The sections I was most accurate in were the “owning vs. not owning a computer” and age categories. For the age I think I was accurate because the age division seems to be the same almost anywhere you look. In every statistical set of data you’ll find that the age separations are pretty consistent. Because of this, I recognized seeing the numbers fairly often and used memory to take my guess. For the technology section, I simply assumed/knew most people in the world didn’t have access to a computer like we do at SLA. I picked the simplest ratio (90 to 10) and that was close enough to the real answer (88 to 12).

I didn’t get much right but I think the incorrect guess that was most surprising was the gender and drinking water categories. Usually when I look at schools, there's more girls than boys in a class. That has been mostly true for me since first grade. Seeing that we’re actually split right down the middle shocked me because I had never seen that ratio before. The drinking water was a shock because in lower school we did an assignment and found that only about 3% of the water in the world was drinkable. Because I this I assumed that there would be more people without water than with it and not the other way around.

My predictions weren’t split evenly but there was enough in the right category (in my opinion). I think this is because the city of Philadelphia doesn’t give me an accurate outlook on the world. Philadelphia and SLA project statistics and ratios that are much different from the actual world. If someone only saw one type of people wherever they went they would think the entire world was filled with those types of people, that's what SLA and Philadelphia have done to me. In some aspects they're an accurate portrayal of the word but in most aspects they're not.  

Plans

The most effective way to get this on the radar is randomly placed (but still awesome) flash mobs. I have several ideas for how to organize these flashmobs. All of them start with couples (girls with girls/boys with boys) dressed in grooms outfits and bride’s dresses.

1.     Couples waiting for bus stops and taking over the trains.

2.     Spontaneous fake marriage ceremonies in malls. Complete with music over the loud speakers.

3.     “Registering” for gifts in their costumes in stores.

Then we introduce shirts into the mix. We make shirts with sayings like “Here comes the bride…..and the other bride.” And other cool stuff. And I’ll distribute enough of them so they’re everywhere you look but not so many that they’ll be a mob of people wearing them.

Steps

1.     Gather willing participants

2.     Dress up said participants

3.     Partner them up

4.     Assign them areas

5.     Watch the fun

6.     End watching of fun

7.     Make shirts

8.     Assign shirts to much less people

9.     Watch confused people

10. Enjoy

Reflection

Marriage Mobs

This will definitely be effective because for one thing, flash mobs have a way of getting around. It’s not that this will get support for gay marriage right away but it will get people thinking about it.

Everyone will want to know what its all about and that gets me in the door to explaining my cause.

Sexy Shirts

The shirts are just a fashion statement to keep the issue from losing publicity. Plus the money made from possible sales of the shirt can fund more lobbying of my issue. 

Donna and I worked on the process of registering and titling a vehicle when you come from in state and out of state. In and out of state makes a difference because there are a few extra steps you need to take with your license when you come from out of state. Also, based on how personal you want your car (personalized plates to be specific) there are even more forms you are responsible for. Really the easiest path is to buy a new car from a dealer with normal plates.

The paperwork was really easy to fill out, the hardest part was figuring out the actual process in which I had to fill out paperwork. Also I had to decide how personal I wanted my car to be before I started filling things out. Honestly, the only thing I would change is to put all the paperwork online and as you answered yes or no to specific questions you would have the necessary forms made available to you.

I think the system is so complicated because, specifically for cars coming out of state or from a person rather than a dealer the government needs to know everything is legit. The government needs to insure that people aren’t being cheated or having things stolen from them without their knowledge.

Constitutional Question: Should debtors pay federal income tax on the gain from the sale of assets (their farm) during bankruptcy proceedings and to what extent?

Facts:

• ♣ Lynwood and Brenda Hall owned a farm in Willcoz, Arizone
• ♣ 2005 they filed for bankruptcy under chapter 12
• ♣ chapter 12 is a provision in bankrupty code applying to farmers
• o eases burden on family owned farms
• ♣ discharge certain debts
• ♣ easier
• ♣ chapter 12 amended in 2005
• o discharge claims resulting from sale/trade of farm asset used in farming
• ♣ sold farm for $960,000
• ♣ made a profit because it exceeded their debt
• ♣ tried to discharge a capital gains tax
• o $29,000
• ♣ IRS objected
• o After assets are sold after bankruptcy petition taxes are not dischargable 
• ♣ Bankruptcy court said the Halls were liable because “a Chapter 12 esate is not a separate taxable entity” 
• ♣ Halls appealed to district court
• o Reversed decision 
• o Found in favor of the Halls
• o Said Chap 12 was made to help family farms stay in the family 
• ♣ Refusing the tax discharge would be inconsistent
• ♣ Gov’t appealed to US court of appeals
• o Case again reversed
• o Chap 12 estate is not a separate entity
• ♣ Capital gains tax must be assessed as a independent tax
• ♣ Halls appealed for certiorari
• o When a higher court reviews the decision of a lower court
• ♣ Supreme court granted Halls petition

Summary: The Halls owned a farm but they went bankrupt so they sold it. They made a profit but then got taxed but Chapter 12 is made so farmers can keep their farms in the family and it helps them. They applied to have the tax discharge but the IRS was like “No that’s totally taxable under chapter 12 because you filed for bankruptcy making it a separate entitity.” But the Halls didn’t want to give in so they appealed it and the gov’t said they were right because refusing the tax charge was inconsistent. But then the gov’t had it appealed and the court said the gov’t is right because capital gains tax must be assessed as a seprate tax. So the Halls filed for certiorari and went to the supreme court.

Predictions: I think the Halls will lose because since they made a profit its no longer just a matter of their bankruptcy issue. They should have to pay the tax regardless. 

2012 for a long time was said to be the big year for gay rights. Several states such as Pennsylvania, Oregon, New York, and New Jersey have been working towards positive attntion towards gay rights with the hopes of adding the legalization for gay rights to the ballot that year. New York is the only state that has made progress so far  but hopefully not the last. Lobbyists Ed Crabtree and Theresea Rosenburg have been lobbying for gay rights in local theaters and high population areas hoping to positively influence people on the issue. 

Two presidential candidates are giving a good name to the issue with the upcoming election. John Huntsman and Ron Paul aren’t exactly “supporting” gay rights but they agree that states should have the right to govern that for themselves.  For republicans, this is a huge step. Unfortunately, equally powerful people are on the other side of the spectrum. Rick Perry and Rick Santorum are both powerfully against gay rights but the latter seems to have a huge reserve of force and allies.

Not only does Santorum take a huge stand against anything related to equality for gays, he is a part of the GOP whose current objective seems to ruin Obama’s every attempt at ridding the U.S. of the DOMA and all of its unconstitutionality.

However, allies against the DOMA have recently made progress, having the bill recinded and even passing a vote to give same sex couples social security benefits.  Since the DOMA was originally what gave states huge power in terms of gay rights, its revocation is paving the way for inequality to finally be ruled unconstitutional.

Although it isn’t right, it helps the issue that people speaking badly about gay rights are punished. A    man had his salary cut after speaking out about his dislike for gays and their right to marry. He took his supervisor to court but the simple fact that a stand was taken against it gives hope to many.

·       The beginning of this assignment started off fairly easily. We were tasked with explaining the history behind a bill of our choice. Any bill. But of course, Lauf suggested it would be easier on us to choose one linked to our lobbying topic. Knowing gay rights were a high profile topic and that they wouldn't hide any information I thought it was in my best interest to link my two topics. The first bill I found when I did research on gay rights was the Defense of Marriage Act or DOMA.

The process wasn’t as hard as I seemed to make it in the bginning. Because of the other benchmarks I had been assigned I got a late start on the bill project but when we had to meet our first deadline (initial research) I found out quickly just how easy it was to find information about my bill. It was controversial, so there was no lack of info to be found.

It was an interesting story to tell, from inception to creation, but there was more to it than just the history. Originally I wanted to do a documentary but as I gathered more and more information, I kept imagining things that I wanted my presentation to include that I simply couldn’t show in a documentary. I settled on a prezi because it’s a program I work well with and can make even the simplest statements engaging to the viewer.

In the end I think my project turned out fairly well. Its far from boring and I put into the story than just the history. I would only change the outcome of it if I had more time. Given the right amount of time I would do something like a cross between prezi and documentary which is what I had planned in the beginning. 

http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2011/06/29/lgbt-pride-month-white-house

http://www.metroweekly.com/poliglot/2010/07/federal-court-rules-doma-viola.html 

http://www.baywindows.com/index.php?ch=news&sc=glbt&sc2=news&sc3=&id=107807

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2011/03/04/boehner-launches-effort-defend-gay-marriage-ban/ 

http://whitehouse.blogs.cnn.com/2011/02/23/attorney-general-declares-doma-unconstitutional/

http://web.archive.org/web/20050208184130/http://www.advocate.com/html/stories/824/824_clinton_710.asp 

http://www.aegis.com/News/WB/2004/WB040631.html

http://clerk.house.gov/evs/1996/roll316.xml 

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2009/02/gay-marriage.html

http://www.ncsl.org/default.aspx?tabid=16430 

http://www.lectlaw.com/files/leg23.htm

http://www.domawatch.org/about/federaldoma.html 

http://blogcritics.org/politics/article/how-doma-was-born-a-history/

http://www.glad.org/uploads/docs/publications/doma-short-history.pdf 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5_XqMIY-dy0

I am lobbying for a change in marital law in the city of Philadelphia. Same sex marriage is only legal in 6 states currently but Pennsylvania’s congressional representatives are not majorly in favor of making this legal in our state. Joe Sestak hopes to lobby for this as well and unseat Arlen Specter. My main motivation to lobby this topic is basically the fourteenth amendment. Although I’d be stretching the meaning slightly, I feel that disallowing same sex marriage is infringing upon the rights of American citizens. For gay couples one person might be the worker while one is the homemaker. In different sex couples this means the house person receives benefits from the other’s job. However, if same sex couples aren’t allowed to marry, the partner receives no benefits.

This isn’t protecting American citizens. Homosexuality isn’t a choice, just like race and gender aren’t choices. Why should homosexuals be treated differently because of something they cannot control? There was once a time that colored people were prosecuted but that was deemed unconstitutional. There was a time where women were treated unfairly but that as well was deemed unconstitutional. Why is this any different?

Currently there is almost 50% support in Pennsylvania for same sex marriage, which is 8 points higher from last year. Hopefully a change in representation will change perspective. 

• What did you like about this project? What was most challenging?
  I liked that I had free control to change something in history. It gave me the opportunity to choose something I was passionate about and change it to my liking. On the flip side, it was hard to pick something to change that would give me the outcome I wanted.
• Describe the most interesting fact or event that you investigated.
  Although I had studied Brown vs Board several times I was unaware that the judge died in the middle of deciding the verdict. I was also unaware of how esteemed he was. 
• How do the actions of individuals impact the historical record?
  They impact it in a small way at first but it's like a butterfly effect. One person's absence may start a whirl wind of change. 
• How do systemic changes impact the historical record?
  These can change history quickly and easily but maybe not in the expected fashion.
• How influential can one decision be in the historical landscape?
  One decision can totally change history. This case would have changed history regardless but my version of it was a completely new America.
• How could this project be improved?
  I feel as though there wasn't enough english in this. I'm not sure how the storytelling part could be improved but thats what I would change.
• If you had it to do over, what would you change about your process for the project?
  Rather than deciding how I wanted 2011 to be first I should have brainstormed ways the initial change could alter history.
  
  Link To My PDFs