When will I hear from you next?

My Dearest Son,

        

         I have been waiting on a letter from you since the the first month you set off for World War I. I know I won't be able to receive one anytime soon, for i know it is going to take a while. My mind will not stop racing, I worry constantly about what you are doing, and how everything is going, or if you're even still alive. To only hear your voice again would be my greatest wish. I can imagine it is frustrating for you as it is for me to not be able to communicate with you right away. As your mother I need you to know how much I care for you and how much I love you. You mean the world to me son and I am so proud of you, what you're doing is very brave. I miss you very much, and just want to hold you in my arms again and give you a big hug! Even though you already how much I care for you, I can not exaggerate it enough, for this may be the last time you hear from me or I hear from you, if this letter even gets there in time. I could write forever on what is going through my mind 24/7, the constant worry, and checking the mail every 30 minutes, just praying the there will be a letter form you. Just know where ever you are I pray for you, and I love you with all my heart. Hope to hear from you soon. I love you and I'll be missing you.

                                                                                                                                            With Love,
                                                                                                                                                         Mom

World War One - Pilots thoughts

A pilot in World War I must have had many different emotions going through his head while fighting air-to-air combat. Dogfights created the most intense battlefields as it was in the open air, and one shot could take your plane down, leaving your chances of living low. A pilot must have been extremley nervous while fighting in the sky, because the risk of dying was higher than anywhere else. If you got shot down, then your plane would be sent plumiting to the ground with no way to bail out or cusion the crash. Pilots must having been worried all the time they where fighting because they knew that they had a 50/50 chance of dying. They must have also felt brave because it was one of the most dangerous occupations during WW1. Pilots were extremley well trained, but even so they still faced death on a day to day basis. When taking off, pilots must have thought about thier lives and the dangers of going up into the skies. Everytime they took off the floor, they had a chance of never coming back down alive. Pilots were the bravest of soliders during WW1, as it was the first time they had seen air-to-air combat. It continued throughout World War 2 and the Cold War. Pilots were always viewed as the brave ones because they had the highest chances of death. This made pilots very emotional while up on the sky, making them very aware of what they were doing in battle. Pilots today are still seen as some of the bravest and most intellignet people in the nations military.

Avatar

      For all of you who don't know this is the movie Avatar.  The reason i chose this movie is because it relates to imperialism perfectly.  Here's a brief review of this movie. Marine Jake Sully, decides to take place on a mission in the distant world of Pandora when he find outs his brother has been killed in a robbery.  While being there he discovers this greedy corporate figurehead Parker Selfridge's plan on driving the native humanoid "Na'vi" in order to mine for their resources and precious materials scattered throughout their rich woodland.  However while being there, Jake begins to bond with this native tribe and quickly falls in love with the beautiful native girl. Leaving the Colonel no choice but to send in his soldier to fight back in a battle for the fate of Pandora.
Now the you know the gist of the story you can get an idea of how this movie relates to imperialism. So there is this land that these native humanoids live on and a group of humans are trying to take control over their land for their own benefit. They want the natives land for their resources and decide the best way is to just knock them out, destroy their land and take over everything they have.  This relates greatly to the idea of imperialism, considering imperialism means "the policy of extending the rule or authority of an empire or nation over foreign countries or have control over another country." In this case you can consider the native humanoids as the "foreign country," who we are trying to rule and take control of.

    
     Of course no one says that Imperialism has to end with the country that's trying to take control actually getting what they want. In the end native humanoids fight back and take a stand for their land. Causing an epic battle between the "countries." If you want to know who wins, well then your going to have to watch the rest of the movie to find out.


                        
          

Chocolate can be bitter....

 The Bourgeoisie and the Proletariat are both related to Charlie and the Chocolate factory in more ways than one. Consider the Bourgeoisie acting as Willy Wonka or the whole company in general, and the Proletariat as the workers, otherwise known as "Oompa Loompa's." Willy Wonka claimed to have "rescued" these Oompa Loompa's from the jungle, when in actuality he found them to use for his own benefit. They represent the working class, the Proletariat, whose basic function is to manage the machinery, and act as a lower class having no real power. Willy Wonka represents the Upper class, the Bourgeoisie, whose a much higher class than the Proletariat and usually has power over them. So as you see you can easily relate the two and see how they connect with each other. 

It's a bird, it's a plane, it's a missile!

    Yellow Journalism was not only misleading during the Spanish American War, it is  something that can still be seen today through todays news outlets. Whether it be the newspaper or tv, our society loves to take what we see and spread it to the world, with out even knowing the true facts, or any facts at all. One channel, Fox News, is a good example of yellow journalism today. The recent story on the "missile" in California made headlines everywhere. "Mystery Contrail Off California Coast", is the headline used by Fox News, who in particular blew this story out of proportion. This headline, grabbing viewers attention, helped Fox New's ratings go up, while in reality they weren't reporting anything substantial at all. Just as during the Spanish American War they were using sensational headlines to get people to buy there newspapers, Fox News as well as other News channels use sensational news reports to help their ratings go up. News reporters are still following the method of yellow journalism from years ago.

Life was harsh

After reading the song lyrics from The Song of the Shirt I believe that life for these factory workers, mainly all women was harsh and depressing. In the song it mentions that their eyes were heavy and red, due to their hard work they didn't have much time to sleep at all. Let alone rest, or eat, plus their food supply was very slim. It is very sad to think how hard these women were worked. These women had worked through all hours, day and night which must have been exhausting. Their bodies were feeble and weak. Their fingers, cut up and bleed due to the endless stitching. They're hungry and dirty. These machines were often dangerous for women to work with because they were so heavy and big, therefore women tended to get injured. These conditions would never been seen today, these conditions known as slave labor was such an abuse and torture to all people. This had to be a a harsh and difficult time for workers in the factory.

"Rocky Racoon" Just another sterotype...

The song Rocky Racoon by the Beatles portrays a steroytype of how the west was, much like any other song or movie you would listen to today. In the song they talk about this guy who lived in the black minded hills of Dakota, who was dating this women, and she ran off with another guy. Rocky planned to get this guy back because he wasn't happy with him taking his women from him. So he talks about how he got a gun, just like any other cowboy has and was ready to fight his rival. Then it goes on to the typical stereotype of cowboys showing up at the bar walking through the swinging doors ready to draw. Now it's all a matter of who draws first as they stare eye to eye with their hand on their gun ready to fire! These piece is not really accurate at all, it's just a regular stereotype as how all people of today view cowboys and the west. We never really focus on the bigger picture of the west, like what cowboys really did and why they did those things. Many of the things they did was their way of living. In the west there were many great job opportunites but we would never have imagined that.

six word story

West is where opportunities lie unseen.

Being a Cowboy isn't just saying "Howdy Partner"....

Roping - Part of a days work for a Cowboy

  Many people believe that being a cowboy, is just like we see in Hollywood films. You know, the dry dessert land with the dust ball blowing around, and that western music, that has a similar sound to a whistle, the one we all imagine. Then the two guys square up to each other, look eye to eye, pull out their guns and it's on! We all have our own images of our  "Hollywood cowboy", but in reality that's not how it was.
  Watching the short clip of Gun Smoke you would look at it and consider that as a general idea of how cowboys were. However there was a lot more to it. In this photo to the left, is one of Erwin E. Smith's many photo's. I chose this photo mainly because my perspective of it can be looked at in two different ways. This photo may fool you to think of your average "Hollywood cowboy", you know, riding horses and swinging a rope around their head yelling "Yee-ha!" But if you looked further into it was that actually what they were doing? No, not at all. This picture represents a cowboy Roping, which for them was a part of a days work. One reason they would do this is to heard all the cattle. But things weren't just all fun and games for cowboys, they had much work to do out on the ranch. 
  As you can see cowboys aren't exactly what you thought they would be. In fact, being a cowboy was like having a job. There was much work and effort you had to put forth to your daily jobs you were required to do. Im sure many struggles and hardships came along with being a cowboy. So although being a cowboy seemed to be all brave men fighting, that's only in the films. But don't let that take your interest out of the real cowboys in reality because they did things that were just as cool!

Whose side are you on?

During Reconstruction, when the south was granted amnesty by Abraham Lincoln both the north and south were disappointed. The north were mainly upset because in the Norths opinion, what the south did was wrong, and they did not believe they should have been forgiven. On the other hand, although the south was being forgiven, they were still offended at the fact that the north expelled them out of the United States and were allowed back once the amnesty was granted. In this case Abraham Lincoln was taking sides, however no matter what he did, the north and south were still angry with him. Was it right that the south was granted amnesty? Maybe, maybe not, however it did effect us in a positive way by abolishing slavery and having the north and south back in the United States our country was complete again. In other words in the long run, it was a good decision. 

Freedom you say? Then why has nothing changed?

   During the time of the Reconstruction, and also including the Emancipation Proclamation, it definitely did not change as much for black people as everyone assumed it would. Most historians today recognize that Reconstruction did somewhat fail, because it did not achieve its initial goal of rebuilding the Union and giving freed slaves some basic protections, while at the same time helping them transition from slaves to freedom. Although, slaves at this time had the right to own there own property and such they still didn't have the complete freedom whites had. Therefore they were still limited from many things. However, President Lincoln, favored the abolition of slavery having the purpose of rebuilding the Union. Leaving the suddenness of the Emancipation both the blacks and whites unprepared to deal with each other and their new status. There was also difficulty with legal discrimination and harsh imprisonment as blacks attempted to integrate themselves into a white society during a very overwhelming time. The Emancipation Proclamation abolished the legal fact of slavery, but racial discrimination and segregation still remained during the reconstruction era.

   The African Civil rights movement, refers to the movement of which the United states aimed to outlaw racial discrimination toward African Americans, during the 1950's and 1960's. Even though this movement was suppose to change the right of African Americans it  wasn't to different from how they were treated during reconstruction. People views towards blacks were not just going to change, and they surely didn't. Whites still looked at them the same way, and still strongly believed they should be segregated from the rest. However thanks to Martin Luther King Jr. things changed for blacks. Although white people didn't agree with it blacks were given more rights and didn't have to be segregated so much from the whites anymore.

  It's hard to believe that this all happened 50-60 years ago, looking at today's society. Imagine having a black president in the 1950's? It would never happen, not a chance! However believe those times were crazy or not, but look around you and our world today, racism still occurs through out our life everyday. Is it right? Maybe, or maybe not, but there isn't much you can do when that's someones own beliefs. After all we do have a law called the First Amendment! 

      

A Divided Nation

The Civil War took place in the 1860's. It was between the United States of America, or "The Union" and the Confederate States of America, or "The Confederacy." One reason I chose this image is because not only does it relate to our Civil War topic in class, but it also sums up what the Civil War was and who it was between. The two ways viewers can identify that the War was between the Union and Confederacy, are the flags and the two smaller images. The flags on opposite sides are significant in their position because they're literally divided in the image. You can understand the concept that it's a war by the small photo of horses, guns, flags and such in the bottom left corner. As the viewer, there are a good amount of ways you can verify what this image represents. Although this image only gives you basic information, to have a deeper understanding of the civil war, you might want to do more research!

(http://sleague.apolyton.net/images/0/02/ACW_Title.jpg)

The Less You Do the Better...

"The government is best which governs least", a quote by Thoreau which I believe means the less the government does, the better off we are. When the government gets too involved and interferes with our life, we tend to get aggravated and frustrated with some of the changes they decide to make, which in some aspects, effect our lifestyle. Sometimes, the government over governs, and has a tendency to complicate things for Americans. I agree with this statement, because the government is always trying to control what we are doing and how we do things. Which on our part is not always fair. The government is currently involved with the Mosque that muslims want to build in New York near ground zero, however they shouldn't really be involved in that. We can not depend on going to the government every time someone gets offended. With the government involved they are going to have to decide a side, which no matter what side they choose one group of citizens will be offended by that choice. So the best kind of government is the kind that does not micro govern our citizens of the United States.

Judging a book by it's cover.

As Americans we should ask ourselves are we really that different? Must we stereotype those who disagree with us? Why is it that we look at someone and automatically judge them by their looks? Whether we believe that this is right or not, we all do it. Which is one of the reasons stereotyping is so widely known by so many in our society. We judge the people we work with and kids at our schools by what they wear, where they live, what car they drive and more. Does anyone ever stop to think about the life they have outside of what you see? Maybe they have a nice car and nice clothes but does that mean they're stuck up and snobby? Or does a poor man on the street mean he's a failure in society? Not necessarily, so why do we do it? Stereotyping is passed down from generation to generation. As we develop into whatever society we're born into, stereotyping is unfortunately part of that development. Most of it has to do with how the past has had an effect on our thoughts on today's society. Previously, we had only white presidents, so when the first black man ran for president it brought up the issue of race and unfortunately stereotypes were expressed. Stereotyping in this situation prohibits some from being able to accept someone for who they are and the good characteristics they gave, regardless of their race. We all stereotype at some point in our life and unfortunately it is something we just have to live with, because it occurs all over our society every day.

Yesterdays past, could effect our future.

"In order to understand where we are now and where we are going, we must first understand where we have been." This quote, by Professor Jennifer Cunningham, describes how our current state in history is the product of events that happened before us. Many of our traditions are linked into the very roots of history. There are many holidays that we celebrate every year to remind us of certain events, such as Independence Day. However history can also be used to help us learn from past events. History never repeats itself...or does it? Can we learn from historys mistakes? What about wars? Genocides? If we learn how past events turned out, can knowing them prevent them from happening again? We had World War 1and 2 and if we truly learned from both of them does this mean we will never have a World War 3? Aren't we suppose to learn from our mistakes? If so then why not use history as an example? Whether we realize it or not, history does matter, history has a immense impact on our every day lives.

History is "his story"

Voltaire's quote could have multiple interpretations. However, I believe that by saying "History is a lie commonly agreed upon" he meant that history is never one hundred percent reliable. History is the product of the many different views and perspectives of the people who came before us. As mentioned in class, when we were younger, little did we know that we were told quite a few lies about history. It was commonly agreed upon in elementary school that Pilgrims dressed a certain way and had feasts, when in reality none of that was close to the truth. We we're also taught that Columbus discovered America, when in fact there were already Native Americans living here. All these years they had us believing myths, but why? History is something written from someones point of view, therefore we have no way of knowing otherwise, that is why we believe what we are told today.