Wednesday, August 12, 2009
blog 8
I also support Sotomayor as associate Justice of the Supreme court like Shelby. Hanging onto partisan issues, however, does define the values of our country. By letting someone who supports abortion and gun laws into the court, the supreme court defines what our country stands for and what it allows. I think that the Republicans do have point, and that conflict will is inevitable. Sotomayor, however, thrived under the pressure, and won enough votes from the senate.
Sunday, August 2, 2009
The Civil War: It's testament to democracy Stage 7
The American Civil War was a testament to the capabilities of a democracy to endure. In the 1860s, the North, South and West were forced to address issues thrown to the back burner by the writers of the constitution and founders of our nation. As time escalated, the Civil War proved to be the first modern war through it’s refinement of slavery and the rights of states. The people’s approach to politics, adherence to economics, and militaristic principles decided who would win the fight for the integrity of democracy in America.
The Civil War was the first innovative war because of the pride and patriotism coming from the groups of Americans, and their surmounting feud over what would become of the United States of America. The catalyst to the break up of the South from the Union was Lincoln’s election. The secession of the deep South came down to Lincoln’s opinions and purposes being “hostile to slavery”. They formed a similar constitution to the Union except for the reopening of the Atlantic slave trade, abolishing the three-fifths compromise (in order to get more men into congress), and prohibiting the admission of free states to the new Confederacy. The South did not want to disintegrate by staying with the North. The Crittenden Compromise didn’t solve anything because the South wanted slavery in all new territories and to suppress the antislavery agitation in the North. With the firing of Ft. Sumter, war tactics had to be figured out. Lincoln and the North had the upper hand with their population size, industry, and railroads, but the South was the one on the defensive. They only had to defend their territory. The North tried to restrict the capitol at Richmond with the Anaconda Policy from Scott, but they would also have to advance the Mississippi River Valley to isolate Texas, Arkansas, and Louisiana, and clog coastal ports which the South relied on for supplies. As the battles drew out, conscription and drafts were put into place. Inflation gripped each side because of their failure to tax enough to support the costs of war. The south had a certain sense of superiority because of the nature of its society. It was agricultural and the farm boys that knew their way about the land helped tremendously. The North used their self reliance to get ahead though. Their intricate railroads and efficient food efforts enveloped the starving Southerners with their failure to comply to their soldiers needs. It was an extremely groundbreaking war because of the limitations that needed to be settled.
The issues resolved in the War changed the outlook of the U.S. The Emancipation Proclamation charged the way. It set the first steps in 1862 by confiscating slaves of masters that supported the Confederacy. Lincoln was aware of the racial prejudice that existed. He could not resolve all of the issues at once. The Union received more soldiers with the escapes of slaves to get to be free in the Union, which helped them in their win. The Emancipation Proclamation accelerated the disintegration of the slave practice. The Thirteenth Amendment also proved a profound result. It barely passed in the house, but it did. The Union cause and freedom of blacks had united. Not only did the War outline slavery, but women’s rights. In the North, women paved the way as nurses and fundraised profits towards the benefit of the War. They enforced cleanliness at army camps. Clara Barton became the founder of the Red Cross. They organized new roles in society to take over for the men fighting. Women of the South had to run plantations. They were forced to reconstruct the South and take initiative at the end of the War. Although, the greatest advancement came for the African Americans and the decisions left to be made concerning their impending freedom. Immigrants fought and died in the War and gained a spot of respect. The government decided that the federal aspects had a broad grant of constitutional authority over general welfare. Appottomax killed the state sovereignty once practiced by the South. Economic development was now more closely related with the ideas of federal powers. Private enterprise now had ties to the federal government. An organization revolution took place with the new sense of reaching beyond state lines. As a whole, the Civil War worked out major parts of the issues left unresolved by the constitution.
Because of the persistence of all sides and the questions of unity needed to define the outcome of the U.S., the Civil War resulted in the attainment of new rights to further envelop the portrayal of the United States as One.
The Civil War was the first innovative war because of the pride and patriotism coming from the groups of Americans, and their surmounting feud over what would become of the United States of America. The catalyst to the break up of the South from the Union was Lincoln’s election. The secession of the deep South came down to Lincoln’s opinions and purposes being “hostile to slavery”. They formed a similar constitution to the Union except for the reopening of the Atlantic slave trade, abolishing the three-fifths compromise (in order to get more men into congress), and prohibiting the admission of free states to the new Confederacy. The South did not want to disintegrate by staying with the North. The Crittenden Compromise didn’t solve anything because the South wanted slavery in all new territories and to suppress the antislavery agitation in the North. With the firing of Ft. Sumter, war tactics had to be figured out. Lincoln and the North had the upper hand with their population size, industry, and railroads, but the South was the one on the defensive. They only had to defend their territory. The North tried to restrict the capitol at Richmond with the Anaconda Policy from Scott, but they would also have to advance the Mississippi River Valley to isolate Texas, Arkansas, and Louisiana, and clog coastal ports which the South relied on for supplies. As the battles drew out, conscription and drafts were put into place. Inflation gripped each side because of their failure to tax enough to support the costs of war. The south had a certain sense of superiority because of the nature of its society. It was agricultural and the farm boys that knew their way about the land helped tremendously. The North used their self reliance to get ahead though. Their intricate railroads and efficient food efforts enveloped the starving Southerners with their failure to comply to their soldiers needs. It was an extremely groundbreaking war because of the limitations that needed to be settled.
The issues resolved in the War changed the outlook of the U.S. The Emancipation Proclamation charged the way. It set the first steps in 1862 by confiscating slaves of masters that supported the Confederacy. Lincoln was aware of the racial prejudice that existed. He could not resolve all of the issues at once. The Union received more soldiers with the escapes of slaves to get to be free in the Union, which helped them in their win. The Emancipation Proclamation accelerated the disintegration of the slave practice. The Thirteenth Amendment also proved a profound result. It barely passed in the house, but it did. The Union cause and freedom of blacks had united. Not only did the War outline slavery, but women’s rights. In the North, women paved the way as nurses and fundraised profits towards the benefit of the War. They enforced cleanliness at army camps. Clara Barton became the founder of the Red Cross. They organized new roles in society to take over for the men fighting. Women of the South had to run plantations. They were forced to reconstruct the South and take initiative at the end of the War. Although, the greatest advancement came for the African Americans and the decisions left to be made concerning their impending freedom. Immigrants fought and died in the War and gained a spot of respect. The government decided that the federal aspects had a broad grant of constitutional authority over general welfare. Appottomax killed the state sovereignty once practiced by the South. Economic development was now more closely related with the ideas of federal powers. Private enterprise now had ties to the federal government. An organization revolution took place with the new sense of reaching beyond state lines. As a whole, the Civil War worked out major parts of the issues left unresolved by the constitution.
Because of the persistence of all sides and the questions of unity needed to define the outcome of the U.S., the Civil War resulted in the attainment of new rights to further envelop the portrayal of the United States as One.
Comments on Shelby's Blog: Racism being Mended
I enjoyed reading this commentary on a political subject because of the obvious issues it brings up. Shelby points out that races are defined differently in different situations and cultures. In America, I am afraid that we define mainly by looks, or assumptions. For example, our President is African American, but in actuality is half white. He looks black. This brings up the disturbing reality that we are defined by our physical characteristics. When asked to put down a race before taking a standardized test, it just puts a definition on our identities. I find it funny that on passport applications they ask us about physical appearance and what our race is, or at least how our country defines it as. Passports are used for international travel, and other countries have different races
On college applications we are asked what our race is, but not anything about our personalities. It is unfair that we are not just evaluated by the people that we are apart from our physical attributes. It is unfair that some are discriminated against for the color of their skin.
I appreciate what Obama is doing because he is trying to mend our nation’s past history of racial aggression and prejudice. He is taking it one beer at a time, and trying his best. He is a living testament to change.
On college applications we are asked what our race is, but not anything about our personalities. It is unfair that we are not just evaluated by the people that we are apart from our physical attributes. It is unfair that some are discriminated against for the color of their skin.
I appreciate what Obama is doing because he is trying to mend our nation’s past history of racial aggression and prejudice. He is taking it one beer at a time, and trying his best. He is a living testament to change.
Thursday, July 30, 2009
Blog Stage 5
The U.S. Government’s policy towards Native American tribes in the West from 1850 to 1934 was progressively harmful because of the intense pressure to transition into the white culture through forces of violence and land refinement. The Americans were greedy with thoughts of instant wealth with mineral findings and the desire to control a manifest destiny, and the Native Americans stood in their way.
The gruesome fighting that pushed Native Americans out of their designated territories was unjust and the government supported it. The Native Americans had been forced out of their homes once already in the East under President Jackson, and government actions like the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 only made matters more difficult. The Indians had to deal with the carving out of a new state for free blacks for white reformers, but why weren’t the reformers helping the Indians instead of hurting them by taking their land? At the battle of Sand Creek in 1864, the forced surrender of Chief Black Kettle left a massacre. The Native Americans were killed and murdered whether they were men, women or children. The government still made them give up the Sand Creek Reservation despite the tragedy and the supposed “unfairness” they found in it under investigation. More disputes came with the miners desperate for riches. The Sioux sought justice with the Sioux Wars from 1865 to 1867, and lured the army column of William Fetterman into the woods and killed them. The government had enabled the Bozeman Trail for the gold diggers right through the middle of their hunting grounds, and they caught the army flank off guard. This was seen as much bigger event because white men were killed, even though it was less than half of the Indians killed at the Sand Creek Massacre. The U.S. Army came back and crushed the Native Americans in the Red River War of 1874-1875. The Indians were trying to defend their land. The Battle of Little Big Horn was not a massacre of white men, but a compulsively planned act by Custer. Custer wanted to march in and kill the Sioux, but he didn’t know their numbers, and out of defense the 2500 warriors fought back and killed him along with his 265 men. In 1877 the Nez Perce under Chief Joseph were trying to relocate to Canada, but were caught and sent to Oklahoma when their supplies had run out. The innocence taken in the Ghost Dance Movement is quite repulsive. The army intervened on a luck dance of the Native Americans and began shooting at Wounded Knee Creek in 1890. The irreverence of the violence enacted by the government and its army upon Native Americans was ruthless because of the superiority they thought they were entitled.
The policies the Government thrashed upon the Native Americans in order to get more land was vengeful. Once the Indian Intercourse Act of 1834 was gone, the U.S. encouraged white settlers to move west for new opportunities. Horace Greeley claimed you would crowd “nobody” by moving into the territory, but he forgot that the Native Americans counted as somebody. His words pushed the Civil War uprisings that headed West out to California and Oregon. In order to clear the way for settlement, the “One Big Reservation” was ablolished. Tribes in 1851 were assigned different territories with the Reservation Plan. The Concentration Policy didn’t work because the Indians needed to “hunt widely” for the buffalo in order to survive. In 1867, the Peace Commissioners tried to abolish resistance from the Sioux Wars with the isolated small reservations. These would gradually push the white man’s culture on the Indians by teaching them farming and “civilizing” them. The Indians were put into two areas, which were both the least desirable parts of the Great Plains. If they did not obey, they would be “killed of” an army commander once said. This encroachment upon a human’s rights was truly stepping into the boundary of genocide. As the 1870s and 1880s rolled around, the goal of the U.S. Government was to eradicate tribal society and “assimilate” the Native Americans. Congress ended treaty practice in 1871 which gave the Indians no more voice in their futures. The Chiefs were weakened, and in 1882, the Court of Indian Offenses was made to have Indians answer in court. Indian schools such as the Carlisle Indian School in Pennsylvania were made to strip the Native Americans of their culture. The Government continued to push for the Native Americans to become like white people with the passing of the Dawes Severalty Act of 1887. It’s aim was to give land to the Indians in order to establish the “white society” criteria. U.S. Citizenship for all Native Americans was not passed unless the Indian had taken to owning land and abandoning tribal life. The prime land of the Dawes Act was given to the white men anyways in the end. The reality of the U.S. Governments power came in the end with the loss of buffalo on their precious land. The buffalo were the Indians prime resource, and now there weren’t enough left to live off of, thus they had to turn to farming to keep on living. Native Americans were hurt even more when the Burke Act of 1906 came. The act allowed the infringement of land from white people onto the Native American land from the Dawes Act if they were seen as “incompetent”. “Incompetent” was never truly defined, thus they could be kicked off of their land for no reason other than being Native American. The tyranny of the U.S. Government policies towards the Native Americans concerning land and well being were supremacist and one sided in favor of the white Americans.
The brutality of the U.S. Government through its army fighting and land acquisitions in the period of 1850-1934 in the West made the Native Americans suppressed into a new lifestyle that was unwanted. The Government compelled the Native Americans, giving them no choice but to follow the white culture.
Today I choose to beg the question if this is still true? Does the white culture dominate, or has that changed with the election of Barack Obama?? I think that change is gradual...but how far have we really come over the years since the West was won? The government is very influential in the way it leads and who leads it.
The gruesome fighting that pushed Native Americans out of their designated territories was unjust and the government supported it. The Native Americans had been forced out of their homes once already in the East under President Jackson, and government actions like the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 only made matters more difficult. The Indians had to deal with the carving out of a new state for free blacks for white reformers, but why weren’t the reformers helping the Indians instead of hurting them by taking their land? At the battle of Sand Creek in 1864, the forced surrender of Chief Black Kettle left a massacre. The Native Americans were killed and murdered whether they were men, women or children. The government still made them give up the Sand Creek Reservation despite the tragedy and the supposed “unfairness” they found in it under investigation. More disputes came with the miners desperate for riches. The Sioux sought justice with the Sioux Wars from 1865 to 1867, and lured the army column of William Fetterman into the woods and killed them. The government had enabled the Bozeman Trail for the gold diggers right through the middle of their hunting grounds, and they caught the army flank off guard. This was seen as much bigger event because white men were killed, even though it was less than half of the Indians killed at the Sand Creek Massacre. The U.S. Army came back and crushed the Native Americans in the Red River War of 1874-1875. The Indians were trying to defend their land. The Battle of Little Big Horn was not a massacre of white men, but a compulsively planned act by Custer. Custer wanted to march in and kill the Sioux, but he didn’t know their numbers, and out of defense the 2500 warriors fought back and killed him along with his 265 men. In 1877 the Nez Perce under Chief Joseph were trying to relocate to Canada, but were caught and sent to Oklahoma when their supplies had run out. The innocence taken in the Ghost Dance Movement is quite repulsive. The army intervened on a luck dance of the Native Americans and began shooting at Wounded Knee Creek in 1890. The irreverence of the violence enacted by the government and its army upon Native Americans was ruthless because of the superiority they thought they were entitled.
The policies the Government thrashed upon the Native Americans in order to get more land was vengeful. Once the Indian Intercourse Act of 1834 was gone, the U.S. encouraged white settlers to move west for new opportunities. Horace Greeley claimed you would crowd “nobody” by moving into the territory, but he forgot that the Native Americans counted as somebody. His words pushed the Civil War uprisings that headed West out to California and Oregon. In order to clear the way for settlement, the “One Big Reservation” was ablolished. Tribes in 1851 were assigned different territories with the Reservation Plan. The Concentration Policy didn’t work because the Indians needed to “hunt widely” for the buffalo in order to survive. In 1867, the Peace Commissioners tried to abolish resistance from the Sioux Wars with the isolated small reservations. These would gradually push the white man’s culture on the Indians by teaching them farming and “civilizing” them. The Indians were put into two areas, which were both the least desirable parts of the Great Plains. If they did not obey, they would be “killed of” an army commander once said. This encroachment upon a human’s rights was truly stepping into the boundary of genocide. As the 1870s and 1880s rolled around, the goal of the U.S. Government was to eradicate tribal society and “assimilate” the Native Americans. Congress ended treaty practice in 1871 which gave the Indians no more voice in their futures. The Chiefs were weakened, and in 1882, the Court of Indian Offenses was made to have Indians answer in court. Indian schools such as the Carlisle Indian School in Pennsylvania were made to strip the Native Americans of their culture. The Government continued to push for the Native Americans to become like white people with the passing of the Dawes Severalty Act of 1887. It’s aim was to give land to the Indians in order to establish the “white society” criteria. U.S. Citizenship for all Native Americans was not passed unless the Indian had taken to owning land and abandoning tribal life. The prime land of the Dawes Act was given to the white men anyways in the end. The reality of the U.S. Governments power came in the end with the loss of buffalo on their precious land. The buffalo were the Indians prime resource, and now there weren’t enough left to live off of, thus they had to turn to farming to keep on living. Native Americans were hurt even more when the Burke Act of 1906 came. The act allowed the infringement of land from white people onto the Native American land from the Dawes Act if they were seen as “incompetent”. “Incompetent” was never truly defined, thus they could be kicked off of their land for no reason other than being Native American. The tyranny of the U.S. Government policies towards the Native Americans concerning land and well being were supremacist and one sided in favor of the white Americans.
The brutality of the U.S. Government through its army fighting and land acquisitions in the period of 1850-1934 in the West made the Native Americans suppressed into a new lifestyle that was unwanted. The Government compelled the Native Americans, giving them no choice but to follow the white culture.
Today I choose to beg the question if this is still true? Does the white culture dominate, or has that changed with the election of Barack Obama?? I think that change is gradual...but how far have we really come over the years since the West was won? The government is very influential in the way it leads and who leads it.
Thursday, July 16, 2009
Opinions on Obama's Healthcare plan
This is an interesting article on the views of Obama's new health plan because it shows how the Senate is reacting to his plan. The House Democrats plan makes provisions for every person to get health insurance in the nation, and it also would provide for families that financial assistance in meeting these measures. The Senate is still working on their plan for healthcare reforms. Obama wants the 50 million uninsured Americans to be insured by the fall, and he wants to slow the rate of insurance increasing. I think that this plan is alright, but where will the money come from? We are already in a recession and lots of people are still being laid off. Do we really have the funds to supply this to all of those uninsured Americans? I don't think so. I think that we should target the lowest income level first to be insured, and test the waters with that. Then if it goes well, we can add others to the insurance plan. It would also allow more time to get funds.
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