Especially in this year alone, civil liberty issues are found all over America. They are diverse too. One of the most important parts of civil liberties involve protecting human privacy and security during the midst of a rapidly changing technological age. Technology is heavily innovated in the 21st century. We desire individual people to have control over their personal information and reject those who hack other's information. Back in 1986, there is the federal law that protects people's electronic information. This was long before the modern manifestation of the World Wide Web that came about in 1989 with the first web browser came out in 1990. The Fourth Amendment protects information that people keep in a desk. Many former NSA whistleblowers including Snowden has sent to the public the extent of the NSA warrantless programs that has been criticized by people from across the political spectrum. It is not a secret that government agencies like the NSA, CIA, and FBI monitor private communications worldwide. That includes cell phone communications and everything else. Edward Snowden copied and leaked thousands of classified NSA documents to journalists. This information proved that the access of some federal agencies to the public's online identity and led to wider use anonymizing technologies. Snowden is forced into exile, because he risks arrest to this day if he steps foot in America. Some have called him a hero, a patriot, or a traitor. The truth is that Snowden did a controversial action, but he isn't some traitor (as he desired to allow the American people to know how extensive mass surveillance, government secrecy, etc. is). By September 2, 2020 a U.S. federal court ruled that the U.S. intelligence's mass surveillance program, exposed by Snowden, was illegal and possibly unconstitutional. Daniel Ellsberg has said that Snowden's release was the most significant leak in American history. We have to fight for our freedom. We don't want the government to track our every move. The balance between security and freedom must always be in existence. Movies like Enemy of the State and Snowden exposed what is going on in America plus the world to this day. Other civil liberty issues deals with voting rights, national security, women's rights, religious liberty, free speech, disability rights, criminal justice issues, etc. Voting is a fundamental human right. That is the Voting Rights Act should be strengthened, unfair gerrymandering must be ended, voter restoration must be a priority, and access to the ballot has to be expanded in order for human rights to be grown.
One of the most interesting parts of the 1990's was the growth of dance music. During the 1990's, musicians of every color made dance/house music that was inspirational. People danced to their music, and many unsung artists are part of that culture. When I was teenager (during the late 1990's), I saw a commercial celebrating 90's dance music. A lot of the music came from America and from Europe. In 1990, dance music was powerful with songs from musicians like Kylie Minogue, Maxi Priest (with his song of Close to You), and Snap!. People like Kim Appleby had records like Don't Worry, Beats International had Dub Be Good to me, Technotronic had Get Up (Before the Night is Over), Dee-Lite's Groove is in the Heart (in my opinion gave disco a huge comeback in 90's music. We were very tolerant of disco during the 1990's for real), and Twenty4Seven feat. Captain Hollywood's I Can't Stand It offered diversity. People like Bombalurina, Londonbeat, DNA feat. Suzzane Vega (with their Tom's Diner), The KLF, MC Hammer (with U Can't Touch This), etc. made people dance. In 1991, The KLF had the song of 3AM Eternal with an amazing people. People like Whitney Houston, Color Me Badd, Amy Grant, Kate Yanai, Michael Jackson, etc. had dance hits. Seal's song of Crazy was ahead of its time. Prince had his generation of music. Emotions from Mariah Carey was a large dance record. People like Rozalla, Roxette, 2 Unlimited (with Get Ready for this), C&C Music Factory, and other people had creative sounds. One Queen of House is Crystal Waters with her song of Gypsy Woman (La Da Dee) form 1991. Crystal Water worked hard throughout her life to achieve the accomplishments that she has earned by her own merit. Dance hits from Karyn White's Romantic, Paula Abdul's The Promise of a New Day, Cathy Dennis's songs, EMF's Unbelievable, and other people made the 1990's what it is.
1992 saw an evolution of music. Prince, Felix, Right Said Fred, Madonna's controversial Erotica, etc. had themes that were ahead of its time. Ce Ce Peniston's Finally shown great vocals, creative colors in the video, and just great talent. Dance music from En Vogue, Shanice, Michael Jackson's In the Closet, and Dr. Alban's It's My Life expanded dance music. From Kriss Kross, Jon Secada's Just Another Day, Double You, KWS, Snap!'s Rhythm is a Dancer, Tasmin Archer's Sleeping Satellite,and other songs made people enjoy themselves. Groups like Inner Circle and Londonbeat had music of the 90's as well. 1993 saw an explosion of dance/house music. Ace of Base, Toni Braxton, Jade, Mariah Carey's Dreamlover, and Gabrielle's Dreams were inspirational. Snap! and Nikki Harris released music. People like 2 Unlimited, Pet Shop Boys, Culture Beat, Stakka Bo, Zhane, UB40, Tina Turner's I Don't Want to Fight, Tony! Toni! Tone!, Inner Circle, Take That, Captain Hollywood, Haddaway's Life, M People, and many people had music. Culture Beat's Mr. Vain was one of the most popular dance/house songs of all time. Even I heard of this song when I was a kid. Shaggy was out in 1993 with the song Oh Carolina. Show Me Love by Robin S. was another huge record. Dr. Alban's Hallelujah was very powerful too. From DJ BoBo's Somebody Dance with Me, Janet Jackson's music, Urban Cookie Collective, Spin Doctors' Two Princes, Cappella's U Got 2 Know, and 4 Non Blondes' What's Going On made 93 unique. 1994 was the end of the early 1990's. In dance, 1994 saw Crystal Waters made 100 % Pure Love. She was at another level in 1994. Youssou N'Dour ft. Neneh Cherry made 7 Seconds. One of the great dance songs of the year was Another Night by The Real McCoy. Aaliyah's Back and Forth showed her range. Janet Jackson's worldwide touring and love of her fans are shown in her song of Because of Love. Toni Braxton, Tevin Campbell, Ace of Base, Prince Ital Joe, Haddaway, Pharao, Baby D, 2 Unlimited, Prince, Capella's You and Me, and Salt-N-Pepa plus En Vogue had great music.
In 1995, music expanded involving house and dance. Brandy, Corona, La Bouche's Be My Lover, Outhere Brothers' Boom Boom Boom, Shaggy's Boombastic (I saw that song on the show Splash back in 1995), Alex Party, Tina Turner, Adina Howard, Ini Kamoze's Here Comes the Hotstepper, Brownstone's If You Love Me, Grace, The Real McCoy's Runaway, Janet Jackson's Runaway, and other human beings had songs which were timeless. N-Trance, This is How We Do It from Montell Jordan, and other music outline a golden age of music. In 1996, Mariah Carey made great music. California Love from Tupac, Robert Miles's Children, Quad City DJ's song, Jamiroquai's Cosmic Girl, Los Del Riot's Macarena, Mark Morrison, BBE, Brandy, and other human beings promoted their talents. In 1997, it was a more serious sounds with people from Lutricia McNeal, Spice Girls, Boyz II Men, Allure, 112, Bees Gees, Eternal, Draft Punk, Aqua, En Vogue, Whitney Houston, Dario G, Usher, and Chilli ft. Carrapicho made music. By the late 1990's underrated artists like Jessica Folkcer (she is of Afro-European descent from Sweden like the younger Afro-German singer Joy Denalane), Gabrielle, Diana King, Dionne Harris, Seal, Adriana Evans, and other people made music. In 1998, songs were more about introspection and having fun. Artists like Wes, Meja, Will Smith, Pras, Maya, Lighthouse Family, Mousse T, Dru Hill, Janet Jackson, Divine, Desiree, Ace of Base, Robbie Williams, Sash, Deborah Cox, Destiny's Child, Spice Girls, Monica, Brandy, TQ, and other artists made people dance. In 1999, dance music was abundant. Anne Lee, Enrique Iglesias, Madonna, Emilia, Destiny's Child (in 1999, Destiny's Child established themselves as a supergroup with a long list of hits), Eiffel 65, Vengaboys, Jessica Folcker, Will Smith, Sisqo, and other people expressed sounds during the final year of the 20th century.
One of the most vicious nuclear disasters in history was the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster that took place on March 11, 2011. Many people have came into the hospital as a product of the disaster along with death. It was caused by the 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami. It was the worst nuclear accident since the Chernobyl disaster of 1986. It was the only accident to receive a Level 7 event classification on the International Nuclear Event Scale. The reactors shut down their normal power generating fission reactions. The earthquake and tsunami caused water to flood lower parts of the reactors 1-4. This cause loss of power to the circulating pumps. Then, 3 nuclear meltdowns came about. Then, hydrogen explosions, and the release of radioactive contamination existed. In the days after the accident, radiation released to the atmosphere forced the government to declare an ever-larger evacuation zone around the plant, culminating in an evacuation zone with a 20 km radius. All told, some 154,000 residents evacuated from the communities surrounding the plant due to the rising off-site levels of ambient ionizing radiation caused by airborne radioactive contamination from the damaged reactors. Later, radioactive isotopes were released into the Pacific Ocean during and after the disaster. Since the Pacific Ocean is huge, this poisoned water has spread globally. Michio Aoyama, a professor of radioisotope geoscience at the Institute of Environmental Radioactivity, has estimated that 18,000 terabecquerel (TBq) of radioactive caesium 137 were released into the Pacific during the accident, and in 2013, 30 gigabecquerel (GBq) of caesium 137 were still flowing into the ocean every day. The plant's operator has since built new walls along the coast and also created a 1.5 km long "ice wall" of frozen earth to try to stop the flow of contaminated water. Yet, the damage is done. Even the most conservative researchers admit that it will take 30-40 years at least to cause a cleanup of the contaminated area and cause a decommission of the plant. Many studies were ignored about the vulnerabilities of the plant too.
There are always mysteries in the architecture of Washington D.C. The Lincoln Memorial has tons of architectural influences and strong imagery. It acts as a place to remember Abraham Lincoln. Many people from Harriet Tubman and Frederick Douglas pressured Abraham Lincoln to be more courageous during the Civil War. Lincoln was opposed to slavery, but at first he wanted to unified the nation, even if that meant that the South would still have slaves. Later, he wanted to fight for the Union without slavery in existence. After the U.S. Civil War, legalized slavery was gone. That was a good thing. The architect of the Lincoln Memorial was Henry Bacon. Henry Bacon (1866-1924) was influenced by the Beaux-Arts style. The Lincoln Memorial was finished from 1915 to 1922. Bacon based the Lincoln Memorial on the style of ancient Greek temples like the Parthenon. The statue of the Abraham Lincoln is made up of 170 tons. The building is in the form of a Greek Doric temple and contains a large seated sculpture of Abraham Lincoln and inscriptions of two well-known speeches by Lincoln, The Gettysburg Address and his second inaugural address. The memorial has been the site of many famous speeches, including Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech, delivered on August 28, 1963, during the rally at the end of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. The Memorial's interior is divided into three chambers by two rows of four Ionic columns, each 50 feet (15 m) tall and 5.5 feet (1.7 m) across at their base. The central chamber, housing the statue of Lincoln, is 60 feet wide, 74 feet deep, and 60 feet high. The Memorial is replete with symbolic elements. The 36 columns represent the states of the Union at the time of Lincoln's death; the 48 stone festoons above the columns represent the 48 states in 1922. Inside, each inscription is surmounted by a 60-by-12-foot (18.3 by 3.7 m) mural by Jules Guerin portraying principles seen as evident in Lincoln's life: Freedom, Liberty, Mortality, Justice, and the Law on the south wall; Unity, Fraternity, and Charity on the north. Cypress trees, representing Eternity, are in the murals' backgrounds. The murals' paint incorporated kerosene and wax to protect the exposed artwork from fluctuations in temperature and moisture.
One of the most interesting paintings in the U.S. Capitol rotunda dome is the Apotheosis of Washington. It was painted by the Greek-Italian artist named Constantino Brumidi in 1865. The fresco is suspended in 180 feet above the rotunda floor. It covers about 4,663 square feet. Brumidi had worked for three years in the Vatican under Pope Gregory XVI, and served several aristocrats as an artist for palaces and villas, including the prince Torlonia. He immigrated to the United States in 1852, and spent much of the last 25 years of his life working in the Capitol. In addition to The Apotheosis of Washington he designed the Brumidi Corridors. The symbolism of the paintings is overt and clear. It show George Washington sitting amongst the heavens in an exalted manner. It shows George Washington ascending into being a god (which in my opinion is blasphemous). Washington was the first U.S. President and the commander in chief of the Continental Army during the Revolutionary War. The paintings shows pagan imagery like the Goddess of Liberty with the red liberty cap. It shows the goddess Victoria. Forming a circle between Liberty and Victory are 13 maidens, each with a star above her head, representing the original 13 colonies. Several of the maidens have their backs turned to Washington, said to represent the colonies that had seceded from the Union at the time of painting. Across the circle from Washington is the banner E Pluribus Unum meaning "out of many, one."
Surrounding Washington, the two goddesses and the 13 maidens are six scenes lining the perimeter, each representing a national concept allegorically: from directly below Washington in the center and moving clockwise, "War," "Science," "Marine," "Commerce," "Mechanics," and "Agriculture." The perimeter scenes are not fully visible from the floor of the Capitol. The scenes shows an homage to Roman gods and goddesses like Minerva, Neptune, Ceres, Vulcan, and Mercury. It praises Columbia too.
With recent events going on in the world, it is important to honor the black African Diaspora. Black people live globally. You can't be pro-black unless you desire all black people to be liberated worldwide. My ancestors came from Africa, and I was born in Virginia. The vast majority of black people who live in the world outside of Africa live in Brazil, The Untied States of America, Haiti, and Colombia. With 43 million black Americans, 100 million Afro-South Americans, and 23 Afro-Caribbeans, there are almost 200 black people in the Americas alone. Black people in France include courageous human beings too. Afro-French human being Laetitia Avia is an MP from Paris for La Republique En Marche!.Maxette Grisoni-Pirbakas (born on April 14, 1973) is a French politician and syndicalist. She is on the list in the 2019 European Parliament election in France of the National Rally (RN). Sibeth Ndiaye (born on December 13, 1979) is a French-Senegalese communications advisor. Rokhaya Diallo (born on April 10, 1978), is a French journalist, author, filmmaker, and activist for racial, gender and religious equality. We have different cultures, and that is great. We are still part of one human family.
By Timothy
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