Media Reaction Paper

Media Reaction Paper

Media Reaction Paper

Derek Murr

Cultural Diversity

Dr. Frank S. Czarny, Ph.D.

November 3, 2008

I chose to do this media reaction paper on several articles I read on the web site USnews.com regarding Dr. Ron Paul and where he stands on Diversity. I also stumbled across a few articles concerning the issues that recently took place at Senator Strom Thurmond’s retirement party involving Senator Trent Lott and comments he made. The comments were racist in fashion and eluded to insinuate that states should have voted against expansion of civil rights for blacks during the elections of 1948. What I took away from my readings has inspired me and helped me to look at some of the difficult issues we face now from a more practical and realistic stand point.
The overwhelming media response to recent remarks by Senator Trent Lott shows that the nation remains incredibly sensitive about matters of race, despite the outward progress of the last 40 years. A nation that once prided itself on a sense of rugged individualism has become uncomfortably obsessed with racial group identities.
In the aftermath of the Lott debacle, we must not allow the term "states’ rights" to be smeared and distorted into code words for segregationist policies or racism. States’ rights simply mean the individual states should retain authority over all matters not expressly delegated to the federal government in Article I of the Constitution. Most of the worst excesses of big government can be traced to a disregard for states’ rights, which means a disregard for the Ninth and Tenth amendments. The real reason liberals hate the concept of states’ right has nothing to do with racism, but rather reflects a hostility toward anything that would act as a limit on the power of the federal government.
After my readings this weekend I have come to the conclusion that the federal government more than anything else is what divides us along race, class, religion, and gender lines. The...

Similar Essays