The Electoral College

I do not believe that the Electoral College is valid way to elect a president. There are some pros to this system, because it is simple to determine who wins, but this system does not technically give each state an equal vote.  Each state gets electors by adding their number of representatives and the two senators. The number of representatives in a state is based on the population but all states get two senators.  The senators are what throw the say per person off balance. This isn’t very fair to the large states because they have more people yet the small states get more say per person even though they have a lower total number of votes. If it was the number of representatives only to determine the number of electoral votes it would be fair but since they all get to add two (for the senators) it unbalances them.

There are some things that are good about this way of electing a president. To win an election a candidate must get 270 votes. This would be the majority; there are 538 votes total. If this does not happen, then the legislature elects the candidate with the highest number of votes. This only happened once and it was between the candidates Kennedy and Nixon.  This is a very fair way of electing a president, if no one reaches the requirements.

 However the Electoral College can cause problems that outweigh the benefit. For example, in 2000 there was a huge problem with the presidential elections. The two main candidates were George W. Bush and Al Gore.  The elections were very close and Al Gore had the popular vote, yet Bush ended up winning. This caused problems in Florida because they had such a close state vote. They had to re-count and they even had to go to the U.S. Supreme Court twice.  Florida is a big state so they had to get the votes counted correctly. In the end Bush still won even though the popular vote was for Al Gore. I think that this shows there is a flaw, since Bush won even though more people wanted Al Gore. It has actually happened four times total when the popular vote didn’t win. This doesn’t seem very fair to me because it actually ends up pleasing the minority which means more people are unhappy then happy and I don’t think that is what the Framers of the Constitution wanted to achieve. I think that the election followed the process that the Framers created, but it highlighted that the system does not give everyone an equal vote.  If it did, the people would have elected Al Gore.

The Music of The Pearl

  I think that the last sentence is saying that just as soon as the Pearl appears it is gone. It is back where it belongs in the sea. It has gone from being this big problem to being peaceful again back in the ocean.
  The pearl itself represents hope. Kino first gets the pearl and there are a bunch of new opportunities for him. He could put Coyotito in school and get a rifle. I think that it is the people that make the pearl represent greed in evil. It is what they do that makes this happen. The actual pearl is peaceful and represents hope and new opportunities.
  The music of the Pearl was evil because when the family had the Pearl bad things happened. The music of evil was a repeated motif in the story. Kino also heard it when the scorpion was in the house and Coyotito got stung. And now he is hearing it more and more with the pearl. It took Coyotito to be killed for Kino to understand that the pearl only brought evil.
  I think that the pearl represents greed because Kino is a very nice, and calm man. Then the pearl comes into his life and it completely changes. He wants all of these new things that normally he could not afford. He will not give up his fortune even though bad things are happening. Kino changes and is no longer the man that he used to be.
  Everyone was trying to get a part of the pearl. All of the villagers hoped that in some way Kino would think of them and share his fortune. They were also greedy because of the pearl. Some people were doing horrible things just to get it. They ruined Kino's property and they attacked him. All of this happens as news spreads about Kino finding the pearl and then he throws it back and the evil is gone. Kino is no longer linked to the pearl.