You mess with the bull you get the horns

During the beginning of WWI the United States had been content with staying out of the war, it was all European countries and it had no effect on America that was great enough to make us enter the war. However once the Lusitania was sunk it helped push the US into the war. They were outraged that Germans would sink an innocent passenger ship. Once the US declared war the Germans tried to defend their action but the US would not hear their excuses.

Operation Akmed extraction

To: Home Base
From: Alpha BigDog Charlie
December 20th 2010: 0800
We have successfully completed all parts of Akmed Extraction.
7 In-surgeons captured, Explosive materials found on site.
Intel leads us to believe there is another hideout nearby, but  exact location is unknown.
Proceeding to transfer detainees to a secure interrogation location.
Will proceed to try and coax Intel from them at that point.

From: Home Base
To: Alpha BigDog Charlie
December 20th, 2010: 1700
Be careful in your interrogations, short term injuries could cause us to lose this information while it could also have a long term effect by increasing violence against other troops. Be safe and get us this information.

The dead are everywhere

Looking back at past wars you realize, WWI killed 16 million people. That is a huge amount of people, when talking about it in class it averaged out to be around 10,000 people per day. How could so many die so quickly I wondered, well while watching a trailer on a movie reflecting great battles of WWI it occurred to me. Back then we were advancing weapons very quickly this cause other countries to be taken by surprise when these new weapons were in use, and these new weapons were very deadly. The machine gun was perfected so it could be used by one to kill many, also artillery was used heavily during the war which was like shooting bombs. Upon impact they would kill or injure everyone within a certain radius of the explosion. The last major upgrade was the tank. Which was like a mobile armored artillery cannon capable of dealing major damage upon the enemy. The amount of deaths left the world in shock and depression. So many family's were split up or destroyed that it would take years and new generations before the mental effects would wear off.

War's little helper

So since the 21st century, first person shooter games have become widely popular. They have also become widely hated by some for their violent, gruesome, and real portrayals of incidents. One of the major games that has drawn controversy is the Grand Theft Auto series. Many parents think the heavy violence makes kids want to preform those acts in real life toward people they dislike and other random people. I can understand where a parent does not want their kid to be hijacking cars and in one scene buying a female escort. However now I am beginning to hear that some people want to remove particular war games such as Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 and other Call of Duty titles. They say because it portrays war too realistically and we do not need our children killing all the time, that is influences us to not care about human life, to just care about winning.

I think that this is a completely absurd idea for many reasons. The first being that the video game industry is making billions of dollars per year off these games, they are also creating thousands if not millions of jobs. These games are a major role in our economy and to remove them would send this current recession into something far worse. My next point is that I think they are used as a motivational tool to get people to think about war, and militarise. This little game could get people to thinking of joining the army to help protect our freedom. I know when war has broke out in the past and we did not have enough volunteers we turned to a draft to get the men we needed. If people want to join the army because they like the atmosphere of the game then let them, I have no problem with the games in that prospective. I do think that some kids playing these game have no idea that the game is far from the real thing. These games even though they are considered mature and graphic, are still really clean when it comes to what actually happened. Now is it a bad thing that they do not know how severe things really are? I do not think it is, the kids need to know what happened in the past or why we fought in wars. So why not do it in a way where they could enjoy learning about it. For the few who decide to join the army, they will find out soon enough about the truth and they will be slightly more prepared that the kid who joined the military never having played a war game in his life.

So when asked, should we eliminate these games for existence, I think we should all say no. The games benefits far outweigh its bad parts.

Months and no word....oh the terror

You think our soldiers today have it bad? Leaving their families to go fight in Iraq, they get to call home, text home, and sometimes even web cam home. They have it a lot better than they did in WWI. Back then it would take weeks for a letter to get from its sender to its receiver, IF it even made it. So imagine being a wife who's son or husband was shipped out and knowing that they might not be alive by the time their letter gets to you. It is also hard on the soldier because they could die before their loved ones letter gets to them. That would be a awful way to die. I think it was a huge mental stress to be continents away and trying to communicate.

Flying and dying are too close together

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to be a pilot? Better yet how would you like to be a pilot in WWI? Sounds fun doesn't it, you get to fly around and shoot planes down and bomb things. Well after playing the game titled Dogfight I think that you need a lot of guts to have been a pilot in WWI. Their planes were not the greatest, the guns often jammed, and many pilots died from loosing control of their plane. If you were not careful you could shoot your own wing man trying to get away from the guy shooting you. You had to constantly be looking over your should to make sure you were not being shot at. So the next time you say "I wanna be a fighter pilot." Remember, its not all that it is cracked up to be.

Hearld and Kumar, the weak side of life.

The movie Herald and Kumar: Escape from Guantanamo Bay deals with Harold and Kumar whom smoke weed and are locked up after being suspected as terrorists when they try to sneak a bong on board a flight to Amsterdam. Once in prison they are mistreated and then escape, now fugitives on the run they head for Texas to seek their friends fiance who is a lawyer and that they think can help them get out of the jam that they are currently in.  Now I know your thinking, how in the world does this have ANYTHING to do with imperialism and the strong overpowering the weak.
Lets think about it, the United States, the big imperialistic power of the 21st century. Our government gets away with pretty much anything they want within our borders. We can imprison anyone for anything rather they are guilty or not. I would say that is an example of imperialism at its finest. The strong overpowering the weak. When Herald and Kumar board the plane they are just innocent people on a flight to Amsterdam. When Kumar lights his new bong on the plane in the bathroom, air officers think it is a bomb and have them locked up immediately. Upon being sent to Guantanamo Bay they are forced to do things to cops at the prison. No one believes that they were just smoking a bong. They automatically assume that it was a bomb based on their ethnicity and the US flexes its muscles by detaining them under false ideas.
Another time in the movie where imperialism is a underlying idea is near the end of the story. Herald and Kumar find their friends fiance that they thought would help them out of their precarious situation between them and the government. The fiance said he would take care of it and sets up a meeting with some people who can get them discharged from their charges. When they show up its a completely different story. The people who are supposed to help them turns out to be using help as a cover to arrest them and send them back to prison. The friend they thought they could trust to help them turns their back and helps the strong overtake the weak who are Herald and Kumar.
Overall I think there are better examples of movies with imperialistic themes but this one was the first to come into my mind, and it was one of my favorite funny movies of all time.


Image source : http://movierule.wordpress.com/2008/06/03/harold-kumar-escape-from-guantanamo-bay-movie2008/

Canal, life, death, and the whole crazy train.

March 19, 1905
My name is Elroy, I work in panama helping the United States build this massive canal. Why I am here I don't know. There are tens of people who dies everyday here, and many more hurt some even loose limbs. Some die from diseases such as Yellow Fever and Malaria. Sometimes people are working and hit a pocket of poisonous gas and get poisoned and die. If your like me you carry the dynamite to the blasting holes. Some people loose limbs on rail carts hauling materials and those guys are hurt for life if they do not die from infection. You have to be super careful, the smallest mistake could send me into a million pieces. I see a lot of my friends being blown up every day. Well time to go, my break is over.

Twitter life of BigMamaLili

BigMamaLili
Taking throne today, who would've thought it? A lot of work ahead.
January 20, 1891  8:47 am

BigMamaLili
Sources say small group of people want to over throw the monarchy, updates later
February 14, 1892 4:36 pm

BigMamaLili
My people have spoken to me, and I have listened
January 14, 1893 12:24 pm

BigMamaLili
Ministers think I should wait, they think enemy's will take this as a challenge. What should I do?
January 14, 1893 6:27pm

BigMamaLili
Why can't we all just get along??
January 15, 1893 2:56 pm

BigMamaLili
There was a peaceful gathering today, maybe all hope isn't lost
January 16, 1893 3:15pm

BigMamaLili
THERE ARE TROOPS EVERYWHERE, WHAT IS GOING ON???
January 16, 1893 5:00 pm

BigMamaLili
I must step down until this can be resolved so I can save my people
January 17, 1893 6:00pm

BigMamaLili
The congress refused to empower me, annexation passed, there is nothing I can do, I'm sorry people of Hawaii
March 15, 1896

Swine Flu The PANDEMIC......NOT

In 2009 what do you remember as the biggest concern, Swine Flu was mine. Remember all the newspaper articles talking about how bad the pandemic was and the concerns for immediate vaccination. When in reality all that was, was newspapers blowing a not so big problem into a major pandemic. Statistics found on the site http://www.flucount.org/ indicate that over the course of 2009 when H1N1 was in pandemic stage 10,837 people died to the virus, now considering that the U.S. has over 300 million citizens, that means 5 in every 100,000 people died due to H1N1. That is a tiny number compared the 52 thousand that die every year due to pneumonia as said at http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/pneumonia.htm. So because of "yellow journalism" or the media's attempt to blow it way out of proportion. We spent 8 months worrying about something that was no more deadly than whooping cough.

No messin arround when it comes to $

In the article at http://www.brucekelly.com/saddam-hussein-kuwait.html you will read about why Iraq invaded Kuwait in 1990. I think that this was an imperialistic move on Iraqs part. They were not provoked, they just decided to invade and tried to take control of the small border country. In the article you read diffrent reasons why Iraq commited this act of imperialism. Two of which are that they wanted Kuwait to forgive the debt that Iraq owed them, and two they thought that Kuwait was pumping oil that was part of Iraqi soil and not sharing the profit and pumping more than their quota establised by OPEC. This was deffinatly an economic imperialistic move and it ended up being a bad move also. The outcome of this war was that Iraq was pushed back and Kuwait was safe,

Blogging, My personal Opinions and thoughts

How would you like it if you began your history class knowing that you would not have to write a single paper the whole quarter. Sounds awesome does it not? Well that was the idea when I entered into Mr. Meechins American History class this year. I soon discovered that these blogs would be a substitute for the essays and speeches that I hated so much. I was ecstatic when this began, he gave us numerous questions per week that we had to answer in a paragraph or more. The questions would relate to what we were learning at the time. It was an amazing idea, I felt as if I had a say in what I wrote about and if there was a question I did not like or did not feel I could answer to my fullest ability there were others to choose from. Another thing about this assignment was that he gave us 3 or 4 a week, told us we had to have so many completed by the end of the quarter. This told me I could do three week and only one the next week if I felt like it. I felt as if i was empowered and I liked it.

However, a few weeks in we were introduced to another assignment that would be due once per week called a weekly article. It had to consist of  roughly 600 to 1000 words and at least one picture. It did not sound bad at first. However when I found out we were only going to be given one option to write about per week I thought it was a Little crappy. I felt that was a big assignment that if I did not like the topic I would be stuck doing every week. The first topic was not bad and I did it with ease. The second though was tough because I just couldnt find rnough words to say it all. I think if there had been two choices per week I would have enjoyed it way better. It was still a mjor improvement over handwriting papers.

Another reason i though this blogging was a better idea than hand writting it was that it easier to keep track of, especially after the year is over. I loose papers easily so this makes it easy to save my work for later times such as college applications. Also my handwriting is atrocious so having my essays and articles tpyed and in a easy to read format I am sure is easier for the teacher to read. The teacher is also benifiting from this process. They are able to keep better track of a students work. They also cannot loose the work since its all saved online. My teecher also had aministrative rights to my blog so he could log in and make changes to it or show me how I could improve them.
Overall I think blogginh is an awesome idea. More teachers should follow in Mr. Meechins footsteps and try it out, I know it has some kinks but I have greatly enjoyed it, It has made writing easier for me and it allows me learn in a way ive never learned before. I look forward to the future when i look back and see what I thought this quarter, how I've changed and why I enjoyed American History so much.

Image source : http://www.techieblogger.com/2010/01/blogging-2010-way-how-to-stand-out-from-the-competition.html

Cowboys, John Waye and the real John Doe

When you think of cowboys, what do you think of? I know I think of people like John Wayne and the rolls he played in movies. They would herd wild cattle for their living. They drank all the time, got into bar fights, and had shootouts in the street. Seems like they had an easy life didn't it? No school, no law, no rules, just do what ever you want and get away with it. Well guess what, its not all true.

When in reality, cowboys occupied some of the hardest jobs out there. They would spend months out on their own or in small groups with other cowboys, trying to get their cattle to the market. They would occasionally go into saloons but most of their entertainment was done around the campfire because they could not leave their cattle unattended. It was seasonal work, which mean during the spring summer and fall you would work but come winter time most ranch bosses would tell their cowboys to come back in the spring, only keeping a few for the winter months to watch the cattle, These cowboys would live on the ranch and usually have their families with them.

Yes the Hollywood portrayal of the cowboy got somethings right. For instance the clothing worn in most western was similar to the clothing worn my ranch hands in their time. Long pants, with dress shirts, occasionally a vest. Always seemed to be wearing a scarf and hat to protect their face from the harsh sun on their long trips to heard the cattle up. Yes most cowboys kept pistols on their belts, but no they did not usually to get into shootouts in town. Nor were they a cowboys most important resource, that was definitely a horse.On the back of a horse, the cowboy could cover vast distances, and he could herd cattle all day. On foot that would be impossible. Cowboys were actually taught to  not pull your gun first.

Hollywood portrayed cowboys as violent raging drunks a lot of the time. When in reality cowboys were to respect with gentle care animals, children, and elders. Cowboys were also put in charge of large herds of cattle which required alot of trust, so a cowboy was known to keep his word and not go back on his promises

So next time you watch a movie staring John Wayne or any other classic westerns, remember, it was not exactly like that. Most of the stuff they had to do on a daily basis and one wrong move could injure or kill them. If you were injured you might as well be dead because no one will hire an injured cowboy. John Wayne will always be remembered as a western star, and in most ways he was. Just know the real thing is not all that cracked up we once thought it was.

Image source:http://www.cartermuseum.org/collections/smith/collection.php?asn=LC-S6-092&mcat=9&scat=35

A teacher's help needed

Students do you feel as though one of your worst classes is your history class. I know I'm not alone and I think we should do something to change that. I think part of the reason we dislike history so much is that thw makers of text books make the information so boring and dry. I think students should be taught the truth, even if it is grusome or offensive. If it brings excitement to the class room and in return has kids more interested, wouldnt it be worth a try??

Paper decays, blogs are eternal!!!

It seems this quarter of history has blown right by me. Mostly because when I look into my notebook I see that the only things I've written are my notes. What happened to all the questions and assignments I've been so used to having to write in the past? The countless notebooks and pens wasted on stuff I toss at the end of the year? That's because all of our assignments have been converted into weekly blog post that we post here. I think it has made this class a lot less boring and also I have been more motivated to do the homework. I feel that now when I write a 600 word essay its saved somewhere that I will able to access it anytime, where all the papers I have written in the past have been thrown away. For once I actually feel as if I am learning and accomplishing something thanks to the ability to look back and read these posts.

There is such a thing as fun homework!

We were asked which blog post for our history class we liked doing best. Most of them were not bad but my favorite has to be the one where we played Oregon Trail and wrote about it. The exact question was, "Play Oregon Trail. Discuss how gaming could potentially connect with learning." This allowed us to play a game that had to deal with westward expansion and then write about how it could be a effective learning tool. I think more teachers should look to stuff students enjoy doing to help us learn.

Needles and chains

After reading the lyrics to a song that was sung in a textile mill titled "The Song of The Shirt" I think about what I am wearing. This song kind of depicts the life of a poor woman working in a textile mill. She talks about her fingers being worn from all the sowing. Her eyes heavy from the long hours. Even the stars shining through the windows which leaves you to believe they worked late into the night. I think life was beyond difficult for a worker in a textile mill, there were no safety standards like today which led to unsafe and unfit working conditions.

19 and mostly illiterate

Do you ever wonder what it would be like to be an adult and not able to read? Well in pre-civil war times slaves were prohibited to learn to read or write. Slave owners thought this would keep then from creating a uprising against owners. However some slaves did learn to read and write secretly knowing that if caught the punishment was most likely death. Once all the slaves were free the ones who could not read were jobless, they had to teach themselves or find a slave who could read to teach them. It was a very hard life.

Here lies Tyler...

Okay so this week we had to play the classic Oregon trail and see how we did, well i died. The question behind it is that does it help children learn. I believe that it can help kids learn. It shows how tough it was to make the journey, how much it cost to move out there, and what different stops were on the trail. You also encountered delays most people could have faced moving west. Overall i do think the game can help you learn more about the Oregon trail.

Six Word Story

Heading west, harsh reality, never arrived

A brutal past

In today's society we are said to have equal rights for all people of the united states regardless of race, gender, or color. Some say we do not but some say we do, I think we do because we have a colored president. Another debate is that which event contributed more? The freedom from slavery due to the civil war. Then others believe the civil right movement of the 1950's and 1960's contributed more. I am not saying either did contribute more because they are equally important, without both it would not be the same. However there are similarities between the two.

Lets start with the civil war and the freedom of slaves. After Lincoln was elected the south began to succeed from the United State and form the Confederacy. Even then the war had not begun, it took a raid on an armory by a radical abolitionist by the name of John Brown. This sent us into the war. Afterward the slaved were allotted freedom but that is about it. They were now freed from slavery and on their own, that however did not change peoples minds about them, southerners still hated them and refused to give them any rights. Most slaves were not allowed to get normal jobs and had to resort to sharecropping which in easy terms is glorified slavery. A white plantation owner would let you live on their land and let you farm so much of it in a certain way, in exchange for at least half of the crops at harvest. If they did not follow strict guide lines they would face monetary punishments and sanctions. Once you signed a contract you were stuck there until it was fulfilled or face prosecution which could lead to death. Also lynching started to become more popular.

Now, lets fast forward fifty to ninety year to 1950 where a new era is beginning which would be known as the civil rights movement. Life for the African Americans has improved but is still in a poor unequal state thanks to segregation throughout the south. There are more jobs and homes, there are also towns and sections of towns with only black or white families. Lynchings are still taking place and now the second Ku Klux Klan has risen bringing hate crimes throughout the south such as, burning churches,running over Negros, burning crosses. Some of the time they would preform these acts just to scare African Americans from voting.

Now while history is easier to record now than is was during the reconstruction we still have to look at this with open eyes. The civil rights movement lasted  roughly 20 years while the reconstruction lasted a mear 12 years. There were many people killed throughout both times for different and absurd reasons such as looking at a white woman wrong, back talking a white man, being the son of a murderer, going to Sunday school, wanting to vote. Both times had radical racist that thought they could bypass the government with sharecropping and segregation of public places. However though in the civil rights movement it was illegal to commit a hate crime. Not many acts were actually convicted because of corrupt judges and juries but the government was trying harder at least.

Overall I think the treatment of African Americans has been poor for all of time and now they are finally getting to a point where they are close to equal, we are not quite there yet but we are getting very close. I think the civil rights movement was a bit harsher than the reconstruction but it was also longer. Our lesson needs to be to look back at the past and make sure we work hard to eliminate an recurrence of this in the future.









Image source: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Martin_Luther_King_-_March_on_Washington.jpg

Reconstruction, was it really that grand?

After the north won the civil war the reconstruction period begins. In this period slaves are given freedom but they are still looked down on from the white man. This makes it hard for them to find work and get homes. The white man decides to offer them home and land in exchange for work and half or more of the crops they raise on the land. These families were not paid anything for the work they did so in the end it is very similar to slavery because it was the only option they really had if they wanted to survive. I believe the slaves did not gain much from the reconstruction and freeing, we do not see real changes until the civil rights movement.

Since when is murder forgivable?

When is someone allowed to kill without any punishment? Apparently following the civil war the south was granted "amnesty" which means forgiveness, so they were basically forgiven for the 360,000 deaths they inflicted on the north. I think that is absurd, do I think the south should have died for it, no, but just forgiving them was a very light punishment. It is in my opinion that the south should have faced sanctions like countries face today from the United Nations.

One wrong action and you could change the way your race is viewed

In todays world stereotypes are widely know by most people, and for good or bad they are there. How did they get to be so well known? Some examples are Asians are smart, African Americans like  fried chicken and are athletic. We all assume these things when we think about it, but why?. I think the reason we use stereotypes abroad is because of the influence media has on us. When you watch TV, you hear on the news of new research out of Asia proving a math theory or see a commercial with Chad Ochocinco in it. Then you watch a movie and see a Sunday afternoon lunch of fried chicken. We see stuff on TV, on the internet, in the paper and we automatically assume its true for everyone. I guess the major flaw is that we assume, we all know what happens when we assume.

History, the recipe for the future

Its a simple  but almost stupid question. Does history matter? The answer is obviously yes or we wouldn't keep it now and teach it in school. I guess though a bit more explaining is necessary. The perfect example is a society that tries to eliminate another race. Romans tried to rid the Christians, although they didn't succeed it was recorded. Even though it was recorded it repeated itself when Hitler tried to eliminate the Jews. So yes history is important because we need it to try and prevent history from repeating itself again.

History, the fishy side

• Voltaire said, " History is the lie commonly agreed on". Is it all necessarily a lie though? I mean yes it is a lie at times but it holds some truth. We look at information about Jamestown and Plymouth. Some books say Plymouth was first when really is was Jamestown by 13 years. Why do they think that though? As my teacher explained today when the history was first written about the first permanent settlement it was done at Harvard, which is closer to Plymouth than Jamestown. At the time communication was not as easy as it is today so they believed they were the first settlement, it was a commonly agreed upon lie, rather they knew about it or not. It holds truth that it was a early permanent settlement but they lie about it being the first. So to say history is the lie commonly agreed on or that history is written by the winners isn't entirely true, but it does explain some events represented in our books today.