My paper is officially late as of tonight and its only in the roughest of states. Three pages and while not incoherent, its not good. I've actually located more source data than I can use and everytime I dig a little deeper, I'm chest deep in reading the Federalist Papers and trying to understand what our Founding Fathers had in mind when they wrote and later ratified our Constitution.
That's right, I'm writing about the 2nd Amendment. I should be buying a paper from Kevin Baker over at the Smallest Minority or Oleg Volk at A Human Right or at the very least plagerizing their fine work but I'm trying to understand and develop my own paper. I've bitten off way more than I can manage! I'm also not trying to write this paper supporting one aspect of the 2nd Amendment over the other but rather I'm trying to show how throughout our history, the 2nd Amendment has been read and interpreted differently than the others, principally the 1st Amendment.
Its not possible to discuss this issue without talking about guns but I'm really trying to instead consider what our Founding Fathers meant when they wrote about "militia" and about "people." Then I want to compare the uses of those definitions as they are applied to other amendments.
Its interesting, and challenging but it is making me nuts! I'm just really having a hard time finding my voice in this paper. Anyway, its late and I hate that. The instructor will accept it through Saturday night without penalizing me so I will get it finished. I may not do much else until its done, but I will get it done!
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