American Pageant. Essay

Over time, there have been many different modifications to facilitate transportation and the economy. The transcontinental railroad is one factor that introduced the American indusrty. This immense industry turned into an even greater business and touched from coast to coast. Because of the railroads, urbanization and industrialization grew although the corruptions with scandals came as well. The nation was in a time of spurring even higher from starting in 1865. Before the railroads, the population was more scattered around farming areas. As the railroads grew, urbanization also expanded and began gathering around the railroads.Because the government gave a significant amount of land grants, the railroad companies, which were able to choose alternative mile-square sections, had much land that they did not use to build their railroads. President Grover Cleveland gave the unclaimed portions for land settlement in 1887. Although this was seen as the â€Å"giveaway† of land, the government ended up benefiting with long-term preferential rates for postal service and military traffic; the railroad corporations could also sell the land at an average of three dollars an acre.With new railroads in placed, people moved beside them and brought in business for the railroads and towns which gave the railroads another source of profit. Immigration also started uprising, with the Chinese and Irish working on the railroads. As the railroads traveled across the country, it gave the nation a way to get products or people across the country. Food and materials traveled to all from farms to towns and cities. People found it easier to move across the country; urbanization grew throughout the whole country rather than being scattered among the farms.The railroads were built because of industrialization and expanded it even further. As the railroad network snaked around the country, the economic growth did as well. The locomotives touched coast to coast offering what each sid e of the country had for the other. The west had many wealthy resources and the east had many workers. Raw materials traveled back and forth as so did the finished goods afterwards, such as steel for the generation of more railroads. The United States soon became the largest integrated national market in the world.As the railroads grew there was more demand for raw supplies from different parts of the country. The steel and wood for the railroads impacted greatly the forestry and mining industry while the coal industry also grew to power the trains; new factories and industries were built and powered to load more onto the new railroads. Millionaires greatly benefited from this, such as Cornelius Vanderbilt who was one of the most profitable amongst the new aristocracy. As the railroads expanded, so did industrialization, which made the United States economy one of the best that it has had over history.Although the effects of the railroads were mostly positive, there was the negative aspect of corruption and scandals came as well. Congress commissioned the Union Pacific Railroad, which the company received huge sums of money and land to build tracks. What the government did not know was that the corporation had frauds which were known as the Credit Mobilier; insiders from the construction company had reaped twenty-three million dollars in profits. Jay Gould was many of those who also executed many robberies. For nearly thirty years he gained money from the stocks of Erie, the Kansas Pacific, and the Texas and Pacific.One of the many different ways these million-dollar-thieves manipulated was â€Å"stock watering†. Originally coming from the definition of bloating up a cow to sell for more, the stock promoters were doing this but with the economy and stocks. The railroad stock promoters inflated their claims about a given line’s assets and profitability and sold stocks and bonds much higher than the railroad’s actual value. Railroad managers where therefore forced to charge much higher and compete against each other in order to pay the exaggerated financial obligations. In the midst of all the scandal, the Vanderbilt’s were involved as well.As many railroaders, they had to fight and bribe for rights. As long as there were railroads, and with their many positive effects, there was also corruption, competition, and scandal. The building of the transcontinental railroads changed the American economy immensely. It has changed the nation as a whole and spurred with a new way of supply and demand traveling all over the country. The new web of steel brought up urbanization, industrialization and corruption with scandals as well. The transcontinental railroads brought the country together with a new form of economy.

A Business Marketing Plan: Hunger Solution & Training Company Essay

Introduction This paper contains a marketing plan of a small production company that is earmarked to be established in Gardnerville, the suburb of Monrovia, Liberia, West Africa, my country of origin. The business which is to be named â€Å"Hunger Solution & Training Company† derived its name from the decade-long civil war that existed in Liberia that resulted into most of the citizens and other nationals of this country being internally displaced. These people which comprise of men, women, children, and other nationals, moved into the small capital of the country and its suburbs, making it very congested in terms of population. Others fled into neighboring countries like Ghana, Ivory Coast, Nigeria, Guinea, and Togo. Due to the high rate of unemployment, most of the domestic farmers and others who were engaged in other businesses for survivals are unable to afford two or three sumptuous meals a day, leaving them and their children poor and hungry. Hunger Solution & Training Company is a not-for-profit Cassava-Powder Production Company founded on January 13, 2012. The Company produces cassava powder, a food that is widely consumed by 99% of the Liberian population in the country. Since cassava is a major crop in the country and there is a growing demand from its consuming public, the purpose of this Company is to cater to this hunger need of the growing number of the Liberian populace as well as those who are unemployed. The company will distribute its product to neighboring Ghana, Nigeria, and Togo who are users of this product and also hosting most of the Liberian citizens as refugees. The Company will also train and empower local farmers to re-use their farmlands, engage in large-scale farming, and make them to bring their produce to the company to be changed into cassava powder for marketing and distribution. Cassava Powder or cassava is the third-largest source of food carbohydrates in the tropics. It is a major staple food in the developing world, providing a basic diet for around 500 million people. It is one of the most drought-tolerant crops, capable of growing on marginal soils. Nigeria is the world’s largest producer of cassava (Faintuch Ceccenello, I. I., 2011). In Ghana, cassava Powder can be made into (fufu) and consumed with all kinds of soup: palm-butter soup, pepper soup, okra soup, and etcetera. In Liberia, cassava can be used to in different ways; it is made into fufu, farina, first solid food for babies, as well as achekeh. It can be used with many ingredients that add up to nourish the body. As you delve deeper into the paper, you will read about the strategies used to explain the product in terms of its primary characteristics, service component, and how it can be used for enhancement. You will read how the product can be expanded to product line with regards to the depth and breadth of the line. You have an insight of how the core business may change in response to industry and market changes and how this product can create an image in the mind of its consumers and entrepreneurs. You will further read about domestic and global product branding, pricing, and distribution strategies for cassava powder product and training initiated by Hunger Solution & Training Company. Further discussion will determine, detail, and examine how these branding, pricing, and distribution strategies support the cassava product and training services of the Company. A distribution channel will also be highlighted analyzing and identifying the wholesaler, retailer, and distributor relationship. If the strategy will be considered push or pull, it will be justified through the rationale that will be outlined in the paper. As you will advance further, you will discern how the distribution strategy fits the product and training aspect of the Company with regards to service, target market, and the Company’s overall marketing strategy. The Company will ensure that its product and training are essential to the needs of the Liberian consuming public as well as their manpower development. You will also read about the Company’s advertising strategy and how this approach will bring into line the Company’s marketing goals. It will be determined how effectively the advertising will be measured and how the different promotional strategies relevant to the Company advertising will be utilized. Further discussion will establish the best marketing research approach used to measure customer satisfaction with the Company’s product (cassava powder) and training service initiated to train farmer in implementing large-scale farming. It will be explained how gaps in customer expectations and experiences will be addressed by the marketing wing of the Company, using the high knowledge and proficiency of experienced and well-schooled people in marketing management. Type of Product and its Primary Characteristics This marketing plan will also engulf vision of the company, its mission statement, product and services, and underlying factor of the business. The plans will also contain a vivid description of the company in terms of its business product as well as SWOT analysis to demonstrate its strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. A market target segmentation of customers, strategic mission, and its foreign expansion will be made to give a clear picture how the business will implement its transactions in and out of the country. Vision Statement Hunger Solution & Training Company determines to provide its customers with cassava powder that will be used for food consumption and empower its local farmers and others to engage into re-using their farm lands for growing cassava that will be made into cassava powder and to carry out large-scale farming. Mission Statement The mission of Hunger Solution & Training Company is to provide cassava powder to its customers for consumption in a safe and quiet way. The Company will also empower local farmers by training them and others to re-use their farmlands for growing cassava crop that will be brought to the Company for cassava powder making. Foreign Market and Rationale Since the Company is ideally located in Gardnerville, the suburb of Monrovia, it has resolved to extend its operations to neighboring Ghana, Togo, and Nigeria respectively. The major reason for this extension emanates from that fact that most of the Liberians nationals that fled the decade-long civil war migrated to these countries as refugees and are unemployed, living on subsistent businesses. Besides, the people of these countries (Ghana, Nigeria, and Togo) widely use plantain powder product, yam powder product, and cassava powder product in various ways for consumption. Management Team The Company is run and managed by four persons: John Garven, General Manager, Vonyee Garven, Chief Financial Officer, and Immanuel Garven, Director for Training and Development. Devon Okoro is the Marketing manager, while 25 other workers work in various sectors of the company. Market Segment Hunger Solution & Training Company (HSTC) targets all sectors of people who are found in Monrovia and its suburbs. It also concentrates on those in the rural areas where there are enough land to carry out large-scale farming. It also targets other nationals like the Nigerians, Ghanaians, Togolese, as well as Hispanic populations who are consumers of this product and living in Liberia. The Company’s product will also cater to women, men, children as well as babies. Since the country is underdeveloped and indigent, many of its vast unemployed citizens live on less than an American dollar ($1.00 USD) per day. Besides, the civil fracas contributed largely to deplorable living conditions of its people. The Company also targets to train farmers who migrated from the rural areas of the country and displaced in Monrovia as a result the civil war, and those unemployed wanting to engage in large-scale farming. SWOT Analysis The spirit of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT) of the company is defined relative to other providers in the market, and how the company can identify and capitalize on its strengths, weaknesses, as well as exploring opportunities that can boost the company capabilities and weaknesses that could lead to its collapse, if not worked upon ( Powerhouse Marketing Plans, 2004). In this regards, the following are considered as SWOT analysis of Hunger Solution & Training Company: Strengths: The Company is given several thousand acres of land by government and townspeople in many of the country’s rural towns and villages for large-scale farming. It has a lot of farming machines, like tractors, equipment for sloughing the land, etcetera. There are other tools necessary to enhance smooth farming. It also has volunteer workers who will work for six months without pay. The management team is skilled in the area of business and has the capability to trains others to be productive. The company has donors that cater to 75% of its financial needs. Due to its supportive concept of alleviating the government to reduce the high rate of illiteracy, it is being subsidized by government. Weaknesses: The Company does not have vehicles that are accessible to the bad road condition in terms of conveying its product into some parts of the rural areas as well as its neighboring countries. As the results goods are delayed. Most of its workers are not trained as distributing and operating agents. Opportunities There is an availability of donor organizations in the United States and other developed countries in alacrity to sponsor such venture. NGO’s (non-governmental organizations) are present in the countries wanting to sponsor companies that have such programs. Threats: Bad road condition during the rainy season thwarts the efforts of good delivery of the company’s products. Another disadvantage that is envisaged is government regulations and the willingness of the internally displaced people to go back and settle into their counties of origin. Industry Analysis It is researched and understood that business of this nature is most time not taken on by a minute group of entrepreneurs but rather the government, which creates the means for multiple sponsorship that vehemently reduce its high rate of unemployment and contribute largely to replenishing its economy. The chief food product (cassava product) is a good business that has a huge competitive advantage in other countries that have this product as their chief product of consumption. Form this research survey, it is noticed that there is a need for the establishment of this company in Liberia since the country has none. Products and Services The selection of this product and training by â€Å"Hunger Solution & Training Company† is contingent upon my desire to enable everyone to at least afford a day’s meal and to empower people who are unemployed to get a job to do. In this regards, the company is considered as â€Å"light in darkness† for the Liberian people. The product is to be consumed by all of the people of Liberia including children as young as five months and to the elderly as old as eighty-five years. It offers a very cheap price that even the long-time unemployed workers can afford. Marketing Product # 2 Type of Product and its Primary Characteristics The selection of this product (cassava powder) and training by â€Å"Hunger Solution & Training Company† is contingent upon the desire to enable everyone to at least afford a day’s meal and to empower people who are unemployed to get a job to do. In this regards, the company is considered as â€Å"light in darkness† for the Liberian people. The product is consumed by all of the people of Liberia including children young as five months and to the elderly as old as eighty-five years. It offers a cheap price that even the long-time unemployed workers can afford. Beside the training program that is to be initiated and implemented by this company, it would specialize in the production of cassava powder. This product can be made into dumplings, fufu, stews, and gravies. The powder can also be made into bread, and milky pudding, similar to rice pudding. The major specialty it would offer is to create a good taste of preference to all that would use it to satisfy their consumption needs. The company will adapt to the improvement of quality standards so that maximum satisfaction is assured. Due to this, the company will also experiment with other new tenets of flavor that will enrich the taste of the original product, which will be made available to its consumers. An example would be cassava bread, milky pudding, gravies, stews and dumplings. Service Component of the Product Since a product is simply a marketing offering, that can be tangible or intangible and satisfy the consumption wants of the consumers, a service component of a product is the means that is devised to create interest in the mind of the consumer to purchase the product. This can be achieved through advertising the product on electronic or print media, or creating the awareness for purchasing. However, since the company is the sole producer and distributor of this product, it becomes a priority for the company to motivate and satisfy the needs of its consumers. In order to successfully implement this, the company must probe into complaints and dissatisfaction that will ensue from its customers. They must be given first preference and their complaints must be perfectly dealt with to assure them that without them the company will not exist. They will also be given discount like (buy three get one free); this will help to entice more customers including window shoppers and will give the company edge over other competitors. For the training aspect, free six-week training will be made available to those customers who will make the highest purchase of the product. Hence, the type of product that will be marketed by my company will be cassava powder, a product made from grinding dried cassava. This finished product can be made into fufu and other nutritional dish that can satisfy one’s hunger needs. In this regards, the company will become the chief distributors to wholesalers and retailers. There will also be a store operated by the company that will also carry out these sales. This product is one of the best sources of carbohydrates, nutrients that are used to nourish the body. Expansion of the Product to Product Line and Its Depth and Breadth of the Line â€Å"Hunger Solution & Training Company† does not only operate in the production of cassava product at affordable low cost, but also provide Organic Health Care food categorized as dumpling, milky pudding, cassava bread, as well as stews and gravies. The company’s media house offers tangibility of information and theses nutritional products that will go along with its chief product, the cassava powder. The free six-week training program for customers who will make the highest purchases in one month is advantageous for people who will be ready to engage in large-scale farming. Core Business Response to Industry and Market Changes If there is a change in business which may be a drop in sale that may result from market changes, the company may initiate downsizing and create a frictional job until these determining factors of the business are improved. Besides this, opportunities to explore that will contribute to improving the condition of the company’s sales; even in worsening situation will be initiated. Extension of this business will be geared at exploring opportunities that will yield diversification and staunch economic benefits as well as exploring changes that will epitomize response to industry and market changes. Conclusion A good marketing plan involves the use of several ingredients that form the mechanisms in which a person should be fortified with the understanding of the elements of marketing, in order to make a good decision. It is tenets of the company’s vision and mission, foreign market and management team, as well as its market segment and SWOT analysis. A good marketing plan engulfs marketing product which is the bait and tool a company or business entity uses to satisfy the needs and wants of its customers; it is the prerogative of the company to make this product attractive and affordable. As it highlights the service component of the product and how it can be expanded into the product line through its breadth and depth, it pivots core business in response to market changes that will result into diversification and economic benefits. References: Faintuch Cecconello, I. I. (2011). Systemic inflammation, J. J., Bortolotto, L. A., Marques, P. C., Faintuch, J. J., Franà §a, J. I., & and carotid diameter in obese patients: pilot comparative study with flaxseed powder and cassava powder. Nutrition Hospitalaria, 26(1), 208-213. Falade, K. O., & Akingbala, J. O. (2011). Utilization of Cassava for Food. Food Reviews International, 27(1), 51-83. doi:10.1080/87559129.2010.518296 Felgate, M., Fearne, A., Di Falco, S., & Garcia Martinez, M. (2012). Using supermarket loyalty card data to analyse the impact of promotions. International Journal of Market Research, 54(2), 221-240. doi:10.2501/IJMR Johnson, W. (2004). Powerhouse Marketing Plans: 14 Outstanding Real-life Plans and What You Can Learn from Them to Supercharge Your Own Campaigns. AMACOM Là ¼dicke, M. (2006). A Theory of Marketing: Outline of a Social Systems Perspective. University Of St. Gallen, Business Dissertations, 1-204. Marketing & distribution in India. (2000). India Economic Studies, 77. McDonald, M. (2008). Malcolm McDonald on Marketing Planning: Understanding Marketing Plans and Strategy. Kogan Page. , 26(1), 208-213. M. E., M. M. (2006). Marketer of the Year: Wendy Clark. B To B, 91(14), 12.

Coordination Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

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Geotechnical engineering coursework on foundation design Assignment

Geotechnical engineering coursework on foundation design - Assignment Example Use the borehole information to deduce an average SPT (standard penetration test) blow count for the bearing stratum. Then estimate the angle of shearing resistance ï  ¦Ã¯â€š ¢ using the chart by Peck et. al. (1967) in your lecture notes. Adopt the result as the characteristic value ï  ¦Ã¯â€š ¢ K in your design. Also make the following assumptions: This was calculated by using   Ã‚  v  = v0  +  aΔt   , from the Physics Hypertextbook (2011, pgh. 5). We were able to calculate the time using this equation, and we were also then able to find the resistance of ï  ¦Ã¯â€š ¢ (phi’s derivative), or 1/ï  ¦, we could then calculate that ï  ¦Ã¯â€š ¢ = 0.25. Using Eurocode 7 design approach No. 1, check whether a 3.5m x 3.5m footing is satisfactory to guard against the equilibrium limit state (EQU) for overturning being reached. If necessary, re-design the dimensions of the foundation (must be square) to satisfy the above EQU limit state. For this task ignore lateral earth pressures on column/footing and use the following partial factors: Based on your re-designed footing (if found necessary in Task 1) or the original dimensions (if acceptable in Task 1) carry out calculations to verify the GEO (geotechnical) limit state relating to ground strength, under design approach -1. Re-design the footing width if necessary. Refer to your lecture notes for the partial factors and other formulae

Organizing slp Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Organizing slp - Essay Example The process of organizing requires the collective efforts of all stakeholders in an organization, from top management to the most junior of employees. In other terms, managers and employees must work together to come up with the objectives of an organization and create systems that would assist in the achievement of these objectives in an efficient manner (Stephen & Coulter, 2005). A systematic approach that involves critical thinking is required in this process since it creates the executive plan of a company. The Organizing Function The organization design process starts with identification of a strategy from with a clear statement of purpose and vision for an organization. Such a strategy is important as it unites all employees towards achieving their personal and organizational goals. It also encourages actions that are geared towards attaining these goals and discourages activities that go against these objectives (Stephen & Coulter, 2005). Though creating a strategy is a planni ng process and not organizing, it is essential since it brings together all employees and defines roles clearly. Organizational structure is vital since it defines the relationship between people while at the same time defining their roles and responsibilities (Stephen & Coulter, 2005). ... First is work specialization or job enrichment, which refers to the extent to which a business divides its job into distinct tasks (Stephen & Coulter, 2005). By this division, an organization aims at ensuring that demanding jobs are not done by an individual; instead, a job is broken into smaller parts, each handled by different workers (Stephen & Coulter, 2005). Hence, each employee specializes in doing his/her part, which results in reduces job duplication, improved the productivity of every employee, and reduced conflicts among employees where roles are not clearly defined. Work specialty hence improves the overall performance of an organization. The second and third factors are departmentalization and chain of command respectively. Departmentalization, which could be functional, product or geographical, depending on the needs of an organization, should form the basis on which tasks are grouped together. On the other hand, chain of command implies the continuous line of authority, which extends from the top management to the lowest-level employees. In essence, it dictates who reports to who in an organization hence refers to the authority, responsibility and unity of command in an organization (Stephen & Coulter, 2005). The other organizing factors are span of control and centralization or decentralization. Whereas span control defines the number of ranks and managers that an organization has and indicates the number of employees under every manager or supervisor, centralization and decentralization determine the type of control in an organization (Stephen & Coulter, 2005). That is, whether control is by a few people or a large group. There are different designs

Google chrome Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Google chrome - Research Paper Example Its current stable version for Windows is Version 33.0.1750.154 m. It is available for iOS, LINUX, OS X, Android and MAC. (Firtman,  2013, p.  66-67) Google Chrome has the function to save pages that were visited number of times on the homepage of the browser. These pages appear as thumbnails normally below the Google’s search box. One just has to click to the thumbnail to visit the website. This option is not enabled by default. User has to enable it by entering "about:flags" in your Omnibox and then search "Stacked Tabs" on the Flags page. (Rome & Loton,  2013, p.  36-37) This will not let the tabs to squeeze into the browser instead it will stack on top of each other when space runs out. One more thing to know is that, this option is available for â€Å"Windows† only. Circle on the fig. (b) explains the view. Google Chrome is the first browser to have its own task manager like the windows Task Manager. It enables the user to observe the active processes (within Chrome), the amount of memory, CPU, and network resources these processes are consuming. It can be accessed by right clicking on Google Chrome’s title bar. Fig., (c) can ease to understand. Google Chrome by default has this option only to search in its search engine using voice. One can send messages even get direction and can perform other voice related tasks. Google chrome may even reply in the voice if a question is being asked. Only thing to make sure is the correctly working microphone either internal or externally connected. Fig. (d) can explain it. Using Chrome’s address bar type the required thing and hit enter and it will redirect to the required search page automatically. Chrome eliminates the difference between a browser and a search engine by redefining the navigation window. User does not have to use the separate search box for searching the phrase (as shown in Fig., (e) below). Google has integrated most of its services into Chrome. Services like Google

Case Study and 2 General Qustion of scope management Essay

Case Study and 2 General Qustion of scope management - Essay Example Stakeholders are those individual or group that affects the business in one way or another. These include, customers, prospective customers, suppliers, Government, community among others. In our Rolls-Royce case, the stakeholders include, Airbus, Boeing, Turkey’s national airline, Government among others. You need to develop an understanding of the needs of the stakeholders. You need to understand their view about you project and how you can best attract their participation to the project. Understanding how you can communicate with them is also very important. Objective can be defined as the goals that the organization aims at achieving in the course of their business and activities. This can be reflected through mission statements, performance metrics and in situations whereby the organization keeps on reminding the employees on how crucial their work is in the organization. Strategies on the other hand are a planned action that focuses on enabling the organization to achieve its objectives. After a strategy is established, it has to be communicated to the entire organization through the top management, in order to justify it and commit the whole organization to it. An organization can have an objective of increasing the number of customers in a given period of time. For example an organization dealing with online newsletters may have an objective of increasing the number people subscribing for e-newsletter each month by 20%. Project management is an important management tool in a broad aspect of economic activities. Project management can be viewed as an art or a science (Schmidt 144). As an art, project management is concerned with managing and relating to people with an aid of project manager who uses experience and skills in technical situation of each project. As a science, the success of the project depends on proven and repeated processes and technique. Project management is an important tool in

Explain and demonstrate how capital transactions are accounted for in Essay - 1

Explain and demonstrate how capital transactions are accounted for in a partnership - Essay Example These two categories majorly differ in the rights they bestow upon their owners. Common stock is simply the partial ownership of company where an investor buys stocks traded by the company through public offer. Investors may trade these stocks amongst themselves on the secondary market. The primary goal of buying these stocks is to earn dividends should the company make profit. Every common stock is a representation of a certain proportion of ownership in a company. for example if a company has 500,000 shares of common stock and an investor owns 5 of them, then we can say that he or she owns 5/500,000th of the company and same percentage of profit share. Preferred stock just like common stock represents partial ownership in a company. However, preferred stock shareholders do not enjoy other privileges like the voting rights. In this category investors are paid a fixed dividend not based on the number of shares owned. However the company may fail to pay dividends due to the financial challenge. In such cases, dividends of the preferred shareholders are always paid off first before common shareholders. Investors whether common or preferred have the ownership right of the company. A stockholder has a say in the running of the company. The most significant thing about stocks is that it is a high return investment. Stocks whether preferred or common have better return. Both kinds of stock pay dividends. Stocks generally can be a kind of dangerous investment. This is true for both preferred and common stock. Investors can lose all the money if the company runs at a significant loss. One major difference between common stock and the preferred stock is that shareholders with common stock are paid dividends proportional to the number of stock owned by an individual. However preferred stock shareholders are paid fixed dividend. It is beneficial to own preferred stock. This is because as a

Strategic position analysis and strategy evaluation of a Chinese Essay

Strategic position analysis and strategy evaluation of a Chinese organisation - Essay Example It has controlled the business desktop market and PC market with 87 percent of market purchasing desktops and 84 percent PCs from China manufacturers in 2006 (Salter, 2012). Started out in 1984, it is the largest computer manufacturer within China while second largest globally. The name Lenovo, coined in 2004, is a combination of ‘Le’, meaning ‘legend’ and ‘Novo’ which means ‘new’. As the name depicts, the new legendary organization was formed with mission to introduce new and unique products in markets (Liu, 2012). This was followed by the acquisition of the PC Division of IBM in 2005. Acquisition of a company, that was the inventor of the personal computer industry in 1981, lent credibility to Lenovo and enhanced customer exposure. In 2006, Lenovo attained and set up important investments and centers in China and launched its brands outside of China for the very first time. The entire computer business industry in China flourished from $660 billion in the year 2004 to $779 billion in 2007 (Lenovo, 2013). In this paper we critically analyze the strategic position of the company in the relevant industry as opposed to its major competitors and use different tools to assess its performance over the years. LENOVO’S STANDING IN THE INDUSTRY Lenovo deals mainly in manufacturing of laptops, desktops, ultra-books, tablet PCs and other computer accessories such as headphones, microphone, mouse, keyboard, monitors and server machines etc. It achieved a 19 percent share in the world of computers and notepads. Dell and HP account for 21% and 54% of the whole market respectively. As of today, HP is the market leader in manufacturing of PCs, followed by Lenovo, Dell and Acer (Sun, 2012). Few years back, Lenovo was a heavy loss-making concern in 2008; with turnaround performance, today it is a profitable venture flourishing as we speak. However it did so not through implementation of new strategies; instead, it focus ed on toughening the areas where it needs strength and relied on tried and trusted solutions instead of investing into new experimental measures. It is in a rapid expansion mode and has introduced a new strategy, namely ‘PC+’ whereby it shall depart from its core competence of manufacturing PCs and shall diversify horizontally into other type of devices such as mobile data technology without affecting its current products where it excels. Currently, Lenovo is the second largest manufacturer of PCs, holding 13.50% of market share after HP which holds 17.70%, and has a stable sales growth rate of 30%. However, its profits are growing less than proportionate to the industry trend. The market share of Lenovo in PCs sector is growing while those of Dell and Acer are getting lower. Analysts are of the view that soon it shall outperform HP in near future considering its growth rate of 16.6% as shown in 2011. Within China, which serves as home to Lenovo, it holds a market share of 28.80% only which is although the highest but can be easily improved through knowledge of local conditions and cost-reduction programmes. Revenue generated from Chinese markets constitute to 42% of the total sales made annually by Lenovo across the globe (Singh, 2013). The company has a lack of profitability growth which it should counter through economies of scale and innovation. Innovation has always been Lenovo’s saving grace and the amount of research and development budgets and expenditures allocated to this head define how the

Police Ride Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 4000 words

Police Ride - Assignment Example Officer Franz explained that he loved his job and that he loved people, and that he planned to stay with the police force for as long as possible. His career choice was to gain about 3-4 more years of experience on patrol. After that, he would take the civil exam and hopefully move up the ladder in rank. Officer Franz then took a break from answering my questions to explain the numerous safety rules for me to follow, which in all honesty I did not mind, as he truly did seem to have my best interest and safety at heart. I had to wear a standard-issue bulletproof vest, which brought home the reality of the ride-along immediately due to the heaviness of the garment. Officer Franz also explained that I would not be allowed to get out of the car at any time during the ride-along, and again stressed safety above everything else. The area he would be patrolling (with me along) was known as Zone 104, which was primarily a college area, with burglary and robberies being somewhat common calls received. He explained that though anything could come up, most often other than those two types of incidents were calls in which adults were possibly taking advantage of college students, college students throwing loud parties and breaking the local noise ordinances, and local juveniles making mischief. Since it was not a high-crime area, he explained that he would be patrolling alone, as was department procedure, though he did emphasize that two officers patrolled together in the high-crime areas. The shift then began with a roll call for all officers, which lasted about 15 minutes. Most of this involved a report from the previous shift, letting the officers know what to be on the lookout for. Areas of interest, including any to watch closely, are passed on from one shift to another for continuity and continuance in investigations. During the ride-along, I had the opportunity to see police procedure in action three times. Two of the incidents that occurred were minor traffic viola tions, yet they gave me an opportunity to ask questions about procedures behind them. The third incident of alleged gang-rape was not minor and in fact caused me to have to remain with Officer Franz an hour longer than my shift was originally scheduled due to its nature, however, upon explanation, I believe you will agree with me that there was no way to avoid this happening. The first incident was a traffic accident involving two vehicles. Officer Franz handled this quite speedily and professionally. He took the car information and licenses of both drivers and ran it through his computer, which turned up nothing in the way of background information that would cause either of them to be placed under arrest. Given this information, Officer Franz then gave both drivers their information back along with a police report number and an incident number and sent both on their way. I found it interesting to learn that there was a keyboard printer in the patrol car. Officer Franz explained it s uses, which the main use is for printing out tickets and citations. He also explained that there was a central computer program used by the police force, Intel, which kept them informed about data available from crimes in the surrounding area. For example, there was a car stolen in Colony and had he pulled over a car with the same make or model.

12 Angry Men by Reginald Rose Essay Example for Free

12 Angry Men by Reginald Rose Essay When reading the play 12 angry men, is it hard to ignore the prominent character- the 8th Juror. As the plot unfolds, the reader notices that Juror #8 is the only one among the 12 who really understands the seriousness of the situation at their hands. At the very beginning of the play, you can see that there is no sympathy towards the boy accused of murder. And why should it be? All the evidence that was brought up in the court room has crushed the defense and the boys chances on the trial. The prosecution made it clear that the boy is guilty. In fact, too clear- The defense was helpless and left many holes in their case. Thats why in the initial vote done by the jurors, everybody votes guilty (against the boy) except for #8. And here we see the first importance of #8: because of his reasonable doubt the jury hadnt found the boy guilty at the first 10 minutes of their debating, which would have ended the trial. #8 did not necessarily believe the boy was innocent, but he understood that if he raised his hand at that vote- it would all end. They will not have a chance to discuss the case, and it will, in his eyes, belittle the value of human life. Furthermore, we can see that #8 is a key character in many other parts of the play. After starting to talk about the case, some of the other jurors got mad and tried to convince #8 to vote guilty and end the discussion. Yet, he stayed calm and tried to continue debating in spite of their efforts to convert him. After realizing that he is standing alone against them, he called for another vote, in which he will not participate (a rather questionable action, considering he had not yet spoke out the contradictions that he had found in the prosecutions case). This was a rather bold step, but it paid out because of #9, who changed his vote to not guilty because of his respect towards #8 and #8s courage. We see that despite the efforts the 11 jurors made, #8 stuck to his position and allowed the continuation of the play. At page 26 we see another contribution to the unfolding of the case- Juror #8Â  brings up the question whether the old man (who had testified about hearing the accused boy shouting Im going to kill you) could really hear what he had clamed he heard. #8 makes the brilliant connection between two pieces of separate testimonies and proves (as much as it can be proved) that it was not possible for the old man to hear that. One by one he shattered the so-called facts, as he proved that Sometimes the facts that are staring you in the face are wrong. He develops the issue with the 15-seconds walk the old man apparently took, the eyeglasses marks next to the testifying womans eyes and many more. You can say that juror #8 has an additional importance to the play, in the terms of his character and personality. He shows a side that the jurors could not see- he tried to put himself in the boys shoes and see the case from a different perspective. By doing that, he showed the other jurors how prejudice can prevent people from seeing the truth (or in their case- judge in a fare manner). You can honestly say that if it were not for him, the boy would have been put to death for sure. He may only be an architect, but he presented his arguments like a lawyer and proved his theories throughout the play. He avoided being personally involved and let his sharp and lucid mind lead him and the rest of the jury on their way to solve the case.

Tools and Techniques for Interactive Website

Tools and Techniques for Interactive Website M2 you must write a report to explain the tools and techniques you used in the creation of your interactive website. I used Adobe muse to create my website because of the flexibility and usefulness of the software. I have used this because it is very simple to use and to add any text, images or any tools to the website easily. When creating my website there were many tools and techniques I used to create my website and making it interactive. Adding a search bar: Search bar is really important and websites need to have a search bar as it makes it easier for the users to find something quickly. In order to create a search bar in adobe muse you will need a Google account. Then you can easily create a search engine and also you can edit it as well and when you done just click on get code .You will get a code and you need to go back to the website and just paste the code and it will occur a search bar like this. Navigation bar: Navigation bar is very useful as it helps the user to navigate the site easily; it makes the site look more professional and attractive so it can attract the audience to view the page. To add a navigation bar you need to click on Widgets library then it will appear a small window and you just need to click on Menus. Its up to you if want a horizontal or vertical menu just click on it and it will come up like this . Slideshow: Slideshow is a really useful tool to organise and compress information. By using a slideshow you can easily showcase images and can show much more information and it allows accessing the information quickly. This is a good tool to make the website more appealing and eye catching. To add a slideshow you will need to click on Widgets library and it will appear a window showing different tools. You just need to click on Slideshows and it will show you different options. You can choose any from the list and then click on it. It will come up like this. Insert image- This tool is used to insert any kind of image file on the website. This is a very important tool as it helps to make the website visually engaging by catching the users attention and makes it a bit more interactive and interesting. In order to insert an image, you need to click on File and then just click on place and it will take you to the image file where you have saved all the images and just select the image and click on open . It will come up like this. If you have more images to add just repeat this step. Hotspot: Hotspots work almost the same as links. This is useful as it helps the users to access the website quickly. Too add hotspot on the slideshow you just need to click on the image first, then on the top you need to click on the arrow and it will show you a drop down menu like this. Link: This tool is used to link all the page and media together. So the user can navigate through the website hyperlinks are put in place to help the user to get from one page to another. I have linked all of my pages together by using the hyperlinks, also I have made sure that all of the text that I have written is easy to read and easy to get to as well as the visible links to navigate each of the hyperlinks within my website. I used hyperlinks to allow the users to navigate around the website. To add hyperlinks on the text you will need to highlight the text first and then click on the hyperlinks arrow and it will show you a dropdown menu and this will allow you to add the hyperlinks on the text. Html: I used HTML coding when creating the website. I used it when copying the embed codes for the search bar and radio button list and using the code feature of adobe muse  to add these to the website so that users are able to see research the product . To insert an html code you will need to find the suitable Rollovers: Rollovers are buttons on a website that change when the cursor moves over it. Rollovers make the website look better and make it easier for the users to use the menu bar. This is because the button can changes the colour to make the website more exciting. The rollover shows that user that it is a button and that it is hyperlinked. In order to do this you can just need to click on the label and it will show you few options and then you need to click on Rollover The widgets library is really useful as you can see in the screenshot you can use different tools from to create different thing. So if you can click on the buttons it will allow you to add buttons, if you click on the menus it will allow you to add menus on the page and also if you click on the social you will be able to add different social media widgets. Master Page: A master page is like a background that you can quickly apply to many pages. If you add any objects on a master page on all pages with that master applied. Adding extra pages: I have added extra pages because they work very well for giving users a visual map of where to go. To add extra pages you just need to click on the small plus icon and it will show you a blank page and to add more pages just repeat this. I have also used some of these tools. The first tool I have used from the tool bar is the Selection tool to move objects around like images, texts etc. I have also used the text tool to create text frame and typed inside it and the last tool I have used from the toolbar is the rectangle tool and which allows drawing rectangle boxes. So you can use these tools to make the website layout professional. I have also used text tool to make the texts more visible and easy for the users to read. I have used different fonts as the font on a website is very important as it shows the style of the website I have made the texts big enough for the users so they wont have any problem understanding the text. I have also used colour to make the website looks more appealing and eye catching, so by using these tools you can easily modify I have also used the color tool to colour the texts, boxes etc. and also to make it more visible and noticeable for the users to notice. In order to add colour just click on the colour tool and it will allow you to add colour into anything. Animation: I have also used animated slide in text to make the website looks more professional. To do this you just need to go to internet and find the Html code and then insert the code into the box and click ok. The plan mode: There are four different plan modes. I have used the plan mode; the plan mode is the structure of the site or the site map. The design mode where you can edit the pages and add different tools. So if you click on the Design it will allow you to add tools on the pages and make some changes etc. Also the Preview mode allows you to review the page and you can see what you have done and it allows accessing the tools you have used on the pages. The last is the publish mode I didnt use that mode, it allows you to upload the website to the business catalyst and can easily view it on online. Microsoft PowerPoint: I have used Microsoft PowerPoint to remove the background of the images. To make it fit with pages I had to use PowerPoint because you can easily remove the background of the image in a PowerPoint and its much faster than Photoshop and its very easy to do it. Structure Diagrams: The stricture diagram for website shows how website will linked webpages are access and stucturesd. The websites usually only uses three different structures: linear, hierarchical and matrix. Structure diagram helped me to plan how I wanted the pages to be structure. The structure diagram helped me to get started fast and I have made the website in a hierarchical way because it is structures with each web page and linked with a number of different pages. The hearicaial is a good way for the user to access the website; as the hierarchy gets higher, the content is more refined by the user is trying to locate. Story Board: Before even construct my website a plan was needed in order to make sure I knew what was to be put on the website. After this, through the use of a storyboard it made it easy to construct a website based on the designs. From the story board and planning of my website. I finally came to the end of the website and I realised that at first it seemed like a very long process when I started making the website it helped a lot as I could easily reference to make sure that my initial ideas we all included. Mood boards: Mouldboard also helped a lot when I was constructing the website. This helped me to make sure what colour, texts and images would be the best for the website and would make it look professional and eye catching. Through the use of mood board I made the website looks professional.

Gender Based Theories of Crime

Gender Based Theories of Crime Abstract The swift change in power is constant in today’s society. While some researchers do claim that men have a tight grip over the standards of living, women are making a drastic upturn in control and dominance. Since societies have been changing with the understandings of rights and privileges, the conflict of authority arises between genders where one will feed off of the other’s emotions to enable specific behaviors, like criminality and delinquency. By seeing certain issues with society between men and women, one can identify gender as another common source to defining the true criminal deviant. This paper will explain several gender-based theories, the variables influencing the studies, the aspects of these theories, and the policy implications that can assist conflicted individuals. Keyword(s): gender-based theory, men, women, criminality, dominance, feminism Criminological Theory: Chapter Ten Gender-Based Theories Since the dawn of time and development of all forms of recording history, men have been the dominant class in society. With the use of weapons, fighting for honor and glory, and being seen as a peacekeeper for home and country, men are revered as the solid ground at the heart of the nation. However, with the rise of women in the archetypal ladder of power, a conflict with gender control has been constant throughout time. Because of this instability to have a dominant gender, many theorists have tried to rationalize behaviors for both, but the bias between one another has created issues between patriarchal living and feminism. Main Idea of Gender-Based Theories The main idea of the gender-based theories is that society, as a whole, is considered to be patriarchal, or male-based. This establishes that society empowers males in every aspect of social interaction. For many societies like the United States and England, this is proven to be true due to the implementation of human rights by men, the translation of various texts including the Holy Bible by men, and most criminological theories being researched and conducted by men. This allows men to be higher in power over women, and have more to say within society towards contributions and changes with their developmental background. However, feminist perspectives of these theories believe that males do not understand the importance of gender and sex roles in society (Williams McShane, 2014). Complex or Abstract? The perspectives of the gender-based theories would be categorized as complex due to the variety of ideas concerning these theories. For example, the five developments in the perspectives of criminology involve varying viewpoints in radical, liberal, Marxist, socialist, and post-modern feminism. These developments have been applied to criminology to make attempts and summarize existing criminological work into these perspectives (Williams McShane, 2014). However, the main assumption towards a link between liberation and crime has never been fully established and proven. There may be opportunities to liberation from crime, but the offender must be able to work for those goals, and attempt to change themselves as a dual-edged sword: liberating one’s heart to liberate one’s mind and conscience, freeing them from guilt and any form of shame after the crime has already been committed. What Are We Studying? The interdisciplinary natures of this theory involve studies conducted by notable scholars like Freda Alder. Alder believed when woman obtained better positions in society and took on more traditionally â€Å"male† roles, they will experience a shift in behaviors towards masculinity (Williams McShane, 2014). She determined that this would be the result of women committing more traditional male crimes like violent crimes and white collar crimes. Despite her ideas being interesting to common public, research has not found much evidence to support her claim. In 1979, however, researchers Stephen Cernkovich and Peggy Giordano observed delinquent behavior and attitudes supporting women’s liberation and did not find a relationship. Instead, they found juveniles with the most liberated attitudes were less delinquent (Williams McShane, 2014). This would assume that prison systems relying on rehabilitation are proven to work, those offenders who are given a second chance can b e successful in the real world after committing a crime at a young age. Theorists of Gender-Based Theory There are many theorists that contributed to gender-based theories, but one prominent theorist was Freda Alder. After receiving her various degrees, including her Ph.D. in sociology, from the University of Pennsylvania, Alder taught for many years at Rutgers University and helped establish one of the first schools of criminal justice (Williams McShane, 2014). Through all of her prestigious awards and acknowledgements, she helped develop a basis for gender-based theories, but also to the differences between paternalism and feminism within society. Although research has yet to prove her claims, female criminality is a prominent field of criminology advancing in today’s society, where constant change flourishes. Variables of Gender-Based Theory The dependent variable in this instance, or theory, is the person being studied. The independent variable, however, would be heading towards differences in gender. For example, when a woman strives for equal treatment in all aspects of life, this would lead towards the radical feminist perspective of the theory. The woman needs to decide to act properly with the new, equal status in life, and as a result, can continue to gain momentum in life. On the other hand, she can decide to deviate from what is right and normal, becoming greedy and resulting in criminal behavior. Qualitative Versus Quantitative Based on the information provided from the text and the research gathered, this theory would be considered qualitative. There are many perspectives studied within the gender-based theories. Studied conducted by Klein in 1973 show that females’ behavior were explained by simple concept and motives. However, there is no substantial evidence proving that females are less complex than males in committing crimes. Several theorists have maintained that females are basically non-criminal, but gender is one of the least researched areas of criminology (Williams McShane, 2014). This is proven to be a qualitative characteristic of all research as no statistics are shown and the observation is shown through data collection and analysis. Gender-Based Theory: The Good and the Bad When reflecting on the gender-based theories, one positive to society is making people aware, or sensitizing them, to criminological behaviors from a man’s perspective. This is generally admissible to prove how a criminal thinks, and it can also gather data on the person most associated with being an offender. However, when using only a man’s point of view, the determination of criminological behaviors is strictly biased away from women, where criminal behaviors are increasing every year. In essence, taking account of the feminist perspective and analyzing criminal behaviors is important as woman are committing more crimes where police work expands to all forms of law enforcement, and where the criminal is more diverse to the community instead of being towards one stereotype. Macro-Theory Versus Micro-Theory This theory is to be viewed as a micro-theory. A variety of theorists have conducted studies in this perspective of gender. There are many aspects of gender theory, but it is unrealistic to place it in the accurate classifications as other theories discussed earlier. Gender theories may be considered structural because they try to explain the differences in the rates of male and female crime. What can be established is the relationship between gender and crime, but also how gender-based theories are conflict-oriented, where the problems exist within the individual to determine the crime (Williams McShane, 2014). A majority of these theorists, however, have tried to explain crime from a deterministic point of view. This would maintain that predestination exists within the individual, and there is no free will to make that person decide towards or away from criminal behavior (Williams McShane, 2014). This conflict-oriented bias within gender-based theories gives men and women the ass umption that resistance from criminal behavior is futile, but also that they have no true correlation with positivist theories mentioned in earlier chapters. Personal Reflection In my opinion, there are some good and bad points to the concepts or philosophies of the feminist movements. It is a good thing that the feminist movement has made some leaps and bounds over the past several years. Increases have been made in employment and wages, which narrow the gap in the differences of men and women while occupations are the same standard for their field of work. However, where do we, as a diverse and adapting society, draw the line? For example, in today’s society, we have many people – men and women – giving their lives to fight for their country whereas most women during World War II were at home or in the textile factory working like the men to support the war and promote positive morale for the soldiers fighting overseas. Men and women are innately different in physical capabilities as well as behavioral mindset. Men are typically seen as stronger, more composed soldiers for the country’s army, but not all men are aggressive or co urageous to step onto the battlefield. Women, at the same time, are given the opportunity to be treated equally in every aspect of life. I do not think it is realistic because society, as a whole, was raised with the chivalrous brutality enforced by their fathers while women were taught to be delicate and needed to be treated accordingly. If a man was unable to give respect for the woman, then shame would be brought upon that man until he does so with kindness and respect. Policy Implications The general consensus is the reforming of society to abolish patriarchal domination could result in improved conditions for all, including women, and that crime would lessen as a result to changes in authority in society. Feminists would be able to provide many provisions and access to opportunities like education and employment, and other countermeasures would be created as a result. This would include modifications to economic structures by strengthening and enforcing child support measures, teen pregnancy intervention methods, child care socialization, amending marriage laws, and emphasizing the importance of gender relations (Williams McShane, 2014). One progressive method to enforcing change within genders is the use of alternate homes and residential treatment centers. Studies have suggested that young women express relief at being removed from abusive homes, but many people resort to â€Å"out-of-home† placement for girls than boys (Williams McShane, 2014). With the works of the Alternative House, a program stationed in Virginia, their goal is to â€Å"keep young people safe [while] providing them with the opportunity to grow and achieve their full potential† (Alternative House, 2014). This would include methods of education and employment until adulthood occurs, and the factors of a better childhood are presented to them in various ways like therapy and crisis intervention hotlines. Like other countermeasures to fighting delinquency, the Alternative House approaches youths who are most likely to deviate into criminal behavior in order to deter them from that lifestyle. Another resourceful method to deterring delinquency for genders is the use of local intervention methods for helping pregnant teens. From a local perspective, the one common outreach program is the Florence Crittenton program, where provision are given to young, at-risk pregnant women in hopes to â€Å"help them become self-sufficient and responsible mothers† (Florence Crittenton Programs of South Carolina [FCPSC], 2014). This proves to be reaching out to one method of community-oriented outreach, but also as a way to provide assistance to at-risk women within a society dominated by patriarchal control. By providing assistance like medical care and pre-natal care for the woman and the child, a family can be started, and the outlook for that family is ten times greater than before. References Alternative House. (2014). Alternative House Mission Vision. Retrieved from  http://www.thealternativehouse.org/ Florence Crittenton Programs of South Carolina. (2014). â€Å"Our Mission-Help for Pregnant  Teens.† Retrieved from http://florencecrittentonsc.org/about-uspregnant-teens/our-mission/ Williams III, F.P. McShane, M.D. (2014). Criminological Theory (6th Ed.).  Upper Saddle River: Pearson/Prentice Hall.

Michelangelo Buonarroti Essay -- essays research papers

Michelangelo Buonarroti   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni, was a very influential man of his time and of all time. Michelangelo was born on March 6, 1475, in a small village a part of the Florentine territory known as Caprese. His father originally did not support his artistic ability, but just a while after Michelangelo’s 13th birthday, his father allowed him to be an apprentice for a famous painter, Domenico Ghirlandaio. Unfortunately there was some conflict between Michelangelo and Ghirlandaio so after a year Michelangelo was no longer his apprentice and he denies Ghirlandaio influenced his works.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Later he stayed with the very powerful Medici family for two years. Lorenzo de’ Medici was a great patron of the arts who gave Michelangelo a chance to expand his artistic talents. He learned his sculpting skills from Bertoldo di Giovanni, who was trained by the great Donatello. He also expanded his education and gained knowledge of poetry and philosophy. Medici also had Michelangelo study the Classic Ancient Roman and Greek arts. Michelangelo became so excellent in Classic Roman arts that his works passed as Roman originals. Due to his talents in the ancient art Michelangelo was present at the excavation of the giant sculpture of Laocoà ¶n.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Michelangelo was a very religious man which is shown in many of his paintings. Later in his career he portrayed a bit more of his own idea of ...

Schenck v. United States (1919) :: essays research papers

Schenck v. United States (1919) The Schenck court case of 1919 developed out of opposition to U.S. involvement in World War I (1914-1918). Antiwar sentiment in the United States was particularly strong among socialists, German Americans, and religious groups that traditionally supported antiviolence. In response to this outlook, Congress passed the Espionage Act of 1917. This law provided heavy fines and jail terms for interfering with U.S. military operations or for causing or attempting to cause insubordination or disloyalty in the military. In addition, the act made it illegal to obstruct recruitment efforts of the U.S. armed forces. Among the many Americans convicted of violating the Espionage Act was Charles Schenck, general secretary of the Socialist Party of the United States. In 1917 Schenck sent copies of a letter urging resistance to the military draft to 15,000 men who had been drafted but not yet inducted into the U.S. military. Schenck's letter claimed that the draft violated the 13th Amendment to the Constitution, which abolished slavery and prohibited involuntary servitude. Schenck argued that forced enrollment into the military was a form of involuntary servitude and therefore should be prohibited. The letters also claimed that businesses had conspired to lead the United States to war, against the interests of average Americans. Schenck advised readers to assert their individual rights by opposing the draft, but he did not directly promote violence or avoidance of the draft laws. Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., delivered a judgment that established guidelines for evaluating the limits of free speech. In Schenck’s case, Court had to decide whether the First Amendment protected his words, even though it might have had the power to cause opposition to the draft. The First Amendment states that "Congress shall make no law...abridging the freedom of speech." The Court concluded that because Schenck's speech was intended to create opposition to the draft, he was not protected by the First Amendment. Holmes considered the context of Schenck's speech as well as its intent. In his opinion, he created a new legal test: the clear and present danger test; that was designed to identify when certain forms of speech were not protected by the First Amendment.

Analyzing the Storm. Essay -- essays research papers

The setting in this story creates the perfect environment for an adulterous affair. In Kate Chopin's "The Storm", Chopin not only creates the perfect setting but also uses the setting as a symbol of the affair. Most likely occurring in the late 1800's and taking place in the deep South, the story gives an account of an adulterous affair between Calixta, wife to Bobinot and mother to four year old Bibi, and Alcee, husband to Clarisse, during a terrible rain storm. The presence of the storm is not merely coincidental. It is the driving force behind the story and the affair. As the storm begins, climaxes and ends so does the affair and the story. From the opening we see that Chopin intends to use the storm to move the story forward. The story begins with Bobinot and Bibi inside the local store. As they attempt to leave they notice storm clouds approaching the town. Deciding to wait out the storm, they remain inside. Meanwhile, Calixta is at home sewing and unaware of the storm. Soon realizing the storm is approaching, she begins frantically running about the house closing windows and doors and retrieving clothes left on the porch. Seeking shelter from the rain, Alcee approaches as Calixta steps on to her front porch. Chopin writes, "As she stepped outside, Alcee Laballiere rode in at the gate" (96). By providing a terrible storm Chopin creates an ingenious setting for this chance meeting. Chopin's intentions become even more apparent im...

Police Corruption Essay

Introduction Police corruption must be taken into account as a likely social cost of the legislative creation of ‘victimless’ crimes: this is a generally accepted conclusion of extensive academic and official investigations, which has had a significant impact on discussions of gambling control policy in the USA (Morin Commission 1976: 40-2). Such willingness to discuss corruption and its effects contrasts with the official reluctance to do so and the defensive reaction which allegations of corruption provoke in the UK (Doig 1984). Corruption and allegations of corruption have occurred regularly in British police history, and gambling has often been involved. In the 1820s and 1830s, lotteries and gaming were the sources (Miller 1977: 126-48). In 1877, a betting scandal was at the heart of the first major corruption scandal to confront the reorganized ‘New Police’ (Clarkson and Richardson 1889: 261). There is little dispute that, until 1960, police-bookmaker relations of varying degrees of impropriety were normal practice and that their existence was no secret in working-class communities. According to Harry Daley, who served in the Metropolitan Police from the 1920s to the 1940s: Collection was all too easy. The bookmaker was usually down an alley or behind a pub. You approached slowly, gazing straight ahead with what you hoped looked like dignified indifference, and wiped up the half crown from the ledge on which he had placed it before getting out of the way for you to pass. Brewers’ draymen, window cleaners, painters and decorators, gossiping women, all suspended their activities for a moment or two to watch the familiar ceremony . . . I wish they could have sent the money to me in a plain envelope, as I knew they did to my Superintendent . . . ( 1986: 94-5). Stage-managed arrests were part of the arrangement, as a witness from ‘the other side’, Arthur Harding, explained: It was what they called ‘taking a turn’. In some divisions it was three times a year, to show the authorities at Scotland Yard when they made up their statistics that the police were doing their job. In every division the police had two men whose job it was to take the bookmakers in. They didn’t have to hide in a cart or anything like that, they’d come round quite polite and say, ‘Albert, stick a man up tomorrow, we’re having a raid’ (Samuel 1981: 180). 15 Corrupt police-bookmaker dealings were a matter of substantial concern during the period of this study not only for the 1923 Select Committee, but also for two Royal Commissions on aspects of policing. It will be argued that this issue had a substantial influence on policy discussions. However, it was seldom discussed frankly: for it to be an acceptable topic of public debate, it had to be presented in the restrictive frame of reference which is generally applied to corruption in British public life. This is constructed around an official rhetoric of ‘rotten apples’ and ‘black sheep’ which generates superficial explanations, minimizes the scale of the problem, and stresses that the authorities are vigilant and committed to the eradication of corruption (Doig 1984: 382-6). When publicity meant that police corruption could not be publicly ignored, the damage which it caused could be contained by dealing with it within this frame of reference. It was rarely in anyone’s interest to challenge this approach. The police and the Home Office were obviously content not to do so. Despite offers of immunity from prosecution, the bookmakers thought that no good would come from being candid about their relations with the police. Finally, it was an awkward issue for anti-gamblers to raise: while they became more forthright in later years, this remained an issue which had to be broached very carefully if anything other than official defensiveness was to be expected in response. Therefore, it would be naà ¯ve to expect an accurate picture of police corruption to emerge from the official reports and papers to which access is possible. The present intention is not to attempt to produce such a picture: rather, it is necessary to examine critically the way in which police corruption was discussed in the official hearings and reports of the period in order to found the argument that corruption was a matter of considerable concern to those involved in the reconsideration of gambling control policy, and that it was a vital, even if unarticulated, factor in the discussions of police-community relations which will be examined in Sections v and vii. Such sources are useful for this purpose so long as one is ‘prepared to work â€Å"against the grain of the material†Ã¢â‚¬Ëœ and to be ‘continuously aware of how categories and opinions are distorted by the investigative procedure’ (Harrison 1982: 308, quoting Samuel). The qualification ‘officially’ is vital here: the point which this counter-position obscures is that when police officers and others talked about harm to the ‘moral character’ of the force, a reference (which did not have to be made explicit) was being made to the threat and the effects of police corruption. Up to this point, the term ‘police corruption’ has been used loosely: before going further, it is important to note the distinction between two broad categories of police deviance. The tendency of many commentators to treat police corruption simply in terms of bribery as a financial transaction between two individuals (or groups of individuals) can imply succumbing to the official rhetoric about corruption (Shearing 1981: 4). Shearing differentiates between ‘corruption’, defined as activity producing personal, normally financial, gain for a police officer, and ‘organizational police deviance’, defined as activity ‘designed to further organizational objectives rather than to promote financial gain’ (1981: 2). Police culture has habitually distinguished between corruption in relation to serious crimes and in relation to minor ‘regulatory’ offences (Devereux 1949: 81). In the latter case, corruption is seen not as indicative of a deeper venality, but as an acceptable method of negotiating a tolerable everyday relationship with the public. The important, more general point shown here is that law enforcement is only one of several, possibly competing police objectives. As the Morin Commission pointed out, police discretion ‘is broad enough to permit the establishing of policies aimed at achieving goals other than that presumed to be intended by statute–total prohibition’ (1976: 38). These include improvement of the police’s image and public order maintenance. Indeed, the latter is more fundamental to policing than law enforcement: Crime fighting has never been, is not, and could not be the prime activity of the police . . . The core mandate of the police, historically and in terms of concrete demands placed upon the police is the more diffuse one of order maintenance (Reiner 1985: 171-2).   THE NATURE OF POLICE CORRUPTION An Example of Chicago Police Corruption Case Lazarus Averbuch lived on the near West Side, teeming with poor Russian Jews by day, but at night a saturnalia of vice and crime. Cocaine addicts with miserable blank stares shuffled in and out of Adolph Brendecke’s drugstone on Sangamon Street for their daily fix, issued discreetly under the counter for 25 cents a bag. Between Morgan and Green Streets Mike â€Å"de Pike† Heitler ran a white slave racket under the watchful eyes of Inspector Edward McCann, a bull-necked, rough-hewn policeman whose greatest joy was playing cribbage in the back room of the Des Plaines Street Station. [1]A small gold cross was affixed to the front of his vest, for McCann was a man of God who tried to instill in his nine children the Christian virtues. â€Å"I’d say I was glad to be suspended and have a chance to stay at home and play with the kids,† he said in reply to State’s Attorney John Wayman, whose unrelenting crusade uncovered the truth about McCann. For months McCann exacted tribute from the highest gambler bosses to the lowliest streetwalker. Protection money was delivered in a leather satchel in accordance with instructions given to Louis and Julius Frank, two of Hitler’s men. The price of doing business on the West Side in 1909 rose to $550 a month, a sum that the criminal panders finally refused to pay. With his money McCann purchased a stable of prized race horses. â€Å"If I had been grafting I wouldn’t have driven so many people out of business,† he said, failing to add that only the rebellious elements who refused to pay up were banished from the district. McCann was indicted by a grand jury, convicted, and sent to the Joliet Penitentiary on September 24, 1909. It was one of the hardest-fought cases in the court system up to that time. Wayman based his case on the testimony of West Side underworld figures, which raised some doubts about McCann’s guilt or innocence. After the prison doors slammed shut the friends of the inspector circulated a petition urging the governor to grant executive clemency. Thirty thousand people, including church leaders, settlement workers, businessmen, and former President Theodore Roosevelt, who had served for a time as police commissioner of New York, affixed their signatures to the document. Colonel Roosevelt cited McCann’s sterling record before he was sent to the West Side as a reason for an official pardon. Indeed, the scorecard, at least on the surface, showed more hits than misses. Since taking over as inspector of the West Side District in March 1908, McCann was credited with abolishing dozens of immoral houses, the return of 200 errant girls to their parents, curtailment of the cocaine traffic, enforcement of the 1:00 AM closing, and the regulation of concert halls and the five-cent theaters that screened lewd and suggestive movies. Social worker at Hull House lauded McCann for his efforts, and municipal judges, juvenile officers, and church officials marveled at the clean-up of the Des Plaines District. â€Å"Don’t give me all the credit for the work,† McCann protested. â€Å"It’s the men. They know I’m behind them and they do the work. I’m behind them because I know the right men are behind me. I will say this: the day of the man with the pull has passed at this station. I’m not allowing poor ignorant foreigners to be robbed by grafters who say they have a pull.† McCann, like so many other powerful police officials, was able to pick and choose his partners in the vice club. When the indictments were handed down and the inspector went off to jail, there were hundreds of city officials and church reformers who chose not to believe that such a fine man could be guilty as charged. Thus, with an eye toward saving McCann’s police pension, Governor Charles Deneen commuted the sentence just 30 days before his retirement benefits were scheduled to expire (Duis, 1978). The Republican state’s attorney had sent to prison a man of his own party, an uncommon event in those partisan days. He was roundly criticized from all quarters, while McCann was perceived to be a hero who had been railroaded by an ambitious politician. It was a disturbing setback for the reformers, who counted on the elected officials to uphold the will of the court system and punish wrong-doers. With greater power vested in the district inspectors, two predictable forms of police corruption surfaced: arrangements and events. The illicit money and gifts that McCann received over a period of months was an ongoing arrangement. The short-term, single acts of corruption, such as the one-time payoff given to 15 officers assigned to Comiskey Park on Labor Day, 1911, can be thought of as an event. Eyewitnesses charged the police with accepting $50 bribes from a gang of sidewalk bookies betting on the Gotch-Hackenschmidt wrestling match inside the ballpark. In both instances, external factors stimulated the detection and punishment since the police, either through their own inertia or because of direct influence from the chief, seemed unwilling to initiate an internal investigation. These two unrelated incidents of police malfeasance suggest that the department could not satisfactorily manage its own affairs unless the proper internal controls were in place. In direct contrast to the police, the Chicago Fire Department remained relatively free of scandal from the time the City Council took the budgetary responsibility away from the Police Commission in 1874 until 1903, when a Civil Service probe revealed some illegal hiring practices. From 1879 until his retirement in 1901, the Fire Department was run by Chief Denis Swenie, a blunt, hard-working administrator who feared no political reprisals. The firefighters were, in the words of Mayor Harrison, â€Å"Denny’s boys.† One reason Swenie was able to maintain the department on a stable, efficient basis was his ambitious plan to create a unit within the rank-and-file to guard against corruption. In 1880 the Department of Inspection was organized and Chicago profited from an honest, capable Fire Department. Not until 1960 and the reform superintendency of Orlando W. Wilson was such a mechanism put in place in the Police Department. Without these necessary controls the police of the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century were essentially reactive in their response to a public outcry. THE POLICE AND ROTTEN APPLES In its investigation of police corruption in New York City in the early 1970s, the Knapp Commission 5 encountered departmental resistance to recognizing the widespread nature of corruption throughout the department, although it was especially flagrant in the gambling and narcotics units. This resistance was expressed in a departmental attitude that the Commission designated as the â€Å"rotten apple† theory of corruption (Knapp Commission, 1972: 6). This theory amounted to an unofficial department doctrine as to how corruption, when exposed, is to be handled. The theory asserts that corruption is a problem of individual misconduct and not something that should reflect on the department as a whole. A police officer involved in corruption is â€Å"a rotten apple in an otherwise clean barrel† (Knapp Commission, 1972: 6). The Commission (Knapp Commission, 1972: 6-7) further argued that the rotten apple theory served two purposes: (1) Department morale required that there be no official recognition of corruption and (2) the department’s image and effectiveness required this official denial. In 1993, the Mollen Commission, which again uncovered corruption in the New York City Police Department 20 years after the Knapp inquiry, encountered this same reluctance by police officials to view corruption in a systemic way. Instead, when corruption surfaced in spite of the â€Å"blue wall of silence,† it was largely viewed in terms of â€Å"rogue officers† and â€Å"pockets† of corruption, rather than as behavior that might be more deeply embedded in police culture. This was clearly the interpretation of events that Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly favored (James, 1993). The police view of crime and disorder in general can be characterized by this â€Å"rotten apple† theory of human nature. In this view crime is a function of evil individuals making bad choices; such choices are apparently made in relative isolation from external factors such as past experience, culture, and society. Crime, like police corruption, is personified, and the solution becomes linked to identifying the individual troublemakers–the â€Å"rotten apples.† This rotten apple view is not unique to the police world view; quite the contrary, it is widely shared in our society. When Rodney King was severely beaten by members of the Los Angeles Police Department in 1991 after he led them on an extended car chase, 6 the question again arose: Was this brutality due to the aggressive tendencies of a handful of officers, or was it more deeply ingrained in the Los Angeles Police Department? Los Angeles Police Chief Daryl Gates apparently subscribed to the â€Å"rotten apple† view, attributing the problems to just a few officers, 300 at most, in a force that had over 8,000 members (Reinhold, 1991). An independent commission that inquired into the King incident, as well as brutality and racism in the department, reported four months later that there were a â€Å"significant number† of officers who repeatedly used excessive force. However, rather than singling out officers or even the chief for blame, the commission viewed the problem as a â€Å"management and leadership failure.† It concluded that there was â€Å"an organizational culture that emphasizes crime control over crime prevention and that isolates the police from the communities and the people they serve† (Reinhold, 1991). There was also evidence that members of this â€Å"problem group† of officers were seldom punished for using excessive force and, in fact, often received glowing evaluations for their performance. Although the Los Angeles commission, like the Knapp Commission before it, provided evidence for a more systemic view of the problem, it is the rotten apple view that typically prevails. While polls showed that most of the U.S. public (whites and blacks) believed the four Los Angeles police officers were guilty (Pope and Ross, 1992), it is not likely that they would have also viewed the King beating as a wider institutional problem of the police. At best, the misconduct of the officers might be attributed to the leadership of the police chief. In fact, Chief Gates was replaced the following year. John A. Gardiner (1977: 68) observed a similar phenomenon in his study of gambling and corruption in Wincanton, where corruption seemed to be an ongoing problem. Periodic efforts to solve the problem, however, always seemed to follow a similar policy of â€Å"throwing the rascals out.† This, of course, is another version of the rotten apple theory in which criminality is viewed as an individual trait, rather than as something that is rooted in wider social forces. The rotten apple theory is another way in which our conventional wisdom conceals or minimizes the harm of white-collar crime Even though criminality is acknowledged, whether it be corruption, police brutality, or some other wrongdoing, the solution is deceptively simple: Get rid of the â€Å"rotten apples† or the â€Å"rascals.† By emphasizing the individual misconduct in white-collar crime, this view obscures the links such behavior may have to its organizational and social context, wider cultural patterns, and ongoing institutionalized practices. Conclusion Certainly, the studies do not establish that the police are permitted to be more corrupt, but the results of this study are consistent with this argument. They hold the view that the police are fundamentally a control force and when political agreement and super-subordinate social relations are endangered, police violence increases devoid of the state overruling on behalf of those victimized. Police violence and other crimes cannot then be understood exclusively in conditions of the micro processes linked to work experiences, work-related subcultures, and the lack of avoidance. There is also a need to position these factors into a traditionally informed macro analysis since this focuses our attention on the necessary role the police play in maintaining social structure, and how in response, they are allowed to go beyond the restrictions. Reference: Clarkson C. T., and Richardson J. H. (1889), Police! (London: Field & Tuer). Daley H. (1986), This Small Cloud (London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson). Devereux E. C. (1949), â€Å"‘Gambling and the Social Structure'†, Ph.D. thesis (Harvard Univ.). Doig A. (1984), Corruption and Misconduct in Contemporary British Politics (Harmondsworth: Penguin). Harrison B. (1982), Peaceable Kingdom (Oxford: Clarendon Press). James George. (1993). â€Å"Kelly Suggests Hearings’ Goal Is a Police-Monitoring Agency.† New York Times (Sept. 30). Knapp Commission. (1972). the Knapp Commission Report on Police Corruption. New York: George Braziller. Miller W. R. (1977), â€Å"‘Never on Sunday: Moralistic Reformers and the Police in London and New York City, 1830-1870†²Ã¢â‚¬ , in D. H. Bayley (ed.), Police and Society (London: Sage), 126-48. Morin Commission (1976), Gambling in America: Final Report of the Commission on the Review of the National Policy toward Gambling (Washington, DC: US Government Printing Office). Perry Duis, 1978. â€Å"The World’s Greatest Fireman†, Chicago Magazine 4 (May). Pope Carl E. and Lee E. Ross. (1992). â€Å"Race, Crime and Justice: The Aftermath of Rodney King.† The Criminologist 17 (Nov.-Dec.): 1, 7-10. Reinhold Robert. (q991). â€Å"Violence and Racism Are Routine in Los Angeles Police, Study Says.† New York Times (July 10) Samuel R. (1981), East End Underworld: Chapters in the Life of Arthur Harding (London: RKP). Shearing C. D. (1981), ‘Introduction’ (Shearing 1981b: 1-8). Gardiner John A. (1977). â€Å"Wincanton: The Politics of Corruption.† In Jack Douglas and John Johnson, eds., Official Deviance, 50-69. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott. [1] Honest McCann or foxy McCann? The Tribune could not decide; See issue of August 1, 1909.

Medical Marijuana Essay

â€Å"Marijuana is the finest anti-nausea medication known to science, and our leaders have lied about this consistently. [Arresting people for] medical marijuana is the most hideous example of government interference in the private lives of individuals. It’s an outrage within an outrage within an outrage†. Peter McWilliams Author and Advocate for Medical Marijuana Medical Marijuana has found its place once again as the medical plant that is recognized for its healing potential and properties. How the Government has suppressed its positive potential and healing powers for over 25 years. With the help from many patients, loved ones, research departments and advocate groups to get the Government’s attention to see and understand that the terminally ill and the sick should not be treated as common criminals. They are only trying to find some peace and serenity in their last days. The struggle and fight that has been going on for the last 25 years against the Government. The people were finally heard, with the legalization of Medical Marijuana. The Government wants to regulate everything for their own best interest, the positive effect of decriminalizing marijuana for the terminally ill and the positive economic benefits for our community. Cannabis Sativa, Marijuana, Weed, Herb, Mary Jane these are just a few names that this little 5 leaf plant goes by. How could this life saving and healing plant get such a bad reputation? When clearly it has nothing but positive powers, people all over the world have been using marijuana for thousands of years. Cannabis has been around since the Garden of Eden, it is even mentioned in the Bible. Yes in the Bible, in Exodus (30:22-23) â€Å"Holy anointing oil, as described in the original Hebrew version of the  recipe in Exodus (30:22-23), contained over six pounds of kaneh-bosem, a substance identified by respected etymologists, linguists, anthropologists, botanists and other researchers as cannabis, extracted into about six quarts of olive oil, along with a variety of other fragrant herbs. The ancient anointed ones were literally drenched in this potent mixture† (Bennett, 2010). â€Å"Marijuana proponents suggest that the recipe for the anointing oil passed from God to Mos es included Cannabis, or kaneh-bosem in Hebrew. They point to versions calling for fragrant cane, which they say was mistakenly changed to the plant calamus in the King James Version of the Bible† (Kari, 2011). Cannabis was good enough for God and Moses, then how come it is not good enough for us now? The United States Government wants to be in control and regulate everything we do as a United State Citizens. Marijuana was once considered a pharmaceutical medication used for a wide verity of reasons. In fact cannabis has a deep rooted history in what is now known as the United States of America. â€Å"Christopher Columbus brought Cannabis Sativa to America in 1492† (420 Milestone History Marijuana, (n.d.), 2010). â€Å"From 1000 to 1500, the use of marijuana spread further. In 1619, a law passed in Jamestown Virginia Colony, which required farmers to grow hemp. The French and British grew hemp in Colonies of Port Royal, Virginia, and Plymouth. Marijuana also became a major trade item between Central and South Asia during this time† (420 Milestone History Marijuana, (n.d.), 2010). The United States also had Presidents’ who grew cannabis. Yes Presidents’, â€Å"in Mount Vernon, George Washington grew hemp as his primary crop in 1797. Also Thomas Jefferson grew hemp as a secondary crop at Monticello. In 1840, medicines with a cannabis base were available in U.S. pharmacies. Hashish was available in Persian pharmacies† (420 Milestone History Marijuana, (n.d.), 2010). Therefore when did it become a crime to cultivate, possess, consume, and dispense marijuana? â€Å"In 1906, the Pure Food and Drug Act was passed in the U.S. and the Food and Drug Administration was formed. This was the first time drugs had any government oversight† (420 Milestone History Marijuana, (n.d.), 2010). â€Å"In 1930, The Federal Government gave control of illegal drugs to the Treasury Department, they created the Federal Bureau of Narcotics. Harry Anslinger a prohibitionist became the first commissioner  in 1930, he held that position until 1962. Anslinger declared war on drugs and effectively shaped America’s view’s and thought’s about marijuana† (420 Milestone History Marijuana, (n.d.), 2010). â€Å"October 2, 1937, Anslinger got Congress to enact the â€Å"Marihuana Tax Act†, which is to imposed registration and reporting requirements and a tax on the growers, sellers, and buyers of marijuana† (Eddy, 2010 p.2). In Eddy’s report he also writes that â€Å"Dr. William C. Woodward, legislative counsel of the American Medical Association (AMA), opposed the measure. In oral testimony before the House Ways and Means Committee, he stated that â€Å"there are evidently potentialities in the drug that should not be shut off by adverse legislation. The medical profession and pharmacologists should be left to develop the use of this drug as they see fit. Two Months later, in a letter to the Senate Finance Committee, he again argued against the act: â€Å"That there is no evidence, however, that the medicinal use of these drugs [cannabis and its preparations and derivatives] has caused or is causing cannabis addiction. As remedial agents they are used to an inconsiderable extent, and the obvious purpose and effect of this bill isto impose so many restrictions on their medicinal use as to prevent such use altogether. Since the medicinal use of cannabis has not caused and is not causing addiction, the prevention of the use of the drug for medicinal purposes can accomplish no good end whatsoever. How far it may serve to deprive the public of the benefits of a drug that on further research may prove to be of substantial value, it is important to foresee†. â€Å"Despite the AMA’s opposition, the â€Å"Marihuana Tax Act† was approved, causing all medicinal products containing marijuana to be withdrawn from the market and leading to marijuana’s removal† (Eddy, 2010 p.2). October 2, 1937, â€Å"On the very day the â€Å"Marihuana Tax Stamp Act† was passed; the FBI and Denver police raided the Lexington Hotel and arrested two people: Samuel R. Caldwell and Moses Baca. Three days later, Caldwell, a 58 year old unemployed laborer, became the first person in the U.S. to be convicted of selling of marijuana without a tax stamp. He was sentence to four years oof hard labor in Leavenworth Penitentiary. Presiding Judge J  Foster Symes, had previously stated that he considered Marijuana to be the worst of all narcotics and vowed to impose harsh sentences for violations of the â€Å"Marihuana Tax Act†. Caldwell was also fined $1,000 for the two marijuana cigarettes that were found in his possession. Baca, who was his customer, was found guilty of possession of Marijuana and was sentenced to 18 months in prison. Both men served their full sentences. Caldwell died a year after his release† (420 Milestone History Marijuana, (n.d.), 2010). This is why that â€Å"we the people† stood up, banded together, and formed  Organizations. People became spokespersons, advocates, â€Å"a voice for the cause†. Take for example, Peter McWilliams. He is the man I quoted in the beginning. â€Å"Peter was a self-help author, who advocated for the legalization of marijuana. He wrote over 40 books including â€Å"How to survive the loss of love†, â€Å"Ain’t nobody’s business if I do†. Along with poetry and how to use microcomputers. In 1996, he was diagnosed with AIDS and non- Hodgkin’s lymphoma. Like so many patients suffering from cancer or AIDS, he had extreme difficulty on keeping down the drugs that controlled his illnesses. He began to smoke marijuana to control the drug-induced nausea. It saved his life† (US: The Life and Death of Peter McWilliams, 2002). â€Å"NORML, the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, was founded in 1970, as a nonprofit public-interest advocacy group whose mission is to end marijuana Prohibition† (Historical Timeline Medical Marijuana, (n.d.), 2011). â€Å"In 1971, President Nixon declared war on drugs. In 1972,†The bipartisan Shafer Commission [National Commission on Marijuana and Drug Abuse], appointed by President Nixon at the direction of Congress [and chaired by former Pennsylvania Governor Raymond Shafer], considered laws regarding marijuana and determined that personal use of marijuana should be decriminalized. Nixon rejected the recommendation, but over the  course of the 1970s, eleven states decriminalized marijuana and most others reduced their penalties† (Busted: â€Å"America’s War on Marijuana.†, 2010). â€Å"Possession of marihuana for personal use would no longer be an offense, but marihuana possessed in public would remain contraband subject to summary seizure and forfeiture. Casual distribution of small amounts of marihuana for no remuneration, or insignificant remuneration not involving profit would no longer be an offense† (Busted: â€Å"America’s War on Marijuana.†, 2010). 1973,â€Å"The Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs (BNND) and the Office of Drug Abuse Law Enforcement (ODALE) are merged to form the US Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA)† (420 Milestone History Marijuana, (n.d.), 2010). â€Å"In November, 1976, a Washington, DC man [Robert Randall] afflicted by glaucoma employed the little-used Common Law Doctrine of Necessity to defend himself against criminal charges of marijuana cultivation† (US v. Randall). â€Å"On November 24, 1976, federal Judge James Washington ruled Randall’s use of Marijuana constituted a medical necessity, Judge Washington dismissed criminal charges against Randall. Concurrent with this judicial determination, federal agencies responding to a May, 1976 petition filed by Randall, began providing this patient with licit, FDA-approved access to government supplies of medical marijuana. Randall was the first American to receive marijuana for the treatment of a medical disorder† (National Institute on Drug Abuse [NIDA] 1998).  1978, â€Å"New Mexico passed the first state law recognizing the medical value of marijuana  [Controlled Substances Therapeutic Research Act]. Over the next few years, more than 30 states  passed similar legislation.† (Scott, 1994). â€Å"Voters in California [pass] a state medical  marijuana initiative in 1996. Known as Proposition 215(45 KB), it permits  patients and their primary caregivers, with a physicianâ €™s recommendation, to possess and cultivate marijuana for the treatment of AIDS, cancer, muscular spasticity, migraines, and several other disorders; it also protects them from punishment if they recommend marijuana to their patients† (Joy, PhD. & Mack, 2011) The New England Journal of Medicine publishes an editorial written by Jerome P. Kassirer, MD, titled â€Å"Federal Foolishness and Marijuana.† The article states: â€Å"Federal authorities should rescind their prohibition of the medicinal use of marijuana for seriously ill patients and allow physicians to decide which patients to treat. The government should change marijuana’s status from that of a Schedule I drug (considered to be potentially addictive and with no current medical use) to that of a Schedule II drug (potentially addictive but with some accepted medical use) and regulate it accordingly† (Kassier, 1997). In January 2004, California passed SB 420, which states the guidelines for growing marijuana. Yes this bill also went through the court system. In May 2008, second district court of appeals ruling in Kelley case that the possession limits set by SB 420 violate the California Constitution because the voters approved Prop 215 can only be amended by the voters. With Prop 215 you can legally be in possession of marijuana and with SB 420 you can legally grow. This has drastically reduce crime in our cities and form a more productive society through its positive uses. In 2013, medical marijuana is a thriving and growing business for all those involved from the growers, to the â€Å"caregivers clubs† with their green cross symbols above their doors (yes like the Red Cross, but green) making it possible for the medical community, and the consumer to know they have found the right place. As of this date there is a total of 18 states and DC now known as Medical Marijuana States. With 11 more states pending legalization to legalize medical marijuana. Now legal for others to seek and receive this healing and lifesaving plant. Since the Government has allowed each state to listen to its people, and as it stands today marijuana is legal and available for all those who have a recommendation card. Now it is not a crime for the terminally ill and sick to gain access to the medication that they so greatly need to function on day-to-day bases. You might wonder, â€Å"How do I know so much or even care  about marijuana being legal†? I am also a member, because I have a recommendation card. I have had mine for about a year now. My doctor prescribed it for me when I told him I was depressed (over the death of my baby boy Marshall) and I did not want to take any manufactured manmade pill and have to worry about the side effects. Medical marijuana has done the trick for me, I take as need by my doctors’ direction. I have to say, that it has saved me. Also The Government, State and City get to collect the taxes and the dispensaries make their money and the clients get their much need lifesaving medication. Crime is down and people are employed, and the Government gets to have their say, but in the end â€Å"We the People† were finally heard, and this little plant is finally back where it belongs. To quote one of my favorite comedians: ~It’s not a war on drugs, it’s a war on personal freedom it’s what it is ok, Keep that in mind at all times. Thank you†~ ~ Bill Hicks~ References Bennett, C. (2010). Historical Timeline Medical Marijuana. Retrieved from http://medicalmarijuana.procon.org/view.resource.php?resourceid=000143 Eddy, M. (2010). Medical Marijuana: Review and Analysis of Federal and State Policies.. Retrieved from Federation of American Scientist/Congressional Research and State Service Reports: http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/RL33211.pdf Hicks, B. (1996). Lateralus (Album). Retrieved from Tool (Group) Joy, PhD., J., & Mack, A. (2011). Marijuana as Medicine Beyond Controversy, 200. Retrieved from http://www.brainz.org/420-milestone-history-marijuana Kari, S. (2011). Historical Timeline Medical Marijuana. Retrieved from http://medicalmarijuana.procon.org/view.resource.php?resourceid=000143 Kassier, J. P. (1997). Federal Foolishness and Marijuana. Retrieved from http://www.brainz.org/420-milestone-history-marijuana McWilliams, P. (1996). Quotes by Peter McWilliams: Finest Quotes. Retrieved from http://www.finestquotes.com/author_quotes_authors-Peter+McWilliams-page-0.html Scott, E. (1994). Marional: The Little Synthetic That Couldn’t. Retrieved from http://www.druglibrary.org/significate-legal-cases.htlm 420 Milestone History Marijuana, (n.d.). (2010). Retrieved from http://www.braniz.org/420-milestone-history-marijuana Busted: â€Å"America’s War on Marijuana. (2010). Retrieved from http://www.pbs.org Historical Timeline Medical Marijuana, (n.d.). (2011). Retrieved from http://www.medicalmarijuana.procon.org/view.resource.php?resourceid=000143 National Institute on Drug Abuse [NIDA]. (1998). Retrieved from Provision of Marijuana and Other Compound for Scientific Research – Recommendations of the National Institute on Drug Abuse National Advisory Council, NIDA website US: The Life and Death of Peter McWilliams. (2002). Retrieved from http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n948/a03.html