Thinking Spatially - AP Human Geography and Current Issues

Memes are now a bigger part of our culture than ever.  Memes have established an entertaining way to spread information, express an opinion, or even to make a product known.  While most of us know what a modern meme is, how would we define a meme.  Richard Dawkins, a famed evolutionary biologist and pioneer in what I like to call “meme theory”, defined a meme as an idea that spreads rapidly similar to how a disease would.  To Dawkins even scientific beliefs were “memes”.  Now that you know what Dawkins said a meme was, you may now wonder what this has to do with the modern representation of the meme. Information scientists have said for years that many ideas are like organisms, they reproduce and evolve, and there is no better example than the modern meme.  The meme has diffused from a small group of people to be a major part of mainstream culture.  In recent years what was once just a fringe group of nerds on the internet has become a worldwide phen...

On December 11, 2019 Donald Trump signed and executive order to target anit-semitism on college campuses. This order falls under VI of the Civil Rights Act which is seen to talk about race, ethnicity, and nationality. However this act is not about religion. This brings up the controversial question of should Judaism be considered as more than a religion, is it a nationality? Judaism being defined as a nationality might not seem like the biggest problem for most people. However, many Jews feel as it is only segrating them. Rabbi Here Peason states, “It feels dangerous...I’ve heard many people say this feels like the first step to us wearing yellow stars.” Many others have come forward also suggesting that Judaism shouldn’t be considered a nationality or race due to the many different people that can be Jewish.  If Judaism is to be considered a race it would be implying that all Jews have a shared national origin. This new order is seen to bring many more questions to the alread...

(Above is show how many people would lose or gain food stamps in their state) Donald Trump’s administration has came out with a proposal to cut food stamps. This proposal could cause millions of people to lose food stamps or cut the amount of food a person can get. Food stamps feeds more than 36 million people. Food stamps (SNAP) is what helps millions of Americans to eat. The proposed changes will negatively impact millions across the country. A positive is that in seven states, the changes will give more people food stamp access. The USDA  estimates that the changes would reduce the SNAP budget by about $4.2 billion. This change will prove to be a major cost for those living in metropolitan areas with high living costs. But the main issue is that SNAP is not intended to be a work program in the first place, but is instead intended to address food insecurity within the United States. As it operates now, SNAP does not discourage people from participating in the labor market....

On Tuesday, the historic U.S.- Mexico- Canada Agreement was signed off by Democrats in the House of Representatives. Following shortly after, top officials from the United States, Mexico, and Canada signed the revised version of the trade agreement. The USMCA trade agreement has been negotiated for nearly three years, as it was a campaign promise of President Donald Trump. The agreement was originally signed by all three involved nations on November 30, 2018. However, the deal underwent multiple revisions and congressional delays before its passing on Tuesday. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi stated “There is no question, of course, that this trade agreement is much better than NAFTA.” The deal has been seen as a rare show of bipartisan and cross-border cooperation. The U.S.- Mexico- Canada Agreement essentially expands upon the previously established North American Free Trade Agreement. NAFTA was signed into action in 1994 under President Bill Clinton. NAFTA removed strict barriers pla...

President Omar al-Bashir was the seventh president of Sudan, ruling form 1989-2019. His laws and regulations directly tormented and discriminated against the 6.4 million women living there. Bashir has been at the head of controversy for most of his time in power. Throughout 2009 and 2010, Bashir was convicted and wanted for war crimes, crimes against humanity, and even genocide after 250,000 people were left dead. After 30 years of control and authority, the people had enough of president Bashir’s antics and hatred and began mass protests and demonstrations, leading to the arrest and eventual prosecution of the former president. Sudanese women celebrating after the ending of strict public order Sudan transitional government has recently repealed restrictive public order laws that controlled how women acted and dressed in public (“Sudan Crisis”). This public order law has devasted the women of Sudan for decades leaving them filled with anger and hatred towards their leaders. Ac...

The history of California is largely tied to migration. Since the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl, Americans and Mexicans have migrated to California in search of the American Dream or just a job as a day laborer on a huge farm. This is still symbolized today, e.g. San Francisco 49ers and the Golden Gate Strait. Lately, however, it seems as if people are trying to escape the largest populated “state” in the union. Once seen as a place of hope and prosperity, California is now littered with needles and human feces. Victor Davis Hanson of The National Review even went as far as to call California “America’s First Third-World State.” The modern and most common definition of “third world” is “The underdeveloped nations of the world, especially those with widespread poverty.” Hanson goes on to explain that a third world nation usually consists of: “a predictably corrupt government, unequal or nonexistent applicability of the law, two rather than three classes, and the return of medieval ...