Is Eminent Domain as Practiced Today a Violation of the Takings Clause of the Fifth Amendment of the US Constitution - Essay Example It has commonly been argued that eminent domain is a violation of the taking clause of the fifth amendment of the US constitution. The Taking Clause of the US Constitution The purpose of the taking clause featured in the US constitution is to bar the government from forcibly making some people bear public burdens, which is a responsibility of the entire public (Funk 123). On the other hand, the takings clause fully requires compensation whenever a government takes away private property and converts it for public use. Eminent domain gives the government power to take such property, even without fully compensating the private owners, which is contrary to the Fifth Amendment (Greenhut 65). The fourteenth and fifth amendments’ taking clauses of the constitution have similar meaning and effect. However, owners of property can enjoy more protection from the Fifth Amendment takings. Proponents of eminent domain believe that the US constitution’s Fifth Amendment takings clause does not prohibit the government from taking private property (Donahue 32). The requirement of public use is normally viewed like a restriction on the power of government over eminent domain as proponents of eminent domain believe. ... The situation of many individuals that have their properties taken by the government is normally made worse given that some of these properties are what they consider a lifetime investment and therefore beyond monetary value. In this respect, eminent domain denies individuals the right to enjoy whatever they have worked for irrespective of how much treasured their investments are to them (Sheldom 24). This as a result lowers the motivation of hardworking citizens who always live in fear considering that their properties may be taken at any time and without warning. Eminent domain has been applied blatantly with power-hungry and utilitarian justifications. Such events occur for example where large companies that remit more taxes to the government are favored against individuals or smaller organizations to an extent that properties are seized from the later unjustifiably for the benefit of the larger companies as noted by Ryskamp (35). This sometimes is done out of the consideration that larger companies create more employment opportunities compared to smaller ones. Unfortunately the application of eminent domain in this respect is flawed as it considers individuals as fungible or substitutable objects. When the government seizes property based on such logic, it means that the government cares not for the welfare of those whose lives are ruined as a result against the constitutional implication that the individual’s right is absolute. Some quarters have reasoned that eminent domain helps in the redistribution of property and helps in creating equality and equity in the sharing of resources among nationals. This idea is further propagated based on the reasoning that the government helps in
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William Shakespeare’s sonnet “Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day†is a fourteen line poem that contains three quatrains followed by a couplet. The poem is also known as Sonnet 18, and is a beautiful poem describing just that, a summer’s day. If one wishes to be technical, Shakespeare does more than describe a summer’s day, he is comparing an individual to a summer’s day. Shakespeare uses the literary devices imagery and diction throughout the poem. Imagery is the one device that stands out the most due to Shakespeare’s intricate way of describing the summer day with such detail that the reader feels like they are there. Diction is an important literary device which I will focus on, because Shakespeare switches back and forth between abstract and concrete diction. Shakespeare used imagery to its fullest in this poem. Using the phrases summer’s day, buds of May, heaven shines, and so on… It all sounds so beautiful and the reader is able to picture all of these images as it brings a smile to the readers’ lips. While reading the poem, the gender of the person to whom Shakespeare is comparing to a summer’s day is left unknown and can easily be confused with that of a woman, although the poem gives no indication of this relationship being a romantic one. The line that strikes me as being the most beautiful is “But thy eternal summer shall not fade†(Shakespeare 76). I as the reader can just imagine a summer that never ends, and the sound of that is pleasing to the mind. Thus this is the best example of how Shakespeare used imagery in this sonnet. One that is a bit more difficult to understand is Shakespeare’s use of diction throughout the poem. Just like the rest of Shakespeare’s work, in this poem he primarily uses formal form of speech with words such as thou, thy, shall, nor. This choice of words was common when the poem was written back in 1609, but no longer is for the readers of this day and age, which makes Shakespeare’s choice of diction easily misunderstood. In this poem, Shakespeare uses concrete and abstract diction interchangeably. Concrete language can be considered something specific or definite such as objects you can picture with your five senses such as walking, cold, lawn mower, etc… Shakespeare uses this type of diction scarcely throughout the poem with the following words: buds, hot, shines, men, breathe, and eyes. Most poets do not use abstract or concrete diction uniformly (Deblanco and Cheuse 75). Shakespeare had to move back and forth between dictions in order to make the poem sound. Abstract diction is more general, because it refers to terms that you cannot touch, see, smell, feel or taste. Examples of abstract diction are love, freedom, sexism, morale, etc… Shakespeare uses abstract diction much more freely throughout the poem, perhaps because abstract diction is much easier to use for his need to achieve imagery. He uses the phrases “Thou art more lovely and more temperate†(Shakespeare 76), lovely being the abstract term in this phrase. Same concept applies to the phrase “But thy eternal summer shall not fadeâ€(Shakespeare 76), eternal is not something you can sense with any of your five senses. Abstract words can also vary from person to person, because a word be interpreted differently varying on the person. In sum, throughout the entirety of the poem “Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer’s Day†by William Shakespeare, he uses concrete and abstract interchangeably in order to achieve a perfect balance and to incorporate imagery for the reader to visualize his words. The use of concrete and abstract diction brought Shakespeare’s poem to life, thus making the reading a pleasant experience for the reader.
Antigone: Creon's Flaws In the play Antigone, I choose Creon to be the tragic hero because he is the King of Thebes and he looses everything he has. Creon being King makes the audience believe that something like that can happen to the King then what can happen to us. Antigone the niece of Creon, The sister of Polyneices was punished by Creon for burying Polyneces after his death, Creon has forbidden anybody to do so. Once Creon punished Antigone the blind prophet Teiresias told him that the Gods will take revenge for his actions, then Creon tried to change everything but he is too late. Creon's tragic flaws were his stubbornness, the abuse of power and the actions he took to cause the downfall of the Thebes. Creon showed his stubbornness by not wanting to be proved wrong because of pride. When the Choragos tried to tell Creon that he made a mistake by telling that nobody can burry the body of Polyneices. Creon did not want to listen to the people of Thebes who tried to tell him that Antigone did the right thing, but of fear to Creon the could not really say anything. Creon thought by making an example of Antigone's execution, everybody would get scared and won't try to brake his laws. It actually worked for a while. Creon abused his power by thinking that he can change or brake the laws of the Gods and not allowing other people to brake his laws. He did not want to burry Polyneices' body, but one of the God's law is that every human deserves to be buried after death not depending what that certain person did in his lifetime. Creon caused fear among his people by making a public announcement that nobody is allowed to burry Polyneices. He said that the state of Thebes consists of only him, and that there are no other laws then his. According to the play the major actions that Creon took to cause the downfall of Thebes are that he did not want to burry Polyneices nor did allow any body to do it. Creon broke the burial law of the Gods and punished Antigone for following their laws. The people of Thebes knew that Creon made a mistake but still were too afraid to speak up. Antigone thought that she should get honored for that what she did, but Creon did not think that way.
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