N-Word Blog #2

I feel like there are so many sides to using the n-word. In the episode of Boston Public I can see the controversy because of the very diverse student body. It doesn't affect us in the same way here in Superior, but I think that if a white person stepped into a person of a different race and vice versa, the people using the n-word would change their mind. Although this is not possible, I wish it was because then everybody could see how it is living in somebody else's shoes and see that the n-word is different to different people.
I think how the word is used is what it is all about. Using it in a positive way is okay to me, but a negative way is horrible. I think in the next generation the n-word will completely change to being a slang word meaning friends or buddies. What parents tell their kids is, "sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me." This is one of the toughest sayings to be able to believe in because words are the strongest thing you can use against a person. Using your words is one of the most powerful thing you can use against somebody.
I think that saying the word in a positive connotation could be a good way of getting rid of the negative, but I don't think this generation is ready for that yet because kids are still taught that it is a very bad word to say even though it can be used in a good way. The controversy over words will never go away, but the government can't take away our freedom of speech.

Afghanistan

I agree with the yes side of the argument of whether the president should announce an Afghanistan exit strategy or not. The United States has always wanted to just go into a war hoping to resolve it by using overwhelming force, but hope to get it over with as soon as possible; get in, and get out. I think that the United States should establish an exit strategy but not announce it to the world. If we were to do this, it gives our enemy the plan and gives them an up on us.

N-Word Blog

After reading the first chapter. One passage in the first chapter really jumped out at me.

"Before the 1970's, however, nigger seldom figured in the routines of professional comedians. It was especially rare in the acts of those who performed for racially mixed audiences. Asserting that unmentionable slurs derived much of their seductive power from their taboo status, the iconoclastic white comedian Lenny Bruce recommended a strategy of subversion through overuse. In a 1963 routine, Bruce suggested with characteristic verve that "if President Kennedy got on television and said, 'Tonight I'd like to introduce the niggers in my cabinet,' and he yelled 'Niggerniggerniggerniggerniggerniggernigger' at every nigger he saw...til nigger didn't mean anything anymore, till nigger lost its meaning...you'd never hear any four-year-old nigger cry when he came home from school."" (pg. 31)

This isn't exactly Kennedy's point, but I agree with what the comedian said in a way. If people wouldn't use the n-word in a bad connotation, but used it in a good way, everything would be so much better. As the comedian said, if people were used to hearing it said in a good way, kids would grow up thinking of it in a good way and eventually everybody would too.

Socratic Method/Michael Moore

One similarity I found between Socrates and Michael Moore was their style of proving their point. Throughout the whole documentary Michael Moore questions people and the government. He asks about gun control, why people think Canada has less shootings than America, and many others. Socrates is similar in the way that he asks questions to Crito about justice and escaping from the jail. Both of the men are asking questions to get a point across.

Quote from Crito

“Are we to say that we are never intentionally to do wrong, or that in one way we ought and in another way we ought not to do wrong, or is doing wrong always evil and dishonourable, as I was just now saying, and as has been already acknowledged by us?” (pg 49) I chose this quote because I felt it related to me in a way that could help me in the future. Even though many will say what you are doing is wrong, good may come of it. So you should stand up for what you believe in.

Dialogues of Plato Quote

"...and they [charges] were made by them in the days when you were more impressible than you are now--in childhood, or it may have been in youth--and the cause when heard went by default, for there was none to answer." I found that this quote relates to me because when I was younger I believed and thought that what adults and people I looked up to told me was 100% true. Kids will believe anything you tell them and can't think for themselves and what they will choose to believe or not to believe until they develop those skills.

Reflection

When looking back on this year so far, I think that my favorite part was in the beginning of the year when we discussed Lord of the Flies and White Fang. I know if I would have read those books on my own I would not have thought about the connection of man and evil. I really enjoyed discussing whether man is inherently evil or is man's behavior based on society. Senior Social really makes me think about the books or packets we are reading and see the deeper meaning. I also like reading Inherit the Wind. I like talking about the symbolism we see in the book compared with life. I never liked symbolism before this class, but now that I can understand what is going on I really like it. Even though the packets are sometimes hard to read, I have liked those too. The Law and Justice packet really made me think of whether they are separate or together and I never thought of it like that. I have enjoyed all of the topics we've done so far in this class.

Law and Justice

"Are we not more obligated to achieve justice than to obey the law?" This quote best represented my opinion of law and justice because I believe that not all laws are justifiable. During swim season last year, my ipod and twenty dollars were stolen from me, but the girl was caught red-handed right then and there as she was stealing. I never got any money back or my ipod, yet I filed a police report. Even though this girl was a minor, I think she should have had to pay back or give back what she stole. Stealing is against the law, yet how is it justifiable at all that she didn't get any punishment for that? I know this has happened to many people at the high school and in this situation justice is not achieved. As it also said in this packet many laws are good because they protect us against wrongdoing, but laws also make people do things they don't want to and protect some people but not others. However, I think that both laws and justice are a need in the world because a world without laws would turn to chaos and a world without justice would not be worth living in.

Intelligent Design

The definition of intelligent design is certain features of the universe and of living things are best explained by an intelligent cause, not an undirected process such as natural selection. The intelligent design theory is not just based on faith. It can be found in Plato's and Aristotle's teachings. The debate between the two sides is that people don't want any aspect of religion taught in biology class. I don't see the problem with it being taught in science classes because most schools teach evolution in only a few days and the intelligent design part does not particularly have to have anything said about God. I think that Matzke is correct with his view on teaching in schools. To require students to understand something but there is a difference about learning and believing and that the students should retain complete freedom of conscience. I think that students should be taught both because they need to be taught everything that is available for them to learn. It will prepare them for something that may possibly come out in science in the future.

Should Promoting Democracy Abroad Be a Top U.S. Priority?

I agree with both Siegle and Wittes. Siegle makes a good point in that democracies tend not to fight one another and are friendly, politically and economically. Also, if the ultimate goal of the government is to provide safety for citizens and high standards of living, it is in the best interest for countries to be democratic. In the most democratized countries, they promote their government by providing every aspect of their institutions(freedom, civil workers, etc.). An example in the packet was that in one country, they got more free press, and it cut down the amount of graft (corrupt policemen) because it was exposed publicly. Siegle argues that democratized countries have developed faster than those that are not, and there are facts to prove it as in the last sentence. However, in some instances the US has not insisted on democracy and it is a good thing. Because of the politics of oil, we have not forced democracy on the Arab countries. The Western economies would be severely damaged because they might cut off our oil. Hardly anybody would be able to drive because of the explosive gas prices. Even though it is proven that countries with high levels of democracy in all aspects have higher growth rates, many countries that aren't democratic want to stay the way they are. Otherwise, we will have to pay the consequences. That is why we must pick our fights wisely on which countries to press our democratic ways on.

Is it justifiable to put suspected terrorists under great physical duress?

I can see both sides of this question. Both authors make good points on whether torture is right or wrong. I don't think I could ever be the person to torture another person because it would be morally wrong in my beliefs. Hypothetically, if we capture a person who has information on a threat that is going to happen in the next 24 hours, are we just going to let them sit there or are we going to try and get it out of them? Everybody would agree we should try to get the information out of that person, but I don't think that getting it out of them should amount to torture. On the other side, if we were to torture someone, couldn't they just tell the interrogator a lie to stop the torture?
I do think that Krauthammer made a better point in his argument, but I don't think torture to a certain extent is okay. We are supposed to be a land of the free, but President Bush declared that the Geneva Convention, signed years ago, applies to detainees, but not to unlawful combatants and the use of justified interrogating techniques are able to be used. Krauthammer said that only the prisoners that should be tortured are terrorists and those with information about pending terrorist events. I agree with Krauthammer that torture should only be used in a dire situation.
Andrew Sullivan does not support torture and says that the information the terrorists give us is unreliable and thus unlikely to save lives. I agree with this. He states that "to reduce them to a subhuman level is to exonerate them of their acts of terrorism and mass murder-just as animals are not deemed morally responsible for killing." We shouldn't lower our morale just to try and get information out of them because they still did something terrible.
I don't believe that so many people should be tortured, but under dire circumstances we should get the information we need. I am glad to live in the United States because I know we are protected from that kind of treatment as long as we are law-abiding citizens. Though I am disgraced by the government because they are corrupt in dealing with other countries and some of the things going on in our country. I could not believe that they bring suspects to other countries to torture them. I hope someday our government and country is a true symbol of freedom and justice.

Dead Teen Walking

I do not think that Shareef Cousin should have been put on death row. There are five specific reasons why he is innocent. The witness didn't even have her glasses on, there was no physical evidence to put Cousin at the scene of the crime, he had a basketball game that night from which his coach dropped him off at a time that would have bbeen impossible for him to have done it, and three of his team mates were in the car too but were "mysteriously" gone when the defense lawyers were about to call them in. These are all legitimate alibies for Cousin to have not done the crime. Even if he had, I still don't believe he should be put on death row because he is a juvenile and he was having a tough time in life at that time. I see a connection between the two readings because he was having a rough time in his life when he supposedly shot someone, as White Fang became more and more vicious as he was kept in Beauty Smith's dog fighting escapades. Cousin thought he had found his father, but the man disowned him as White Fang's mother disowned him when she had a different litter of puppies. It just goes to show how something like that can affect someone so deeply. I think White Fang impacted my viewpoint on it a little bit. I don't think every person who murders someone should be put on death row, but there is also a point at which juveniles who have had a really tough life don't know how to deal with their anger so they take it out on somebody that doesn't matter to them.

What Makes Us Moral?

The morality of every human being is not the same. Nobody has yet been able to figure out what makes us do the things we do. There are so many people in the world that are so unselfish that they will give other people their own body parts, while others are serial killers. As the article shows, it seems that young people don't want to do things that they know are bad even when they are told it is okay to do so. Researchers are trying to figure out where certain intuitions come from because it could maybe help us in the future from becoming savage. I love stories that shows the beautiful gifts of people or animals helping others and I like to believe that people are truly just doing kind things out of the goodness of their heart.
It is hard to look at the study they did with the trolley dilemma. Everybody would want to save the five people at no cost, but it is hard when it comes to saving five lives or one. I think that I couldn't kill the unsuspecting man to save the five people because deep down you know you killed that man. A study also showed that people who aren't familiar with another, don't have anything in common with a person they love, feel like they don't need to have the same respect for them. We are still a little bit savage people, but hopefully as studies and research is done we can fix that.

White Fang or Lord of the Flies

I liked White Fang much more than Lord of the Flies. I felt like I connected more to White Fang. Jack London thought that society had a great effect on a human or in this case wolf/dog. I agree more with him than with William Golding. I also think I liked it better because I like dogs and books set in nature.

Top 10 Most Famous People

My class, fifth hour, and the news article's list were very similar. We had seven people that were the same. These people were: Martin Luther King Jr., Rosa Parks, Harriet Tubman, Susan B. Anthony, Benjamin Franklin, Amelia Earhart, and Thomas Edison. One thing that I wonder is whether the survey was done in a history class. In my class, people were suggesting hip hop and rap artists and sports athletes of today, but then somebody said "lets be real this is in all of history". I was proud that we got 7/10 the same as the news articles.
I thought the men who wrote the article were being a little ridiculous in suggesting that the teens of today would suggest people such as Paris Hilton, Britney Spears, and Tupac as people we would put down as being the most famous Americans in history. I think it's amazing that only about five decades ago teens in the classroom would have put neither African Americans nor women as being the most famous people because they weren't really included in history books. I am glad that the people of our country have realized how wrong not having equal rights is. Though many older people believe that the teens of today don't seem to be learning the history of America and who our important leaders have been, they are wrong according to this poll.

WWI excerpt of book

The Plans of both the Germans and French went on much longer and were different from what they thought the war would entail. The armies fought on for four years and dealt with hardships that included terrible living conditions, the attacks of heavy artillery, and shells that released gas. I did not know that any of this went on during the war and it was interesting to read what happened during World War I.
The Scieffen Plan of the Germans was a realistic plan, but it feel behind schedule and their mistakes along with the strong firepower of the French caused them to be at a standstill. France’s Plan XVII was not much of a plan at all, just having high expectations for the French soldiers. I had no idea that the armies lived in such terrible conditions during the war. The armies mostly lived in mud-filled trenches that sometimes held corpses, had unsanitary conditions, and there was an unbearable stench in many of them. The war had an effect on the mental state of the armies. One man wrote in his diary: ‘Humanity is mad! It must be mad to do what it is doing. What a massacre! What scenes of horror and carnage! I cannot find words to translate my impressions. Hell cannot be so terrible. Men are mad!’ The noise of the bursting shells would make them so afraid, but so would silence. The part that I found the most interesting was about the use of gas during the war. It was first used at the Second Battle of Ypres on April 22, 1915, against the French colonial troops. In the beginning, chlorine, which causes a slow death, was used, but then the use of mustard gas started to become more popular. Mustard gas would rot the body from both inside and out. Both armies, almost right after the first gas attack, took safety measures against it. There were 58,000 gas casualties of the American Army.
The four long years of war caused many casualties and the armies endured many adversities that many people could not dream of having to go through. The excerpt of this book was really interesting to read because I did not know much of anything that went on during World War I.

Letters/Diary Entries WWI Blog

June 17, 1917

I never imagined I would be drafted and be stationed in France. When I am sleeping in the dugout i can feel the huge rats brush up against my leg and the sound of them is terrifying. They have stolen the little food I have out of my pockets, but I would rather have that than them feasting upon myself. I feel as if I am going insane with the thoughts of these beasts.

When I do try to sleep it is awfully difficult because of the stench of dead, rotting corpses. The rats feast upon these even when they aren't even all the way dead. There seem to be an endless amount of rats. I have never smelled anything so terrible as when I am in the trench. Nothing can compare to it. I need to try and get some sleep, so until tomorrow, goodnight.

Johnny Manion

March 21, 1916

My Dear Family,

The other nurses and I are now at a hospital in France. I have become friends with the other girls. I have been doing fine, I just wish the war to be over as quickly as possible so that all of us can come home. The terrible wounds from battle are not nearly as many as those who come in with their poor feet needing to be amputated or in need of care.

I have heard many stories from the men. They talk of the endless days of going without removing their soaking wet boots and socks. It is very similar to frost bite and has caused many men to come to the hospital for it. Sometimes the men went and took socks from the other dead soldiers to include as part of the rationing. I wish they could be supplied with endless amounts of socks and boots. I will keep working hard here and I hope that all the family is well. I love you all.

Love Always,

Mary Chapman

November 23, 1915

Mother & Father,

How are you? I miss you and the whole family. I am doing all right, but i recently discovered that i have chatts. It is such an unpleasant thing. I have blotches all over my skin from them and had to cut my hair to the skull. I dreaded having this done, but someone told me that if i did not, i would get money taken from my pay.

The chatts make all of us so itchy. I don't know how somebody in our battalion first got them, but they were spread very quickly to all of us. I try not to itch because I see the ugly marks it leaves on some of the other men. I have been stationed here in Germany for quite a few months now, but I want to come home.

Love,

Charles Ericson

President Obama

As President Obama implied in his speech, there has been more change in his first thirty six days of presidency than there has been in awhile. The health care situation has improved and we are on our way to improving the financial crisis the United States has been in. He approved a stimulus package not too long ago which will help our country rebuild, recover, and emerge stronger than we were before the crisis occured. This time will hopefully be the time that is remembered as a great time of change.

Did William M. Tweed Corrupt Post-Civil War New York

I believe that Alexander B. Callow, Jr., is correct in saying that "Boss" Tweed and the ring corrupted the city and state governments. By controlling the key legislative and financial agencies that gave out charters and franchises, the Tweed Ring extracted what could be up to a couple million dollars. There were many men who made up the Ring and helped to take the money in different ways. One person especially stands out to me, Dick Connolly. He spent the money collected from taxes. Some of this money was spent legitimitly but a good share of it was embezzled or many other things. The Tweed Ring obviously was a corrupt political machine that exploited New York.

New Years Resolution

My New Years Resolution for APUSH is that I will listen more in class and read the Amsco book chapters. I have had trouble when I have not listened in class before because there is important information that I miss. During a couple of the chapters, i read the Amsco book, and it helped my test score very much. So I think reading it will help more of the tests we take have improved scores.