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I am someone who is very kind, loyal, generous, and friendly. My brother would say I'm annoying. My friends would say I can overthink simple things in favor of more complicated ones.
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On Monday, a report on discipline was published showing a decline for the county in overall infractions. However the number of suspensions rose slightly to 5,029 last year. When you break the number of suspensions down by race, the numbers become troubling. This is an issue because when you look at the suspensions for African-Americans, who make up about a quarter of the total students, and received 63% of the 5,029 suspensions last year. Out of the 5,029 suspensions, 16% were given to white kids, 15% to Hispanics, and 62% to blacks. By contrast, the percent of the total students are 47% white, 17% Hispanic and 23% black. One way to fix this is to be harsher on repeat offenders. This interested me because I didn't know that black students made up so much of the suspension rate.
Last week, 4 republicans introduced House Bill 249, making a new felony: economic terrorism. This is defined on WRAL as “committing a crime with the intent to intimidate people or influence public policy and that crime impedes the normal course of a business or a government agency, resulting in the loss of at least $1,000.” These crimes under HB 249 involve trespassing or blocking streets. If this bill becomes law, then we would end up with more people in prison because the Moral Monday protesters get arrested for trespassing at the Legislative Building when they try to get policy changed. If HB249 becomes law, those people could be sued for up to $50,000 in damages and spend up to two years in jail. All for trying to get the laws changed. I don't want to see this happen. What would I do? I would contact the district congressional representatives and explain my position and try to persuade them to vote against HB 249.
Immigrants faced many difficulties because they were in a new place with possibly a new language, new laws, very little money or belongings, and some had difficulty getting a job. Chinese immigrants in the 18 and 1900s faced discrimination working on the Transcontinental Railroad. The Chinese had many jobs on the railroad, including setting the explosives to help make the tunnel to lay the railroad tracks through the Sierra Nevada Mountains. The new language was a major challenge for the people coming from minority English speaking countries because they had to learn a new language, when some of them might not have had that time. Most immigrants came with almost no money because they had left with limited time and space to pack their stuff. Sometimes, if you have a degree in your home country, the country that you moved to might not recognize your degree, making it harder to get a better job.
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