I had a little bit of trouble starting this project. I began by organizing the 12 different examples that we had to make into positives/negatives and legislative/judicial/executive. I chose to focus on Philadelphia laws for the executive branch because they have the most noticeable, direct effect upon my life. For the judicial branch, I found my different examples/sources by collaborating with other SLA students and researching on various supreme court case organizing websites. For my legislative examples, I simply thought of positives/negatives in my life that had to do with the government, and traced them back to the legislative process.

When I began, I worked very quickly and thoroughly. I chose reputable sources and researched well before writing anything down as fact. It was difficult to find sources that had information on the example, result, and an example of the example. I wrote appropriately long, coherent paragraphs describing my examples, and then, at the end, I reflected on the effect that have on my life.

It was most difficult to find the different examples. There isn't a website that you can go to and just *find* different examples of government functions separated into the three branches. If I were to do something differently, I would have done more in-depth research on court cases, and hopefully would have found a more diverse group in terms of federal/state/city courts.

My benchmark is here! 

    When attempting to choose the 12 examples of how the government and I interact, I found it easiest to observe my actions throughout a day and consider what has made them possible. For example while determining my outfit for the day, I realized the freedom I had to wear almost anything to school, be it a political and/or personal statement. A freedom provided to me to some extent by Tinker vs. Des Moines. It made the my list of 12. From here, once dressed and relatively awake, I get into a car to go to school. I situate myself and buckle up, a practice taught to me for safety and legality's sake. The Pennsylvania seat belt law made the list. This same manner of operations was applied for the remaining 10 and before I knew it I had a completed list.
    Though simple in concept, the actual self-awareness needed to create said list was rather taxing. I often forgot what it was I was doing and some of the government connections I managed to find were rather vague and a tad farfetched. These had to be invalidated and I found that completed list took its far share of effort.
    However throughout this process, when I managed to remember the task at hand, I realized at present I have it rather easy. I have my rights and I am expected to adhere to the law, but being a minor these rights are restricted and the laws are regarded to as norms enforced by parents and teachers, rather police and courts. When I get older, I imagine the government and I will become a great deal more familiar with one another. I will have to know my rights and defend them, rights far expanded.

For my finale blog post in this series I did not know what to focus on anymore. The Ethical Pathway Act of 2010 that I had been tracking since the start of the project had not budged. The last reported update of it was on September 29th. Since then project I had to relay on getting in contact with people. This has been a very tricky part with contacting people. I knew for sure that besides wanting to get in contact with officials, I really wanted to get in contact with important organizations that could help me.

 As I mentioned before in another post the most important groups I thought of getting in contact with would be PETA and Humane Society. Even the ASPCA I thought could be a good contact in trying to help push out info with this project. Because of another animal rights project I did before PETA’s official twitter had become a follower of mine. I used this as one resource into getting in contact with them. Though I did not get a message in return I tried on there as well as with other contact info I could find. The same went for the ASPCA but with them I also had another advantage. My father had known someone who worked with the ASPCA.  With that he also helped with trying to help me with contact him.

  At times it seemed as if trying to contact and all wouldn’t work out to something. Outside of those people I tried to contact there were other places that were talking about this. It was nice to see that a small amount of blogs did take the time too talk about this as well. It does mean that this bill is being heard and will help it get discussed about. At this point I now I wonder if I should continue this project since it is over and if so how.

Here is my Benchmark

To choose which laws, Supreme Court cases and functions of the government I would focus on for my benchmark, I thought about what my current situation, and also which laws will have an effect on me later in life. For example, I wrote about the healthcare law. One aspect of the healthcare law that is important to me is the fact that I am eligible to stay on my mom's healthcare until I am 26. Rather than focusing on working to afford my healthcare in college, I can focus on my school work.
Selecting my topics was a fairly difficult process. It was difficult to find relative laws and cases that are applicable to my life. The older I get, the way the government is involved in my life changes - it's hard to say whether or not they are more involved because it is involved in different ways. Up until the age of 18, the government can force you to go to school, and they have passed laws recently regulating what I can eat in schools. Before 18 they are trying to protect you. After 18 their primary interest is the rest of the country. They take more taxes to help provide for people who are less fortunate, and they require to do things such as register for selective service in the need of a draft. 

 

There is no doubt in my mind that my life will be more affected by the government as I get older. In only a few months, I’ll be legally responsible for myself, and that will apply a new set of laws to me. In years, I will be buying a house, or paying bills, or getting married and all of those actions involve the government.

This project has helped me realize that the government does not only affect those that vote for the officials. I’ve always known that the government interacts with each citizen in many ways, but this project has helped me pinpoint specific laws, offices, and court cases that affect me personally.