Citizenship in the Nation The State Capitol The Maryland State Capitol is the oldest in the nation and

is the only State House that served as the nations capitol. This was where the Continental Congress met, where Commander George Washington resigned his commission from being Commander-inChief, which was important because he didnt go on and become a tyrant with lots of power. It was also where the Treaty of Paris, was ratified, which was what ended the revolutionary war. The Maryland State Capitol was also where the Continental Congress met from November 26, 1783, to August 13, 1784. At the State Capitol the Maryland General Assembly convenes for three months each year, and is where elected politicians, such as the governor, lieutenant governor, speaker of the House of Delegates and president of the Senate, have offices. This is also where state laws are made and where the Governor ratifies them. The Devils Tower The Devils Tower is an incredible natural occurring mesa towering 1,267 feet over the surrounding landscape and resides in northeast Wyoming. Native American tribes including the Arapaho, Crow, Cheyenne, Kiowa, Lakota, and Shoshone had cultural ties to the monument long before American immigrants reached Wyoming. The original interpretation of its name was Bad Gods Tower, and became misinterpreted into The Devils Tower. This mesa is important the American Society because it had important Native American Ties to it, and considering all that we have done to Native Americans, its the least we can do to show them respect for their cultural heratige. Its also important to do so because its a way of showing the Native Americans that they are being treated as a whole and that the American Government respects and appreciates them

Matthew Gates 10637 Seneca Spring Way Gaithersburg, MD, 20886 Febuary 10th, 2012 Representative Donna Edwards 8730 Georgia Avenue Suite 610 Silver Spring Maryland 20910 Dear Representative Edwards I am writing to inform you that I am extremely pleased with the Pentagons decision to allow women to serve in around 14,000 military positions that were formerly restricted to them. The fact that women are now approved to work in army specialties, including intelligence, logistics, and communications will make a huge difference in the army as we will have more people serving, and we will set the example for other countries, such as Saudi Arabia, where its illegal for women to drive. However, it seems that Pentagon are reluctant to allow women into all likes of the army, as the proposed changes were the product of a military review that was supposed to be issued last spring. Another example is that women are already approved to work in such areas; its just that the army isnt assigning them to them. I appreciate anything you may have done for this movement and strongly hope that this proposed policy will become reality. Sincerely,

Matthew Gates

While watching the news for this week, my family and I watched a news story about a dad who was originally accused of murdering his wife, but was found innocent and

was let off on the account that there was not enough supporting evidence to convict him, but the judge took custody of his kids and made it so his children and he could only see each other while being supervised by a social worker. One day during a visit, the dad took his kids into his house and locked the worker outside, and set off an explosion that killed both him and his kids. This is important to my family because the idea of being innocent before proven guilty needs to be balanced with the fact that the father may be a danger to his kids, even if he is innocent. We still dont know to this day if he actually killed his wife, however he was still punished and was only allowed to see his kids once a week for only a couple hours, while under supervision. He may have killed his kids because these circumstances drove him over the edge to the point where he didnt want to live anymore. I think if he had been allowed to keep his kids, this wouldnt have happened, because he hadnt hurt his kids at all up until a few days ago, and because he was technically innocent of killing his wife.