In the recent aftermath of Protest in Ferguson, you got to wonder do the police still see themselves as part of the community. The way the  police handled the case of Micheal Brown Shooting, and the treatment of the protest let you know which side they chose to upheld. Another problem that also could be look at  is the demographics of Ferguson itself.Race has made this incident more divide and gave more incite on why this could happen. In Ferguson, the black population is the majority while the white population is the minority, but the the city council and police officers are majority white. The non-representation of the black community and blatant targeting of black community by the officers has build a level of distrust that was going to burst at any major event that effect the black community, and sadly it had to be the shooting of a young black man by a officer.  In the Micheal Brown Case the built so much distrust simply by trying to hide everything from public view. It could have been handle ten time better if the information about the the shooting  was in public view so that no doubts or hastily drawn conclusion could cloud peoples judgments. You have to hold value to the phrase, ” Innocent until proven Guilty” and the officer in the situation should have a fair investigation in the shooting, but this also goes for Micheal Brown. There should be no shade or slander thrown on both parties and that both the officer and Micheal past should not be brought up to be use as reason to give justification for anything. The police simply side with the officer in the situation and use underhanded tactics such as drawing a negative image of Micheal Brown and describe the merit of the officer. There can be not just plain black and white line drawn in this situation and there must be non biased view to get the truth.  Even with how bad the case was handle, one of the most major misuse of power and judgement by and public official was how the Ferguson police department handle the protest of the Micheal Brown Case. People have the right to protest, just as officers have power to break up and stop unruly protesting and rioting due to protesting. The Ferguson police had not reason to to use such heavy handed fear and horrible unnecessary force crowd control tactics. There was no need for the police  to have on more armor then our soldiers in hostile environmental, nor was there any reason for them to walk up and down the streets pointing fully automatic weapons at unarmed civilians. Even the language the police use threatening people was force was uncalled for. They treated the people that pay them and the people they gave oath to protect as insurgents. The United States Military has stricter rules and conduct for their soldiers in other countries that our own police violated on there own people for no reason. So there is no reason for the people of Ferguson to be able to trust the police when the police cannot not do what the suppose to do or when the police to do even trust the people.

In my perspective, I believe that the Kellogg’s strike was very necessary. The Kellogg’s company let go 226 of their union workers months ago. They demanded a pay-cut and that they give up their medical coverage. Most of these people we minority workers. If it was me I would have been right there with them, with my sign and my voice, fighting for my rights. It was good to see that the (NLRB) National Labor Relations Board), went to court to stop the lockout.

We hear about minimum wage all the time. People who don’t like it, people who think it should be raised, and everyone in between. They all have an opinion on this subject. However, I wonder if anyone ever thinks about where minimum wage actually began? In 1896, New Zealand was the first country to pass such a law, but other countries quickly followed suit, as did many of America’s individual states. In 1924 though, the supreme court ruled against such laws as they violated private companies rights to set their own wages and an employees rights to ask for what pay they thought fair. The Great Depression hit soon after this, and President Franklin D. Roosevelt countered this ruling when he made a $0.40 minimum wage throughout businesses involved in interstate commerce as part of his New Deal. Part of this also ruled on better overtime pay and added child labor laws to the books. Now that we have gotten a blast from the past, why is it that Roosevelt implemented this idea of minimum wage in the first place? Well, I believe he saw the importance of the employees who worked these harder, underpaying jobs and did not wanted them to suffer under the unfair pay of greedy big business owners. As the cost of living rises over time, so should our minimum wage, which is why in the past 75 years, our minimum wage has risen from $0.40 to $7.55. This is only fair right? Some people believe that it should be even raised higher! However, most of the reason why people want it to rise is because they feel that it is a means to an end of getting themselves out of poverty. Don’t get me wrong, I hate poverty as much as the next person, but people who think this way are not normally aware of what minimum wage does and why it was created in the first place. America did not even allow it for many years because they believed it violated American’s rights as free citizens! For the U.S to dictate wage is just another way for them to add to the list of rules we have to follow. I am glad Roosevelt implemented minimum wage the way he did, but its’ purpose was to protect the employee from those greedy employers who sought to take advantage of their workers. It was not created to be a “living wage” as many people believe. The minimum wage jobs are normally those with a lower skill set needed to do the job quickly, and if you have a good work ethic, you can move up to better pay in the same job quickly enough. I worked in fast food for over three years, so I know what minimum wage is like. However, I worked hard and ended up getting a raise within 6 months of working there, and another raise the next year. By the end of my time there, I was making $8.25 and got offered a manager position at $9.25 an hour. Even though I did not take that offer and ended up leaving for another job opportunity on campus, I actually enjoyed my time there! And my experience working there showed me how a good work ethic can pay off. If the minimum wage were to rise higher than it was intended to go within a certain standard of living, it would leave many more unskilled workers out of a job, which would in turn raise the poverty level instead of diminish it like many people believe. If employers cannot pay as many lower skilled workers a higher wage, they will more than likely decide to cut costs by hiring a less amount of more skilled workers who would get the job done better and in less time. Again, minimum wage was not intended to be a living wage, but a way to keep unskilled workers better paid under greedy or unfair management. The discussion on minimum wage is a vast one, but if there is anything I can leave you with, it would be to remind you to have a good work ethic! Because whatever job you work in, whether it pays minimum wage or not, will value and appreciate that characteristic in you, and you will respect yourself more because of the hard work that you choose to do.

“Minimum Wage.” Opposing Viewpoints Online Collection. Detroit: Gale, 2014. Opposing Viewpoints in Context. Web. 15 Sept. 2014.

In the City of Memphis something that effects me everyday and is a complete pain are the conditions of the roads. This has been something of interest to me since I first arrived in Memphis my freshman year of college. I do not know if there is not money or if something is sucking up the money for roads, but the city needs to find the money necessary to do something about them. I drive everyday across park avenue because I am an RA at Graduate Student and Family Housing on south campus. And everyday I drive I hit more bumps in the road everyday it seems like. The condition of the roads in this city are awful. The thing that gets me about it is that it is not just where I live, it is like this in a lot of places in the city limits. This issue even stretches into downtown and other tourist areas like Graceland and the zoo. Now, I understand that the city is probably not in a rush to fix Park Avenue or Southern, but you would think a city with a good number of tourist would be ready and willing to fix the roads the tourist see. The roads near, and leading up to, Graceland and the roads downtown. I am from Chattanooga and while all of our roads are not the best, the places where we are most tourist heavy have drivable roads. You do not have to worry about hitting a pothole or even a bump in some areas. This probably would not be an issue to me if I was from Memphis because it would be the norm, but everyone I speak to not from here has the same thing to say about the city. Friends that came here from Chattanooga with me always say joking “We are going to have to get new tires before we go home or we will not make it.” This is funny to an extent, but it also has some validity to it.I think that that the mere fact that this is even a joke is an issue. I love the city of Memphis, and I expect to start my career in this city in public office after I get my Masters in Public Administration, and if this issue is not addressed I know it will be one of the first things that I tackle as a public official. In this link, http://www.memphistn.gov/Government/PublicWorks/Maintenance/StreetMaintenance.aspx, it says “All streets receive a periodic evaluation for resurfacing needs. These streets are inspected and assigned a condition and urgency rating. The ratings are then entered into GIS street database. These ratings prioritize the streets and furthermore determine which streets will be added to the Resurfacing Management Plan.”, but they are clearly not checking the streets I drive on. I do not know what the criteria is for a road to be repaved, but they are clearly very strict restrictions because I have not seen a repaved road fully and done well since I have been living in the city. I am not mad that the city has these kinds of road conditions, I am upset because I feel like nothing is being done about these bad conditions.

As a child, I was always told, “Money doesn’t fall off of trees”, and I never understood that phrase until my young adult years. Now that I am older and living an independent life, I wish I knew where that “money tree” was hidden, or how I could invent my own (all which is just wishful thinking). Back to reality, I have yet to find such a thing, but what I have found is that being a full-time student working temporary jobs to maneuver through my college years, is quite challenging in this economy. I’ve learned that with the increase in the cost of living and the expense of everyday essentials, working a minimum wage job is just not financially fulfilling.
Like me, many Americans today struggle to make a decent living, and are often found working two or more jobs just to provide the necessities for ourselves and families. Unlike professions, the jobs that many citizens are working are undesirable, underpaid, and strenuous occupations with little to no benefit, depending on your title. On the other hand, there are some Americans who actually enjoy the nature of their jobs, but not the pay. According to CNN’s Interactive Minimum Wage Act map, majority of the country’s minimum wage is $7.25 per hour, while states such as California, Oregon, and Washington range from $8.00-$9.32 per hour. Whether minimum wage should be a fixed amount among all states or if it should vary is debatable, but $7.25 an hour being insufficient to support a living, is highly relatable. Hope for America’s working class lies within The Fair Minimum Wage Act of 2012’s proposal to raise the minimum wage to $9.80 per hour, $2.55 more than the Fair Labor and Standards Act’s current state requirement. Hype and rumor over this change has existed since last year, and we have yet to see an increase. There has been no recent discovery of a money producing tree, but there is a dedicated, anticipating class of working citizens, that with the help of the government, can replenish our rough economy. Not only would the minimum wage assist working citizens, it will benefit both large corporations and local businesses. We’ve all heard the saying, “You have to spend money to make money”, but we also have to, “Make money to spend money’. In other words, marketing and consuming goes hand in hand, and without additional money to spend, businesses can’t flourish if customers can’t buy. The fantasy of the money tree will always remain as long as there are financial deficiencies, and although it is not a drastic change, $9.80 per hour will spring the growth of the economy. I am no longer questioning where money comes from, but I am curious to know why the government is postponing the increase of living wage when its working citizens deserve it and the economy needs it. Instead of using our imagination, we could use change. After all, the saying goes, “if it doesn’t make money, it doesn’t make sense (cents)”.

http://money.cnn.com/interactive/pf/state-minimum-wage/

http://www.raisetheminimumwage.com/media-center/entry/house-and-senate-intro-bills-to-increase-minimum-wage-to-9.80/

Dr. King once said, “Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that”.  In a recent article in the Commercial Appeal WWW.commercial-appeal.com/news/local-news/crime/actor-James-woods  actor James Woods called for Attorney General Eric Holder to investigate the Kroger incident as a hate crime, because a group of black teens assaulted a white male on video.  His tweets have been re-tweeted more than 4,500 times.  The problem is that you cannot legislate hate; I agree the teens should be punished in accordance with the law, but to want the laws to change to say this was a hate crime is ridiculous.  In the past, we have seen the Stand Your Ground law put a black male under the ground by a white male and called justified not hate.  We have seen a white police officer shoot and kill a black male with his hands up and given the excuse of Due Process and not a process of hate.  If Amy Weirich folds to political pressure and charges these teens with a hate crime then where would the law stop and start?

This would mean school yard fights between different cultures could go further beyond the principal’s office and into our already crowded criminal court rooms.  We always want to send a strong message to criminal offenders, but for James Woods, to want to charge teens for a hate crime when one of the victims was black is egregious.  The person recording the video only recorded the white male getting assaulted, can this be interpreted that Mr. Woods would have been satisfied if he saw the black male getting assaulted also? We cannot pick and choose the laws we want to see changed based on personal bias, but in accordance to what is right.  We should push legislation to create tougher curfew laws and make parents more responsible for their under 18 year old children. 

In accordance with public interest if we create laws that legislate what hate is, we should also create laws that do not justify murder and masquerade it as serving and protecting the public.  We cannot make laws on social media sites and try people in the courtrooms of twitter, instagram or Facebook.   What is needed is consistency, without an invisible racial boundary called public interest.  Innocent people die and get hurt everyday black and white.  If the law is in place to protect us, then pass laws that protect and serve everyone’s interest, not just a certain group.  In the end we are our own worst enemies, we attack each other with words, post, tweets and pictures, but no one considers this a hate crime. 

Mahatma Gandhi said, “An eye for an eye only ends up making the whole world blind”.  That could be our real problem, not what is or what is not a hate crime, but maybe we have put each other’s eyes out and now we are all blind.

Growing up in the city of Memphis, I have seen first-hand the turmoil caused by violence among our youth. I grew up in a tough neighborhood in Memphis, but I was provided an education in a better, or a more non-violent, part of town than where I resided.  I am only saying this to say that your community does not indefinitely reflect the person you are to become. I was lucky enough to have support from family and friends to push me in the right direction. It seems everywhere I turn I am reminded and saddened by lack of positivity influencing the upbringing of our future generations today. As of about a week ago, residents of Memphis are now watching over their shoulder at the grocery stores.  Though the city’s crime-rate may have decreased over the years, the day to day crimes acted out by the city’s youth still make me weary.

When I start thinking of ways to get the youth more involved in a positive way, I think about the community centers and programs specifically for our youth. Today I don’t think there are many. We have after school care programs, but I feel as if that only helps a little when it comes to pre-teens. Teenagers, or high school children, are typically more independent.  In the case of young adults, ages 18 and older, they exercise free-will, and we hope for the best. According to an article in the Memphis Flyer, “58 of the 119 lives that fell victim to homicide in Memphis this year were between the ages of 18 and 34.” Recently there was a meeting called the Youth Violence Prevention Forum held at the Benjamin L. Hooks Library to brainstorm ideas to help reduce the violence among the youth in the city and find better ways for them to spend their time. Among others ideas, creating a database to share info on the services and ways that the youth could benefit from was discussed.

I haven’t had much experience, as I am only 23 years old, but I am of the young population in Memphis. I feel as if there is nothing to do in the area to keep our youth involved. Schools are losing funding for programs that interest the kids, such as music and art. There aren’t many fun activities to take the place of mischief and they go looking for things to do, which leads to trouble. There are not many places that cater to the younger crowd. Memphis didn’t have too many options to begin with, but the closing of Libertyland and Jillian’s, the game place that was downtown, didn’t help. As the city officials try to build up downtown and other areas, I hope they incorporate something for people of a younger age. I’m sure they get tired of movies every weekend and roaming downtown until they can’t anymore.

First and foremost, let me say I believe parents should play the main role in searching for ways to decrease the violence of our youth, starting with ways to help your child advance. My parents always kept track of where I was and who I was with. That seems like a foreign concept now. Home training starts at home with the guardians. The police can only pick them up after something happens. But to prevent violence, which is my whole point, I believe the support and guidance of our communities can make all the difference.

Link to article in Memphis Flyer:

http://www.memphisflyer.com/memphis/forum-explores-youth-violence-prevention-methods/Content?oid=3741307

Hello readers and fellow classmates,

I know that in the year of 2012, there was beginning to be a high demand for citizens to have health care insurance. For this matter, I never really understood what would happen to the citizens who never did sign up for it. I mean since then I haven’t really heard anything else about the whole health care situation, currently speaking that it is indeed the the year of 2014. There were so many commercials and advirtisements out about the issue, but now it looks like the all the ranting and controversy was temporary. Within a matter of time, all the commotion about health care seemed to disappear. However, there is still a question that pops up in my head whenever I hear anything about health insurance. As I stated before, what would happen to the citizens who never did sign up for it? Listen to this scenario: I am a high school student who walks to school everyday. Then one day on my way to school, I happen to get shot by someone and endure an injury to my leg. Shortly after, I wind up at the nearest hospital for help. Because my injury needs to be taken care of immediately, I go to the emergency room. I am an unemployed minor, so I can not afford to have health insurance on my own. Neither does my mother have insurance for me because I have other siblings, she has low income, and she just simply can not afford it. My mother is there with me and she is pleading for help, screaming it’s an emergency and that I need help right away. Now, back to the conversation at hand. You’ve just read about a scenario that can happen to anyone at anytime. The race, age, and employment or occupation of the person does not matter. When thinking about how this scenario would end, I’m not too sure about what would happen. Because the person is not insured, will hospital administration refuse them of the emergency services that they need? Will they be asked to leave, or does the person have to sit in the waiting room with a bleeding gunshot wound because they have no insurance? The whole point of this topic is to find out what happens to people who get in situations like that? What will happen to the person who doesn’t have insurance, but has a fatal medical situation? To my knowledge, there has not been a specific policy set about health care insurance. I mean there were talks about ObamaCare and other health insurance companies, but no one really knows what the consequences are for not having. I have not seen any signs in any of the hospitals or clinics I’ve been to since 2012 that specify the requirements of being helped medically. Was there an actual policy set about healthcare insurance, or did it all just come about just so the government can encourage people to pay for insurance? What will happen to the ones that can not afford it? Will they get billed expensively for having help to save their lives?

It seems to me that the government is often relying on non profit organizations to take care of the city. Yes, non profits are there to serve the people, but shouldn’t the government try and pitch in also? For example, in Memphis there are many homeless and needy people, but the city council doesn’t seem to be doing anything about it. Yea, there are food stamps, and things of that nature, but we can do better than that. How much money does the government have stashed away somewhere? Non profits are busting their butts in order to make this world a better place. They are providing food and shelter for the homeless, care for disaster victims, and not to mention St. Jude Research Hospital.

I just think that our government could do better. Yes, the mayor may be advertising that he is helping, but is he actually falling through with his words, and if he is then is it just an act for the city of Memphis or is it true kindness? That’s the thing with politicians, we never can tell if they are truly and honestly good people because on TV it just looks like an act because of the scroll they are reading. If politicians really did what they advertise on TV then this world wouldn’t be so unbearable, but the truth is that not many people adhere to their promises.

There are so many people in need, and the non profit organizations can’t do it by themselves. Either the government needs to help also, or the need to assist the non profits. There are people who are trying to help, but they can’t around the rules and regulations that the government had put forth. Give us some slack!!  If the government really cared, and if they really wanted to have successful non profit organizations, then they would pitch in more that they are.

Also, I believe that drug testing for food stamps is a fantastic idea. There are people on welfare that really and truly do not need to be receiving government assistance. The money that those people are stealing could go to someone who really is in need. Just because you are to lazy to work does not mean that you should get government assistance! There are people trying to get back on their feet, but the world keeps knocking them back down. They are the type of people that need a little extra assistance.Just give them a little to help get them back on their feet. I just believe that the money that we are wasting on some people should go to the non profits to help real people in need.

With all of this being said, I just very well believe that the government could do a better job in helping out the non profits and the needy. They could use an extra lift, or less rules and regulations. Instead of being in their pockets, they should be withdrawing government assistance from others who don’t even need it.