What Does It Mean To Be An American?

Bloggin

We talked yesterday about if segregation can be equal. First off I want to say that I don't agree that if you're a private business owner you can choose who you serve. I think that there is an automatic assumption that if you're business is private, and you don't work for an extension of the government, then you're superior to other people. Just because a business owner owns a private business doesn't mean that he or she is powerful enough to segregate people. Obviously it's a human instinct to strive to be superior to others, but its the government's job to protect everyones rights and keep the equality of all Americans, I think that's the most important part because as long as they give everyone equal rights (literally equal rights/oppurtunities/surroundings), then it will keep a lot of peace throughout the nation I think.

History

I'm having a lot of trouble with this homework because I don't understand most of what the documents are trying to say, mainly because they use so many big words and I can't comprehend it, so when its time to answer the questions, I hardly understood what the document was even about, the only thing I can do is try my best I guess?

Final Project

Today we talked about the final project and I like how we have not that strict of guidelines because I'm so used to getting projects where there are strict instructions and everyone ends up with exactly the same thing, and it doesn't teach us anything. I think I'm going to make this project really really good and save it for college apps, because it gives me a competitive edge and since I was never really good with computers, I really am thankful for Mr B to give us these skills, and my mum is super impressed as well. My dad thinks he's still technologically ahead of me because he just bought a phone with a gps in it...woooooo ......

The 54th Massachusetts Regiment

Today we took notes on how african americans had their own military unit and i think that this was a really good thing for both white and black people because it helped the union in the war, and personally, I'm on the unions side. also, it gave black people more respect from everyone, because they had the oppurtunity to prove to everyone that they are willing to fight for the union as well. this shows the confederacy that black people are trying to keep the union together, that they can be trusted, and that they have opinions on things like this as well.

Groups with the worksheets

Today we got into groups and answered questions about the Gettysburg address. I don't think that Lincoln gave the wrong impression about the soldiers. Lincoln seemed like a good president also because he was very consistent in what his goals were, (to keep the union together and liberty to all) and had his mind set. He frequently refers back to the "apples of gold" or Declaration, which keeps his argument and I thought the speech overall was really impressive.

First Battle Of Civil War

I think that the battle of bull run shouldn't have been considered entertainment. The fact that people came to watch it and have a picnic, just encouraged the fighting even more. It's people like this that get in the way of what's truly important, finding a truce and compromise. I guess they somewhat got what they deserve when they got run over by troops. Also, with all the attention on the fighting, when the soldiers took four days (or something) to march 25 miles, it just took away hope from the people because it looked as though they were a pathetic army, which they kind of were, keeping in mind that they hardly trained prior to the battle.

Abraham Lincoln

Today we wrote a little essay thing on how Abraham used the Declaration of Independence and it's "liberty to all" principle and compared it to the American Union. I think he has a good point because in the declaration, it says, "that they are endowed upon by their Creator, with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness", meaning that everyone has the right to liberty. It also says, "to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men", meaning that the soul purpose of the government is to protect our rights and that "if any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it and to establish new government." So the government was created in order to protect our rights to life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness. If the government fails to do so, it's our job to establish a new government that's fit to secure these ends. He compares this principle to an apple of gold, and that the constitution and the union were made to protect this principle, not the principle to protect us from the constitution and the union. Without the union, we would have minimal protection on our rights to liberty, because the free government we've established would be gone, and the country would be very similar to our mother country, Great Britain, which would be like going back to square one.

David Rice Atchison

Today

The class room was flipped today and I sat in the front and I could read the board better when we were taking notes so it was good. I'm kind of confused about the Fort Sumter thing, I think I missed something in class because I couldn't add everything up between the notes we took yesterday and the notes we took today. I'm planning on asking someone in class about it.

Abraham Lincoln

Although his speeches weren't very good, Abraham Lincoln made an effort to gain the support of the countries citizens, which is obviously really important, since he wasn't very known by most people and didn't even appear on some ballots. I think that he was going to have a hard time settling in as president because that guy's blog seemed to say that he had a lot of people against him, which is not a good way to start off your presidency, and to kick it off with some terrible speeches that disappointed his audience might plant doubts in their minds.

missed yesterday

need notes

Bloggin from Logan...

I decided to blog because I might not get internet in London and I'm actually pretty lucky because my parents know the password for the crew's network because they work here. But today we talked about whether or not slaves are people and I already knew that they weren't considered people, and I think I hate how the Supreme Court let every state be a slave state technically speaking, because it's totally setting the stage for the Civil War. I'm going to try to start that documentary this weekend, but I'm going to be really busy and I don't know if I can find time, because our arrivals 8am then I'm seeing my brother (and his new apartment, in Wimbledon!) And then on sunday taking a HOVERCRAFT to Isle of Wight for my niece's christening. It's okay if you don't believe me, I hardly believe it but it's true, google it

Kansas-Nebraska Act Of 1854

I feel like the Act was made to help settle the dispute between the North and South, but in reality it just ripped America apart even more. New territories were being added, the amount of states that were free, was equal to the amount of states were open to slavery; Uncle Tom's Cabin was already stirring up a lot of emotions around the country. All these factors were obviously going to lead to a war or competition. One of the questions on the homework was, "How were immigrants voting on their feet" (or something like that), and I think that Congress made a mistake passing the Kansas-Nebraska Act because everyone was rushing to move to the new territories to vote, whether it was in favor of becoming a slave state or free state. I just think that the Act was really half-baked.

Snow Day

We're having another snowday and I totally forgot to blog yesterday so I'm doing it today. We talked more about the Mexican War and other stuff, and I just finished my event on Dipity. I had the Election of 1860. I think that the book Uncle Tom's Cabin wasn't a good idea because I think that it kind of helped start the Civil War. Harriet Beecher Stowe made the line between North and South even bolder because it just stirred up more opinions and emotions of those who read the book. If she didn't write it, then maybe things would've cooled off, and the South wouldn't have been so opinionated about Abraham Lincoln, because they suspected that he had the mind set of a Northerner, and they threatened to break off from the Union if Lincoln won the election. I just think that Harriet Beecher Stowe didn't have to stir up all that drama.

Tariffs

I think that Tariffs could act up in the future, because America has become so dependent of foreign goods, and there will always be a demand for them. Its being said that we're in a mini depression right now, and eventually the only thing that the government will be able to do to collect money, is to put taxes on foreign goods. Everyone uses products from a foreign manufacturer each day. We're not self- sufficient enough to become independent from all other countries, so the government knows it's our weak point, and thats where they can bring in the money, so if need be, the government could eventually create another tariff.

Computer Lab

Heres my three step plan on doing the new project.
1. Don't procrastinate.

2. Go to Cafe Di Siena with Hunter and our macs really early in the morning, drink vanilla chai tea lattes, and talk about how mainstream Dispatch has gotten. And use Garage Band and look like total hipsters.

3. Have it ready 3 days before the deadline.

Bloggin'

The midterm was pretty easy because guess what I studied so much and it was just like any other test we've had in that class. I used that flashcardmachine website thing and it really helped i think. the only thing i'm not sure of is if i got the preamble is 100% correct?

blogwarz

Heres another song I remembered about transcendentalism, you have to listen to all the lyrics. It's kinda late but that's okay.



ps feeling pretty good about the history midterm

Class for Friday

In class on Friday, we talked about the articles that we read about. We also talked about the Cult of True Womanhood. And once my dad said that I am a good example of the cult of true womanhood because he walked into the kitchen and i was sweeping the floor and doing dishes but now i know that the COTW is not actually realistic and not many women's lives were actually like that so don't worry

Tuesday's class

I forget what we did, we took notes I think , we're kind of off the topic of transcendentalism but anyways I was on stumbleupon and I stumbled upon a photographer that was paid by some governor or something to take pictures of the Native Americans, seeing the pictures made it seem a lot more real, it was crazy, I wish I still had the link

George Ripley

Nature's Role in Transcendentalism

Today we talked about nature's role in and connection to transcendentalism. I agree that nature is really powerful, in that it's basically the one place you can go, and not be interrupted, and your thoughts are completely innocent and unbiased. If you don't have this state of mind, then what matters? Material objects can't really match up to having this unbiased, independent state of mind. When we listened to the song Big Yellow Taxi, I automatically thought of this song and I never really thought of the lyrics in this way until today, so I think Mr Boyle had a point when he said there are plenty of examples of Transcendentalism today but few people actually take the time to think about what it actually means.

Transcendentalism

today we talked about transcendentalism and i somewhat agree with it because i don't think religions give us the credit that we deserve, they focus too much on how awesome god is, and i think those philosophers had a point because people thought that god was so good, but he was letting a ton of bad things happen, just like always, so they needed to steer away from religion and work on actually achieving stuff with the real world, sorry if thats too controversial for everyone