For or Against Affirmative Action

Daily Bruin
Standford.edu
Harvard Politics

Affirmative action is a controversial issue in today's policy making. Some say that affirmative action is a necessity in today's world full of racism. While others say that affirmative action is just extending the existence of racial prejudice. Both arguments bring up valid and persuasive points to convince readers of their side.

People who believe that affirmative action is a necessity in today's society often believe that it is a way to repay people who were effected by slavery, Jim Crow laws, and discrimination. Also that institutions  like colleges will celebrate and foster diversity on their campus's. People who believe in affirmative action argue that believers in "reverse racism" base their views on test scores, while standardized tests have little relevance to how well a child does in college.

On the other hand people against affirmative action believe that it has divided working or studying environments. They also argue that affirmative action should help the disadvantaged while in Thomas Sowell's observations he finds that affirmative action only benefits people in the upper to middle class, while at the same time it tends to hurts poor whites and many Asians ability to get into college. That overall people against affirmative action believe that racism cannot be undone by more racism. That a race conscious society directly negates Martin Luther King Jr's dream of a color blind community and creates tension.

Whether or not you choose to believe that affirmative action should or should not be enacted in today's society. This argument will inevitably heat up in the future, and many people may be forced to take a side. Hopefully this article starts to get people to think about what side they believe in.

Environmental Policy

NRDC- Anti-environmental Budget Riders
Science Daily
OSTI.gov

Environmental Policy in the last decade seems it is becoming less and less important in the eyes of congress and senate members. There seems to be more and more plans to limit previous environmental legislation coming out of congress. Because of republicans completely controlling congress, more of these ideas are turning into reality. Although president Obama has taken a strong stand that environmental policy will continue to evolve, republican congress members are pushing for restrictions on environmental policy. Most commonly more space for corporations to move more freely inside of these environmental policy's. 

As stated in the article cited above by Science Daily, "clean air and health benefits hinge on key policy decisions." They estimate that with stronger EPA regulations many premature deaths can be prevented through out the United States, in Pennsylvania alone an estimated 330 premature deaths have been prevented because of these regulations. Making it obvious the importance of keeping old environmental policy's, and making new environmental policy's. In the video below it shows what companies like Starbucks are doing to prevent their environmental impact.