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I found it interesting that these articles seemed to be focused on how negatively media can affect children and teens. These articles make me support media literacy even more especially for elementary and secondary school youth.

The Core Concepts: Fundamentals to Media Literacy:

The age of new technology is not where it began, the importance of media literacy in this article went back to t he 1930’s were Jean Pierre Golay experienced the Nazi Propaganda in Switzerland. When becoming a teacher twenty years later Golay applied the importance “to look around, listen, question, discuss and take time to think.” Media education for her was nothing if it was not an education for life. I believe that what goes on around us plays a huge role on who we are and who we then become. Having the fundamentals of media literacy can help us understand our surroundings by listening better and questioning the unknown.

Children as Consumers:

Advertising to children goes beyond what anyone can see.  The advertising for children on television is not limited to  junk foods and toys. Advertisements also affects adults by influencing them to purchase the newest Minivan and the SUV for children to have more space while in the car. As seen on television the perfect family owns a large car with space to fit children and their toys, this may be the reason why the Minivan is usually the ideal family  car. It’s  incredible to see how advertisements can affect the purchasing power for parents. For example, candy and sweets are put on stands in stores at eye level of children. I was not aware of how much thought is put into these advertisements, the color of the packaging for candy? I wasn’t surprised.

University of Michigan Health System Your Child:

    Its a shame to know that children’s television programs play a huge role on their view about human beings. Children are spending too much time watching T.V, they are learning to accept stereotypes. They learn from the programs they watch  on T.V,  the roles males and females have in society and how the African American teen is usually the perpetrator of the crime.  Why are we allowing this is happen? I believe media literacy can help promote a better understanding for the different roles many can play in society and how stereotypes are simply a stereotype especially for the youth with developing minds.

A second take at my Original analysis

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The documents I choose were a comic scrip as well as a Political Cartoon  both giving a lighter and a less serious sense of the war. The political cartoon depicts a caricature of President Richard Nixon holding up a shield labeled the cause, while five other nights titled; Southern Conservatives, New Media & Intellectuals, New Left Fanatics, Kennedy Hard Core, and McCarthy Fringe as well as other unnamed knights. These Five knights have all drawn their swords and have cornered President Nixon at the Lake Duck Tree leaving him with no place to run. When you first see this Political Cartoon it has a strong meaning towards the war but it is not very serious. In the picture President Nixon’s nose is exaggerated, which is very funny and may be done since it was done in October 1968 and was not very popular and since in the picture he is literally the bad guy but none the less is very comical. It is also no coincidence the Southern Conservative’s Knight slightly resembles a Ku Klux Klan Member, with a white rounded helmet but this same helmet has a white point and a whites sheet going down the back where its written, “Southern Conservatives”. IN addition the helmet if you look closely covers the knight’s face, so the artist drawing a White Knight which is another term associated with the KKK has slide in a reminder of who these people and that even they want the war ended. After watching the Documentary (The Sixties – The Years That Shaped a Generation) it helped put actual faces to groups like the “New Left Fanatics” as well as “News Media” and “Intellectuals”. Seeing people frustrated and struggle to be heard as well as see protesters from these movement attacked beaten and killed shows that they were actual fighters and were willing to stand up for what they believed in. To put it plain and simple the generation during the sixties had a strong backbone on both sides this political cartoon is arcuate about the fighting they did for their beliefs. They were the knights of America, Fighting for a cause greater than themselves to better the country as a whole, a truly noble cause that this image portrays of the people in the sixties. Both the document and the video are talking about President Richard Nixon and that he wasn’t too popular. But the video unlike the Political Cartoon fails to elaborate on why, which would mainly be the Vietnam War, Pentagon Papers that were leaked after wards, and finally the Watergate. When he continued the war after knowing how the countries feelings toward the war was a major strike against him. By the time he had taken office the war had been going on for 14 years and the sentiment given by the majority of Americans was to leave the war yet he continued on the fight. But things only got worse when, the Pentagon papers were leaked showing that he had expanded the war (specially bombing) to Cambodia  and Laos as well as attacks on North Vietnam, and Marine Corps random attacks on villages. President Nixon then sent house “Plumbers” to discredit and stop the leak of the papers. But the final nail in the coffin was Water Gate. The same plumbers were ordered by President Nixon to break into the Democratic National Committee (DNC) headquarters at the Watergate office complex in Washington, D.C. and President Richard Nixon’s administrations attempted to cover-up the serious crime, he then quit in fear of impeachment. With the new information I have I can understand more clearly why a lot of Bizz Johnson‘s response were generic and were written in a way to protect himself politically with all the change going on in and out of the country. I wouldn’t say anything to incriminate myself with how hot America was with civil right, Vietnam, President Nixon, and much more.

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Vietnam War

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At the beginning, when we were informed that the class would be looking at letters from the 60’s, I wasn’t really interested. I thought to myself that it was just the beginning of something so dull and boring. I didn.t know it was going to be about the Vietnam War. I had little knowledge of the war and its outcome. I never liked history so anything I was I taught, I forgot.

The Vietnam War occurred during the years 1955 – 1975. The conflict started because North Vietnam and South Vietnam, also known as (Viet Congo) were fighting to free Vietnam from being communists. North Vietnam was supported by Soviet Union, China, and other communist allies. South Vietnam was supported by The United States, Philippines, and other anti-communist. At the beginning the citizens from the United States were in favor for the war to continue, but after they realized it was taking quite some time they started to rebel.

The first lecture of University 198, Professor Matt and Professor Sean gave the class the honor to read letters of citizens’ reactions about the Vietnam War. When I started to read the letters that citizens were sending to the congressmen I found myself attached to some. One that really caught my attention was a postcard sent by a woman pleading she wanted her son back. Her name was Betty Wellengak. It caught my attention because my brother has always wanted to go to the military but my mom refuses to accept his decision. He’s the only male sibling out of 4 females so I can see why my mom disagrees with his decision. My mother always says that it will break her heart to find out that her son has passed away. She always says, “A heart of a mother is based upon their children. If something ever happens to one of them a piece of their heart is ripped off.” I still don’t understand the pain of being a mother or how it feels to lose a son/daughter. But I see where my mother is coming from.

Another important thing that caught my attention was a quote the mother stated. She said, “Killing in the name of peace does not make anyone less dead.” This quote intrigued me because a lot of lives were going to be lost and no one was going to be able to replace them.

Doing this research, reading quite a number of letters, and watching the documentary made me understand the real meaning of history. I always thought that history was boring but I can actually admit that I’m getting interested and would like to do more research relating to it.

Self-Awareness in the Sixties

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To me, this document represented the notions of imperialism, patriotism, and a tinge of the hysteria of the Red Scare. The words of these citizens reflected the more conservative side of society at the time, who desired a image (1)stalwart stance regarding foreign forces; in short, they wanted to maintain the appearance of the strongest country in the world. However, though that idea seemingly remains true, our position in the war was not reflective of that. My research into the many letters foreshadowed this outcome clearly – those voices in this letter are the minority. The passion of the people was instrumental in the conclusive treaty.

But it was not always thus. During the start of the war (the war against Communism, not Vietnam in particular) people possessed a great fervor against like these people; had the letter been a decade prior, the letters sent to Harold T. “Bizz” Johnson would have likely been more similar to this one. Upon further investigation, it was clear that people were very afraid of this ambiguous force that they were told threatened their intrinsic way of life. They did not know what it was – they merely had the understanding that it was different and therefore evil. Especially after the events of World War II, in which the United States gained a sense of entitlement as the caretakers of the world did any other perspective seem flawed and inefficient. The people trusted their government, and they trusted the ideals that their country stood for; however, though some people stayed loyal to their nation’s perceived stature, the 1960’s shook that notion, and letters like the one above would become the minority in the sea of new consciousness.

The documentary, The Sixties: The Years that Shaped a Generation, helped to shed light on why such a shift occurred. The movements of Civil Rights and free love marked the pivotal moments of this transition; people had begun this march towards acceptance. The citizens of the United States were now a very proud people, who felt they possessed the strongest sense of right and wrong. This notion would galvanize the people in rebellion to the war, which they felt reneged this right and did not reflect their country’s true ambition – or more so that it did reflect their country’s ambition, and they were in full disapproval of this misplaced charisma. The war against Communism began knowingly to the public, but Vietnam, to the masses, was a different concept entirely. Some called it a war of ignorance, for the only thought that came to them for reasons being in the war was “why?” The people were outraged at the idea of their country being involved in something so ignorant and violent, and they had begun to question the authority of the government due to that shift in consciousness.

There was a segment of the population who stood by the war, simply because they did not want to look weak in the eyes of the world – especially not in the eyes of Communism. Those who stood by the war also had a great disapproval for the rising “anti-culture,” as the documentary put it, which created a great divide amongst the people. My opinion on this document or congressman Bizz Johnson has not shifted during my research. The idea behind the document remains true, simply my understanding of its intentions have grown, as have the world surrounding those intentions. The sheer amount of ignorance people possessed about the war was unbeknownst to me, and to understand just how pointless the war was is baffling. It has become clear that this ignorance was not of out stupidity, either. The notions of the protestors came from the solid basis of the Civil Rights movement and free love – it is actually quite surprising the war lasted as long as it did. I do believe that these notions have left an indelible effect on the country, and have left the United States with a more thoughtful people, for the better.

The Sixties

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The sixties were a revolutionary time for civil rights and the US as a whole. Johnson ordered the Vietnam war, with the American citizens later learning that the Johnson administration had lied about the attack in Vietnam. The Vietnam war was the first ever war to be televised and US citizens finally understood the brutality of war and it was not such an unrealistic idea anymore. Martin Luther King Jr. was the face of the African American civil rights movement with the Black Panther’s backing society to discuss issues openly for the first time in the United States.

 

During Johnson’s election he made many promises about peace and then took another path when he announced that we should go to war with Vietnam. Once in office he declared war on Vietnam but the people later found out that Johnson’s reason for war was false. He dominated the war and the direction it was going, starting with sending troops against their will. Once citizens started seeing the war on TV for the first time they became hesitant and started writing letters to Congress to end it. Johnson basically started the war, and then Kennedy took over but was shorty assonated.

 

The sixties were a time of hope and the people thought that anything was possible with such influential leaders like Kennedy and Martin Luther King. But after both of their deaths it turned into one of the most depressing times in history. People started to oppose the war and became voiced their opinions for the first time. The Black Panther’s encouraged the people to speak their minds and get it across to the administration. As a result of this, the first activists started to come about in history; people were now willing to fight for their beliefs.

 

People were finally using the expression, “I’m black and I’m proud” with meaning. The King influenced both the white and African American crowds with his charisma and integrity throughout the civil rights revolution. He was an example to the people that difficult issues could be handled without violence and they started to see no need for war. Peace came through the nation and with it came the hippies and drugs, lots of sex, music, and experiments.

 

Overall the sixties were a time were there was endless possibilities and people started to fight for their passions and beliefs. Although there was lots of violence in the way society treated the Vietnam veterans and the African American movement, the people also learned about peace.

 

 

The 1960’s

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Andrew Hauffen

September 11, 2015

 

Freedom, heartache, peace, destruction, bloodshed, hate and hope were some key characteristics in the 1960’s in America. In the beginning of the Vietnam War Lyndon B. Johnson was the President at the time and I feel some of the actions were absurd. He had all the power in sending troops against their will to risk their lives in South East Asia. In the beginning of the war the American people were all for it. After it being publicized greatly, society showed many strong opinions to pursue actions in peace and violence. Witnessing all the bloodshed and killing, people in America created movements against the war. This fascinated me because people during that time period did not care about the consequences of starting riots and creating revolutions.

I would have loved to live in the sixties to create a non-violence movement. Having a care free life revolving around music and experimenting things I have never done would have been amazing. Also sending a message to the government about all the troops who are being sent against their will would have made me feel like a leader. Being that person that everyone looks up to will be pretty awesome.

One of the most tragic times in the sixties is when Martin Luther King Jr. was murdered. After all of the civil rights movements he had done and all the people he inspired were gone in an instant. It still haunts me to think that there are people in this world that are capable of killing a person in cold blood because of different views on certain topics. After the assassination of Martin Luther King, most people felt that anything could happen. Anyone could start a civil rights movement, a riot, or a revolution. Society was free-willed and can create anything if they set their mind to it with the right motivation.

In the video, what shocked me the most was seeing people kill others like it was nothing. Watching a person getting shot in the head because there was suspicion of that individual being a communist really disgusted me. I had no clue a person was capable of shooting a human being in the head at close range and not even considering maybe he was innocent. I feel that sending Americans overseas at the time knowing they most likely will die is not right what so ever. Taking them away from seeing their families against their will would make me really frustrated at the government in that time period.

The 60’s

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The sixties and seventies were known as the era of lost innocence. It was a time when society opened their eyes and woke up to reality of what was going on around them. It was the beginning of a racial revolution, rise of anti-authority, and of course the all to well-known Vietnam War. Martin Luther King Jr. would lead the way in the revolution of equal rights for people of color. His motivation through action and speeches encouraged the people that it was okay to stand up for what you believed in and not to back down. Through his encouragement for change came the black panthers. Which was a group organized of African Americans to help lead the way in change and bring further support to the communities. It was led by a very well educated law student named Huey P. Newton and street smarts Bobby Seal. Together they rallied the communities and started a revolution. This is what had started the change that happened in people’s minds.
Then the Vietnam War would start, which would soon over shadow the struggle that was happening among Americans. In the beginning of the war Americans were all for it and were ready to give their all to war efforts. After watching years pass by and seeing no result they began to question what the point of the war was and why our troops were still there. The Vietnam War being the first every televised war is what also had a major key factor in American retaliating to war. They had the ability to watch what was happening in the midst of battles, they saw their loved ones being injured and killed. Being able to watch these tragic scenes encouraged the people to rise up and question the intention behind this war. Many of the people would join together and fight for peace and to end the war. This being the era of hippies (“peace not war”) many Americans resisted their movement because of their involvement in drugs and speaking though music. Hippies believed in peaceful protest gathering by the hundreds to stand outside and just show in number how much they wanted the war to end.
Soon the average American saw that the hippies had the right idea which is when I believe they took to writing Bizz Johnson. Woman and men took to pen and paper and expressed their discern for the war. For example the letter I read in class was from a man named John Jaekal who wanted to know what care our wounded soldiers would receive when they returned home. He stated how we spent millions on weapons and air strikes but none on the people controlling the weapons and fighting the war. One of the very apparent things about the war that affected the soldiers was the mental state they came home in. Many of the people didn’t know how to react to the soldiers when the returned home. Often times they were treated as outsiders because they had PTSD from the brutal war. The people didn’t know how to react to this; I still believe to this day this is an issue we deal with.
The sixties and seventies were a time of revolution. I believe this is when America finally woke up to the issues in our own country. Martin Luther King Jr. and the black panthers led the way to social acceptance in the rise against authority, when the racial revolution took place. The hippies carried it out by wanting to end the Vietnam War with peace and love. If I was in this time period I would have been a hippie trying to fight for the soldiers to come home and fighting for their health. All in all reading over the document and watching the documentaries made it real that we are capable of rising up to fight for change. In today’s society I feel like we just wouldn’t be able to do those sorts of things because people are so self-centered within each other.

The 60’s in a primary source

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Growing up, students are taught about the general ideas and points made in history throughout the decades. In reality, what we’re being taught is based upon what the government wants us to know but in fact, these decades are full of so many interesting facts and moments in time that history books don’t tend to elaborate on. Growing up in the 60’s seemed like quite the time to be alive, whether good or bad there was always history being made. Ive never truly known much about this era in time until now. This video truly opened my eyes to a whole new view on this time in the United States.

One of my favorite topics on this video had to be about Muhammad Ali, a world famous boxer. Born as Cassius Marcellus Clay Jr., He was responsible for being one of the greatest heavyweight boxers in history. Although he had his reign, he had quite a future ahead of him. No one knows him as just a world famous boxer but for the time he did as well. He started training as a young boy and at the age of 22 was titled the world heavyweight champion. He was later found guilty on draft evasion charges. It was quite interesting to learn about, He was stripped from his title but later his conviction was overturned.

The next subject that caught my interested was the story of the black panthers. It’s crazy to think about how people were so afraid of the government of the world, of each other that they felt they needed to create a defense for themselves. This really wasn’t a topic that i knew much about but it sure is a crazy one. They were fighting for revolutionary socialism.The black panthers were big believers and followers of Marxism. The panthers later gained somewhat of a worse title after their minister Huey Newton was arrested for murdering a state police officer. A large turn in the world of the panthers was when 17 year-old Bobby Hutton was shot dead. Robert Kennedy soon recognized the minorities issues and felt very sympathetic for them.

The biggest of all the different events that happened in the 60’s had to be the Vietnam war. The decision to continue to put our troops in a war skewered the minds of many citizens. It seemed that at the very beginning, when they first made the decision the majority of people were for it. As the years passed, many uprisings began like the Kent state shooting. There was a mass protest, peaceful protest but the police came in and opened fire leaving four people dead. The “civilians” of the country did not feel safe in their own homes, or even in their own communities. I reflect back on those letters that I read that were addressed to “bizz” Johnson. There were families writing him to let him know that even their own sons and daughters felt safer stationed out in Vietnam than they would in their own homes.

Overall I felt that the 60’s were quite a difficult time to live in. Although there were many good things about it like the music and entertainment, there were definitely bad moments in history far worse than anyone could truly comprehend. I think about what it wouldve felt like to live in a time like that. What it felt like to feel as if you couldnt peacefully express your opinions without being assaulted. The moment that as a country, whether they have military family members or not people worried for their troops. The moment that as a country you feel united. It may not have been one of the best moments in history but that time period proved so much to us and taught me even more.  

Hazy Lies

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untitledThe Sixties rang through the country and through the world, it ushered in skepticism and rebellion throughout the nation. Citizens began to revolutionize within themselves and realize that the government was not what it seemed to be. The lies the government told the public began to crumble in the late sixties, early seventies, the public no longer wanted to fight war that seemed to have no end game or real benefit. Women no longer conformed with the outdated social institutions placed upon them and African- Americans were fed up with the way the government turned a blind eye towards the police brutality inflicted on them.
The letter I read that was sent to Harold “ Biz” Johnson’s was written in the late 60’s, among the time when political protests were becoming more prevalent. When I first read the document I was inclined to think that the author of the letter was a more eclectic protester but as I watched “The Sixties” I realized that the author of the letter was the beginning of a wave of citizens writing letters to their elected officials asking why our soldiers were fighting an unwinnable war. However, the government’s involvement with the war or rather their lack of transparency during the war that led protesters to revolutionize against the government prompted me to see Mr. Johnson in a new light, citizens were being lied to and were desperate for answers yet the government did not think it was in their best interest to be truthful. I realize now why the author of the letter to Mr. Johnson was vague; when the letter was written the public was still unaware of many incriminating factors about the United States military and how a war with no real end game could have been prevented.
President John F. Kennedy was and is still seen as one of the agreeable imagesQZDW6Y5Bpresident’s but even President Kennedy was at fault for giving the Department of Defense carte blanche, it did not help though the the next president, Lyndon B. Johnson, did not reign in the Department of Defense but in fact gave them more leverage. The way the Vietnam War was handled drastically skewed the outcome in the wrong direction. The war lasted over a decade and killed thousands of people on both sides, the letters written to Harold T.Johnson exemplify the mixed feelings the public was having at the time, most letters spoke about the war as a bad dream that needed to end. The sixties brought in revolutionary political groups and an era of unconformity for the people, women and men alike no longer blindly believed what the media and government decided to let the public know.

Reflection on a Primary Document

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In my history classes in high school I only learned about basic dates and events, teachers never told students the whole story. That is why historic events never fascinated me, I was given dates, what the name of the event was, and why it was important to U.S history. Now it is different, I don’t sit in class for an hour just listening to the teacher talk about the historic event and have the information go in through one ear and go out the other. My professors don’t simply talk the whole class time, they talk for a little and then give us time to do some research on our own. I find this more helpful because I’m not being told about it, I’m reading about it, researching the topic, or like this instance I watched a documentary. In the documentary, The Sixties: The Years That Shaped The Generation, was about all the historical events in the sixties. Not only was it filled with a lot of information but it also contained old videos of people talking about the events and pictures to go with it as well.

While watching the documentary the one things that caught my attention the most was Black Panthers. They were one of the few organizations that had attempted to organize and advance the interest of black communities. In the sixties, was the time where discrimination was a big factor in life. If you were of color many whites looked down upon you. Not many white people were aware that most of the US soldiers were african american. There were fewer whites in the US army because they would not join unless they were being forced too. Usually the African Americans were the ones being drafted.

Black Panthers Party were a manifestation of America’s growing frustration, Black communities were furious. The first city to start shootings was Watts in 1965, then it was New York, New Jersey on July 11, 1967 where the streets were being lit on fire, the following week there was nothing but chaos and destruction in Detroit. Its shocking how President Johnson didn’t do anything to stop it until the chaos in Detroit. Maybe if he would have acted sooner the fires in New Jersey wouldn’t have happened and neither would the chaos in Detroit. Johnson sent in nearly 5,000 federal troops but they had unloaded weapons and somehow 43 citizens died and 33 of them were African Americans. It is heartbreaking how many people died that night especially knowing that the troops went into Detroit with unloaded weapons.

America had a massive commitment to end racism but they feared that the Vietnam War would overshadow the war on poverty. Soon the war moved into Japan but most people believed that the war with Vietnam was to preserve independence of south vietnam. Only that wasn’t true, the U.S troops were sent to Vietnam to prevent the control of South Vietnam from North Vietnam by the communist. My personal opinion about the Vietnam war was that it was a waste of time and it was pointless. While I was reading the letters about the Vietnam war from actual citizens from 1971 it made me realize that the war in Vietnam. Over the years the Vietnam war was causing the United States more chaos than it already had.

In 1967 the anti-war movement focused on the draft. Most of the men being drafted were African Americans, instead of whites. The one black man that refused to be drafted in the war was Muhammad Ali. Since he didn’t want to go to the Vietnam war the US government threatened him with jail time to five years in prison and his bail was set to 10,000 dollars. Muhammad still refused to go to Vietnam so he got his world heavyweight championship in boxing when he got bailed out prison and got his passport revoked. Not only that but he was banned from boxing in the United States. In my opinion this is absurd because no one should have been forced to go to war especially since the war was pointless and it was already taking too long. Many citizens from the letter I read in class spoke about their loved ones that they have lost in the Vietnam war. Some bodies were never found and families still had hope that someday their bodies would be found.