Anti-War Voices

Anti-war movements in America have emerged in response to nearly every major foreign conflict.

One thing that stood out to me from learning about the Progressive Era was how people who spoke out against World War I were treated. Many Americans who opposed the war were arrested, silenced, or even sent to jail simply for expressing their opinions.

Today, the First Amendment protects speech much more strongly than it did then.

What I found interesting while looking at antiwar websites is that many of these viewpoints are not easy to find in mainstream news coverage. Before this assignment, I had never even heard of sites like Antiwar.com or The American Conservative.

That made me wonder why.

A lot of the strongest antiwar voices seem to exist on websites that people have to actively seek out. They are not usually the voices dominating headlines, social media feeds, or cable news.

I think some of the reasons are that peace does not generate the same attention as conflict.

War, controversy, and extreme opinions tend to get more clicks, views, and engagement. Stories about military conflict are high stakes and emotional, which makes them attractive to news organizations trying to keep audiences interested.

The more people watch, the more valuable advertising is, and they make more money.

I also think the loudest voices come from the political extremes. Those viewpoints get shared and amplified because they create conflict and division. As a result, people can start to believe there is no middle ground.

In reality, most Americans probably agree on more issues than they disagree on.

The problem is that the most extreme opinions are often the ones with the megaphones. Those voices can shape the conversation and how we view the other viewpoints, while more moderate perspectives get far less attention.

That is why antiwar viewpoints can feel hidden from the mainstream discussion. It is not necessarily because they do not exist. It is just because they do not always fit into the kind of content that spreads quickly online or drives television ratings.

The First Amendment matters because it protects those voices, even when they challenge popular opinion. Throughout American history, some of the most important political movements started with people who were willing to challenge the majority.

Antiwar voices serve that same purpose today.

Whether people agree with them or not, they offer a different perspective on military action and foreign policy. A healthy marketplace of ideas depends on those opinions being heard rather than ignored.

Sometimes the voices we hear the least are the ones worth listening to the most.

AI DISCLOSURE: AI was not used to write and format this blog post; it was used in a Grammarly way to organize my thoughts. All information came from the information posted in the prompt from our class blogger. I added appropriate images and captions to help break up the text and give the blog post a professional look. I gave AI all of my thoughts and told it not to change anything or do outside research; I told Copilot AI to organize my thoughts and fix some sentence structure.

Privacy Online & Off

 

Juan Enriquez compared our online presence to a digital tattoo.

Watching Juan Enriquez and Catherine Crump's TED Talks opened my eyes to how much of our personal data is constantly tracked and stored without our knowledge. 

I notice these privacy issues mostly through the ads I get on social media and the emails that show up in my inbox. Sometimes it feels like Instagram and YouTube know exactly what I've been looking at, even when I haven't searched for something recently.

Because of that, I try to be careful about my online privacy.

I use Safari as my main browser because I like its privacy features. I only use Chrome for certain things because I have an ad blocker on it, which makes the experience a little better. I also separate my email accounts depending on what they're used for. My iCloud email is for important and professional things, so I rarely get random emails there.

I have one Gmail account for things like YouTube, Canva, and other everyday websites. Then I have another Gmail account that is basically a burner account for random websites that require an email address. 

I honestly don't know if these privacy issues have affected me directly. What they have done is make me think more carefully about the information I share online and who has access to it.

My friends and family are probably affected in many of the same ways. Most people use social media, online shopping sites, and apps every day without really knowing how much information is being collected about them.

The scary part is that every click, search, and interaction becomes another data point. Over time, companies can build detailed profiles that reveal a lot about who we are and what we're interested in.

I think this is a difficult issue because there are legitimate reasons for the government to collect certain information. Data can help law enforcement investigate crimes and potentially prevent future ones.

At the same time, there has to be a limit.

Technology today allows governments and law enforcement agencies to collect much more information than they could in the past. Tools like cell tower dumps and automatic license plate readers can track where people have been and where they go. 

That raises concerns about privacy and civil liberties.

One thing that really bothers me is the idea that information can be collected and stored indefinitely just because it might be useful someday. Most people would never know where to look to find out what information has been collected about them. 

I think the government should be much more transparent about what data is being collected, how long it is stored, and who can access it. There should also be clear rules and stronger oversight to prevent surveillance tools from being abused. Public safety is important, but privacy matters too.

It is almost impossible to avoid data collection completely, but people can still take steps to protect themselves. One of the biggest things is simply sharing less information online. The less data that exists about you, the less there is for companies and organizations to collect.

People can also delete their browsing history and cookies on a regular basis. Using privacy-focused browsers, ad blockers, and strong privacy settings can make a difference as well.

It is also important to be careful with links and websites that seem untrustworthy. Clicking on the wrong link can expose personal information without you even realizing it. I think using separate email accounts for different purposes helps too. That is one of the reasons I keep my professional, personal, and burner accounts separate.

At the end of the day, awareness and sharing less information is probably the best defense.

The more people understand how their information is collected, analyzed, and shared, the better decisions they can make about protecting their privacy.

AI Disclosure: Copilot was used to help organize and structure my raw notes and thoughts into this final piece. All core ideas, perspectives, and final edits are entirely my own.

The Invention of Email: A Communication Revolution (EOTO)

Billions of email accounts exist worldwide, and hundreds of billions of emails
fly across the globe every single day.

It is hard to imagine modern life without email. Every day, billions of messages are sent worldwide, connecting businesses, schools, governments, and individuals in seconds. While email is now a routine part of everyday communication, its creation marked one of the most important technological breakthroughs of the twentieth century.

Ray Tomlinson

Ray Tomlinson, a computer engineer at Bolt, Beranek and Newman (BBN), a research company involved in developing ARPANET, the precursor to today's Internet, is generally credited with inventing email. According to the Internet Hall of Fame, Tomlinson developed the first system that allowed electronic messages to be sent between different computers connected through a network.

Before email, users could leave messages for one another only if they shared the same computer. This limitation made communication difficult as computer networks began to grow. Tomlinson recognized the need for a better way to exchange information between machines and modified existing software to create a networked messaging system.

One of his most lasting contributions was the introduction of the @ symbol in email addresses. The symbol separated the user's name from the destination computer and provided a simple way to route messages. More than fifty years later, that format remains the global standard for email addresses. As explained by Britannica, the development of email became a key step in the evolution of modern digital communication.

What began as a practical solution to a technical problem soon transformed the way people communicate.

Email solved a challenge that had existed for centuries: delivering written messages quickly across long distances. Traditional mail could take days or even weeks to arrive, while telephone calls required both parties to be available at the same time. Email introduced nearly instantaneous communication while also creating a written record that could be saved, shared, and referenced later.

The impact was enormous.

As computer networks expanded during the 1980s and 1990s, email became an essential tool for businesses, universities, and government agencies. According to Smithsonian Magazine, email quickly evolved from a tool used by researchers into a communication system relied upon by millions of people. Employees could coordinate projects, researchers could share discoveries, and students could communicate with instructors more easily than ever before.

Email also changed social communication. Families and friends could stay connected regardless of distance, making global communication more accessible and affordable. The technology helped lay the groundwork for many of the digital communication tools that followed, including online messaging platforms and social media.

Despite its many benefits, email has also created challenges. The ease of sending messages led to problems such as spam, phishing scams, and information overload. Many people now receive so many emails each day that managing their inboxes can become a task in itself. These unintended consequences demonstrate that even revolutionary technologies can create new problems while solving old ones.

Even so, the overall impact of email has been overwhelmingly positive.

The invention transformed communication from a process measured in days to one measured in seconds. It connected people across continents, improved the efficiency of organizations, and helped build the digital world we rely on today. More than half a century after Ray Tomlinson sent the first networked message, email remains one of the most influential communication technologies ever created.

The invention of email did more than create a faster way to send messages.

It helped shape the connected world we live in today. 

AI DISCLOSURE: This post was a collaboration using Microsoft Copilot. I asked Copilot to find research on the history of "Emails" along with the impact it has on communication. I then prompted it to take this research and turn it into a blog post, using prompts such as "write the blog post in academic style, but instead in professional writing."  I asked Copilot to help shape the text into a blog format, and I added links to related resources, along with appropriate images and captions.

Eight Values of Free Expression

Checks on Governmental Power and Protecting Dissent are the most important values. 

Checks on Governmental Power:

I feel that Checks on Governmental Power are the most important. I think that the government should be watched, and it must be held accountable for its actions because if we, as a people, are not allowed to criticize the government and protest, the structure of a functioning democracy is gone. 

When things go wrong, or might need improving, like adding amendments and constitutional standards, the government won't listen if we're not allowed to protest and hold them accountable. 

One of the most important things about a democratic government is to follow the wishes of its people, and that won't get done if the government is not held to standards or watched. If no one were allowed to criticize the government, we would no longer be a free country, and meaningful societal change would not get done. 

I think the women's suffrage movement, the civil rights movement, and the 13th Amendment are examples of this. These movements and changes show why people being able to come together and express their opinions can be important for society. That's why, for me, it's the most important value of free expression.

Things like Checks on governmental power allow for protected dissent because they allow free expression and let people come together to disagree with the government. 

It matters to me as a college student and citizen because getting together in a protest or expressing opinions on social media about the government's power is an important right because it can lead to societal change. 

I am a part of HPU Vision, the weekly news show on campus. Although I don't think we should criticize the government's actions because we don't want to take sides and make people unhappy, we could, in theory, expose government wrongdoing as a journalistic show. This is another way that the press can act as a check on government power.

An AP article I found about press freedom also connects to this idea. The article shows a 2026 Pew Research Center survey that found that three-quarters of Americans consider press freedom highly important to the well-being of society. This shows why a free press is still important today: it allows people to question and report on the government.

Protect Dissent:

The other value that I think is important is protecting dissent. This basically means citizens can criticize and disagree with the government even when their opinions aren't popular. It's also the most personal for me because I see it around me in action, whether it's on social media or discussing it with friends and family. People criticize the government all the time. 

Because social media gives regular people a way to publicly criticize what the government decides, it can help protect dissent by giving people a voice outside of regular news organizations. People should be allowed to say, “I don't agree with this law” or “The government is doing something wrong.” That's how I see it in action the most nowadays. Social media right now is one of the easiest ways to express an opinion and protest what the government does.

Bringing the two ideas together:

I believe these two free expression values are pillars of American society. Checks on government power matter because the press can criticize and expose government wrongdoing, and protecting dissent matters because it lets citizens criticize and disagree with the government. Both can lead to meaningful societal change.

Supreme Court Video Reflection

The United States Supreme Court decides important cases that affect all of us.

After watching this documentary, I came away with a much greater appreciation for the role of the U.S. Supreme Court. Before, I knew it was an important institution, but I did not fully understand how central it is to protecting the Constitution and maintaining the balance of government power.

One of the biggest things I learned is that the Court tries to rise above politics. While presidents have always attempted to shape the Court through nominations, the justices are expected to act independently once they take the bench.

2026 Supreme Court Justices

The Court’s job is not to create laws or enforce them. Instead, it interprets the Constitution and decides whether actions taken by Congress, the president, or the states are constitutional.

I was surprised by how selective the Court is when choosing cases.

The documentary explained that around 7,000 cases reach the Court each year, with about 100 new cases arriving every week. Yet only about 100 cases are accepted annually. The process of deciding which cases to hear and persuading other justices to support a position is much longer and more complex than I realized.

The U.S. Constitution

Another interesting point is that the Court cannot simply choose issues it wants to address. It must wait for people to bring disputes before it. Petitions start the process, whether the issue involves a president defending executive power or a prisoner claiming a wrongful conviction.

The documentary also highlighted how much of the Court’s work happens behind the scenes. Oral arguments are important, but opinion writing often takes the most time. The justices already know the facts of a case. Their challenge is to answer the legal questions and explain their reasoning.

What stood out most to me was the idea that the Court’s power comes from trust. Its legitimacy is rooted in the Constitution, but its authority depends on public faith and acceptance of its decisions.

That trust has been built over more than 200 years.

The Court hears cases in public, relies on precedent, and attempts to focus on principle rather than politics. Watching this documentary changed the way I think about the Supreme Court. I now see it as perhaps the most important branch of government because it helps ensure that the nation remains guided by the principles of the Constitution.

AI DISCLOSURE: The post was a collaboration using Microsoft Copilot. I took detailed notes while watching a 20-minute video about the U.S. Supreme Court. In addition to the facts that I learned, I emphasized my own reactions and opinions while watching. I then asked Copilot to help me improve the text by correcting grammar, spelling, and punctuation. I asked Copilot to help me shape the text into a blog post format. After reviewing the text, I added appropriate images and captions.

WATCH THE VIDEO NOW

Part one

Part two

Top five sources of info

#1 Instagram

Instagram is my number one news source because the content is short-form, and you can learn a lot from a short post. Most of the news I consume on Instagram is sports-related, whether it is soccer or NASCAR. However, sometimes if there is a big event, breaking news, or something extremely notable, I will see it on Instagram first. Most of the big breaking news I see comes from Instagram before anything else. Sometimes I do not care about all the details, especially when it comes to things like politics or science. Sometimes I just need the headline. If I am really interested in one of those breaking news stories, I would use something like YouTube to get more details on the topic or read other articles.

As I said, most of the news or information I see on Instagram is sports-related. This can include creators providing analysis on a game or an official team or player account posting stats or a schedule. Specifically for soccer, there are two accounts I follow. One is Fabrizio Romano, who is the most-followed journalist in the world across all platforms. He posts player transfer updates and general news in the European football world. The other account is 433, which does basically the same thing, but they also include a lot of statistics, player ratings, and match schedules in their posts. 

#2 YouTube

My second news source is YouTube. I do not consume a lot of political or scientific news. Again, I mostly consume sports news or things that have to do with learning history. There are some fan sports team accounts that I follow on YouTube that give me more in-depth analysis and daily match previews and reviews.

YouTube is also where I go if I want to go more in-depth on a topic that I might have found on Instagram. It has a lot of very interesting videos on niche topics, such as video essays. I think those are great ways to learn about things, whether it has to do with pop culture, history, science, or a TV show or movie.

When it comes to current political events, I do not really consume a lot of politics, but I do enjoy videos by Tommy G and Tyler Oliveira, who do great boots-on-the-ground journalism on topics in the mainstream. I find them to be incredibly reliable and much better than mainstream news sources like Fox, NBC, or CNN. Even though those news sources can still be good, they always have a bias. I personally like their boots-on-the-ground journalism because they are not bought and paid for, and they actually put in a lot of effort to show people the truth.

#3 Family and Friends

My third news source is my family and friends. Because I do not read or follow the mainstream news, sometimes I hear things from my dad, who is an avid reader of the news. Sometimes my friends tell me things, or we discuss a certain topic. I think it is always great to learn the news face-to-face rather than from a screen.

#4: NASCAR.com

My fourth news source is NASCAR.com or the NASCAR app. They have short articles on their app that I get notifications for, which are easy, short reads. They also have stats and the standings in the app, and it is a great, easy way to follow the sport.

#5: ESPN

ESPN is my fifth news source. I do not open it super often, but I will read the occasional article about a certain player or learn about the production side of ESPN. They provide great, reliable coverage for a majority of sports.