrtEyMPNwUBFq1x6t_MIQ-Bvu7Y3tLayuh5Fvc8qUe1Yc3rGChoC5IsQAvD_BwE

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1115032/

https://environmental-conscience.com/lack-of-education-causes-effects-solutions/

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17474916/

Damian Nytko

American Politics

Professor Jenkins

April 27, 2022

Blog Post 4

Racism is often present in the sports community, but it is heavily present in the NASCAR community specifically. If you’ve ever been to a NASCAR race, it is not hard to notice the predominantly white fan base and array of drivers. The industry can be said to be associated with “beer, trucker hats, and confederate flags.” In current times, there is a single black NASCAR driver, Bubba Wallace. Throughout Bubba’s career, he has seen a large amount of hate that is obviously inherently racist. Bubba has gotten booed by a majority of the people in the stands as he was announced, did his qualifying laps, and every time his name was announced during the main race. People tried to write this off as just the typical booing that drivers, such as Kyle Busch, often receive. Although this might have partially been the typical booing, it was bigger than that. Every time his name was said, the stands were flooded with boos, way more than with any other driver. Another incident that happened to Bubba, happened in 2020 right before a big race. NASCAR had just banned confederate flags at races, and the fan-base was not too happy. They showed their anger by hanging a noose in his garage, which the FBI later deemed was not a hate crime, and was a “hoax.” 

NASCAR’s historically racist fan-base can be traced back to the Civil Rights Movement, when people began flying the flags as a form of defiance, and since then it has just been “what NASCAR fans do.” After the confederate flags were banned, fans began selling the flags right outside of the tracks, in an effort to show NASCAR that they don’t support this movement and will continue to wave the flags. Whether that be inside the track or not. During this same race, a plane flew over the track with a banner that read, “Defund NASCAR,” and fans often claimed that NASCAR taking these steps felt like NASCAR was trying to “change who the fans are as people,” as well as the industry. This obviously affects the fan base and the drivers, as it is a racist industry that people of color do not, for obvious reasons, want to become a part of. NASCAR has acknowledged they know their lack of diversity can cause problems, and they are taking steps in an effort to make it better. They listened to Bubba when he brought up banning the confederate flags, they began acknowledging Black History Month where they celebrated Bubba Wallace, and they are working on expanding their demographics in an effort to get people interested in the sport, outside of the South. In 2004, NASCAR introduced “Drive for Diversity,” which is a program whose efforts go towards diversifying the drivers and pit crews. NASCAR also partners with the Boys and Girls Club of America, which allows them to bring the students and give them a behind the scenes look. This is a great effort, as it allows the young people to possibly develop a love for the sport, and hopefully, one day, bring in a new generation of fans. 

I believe that if NASCAR wants to fix this problem, they are moving in the correct direction. They have begun highlighting their drivers that are people of color and making an effort to force the fan-base to not be so racist. There is a quote from a driver that says, “We are ok leaving these fans behind if they are not on the side of making our sport as welcoming and inclusive as it can be.” This quote shows the industry’s determination to better its name, even if it means losing long-time fans in the process. NASCAR could also begin removing fans that have done actions that are noticeably and undeniably racist. It won’t be easy for NASCAR to get people to forgive and forget about their racist past, but if they continue to make efforts and explicitly have a zero-tolerance policy towards racism, maybe one day the environment will become more diverse. NASCAR can also work to get a more diverse population of drivers in an effort to get a more diverse population of fans. If NASCAR proves to be unable to diversify its community and get rid of the racism, I can see the industry eventually having bigger problems, possibly lawsuits and even potentially resulting in NASCAR fading away. As the world grows and attempts to get more progressive, it is important for all industries to be able to follow, and change with the world, even if some people get mad in the process.

              For our final blog post, I am going to be investigating the failures of the new and improved transfer portal for college athletes. The transfer portal is the same between sports. The transfer portal is a database of every player who has an interest in transferring from his or her current school.  To be entered into the transfer portal the student-athlete must go to his/ her compliance department and tell them that they want to be entered into the portal.  After that, the compliance office has two days for the request to be fulfilled.  Once a student has entered the portal other coaches can begin communicating with that student-athlete.  Just because a player enters the portal does not mean that they are leaving, there are many examples where the athlete does not leave, for example, Alabama’s basketball star John Petty Jr. just did that this past offseason. For a long time, athletes have not entered the portal because you will have to sit out a year if you transfer unless given special privileges by the NCAA.  However, with the new rules passed athletes are granted a one-time transfer pass, where he/ she can leave one school and play for the next as soon as he/ she arrives on campus.  This new rule has caused many problems for the coaches, current players, and high school athletes.  

              First, the new rule has caused problems for coaches by changing the way every coach runs his program.  This can be from the way he recruits players, treat his players, or even managed his rosters.  First, big college coaches used to go out to high schools and recruit young athletes and make their dreams come true.  This is slowly dying off since college coaches can now get five-star athletes out of the transfer portal, who has some experience in the colligate level.  Who is more appealing, two kids except one is 21 and has two years of a college experience, or an 18-year-old fresh out of high school? This has become an open door to cheating that was never there in the first place.  This is due to coaches being able to recruit players off other teams’ rosters.  If a coach notices that an athlete is not happy at the school he is at but could help out his own team then he may try to contact the athlete about coming to his program. Coaches have called this new rule the equivalent of free agency.  If you are under free agency, then the player is under no constraint nor is responsible to any authority for his/ her actions.  This is because if something happens then the player can leave without giving something up like a year of eligibility.  Also, if a coach recruits a good player who has just is not fully developed and has to sit them behind someone else.  That player may not understand why he/ she is having to sit and will quit giving effort for that team knowing they are leaving the next chance they get.  This drops the level of competition between athletes competing for a starting spot.  Ultimately dropping the level of competition on the whole team.  In return making the coach suck up to his best players in fear that they will just up and leave. Lastly, the new rule of the transfer portal makes managing rosters very difficult because you cannot count on a player to be there from year to year or even tomorrow.

              Next, this creates a problem for the players.  If you are a player who has dedicated your whole three years at an institution sacrificing so much then you expect something in return, such as a chance to earn a starting spot.  However, with this new rule, someone may just come transfer in and take your chance out of the blue. If this happens then there will be a sense of betrayal between you and your coaches.  This would also affect the team chemistry by players coming and going at different times during the season.  For the team to be successful players must be committed to each other and the team.

Last, high school athletes are getting the worst end of this new deal.  Every high school player who has a real love for the game wishes to take their talents to the next level.  If colleges do not need their position because they can access the same one from the portal, then hope is lost.  These athletes are not even given the chance to show their real talents or true potential because coaches are not as interested in high school athletes as much as they are college athletes.  This may force high school athletes to look toward junior colleges or NAIA colleges to get some college playing experience in hopes of a better opportunity in the future. 

I feel as if the only way to make this right is to reverse the rule.  Make it to where if college athletes wish to transfer then you must lose a year of eligibility, however, make exceptions to special cases. 

Assault Against Native American Women

Native American women face a high amount of sexual victimization in the United States. The U.S. Department of Justice did a study and Native American and Alaskan women face 2.5 times more assault than any other ethnicity. The study also found that non-Native men are the main source of assault against women. The women and girls face sexual assault, verbal abuse, and even homicide. Homicide is the third leading cause of death among Native American and Native Alaskan girls between the ages of ten and twenty-four. NamUS conducted a study that found that women in Alaskan Arizona, California, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Washington have higher rates of missing Indigenous women and girls than any other state in the U.S. The crisis of violent acts against Native women and girls is known as the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls crisis. The issue of assault and missing person cases is often put aside and ignored. The issue needs to be recognized globally to raise awareness and protect the Indigenous community. 

The Missing and murdered Indigenous women crisis has not been adequately studied and ignored in the United States. The Savana’s Act was signed to hold the Federal, State, Tribal and local governments and law enforcement agencies accountable to respond to cases of missing and murdered Indigenous people. The Savana’s Act has only evaluated data but has not provided proper enforcement of the Act. The government has a strong history of systemic racism and fails to punish people who commit violent crimes against Indigenous people. The deficient proceedings of the cases cause many women to not report their cases because of fear that the problem will worsen. The Indigenous women should feel safe in going to their local, state, and national authorities. The system continues to fail the Native American populations. 

Amnesty International published “Maze of Injustice: the failure to protect indigenous women from sexual violence in the USA”, to represent survivors and give them a platform to tell their stories if they felt comfortable in doing so. Locations such as the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation in North and South Dakota, the state of Oklahoma, and the state of Alaska were all interviewed. Amnesty interviewed the victims of sexual assault, tribal, state, and federal law enforcement officials, prosecutors, and tribal judges for their research report. In the report, one Alaskan Native woman tells her story. In 2006, she was sexually assaulted by a man. The woman was rushed to the ER where the medical staff treated her as a drunk. Multiple stories end in reports of the injustices not being solved due to racist stereotypes. The Federal and State legal systems blamed the victims by saying they were intoxicated. The racial stereotype of Indigenous people being alcoholics has affected legal proceedings as well as medical care. 

The other side of the argument uses “lack of funding” as an excuse to not provide the Indigenous women with justice. There are also many people that do not believe women who are victims of sexual assault. These people claim that women make up assault allegations to gain attention. The MeToo movement is a social movement against sexual abuse where people publicize sexual assault allegations. This movement was created to bring injustice to light and help women feel seen. Many people opposed this movement saying it was a “witch-hunt”. Conservative commentator, Candace Owens stated: “Any person who cannot admit that the #metoo movement has fully deteriorated into a political weapon is either a liar or a coward…” These statements are extremely harmful to victims of sexual assault and impressionable audiences. The issue of believing the victim is taken a step further when the victim is an Indigenous woman. As mentioned earlier, legal systems and medical care treat Indigenous people differently than other races and ethnicities. Women do not feel that justice will be served and are scared about facing the extreme backlash from reporting the assault. 

Indigenous women and girls need to be protected. Federal and state governments should take effective measures to end the prejudice and end the discrimination against the Native people. The federal government needs to provide satisfactory funding to ensure the implementation of the Violence Against Women Act. Police officers need to respond to the case first. Many cases report that police are not the first responders. The victim then feels like their situation will not be properly investigated which causes a lack of faith in law enforcement. The officers need to take action in response to the assault. Tribal law enforcement officials need to have authority over Native and non-Native suspects. In the past, tribal authority only has jurisdiction over Native people. This does not help when a majority of the reported assaults are non-Native people. Federal authorities should provide federal funding to train and equip law enforcement officers to know how to respond to the needs of the Indigenous people. The Native women deserve to feel that the U.S. government has their best interest and will reprimand the injustices. 

Sources

https://nij.ojp.gov/topics/articles/violence-against-american-indian-and-alaska-native-women-and-men

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sexual_victimization_of_Native_American_women

https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2020/08/challenge-of-archiving-the-metoo-movement/

https://www.cnn.com/2019/12/24/world/metoo-movement-gains-2019-intl/index.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MeToo_movement

Garrett Thrash

4/24/2022

PS 101

Dr. Jenkins

Blog Post 4

            Like many other small rural towns in Alabama, the sale of alcohol has been long prohibited due to the deeply Christian religious values found in the town of Rainsville. With most of northern Alabama belonging to a religious region known as the Bible belt because of the vast number of churches that are spread throughout the region. For example, in my hometown of a little over 1000 people there are a total of ten churches with at least two or three representing different denominations. The faith of the citizens has long prevented the ordinance granting businesses in the town the right to sale alcohol to pass with a majority vote. The most recent time that alcohol was put on the election ballot to vote on was in 2014 when it was 24 votes shy of passing. However, with the newer generations trending away from traditional religious values the idea of the passage of the ordinance grew as they reached voting age.

 In 2020, the city council voted to put the decision on the ballot again as a chance to raise more funds for the school system and road departments. Most of the citizens were in favor of the sale of alcohol in the city to generate more income and stimulate economic growth from the tax the city would apply to the alcohol. On the other hand, many deeply religious citizens from the older generations voiced their opinion that the sale of alcohol would bring more crime, such as DUIs and domestic violence cases to the town. They thought that idea of having to drive farther to buy alcohol would dampen the temptation of those who wanted to drink. Some of the religious leaders in the areas had a different point of view. They acknowledged that people with drinking problems would drive as far as they needed to get their alcohol, so the sale of alcohol in the area would shorten the drive-in turn lessening the risk of injuring someone if they were driving under the influence. Others in the area were for the sale of alcohol because the people who wanted to drink were going to buy their alcohol regardless of how far they had to drive, so the income from alcohol tax dollars might as well stay within county lines.

Another important aspect that would have to be included in the ordinance is where the money generated from the alcohol tax needed to go. Most of the citizens agreed that most of the money needed to go to the school since rural schools do not receive much state funding. Others also thought the money should go into infrastructure since many of the roads in the area were still chert rock or dirt roads. Many of the council members agreed with the citizens and pledge to put the money into both the school and the infrastructure if the bill were to ever pass. When the council voted to put the decision on the ballot in early 2020, it was postponed for nearly a year due to Covid outbreaks throughout the small town. In March of 2021, an overwhelming majority of the town voted to pass the ordinance allowing for the legal sale of alcohol by businesses in the area. However, there were limitations in the ordinance that allowed the local government to determine who was able to receive a permit to sell alcohol through the fire department, police department, and the local health and safety unit. This prevented most businesses from obtaining the permit to sale alcohol and has created an uproar in the community to this day.

            The voters and citizens of the area have a simple solution to the problem when the next election day comes. The corruption exposed by the alcohol ordinances fueled many people of the younger generations to run for office to get the people who have been mayor and councilmembers for years out of office for good. Most of the community will back the people running against the corruption since the council acted against most of the citizens by adding all the limitations to the statute previously voted on. The citizens should also file lawsuits against the council members since they violated their rights by not abiding by the majorities vote. With elections coming up in November of this year, the town council already knows their fate and granted all businesses that applied for an alcohol permit what they wanted. Now the school will be able to generate funding to provide the students with the education they need as well as safer roads for the entire community.

References

https://whnt.com/news/northeast-alabama/alcohol-review-committee-formed-to-address-rainsville-alcohol-sales-applications/

https://southerntorch.com/main-slider/legal-alcohol-sales-in-rainsville/