Journal 6

It was interesting when we were talking about the New Deal today and I said that I would reinstitute the Home Owner's Refinancing Act (HOLC) and the National Housing Act (FHA); I chose these two acts because many people were laid off from work and couldn't find other jobs. Also, they couldn't afford their homes because there morgages were affected by the economic crisis. These two acts helped people find employment and have means of keeping their homes.
I agreed with a classmate that the Works Progress Administration should be reinstituted because it provided jobs for people during the Great Depression; people built roads, houses, and distributed food. During times of crisis, it's important to keep people in employment so they can keep their homes and spend money. The economy will never get better if the money doesn't circulate.

Journal 5

If the Great Depression happened today I would have trouble giving up technology like my computer, TV, cell phone, iPod, etc. They're luxuries that I take for granted and I can't imagine my life without having them. Even though these electronics aren't a daily need they are a daily want that few Americans live without. I'd have to find alternative ways of staying informed since I watch the news on TV to find out what's going on. Also, I'd have to write all of my schoolwork by hand and I wouldn't be able to call my friends whenever I felt like it. My bus ride home would be silent because I wouldn't be listening to my iPod. Hopefully the Great Depression will never happen again, but if it would, it would be hard to live without technology; however, it's a luxury that Americans could live without if they needed to.

Journal 4

Teddy Roosevelt was the head of the United States Forest Service and if I were like him and decided to conserve thousands of acres of national forests, I would start by ceasing the production of new developments on farmland. When I was in elementary and early middle school, I remember seeing many cornfields close to where I live. Now, all of those fields are residential developments. The forests have also been affected by this too; animals are becoming endangered because their habitats are being destroyed. If we keep building houses and neglecting the well-being of the wildlife in our country, we won't have any more wildlife in our country. We've invaded many animals' homes already; we shouldn't take any more away from them.

Journal 3

I overheard a conversation between the factory owner and the labor agitators; the owner said that the agitators won't look out for me, but those who own the company and property. I don't think it's right that they will look out for me because they don't know what it's like to work in a factory. They won't ever know about the poor working environment, low wages, and long hours; if they are aware of it, then they probably won't do anything to improve the conditions. I wish that there was someone of authority who coulod be my voice and help workers like me have safer and better working conditions.

Journal 2

In Mexico, I work in a maquila (sweatshop) where I make T-shirts for very little pay. In 1994, the North American Free Trade Agreement was signed and sweatshops spread rapidly throughout Mexico; many of them were, and are, illegal. During the week, my shift is from 8:30am to 8:30pm and if I don't finish the amount of clothes I'm supposed to complete in that time I must work longer hours with not pay. On Saturdays I work from 8:00am to 5:00pm without a lunch break and I earn $30 to $50 a week. Most of the people I work with are young girls who are 12 and 13 years old. I've never worn protective goggles or gloves when working even though many workers have lost eyes and fingers in our sewing machines.
Despite the mistreatment I've endured, I can't stop working because I've no other means of survival.

Journal 1

A late 19th century invention that effects my life today is the typewriter; it was invented in 1867 by Christopher Scholes. The typewriter evolved into computers and it was an important invention because computers are used on a daily basis today. I'm a high school student and I know that whenever I have a long paper to write, I'm not going to write out everything on notebook-paper when I can type it on the computer. I was taught how to type on a computer in elementary school and it's easier and faster to complete school assignments on the computer. Every day I have to write something for English or history class, and every day I'm on my computer completing the homework. I can't imagine having to use a pencil and writing out my work by hand! Thank you Christoper Scholes for your influenctial invention of the typewriter!!! It eventually made it possible for me to speedily complete my schoolwork!!!!!

Journal 8

We finished talking about the women's movement already, but it was a part of the struggle for equality theme that I didn't cover yet. It wasn't very long ago that women got the right to vote; however, I believe that gender discrimination isn't a major issue anymore. Obviously, it will never completely go away, but I personally see it as less of an issue than racial discrimination today.
What I do notice sometimes is discrimination of, not men against women but, women against men. It comes from simple sayings like, "Your a man, lift that heavy load!" but some phrases that seem harmless could really hurt someone elses feelings.
One time, a boy in my class didn't hand in his homework all week and the girls said, "That's just like a boy. A lazy bum." I didn't like that and it offended the rest of the boys in my class because they handed in all their work.
Also, a boy in gym class couldn't catch a baseball very well and girls mocked him by saying, "What are you a girl?!" and "Aren't you good at this? Your a guy after all." I found that especially disturbing because they were bad-mouthing him and themselves by stating that boys should naturally be good at sports.
In my mind, males and females should be on the same playing field in society. That's true gender equality. The only difference I can see between the genders is that girls can have babies and men can't.

Journal 7

Today my friends and I wrote a poem based off of words or phrases taken from Clinton and Obama's inaugurations. We read the speeches and highlighted the things that we liked the best. It was interesting to see what we came up with. My friends chose words that didn't seem to relate to what I chosebut, when we formed our poem, we made everything fit together.
It was a great activity to do with the theme of struggle for equality because it showed that two presidents may say different words, but many of the issues addressed in Clinton's speech were in Obama's. We're still struggling some of the same problems of the past.
Does this mean that the speeches are for nothing? Will we never achieve what we set out to do? I certainly don't think so, but America's faults will take time to perfect. Taking time makes us impatient; we must remember our history and "be the change" to form this country into what the Founding Fathers originally wrote it was going to be.
"The preservation of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness."

Journal 6

This study definitely made me think because it was interesting to read the thoughts of the Indians and non-Indians. I'm glad that the majority of non-Indians felt regret towards what happened to the Indians in the past; however, it's disturbing that many of them don't know anything about their culture.
It's dangerous to refrain from teaching the history of the Native American because it causes people to make generalizations and hold stereotypes (just like the article said). Wow! I'm beginning to see a pattern with all these struggles for equality. It seems like the people who take the most discrimination are those whom society in general doesn't understand.
People make assumptions without knowing the situation; it's just human nature. If the history of Native Americans were emphasized more, perhaps action could be taken to stop the oppression they still face today.
Their issues seem to be similar to what the African-Americans faced (except Natives were here first!). Native Americans should be treated just like every other American. They aren't different from the rest of us.

Journal 5

I researched Native Americans today and learned more about the interaction between the tribes and the European settlers. The settlers basically stole the Indians land from them when they came to the country. The Indians didn't understand the meaning of "private property"; different tribes fought each other for the right to hunt on the land, but not own it. Instead, the entire community of Indian tribes "owned" the land they lived on.
Europeans wrote treaties with the Delaware and Shawnee Indians that supposedly were going to allow them to split the land, but the settlers took advantage of the Indians and took all of it for themselves. Eventually, Congress passed a law in the 1870s that ceased the signing of treaties and they gave Indians pieces of land called Indian Reserves. They got some land back, but were restricted to live where the Europeans told them to.
The government believed that the Indians were incapable of caring for the land, so it was cared for by the U.S. government.
This was a serious struggle for equality because the Indians' voice was ignored by the new Americans. That's why there aren't many of them left in America today.

Journal 4

Yesterday, abortion came up in our disscussion in class about the struggle for equality among the two genders. Should the father have a say in the matter of terminating his child as much as the mother? It's difficult to choose a side in a situation like this because the child wouldn't exist without both parents, yet the child is being formed inside the mother; so, is it fair to say that the man can decide what the woman does with her body?

This topic will always have a problem with struggle for equality because of those issues. I'm a strong believer in sharing equal responsibility for the child; however, because that the man doesn't have to deal with actually having the child, he could have the power to take advantage of that if he had a say on the issue of abortion. How can he know how to make the right descision when he will experience being pregnant?

Pregnancy occurs because of a descision made by two people and the responsibility should be shared equally. If the couple can't agree on whether to keep the child or not, then the woman should ultimately decide only because she's the one having the child.

Journal 3

The disscussion in class today was very interesting because a question posed by the teacher really stuck in my mind: "What if we can prove that a child growing in someone's body has the genetic make-up of a serial-killer?" I must admit, I was stunned to hear this. I suppose that it's because I don't believe that a human being is born like that. I certainly understand that there are genetic mental and physical diseases but, no matter what doctors have "proved," I've made up my mind that committing a crime so vile shouldn't be blamed as something they "can't control."
This reminds me of how this topic can relate to the struggle for equality theme; I'm sure it's pretty much a daily occurrance to notice somebody with a disability, disorder, illness, etc. gaining special treatment as well as being mistreated. Their struggle for equality is evident when they're segregated from others because of these reasons.
For example, I know plenty of people with autism; the disorder is familiar to people because the number of children being born with it has increased. I know kids where it's so mild that nobody can tell it's there and kids who have really severe cases; they are often avoided by people (especially those their age) because they're labeled the "autisic kid." In my eyes, they're just like everyone else; they have issues buy hey, don't we all? Nobody should be judged because of something like that.

Journal 2

The Holocaust Symposium was very inspiring because everyone got to speak with an actual survivor. It's incrediable because, first of all, their won't be many survivors left in a few years and it will be something special to share with my children and grandchildren when I'm older. The Holocaust occurred because Hitler wanted to create a perfect race; any group of people that didn't meet his standards were sent to concentration camps to be murdered. This clearly relates to the struggle for equality because the victims of the Holocaust didn't do anything to deserve their fate; they were merely targeted by racial and religious hatred. Someone's looks, religion, sexual orientation, handicap, etc. shouldn't set them apart from everyone else. Today, I hope that the world is more accepting of others even though they might be different. Everyone has their prejudices, but we must ultimately remember that we're all human beings. If everyone treated one another like a human and not a "Negro", "girl", "queer", etc. then the struggle for equality that everyone deals with evey day would eventually cease.

Journal 1

In history class a few days ago, we were talking about the struggle for equality; we received papers that described different topics that each of us had to research for a project. I noticed that the dominant subjects we had to research were concerning the struggle for equality for women, African-Americans, Hispanic-Americans, and American Indians. My novel that I'm using for my report is called "Making Gay History" by Eric Marcus and I'm halfway through it; while I was reading the requirements for the project, I couldn't help wondering why homosexuals weren't mentioned on the paper. Obviously I understand why, but it reminded me of my belief that equality among race and gender is the same as equality between all sexual orientations. I really hope that one day the Gay Rights Movement will be a part of the curriculum for all history classes and be admired as much as the Civil Rights Movement and Women's Sufferage. If young people are educated on the subject, they will be able to make a more educated decision on their view of homosexuals.

This relates to the "struggle for equality" theme because the GBLT community has a long history of fighting for rights, but it hasn't really gone anywhere. I believe we've gone far since the 50's when it started; however, Congress hasn't passed many of the laws that originally were proposed by activists in the 50's.

MLK "I have a dream"

Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I have a dream" speech relates to the American character and belief system because he talked about what the founders of our country believed in: that all men should be created equal. The allusions and symbols that he used in the speech were very effective because it illustrated what the American people wanted (at least most). Most believed that slavery was bad and change needed to occur to protect the rights of the people. Their peaceful rebellion displayed what Americans are all about: fighting to protect their rights. Martin Luther King Jr. helped African-Americans win their freedom by exercising the right to voice his opinion.