Archive for year: 2015

I thought it was interesting that Sternheimer brought up the idea that childhood and children mean different things to all of us. As a society, we cannot even agree on an age at which childhood begins and ends. Furthermore, everyone experiences childhood differently depending on your social status, living environment, ethnicity, and immigration status. I agree that it is hard to tell wether media is “destroying” childhood, but I also agree that childhood changes from generation to generation. There is more information out there now from when I was younger.

From the stereotypes article, what I found interesting was how students need to learn the difference between generalizations and stereotypes. However, how can someone have a generalized idea about a specific group of people without it being stereotypical? Another thing I found interesting is that we cannot avoid using labels and “without them we wouldn’t be able to communicate about social issues, international relations, or historical events.”

“To prepare rather than protect empowers children to make their own decisions, armed with necessary information.”
How does everyone feel about his idea?

L R Clenots mailed his concerns to congress on May 6^th 1971.  In the letter Clenot’s main concern was to emphasize the importance of ending the war since he had spent a year in Korea  in 1950 and had a horrible experience first hand.  From his tone of voice Clenots lost his faith in government and now trusted and sided with the high school/ college students and their protests to end the war in Vietnam.

In the letter, Clenots states that there were warnings when he arrived in Korea on signs so the U.S. soldiers could see stating that the government and the soldiers should leave.  “Your leaders are wonton War mongers”, “Yankee go home”, ‘I believe them now.’  Clenots was a Veteran from the Korean conflict that saw nothing positive from the war and so when he attended the Madison protest, he saw how the government was indeed a blood thirsty entity that fueled the war being that it dispersed the people using military force and tear gas instead of listening to what they had to say.  This letter is powerful not only in the way that it was worded but also because of the perspective that it was written through.

Clements was resentful in the letter when he realized how blindly he had obeyed and trusted the government, when he was finally able to see through the lying loopholes of politicians like president Nixon at the time having be that he stated, “I have a plan.” This is a valid and reliable source because the author of the article described how the protest when about and the reactions of the protesters as they threw rocks and he even goes about to make a political cartoon showing how sees, “ A man scuffle(s) with an anti-war demonstrator in front of the Madison Federal Building to wrest protest sign away from her.”  This helps give the reader an insight on what Clenots means when he states that he now trusts in the youth and their perspective on the issue of the war because we can see from a 1^st perspective what he lived through and why it is that he felt that day when he mailed that letter in.

Primary Source: Chicago Times – http://archives.chicagotribune.com/1971/05/06/page/2/article/madison-protesters-dispersed

At the end of the passage, Clenot states, “If our government and KKK voters persist in viewing life thru Gallup polls and Closed Circuit Tv, then they deserve what is coming to them.” Clenots has taken a resentful view of the government for its actions and although I don’t believe he meant to harm anyone, I do believe he meant the government might suffer economically in the future since war is expensive.  An article by Access World News, helps explain KKK voter’s views when the secondary source reports having seen a billboard with KKK’s opinion stating, “Help fight integration and communism.”  Clenots states the word Closed Circuit Television in his last paragraph to explain that some supporters of the war like the KKK do not have any idea of what it is like to fight in Vietnam and are supporters only through what they see in their televisions.  In this secondary source, Steve Bonner states that these groups such as the KKK are all just racist individuals who spread their ideologies but have no idea the damage they cause to the troops who land in Vietnam and have to do the actual fighting.

Secondary source:  Access World News –

http://infoweb.newsbank.com.summit.csuci.edu:2048/resources/doc/nb/news/156F0EFF71187F28?p=AWNB

These two articles help explain the ambiguity seen in the letter to congress by LR Clenots for they give eventful insights of what was happening then and there when the letters were mailed in.  Both of these sources are valid and credible because they both come from respected databases.

September 18th, 2015

To my understanding, the The Civil Rights Act in 1964 was basically having equality around the nation no matter race, religion, or sex. I had the opportunity to look through some letters during that time period to Congressmen Harold “Bizz” Johnson. Most of the letters I saw were against military’s and the army spending money to fight against African Americans who were protesting in the streets. Some protests turned into riots and it got to a point where people were killing other people. But some of the letters I came across were high school students interested in the Civil Rights Act. They just wanted to know some information about whats happening in the U.S.

This photo is a simple high school student wanting to know Johnson’s views and knowledge of the Civil Rights Act. This student is “deeply interested” in the civil rights issue which he think is so important.

This photo contains a woman wanting to know why money is spent towards the fight against African Americans. She would like to know some information on why this is happening.

These two photos are intriguing because in my opinion it shows that some Americans had no idea what was happening in there country. And I give credit to this Congressmen because in his letters of reply, he is explaining what is happening and why this act is in play. Maybe some responses are a little general but most are pretty specific.

Struggling with Stereotypes:

This article broke down the different layers that make up a stereotype nicely!

First of all I want to share this music video by Katy Perry, I find the lyrics and the video a stereotype; however, I enjoy it!

In this song, Katy Perry and Snoop Dogg are singing about “California Girls” and how they wear daisy dukes with bikinis!  And how they are toned,  tanned, fit and ready!”

As mush as I like this song, Its a complete stereotype about “California girls.” I was born and raised in California and I don’t believe any girl who I know or am friends with wants to be described by how she wears daisy dukes and how toned and tanned she is. I enjoy the song because like the article mentions, we learn to accept  and sometimes use stereotypes!

“We need to stop categorizing and generalizing about people.”  “Wrong” (p.146).

We all create generalizations about people or things because growing up we learn about people by describing their characteristics. Growing up and going to school with people of many ethnic backgrounds, we find it easy to generalize them because we don’t know enough about them or their culture. I don’t believe it’s a must to go around and try to learn every culture to learn how to describe someone within the culture. However,  I do think its important to know what a bad stereotype is and how to avoid it.