Why I love my college

[northwind_gale]

Honors College Seminar 202-Ethics and Public Policy

Class #1, dated Thursday, January 28, 2010, from the hours of 4:30 p.m. to 7:00 p.m.




Topics of Discussion

• people getting fired from leaving their guns in the car while working
• the extents people will go in America to protect free speech
• universities being forbidden to prescribe, advertise, and distribute morning-after pills
• gore porn in museums

Comments

[falkner]

people getting fired from leaving their guns in the car while working
What the hell? Does stuff like this REALLY happen?

[northwind-gale.livejournal.com]

Yep. :3 There was a policy change in a warehouse's work rules-beforehand guns weren't allowed in the workplace. It had been extended to include the parking lot, and so there was a search of cars using drug and gun sniffing dogs. The search was apparently unannounced-but the policy change was. The debate was whether the punishment was too harsh or were the workers given enough notice.

The points of debate were:

1. Does the company have a right to perform searches on other people's private property (i.e. the car)?
2. If so, does the company have the right to fire said employee over this search when the employee wasn't aware of the search?

We decided:

1. It's debatable-but the parking lot is the property of the company-and thus cars parked in it are completely under its jurisdiction as guests subject to the policies of the company. It would be the same as person A inviting B over to their place, and insisting that the other person not bring a gun-and then when they come B brings it anyway, and A searches their bag while B isn't looking. Is A at fault for not telling B or is B at fault for breaking A's trust?

2. Companies often, when hiring, have potential employees sign a contract that means they will agree and follow the rules of the employer, and do have the right to fire said employee if they break the contract. This does often include the employee agreeing to be subject to random drug tests and/or searches. In this case, the warehouse would be completely justified.

3. Which leads to 3-the article we were given to read stated that it was unclear whether memos or notifications of the new policy change were distributed in a timely fashion. If not, then the warehouse is at fault, if they were, then the employees were at fault.

4. The main reason this was likely brought up was that this policy potentially might lead to defiance of the second Amendment: all men have the right to bear arms. Of course, no one expects or wants people bringing guns into the workplace. Whether the parking lot is included in the "workplace" or not is up to individual states or companies.

etc. etc. etc.

[falkner]

Awesome! Your class sounds really really interesting!
But just thinking of the fact that in the USA everyone has the right to bear arms creeps the hell out of me.

[northwind-gale.livejournal.com]

It is. We have to think a lot. :3

Well, considering that the original Constitution was written after that whole mess with the British and after a war and such, it would be natural that the right to bear arms would be there to keep soldiers from randomly running into your house and stealing all your guns (and other possessions, but you really need the gun to defend yourself, obviously) as they used to do in the days before and during the Revolutionary War. :3

[deceitroyalty.livejournal.com]

Dude, can I hang out at your class ;;

[northwind-gale.livejournal.com]

well it's already a crowded little room...but we can fit in one more! :D

[pijsan.livejournal.com]

Gore porn in museums? You mean like guro, or whatever it's called? O,o;

Also lolfree speech. I just read a bit of a book about free speech on the internet, and how some thirteen year old kid got awards and stuff for defending his right to have a joke site about the eradication of chihuahuas, what. 6A9

But yeah your class sounds pretty awesome~. :D

[northwind-gale.livejournal.com]

Actually it was this museum that decided to have an exhibit about the human body that involved people getting to view a live surgery. They had already restricted the age limit and stuff-but others protested that there would be some that came to watch the surgery just to be entertained by the blood and stuff like in horror movies (thus, one of the students called it "gore porn," seeing as apparently this person thinks that people would come just to get off on it).

Well, the free speech issue we read was a lot more disconcerting, unfortunately. Probably the only one we couldn't really come to a consensus to.

but yeah, it's awesome. :D

[pijsan.livejournal.com]

(thus, one of the students called it "gore porn," seeing as apparently this person thinks that people would come just to get off on it).

What, in public? 6s9 Also ohsnap now we have to ban the Discovery Health channel! D8 No but seriously that sounds like a tough one, although I personally doubt live surgery would attract horror movie enthusiasts because well, it has blood and guts and stuff but without the violence. o,o

Also what free speech issue was it? oso

[northwind-gale.livejournal.com]

I think by the end of the semester, everyone in the class will have nicknames. So far we have Mr. Gun Freak and Mr. Porn. *amused forever*

It was kind of depressing. It was a huge thing a few years ago-these people were gathering outside a church while there was a funeral for soldiers-and they were using protests such as "God hates fags" and the like, both by using signs and actually approaching funeral attendees and telling such things to their faces. Obviously cruel, no one would condone it, and such and such. But, through the work of a family's worth of skilled lawyers, this case was elevated from a small issue in church to being held up against the Senate-could the church actually prevent and regulate such things? Doing so was an obvious blow against the first amendment, and it could seriously open the door to even more restrictive rulings.

[pijsan.livejournal.com]

Haha, that's amazing. Make sure you get yourself a good nickname. |>

Oh, that sounds familiar, actually. o,o Did the protests happen to be from the infamous Westboro Baptist Church? Or am I thinking of something else? 6A9

Yeah, it is depressing though. And if you ask me, there's a time and place for free speech and funerals are not one of them, but...Sob it is a hard issue to argue. ;;

[northwind-gale.livejournal.com]

...Actually I think it was from there. I gotta double check, but that sounds right to me. :3

It really isn't, and the general community thinks so...but if the law gets involved, then it could lead the whole first amendment thing down a slippery slope, to quote my teacher.

Really, I just think it's sad that we're considering needing laws to enforce general cordiality.