Wednesday, March 5, 2008

New Project Topic

Assess the effects of geography on the history of civilations and nations

Explain the reasons for dropping the atom bombs on Japan and their short and long term effects
Unit 7 Chapter 25 Sections

Analyze the factors that contributed to the cold war and describe the policy of containment as america respons to the soviet expansion polices
Chapter 26 section 1

Explain the causes, course, and consquences of the vietnam war an summarize the dilomatic and military policies of Presidents Essenhower, kennedy, Johnson, and Nixion
Chapter 30


Analyze the course and consqequences of Americas recent diplomatic initiatives

Wednesday, February 13, 2008

Final Connections

We can take what has happened over these four major events in time, WWII, civil rights and womens rights movements, and the presidency of Ronald Regan, and come to a general yet personal view on whether there was a positive growth or negative decline in personal freedom, individual responsibility, and respect for human dignity. After a close inspection through this time line I actually see a strong positive growth in all three areas. First, there is the strong growth of personal freedom. When the county is in a state of war, it is a time that usually has many people losing some freedoms and rights as the government sees this is fit for the crisis at hand. Then as war ends and time goes we see people especially woman and African Americans fighting for there rights and actually gaining them. Though the fight was slow and spanned many centuries when you look at it as a whole you defently can see the positive side of it. Then there is the conservative movement that shows up even later. Though this might be viewed as a decline in personal freedom, the positive still outweighs the negative in this situation. Next, there is individual responsibility. This is the one that I though demonstrated the most positive growth. As stated in my first introduction paragraph, the growth of these three values(IR, PF, HD) really have a lot to do with a constantly struggling balance between government power and individual power. At first the country is in WWII and there is an unfair balance of power for the government as people are being drafted and losing there personal responsibility. As time goes by we see people really taking on the government, expressing there views, standing up for there beliefs, and protesting for rights and what they think is best for the country. We see a surge in individual responsibility that is fueled by personal and passionate beliefs. When people feel strongly about things ranging from woman and African American civil rights to traditional views, this is when we see the biggest growth in responsibility and taking on the government. We see it when people are passionate and truly involved in what they believe in. Lastly, there is the respect for human dignity. Though there are some truly negative points show in this subject in the end there was a stronger positive growth. I have made this generalization because I see respect for human dignity as a product of the first two points. Because there was so many positive individuals standing up for personal freedom we finely saw the government taking action and truly trying to have a great respect for humans dignity even when many have been mistreated for so long. No kind of growth or change in time can be considered absolutely perfect and through these four time periods we defently encounter a lot of negative set backs. In the end I see the majority as being a positive growth which allows me to make an overall generalization that the county has been taking a slow but positive path in peoples expanding freedoms, responsibility, and Respect for human dignity.

Tuesday, February 12, 2008

Project Draft update 5

Ronald Regan

The Conservative movement/the New Right/Affirmative Action
A. The conservative movement really grew during the presidency of Ronald Regan. This movement revolved much around the theme that the government was not the answer but the problem and that the federal government should be allowed less power. During this time period the government put into process affirmative action which gave minority's freedoms because it would require employers and educational institutions to give special consideration to minority groups.
B. The new right was a group of people that formed to support key interest and contriversal social issues. They took responsibility for there beliefs and formed these groups to influence others including the government. They protested idea that they felt strongly about such as protest against affirmative action. While manysupported there conservative there was also an uproar of people that saw there conservative veiws as wrong and took up there own personal responsiblity as they created anti moral majority protest such as creating buttons like the ones below. This button clearly showed that they other sided belived the moral majority to neither the moral thing or the what the majority of what people wanted.
C. Affirmative action brought around the phrase "reverse discrimination". Though affirmative action was seen by some as showing great respect for minority groups that has struggled in our country for so long, other saw at as a kind of reverse discrimination by favoring one race or gender over another. This action became a strong source of debate over how just it is.

The Moral Majority
A. The Moral Majority were formed by mostly evangelical and fundamentalist Christians. They believed that over the course events over the growing times of the last century with the growing rights of the government and the growth of more liberal views that they should try to preach there beliefs of trying to regain "traditional values". They supported things like more national defense strength and having prayer come back the schools. In ways it seemed there goals would diminish what others would consider gained freedoms, like the separation of church from school, a freedom that allows more freedom of religious expression.
B. One thing that the Moral Majority did find important was encouraging individual responsibility. They viewed responsibility as people trying to make the correct moral desicion. They encouraged this due to the fact of the high increase in out of wed lock pregnancies and the high divorce rate. They hoped that spreading there ideas would influence many to take on a greater individual responsibility.
C. This contriversal belief could show either a strong growth in respect for human dignity because it had people preaching more traditional respectful views and higher morals but it also could be showed as having a negative effect of respecting human dignity because there conservative views were not always things that ran smoothly with other peoples more liberal views.


(anti- moral majority button)

In all I think that the conservative movement that took place around Regan's presidency was something that showed even more growth in individual responsibility as many individuals stood up for there beliefs. Though i do believe that it yielded some negative effects in the growth of respect for human dignity and personal freedom.

Project Draft update 4

Womens Rights

The Creation on NOW/Roe v. Wade

A. The creation of Now(National Organization for Women)lead to many social and legal gains for women. The creation of now produced a great surge in personal freedom because it lead to many women(over 175,000 members) to question there place. Girls started to question the place that they were put in and started to fight and gained freedoms ranging from there own sports teams to an actual ban passed by congress on gender discrimination in "any education program or activity receiving federal financial assistance". This act caused many all male colleges that were previously closed down to women to open there doors. This allowed women the freedom to attend many more schools of there choice. Another important though contriversal ruling for NOW was the decision made in Roe v. Wade where women were granted by the supreme court the right to have an abortion. Women had this right because it fell under the amendment of a persons right to privacy. Many women and the NOW organization viewed this as a strong gain in there freedom because they were given the legal right to choose.
B. Individuals were taking on responsibility in this time as many felt that it was up to them to force to government to award them rights. Many women were doing little things to show that they would not stand for the rights that they were given such as dropping the mrs. or miss. that identified martial or single status and instead taking up the more ambiguous Ms. Others refused to change there name with marriage so show that this would not define them. Women held protest just like the ones below where they would hold signs stated rights that they felt they deserved such as equal pay and jobs and others just continued to try for more jobs and attend schooland show that they could work there way up.



C. Respect for human dignity because a contriversal idea during this perticulare time period. While there were women fighting for rights there was the other side saying that they were out of place. The most contraversal was the ruling of Roe v. Wade which is still questioned heavily in todays society. Many though that it respected human(womans) dignity because it gave them the right to choose while many other took a completely different take and thought this ruling showed no respect for human dignity and was more on par with murder.

Equal Rights Amendment
A. This bill would have given many rights to woman because in general in was a bill that would have given women and men the same rights and protections under law. This law was not passed though and so no personal freedoms were actually gained for women.
B. With so much at stake with the desicion of the this act there were many woman standing up and taking sides and really fighting for either the passing or stopping of this particular amendment. People such as Phyllis Schlafly helped launched a stop ERA campaign. She rallied with several different support groups such as political organizations, religious groups, and anti-feminist supporters to help preach that the passing of the Equal Rights Amendment would bring around a string of disastrous events such as women being drafted and same sex marriages. She had such strong veiws on the issue that she would try many things to sop the ERA, including whereing shirts that had "stop ERA" written right across the front. Though simple things like that would seem not to make any kind of diiference it to help fuel her camaigning which eventually worked and the amendment did not receive approval from 38 states that it need for ratification and feel short at 35 states.



C. Though the womens rights movement, much like anything else changing and contriversal, had its fair share of backlash and disrespect pertaining to human dignity ranging from the uncertain decsion of Roe v. Wade to the take down of the ERA, there was still huge positive growth and a positive lasting effect. Women saw respect from the government when they received more rights and many women reached new goals when finding new schools and jobs finally being open to them.

Individual responsiblity experinced a huge surge when people saw the rights that either felt they wanted or went to far and took the responsiblity to fight for them. Respect for human dignity had a lot of positive growth though not being able to ratify the amendemt was a negitive set back. Personal freedoms were deffently being gained by women during this time period even though there was still room for improvement. These three ideas continued with the positve growth that had started to develope during the civil rights movement.

Wednesday, February 6, 2008

Project Draft update 3

Civil Rights

Exp1. Brown vs. Board of Education/Reactions to the Brown Decsion

A. This ruleing diminished the law that schools could be leagally segregated. This lead to much more personal freedom because African Americans were now given the freedom to enter schools they had originally been kept out of due to segregation. A famous exapmle of students taking up this new freedom were a group of Africcan American kids who enrolled at central high in little rock even though they faced many hardships, personal descriminaton from other white students, and a times even rioting and violence.
B. Though the government had outlawed segregation black students enrolling in primarily white schools faced a lot of lingering discrimination. This though lead to a surge in personal reasponsiblity. The government had leagally outlawed segregation but it was going to take more than just the government stating it to get rid of the segregation and values that went along with it that still exsisted in peoples minds. Assosiations such as the NAACP took matters into there own hands to help students to overcome. One exaple of what they did was contact students before they entered there first day at a once all white high school and escort them so that they would have some protection against rioting and yelling crowds.



C. This descion can be seen as both a step in the right direction for respecting human dignity as well as something that brought a lot of negitive feelings that did not respect human dignity. This ruleing brought a huge step in the right direction for african american civil rights and it show a lot of respect when segregation in schools was finelly outlawed, but they was negitive effects as well. This act did a lot to stir up people who belived in segregation and many students at central high in little rock were so set in there mind that blacks and whites should have segregated schools that student had to be escorted for protection and in the end caused so much trouble schools like central high had to close down. Pictures like the one above truly showed how much trouble this kids caused, people were actually scared for the lives of the aferican americans attending central high that they later had to escorted to school by armed forces.

Though there was defently signs of negitive effects this example showed not only the government but the people rising up and doing something to really take a stand at try and gain civil rights for the people. Overall this shoed a srong poitive growth in PF, IR, and HD

Exp2. Montgomery Bus Boycott/ Freedom Riders

A. Personal Freedom indured a huge gain because of the boycott. African Americans gained from the supreme court the freedom and right to finelly have intergrated buses and the outlawing of segregation on buses. This gave many the freedom to finelly have equal rights while using public transportation, which many did daily.
B. The Bus Boycott was a great example of individual reasponsiblity. When the government would at first not put a stop to bus segregation people such as Rosa Parks took on the reasponsiblity and stood up for her rights. When riding on a bus she refused to moe to create room for a white passenger and becuase of it was arrested. Her arrest yeilded a poitive effect as many people rallied and came to her support. Others who helped and showed support were the NAACP who took on the reasponiblity of organizing the boycott. People showed support in simpler ways by donating small parts of there pay checks to support the cause.
C. The outcome of this showed a general step in the right directon for human dignity Thought bus boycoot had to be endured for 381 days it was a step tht lead to the outlawing of bus segregation. Though the government showed respect for human dignity by outlawing this, the problem was far from over. People showed extrme disrespect when they ignored the governments ruling and still enforced segregation. Freedom riders, african americans and other supporters, rode the buses as a form of protest to expose to the people and government how truly the law was not being enforced. Henery Thomas and James Peck showed individual reasponsiblity when even though riding the buses and exposing the predjudice could be dangorus



they did it anyway. The government was forced to look at what was still happening when these freedom riders were attacked. Attacks such as the one displayed above were popular as people would gases the buses and do other harmful things to the riders. Though these attacks were horrible the fact that, like the picture above, these attacjs were being photographed and put into the media was just what the freedom riders were hoping for as there side of this issues started reaching the mass'.This lead to even more support for there dignity as they finelly put enforcements for the African Americans tring to ride the buses with out being segregated.

As times started to change, there was a big growth in IR PF and HD because people sarted to be able to get more involved it the issues that they were seeing such as civil rights and they used there belifes to gain more personal freedoms nad respect.

Project Draft update 2

Project first draft
First Paragraph

Introduction:

Over a wide range of time including WWII era to the late 20th century the people and the government have struggled with finding the near impossible, this being a clear and rightful balance between government control and the effect that control has on peoples individual reasponsiblity, personal freedom, and respect of human dignity. Within three different time periods we see a growth in the amount of freedom, responsibility, and dignity. Through the domestic policiys of WWII, the civil rights movement, and the presendency of we see a slow but determined growth in these important ideas.

First paragraph
Domestic Policies WWII
1. Selective Service
A. Freedom- Selective Service system expanded draft to recruit needed soldiers becuase there was not enough volientary troops to fight in this "great" war. Opposed personal freedom because it was not a choice if you were drafted, this caused many to lose there freedom of choosing what they wanted to do. The government had a huge amount of power and control during times of war and would use poster proaanda, like the one posted below, and other tactics to try and recruit anybody they could into the armed forces.
B. Responsibility- Though being drafted into the army would give a person a greater amount of responsibility, it would not be personal responsibility because they are not personally taking responsibility for there actions this responsibility is something that is being almost forced upon them by the government.



C. Dignity- This idea did not really respect human dignity because people were drafted and sent out to fight and mabey even killed with out really even being given a choice. Also it did not offer much respect to women who wanted to become part of the war because they were forced to take jobs in the army that had very little to do with combat.

2. Rationing
A. Put extreme moneriting on the consumption of food and other products whict demonstrated not a lot of freedom because people lost some of there personal freedom when the government decided to control food and goods that were being distributed. The government would place propaganda posters that showed that it was the right and patriotic thing to do to support rationing and many people did respond taking the chance to support there country.



B. This actually showed growth in personal freedom because after the government established this system many people started to view it as there own personal responsibility to help out with the war and many people took up things such as car pooling and coping together as a family to help the countrie through the difficult time.
C. Rationing did little to help human dignity as many were forced to struggle with having very little also many lost respect for dignity when they started to purchase these items illegally off of the black market.

Connections: These two ideas come together to show that in this time period of war many had very little IR, PF, and HD. This connects to the theme that over the course of more time this will change and grow as we see a growth in IR, PF, and HD.

Project Outline

will be writing an essay and this is a basic outline
Introduction paragraph introducing thesis about the growth of human dignity, individual responsiblity, and personal freedom through about for seperate chapters.
Paragraph

1. Domestic Policies WWIfollowed by 2-3 examples
Exp1. Selective service
How this demonstrate the growth of freedom, responsiblity, and dignity
A. Freedom
B. Responsiblity
C. Dignity
How they apply to the overal theme

Exp2. Rationing
A. Freedom
B. Responsiblity
C. Dignity
How these examples connect to the overall theme

Paragraph 2. Civil Rights
Exp1. Martin Luther King
A. Freedom
B. Responsiblity
C. Dignity

Exp2. Crisis at little rock
A. Freedom
B. Responsiblity
C. Dignity
Explain how these examples connect to overal theme of growth

Paragraph 3. Presendency of Regan
Exp1.
A. Freedom
B. Responsiblity
C. Dignity
Exp2.
A. Freedom
B. Responsiblity
C. Dignity
How these ideas connect to the overal themes

Conclusion paragraph to sum up every thing and how they all connect to showing the growth in individual responsiblity, personal freedom, and human dignity