Summarizing and Paraphrasing Activity - Essay Example

Texas Law and First Amendment After publicly burning an American flag in protest of the Republican National Convention taking place in Dallas in 1984, Gregory Lee Johnson was convicted for burning the U.S national flag in public. The demonstration included hundreds of others as well, but the jury identified Greg Johnson as the prime accused and sentenced him to a year in jail, besides slapping a fine of $2000. H.J. Res. 10, an amendment considered to protect the national Flag from desecration, was used against Johnson, opposing the rights of the First Amendment to political advantage.

Congress passed an amendment that curtailed the scope of the First Amendment, which protected free expression as a constitutional right, thereby slapping an exorbitant fine along with imprisonment of one year. This was seen as a bad precedent to democratic law and could cause dangerous and unnecessary assault on one's fundamental liberty, and could have serious repercussion on democratic rights in future. In understanding the case, despite unanimous support from the protestors, only Johnson was identified for criminal proceedings and found guilty by the court.

The amendment of the 1968 statute to make it neutral by passing the Flag Protection Act of 1989', Congress had manipulated the First Amendment to its advantage. Johnson was charged under the desecration of a venerated object in violation of Texas Penal Code Ann. Sec. 42.09 (a) (3) (1989). When he went on appeal against this verdict in the Court of Appeals for the Fifth District of Texas at Dallas, the court affirmed Johnson's conviction. The matter was taken to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, which reversed the judgment stating that the State could not, consistent with the First Amendment, punish Johnson for burning the flag in these circumstances (Thomas-Library of Congress, http://thomas.loc.gov- Thomas)ParaphrasingFast food has been a bane on American society.

The craze for fast food has only added to the worries of the US Health Department. Obese is a curse on society. With more and more outlets attracting the various strata of society, health related problems have been eating into the national coffer. Women are more prone to obese, as they hardly have the time to exercise.On the other hand, fashion has had an influence on the way women, and girls in general, have modeled themselves on. Models on the ramp are seen as the perfect example of 'sexy' ness.

Girls tend to imitate these women to look attractive and sought after. Throwing caution to wind, these girls take on the role of going under the surgeon's knife to attain the 'perfect body'. Do they know the consequence of such fallacy We see girls at the age of 13 getting restless and annoyed with their figure, and more so at the age of 17. Hygiene manuals that proclaimed physical fitness as a "sign" of moral purity, has given way to cosmetic surgery, piercing, and tattooing, as en vogue and as locus for expressing oneself and fashioning an identity, an identity truly hazardous.