Supreme Court - HISTORY Reflection

The Supreme Court is arguably the most important group in our government. They are the epitome of what checks and balances are. The power to deem something constitutional or unconstitutional is vital for the stability of our country. I chose to read the History article, and it informed me about the basic inner workings of the Supreme Court and its importance of it to our great Country.

After reading the article I learned a lot that I hadn't previously known about the Supreme Court. Like when it was established, I didn't necessarily have a set date that I thought it originated, but it was not 1789. I truly wasn't aware that George Washington was the President to put it into place, with Chief Justice John Jay at the helm of it all. I was also unaware of the fact that the number of justices fluctuated so much, between five and ten six times, and a total of 115 justices have been on the court throughout its history. 

One key takeaway from the Supreme Court is its power to interpret and declare something either on the Federal or State level constitutional or unconstitutional. In that, it serves as a key component of the checks and balances we have here in the USA. 

The most surprising thing that I learned was that the article mentioned that William Howard Taft served both as President and the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. The world needs more people like Taft, in that he had the courage to serve this country with dignity and honor through the two most powerful positions that this country's government has. 

The article didn't really change the way I thought about the Supreme Court, but more along the lines of strengthened my current opinions about it. I always thought it was the most important part of our government and reading this article only made that even more clear to me. 

Privacy and its Effects on all of us

As the world we live in and the people who live in it become more and more reliant on technology, it is more important than ever to make sure we are all being as safe as possible with how we use it. Some of the issues we all face on a daily basis include facial recognition for pictures or videos we post online, GPS tracking on our phones and cars, Governments keeping records of our license plates, and using that info to tell where we've been, and Cell phone carriers keeping our phone calls and text messages on the record. 

These issues affect not only me, my friends, and my family, they affect every single person with a cell phone, a car, or any other vehicle with a license plate. Personally, I have both a cell phone and a car, so for every possible issue that I mentioned, I'm at risk. It's unsettling thinking about the information police departments and the government gather on a daily basis about all of us. These issues are never talked about in the news and that's a mistake, people need to know that they are at serious risk of being exposed to anyone on the internet. 

The government in some cases is the main culprit of these acts of privacy intrusion. They feel as if they need to keep an eye on everyone because at any moment anyone can commit a criminal act. Where I feel they need to step back is with the innocent, or "clean" people on the internet. The people who have spent years and years online and have never said or done anything illegal should be monitored way less than they are. What I'm suggesting is that the government puts together specific targets to monitor more closely than any normal person. 

As Christopher Soghoian stated in his TED Talk, we need to stick to ways of communicating with each other that are encrypted, like iMessage, FaceTime, and WhatsApp. If we all start using any one of these communication methods, we can start to feel a bit more secure about how we all live. We can't really do anything about the license plate tracking issue or the issue with the GPS tracking from the government. But over time we can create movements and hopefully make our representatives make the decisions that are best for us their citizens, and us above anyone or anything else. 

My Top 5 News Sources

Nowadays there are almost an infinite amount of news sources people can get information from. They can go from highly known mainstream media sources like Fox News or CNN or any lesser-known media outlets. I'd say the main ways people get their information is digitally through their phones, and I fall into that category. Below are my five main sources of news that I go to almost every day. 

Instagram, Youtube,  Fox News, CNN, and Google News are the five main sites or apps that I get most if not all my information from. 

The first and most prominent for me is Instagram. I use this app every single day. While I don't go out and search out news on it, I stumble upon interesting things every now and again. Instagram in and of itself is not a reliable place to get news from, so what I like to do is use it as a springboard into other more reliable sources. If I find something rather interesting I will seek it out amongst scholarly or well-known sources. The main thing I find most appealing about Instagram is the fact that you have no idea what you're going to see when you scroll to the next post. 

Secondly, I use Youtube. I sometimes use it like Instagram and just scroll to see what the hot topics are at the time, but most of the time I see something that interests me and I watch that video. I use it for everything like one should. I use it for political news, film news, music news, gaming news, etc. It's so incredibly diverse in the information that it provides. Again, like Instagram, it's not a wonderful place to find reliable information although it is a much better place to start. At least with videos, you can hear some of the thoughts behind the content provider rather than just a comment or two. 

Growing up in a conservative household I have watched my fair share of Fox News. I've grown fond of dipping my toes into both sides of the political aisle to really try and get a well-rounded point of view on what's going on in the country or the world. While I tend to agree and/or believe in the things being said more over at Fox News, I'm not one to completely shut out all other opinions. Some anchors are arrogant and annoying and some actually seem intelligent and can voice a strong opinion. All in all, I'm not a fan of watching the news but I understand it's important and we all have to at times. 

Now the polar opposite of Fox News, CNN is not one my family and I would tend to turn on in the evenings before dinner. Now as I'm getting more fluid with my news intake, meaning taking in news from many different sources, I'm beginning to really understand why the country is as separated as it is. I turn on both Fox and CNN and I go back and forth and see what different agendas they each are pushing. And I try to really pay attention to the topics they pick to cover and how they cover them, because it's very rare, unless it's breaking news, that both of these networks will cover the same thing each given night. 

Google News is fun, there are so many different sources and topics you can get to from its home base. You can find CNN or Fox News articles right next to each other, and many others. It's the perfect place for someone like me to get their news. It's always going to be bias-free and it never tries to sway me one way or another like all of the individual news sources do. If I were to recommend one of my five sources to someone it would be Google News.