Frederick Douglass

In the class Black American Voices, I had learned about Frederick Douglass and his life. I read his autobiography called Life and Times of Frederick Douglass. 

After reading his story, one part that stuck out to me was that Douglass has no idea about his true birthday. He was born into slavery because his mother was a slave. He only knows he was born in February, so he claimed Valentine's day as his day of birth. Personally, I could tell you the exact time I was born, but Douglass was not granted that privilege. 

This small fact seems unimportant, but it shows how much Douglass was able to overcome in his lifetime. From the start of birth, he was seen as not even a person. He was separated from his mother soon after birth and sent to work at another master's plantation.

At this plantation, he was able to learn to read from the master's wife. When he is caught learning, he takes to the streets. He asks the white sons of plantation owners to teach him the alphabet and words so that he can learn to write. Learning to read and write gave him a leg up in American society because he could do much more than most of America could.

After a few attempts at escaping, he finally escapes wearing a sailor outfit through the railroad system to New York. He joins his wife, who is also free, and they settle in New Bedford, Massachusets. He became a preacher and became involved with anti-slavery groups. At a convention against slavery, Douglass was asked to write and tell his story to the public.

He publishes his autobiography and it makes a difference as it is one of the first written stories of the life of a slave. Douglass then goes on to publish The North Star, an anti-slavery newspaper. During this time, he took interest in the women's rights movement.

As the Civil War starts, he joins President Abraham Lincoln as a consultant. He encourages Lincoln to make the war about the ending of slavery. From his position, he also encouraged freed slaves to fight for the North and to fight for freedom.

After the Civil War, Douglass fought for the full rights of black people and women. From there, he became more involved with the government and making more of a difference for people who don't have a voice.

Frederick Douglass inspires me as a journalist because he made it his mission to overcome challenges to speak up for those who can't. While still fighting for his basic human rights, he chose to help those who didn't have the rights he did. He chose to help women gain rights even though some of those women most likely had more rights than he did at the time. No matter who the person was, he was fighting for their right to be equal to the white man in power. He fought for equality and justice through writing and speaking to the public.

Douglass went through much more than I ever will go through in my lifetime, but I hope to achieve a quarter of what he did.

Supreme Court: Old vs New

The United States has something that no other country has and that is the Supreme Court. A team of nine justices deliberate cases in private. They follow a 200-year-old document, the Constitution, which determines their rulings. All justices must utilize the constitution to keep the legislative and executive branches in control. This is called checks and balances.

Stated in the video, the Supreme Court would not work if the American people didn't trust the system. In 1801, Chief Justice John Marshall used the highest power of the Supreme Court to deny an act of Congress. This helped the Supreme Court be seen as an equal part of the government. But, that doesn't mean the Supreme Court always made correct decisions.

When it came to the issue of slavery, the nation was divided and the Supreme Court made a decision that would haunt America for centuries to come. Dred Scott, a slave, freed himself based on an act of Congress, but the Supreme Court decided that Scott was not, in fact, free and that black people would never be considered citizens.

After the Civil War, the Constitution was amended to define citizenship and ban slavery, among other amendments. The Supreme Court saw its wrongs and made things right.

We the People was created when the people included white men and no one else. Now, the Supreme Court must take into consideration who the Constitution was written for and the time period it was written in. Times have changed and that is how the Constitution is interpreted in the current time.

As Americans, I think it is necessary for us to look at our past and use it so that we do not repeat the bad parts of history. In the grand scheme of things, the Constitution is an old document, but we must interpret it through a modern lens and the Supreme Court does just that.

Julian Assange: Guilty of Telling the Truth

Julian Assange is 48 years old and on the verge of death in the Belmarsh prison in England. According to a New York Times article, a letter was sent to Britain's home secretary that was signed by 60 doctors, asking that Assange be moved out of Belmarsh to receive an expert medical opinion.

Even though multiple news sources have suggested that Assange could be knocking on Death's doorstep, nothing has been done to increase Assange's chances in prison. Assange is facing the consequences of simply reporting the truth.

If you haven't seen Collateral Murder, which shows the brutal murders of multiple people in Baghdad, you need to. This video was leaked by the organization Assange started, Wikileaks. Without it, the American public would have no idea the true nature of what soldiers in Iraq were truly doing.

The video is from an airstrike in 2007 where you can hear soldiers conversing back and forth as they attack innocent civilians. In the video, you can hear the soldiers laugh and joke around after murdering people.

In my eyes, murder of any kind is not a laughable offense, no matter if the murder was justified or not. After seeing this video that Assange helped leak, it showed me that the war in Iraq is not justifiable with actions like this going on. It makes me not want to root for our soldiers or fight for our nation. This revelation makes me despise our country and our obsession with war.

Frankly, there isn't enough media coverage about this video. Granted, it has been about a decade since it came out, but there is more coverage on Assange and his punishment rather than the possible punishment these soldiers should be facing.

Assange's life is on the line, but these soldiers who saw themselves as God are roaming free. Meanwhile, Chelsea Manning, the whistleblower, had to sit trial for exposing these awful people. Not one of those soldiers has been charged with murder, but those who did the right thing, and told the truth, they're the ones facing the consequences.

A common trend among whistleblowers and third-party publishers is that they are the enemy of the people. A quick google search shows the searing articles damning Julian Assange for what he's done. The sad reality is that those so-called journalists could never have the courage to do what he did. To go against the American people's idolized view of the military is a large task, but Assange did it with no hesitation.

As an aspiring journalist who graduates in May, I hope to become half of the journalist Assange is. At the end of the day, my duty is, to tell the truth to my audience, whether they wish to hear it or not.