Kony

Mikaela Richardson
NCtimes
Web Star Born: Kony Video Gets Millions of Views
http://www.nctimes.com/news/national/web-star-born-kony-video-gets-millions-of-views/article_a4e0ea9b-de66-5b79-952b-0c12de77db85.html
The acts of Joseph Kony and what America is doing to help

Joseph Kony, a star on the Internet and real world has, for years, been hiding in Africa and abducting children. The boys are forced to kill their own parents and join in his army (Lord's Resistance Army) that kills innocent people in Africa. The girls are turned into sex slaves. The acts of Kony have been going on for years but only now has the U.S. stepped into action to resolve the problem. Obama has agreed to send in militia troops to hunt down and arrest Kony for his horrible actions. Others in America have helped participate in making Kony famous by making signs, spreading the Kony video online, hanging posters, and telling almost everyone they can. The reason they are doing this is because the U.S. government wont do a thing unless we care about the issue enough.

The issue at hand relates to what we are learning in class.  The Constitutions was created to end the tyranny from King George of Britian. his tyranny finally had to end and the people were going to do something about it even if they had to rick their lives. While the Constitution was being held a secret and issues were being debated, many people had to ask if the issues were even big enough to discuss and what should even go on the final Constitution. Some of the discussions were about if the people even cared about the issues.

These connect to my life as a citizen. I have a right to stand up and say what i think is right. It is right to stop Joseph Kony because of his tyrannic actions towards children. His cruel ways should be ended. I am allowed to help out in my own country by telling other people about his actions and support the soldiers who are sent to find him by donating to the Kony website. I live in a place run by the constitution which means i have the right to speak my mind and have a say in what should be changed, what should be done, and what we can do better as a nation.

My opinion on the article is a word that many people would use. Shocking. how could we go on for years and not even have the slightest information or care about the issue until now? Why didn't we stop this before? If something like this happened for one day in America it would be all over the news and Internet instantly and we would be looking for answers.

SOPA and PIPA origins
NCtimes.com
Protest exposes Silicon Valley-Hollywood rivalry
http://www.nctimes.com/news/national/protest-exposes-silicon-valley-hollywood-rivalry/article_13610a97-d6c6-59bc-a5f1-8b119ff037ff.html
The Internet security's acts


A new Internet security bill has been viewed by the three branches of government over the past month. This bill proposes that any small, supposedly "stolen" websites would be taken down. Piracy has somehow a problem on the Internet. The government's plan is to take town or oversee any piracy that happens on the Internet and stop it before it spreads throughout the Internet. Wikipedia being among them, saw this as a crazy, useless act and the law shouldn't influence the Internet. Other social networking/ work related sites such as Google, Yahoo, Deviantart, Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, and more shut down their websites for certain time periods or had members of the sites black out their pages in protest. These websites were also seen as "victims" of the SOPA and PIPA acts.

This connects to what we are learning in class because we are learning about the taxation acts that started in 1776. The Intollerable acts, the Tea act, the Stamp act, and the Quartering act were all created during that time period. Citizens of the colonies had to be taxed by British Loyalists in the area and the profits would be sent to the greedy King George III. Every time a tax was created, the colonist rebelled against the British who fought for the king. Those people were called Loyalists because they were loyal to the king. Patriots, people who wanted to live a free life away from the king, protested saying these acts were random, pointless, and unfair because they didn't live in Europe with the king anymore! These protest led to violence in some areas, especially Boston, led to battles. The Boston Massacre is one of these events. Some other rebellious events were the Boston Tea Party and the Battles of Concord/ Lexington.

The SOPA and PIPA act connect to my life as a citizen because kids like myself are starting to become part of this new digital age. The Internet help us more than we know. We connect with friends, play games, find new information, create and publish new ideas, and make history every day in out lives. If the bills were passed then many kids would be out of luck on using any fun/ helpful Internet sites. A site I use all the time is Deviantart. I post all of my artwork. blog, find new styles, and make new friends there. If it wasn't for that site, my art style and perspective on the different kinds of art would be completely different (in a bad way.)

In my opinion, these acts are ridiculous. The law shouldn't influence the internet. This connects so perfectly with the Intollerable acts and other acts of the 1700's. The people were taxed and they rebelled against the king. Now, the internet is being shut down and the citizens rebell against the government and the president.