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Home Debate Timeline Caucus Presentations Our Ideal American Society is a world where everybody has the same rights, as long as they meet the requirements and respect the laws of the nation. Mitch Nini, Graham Devine, Corbin Dennis, Liz Limotta, Elena Medich, Jacob Blankemeyer

VISION

Our American Soc iety is this idea that your in this club (United States) and every citizen has the same rights. In order to have the same rights you have to meet all the requirements and qualifications. You will respect and follow all the laws we create and establish for our country. You also will have to contribute to our country and/or be making progress to improve our society. Our vision is to crack down on illegal immigrants, have English as out national language and allow you to make personal decisions about your life. This vision is better than our current society because you can make decisions without the government interfering, we won't waste citizens' money and we can come together as a nation with the same language.

Elena Medich
I believe that the U.S should enforce the dismissal of illegal immigrants more. We should make it a priority to make sure the people who are living in this country are actually citizens. According to //**USA Today**//, “illegal immigration now costs U.S taxpayers $113 billion a year – about $1,117 for every native-headed household” (Stein 1). That’s billions of dollars, wasted on people who shouldn’t even be here in the first place. A call to action would be to find these illegal immigrants and force them out of our country. According to Lucas Sencio, a student at Upper Arlington, “in 1838 president Andrew Jackson along with state officials from Georgia forced the Native American Cherokee tribe to move out of their lands and march to Oklahoma” (Lucas S). I believe in doing something like the Trail of Tears only without the violence. Native Americans may have lost their homes but illegal immigrants have placed their homes in America and it shouldn’t be tolerated. Also illegal immigrants have taken jobs that belong to citizens. According to Elizabeth Limotta, a student at Upper Arlington, “illegal immigrants should not be offered an opportunity for U.S. jobs because the citizens of the United States deserve them” (Limotta). I believe that the United States should enforce the dismissal of illegal immigrants more because they shouldn't be in our country.

Mitch Nini
In my caucuses’ vision on an ideal American society, one thing we deemed necessary was the assimilation of our American culture in our “club” of a society. To start off we believe that in order to be successful and have full rights in our “club” one thing we all need to do is to speak English. Our caucus believes that “immigrants coming to this country have an obligation to learn the common language of this country- English- as soon as possible… (because of) how important it is… to succeed in the United States” (Mujica). That passage by Mauro E. Mujica, Chairman/CEO of U.S. English, strongly supports our ideal American society, stating that people who are not English proficient must assimilate to, for example: become part of “club” of a society. Our next reason to assimilate the country to English being our official language is based off of the same reasoning of the Second KKK, just without their violence they brought toward the people who did not assimilate. According to Ashley Murray, a student at Upper Arlington who did intensive research on the Second KKK, she states that “The KKK wants to protect their American brothers, but only some men are considered //**people.**// And, if they aren't, they have fewer rights; most of these people are executed by hanging or lynching//**” (Murray).**// That is very similar to our ideal American society (without the violence) because, if English as our country’s official language was assimilated to our society, the people who spoke English proficiently were considered part of the “club”. If they did not speak English, they would were not part of the “club”, had fewer rights, and would most likely not succeed in our country. This is also very similar to the book, //**Warriors Don't Cry**// by Melba Pattillo Beals. In her book, the main focus is that white segregationists did not want black students to integrate into a school, because they did not believe they would contribute to their society. But once integration occurred, blacks really started contributing to our society, with my main point being that our president of the United States is now black. That connects to our idea to the assimilation of English being our official language because once people who are not English proficient begin to assimilate and become part of our "club" they will now start to contribute to our ideal society.

** Elizabeth Limotta **
In our society we will allow no illegal immigrants. To make sure of this we will look for the “symptoms” of the illegal immigrant, such as “carry mostly cash, doesn’t speak English, and lives as transients among young males and are not legal participants in their communities” (Hanson). We also do not want illegal immigrants because our unemployment rate is currently 9.1% and if we remove the illegal immigrants from our country it will decrease. Things we can do to illuminate illegal immigrants are “strict enforcement of our existing laws, stiff employer sanctions, an end to bilingual documents and interpreters” (Hanson). This is saying that we are going to be stricter with our laws made and that you can have documents in another language besides English and that there will be high standards to getting a job. In the book //Warriors Don’t Cry// by Melba Patillo Beals, Melba one girl in the book is excluded from Central High even though she had the right to go, once people started noticing that she had the right to go to the school the whites started to forget about the big commotion because there was nothing they could do. This relates to Illegal immigration because these illegal immigrants that are in our country were just not talked about or it wasn’t a major priority in our current day society but in our new ideal society this is a major topic and or “qualification” of being accepted in our society. This is meaning that we will not allow illegal immigrants to be in our country because there is no right saying they are aloud to be here. The second Ku Klux Klan excluded mostly Catholics, Immigrants, and Jews in the during that time because they did not consider them "Americans", Our new ideal society will exclude illegal immigrants as well because illegal immigrants just make everything a huge hassle and waste money and time. This is why we believe in no illegal immigration and that is what we are going to do about it.

Jacob Blankemeyer
My caucus believes that we should have a majority rules based government. We believe that if you are America than you should speak English because it is our sole language and it would save a lot of money if everyone in the US knew English fluently. The statistics from USenglish.org are mind-boggling; “It costs $1.86 million annually to prepare written translations for food stamp recipients nationwide. The cost for oral translations skyrocket to $21 million nationally per year” (US English). This just shows you how much money we could save as a country if we banned Spanish translations on US goods. The next quote from a magazine the American Enterprise gives great information on why we need to enforce strict laws that allow on English speaking people in America, “The continuation of high levels of Mexican and Hispanic immigration and low rates of assimilation of these immigrants into American society and culture could eventually change America into a country of two languages, two cultures, and two peoples” (American Enterprise). The author of this quote Samuel Huntington, is precisely right about how America might one day be two different languages and cultures, this frightens me and it should also frighten you.

Corbin Dennis
In our ideal society all citizens have the right to make decisions about their personal lives. Woman in our society will have the right to make personal decisions about their body. For example, this give them the right to have abortions. The U.S. Supreme Court decided this in the famous case //**Roe v. Wade**//. The Court held that this right came from the 14th and 9th amendment to the constitution involving personal freedoms and privacy. Another personal choice is that gay citizens will have the right to get married. In the 1974 case //**Cleveland Board of Education V. Lafleur**// held that the “freedom of personal choice” in matters of marriage and family life are protected by due process. People of the same sex that love each other will receive the right to be married. Another personal right is the choice for citizens of different races to date and get married. This can be controversial in other societies. For example in the book //**The Secret Life of Bees,**// Lily a white girl wanted to date Zach a black boy. In the south in the 1960’s this was not accepted. Decisions about our personal lives will be accepted in our ideal society.

Graham Devine
People have the right to choose wither to end their lives or not because it’s that persons life and they should be able to do what ever they want with it. The government should not be able to step in and decide a if a person can kill themselves or not. If the person is terminally ill then they should defiantly have the right to choose whether they die or not because they are going to die anyway. So, why go through all the pain and suffering when you can get out of it. One person who helped people end lives was Dr. Jack Kevorkian who was a suicide doctor or someone who could write a prescription for a lethal injection. How ever, the government “Kevorkian to 10 to 25 years in prison for second-degree murder and three to seven years for delivery of a controlled substance”(Schenider). This was unfair because Dr. Kevorkian was just trying to help the people in pain that were going to die, die with less pain. Oregon and the UK have legalized assisted suicide. Oregon also passed the Death With Dignity Act in 1994. "The law made it okay for physicians to prescribe patients with lethal injections so the terminally ill so they can determine the time of their own death"(Mikac). All of these things are good steps in people having the right to choose wither they can end their own lives or not.

__Works Cited:__
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25 Oct. 2011. <[]>.

Limotta, Elizabeth. "Minor Children of Illegal Immigrants are entitled to the

same rights and protections as all American citizens - con." // Buchholtz //

// Sidor American Studies //. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 Oct. 2011.

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Sencio, Lucas. "1838 Cherokee Trail of Tears." // Buchholtz Sidor American Studies //.

N.p., n.d. Web. 25 Oct. 2011.

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Murray, Ashley. "1915 Second KKK." // Wikispaces //. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 Oct. 2011.

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Mujica, Mauro E. "Should English be the official language of the United States?"

// CQ Researcher Online //. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 Oct. 2011.

[| http://library.cqpress.com].

Beals, Melba Pattillo. // Warriors Don't Cry //. N.p.: n.p., n.d. N. pag. Print.

Katel, Peter. "iIlegal Immigration." // CQ Researcher Online //. SAGE Publications, 17

Nov. 2011. Web. 18 Oct. 2011. <[|http://library.cqpress.com]>.

Beals, Melba Pattillo. //Warriors Don't Cry//. N.p.: n.p., n.d. N. pag. Print.

Ashley, M, “The Second KKK” Timeline Topics, Buchholtz Sidor Wikispaces, 26 Oct. 2011.

Cooper, Mary H. "Immigration Reform." // CQ Researcher Online //. SAGE Publications,

2011. Web. 18 Oct. 2011. <[|http://library.cqpress.com]>.

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P., Catt. “Roe v. Wade.” // American Studies Wiki Page //. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 Oct. 2011. <__http://buchholtzsidoramericanstudies.wikispaces.com/ ‌ 1973+Roe+v+Wade__>.

Trexler, Annie. “Marriage is a personal choice and cannot be denied for gay citizens.” // American Studies Wiki Page //. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 Oct. 2011. <__http://buchholtzsidoramericanstudies.wikispaces.com/ ‌ Marriage--Same+Sex__>.

"Kevorkian gets 10 to 25 years in prison." // CNN // 13 Apr. 1999: n. pag. // CNN.com //.

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Messerli, Joe. "Should an incurably-ill patient be able to commit

physician-assisted suicide?" // Balanced Politics //. N.p., 27 July 2011. Web. 19

Oct. 2011. <[|http://www.balancedpolitics.org]>.

Mikac, Sarah. “End of life decisions are a personal matter to be decided by the individual and his/her loved ones.” // American // // Studies Wiki Page //. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 Oct. 2011.< http://buchholtzsidoramericanstudies.wikispaces.com/End+of+life+decisions >.

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