Blog 12

     I think blogging was more beneficial than writing with pen and paper because it forced me to look up information I was unsure about. Already being online with an easy access to resources, blogging takes away the excuse for not searching for information. I think writing with pen and paper would also be more frustrating because mistakes are harder to correct there. It's much easier to "backspace" instead of crossing out, writing over another word and having a hard time reading what you just corrected. Overall, I think blogging helped me learn the topics by being able to discuss them quickly and efficiently.

Blog 11

      From the first quarter, my favorite blogging topic was about our history, the way we teach it and if we should hide certain parts. I found out a lot of lies we were taught before high school and I liked having a blog topic about that so I could discuss if we should learn history how it really happens or the child-friendly version (lie.) Along that same subject, I liked the blog about us (America) hiding parts of our history to give us a better image. America isn't the only country who does this though. I guess most countries seem to go by this quote saying "what you don't know can't hurt you." I think the main reason I liked those blog topics was because they allowed you to voice your opinion on something using general knowledge instead just one specific idea or example.

Blog 10

     Coming from all over the world, immigrants must have gone through quite a culture shock upon their arrival to America. Many immigrants came from southern and eastern Europe and most couldn't speak English. It's hard enough to travel across the ocean to a foreign land, but not being able to speak the native language made their new life even more difficult. Taking all those aspects into consideration, they probably felt secluded and rejected. Immigrants settled in large cities in New York and California where there were more avaliable jobs. Coming with high expectations, the city life wasn't as glamorous as it seemed. Families had to live in close quarters with no heat, running water, or sewage systems. All in all, I think the immigrants were more dissapointed with the real America - the land of opportunity.

Blog 9

     The lyrics from the "Song of the Shirt" shows how factory work really was. The employees were extremely over-worked, poor, hungry and dirty. They worked all day, from morning until night. There were no labor laws during that time, so conditions could be completely unsafe without actually violating any laws. One part of the song tells us how dangerous the tasks they had to perform by saying "It is not linen you're wearing out, but human creatures' lives." Because children were smaller and had tiny hands, they were the ones called upon if a machine needed to be fixed. It wasn't uncommon if they got injured or even lost a hand while doing this either. The "Song of the Shirt" was sung by workers probably to express their exhaustion and misery brought upon by the laborious tasks they had to perform daily at the factories.

Blog 8

     The song "Rocky Raccoon" by The Beatles portrays the stereotypical image of a cowboy in the west. When we think of a cowboy, most of us imagine a middle-aged man all dressed up in his wild west outfit and hat, riding a horse and carrying a gun, maybe even a lasso. This song encourages us to picture a cowboy this way. Here, the cowboy Rocky finds out his woman left him for another man and is determined to find him. Checking into the local saloon, Rocky only finds a bible. The man he is looking for, Dan, is in the next room with his woman, Nancy. Rocky challenges Dan to a duel but looses and is shot. The song ends with Rocky dying in his room alone with his bible. The story this song tells is mainly about a cowboy's revenge and violent way of solving problems. Real cowboys, however, were not as aggressive and daring as the glamorous stereotypical life made them seem.

Blog 7

Half way there, out of food.

Weekly 1

       Throughout history, discrimination, unfair treatment and prejudice ideas have been common issues. Specifically, African Americans during the Reconstruction (1865–1877) and Civil Rights Movement (1955–1968) encountered these hardships daily. Even as time progressed with small changes these people were still treated about the same.

       Under the Reconstruction program in the south, the 13th Amendment was passed to abolish slavery. Soon after this was passed, however, the Black Codes were developed. Varying from state to state, these codes continued legal discrimination between blacks and whites. The Black Codes intended to secure a steady supply of cheap labor and continued to assume the inferiority of the freed slaves. Prior to the Reconstruction, African Americans were slaved to work on their masters plantation. What was the white man to do now that slavery was "abolished?" Since African American slaves were technically free (according to the law), they could not be forced to perform such laborious tasks anymore... or could they? This is when the idea of sharecropping was invented. The basic principals of sharecropping are similar to slavery, though. Farmers were allowed to plant and harvest their landowners crops in exchange for small portions of the food and profit. They worked year-round planting, harvesting, repairing, selling and cleaning anything that the landowner demanded. But, the sharecropper had to pay the landowner with interest to use his tools to perform such projects. They also had to pay rent to live on the property and give at least 1/2 of their harvested crops and profits to their landowner. With so little money and food coming in, the farmers easily went into a endless circle of debt. This kept them on the plantation long enough to keep trying to make enough money, but it was hardly ever reached. So much for their first taste of freedom.

      The purpose of the US Civil Rights Movement was to outlaw racial discrimination against African Americans and to restore suffrage in the southern states. After the Reconstruction, several problems still existed. For example, the 15th Amendment granted all men the right to vote and said they could not be denied this privilege by race, color or previous servitude. The law clearly stated this right, but society refused to accept it. Running for political officials, a white man still had the advantage over a black candidate. This sense of inferiority outraged African Americans who were determined to be treated as equals. Two people were of significant importance during this time period. Rosa Parks was a representation of bravery by her act of refusing to give up her seat for a white passenger on the local bus. She believed she had the right to state her opinion and refuse to succumb to a "superior" person. This one act by one person started a chain reaction of over 17,000 black residents in the town of Montgomery. In 1955, Martin Luther King, Jr. as a civil rights activist, led the Montgomery Bus Boycott. He worked to end racial segregation and racial discrimination through civil disobedience. This idea of non-violence made him very successful and eventually earned him the Nobel Peace Prize. People such as Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King, Jr. greatly impacted the US Civil Rights Movement by setting themselves apart from society, and trying to make a difference.

       During the Reconstruction and the US Civil Rights Movement, even though changes were made and laws were enforced, African Americans didn't really experience much more freedom and were still treated about the same throughout society. 90 years will pass before even another attempt for change will occur in the 1960s and '70s.

http://www.alamo.edu/pac/faculty/pmyers/hist1302/1302Theme7.htm