Marijuana is in an odd status, legalized in some places but not in others. Many people enjoy recreational marijuana; are you one of them?
Share why if you wish.
Category: Law
Do You Know Any Immigrant Families Personally?
Immigrant families, regardless of their legal status, seem to be in the news lately. Do you know any personally? If so, how?
Share why if you wish.
Are Regulations Necessary?
There are rules that each of us must follow. Some come from our town, our state, or our country. Are these regulations truly necessary?
It is easy to dislike regulations. They often prevent us for doing things we want to do. Or they cost time and money in working around them. They can be poorly worded, ineffective, or overly complicated.
And yet, we count on regulations to protect us. In theory, they keep our food safe to eat, our drinking water pure, and our air free of pollutants. They keep marginalized groups safe, and safeguard animals on the verge of extinction.
Or at least, that was the original intention. While individuals and neighbors might look out for one another, companies and corporations surely won’t. They need to be told specifically and exactly what they can and cannot do, in their quest to turn a profit. Those rules are the origin of regulations.
Protection and safety sound good. But too much red tape can strangle a small — or even a large — business. Is it possible to ease the regulatory burden on companies and individuals?
One extreme is to have no restrictions on what companies are allowed to do. The other is to require every decision, no matter how small, to be controlled to make sure they are in the best interest of the masses. Is there some middle ground allowing businesses to flourish while also keeping the community safe? Where are we currently on this spectrum?
Related questions: If you were to create a small business, what would it do? What role does community play in your life? What makes a community? Unrestrained capitalism or social democracy?
Are We A Land Of Laws?
As the U.S. judicial system receives increasing scrutiny, it may be time to ask the question: are we a land of laws?
This might seem like an odd question to ask, when the United States has a well-established judicial system. There are countless number of judges and lawyers that help to argue and interpret the various laws that have been passed.
In addition, who among has not been called to serve on a jury? One of the primary civil services one can perform, other than voting in elections, is to sit for a trial.
So at the local, state, regional, and federal level, trials are happening all the time, involving just about any and all people in our society.
And yet, confidence in our judicial system is waning. Some courts deliver seemingly unfair rulings. Others blatantly contradict existing precedence. Some judges seem hopelessly biassed. Other courts reek of corruption.
Finally, and most disturbingly, there is a growing sense that existing laws are not applied evenly to everyone. Different people receive different outcomes, based on their economic background, their race, or even what job title they hold. Conviction and incarceration rates are higher for minorities.
If the laws don’t apply to everyone, can we really say that live in a land of laws? Is the legal system just another way for the powerful in our country to control the less powerful? Or is it that these problems are exaggerated, and the courts, and laws, are in pretty good shape?
Related questions: What direct experience do you have with law enforcement? When should you not follow the law? How would you describe your civic life? Where is society failing?
What Should We Be Paying Attention To?
Sometimes it seems like there is too much news for our limited attention span. When that happens, which stories should we focus on?
On the international stage, there are many ongoing stories that would seem to deserve our attention. There are two significant wars that threaten to turn into world engulfing conflicts, in Asia and in the Middle East.
In addition, there is the ongoing climate crisis. As global temperatures continue to rise, weather events grow stronger and more frequent. More people are displaced from their homes than in any other time in human history.
Domestically in the United States, there are also too many stories to try to follow. Which is more important, ignoring due process or blatant political corruption? Announced tariffs threatening a global trade war or unmarked police forces kidnapping people? Threats to judges and law firms or people around the world going hungry or getting sick because of cancelled contracts and staffing shortages? People suffering from natural disasters being ignored or a significant uptick in airplane accidents threatening flying safety?
The current administration is employing a tactic called “flooding the zone.” This means pursuing multiple actions in a short period of time, so that media, courts, and the public attention span all have trouble keeping up. It is a deliberate strategy designed to sow confusion and apathy.
So what to do? When there are multiple balls being thrown at the same time, how do we decide which one to swing at? What should we be paying attention to?
Related questions: What deserves your attention? Should we pay attention to the news? How do you set priorities? What unimportant things do you focus on too much?