Client legal advice letter Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Client legal advice letter - Essay Example However, such discussions must always take place to pave way for proceeding course of action. I is notable that carrying out a detailed research into the occurrences that led to the situation is important in aiding the research and legal choice taken thereafter. This is because the information which is provided by you directly influences the legal process. Consequently, you are supposed to take a look into the case and submit a written report highlighting all the errors which might have been committed while serving you. Every detail is important since even overlooking a single piece of information might compromise the case. STATEMENTS OF FACTS You contacted your private and primary physician, Dr. Livingston, on October 15th, 2011 since you became ill and had difficulty in breathing. He recommended that you have a pulmonary test and made a referral for you to go to St Thames Hospital located in Boston, MA. On October 15th 2011, you had a pulmonary test done at the hospital. Prior to t he procedure, the hospital nurse, Ms. Tachett, did not give you any information about the procedure or discuss side effects that could have resulted from such a test. The nurse who performed the test, Ms. Tachett, did not explain the procedure to you as well. No one in the medical team at the hospital collected medical history from you about your past and present. You never signed any consent forms to have the procedure done at the hospital from anyone; the nurse or additional staff. Soon after having the procedure done at the hospital, you went into anaphylactic shock. You went into a coma from October 15th, 2011 to December 8th, 2011. After you woke up from your coma, the hospital discharged you quickly on December 12th, 2011. The hospital’s only explanation is that you had a bad reaction to the dye used in the procedure that happens to a few people from time to time. You are now presently attending physical therapy on a weekly basis. The therapy has not helped you restore yourself back to your original state. You have been unable to work as a doctor. Prior to your injury, you worked from Monday to Saturday. The only day you took a break was on Sundays. You do have insurance but have a deductible. You have been paying a lot of out of pocket expenses. You also have emotional distress from the situation as well. Because of the coma, you are unable to work due to your frail condition. The PT does not appear to be working which you have been attending since your hospital discharge and you have no exact date on when you will be better. You would like us to give you legal advice on what type of case you can have against the hospital. You would like to bring a lawsuit against them for damages. STATUES OF LIMITATIONS IN THE STATE OF MASSACHUSETTS You may be able to file a complaint against the hospital if you are able to prove when the cause of action arose. In reference to the state laws, specifically Massachusetts, filing of any incident related to medical malpractice should be in a period of 3 years since its occurrence. The period stipulated should not be over seven years unless the case involves what is legally referred to as foreign objection. The case would be admissible if the plaintiff is exposed to an injury or damages resulting from the acts of malpractice from the defendant (Aaron 2). MEDICAL MALPRACTICE In essence, a medical malpractice results when any personnel in the medical field overlooks

Malay Speech Corpus

Malay Speech Corpus CHAPTER 3 MALAY SPEECH CORPUS 3.1 Introduction The knowledge related to the structure of the rules and grammar for any language must be understood in depth prior to the development of any Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) systems. This chapter is intended to discuss the related issues concerning the Malay language and its speech sounds.   The Malay corpus and the test collections used for this study are also presented in the following sections. 3.2Malay Speech Sounds and Language Rules Malay is an Austronesian language spoken by the Malay people who are native to the Malay Peninsula, southern Thailand, Singapore and parts of Sumatra and also known locally as Bahasa Melayu. It is the official language of Malaysia and is an agglutinative language, meaning that the meaning of the word can be changed by adding the necessary prefixes or suffixes that will be explained through out of this section. The smallest unit in any language is known as phoneme.   The substitution of this unit for another might make a distinction of meaning (Nong et al. 2001).   Integrating the phonemes produces the syllable and words.   Generally, phoneme classification for Malay language is divided into three major groups that consist of Vowels (V), Consonants (C) and other miscellaneous (Manaf Hamid 1996).   This structure is relatively same with the English language as shown in Figure 3.1 (Karim 1996). The vowel class comprises of six vowels that is: /a/, //, /i/, /o/, /u/ and /e/.   The vowel sound is produced when the air exit from the lunges and mouth without ant noise. The second category, which is consonant class, can be further divided into seven different categories that is the stops or plosive group, affricates, nasals, glides, liquids, fricatives and the semivowel.   The sounds from consonants are produced by air from lungs and consist of noise.   The noise is generated in mouth and nose, for instance, phoneme /p/and /b/.   Figure 3.2 describe the consonant utterances classification for the Malay language. The last category, miscellaneous category, consists of the diphthong and vowel functions.   Vowel function is a combination of two different vowel (ia, io and iu) and most often used in words absorbed directly from its English equivalent such as radio and audio, and in some original Malay words such as nyiur (coconut), hias (decorate) (Hussain, 1997). 3.2.1Malay morphology Malay morphology is defined as study of word structures in Malay language (Lutfi Abas, 1971). A morpheme is the term used in the morphology. A morpheme is the smallest meaningful unit in a language. In another words, morpheme is a combination of phonemes into a meaningful unit. A Malay word can be comprised of one or more morphemes. When we talk about Malay morphology, we cannot avoid from discussing the process of word formation in Malay language. It is a language of derivative which allows the addition of affixes to the base/root or primary word to form new words. The language itself is different from the English. In English language, the process involves the changes in the phonemes according to their groups. The processes of word formation in Malay language are in the forms of primary words, derivative words, compound words and reduplicative words. 3.2.1.1Primary word Primary or root words are either nouns or verbs, which is does not take any affixes or reduplication. A primary word can be comprised of one or more syllables. A syllable consists of a vowel (V) or a vowel with a consonant (C) or a vowel with several consonants. The vowel can be presented at the front or back of the consonants. In Malay language, primary word with one syllable accounts for about 500 only (Nik Safiah Karim et al. 1995). Some of the primary words are taken from other languages such as English and Arabic. The structures of the syllable are shown in Table 3.1. Primary words with two syllables are the majority in the Malay language. The structures of the words are shown in Table 3.2 with example of words that illustrated as in Figure 3.3. Primary words with three and more syllables exist in a few numbers. Most of them are taken from other languages as shown in Table 3.3. Table 3.1:   Structure of words with one syllable Syllable Structure Example of word CV Ya (yes) VC Am (common) CVC Sen (cent) CCVC Stor (store) CVCC Bank (bank) CCCV Skru (screw) CCCVC Skrip (script) Table 3.2:   Structure of words with two syllables Syllable Structure Example of word V + CV Ibu (mother) V + VC Air (water) V + CVC Ikan (fish) VC + CV Erti (meaning) VC + CVC Empat (four) CV + V Doa (pray) CV + VC Diam (silent) CV + CV Guru (teacher) CV + CVC Telur (egg) CVC + CV Lampu (lamp) CVC + CVC Jemput (invite) E R + T I V C + C V J E M + P U T C V C + C V C C Consonant V Vowel Table 3.3:   Structure of words with three syllables or more Syllable Structure Example of word CV + V + CV Siapa (who) CV + V + CVC Siasat (investigate) V + CV + V Usia (age) CV + CV + V Semua (all) CV + CV + VC Haluan (direction) CVC + CV + VC Berlian (diamond) V + CV + CV Utara (north) VC + CV + CV Isteri (wife) CV + CV + CV Budaya (culture) CVC + CVC + CV Sempurna (perfect) CVC + CV + CVC Matlamat (aim) CV + CV + VC + CV Keluarga (family) CV + CVC + CV + CV Peristiwa (event) CV + CV + V + CVC Mesyuarat (meeting) CV + CV + CV + CVC Munasabah (reasonable) V + CV + CVC + CV + CV Universiti (University) 3.2.1.2Derivative word Derivative words are the words that are formed by adding affixes to the primary words. The affixes can exist at the initial (Prefixes), within (Infixes) or final (Suffixes) of the words. They can also exist at the initial and final of the words at the same time. These kinds of affixes are called confixes. Examples of derivative words are â€Å"berjalan† (walking), â€Å"mempunyai† (having), â€Å"pakaian† (clothes) and so on. 3.2.1.3 Compound word Compound words are the words that are combined from two individual primary words, which carry certain meanings. There are quite lots of compound words in Malay language. Examples of compound words are â€Å"alat tulis† (stationery), â€Å"jalan raya† (road), â€Å"kapal terbang† (aeroplane), â€Å"Profesor Madya† (associate professor), â€Å"hak milik† (ownership), â€Å"pita suara† (vocal folds) and so on. Some of the Malay idioms are from the compound words such as â€Å"kaki ayam† (bare feet), â€Å"buah hati† (gift), â€Å"berat tangan† (lazy), â€Å"terima kasih† (thank you) and so on. 3.2.1.4 Reduplicative word Reduplicative words, as its name suggests, are the words that are reduplicated from the primary words. There are three forms of reduplication in Malay language: full, partial and rhythmic. Examples of reduplicative words are â€Å"mata-mata† (policeman), â€Å"sama-sama† (welcomed) and so on. 3.3Malay Speech Corpus Design Malay speech design basically involves the proper selection of speech target sounds for speech recognition.   The Malay phonemes can be analyzed according to the descriptive analysis and distinctive feature analysis.   Generally, the descriptive analysis is preferred over the distinctive feature analysis because it is easier to be implemented. To develop a baseline system for spoken Malay utterances or word model, we need database for isolated spoken Malay words.   However, very little of the literature and reference material in Malay is available in raw electronic form to support research and development work. These materials are sometimes not suitable for the real life speech recognition system due to their setting environments and most of these materials are recorded the planned or read text.Since no spoken Malay database exists, we develop the Malay corpus based on Hansard documents from Parliament of Malaysia. The hansard documents consists of Dewan Rakyat(DR)Parliamentary debates session for the year 2008.   It contains spontaneous and formally speeches and it is the daily records of the words spoken by 222 elected members of DR. The hansard documents comprises of 51 huge raw video and audio files (.avi form) of daily recorded parliamentary session and 42 text files (.pdf form). Each part of parliamentary session contains six to eight hours spoken speeches that surrounded with medium noise condition or environment (less than 30 dB), speakers interruption (Malay, Chinese and Indian) and different speaking styles (low, medium and high intonation or shouting).   The reason of chosen this kind of data is due to their spontaneous and natural way of speaking in a formal or standard Malay speech during the debates session. The analysis has been done to the whole recorded session from mid-term until the end 2008 of hansard documents. Out of 42 text documents and 51 video files, only 22 text documents and 22 video files were being selected due to their perfect matched in terms of the contents of video and audio source files. The remaining of the text documents and video files have not been chosen due to the missing of some text documents that could not be downloaded, some video files having corrupted during recording session and some of the recorded video having missed sounds.   This study focused and concerned to the video that have audio sounds since it will be used to develop the Malay corpus and to evaluate the performance of isolated spoken Malay speech recognition system. The quantitative information analysis, about the videos and text documents being selected is given in Table 3.4. Table 3.4: Quantitative information of Hansard documents selected. No. Video Text Documents No. of Topic No. of Speakers Total Words 1. DR28052008 (MEI) 11 129 40,283 2. DR29052008 (MEI) 15 114 39,612 3. DR24062008 (JUNE) 13 154 49,212 4. DR25062008 (JUNE) 10 118 38,053 5. DR30062008 (JUNE) 10 175 58,013 6. DR02072008 (JULY) 14 187 67,906 7. DR03072008 (JULY) 12 120 48,411 8. DR07072008 (JULY) 16 210 72,890 9. DR10072008 (JULY) 13 132 42,350 10. DR28082008 (AUGUST) 10 123 40,780 11. DR03112008 (NOVEMBER) 17 232 78,750 12. DR04112008 (NOVEMBER) 11 136 43,440 13. DR10112008 (NOVEMBER) 10 105 39,560 14. DR20112008 (NOVEMBER) 16 109 42,795 15. DR26112008 (NOVEMBER) 10 186 38,880 16. DR27112008 (NOVEMBER) 10 147 41,450 17. DR01122008 (DECEMBER) 7 118 38,430 18. DR02122008 (DECEMBER) 9 176 56,815 19. DR03122008 (DECEMBER) 12 152 48,616 20. DR04122008 (DECEMBER) 11 192 56,780 21. DR10122008 (DECEMBER) 6 130 38,677 22. DR11122008 (DECEMBER) 10 143 52,369 TOTAL The process of documents analysis shows that the majority of the Malay words are comprised of primary word with two syllables and mono (one) syllables. Among the Malay words, the syllables structure of VC, CV and CVC are the most common.   These structures are preferred because they are easy to be pronounced exactly as its written and their number is quite substantial in the hansard documents. In order to get a good distribution of consonants and vowels for the dataset from the hansard documents, the most frequently primary (root or base) words spoken by speakers during Parliamentary debates are used. As mentioned previously, most of the root words are the primary words that are either in nouns or verbs without adding any derivations (affixes and suffixes) or reduplication to the root words. Thus, from the text documents analysis, we determined 100 primaries words that mostly spoken by the committee members during the debates that consist of 10 primary words of one syllable, four p rimary words from three or more syllables structures and 86 primary words that form two syllables structures as depicted in Table 3.5. The details quantitative analysis of each words distribution is represented in Appendix A. Each primary word has maximum number of 50 repetitions that uttered by same or different speakers. Thus, there are a total of 5000 isolated spoken Malay words used for this research. The challenging task is to capturing and segmenting the exact words being uttered accordingly to the audio sounds in the video files. The process of creating isolated spoken Malay corpus is illustrated as in Figure 3.4 and briefly explained in the following sections. Table 3.2: Selection of 100 isolated spoken Malay words as the speech target sounds. No. Words Structures No. Words Structures 1 ADA V + CV 51 LAGI CV + CV 2 AHLI VC + CV 52 LAIN CV + VC 3 AKAN V + CVC 53 LAMA CV + CV 4 AKTA VC + CV 54 LANGKAH CVCC + CVC 5 ARAH V + CVC 55 LEBIH CV + CVC 6 ATAS V + CVC 56 MAKLUM CVC + CVC 7 ATAU V + CVV 57 MANA CV + CV 8 BAGI CV + CV 58 MASA CV + CV 9 BAIK CV + VC 59 MASIH CV + CVC 10 BAKAL CV + CVC 60 MESTI CVC + CV 11 BANK CVCC 61 MUNGKIN CVCC + CVC 12 BARU CV + CV 62 NANTI CVC + CV 13 BEKAS CV + CVC 63 OLEH V + CVC 14 BERI CV + CV 64 ORANG V + CVCC 15 BINCANG CVC + CVCC 65 PADA CV + CV 16 BOLEH CV + CVC 66 PIHAK CV + CVC 17 BUAT CV + VC 67 PRINSIP CCVC + CVC 18 BUKAN CV + CVC 68 PULA CV + CV 19 DALAM CV + CVC 69 PUN CVC 20 DAN CVC 70 RAMAI CV + CVV 21 DASAR CV + CVC 71 RIBU CV + CV 22 DATANG CV + CVCC 72 RUJUK CV + CVC 23 DENGAN CV + CCVC 73 SAH CVC 24 DIA CVV 74 SAMA CV + CV 25 EKONOMI V + CV + CV + CV 75 SANGAT CV + CCVC 26 ESOK V + CVC 76 SAYA CV + CV 27 HADIR CV + CVC 77 SEBAB CV + CVC 28 HAK CVC 78 SEBUT CV + CVC 29 HAL CVC 79 SEDANG CV + CVCC 30 HARI CV + CV 80 SEDIA CV + CVV 31 HENDAK CVC + CVC 81 SUDAH CV + CVC 32 IAITU VV + V + CV 82 SUSAH CV + CVC 33 IALAH VV + CVC 83 TADI CV + CV 34 INGAT VC + CVC 84 TAHU CV + CV 35 INGIN VC + CVC 85 TAHUN CV + CVC 36 INI V + CV 86 TIDAK CV + CVC 37 ISU V + CV 87 TANYA CV + CCV 38 ITU V + CV 88 TELAH CV + CVC 39 IZIN V + CVC 89 TENTANG CVC + CVCC 40 JADI CV + CV 90 TERIMA CV + CV + CV 41 JANGAN CV + CCVC 91 TIDAK CV + CVC 42 JAWAB CV + CVC 92 TIPU CV + CV 43 JUGA CV + CV 93 TUAN CV + VC 44 JUTA CV + CV 94

The Image of the Big House as a Central Motif in The Real Charlotte Ess

The Image of the Big House as a Central Motif in The Real Charlotte The image of the 'big house' has long been a central motif in Anglo-Irish literature. From Maria Edgeworth's Castle Rackrent (1800), it has been a source of inspiration to many writers. One of the reason s for the surge in "castle rackrents" (a generic term employed by Charles Maturin) through the 19th and early 20th century, is that many writers who used the 'big house' as a backdrop to their work were residents of such houses themselves - writers such as Sommerville and Ross, George Moore and Elizabeth Bowen, were born into the ascendancy and wrote about an era and society with which they were familiar. However modern writers, such as Molly Keane and John Banville, have also found the romantic qualities of the 'big house' alluring and therefore have continued to use the era and setting as a backdrop in their works. The 'big house' genre has resulted in such an outpouring of works of this type of fiction, that one critic remarked: "seems to have flourished in direct proportion to the historical demise of the culture it seeks to display." [1] The Real Charlotte is set in a period, which can be described as the 'Indian Summer' of the Anglo-Irish Ascendancy. An 'Indian Summer' is a period of relative calm before the on set of winter: in this case it is a metaphor describing the life of leisure the Anglo-Irish Ascendancy lived with their grand tea parties, hunting, theatrical performances etc, pursuits and interests which W.B. Yeats associated with 'big house' life in general: "Life [which] overflows without ambitious pains." [2] However, this period of calm is followed by the onslaught of winter, with the Great Famine and the r... ...l Charlotte. Somerville and Ross were daughters of the Anglo-Irish Ascendancy, and as they wrote their novel based on their experiences, perhaps it was only natural that some aspects of The Real Charlotte depict the decay of Big Houses and the Ascendancy class. It is through the development of characterisation and setting, that Somerville and Ross artfully portray the demise of the Big House and it's inhabitants at the hand of ambitious middle classes, and as a result of political evolution. For this reason the novel is historically accurate in showing the decline of the Big House. But despite their historic downfall, the Big Houses of the Anglo-Irish Ascendancy have found a new lease of life in literature as the Big House genre, making reality what W.B Yeats once said: "Whatever flourish and decline These stones remain their monument and mine." [31]

Hamlet as a Tragic Hero

As we know, there are different types of tragedies; Aristotle spoke about a certain type which involves what was once called Peripeteia, Hamartia and Anagnorisis. He said a tragedy is characterized by a tragic hero or heroine who experiences a change or reversal in fortune (peripeteia) which is caused by a personal flaw or mistake (hamartia). The downfall of the hero in a tragedy should not be, however, caused by an external force such as a higher power, whether in the form of gods, fate or even society; it should be the result of an action—or lack of action—carried out by the hero. Finally, the hero must achieve a kind of revelation or recognition (anagnorisis) about destiny or the will of the gods, what Aristotle called â€Å"a change from ignorance to awareness of a bond of love or hate. † These are all characteristics that make an ideal Greek tragedy. However, our purpose is to analyze William Shakespeare’s ‘Hamlet’, a Renaissance tragedy; therefore, the question at hand is, could Hamlet, prince of Denmark, possibly be called and defined as a tragic hero? Our first instinct is to say no, but once we start questioning ourselves and really exploring the character and all that he goes through throughout the play, our answers may change. In ‘Hamlet’ the three defining moments in Greek tragedy mentioned above, if truly present, are intertwined and closely linked together. We will attempt to translate those key aspects present in Aristotle’s description into a completely different type of tragedy such as ?Hamlet’ and see how they would portray themselves in Shakespeare’s words. Afterwards, we will analyze this English writer’s work in terms of the imagery found in the play at hand. We must begin at the core of the play: the apparition of the ghost. Before the ghost of the former king of Denmark, Hamlet senior, makes his appearance, all we know is that Hamlet’s father has passed away, that his uncle has taken the throne and has married his late brother’s wife. Once we hear the ghost’s statement the plot of the play is set in motion; Hamlet goes from ignorance to knowledge—that is, if we choose to believe that there actually is a ghost and that the ghost speaks the truth. The spirit tells the prince of Denmark that he was murdered and by none other than his own brother; we could take this as the prince’s moment of recognition, when, in a way, his whole destiny changes. He now has a new purpose in life, to avenge his father’s death. The bond of love and affection he felt for his uncle is now completely distorted and turned into pure hatred, anger and a thirst for revenge. The next step in our analysis is our ‘tragic hero’s’ change in fortune. As we know, Hamlet’s plan was to get back at his uncle, and in Act III, Scene III he has the perfect opportunity when he walks in on Claudius praying, My fault is past. But O, what form of prayer Can serve my turn? ‘Forgive me my foul murder? ’ That cannot be, since I am still possess’d Of those effects for which I did the murder— My crown, mine own ambition and my queen. May one be pardon’d and retain the offence? Hamlet, however, hesitates and decides not to kill Claudius while in prayer because he would go to heaven, thus his desire for vengeance would not be satisfied. To take him in the purging of his soul, When he is fit and season’d for passage? No. Up, sword, and know thou a more horrid hent. What Hamlet was not aware of was that Claudius was not asking for forgiveness because, as he says, the reasons for which he committed the murder, his ambition and his desire for the crown and the queen, still possess him, therefore he does not regret what he did. My words fly up, my thoughts remain below. Words without thoughts never to heaven go. From this point forward everything just goes downhill. Hamlet missed his one shot all because of his lack of action. Here is where we introduce the final piece of our analysis. Hamlet’s tragic flaw could be his indecisiveness on how to proceed and carry out his plans or maybe his procrastination; whatever it is, he made a conscious mistake which made him completely responsible for later events, his death, Laertes’, his mother’s and Ophelia’s. The prince ultimately brought about his own downfall. ‘Hamlet’, as a tragedy, certainly differs from the Greek mold, but it is safe to say that not entirely. I believe Shakespeare’s character could be considered as a sort of tragic hero if we choose to associate events the way we have throughout this paper. Of course, there is no way to determine whether or ot Hamlet truly is a tragic hero such as Aristotle meant to depict them, it is all subjective. In my opinion, the idea is not too overreaching or farfetched; I actually think it is a valid way of analyzing this most interesting character. Our other purpose was to analyze the imagery, and most specifically the nature im agery, found in the play. In ‘Hamlet’, Shakespeare seems to rely on nature (plants, weather, animals, etc. ) a lot to express what the characters are feeling. When it comes to analyzing specifically how he thought of the state and the people of Denmark, one word is key: weeds. The weed is defined as â€Å"A plant considered undesirable, unattractive, or troublesome, especially one growing where it is not wanted, as in a garden. † During the time of late King Hamlet’s rule, Denmark was considered, as prince Hamlet calls it in Act I Scene II, â€Å"an unweeded garden†; however, once Claudius murders his brother the king and takes the crown, his sin, greed and corruption bring decay to the kingdom. â€Å"Something is rotten in the state of Denmark† states Marcellus in Act I, Scene IV. The weed is the symbol of death and poison in Denmark. Claudius poisoned Hamlet’s father and is now poisoning everybody else with his deceit. Later on in Act III, Scene IV, while talking to his mother Hamlet says, Whiles rank corruption, mining all within, Infects unseen. Confess yourself to heaven, Repent what’s past, avoid what is to come, And do not spread the compost on the weeds, To make them ranker. He is telling her to open her eyes and realize how her new king is infecting their country; he then asks her not to keep helping him in doing so—not to spread the compost on the weeds anymore. We can say, without a doubt, that throughout the whole play Shakespeare refers to the state of Denmark and its people as if they were a garden. Understanding the nature imagery in ‘Hamlet’ is essential to understanding the true meaning behind the play. Denmark used to be a beautiful, healthy garden until its gardener was poisoned; when there was suddenly a new gardener the earth and the plants started dying and nobody did anything to fix it. The subtle way in which Shakespeare is able to use metaphor and simile over and over again in his works without it getting tedious or discouraging is probably one of the reasons why he is considered the greatest writer in the English language.

Religion and Its Effects on Globalization

To be successful today, enterprises must now manage products and services, customer contact, delivery, and supply-chain management in real time; all on a networking-centric fabric with customer demand for anytime, anywhere access to information and services leading the charge. People around the world understand the importance of information technology and accept the fact that it is here to stay. This sudden expansion in the computer field created a pool of occupations that were open, yet unable to be filled by the current workforce. Not dealing directly with the IT worker shortage threatens not only the growth of the IT industry, but also the growth of the entire U. S. economy and our global competitiveness. U. S. will soon lack a supply of qualified core IT workers, such as computer scientists and engineers, systems analysts, and computer programmers. Since the shortage of IT workers is becoming a global problem, U. S. employers will face tough competition to hire and keep highly skilled IT employees. Introduction The world’s religions have been instrumental in shaping virtually all aspects of human experience and human perceptions. Certainly, religion played an important role in the development and the ongoing support of democratic principles. One can even go so far as to say that it was because of the determination engendered by religious faith that democracy was first founded in the modern world as religious refugees sought out a new land to worship as they believed they should. Religion has also been at the core of many of the world’s most horrific wars. Whether the jihads of the Middle East, the battles in Northern Ireland, or the ancient Crusaded, war has often been predicated on religion. In addition, there are many religious people, especially those who think of themselves as traditionalists, who are deeply skeptical about democracy. Democracy, in this view, is one of a horde of pernicious doctrines that modernity unleashed in its attack on religious truth. All that can be examined empirically is the fact that modern democracy, not that of the Athens of Socrates’ time, the democracy of the past two and a half centuries, is one that found its roots in the belief that all people have the right to believe as they will and that a nation must support that simple fact. Historically Most modern Americans have come to think of democracy as rather â€Å"old hat. † In reality, democracy is as fearlessly new today as when it was first proposed. â€Å"If it does not have to be reinvented, it certainly has to be rethought, by e very generation. Today there is a particular urgency about rethinking democracy in relation to its moral and religious grounding† (Neuhaus 87). Yet in terms of relative time in the larger course of human history, democracy is a relatively new idea and ideal. Assuming that people have a right to determine their own future, actions, faith, and government stems, in great part, from the understanding that a higher power, God, prophet, or spiritual leader has led them to understand that they are creatures who choose their path – what is often called â€Å"free agency. Judeo-Christian faith has established a foundation for Western democracy in its stories of the Bible’s Old and New Testaments of attacks by both law and prophets on the absolute power of rulers, the demands for redress for the poor and oppressed, and the exposing of self-interest in every kind of human system. The Christian revelation showed the equality of all in the sight of God and a vision of the Kingdom of God ruled by love not compulsion, strengthening the call for justice and for compassion for the weak. The Hebrew texts’ and the Bible's emphases on opposing political and social oppression, and on the religious fellowship that bound communities were taken up strongly in Europe, Britain, and North America. The First Amendment of the U. S. Constitution’s â€Å"Religion Clause† consists of two provisions. One forbids the â€Å"establishment† of a religion, and the other guarantees the â€Å"free exercise† of religion. The â€Å"no establishment† provision is in the service of the â€Å"free exercise† provision and suggests (or demands) that religion not be created by the state in behalf of the state. Of course, individual Americans have created new religions throughout the past two hundred years. Free exercise is the end, and no establishment is one means in the service of that end. This understanding of the Religion Clause has not always prevailed in our jurisprudence. Indeed, in recent years, the courts have frequently acted as though â€Å"no establishment† is the end, and in the service of that end they have officially decreased what many think of as the free exercise of religion in the public sphere. Recent news stories regarding the judge who wants the Biblical Ten Commandments hanging in his courtroom, or the stories requiring that municipal â€Å"holiday† displays reflect a multiplicity of beliefs. Philosophically Religion and politics have always had a turbulent history together. Religion and democratic politics have even more difficulty coexisting, because the former suggests an unyielding body of law, an peremptory understanding of what is right and what is wrong, and a clear knowledge of the direction that should be followed by the government. The fundamental precept of democracy suggests a much more relativistic approach. Democracy attempts to allow for laws that can be changed, a sense that the majority should determine what is right and what is wrong (and, correspondingly, when the majority changes or evolves the determination of what is right and what is wrong will also change), and a much more flexible idea of directions that should be followed by the state (Mahler 601). There has been a great deal of concern voiced throughout the last half of the 20th century that religion is declining worldwide and secularism is advancing. As modernity spreads, secularism spreads in its wake. The high degree of religious involvement with politics in the United States is said to be the dying gasp of religious forces that are using politics in an effort to postpone their demise. Early advocates of the secularization of modern society were those responsible for forming a large core of nineteenth-century European thought. Karl Marx was sure that class struggle and the triumph of communism would become the tale of modern life, while religion would soon be a mercifully finished chapter. Max Weber believed that in modernity's wake the mighty forces of rationalism and bureaucratization would defeat religion, if not entirely eliminate the religious. Sigmund Freud hoped that â€Å"the future of an illusion† would prove poor as people saw that the modern world gave them a chance to be free of religion and, ostensibly, free from personal tyranny, guilt, and fearfulness. Islam and Democracy It is important to look at faiths outside of the Judeo-Christian traditions in any discussion regarding the impact of religion on democracy. Islam serves as one of the best examples of the ways in which a religion has discouraged the formation of democracies and democratic political structures. The extent to which democracy and Islam are mutually exclusive has been tested empirically with implications for conflict in civilization and the prospects for democratic peace. Three measures of democracy were used in a study published in 1998: a political rights index, an index of liberal democracy, and a measure based on institutionalization (Midlarsky 485). The measure of democratic institutionalization behaves in a manner intermediate between the other two and shows that the likelihood of conflict is based on the likelihood indoctrinated negative attitudes directed at the non-Islam organization or nation. Politics in Muslim states have always been strongly influenced by religion. And yet, concern about the expansion and impact of religiously inspired politics is widespread, and the demise of communism has turned Islamism into what is perceived as the most dangerous enemy of liberal democracy However, issues such as the threats posed by an Islamic form of government on democracy and the use of religion to promote social and political justice continue to be debated throughout the world. The fact that debate takes place should speak well of the inclusion of some democratic principles as part of modern life regardless of religious belief or affiliation. An important factor to be considered is that the assumption of the moral correctness of one’s religion or the religion of an entire people has often led to the out-of-hand condemnation of other cultures, nations, and governments. That condemnation is often what then leads to religious-based battles and wars. The Modern Realm It is a common belief that religious fundamentalism–the appeal for a return to the literal reading of a holy text and its application to politics and society–is a major threat to democracy. In a democracy, people are supposed to treat each other as equals and with mutual respect. The most traditional and classic definition of the democratic life is that citizens have or should have equal public standing. However, the ancient texts of most faiths outline strong laws and constraints on individuals. In recent years there have been calls by religious leaders and politicians alike to return to such literal interpretations and definitions of right and wrong. But in a democracy, the state recognizes the integrity of the church, not simply as a voluntary association of individuals, but as a communal bearer of the witness to a higher sovereignty from which, through the consent of the governed, the legitimacy of the state itself is derived. That understanding is what allows for the multi-culturalism and diversity that is inherent in a democracy. Religion is not what has defined democracy just as democracy has certainly not defined religion. Democracy, at least in the United States, is still a spiritual concept in that the majority of Americans believe that vision of a society based on two fundamental beliefs. â€Å"The first is that all men, created equal in the eyes of God with certain unalienable rights, are free to pursue the longings of their hearts. The second belief is that the sole purpose of government is to protect those rights. The first Americans shared this deeply spiritual vision. Most Americans still do † (Reed 26). For more than 200 years, the people of the United States have pursued the vision of a â€Å"faithful† democracy, maintaining a firm foundation, and achieved greatness by honoring God and welcoming people of all faith into public life. Perhaps, such a statement can serve as an example of how religion and democracy truly interact – as mutually supportive concepts both based on fundamental perceptions of the meaning of truth in human life. That is one of the great privileges of democracy and one part of the foundation of faith.