America: The Melting Pot?

The United States has always prided itself on being a melting pot. Immigrants form all different races, cultures and backgrounds all seeking new opportunities and freedoms that they haven't received before. In the beginning the melting pot mainly consisted of white people from different nations and religions in Europe. This notion that all these people of different cultures could work together under the same government was and still is very special thing. If you weren't a part of the King's church in England you could have been jailed or executed even. Even today some countries still persecute people for being different. Today people have more rights and freedoms then they have ever had. Slavery is illegal, racial discrimination is illegal, gay people can get married in some states. We are living in a very progressive time. Even though things may be against the law it doesn't mean people don't discriminate. Today there is a lot of racial discrimination and stereotypes against the Mexican people. Arizona made the "show me your papers" law and the stereotype going around is that Mexican people are here illegally and that they are cheap labor. What happened to the America that offered freedom and opportunity to anyone who has hope and works hard? Now not everything is black and white because there is a valid argument from the other side's point of view.  There is a large amount of illegal immigrants living in the country not paying taxes and just having children here so they become citizens. I'm not siding with any side of this argument I'm just saying things have changed and so has our "melting pot" philosphy.

Note Taking and Avoiding Plagiarism

When I take notes I usually find writing things in outline format helps me absorb the information the best. Like:
Main Topic
-Subtopic
        -Notes and points on subtopic
-Subtopic
        -Notes and points on subtopic
etc.
I find that this helps my stay organized and it is pretty easy to do. I know people who also take notes the same way but do it on their laptops which is essentially the the same thing. I usually try and take down most the important information on the teachers slides and some of the important things the teacher says. I know some people don't take notes like myself. Some people print out the teachers slides before class and just take like notes on what the teacher says . I like to write whats on the slide because I think it helps me commit it to memory a little bit easier. Some people don't even take notes they just listen to the teacher and absorb all of the information. I can't do that I don't have a photographic memory and I like to go back and use my notes as a study tool. Ways to avoid plagiarism when taking notes is not to just copy and paste all of the information because when you go back and look at your notes to write your paper your brain will be more likely to copy that information again on to your paper instead of paraphrasing and putting it into your own words. Another way is to properly quote sources and to also cite your sources.