A Political Bloggers take on our rights and Political Correctness

In this post, I plan to give my small audience of classmates (and professor) an interesting read, and hope they (mostly my classmates) feel interested enough to look into blogs like the one I am about to write about. The most interesting part of my task here has been to research, search, and find political blogs with interesting posts by intelligent writers. Normally I would never begin something with a line so boring and unappealing as “in this- “but, I felt it more interesting to elaborate on the writing I chose and why. https://medium.com/the-progressive-flame/musings-on-political-correctness-7bc360f21cc3  The Progressive Flame “Musings on Political Correctness” by Liviana (Giovanna Laine). So far I’ve gone over things that have caught my attention, but at the same not too likely to be brought up by someone else whether a classmate writing these blogs, or anyone outside of the classroom. So far only one fellow classmate covered a similar subject or article one time so far. I am not well versed in politics, or the terms regarding it, but after reading more and more pieces of writing, I believe the first couple of articles I covered would have classified themselves as “right” and so, while I am still going for the same requirements of what to cover, I am taking the opportunity to cover someone, whose blog would be classified as “left”. I have enjoyed the opportunity to read pieces of writing by intelligent and creative people, and will continue to enjoy doing so. I hope many of my classmates take the time to read the authors blog, and other writings on her site, and encourage everyone bothering to read this, to look into interesting writers such as this one.

            “Musings on Political Correctness” is an interesting piece designed in my opinion for everyone, but definitely for younger and very receptive readers, though that could be simply because I’m young, and like to read almost anything (that’s well written, and doesn’t throw in badly written insults and adhominems in the form of evidence). The piece is written by Giovanna Laine, pen name Liviana, Liviana begins with an introduction into her view on political correctness, which is that she neither “favors” it, or views it as a bad thing. She covers separation of church and government, and even had a better argument regarding the now age old “merry Christmas” argument than I’ve seen from anyone else. She covers both the bad and good traits of the “crowd” of political correctness, as well as those on the “right”.

            Liviana details improvements she believes would make Political Correctness more applicable and reasonable to those who tend to criticize it. Such as avoiding what she calls a world view, and not trampling rights such as actual free speech (like criticism) and not using violence to promote beliefs. The writer of this piece believes that it would be dangerous to our own rights (like the first amendment freedom of speech) since the loss of those rights can lead to really any form of totalitarian government, whether the “image” of acceptance and freedom, or an outright dictatorship. she elaborates that freedom of speech is the exchange and debate of ideas, beliefs, and values without the attempt to incite violence or hate.

            While not exactly recent (march) this piece is something to read, and I am sure my own covering did Liviana’s writing no justice. My take from her writing is that we as citizens should encourage free ideas, and not try to demonize and instead think rationally and see where those we debate or converse with are coming from, instead if we do not, we risk the loss of our own rights and rationality.

A case of the 5th amendment? or a mistake of our administration?

There is an opinion article in the New York Times on the 21^st of July this year on five weeks ago, by a journalist named Cathy Young, who has covered a number of subjects and written many pieces for a significant number of known and established news pieces across the country. She leads in the article about how many Congress Democrats, activists, and sexual assault survivors are “up in arms” about what she informs is the present Trump Administration and the Department of Education overhauling present sexual assault policies implemented by the previous Obama administration in 2011 with a “Dear Colleague” letter sent by the Department of Education’s office of Civil Rights. Young informs her readers that the letter recommended the colleges to investigate sexual assault under a “Preponderance of the evidence” bias, completely ignoring the previous “clear and convincing evidence” constraint, where colleges have to assume that accusations are true forfeiting due process and “beyond a reasonable doubt” at the threat of their federal funding being pulled. Young then gives links and events where an accusation was false, and a student the accused still was expelled, and yet no criminal charges or investigation ever being filed or attempted.

            Journalist Cathy Young then gives her own opinions, such as how universities should hold a higher standard of proof in disciplinary proceedings, and have better coordination with law enforcement as simple expulsion is a weak punishment for something as heavy as rape, and also combating the prevalent culture of binge drinking, all of which are great points and pieces of advice that could be well used. Young, though, feels it unfortunate that such reforms are being done under the Trump administration, as she feels that he would be a poor choice for challenging present sexual assault policies, to which I and most probably agree. Sadly, according to Young, present efforts have been nothing but minefields and simple mistakes made by Candice Jackson head of the Justice Department’s civil rights office, and even with Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos.

            Young Declares that the issue of Due process in these policies are not fringe right issues, and have actually been voiced by prominent liberals, and are important issues regarding the rights of all Citizens.

            The Article I read by Cathy Young was “Betsy DeVos is Right: Sexual Assault Policy is Broken” https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/21/opinion/betsy-devos-college-sexual-assault.html?ref=opinion which I think could be an interesting read for anyone, especially my classmates, who are interested in any present issues regarding the 5^th Amendment, or cases regarding Campus policy on Sexual Assault. Cathy Young does point out in her article the dangers to our fifth amendment, and how many people in current times feel more obliged towards “GUILTY until proven innocent” instead of the constitutional and obligatory belief in “Innocent until proven guilty.”