United States Declaration of Independence Essay Example for Free

United States Declaration of Independence Essay Declaring Our Independence The Declaration of Independence was approved by Congress on July 4th, 1776. It was written by Thomas Jefferson and published by John Dunlap. After it was written it was sent to General George Washington to be read to his troops in New York who were getting ready to fight off the British army (Library of Congress).The Declaration of Independence has been around for almost two hundred and fifty years, many things have changed in this country in that amount of time. Does the Declaration still hold the same values as it did back then, or has it evolved over time to have a different meaning? What was the purpose of the Declaration of Independence and why is it still looked upon so highly today? Was there more to the Declaration of Independence then just getting free from Britain or did it also lead the way to create America? All of these questions will be answered in the following paragraphs to have a better understanding of really how important one piece of paper can be to a nation. A good way to start to understand what the Declaration means is by looking at the first few lines. â€Å"When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve them with another to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to separation (US 1776).† This part of the Declaration of Independence is talking about how Britain became such a pain to the colonies with all of their taxes and their rules that the decision it was in their best interest to leave from the rule of Britain and form a new nation. Not only was this addressing those who called themselves Americans but all of mankind. They did this so that they could have more people able to assist them in the fighting of Britain (Library of Congress). Britain was deeply in debt. Mercantilism was orthodoxy, and as such, the thought was that the colonies should contribute more to the common security of the realm (Halvorson). Another thing that Britain did to make the colonial settlers upset was that British soldiers were allowed to stay in any of the houses in the 13 colonies with little or no reason to why. It made Britain look very evil in the eyes of these settlers and the first paragraph of the Declaration reinforces this idea. The second Paragraph of the Declaration of Independence might possibly have the single most important phrase in all of the united states. The first sentence contains the phrase â€Å"all men are created equal.† Now in 1776 this phrase was probably taken more literally meaning that all men would have rights and Jefferson wanted to exclude men and women. However, some argue that all men are talking about all of humanity. Numerous times thought out history important figures such Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King and Elizabeth Cady Stanton have referenced the Declaration of Independence when try to obtain equality for Women and African Americans. In 1857 Lincoln had mentioned that the assertion â€Å"all men are created equal† was of no practical use for separate from Great Britain and was placed in the Declaration for future use (Armitage 44). As well in the 19th century, the Declaration of sentiments played a key role in the women rights movement and almost mirrored the Declaration of Independence (Halvorson). Without those five small, but powerful words the United States would be a much different place then it is today. The meaning of the phrase has changed over time allowing even more than just men being equal. Today the United States of America tries to make everyone equal even if at times it might now seem that way. It didn’t have anything to do with trying to leave Britain, Jefferson put that phrase in there for the future of this country. The Declaration of Independence gave some insight on the Idea of Popular Sovereignty. Popular sovereignty is the doctrine that sovereign power is vested in the people and that those chosen to govern, as trustees of such power, must exercise it in conformity with the general will. Basically, it means that the people can come up with the government and make it, however, the people want it to be. The Declaration gives the power to the people and not to the system that is governing them. â€Å"Governments are instituted among Men deriving their powers from the consent of the governed†(US 1776) Without this we might have formed a new government in the United States but it could have very well ended up as a monarchy. Popular sovereignty is key to making a peoples government and the Deceleration of Independence clearly reinforces this. The Deceleration of Independence also informs the public of the Social Contract. The Social Contract is the agreement among individuals by which society becomes organized and invested with the right to secure mutual protection and welfare. Both the government and the citizens are part of this social contract. The people be a part of the decisions and if they disagree with the government then they can just change it. â€Å" That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends it is the Right of the people to alter or to abolish it and to institute new Government†(US 1776). It seems in this day and age that people are afraid to stand up to the government and fight for what they believe in. Currently, many congressmen and congresswomen are being bought out to vote in certain ways over the topic of Net neutrality. It would be the peoples job to step up and talk with their representatives and show them what they are interested in and not let corporation buy out th eir representatives. The term natural and Induvial Rights also comes up in the Declaration of Independence. These are rights that all people should have. These rights include life liberty and the pursuit of happiness. They share the values of freedom equality and justice. No one should be able to take these rights from people, and it is up to the government to make sure that the people’s rights are protected. Without the government to protect the rights of the people things would start to fall apart for society. â€Å"endowed by their creator with certain unalienable Rights that among these are Life Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness†(US 1776). These are what are also known as the Universal truths and over the course of the next two decades, America would try to help other countries around the worlds come to have similar Universal truths as to what is stated in the Declaration of Independence. Not only was the Declaration important in assisting the start of this nation and help to fight for freedom of Brittan’s monarchy, it is also used today to influences modern American political culture. One way it has influenced political culture is it has caused us many reasons why America chooses to go to war with countries who might seem like the people are being oppressed in some way by the government. America looks on to the Declaration as a sort of moral compass when it comes to deciding whether or not it is right to go into other countries and try to abolish any oppression that is going on. As a continuing inspiration in the United States and throughout the world to end oppression and to make sure that all groups of people enjoy a self-government and representation of both their collective interests and their personal freedom (Pencak 234). Today more than ever you will see this power abused by people in America to try to gain more than just helping an oppressed people. If you look at wars today that the United States are involved in some of them are masked by the idea that these groups of people are not free and do not have access to the natural rights that the Declaration of Independence refers too. Instead, you have people who are fighting over others natural resources and land first and the rights of the people come second or don’t even come at all. The same ideologies that this country was built on are now being using selfishly into a power grab for land and money from other countries. The Declaration\s aspirational vision has had a remarkable influence on American notions of liberal equality, even in the days when only white males could formally participate in politics (Tsesis 698). It has also been referenced a lot in current social movements today. Groups such as Black Lives Matter and Arab spring and Tiananmen Square openly and repeatedly invoke in the Language and the ideals of the document (Halvorson). This shows how the Declaration can be used as a voice for the minority groups in America to help end the oppression that they might be facing. In conclusion, the Declaration of Independence is a lot more than some old piece of paper written by a bunch of old white guys. It is more than that, it is many things. It was a letter to the British telling them that they don’t wish to be a part of their empire anymore. It was a way to bring hope to the oppressed and way to make sure that one day everyone in the nation and even on the earth was treated equally. Over time it has been used for good by the majority of people and some have even used it to justify bad doings. Overall the Declaration was important in the forming of America and is important for what the country should form into of the course of time. It was tough for the founding fathers to frame what society would look like in the next couple of decades but they did a great job in laying the bricks for the path they wanted the country to become. Without the Declaration of Independence America could still be under the rule of the British. Women would not have as man y rights as they do now, slavery could very well be a thing in this country without this document. The world would be a much different place then what it is today. It is nowhere near perfect but it is the Declaration of Independence that pushed everyone in the world a little bit closer in the right direction towards freedom. Work Cited Armitage, David. â€Å"The Declaration of Independence and International Law.† Foundations of Modern International Thought, Jan. 2002, pp. 191–214., doi:10.1017/cbo9781139032940.017. Halvorson, Seth D. â€Å"Historical Context for the Declaration of Independence.† Columbia College, www.college.columbia.edu/core/content/american-revolution-and-founding-texts/context. Pencak, William. â€Å"The Declaration of Independence: Changing Interpretations and a New Hypothesis.† Pennsylvania History: A Journal of Mid-Atlantic Studies, vol. 57, no. 3, 1 July 1990, pp. 225–235. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/10.2307/27773386?ref=search-gateway:db0ae02fe1b84f163f034404f6687764. â€Å"Creating the United States Creating the Declaration of Independence.† All Men Are Created Equal Creating the Declaration of Independence Creating the United States | Exhibitions Library of Congress, www.loc.gov/exhibits/creating-the-united-states/interactives/declaration-of-independence/equal/index.html â€Å"Creating the United States Creating the Declaration of Independence.† Index of Documents for All Men Are Created Equal Creating the Declaration of Independence Creating the United States | Exhibitions Library of Congress, www.loc.gov/exhibits/creating-the-united-states/interactives/declaration-of-independence/equal/documents.html. The Declaration of Independence: Full Text.† Ushistory.org, Independence Hall Association, www.ushistory.org/declaration/document/. Tsesis, Alexander. â€Å"Self-Government and the Declaration of Independence†, 97 Cornell L. Rev. 693 (2012) http://scholarship.law.cornell.edu/clr/vol97/iss4/1

The Black Plague :: essays research papers

The Black Plague Then The people of the Crimea were dying from a plague. Believing it was a foreign disease brought to their shores by Italian merchants, the people of the East got back at the Italians by exposing them to the corpses of the victims. Ships arrived from Caffa at the port of Messina, Sicily. A few dying men clung to the oars; the rest lay dead on the decks. Ships carrying the good the Italians wanted now came with the plague. Turned away from Messina, ships traveled on to Genoa and other European ports, making the disease spread to the heart of Europe. The plague came ashore with the surviving sailors and the goods stored in the ship. Florence was the first of the cities of Europe to feel the full force of the epidemic. When it was over between 45,000 and 65,000 Florentines were dead of the plague. People traveled to the countryside to escape what was happing in the cities and the plague traveled with them. People wrote to family members telling them of the spread of the plague and what to expect. Many people fled the cities only to find that the Black Death was already there. In three years time, the plague spread throughout Europe and killed so many people they had no place to bury the people who had died. People blamed the plague on ethnic groups and those people suffered from persecution. Others blamed the plague on foul winds from the east or from earthquakes. In London, when the plague reached there, it killed fifty percent of the people there and the people that remained healthy or survived the Black Death were sure that it was the end of the world. The Black Plague Now We know now that the Black Death is called the Bubonic Plague and is caused by the bacteria Yersinia Pestis . This Bacteria was transmitted by fleas that bit infected rats and then bit humans.

Effects on having a broken family in education Essay

INTRODUCTION Background of the study Family is the basic unit of society. It is one of the most essential component of a nation. A home is where a family lives. It may be alternated to the word ‘house’ but a house is more appropriately referring to the material structure, whereas ‘home’ refers to the intangible things that bind together the family members. It is the immeasurable love and care that keeps together the mother, father and their children (Beckford 2010). Children  from broken families are nearly five times more likely to suffer mental troubles than those whose parents stay together. According to Dounghty, (2008), it also showed that two parents are much better than one if children are to avoid slipping into emotional distress and anti-social behavior and also looked at conduct disorders which result in aggressive, violent or anti-social behavior. Children whose parents split in this generation are more than four and a half times more-likely to have developed an emotional disorder than one whose parents stayed together. Several findings said that children’s family backgrounds are as important – if not more so – than whether their home is poor, workless, has bad health, or has no one with any educational qualifications. The effects, however, are more focused on the children. Premarital sexual activities is one of the major effects of splitting of families, sometimes with only one parent guiding, the child has more chance of rebelling against his/her parent. Also, increase in financial problem, hatred and anger builds up from families who experience distraught in their relationships. Education is also an area wherein stark differences in the outcomes for those who had been in a broken home are created. According to Lann (2010) for 18- to 24-year-olds, 62 per cent of those who experienced parental divorce/separation during their childhood completed 12 years of education compared with 77 per cent of those whose parents did not. Hence, this study was conducted in the College of Computing Education Department in University of Mindanao in order to evaluate the effects and to determine what student do to lessen the suffering of having a broken family, and how to overcome the effects on their academic performance. Statement of the Problem Theoretical Framework The concept of effects of having a broken family. According to glenn (2010) broken family varies from numerous reasons why it had to be that way. But usually, misunderstanding starts from simple domestic quarrel that grows impertinently damaging the long-forged relationship between the family  members. When a couple split up, it is the children that are greatly affected scarring them physically, emotionally and socially. Marla (2014) says broken family students failed to handle the curriculum. This failure includes various aspects of educational failure such as rebellion, frequent absence from classes, dropping out and many more. Studies have shown that people shown that people with academic failure are more probable to rebel and use drugs at older ages; therefore, academic failure and dropout might result to rebellion, drug, and alcohol addictions. Living in single parent is difficult because there’s a need of love, care, and fulfilment of the duty of both parents. If the role of each parent is broken it will damage and have a great impact to the student, on how will the student live with it. If one of the parent will left due of miss understanding circumstances and will lead to divorce households and responsibilities there is an effect to the relationship to other member of family. If that’s the case, it will depend to the children and parent who take care of the child if managing a households and responsibilities will reflect a positive or negative outcomes in their situation. Conceptual framework Significance of the Study The results of this study is beneficial to the students who encounter this situation and for those who criticize and oppress them in terms of bullying, and for teachers to understand the problems that each student facing in their daily lives and to determine a better solution or comfort for those students encountering who have been in burden and advices from those who have suffered but found a way to lessen the burden. It could also help the society to have a better understanding on the norm who are suffering from a broken family Scope and Limitations The study will be concentrated on the students of the College of Computing Education Department. The data will be gathered using questionnaire method and will be conducted at The University of Mindanao Matina Campus, Davao City. The questioning will be performed on the convenience of the students.  The respondents will be chosen according to the referrals of the previous respondent. It is also limited because of the sensitiveness and confidentiality of our respondents. Operational Definition of Terms Family – a group of people united by certain convictions or a common affiliation. Household – consists of one or more people who live in the same dwelling and also share at meals or living accommodation, and may consist of a single family or some other grouping of people. Broken Families – a broken family consists of a biological family that has separated for specific reasons that may result in single-parent families, stepfamilies or blended families.

Civil Rights Movement North Carolina - 1680 Words

The Civil Rights Movement in North Carolina North Carolina, like all southern states, experienced a civil rights movement after the Civil War. This movement would last for over 100 years until 1965 with the signing of the Civil Rights Act. While the term â€Å"civil rights movement† focuses on ending segregation and discrimination towards African Americans, there were other important freedoms and rights fought for in North Carolina. In addition to race; gender equality and voting rights, as well as, academic freedom were significant struggles during the civil rights movement in North Carolina. North Carolina is a state that has struggled, and continues to struggle, with civil rights and because of these battles is sometimes overlooked as a contributor in the fight for equality. North Carolina is located in the area often referred to as the â€Å"Bible Belt†. States located in this area are often deeply conservative, have a strong, literal belief in the Bible and hold tr aditional values. The majority of the population of North Carolina in the 20th century was very fundamental in their beliefs and considered the Bible to be literal in its teachings, including that God created the earth in seven days. Conservative Christians had a stronghold in politics and in government. The teachings of Charles Darwin and evolution were being increasingly taught in schools. 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