Race Advantages?

Racism has always been a big problem in this country. Slowly it becomes less and less a problem, but, even though many think it is no longer an issue, there are sections of the country who are still racist.
However, I would like to talk about a different kind of racism. And before you read the next sentence and accuse me of being racist, just hear me out. I think that we give too much advantage to races outside of caucasion/white. I do not believe playing fields are as equal in this country as they should be.
When you apply for college and go searching for scholarships, other races aside from whites have advantages - to an extent - because you can get scholarships just by checking that little race box that says your hispanic, or black, or etc.
I think that this race box should be taken out of tests like the SAT, ACT, and on applications. I do not understand why it is necessary to know the race of an applicant. If admission is equally dispersed to all the races, you should not receive money for college simply because you are a certain race.

Presidential Priorities - Popularity or Responsibility?

Ashley has made a very good point in her article "Presidents or Celebrities?" as she talks about Presidents and presidential canidates and their many appearances on talk shows. She makes some very good points. "Usually, Presidents and presidential candidates do anything from make jokes about opponents or give opinions on fashion...I feel that, sometimes, appearances like this take priority over critical issues facing our country." I really enjoyed her article and agree with her opinions.
I would like to stay in the same topic but in a slightly different direction and talk about specifically how these media appearances affect elections. In any sort of election, many times popularity plays a big role. Typically, and this makes obvious sense,  people are more likely to vote for someone if they are popular - their friends, family, or media likes them - and, in the case of younger voters, cool. We've all seen those commercials with celebrities promoting presidential candidates, or presidents/candidates being interviewed on talk shows talking about every day things, such as fashion, like Ashley mentioned.
I think it is unfortunate that elections, particularly presidential, are often times affected by popularity rather than how responsible an individual is. Just because someone is popular and has a good taste in fashion does not mean they are fit to run the county. But then, how would we know, when they are too busy talking about simple things irrelivant to running the country instead of more serious talks?

Penumbras?

The Roe v. Wade decision of 1973 used the "penumbras" of the Bill of Rights to justify their decision.
A penumbra is an area of partial illumination, as shown in the picture to the left. For example, if the sun is the Bill of Rights, the earth - or the light illuminating the earth - is everything the Bill of Rights addresses as a right the people of America possess. The shadows behind the earth represent things that citizens do not have a right to do, and the gray area is a sort of in between - an area that the Bill of Rights does not necessarily address or does not technically say that the people can't do it.
I do not think that it is right that we can justify rights of the people using the penumbras in the Bill of Rights. The reason I say this is because when you do not give people a clear, black and white list of what they can and cannot do, there are always going to be people out there that try to get away with as much as possible. I believe when you begin to take the gray area as acceptable, it is hard to know where the gray stops and where the black begins.