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fandomhigh2019-01-14 06:55 am
biotic_psychotic) wrote in fandomhigh2019-01-14 06:55 am
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Civics - Art of Civil Disobedience Monday 4th Period
Jack watched the students file in. She kept an eye out for Mae and Vette. If they showed up sounding like bad ducking Sean Connery imitations, she was sending them straight to Skywalker to deal with.
On the desks are packets. No slides today. In the packet are the texts of the Constitution and the Amendments with a crib sheet to what the Amendments mean, practically speaking.
"Welcome back. I touched a little bit last week on the Constitution and its Amendments. The Constitution is the governing document for all laws in the United States. A great deal of time is spent by the highest court - the Supreme Court - determining whether or not laws abide by the tenets of the document. Whether they're constitutional or unconstitutional. If a law is found to violate the tenets of the constitution, it's overturned.
Having a governing document that's fairly reasonable is a pretty good basis for law. The problem comes from people. People interpret what the words in the document mean and as the times change, sometimes the meanings do too. You heard last week how the word 'man' in the document changed over time from meaning strictly white men to including free men and then free men of color and then women.
Amendments are just what the word says - they're additions to the Constitution that amend what it says. Usually for clarification purposes but sometimes to broaden the scope for what's covered by the Constitution. Right now there's 27 of them and they mostly deal with what the government and police can and can't do with regard to citizens. It also handles how the government operates.
The interpretations of the Constitution and of laws change over time. That's why the amendments are needed. The people sitting on the Supreme Court change. Both of those things will affect how laws are interpreted. The great thing about the Constitution is that it evolves with time. The part that sucks is that it's ever had to. From where we stand in history it's just common sense that the word 'people' doesn't exclude someone based on the color of their skin or their gender. The fact it ever did is frankly fu..very embarrassing. It shouldn't take an amendment to force the laws to acknowledge that people can be people no matter what color, race, religion, gender or whatever they are."
She was quiet for a minute while she looked over her class. "This is a defining method for determining whether a law is just or not: If it tries to take away personhood it is by definition unjust. Look around this class. Three of you don't look anything like the others and if they walked across the causeway they'd stand out. There's other kids at this school for whom that's true too. There's people over there who even now would try and say they're different enough from scope that they don't count as people."
Her voice tightened. "People who say crap like that? People who think like that? They're wrong. Dead wrong. This planet, this country, history has shown that every time someone tries to define 'person', the definition only ever grows. Takes awhile. Sometimes takes a Constitutional Amendment to carve it in stone. That part sucks. Doesn't suck that it shows a slow but inevitable social progress. Doesn't suck that it shows the small-minded dull stones who try to narrowly limit the definition of 'person' are on the wrong side of history."
Jack looked at them again and her face was unreadable. "There'll be people like that on every planet in every known reality. For some, like here or where I'm from, they're usually an annoying minority. For some, it's a systemic problem that's lead to or is leading to oppression. Sometimes there's not a whole lot you can do about it because the power balance is too skewed but when you can do something? You do. You stand up and you do something. Even if all you can do is not add to it. Next week, we're going on a field trip to show you what people here have done in the face of oppression in the past."
"Your assignment today is to answer: What would you do? Someone comes up to you and tells you the person standing next to you doesn't count as a person. Maybe calls them a name that denies their status as a person. Maybe tells them they can't participate in something the way everyone else can. Do you talk to them and try and explain why they're wrong? Do you call them names in turn? Do you leave the scene? Do you look away and pretend it's not happening? Do you punch them out? Do you ignore them and focus on the person who got their attention? Those people are out there. Sooner or later you're either going to see it happen or you're going to be the person it's happening to. The only answer off the table is 'kill them'. Murder's generally not the best answer so we're putting that one right off the table today. So: What would you do?"
Syllabus is here.
Link to last class is here.
On the desks are packets. No slides today. In the packet are the texts of the Constitution and the Amendments with a crib sheet to what the Amendments mean, practically speaking.
"Welcome back. I touched a little bit last week on the Constitution and its Amendments. The Constitution is the governing document for all laws in the United States. A great deal of time is spent by the highest court - the Supreme Court - determining whether or not laws abide by the tenets of the document. Whether they're constitutional or unconstitutional. If a law is found to violate the tenets of the constitution, it's overturned.
Having a governing document that's fairly reasonable is a pretty good basis for law. The problem comes from people. People interpret what the words in the document mean and as the times change, sometimes the meanings do too. You heard last week how the word 'man' in the document changed over time from meaning strictly white men to including free men and then free men of color and then women.
Amendments are just what the word says - they're additions to the Constitution that amend what it says. Usually for clarification purposes but sometimes to broaden the scope for what's covered by the Constitution. Right now there's 27 of them and they mostly deal with what the government and police can and can't do with regard to citizens. It also handles how the government operates.
The interpretations of the Constitution and of laws change over time. That's why the amendments are needed. The people sitting on the Supreme Court change. Both of those things will affect how laws are interpreted. The great thing about the Constitution is that it evolves with time. The part that sucks is that it's ever had to. From where we stand in history it's just common sense that the word 'people' doesn't exclude someone based on the color of their skin or their gender. The fact it ever did is frankly fu..very embarrassing. It shouldn't take an amendment to force the laws to acknowledge that people can be people no matter what color, race, religion, gender or whatever they are."
She was quiet for a minute while she looked over her class. "This is a defining method for determining whether a law is just or not: If it tries to take away personhood it is by definition unjust. Look around this class. Three of you don't look anything like the others and if they walked across the causeway they'd stand out. There's other kids at this school for whom that's true too. There's people over there who even now would try and say they're different enough from scope that they don't count as people."
Her voice tightened. "People who say crap like that? People who think like that? They're wrong. Dead wrong. This planet, this country, history has shown that every time someone tries to define 'person', the definition only ever grows. Takes awhile. Sometimes takes a Constitutional Amendment to carve it in stone. That part sucks. Doesn't suck that it shows a slow but inevitable social progress. Doesn't suck that it shows the small-minded dull stones who try to narrowly limit the definition of 'person' are on the wrong side of history."
Jack looked at them again and her face was unreadable. "There'll be people like that on every planet in every known reality. For some, like here or where I'm from, they're usually an annoying minority. For some, it's a systemic problem that's lead to or is leading to oppression. Sometimes there's not a whole lot you can do about it because the power balance is too skewed but when you can do something? You do. You stand up and you do something. Even if all you can do is not add to it. Next week, we're going on a field trip to show you what people here have done in the face of oppression in the past."
"Your assignment today is to answer: What would you do? Someone comes up to you and tells you the person standing next to you doesn't count as a person. Maybe calls them a name that denies their status as a person. Maybe tells them they can't participate in something the way everyone else can. Do you talk to them and try and explain why they're wrong? Do you call them names in turn? Do you leave the scene? Do you look away and pretend it's not happening? Do you punch them out? Do you ignore them and focus on the person who got their attention? Those people are out there. Sooner or later you're either going to see it happen or you're going to be the person it's happening to. The only answer off the table is 'kill them'. Murder's generally not the best answer so we're putting that one right off the table today. So: What would you do?"
Syllabus is here.
Link to last class is here.