Woodstock Essay -- Woodstock Festival Concerts Music Essays

Woodstock One didn’t simply go to Woodstock: one lived through it. In August 1969, the Woodstock Festival was the largest counterculture event ever staged, attracting some 500,000 people and featuring many of the country’s top acts. Two decades later, Woodstock has come to mean more than just â€Å"three days of fun and music†; it symbolizes a time of community, exuberance, and intensity since lost. Woodstock festival gave power to the youth, united people of all ages, races, and sexes, and defined a generation, making it one of the most important musical events of all time. In order to understand the impact and importance of the Woodstock Festival one must first examine the society that preceded the 1960’s and set the stage so to speak for the events of the Woodstock Festival. The end of World War II brought thousands of young servicemen back to America to pick up their lives and start new families in new home and new jobs. With energy never before experienced, American industry expanded to meet peacetime needs. Americans began buying goods not available during the war, which created corporate expansion and jobs. Growth was everywhere. The baby boom was underway. Part of the what happened in the 1950’s with increased employment and income, families had more money to buy things. People could afford single family dwellings and suburbia was born . In the 1950’s a big change happened in public education. In 1954, Chief Justice Earl Warren and other members of the Supreme Court ruled that separate facilities for blacks did not make those facilities equal according to the Constitution . Integration of the public classroom came about across the nation as a result of this action. Perhaps one of the things which most characterize the 1950’s was a strong element of conservatism and anticommunist felling which ran throughout much of society. The phrase â€Å"under God† was added to the pledge of Allegiance. Religion was linked with anti-communism mind-set. Fifties clothing was conservative. Men wore grey flannel suits and women wore dresses. Male and female stereotypes were strongly reinforced, girls played with Barbie Dolls and boys played with guns. When the 1950’s are mentioned, the first type of music to come to most people’s mind is rock ‘n roll. Developed from a... ... of biblical proportions. To many observers, Woodstock seemed to embody the values of the 1960’s youth culture of personal freedom, political pacifism and social optimism in what seemed to be a land of plenty.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Richie Havens, the first performer at the Woodstock Festival describes the impact the best when he says, â€Å"Woodstock was in essence a coming together, a gathering, a giant be-in. It was a peoples’ festival where people came together to celebrate their essences, their concerns, and their feelings for the world around them.† In Havens opinion, the Woodstock Festival accomplished what the youth of the early sixties set out to do, which was to show that we as young people were not going to back down from our political feelings, our emotional feelings and our newly discovered citizenry. Havens believes that the spirit of Woodstock has saturated the world and has served the purpose of awakening minds to the fact that they too have the right to celebrate and be free. Thus did the Woodstock festival empower the youth, unite people of many races and ethnicity and become one of the most significant musical events of all time.

The Election of 1860

By the election of 1860 profound divisions existed among Americans over the future course of their country, and especially over the South's â€Å"peculiar institution,† slavery.During the presidency of James K. Polk (1841-1849), the United States had confirmed the annexation of Texas to the Union, negotiated a treaty with Great Britain for the Oregon territory up to the 49th parallel, and, as a result of the Mexican War, added California and New Mexico as well. The American eagle now spanned the entire continent, a source of nationalistic pride to those who thought expansion was the fulfillment of both God's will and America's mission to spread its republican institutions.But national exuberance turned sour when Americans confronted the issue of whether slavery should follow the flag into the new territories. During the 1850s, different views about slavery's expansion and its place in America's future fueled suspicion and bitterness between northerners and southerners. In Kans as, the question of whether the territory would be opened or closed to slavery erupted in violence and political unrest.â€Å"Bleeding Kansas,† the treatment of fugitive slaves, and other issues involving slavery strained and then shattered the nation's two-party system which had served for a generation to weld sections and interests into two powerful national institutions. Of the two major parties, the Whig organization totally succumbed in the mid-1850s to the sectionalizing effects of the slavery issue and ceased to operate as a national party.Like the country, the Whig party could not exist half slave and half free. Meanwhile, the Democratic party managed to remain intact throughout that decade, but slavery acted like a solvent to weaken its bonds. Increasingly, its powerful, predominantly southern wing was at odds with a smaller, northern contingent.The campaign of 1860 accurately registered the country's precarious condition after a decade of sectional turmoil. The lead ing political organization in the North was the Republican party. It was composed of former Whigs, a smaller number of ex-Democrats, as well as members of other parties, including some who had previously supported antislavery parties, such as the Liberty party, which had sought to end slavery by political means.Like any party, the Republican party contained a broad spectrum of opinions on many issues, including slavery. But most Republicans were, like Lincoln, moderates who were positioned between the more radical and conservative elements of their party.The key to the Republican party's success was its position on slavery. It opposed the expansion of slavery and called upon Congress to take measures, whenever necessary, to prevent its extension. It condemned slavery as an immoral institution, a relic of â€Å"barbarism,† and most Republicans thought that by confining slavery within its present boundaries, the institution would be placed on the road to eventual extinction.The party was, therefore, a genuine anti-slavery party, but most Republicans rejected a more radical stand that would associate them with abolitionism.The party, for example, upheld the constitutional sanctity of slavery within the South, and a significant minority (including Lincoln) were willing to support a constitutional amendment forever guaranteeing against congressional interference with slavery in the states.Republicans also acknowledged the legitimacy of the fugitive slave clause of the Constitution and accepted its enforcement by proper laws. Republicans, therefore, separated themselves from abolitionists who agitated for a quicker, immediate, end to slavery, and the adoption of measures, such as the emancipation of slaves in the nation's capital, which would render slavery insecure in its present boundaries.At the same time, moderate Republicans also distinguished themselves from the more egalitarian racial program of abolitionism. Most Republicans accepted the principles of the Declaration of Independence as assuring black people certain rights now and, perhaps also, as ultimate goals to be fully realized sometime in the future.But they disavowed measures that would immediately bring about true equality between the races. Lincoln, who may have been somewhat more conservative than the core of his party, declared himself against equal rights in voting and officeholding, and he advocated the colonization of blacks to lands outside the United States, an idea that was anathema to abolitionists. Southerners, however, hardly distinguished between the different antislavery and racial views of the Republicans and abolitionists.The Republican party's opposition to the expansion of slavery, therefore, encompassed a distinctive moral protest against slavery itself, but also contained, at least for many Republicans, a racial concern that the territories be reserved primarily for free white people. In addition, the Republican mainstream associated a free labor soci ety with economic opportunity, hard work, upward mobility, liberty, morality, and other essential elements of a true republic.Slavery, on the other hand, was associated with economic backwardness, aristocracy, violence, illiteracy, intemperance, and immorality. Worse yet, Republicans viewed slavery as an aggressive institution, whose leaders, in alliance with sympathetic northerners, were conspiring to spread this cancer throughout the nation.This idea of a â€Å"Slave Power Conspiracy,† which Lincoln boldly proclaimed in his â€Å"House Divided† speech to the Illinois Republican convention in June 1858, identified the party with democratic ideals and provided a shorthand expression of northern resentment against the South's political clout. Although a minority section, the South had disproportionate influence in national politics, and frequently scuttled measures desired by many northerners, such as higher tariffs to protect manufacturing, or homestead legislation to provide free land for western settlers.VIDEO: A House Divided (1.9 MB)In May 1860, the Republicans gathered in Chicago for only their second national convention and nominated Lincoln as their candidate. The platform held that the â€Å"normal condition† of all territory was â€Å"freedom.† The platform also endorsed measures to encourage industry, a homestead act, and a transcontinental railroad.VIDEO: Lincoln's Nomination (2.1 MB)As for the Democratic party, the corrosive effect of slavery finally made itself felt on this national institution. For years, Democrats had united behind the doctrine of popular sovereignty. Popularized by such prominent party leaders as Lewis Cass, its nominee in 1848, and Stephen A. Douglas, Illinois's eminent and ambitious United States senator, popular sovereignty left the question– whether slavery should be permitted to expand into a territory– up to the people in the territory.Popular sovereignty promised to keep the subj ect of slavery out of the hands of politicians in Washington, and to give it, instead, to the people, the territorial citizens, most directly involved. The doctrine sounded democratic, fair, and practical.But popular sovereignty proved a hollow idea. Most northern Democrats assumed that, under this doctrine, slavery would never actually expand into territories. Climate, terrain, the swift movement of free state settlers into the West, and other considerations would discourage slaveholders from entering the territories.Thus, the initial settlers in a territory would favor free labor and would take measures to keep slavery out. Fairly applied, popular sovereignty would hold the territories (or virtually all of them) for the North without insulting the South by explicitly excluding slavery under federal authority.Republicans, however, denounced popular sovereignty as inadequate to prevent the spread of slavery, and morally bankrupt because it implied that a decision for slavery was mor ally equivalent to one against. Equally problematic was the view of most southern Democrats, who interpreted popular sovereignty to permit and even protect slavery in the territories throughout the entire territorial stage.Southerners insisted that slaveholders had the same constitutional right as nonslaveholders to bring their property, including slaves, into the territories. Moreover, since the territories were the common property of all the states, slaveholders must have equal access. For the South, the question of whether slavery would actually go into a territory was of less moment than establishing the principle that slavery must have equal standing to free labor.Honor and security demanded that slavery be treated as no less sacrosanct than freedom. Southerners, therefore, interpreted popular sovereignty to mean that only at the very end of the territorial stage, after slavery had been permitted to take root, could the citizens of the territory declare against the institution. There could be free states in the United States, but no free territories.These different definitions of popular sovereignty, which actually expressed variant attitudes towards slavery itself, came to a head when the Democratic party assembled in Charleston, South Carolina, in April 1860. Southern Democrats insisted that the party endorse the idea of a federal slave code for the territories.This would secure the rights of slaveholders to enter the territories throughout the territorial period. When the majority of delegates refused to accept the southern position, delegates from the deep South states, plus a few from the upper South, marched out of the convention. The remaining delegates, after failing to nominate a candidate, adjourned to meet again in Baltimore in June. The only political party with a truly national constituency was now split asunder.The following June 1860, efforts to reunite the Democratic party failed, and Democrats met in two separate conventions in Baltimore. The predominantly northern wing nominated Douglas, and adopted a platform upholding popular sovereignty without mentioning a federal slave code, and leaving it to the Supreme Court to determine the specific powers of a territorial legislature. Herschel V. Johnson of Georgia was selected as Douglas's running mate.The southern Democratic wing nominated the present vice president of the United States, John C. Breckinridge of Kentucky, as its presidential candidate, and Joseph Lane of Oregon as his running mate. The southern Democratic platform affirmed the right of the federal government to protect the slaveholder's equal right to settle in a territory.Further complicating the election was the formation of a fourth political party, the Constitutional Union party. Composed of conservative members of the moribund Whig and Know Nothing parties, the Constitutional Union party denounced the major parties for inciting sectional divisions, and appealed for a popular, patriotic rallying to th e cause of the Union.Its convention, which met in May 1860, also in Baltimore, nominated John Bell, a Tennessee Whig, for President, and Edward Everett of Massachusetts for vice president. The party's conservative appeal attracted a following, especially in the border states; throughout the South, it constituted the main opposition to the Breckinridge ticket.The campaign of 1860 demonstrated that a national political system was no longer operating. The contest was actually two elections, one in the North and one in the South. In the North, the Lincoln and Douglas forces vied for victory; in the South the contest was between Breckinridge and Bell. The sections were insulated from each other.Lincoln did not even appear on the ballot in most southern states, and only in a few northern states did Breckinridge muster any discernible support. In the end, Lincoln won the election by carrying seventeen free states, while Breckinridge triumphed in eleven slave states. Neither candidate captu red a single state in the opposite section. Bell and Douglas trailed far behind.The highly sectionalized nature of the campaign meant that northerners and southerners waged battle against a shadow opponent. Lincoln refused to issue public assurances to the South that he would uphold slavery in its present confines. Nor did southerners have to pay heed to the Republican party's official denunciation of John Brown's raid on Harper's Ferry, Virginia.This attack on a federal arsenal in the fall of 1859, by the Ohio abolitionist did not provoke the intended insurrection of slaves, and ended in Brown's capture and hanging.The raid sent shock waves through the South. Despite Republican disclaimers, southerners readily linked the party to abolitionism and the violent overthrow of slavery. Similarly, northerners, swept up in the renewed Lincoln-Douglas contest, paid insufficient heed to the intensity of anti-Union feelings in the South.Although neither Breckinridge nor Bell threatened secess ion, they often challenged each other in the South as to who was the more loyal to southern rights and interests. The air was filled with frequent warnings that Lincoln's election would justify secession.

Probability Theory and Mathematical Systems Probability

Mathematical Systems Probability Solutions by Bracket A First Course in Probability Chapter 4—Problems 4. Five men and 5 women are ranked according to their scores on an examination. Assume that no two scores are alike and all 10! possible rankings are equally likely. Let X denote the highest ranking achieved by a woman (for instance, X = 1 if the top-ranked person is female). Find P X = i , i = 1, 2, 3, . . . , 8, 9, 10. Let Ei be the event that the the ith scorer is female. Then the event X = i correspdonds to the cc event E1 E2  ·  ·  · Ei . It follows that ccP X = i = P (E1 E2  ·  ·  · Ei ) . c c c c c = P (E1 )P (E2 |E1 )  ·  ·  · P (Ei |E1  ·  ·  · Ei? 1 ) Thus we have P X=i i 1/ 1 2 5/ 2 18 5/ 3 36 5/ 4 84 5/ 5 252 1/ 6 252 0. 7, 8, 9, 10 12. In the game of Two-Finger Morra, 2 players show 1 or 2 ? ngers and simultaneously guess the number of ? ngers their opponent will show. If only one of the players guesses correctly, he wins an amount (in dol lars) equal to the sum of the ? ngers shown by him and his opponent. If both players guess correctly or if neither players guess correctly, then no money is exchanged. Consider a speci? d player and denote by X the amount of money he wins in a single game of Two-Finger Morra. a. If each player acts independently of the other, and if each player makes his choice of the number of ? ngers he will hold up and the number he will guess that his opponent will hold up in such a way that each of the 4 possibilities is equally likely, what are the possible values of X and what are their associated probabilities? A given player can only win 0,  ±2,  ±3, or  ±4 dollars. Consider two players A and B , and let X denote player A’s winnings. Let Aij denote the event that player A shows i ? gers and guesses j , and de? ne Bij similarly for player B. 1 We have P X = 2 = P (A11 B12 ) = P (A11 )P (B12 ) = 1  · 1 = 16 , since we have assumed that 44 1 Aij and Bij are independent and that P (Aij ) = P (Bij ) = 4 . Similarly, we have P X = 3 = 1 1 1 P (A12 B22 ? A21 B11 ) = 16 + 16 = 1 and P X = 4 = P (A22 B21 ) = 16 . Note that the situation 8 1 is completely symmetric for player B, so the we have P X = ? 2 = P X = ? 4 = 16 and 1 P X = ? 3 = 1 . Finally, we have P X = 0 = 1 ? P X = 0 = 1 ? 1 = 2 . 8 2 b. Suppose that each player acts independently of the other.If each player decides to hold up the same number of ? ngers that he guesses his opponent will hold up, and if each player is equally likely to hold up 1 or 2 ? ngers, what are the possible values of X and their associated probabilities? Neither player can win any money in this scenario. If player A shows 1 ? nger and guesses B will show 1 ? nger, then A can only win if B shows 1 ? nger. But if B shows 1 ? nger, then B will guess that A will show 1 ? nger, and thus neither player will win. The same holds for when A shows 2 ? ngers and guesses that B will show 2 ? ngers. Thus, we have P X = 0 = 1. Mathematical S ystems Probability 20. A gambling book recommends the following â€Å"winning strategy† for the game of roulette. It recommends 18 that the gambler bet $1 on red. If red appears (which has probability 38 ), then the gambler should take her $1 pro? t and quit. If the gambler loses this bet (which has probability 20 of occurring), she should 38 make additional $1 bets on red on each of the next two spins of the roulette wheel and then quit. Let X denote the gambler’s winnings when she quits. a. Find P X > 0 . Note that X only takes on the values ? 3, ? 1, and 1. Thus P X>0 =P X=1 P (she wins immediately or she loses and then wins the next two) = P (she wins immediately) + P (she loses and then wins the next two) 18 20 18 18 = +  ·  · ? . 592 38 38 38 38 b. Are you convinced that the winning strategy is indeed a â€Å"winning† strategy? Explain your answer! The expected value of X is negative (? ?. 108), which is accounted for by the fact that although the gamb ler has a high probability of winning $1, she could also lose $3, and the probability of this occuring is not low enough to make the game worth playing in the long run. 21. A total of 4 buses carrying 148 students form the same school arrives at a football stadium.The buses carry, respectively, 40, 33, 25, and 50 students. One of the students is randomly selected. Let X denote the number of students that were on the bus carrying this randomly selected student. One of the 4 bus drivers is also randomly selected. Let Y denote the number of students on her bus. a. Which of E [X ] or E [Y ] do you think is bigger? Why? We should expect E [X ] to be larger since it’s the per-student average rather than the per-bus average, just as the per-student average class size was larger than the per-class average class size (from the example in class). b.Compute E [X ] and E [Y ]. We have 33 40 50 25  · 25 +  · 33 +  · 40 +  · 50 ? 39. 28 148 148 148 148 1 1 1 1 E [Y ] =  · 25 +  · 33 +  · 40 +  · 50 = 37 4 4 4 4 E [X ] = 27. An insurance company writes a policy to the e? ect that an amount of money A must be paid if some event E occurs within a year. If the company estimates that E will occur within a year with probability p, what should it charge the customer in order that its expected pro? t will be 10 percent of A? Let X be denote the company’s pro? t at the end of the year, and w be the amount that the customer is charged. The company’s pro? is w if E does not occur within the year, and w ? A if E does occur within the year. Thus P X = w = (1 ? p) and P X = w ? A = p. Therefore E [X ] = w(1 ? p) + (w ? A)p = w ? Ap. We set E [X ] = . 1A to obtain w = A(p + . 1). 2 Mathematical Systems Probability 31. Each night di? erent meteorologists give us us the probability that it will rain the next day. To judge how well these people predict, we will score each of them as follows: If a meteorologist says that it will rain with probability p, th en he or she will receive a score of 1 ? (1 ? p)2 if it does rain, 1 ? p2 if it does not rain.We will then keep track of scores over a certain time span and conclude that the meteorologist with the highest average score is the best predictor of weather. Suppose now that a given meteorologist is aware of this and wants to maximize his or her expected score. If this person truly believes that it will rain tomorrow with probability p? , what value of p should he or she assert so as to maximize the expected score? Let X be the score that the meteorologist receives, given that she has asserted that it will rain tomorrow with probability p. Then P X = [1 ? (1 ? p)2 ] = p? and P X = (1 ? p2 ) = (1 ? ? ). It follows that E [X ] = [1 ? (1 ? p)2 ]p? + (1 ? p2 )(1 ? p? ), which we rearrange and write as a function of p to obtain E [X ] = f (p) = ? p2 + 2p? p + 1 ? p? . We di? erentiate with respect to p to obtain f (p) = ? 2p + 2p? , which clearly has a zero at p = p? . It is straightforward t o verify that f has a maximum at this zero, so the meteorologist should assert p = p? as the probability that it will rain tomorrow. 41. A man claims to have extrasensory perception. As a test, a fair coin is ? ipped 10 times, and the man is asked to predict the outcome in advance. He gets 7 out of 10 correct.What is the probability that he would have done at least this well if he had no ESP? If the man were just guessing, then on each ? ip he would have probability p = 1 of getting the 2 correct answer. Let X be the number of correct guesses out of a sequence of 10 coin ? ips, and we can see that X is a binomial random variable with parameters 10 and 1 . Thus P X ? 7 = 2 10 10 1 i 1 10? i 11 (2) (2) = 64 . i=7 i 51. The expected number of typographical errors on a page of a certain magazine is . 2. What is the probability that the next page you read contains (a)0 and (b)2 or more typographical errors?Explain your reasoning. Let X be the number of typographical errors on a page of a magazine. Then X is a Poisson random variable with parameter ? = E [X ] = . 2. We then have P X = 0 = e?. 2 ? .819 and P X ? 2 = 1 ? P X < 2 = 1 ? P X = 0 ? P X = 1 = 1 ? e?. 2 ? .2e?. 2 ? .0175. 57. Suppose that the number of accidents occurring on a highway each day is a Poisson random variable with parameter ? = 3. a. Find the probability that 3 or more accidents occur today. Let X denote the number of accidents on the stretch of road. Then P X ? 3 = 1 ? P X < 3 = 1 ? e? 3 ? 3e? 3 ? 9 e? 3 ? .577. 2 b.Repeat part (a) under the assumption that at least 1 accident occurs today. Note that that the event â€Å"there are three or more accidents today,† is a subset of the event â€Å"there is at least one accident today,† and thus the intersection of the two is just the former. It follows that P X? 3 1 ? e? 3 ? 3e? 3 ? 9 e? 3 2 P X ? 3|X ? 1 = = ? . 607. 1 ? e? 3 P X? 1 3 Mathematical Systems Probability 63. People enter a gambling casino at a rate of 1 for every 2 minut es. a. What is the probability that no one enters between 12:00 and 12:05? If X is the number of people entering within the 5 minute interval, then X is a Poisson random 5 variable with parameter ? = 2  · 5. Thus, P X = 0 = e? 2 ? .082. b. What is the probability that at least 4 people enter the casino during that time? Using the same random variable as above, we have 5 55 25 ? 5 125 ? 5 e 2? e 2 ? .242 P X ? 4 = 1 ? e? 2 ? e? 2 ? 2 4  · 2! 8  · 3! 68. In response to an attack of ten missiles, ? ve hundred antiballistic missiles are launched. The missile targets of the antiballistic missiles are independent, with each being equally likely to go towards any of the missiles. If each antiballistic missile independently hits its target with probability . , use the Poisson paradigm to approximate the probability that all missiles are hit. Consider one particular missile M . A particular antiballistic missile A selects M as its target with probability . 1, and if A selects M then it has probability . 1 of hitting it. Hence any such A will hit M with probability (. 1)(. 1) = . 01. Then the likely number of times M gets hit is roughly 500(. 01) = 5. Hence by the Poisson paradigm, if X is M ’s likely number of hits then X is a Poisson(5) variable. Thus the probability that M is hit is P X > 0 = 1 ? P X = 0 = 1 ? e? 5 .There are 10 missiles, so the probability that all of them are hit is then roughly (1 ? e? 5 )10 . 71. Consider a roulette wheel consisting of 38 numbers—1 through 36, 0, and double 0. If Smith always bets that the outcome will be one of the numbers 1 through 12, what is the probability that a. Smith will lose his ? rst 5 bets; Since Smith will lose with probability 26 38 , we will lose his ? rst 5 bets with probability ( 13 )5 ? .15. 19 b. his ? rst win will occur on his 4th bet? Note that this is a geometric random variable with parameter p = 12 (or alternatively, a negative 38 inomial random variable with parameters p = 12 and r = 1 ). Smith’s ? rst win will occur on his 38 13 6 4th bet with probabiltity ( 19 )3  · 19 ? .101. 75. A fair coin is continually ? ipped until heads appears for the tenth time. Let X denote the number of tails that occur. Compute the probability mass function of X . Let Y be a negative binomial random variable with parameters p = 1 and r = 10. An appropriate 2 sequence with n tails in it must contain n + 10 ? ips in it total, and thus n+10 (n + 10) ? 1 r n+9 1 P X = n = P Y = n + 10 = p (1 ? p)(n+10)? r = 2 r? 1 9 4

Cults essays

Cults essays Cult activity has been on the rise over the past few decades. With it there has been an increase in the fear surrounding it. From this fear, society has learned much about cults, how they get members and what to look out for as far as cult recruiters go. Society as a whole has also learned what can be done to deal with cults. Cult activity and the fear that surrounds it Throughout the last couple of decades more and more stories of illegal cult activity or murders by satanic cults appear on the news each night. This surge of reported cult activity has caused a spark in public interest. There has been a large increase in the fear that surrounds cults over the past couple of years. A cult is a therapeutic or unconventional religious movement (McBride, 1985, 22), and the more cults that fall beneath the public eye, the more serious the fear of cults becomes. Much of this fear has been sparked by major cult related incidents such as mass suicide by the Peoples Temple or the murder of Sharon Tate. These incidents, and incidents like them, grab the nations attention and create widespread panic. But as the nation reads about these stories in the paper, the same questions seem to surface. Questions like How does this happen? or What can we do to stop this from happening again? are often asked. The panic and fear of cult activity in our country seems to continue to grow with the more unbelievable stories that hit the news. The first big news event that was cult related occurred in 1969. Five dead bodies were found by the maid at 10050 Cielo Drive. Beautiful actress Sharon Tate who was pregnant at the time, and her friends Steven Earl Parent, Abigail Folger, Voytek Frykowski, and Jay Sebring were found butchered thoughout the residence (Bugliosi, 1974, 18). The murders themselves grasped the nations attention, but it was when the murderers and their motives surfac...

Answers to Questions About Tense #2

Answers to Questions About Tense #2 Answers to Questions About Tense #2 Answers to Questions About Tense #2 By Mark Nichol Here are several readers’ queries about various aspects of tense, and my responses. 1. Which sentence is correct, â€Å"The teacher said to Peter, ‘I am proud to have a wonderful student like you,’† or â€Å"The teacher said to Peter, ‘I am proud to have had a wonderful student like you’†? The first sentence, written in the present tense, is appropriate for a current student. The second one, written in present perfect, applies when the student is a former one or is about to become a former one. 2. How is the following idea properly and most efficiently expressed? â€Å"I would have liked to have gone to the park with you.† â€Å"I would have liked to go to the park with you.† â€Å"I would like to have gone to the park with you.† Each of these three sentences has a slightly different temporal connotation: â€Å"I would have liked to have gone to the park with you† means that at some point in the past, including right up to the present, you would like to have experienced the action. (You didn’t necessary want to go to the park; you wanted to have had the experience of going to the park.) Because of the two layers of indirect reference, this sentence is awkward and unlikely. â€Å"I would have liked to go to the park with you† refers to a past state of mind about an action occurring at the same time in the past. (Previously, you wished you could have accompanied someone to the park; that inclination may or may not persist.) â€Å"I would like to have gone to the park with you† refers to a present state of mind about a past action. (Right now, you wish you could have accompanied someone to the park; you may not have felt that way until just now.) 3. Where I work, there is an ongoing debate on whether the word have changes a sentence to passive. Here is an example: Should a sentence read, â€Å"I provided your comments to our senior management team and they will be used to guide our ongoing improvement efforts,† or â€Å"I have provided your comments to our senior management team and they will be used to guide our ongoing improvement efforts†? Neither of these sentences is passive. Passive voice involves avoiding naming the actor of an action (for example, â€Å"The message was sent†) or delaying naming the actor until the end of the sentence (for example, â€Å"The message was sent by me†); â€Å"I sent the message† is constructed in active voice. Both of the sentences are correct (though a comma should follow â€Å"management team†), but â€Å"I have [past tense of verb]† is generally preferable to â€Å"I [past tense of verb]† because it’s in the present perfect tense it’s pertinent to now, the moment of the communication, with the implication that there’s a momentum for action whereas, for example, â€Å"I provided† is in the past tense, looking back. Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Grammar category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:Direct and Indirect ObjectsConnotations of 35 Words for Funny People10 Functions of the Comma

Discrimination Towards Minorities within the United StatsJudicial Research Paper

Discrimination Towards Minorities within the United StatsJudicial System - Research Paper Example This paper will discuss the practice of discrimination towards minorities, discrimination which lead towards unlawful criminal procedures. It shall particularly discuss the civil liberties which are violated due to race and or class status. This paper is being carried out in order to establish a clear and comprehensive picture of the criminal justice system and its actual applications in the United States. Body Discrimination in the application of criminal justice is sometimes apparent in the legal practice, and in most instances, ethnic, racial, or economic considerations are the reasons why such discriminations exist. Various suggestions from different sources seem to point to the presence of racial discrimination in the criminal justice system. In the aftermath of the Rodney King case, an independent commission of the Los Angeles Police Department established that the LAPD used force excessively, and this unnecessary force was largely attributed to the officer’s racial prej udice (Banks, 2004). A review of police officers in the Los Angeles area revealed that about a quarter of them were racists towards the minorities, and that their racial bias has sometimes led to the inappropriate use of force in their arrests and apprehension of these criminals. In assessing radio communications among LAPD police officers, the content of their remarks reflected a significant number of racially discriminatory remarks and attitudes against minorities (Banks, 2004). Witnesses also claim that police officers often tolerated discriminatory actions against minorities; they also claim that these officers often verbally harassed these minorities for as long as they fit their usual suspects – the blacks and the Latin men (Banks, 2004). Police officers who also belonged to the minority ethnic groups were also discriminated against, and they were treated to biased comments and subjected to racial slurs. A report from New York established that there are double standards which are being applied – one for the whites and another one for the minorities and the poor (New York State Judicial Commission on Minorities, 1991). This report was able to establish the presence of biased treatment as well as injustice in the criminal justice system. The report also pointed out that various minorities were subjected to basement justice with their cases being relegated to facilities which were infested with rats and cockroaches (Banks, 2004). These minorities were also disrespected and not given the proper personnel to handle their complaints and court processes. In some instances, the cases involving minorities were often quickly dispensed, with atleast four or five minutes in court (Banks, 2004). This represents an assembly line in the dispensation of justice. Moreover, black defendants were often made to face their fate in the justice system before a purely white jury. This hardly represents the defendant’s peers. In order to establish whether or not racial discrimination is seen in the criminal justice system, various criminal theorists have carried out research assessing the major decision points in the criminal justice system in the US (Wilbanks, 1987). Most of these reports pointed out that even as racial discrimination exists in the criminal system, the system is not wholly defined by racial discrimination; in effect, discrimination is not extensive (Russell, 1998). However, there are

Should children under the age 14 be allowed to make treatment Research Paper - 1

Should children under the age 14 be allowed to make treatment decisions - Research Paper Example However, recently, such presumptions continue to receive criticism from policymakers and other activists, thereby raising the question of the justification of children’s decisions regarding their health. There have been several conflicts between the caregivers and the teens below 14 years regarding their welfare, and some children’s arguments seem justifiable over those of their parents (Cherry, 2013). As such, there is a critical need to address the issue, and give such kids a bigger voice in making decisions regarding their health. Besides, since such children have the direct impacts of their health conditions, they may suggest treatment modes that may improve their conditions (Cherry, 2013). However, the assistance of a physician is critical, and it should be at the best interest of the patient (minor) (Cherry, 2013). The key advantage of such a decision is that it will aid in the recovery of the child, particularly in emergencies where the caregiver may be unavailable. However, this ought to be within the allowed legal standards. Besides, children with long-term disorders are perceived to be more acquainted with their conditions, and hence they may make wise decisions regarding their health. This is evident in cases where parents advocate for a misinformed treatment prescription that only leads to the deterioration of such children’s conditions. Such cases have been evident in numerous US states, thereby highlighting the need for child involvement in cases regarding their health. However, owing to the legal obligations of parents to make such decisions, the challenges still loom (Cherry, 2013). Besides, negative consequences resulting from a physician allowing such children to make decisions concerning their health may compel the physicians to undergo unjustified legal proceedings, thereby jeopardizing their careers. Although children may be under the care of the parents and guardians, the children’s consent to treatment may