Letter to the Principal!!

Dear Principal,

           It has brought my attention that certain parts of history books are being censored and edited in the high school history curriculum. Thus, I think that the censoring is wrong and we should be able to have full knowledge of the past and the present. The censoring prevents us to grasp the full concept and context of history. I believe that we, as students should learn both sides to a conflict. We read the Rape of Nanjing in our class today, which was not in our textbooks. I taught it was shocking how they do not include the Rape of Nanjing in textbooks. Also, I believe that there is no reason to censor a book, we are old enough to handle an event like this. In the Rape of Nanjing, the Japanese, slaughtered, tortured, killed, and raped millions of men, women, and children. Why should history be keep a secret? It shouldn't, if the curriculum wants students to be successful than why not teach us something interesting like the Rape of Nanjing. This events have marked cultures and they are part of history, so we should still learn about events like this even though they are good or bad.  I know, and many other students know that this was Genocide, but we also learned about the Holocaust. And the Holocaust was an act of Genocide as well. So why are they censoring books if we still learn about Genocide. In other places like Rwanda there has been genocide and hundreds of thousands of people have been killed. This shows students that genocide is still possible and could potentially be more deadly due to further advancements in technology. I believe that learning about mass genocide gives hope to the world to prevent these horrific events from reoccurring. Teenagers are the future and what is taught in schools will influence the decisions of tomorrow.

                                                                                     Sincerely,

                                                                                     Maria Rodriguez

Is Intervention the answer to GEN-O-CIDE?

          Regions like the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Sudan, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Rwanda, Burundi, and Chechnya, Russia are currently threatened by genocide. The regions need substantial help right now trying to defeat those rebels and extremists who try to overthrow the government. But the question is should powerful countries like the US intervene with the genocide occurring in these countries? I think that it depends on the situation, if the problem is not as big than, the US and other powerful countries can intervene. Indeed, other countries view the U.S. as an outstandingly dominant power of state. When people in other countries, which are less powerful, hear of the United States they think of it as a great power who supervises the whole world. People in smaller countries think of the great American dream. The U.S. is very powerful, but this is a stereotypical statement. I don't believe that the United States is as powerful as people convey it to be. The U.S. does have the power to intervene, but how will it benefit the U.S., if something goes wrong. The consequences that the U.S. will have to deal with are large. I believe that countries should figure out a way to fix and manage there own problems without the help from the United States. For example, in the occurring situation right now in Libya where the people are trying to overthrow the dictator. And countries like the U.S. are trying to evacuate the many Americans who are stranded in Libya. The reason being in case the situation becomes worse, we want to keep our people safe and at home. If the U.S. is wanting for Americans to be safe because of a genocide issue, then they should intervene in the conflicts. I think the U.S. and other countries do have the power to intervene, but this topic is so controversial that it should be dealt in a very delicate and careful manner.

Braddock's Fights Map

View James J. Braddock's Fights in a larger map

"Cinderella Man" Outline

I. "Cinderella Man"        
       A. The great James J. Braddock (Jimmy)
              1. Boxer in the 1920's and 1930's
              2. Light Heavyweight championship before breaking his wrist
       B. Family.
              1. Wife: Mae Braddock
              2. Children: 3 (2 boys and 1 girl).
II. The Great Depression
       A. His family loses everything
              1. Jimmy loses all the money because of the stock market crash of 1929.
              2. Jimmy searches for shifts at the dock in order to make some money.
              3. Mortgage overdue
              4. Electricity and heat get turned off without money.
              5. Not enough rations for everybody.
       B. Jimmy breaks his wrist in one of his fights.
              1. Boxing license suspended.
              2. Money is harder to get.
              3. Ask for money from Emergency Relief.
              4. Finally asks for money from the boxing executives of the Madison Square Garden.
III. A great comeback.
       A. Joe (James' manager) gets him a fight at Madison Square Garden now that his had is well.
              1. Corn Griffin vs. James J. Braddock, Win
              2. John Henry Lewis vs. James J. Braddock, Win
              3. Art Lasky vs. James J. Braddock, Win
       B. Reactions and Responses
              1. Mae worries about Jimmy getting into fights, her explanation is that he  wont be able to work, and they wont have money.
              2. People don't believe that he can make it.
IV. The Big Fight
       A. Jimmy
              1. Pays back the money he received from the Emergency Relief.
              2. A reporter calls Jimmy the "Cinderella Man"
       B. Max Baer and Jimmy meet before the fight.
              1. Jimmy introduces Mae to Max Baer
                        a. Max says to Mae that Jimmy might not make it out of the fight alive.
                        b. She doesn't watch or listen to the fight because she fears for Jimmy's life.
              2. It was said that Baer had killed two men while boxing.
       C. June 13,1935
              1. Braddock wins against Baer.
              2. Becomes the Heavyweight Champion of the World.
V. Afterwards
       A. Life After Boxing 
              1. Jimmy works in the construction of the Verrazano Bridge. 
              2. Owned and worked with heavy machinery on the docks where he worked shifts during the Great Depression.
              3. Mae and Jimmy used the money from the Max Baer fight to buy the house that they lived in for the rest of their lives.  

The Trial of Sacco & Vanzetti

      The evidence in the trial of Sacco & Vanzetti vs. the State of Massachusetts is very questionable. It appears as if the evidence presented is not concrete enough to sufficiently link Sacco and Vanzetti to the crime. I think this evidence is hardly enough for conviction. This insufficient evidence and the unreliable eyewitness are wrong to convict the so called "criminals". The criminals, Sacco and Vanzetti both born in Italy, where both migrated to the United States in 1908.

       Evidence says seven eye witnesses are saying that the saw both Sacco and Vanzetti and the supposedly bandit car. The case is actually weak because the eyewitness are not reliable for the reason that they were not certain of the criminals identification. All the accounts of the sightings of the crime took place before or after the crime. The evidence says that there was a third gun shot from Sacco's gun. The test say other wise about this crime many things contradicted this trial. This men should have never been convicted for a crime that no eyewitnesses testfied to have really been there or seen them. The physical evidence also accounts to be very vague or ambiguous. The bullet recovered is said to have not been used with Sacco's gun but eyewitnesses say it did. So there is a mix review of what really happened.

       Burns and Fitzgerald argue that they are positive that the bullet could not have been fired from Sacco's Colt. Unfortunately, there is always to sides to a story so what is right to believe is quetionable and that is why the case is unfair. It makes it a weak piece of evidence to sentence a mean to death for. Other evidence like the cap and the car became even more weaker evidence. You cannot link a man to murder because you would need DNA testing to aknowledge that he wore that cap. The car is even more irrelevant, is unuseful evidence. Sacco and Vanzetti should not be stated guilty because of the amount of evidence and the inexplicable wrong doing.

Source:http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/SaccoV/sv.gif

Evolution vs. Religion

           The Scopes Trial was one of the most important and significant events that took place in the 1920's. The trial was also known as the Scopes Monkey Trial. It was an American case in 1925 in which a high school biology teacher John Scopes  was accused of violating the states law that students can't be taught evolution. In my opinion, I think that this situation should have never happened like this. I personally think that he should have never got arrested just because of teaching evolution. And it might be because now a days students cant be taught about religion so evolution is accepted more. It is also true that in school right now, people have many different religions that they follow. Even now a days a discussion about religion becomes very heated. So I believe that everybody should be able to pick whatever they want to believe in: either religion or evolution. I also think that evolution and religion are important in life and they can not be kept away. Evolution is related to science, and what would happen in the world without science. Science as you read in a textbook revolves around science. Therefore, I believe that people should believe on whatever there choice is Evolution or Religion. It's all up to the people, and what they want.       

Topic.07 Concept Guide

1925 The Scopes Trial:

-John Scopes, a high school Biology teacher who was put on trial for teaching evolution.
-Found guilty, but verdict was later overturned.
-Creation/Evolution controversy demonstrated a contradiction to the Bible.

1920 Prohibition:
-This was to stop alcohol in the United States because husbands would come home drunk and abuse their families.
-Pushed by women's organizations (drinking increased domestic violence and child abuse in 1920's)
-Hard to enforce because:
           1. Did not ban:
                 -Possession
                 -Consumption
                 -Transportation
-IRS enforced prohibition.
-1933, 21st Amendment past, repealing 18th Amendment (FDR).
-18th Amendment: banned manufacture and sale of alcohol.

Flappers:
-A "new breed" of women who had short hair, smoked and drank in public.
-She wore sleeveless, short dresses and showed cleavage and legs.
-Wild ladies of the 1920's.
-"New Americans"
-Did not follow societal sexual norms.
-Jazz music
-Redefined women's roles
-Advocated for women's rights.

1920 Economic Issues:
-Demand
      -Credit for consumers
      -Low interest rates
      -Introduction of the "installment plan"
-Credit cards, building up debt
-Stock market speculation
      -Buying on a margin, if stock market goes down, people would be in lots of debt with stock  brokers.                  
-Immigration also became limited, reducing the number of workers in the economy.
-No discretionary rates

Dust Bowl:
-Severe dust storms
-Caused by severe drought, extensive farming without crop rotation, and mechanization.

-Over 500,000 Americans left homeless
-Americans migrated west (largest migration in American history in the shortest period of time)
-FDR created government organizations to aid

Agriculture Issues:
-Collapse in prices
-No crop rotation an deep plowing caused dust storms
-Long term agricultural depression
-The farmers were overproducing with new machnery after the war, so they no longer needed much food.

Immigration Policies:
-Opposition of quotas disappear (restrictions on # of immigrants)
-Emergency Quota Act of 1921: ethnic groups limited to 3% of 1910 population
-National Origins Act of 1924: ethnic groups limited to 2% of 1890 census (no Asians)
-Laws became more strict.
-US could thrive without immigrants

Nativism:
-Americans were for isolationism following the end of WWI
-Immigrant restrictions
-Afraid of Communism spreading
-KKK used nativist, reemerges with 3 million people
  

1920 Significant Literary Works:
-Main Kampf (Hitler)
-The Jungle (Sinclair)
-The Great Gatsby (Fitzgerald) , life during the 20's
-Grapes of Wrath (Steinbeck)
-Of Mice and Men (Steinbeck)
-How the Other Half Lives (Riis)
-The Ways of White Folks (Hughes)
-Unsafe at Any Speed (Nader)

The Great Migration: 
-Appx. 7 million African Americans move North.
-Escaping widespread racism of the South
-Better education and employment opportunities
-Rapid increase in African American population
-Migrated form SOUTH------>NORTH

Harlem Renaissance: 
-African American artistic movement
-New York City
-Music
-Writing
-Dance

-A new black identity
-Explosion of culture
-Caused by the great migration

Sacco and Vanzetti: 
-Italian Anarchists
-Accused and charged with robbery and murder
-Sentenced to death
-During the Red Scare
-Controvery (confusing evidence)
-Foreign= Bad (attitude of USA)

1920 Labor Issues: 
-Unions were suppressed
-Welfare
-Wages increased, work time decreased
-LOTS of strikes
-Unemployement rate = 5%
-Lack of leadership in labor movement

The Red Scare: 
-Afraid of communism
-Bolshevik revolution cleans up all of the corruption.
-Lenin comes to power in Russia (Soviet Union: USSR)
-Afraid of un-American behavior and foreigners
-Palmer Raids: arresting un-americans without evidence (Espionage and Seditiion Acts)

Schneck vs. the United States:
-Upheld Espionage Act
-Schenck's conviction was a constitutional decision
-Schenck sent letters to draftees saying that the draft was motivated by capitalists

Organized Crime Presentations

           In our organized crime group presentations I learned that the gangsters the groups researched were all somewhat similar in some characteristics. Most of them began to commit illegal crimes at a very young age. Similar to that, the gangster that I was researching did not even finish college because of the influence to the illegal crimes. Also, most of them were involved in the same category of crimes like bootlegging, bank robbery, kidnapping, and murder. Even most of the most of the gangsters when they were arrested, usually they would escape from jail and start a new life. I also learned that some of them became Public Enemies which people in the 1930's categorized as individuals whose activities were seen as criminal and extremely damaging to society. Some of the gangsters worked together in bank robberies and bootlegging, it was sort of like a network between the gangsters. I also reflect on getting to know more on how people, especially gangsters, tried to live well and happy in the 1930's. I did feel like I have learned a lot about the infamous gangsters in the 1930's. Though, I learned a lot with the gangster that I researched George "Machine Gun" Kelly Barnes, I just wished that there would have been more information about him or his life. I tried so hard to look for more information but I couldnt find anything different than from what I had. To be honest Mr. Meechin, I think that I didnt do a great job putting information in the slides but I just couldnt find anything else that was interesting to put. We all worked hard in the project, and learning from an experience like this and the presentations, shows me what I have to work on the next time I have a group project.          

Acrostic Poem!

People had to make moonshine.                                     
Rum running was illegal.                                                  
Opposed citizens were angry.                                         
Houses had secret bars inside.                                      
It was illegal to have alcohol.                                            
Bathtub Gin.                                                                        
Intollerance.                                                                         
The people became outlaws.                                           
Illegal saloons opened.
Outrage over alcohol ban.
No one was drinking beers.

Remembered as a period of financial crisis.
Organized crimes escalated and notorious figures like Al Capone appeared.
Admendment 18 prohibited the manufacture, transportation, and sale of intoxicating liquor.
Red Scares refer to the fear of communism that Americans felt.
Inventions strived like the automobile and radio.
Nation became urban and commercial with consumer demand.
Great Depression

Transportation, consumption, and possession of alcohol were not banned.
Women caught smoking and drinking, who have short hair were called flappers.
Established laws were broken by many who wanted to obtain alcohol.
Not forgotten to say that the amount of hooch that was being sold had increased.  
Techniques of architecture allowed builders to construct taller buildings.
IRS in charge of Enforcement Act.
Espionage and Sedition Acts declared by the Supreme Court.
Sacco and Vanzetti robbed and arrested, they went to trial and were sentenced to death.