Should I talk in class?

From various court trials that our class has read these past four days, its scary to think of how little rights students have in school. In U.S history we learned about the Bill of Rights and the Constitution and all the rights that are given to citizens. But from these court cases it almost seems as if we don't have freedom of speech. In school, we simply can NOT speak our mind. As students we are vulnerable to unfair abuse(non physical) At Deerfield High School we are lucky to have nice teachers who encourage opinions and encourage us to speak our minds. But at any moment, what we say and our privacy at school can be taken away.
From these court cases we have learned that we can use our freedom of speech in any way outside of school. But, inside of school we must stay in the "boundaries". These boundaries  consist of not promoting, or what seems to be, talking about illegal actions at all. If a student disagrees with a teacher on a topic of keeping marijuana illegal, he could get in serious trouble. If a student doesn't believe that our nation should be at war and he wants people to know that he/she strongly believes that, he/she could get into a lot of trouble based on passed events and court trials. I personally think this is ridiculous! this is a free nation, is it not? Don't we have rights in our nation that we should practice, especially in school? Its not that we are just in school but also that we are teenagers, it is easy to take advantage of us. If an adult were to speak out about the war, he would not go to jail or get fined because he has rights that he is practicing. But don't and shouldn't teenagers have the same rights too? what makes us so different? because the last time i checked we are all people growing up in the same world with all of the same problems...

Examples: In the case of Tinker v. Des Moines, two kids went to school with black wrist bands on to represent that they were against the Vietnam War. Their principle heard of this and banned kids from wearing wrist bands. The Supreme Court ruled the case in favor of Tinker because it was a pieceful protest that had no threat of an outbreak of fighting or riot. the principle in this case was trying to take away these kids right to peacefully protest and freedom of speech. No matter what age, a citizen of The United States of America has all rights given to by our founding fathers.

Intro blog to Issues In Modern America

Last school year i used my blog for my U.S History class. Now, i will be using it for my Issues in Modern America class. My blogs will go from talking about past issues, to the "now" issues. One issues that i think people don't think about its rivalries. The fights between raiders and 49ers fans is a perfect example of this. for the past few days ESPN has been exploiting the atrocity during one of the most popular shows, Sports Center. I think something that makes an American is a thirst for winning, and good competition. But, along with competition comes rivalry. I am a die-hard Chicago White Sox fan, and like most Sox fans i absolutely despise the Cubs. In the Raiders 49ers preseason game, there was a large fight in the stands during the game, and a shooting after the game. Sports, rivalries, and competition come hand-in-hand with GAMES! so shouldn't we treat it like a game? Many of us are passionate to a sport, but passion should only go so far. Killing a man because of his liking of a team is taking passion... a little too far. With rights of free speech, we as Americans also have rights of our own opinion and beliefs. In my opinion, I think the White Sox are better than the Cubs and i stand by that(mostly because its a fact), but is it wrong for me to think that? I certainly don't think so
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kSoFECqjS40

Grade posts

I would like my very first and last posted to be graded because i believe that in these posts i used good text to show how i felt about the stories and interviews, and i think raised good thought from these stories. I also enjoyed reading these stories along with many others.

Larry Heinemann & Jacob Lawrence

I decided to read Larry Heinemann's story because i was interested in the fact that he was a Vietnam Veteran. I was so interested by this because, from my past experience, most if not all war veterans especially Vietnam veterans have a number of story's. Even though Larry's story's were not so much about the Vietnam War itself, i was still impacted by what he had to say. I quickly learned about Larry when he said, "In my household, there was never any political discussion. We were raised to just submit to the draft, stiffly and strict." Larry continues through his story's talking about how he took a lot of "shit" from people and how differently he had to deal with people from being at home to being in the army. Two interesting story's that he had were him talking about how he drove a convoy in the army and would have guns around him and had to watch out for suspicious activity, and when he got home he drove a bus where he was surrounded by people who pissed him off and there was not a whole lot he could do about it. The second story that really grabbed my attention was when he said, "I heard there was tear gas and cops beating up kids. When i was in Vietnam, we used tear gas to flush people out of tunnels."
I chose to read Jacob Lawrence's story not because i love art, but simple because i just wanted to see what an artist artist had to say. Something that shocked me that Lawrence said was, "It is ironic that people like myself benefited from the Great Depression." "It lasted about five years, a wonderful, wonderful period." This surprised me so much because it was the first time i heard someone say that they benefited from the Great Depression, and i feel like it will certainly be the last time.

Working: People Talk About What They Do All Day and How They Feel About What They Do (1972) Dolores Dante, waitress Tom Patrick, fireman

Dolores Dante introduces herself as a waitress in a very interesting way. she says, "Everyone says all waitresses have broken homes. What they don't realize is when people have broken homes they need to make money fast, and do this work. They don't have broken homes because they're waitresses." Dolores acknowledges the stereotype against waitresses, and throughout the interview it is easy to see how frustrated she gets from it. She was a woman that needed to make a living for herself, and she needed fast cash. Waitress's  was a good job for her because she was able to have conversations with people, sometimes be friendly, and make a decent tip. Although, she tells stories of times when she gets into arguments with costumers, and stories of her being the waitress that everyone wanted. She showed me that in the 70's there was a need for money and you would do what would get you the most money because Dolores would what she could to get a bigger tip or to get the costumer to buy more food.
Tom Patrick talked about his experiences being a cop and a fireman. In the 70's he had to withstand many riots and protests run by anger citizens about a variety of subjects. He talked about how no matter how small the offense was, he had to make sure wouldn't do it again and sometimes go to extremes and lock them up in a cell for a little bit. He had to do this to make people follow by the rules because many people at that time had strong beliefs, such as speaking out against the war in riots, and it was Tom's job to stop these people from breaking out. Tom's interview taught me that if i'm ever to speak out about a subject, i better do it in a good manner or the authorities will get me.

Phil Stallings & Eric Nesterenko

In Eric’s interview, he talked extensively about his childhood in Canada playing hockey and how he grew up with hockey and eventually played professional hockey. The way he described hockey seemed very similar to warfare. When a hockey player (soldier) would get hurt, other players (friendly soldiers) would forget about him and not care. Younger players would go for bigger hits and pick fights for the fun and the thrill, just like how a young man at war would go to the front line to fight because he is anxious. But an veteran hockey player would be smart and hold back from a fight to protect himself so that he could keep playing, just like how an older man in war would use tactics so that he would be able to fight longer and stay alive. He also talked about how it was important to win because it’s what got him paid, and it made the fans happy because it gave them a “win” in their mind. The fans were very important to the players. The fans could impact how they played. If the fans were cheering they would play better, if the fans don’t like the player then they would be scared and nervous for their career.

Phil talks about his work in the assembly plant for Ford in Chicago. His hours are long and his work is long, constant, hard, and dangerous. Phil emphasizes the danger in his job and how if you’re not paying attention, you can get hurt. Phil’s story connects to Eric’s story because Phil’s “fan that doesn’t like him” is the head of his line. He describes how if he doesn’t like you, then you can’t get a break of any kind and you would have to keep working. Phil’s interview ends with him talking about when everyone stopped working, there was no threat to lose him job. For Eric, there would be no threat of fans no liking him if there were no players at all.

Entry 6 - Peter Ota & Betty Hutchison

For Peter Ota, being a young Japanese man in the early 1940’s was extremely difficult. His dad was sent to prison and the rest of his family (sister and mother) were sent to concentration camps for the Japanese people. Through Peter’s story and experience, he talks about moving from camp to camp and finding new jobs. At no point did he seem overly emotional, but he did seem to give off anger. But, to me this anger is extremely called for. He was forced out of his regular life because of a war, and then he was forced to register to fight for the war that was ruining and changing his life completely. People like himself and a few other non-Japanese people knew this was not right like the FBI agent that was escorting him out of the train station.

            As I read Betty Hutchison’s story, I was stuck on how great of her it was that she wanted to be an army nurse. She wants to do as much as she could, and at that time the most she could do was be a nurse. She tells stories about her being a plastic surgery nurse. These types of nurses were very important because of all the bombing and flame damages to people’s bodies. Many lost limbs and parts of their bodies were badly damaged. Betty basically described that when something like that happens, she comes in and fixes the soldier up, and she was good at it. She also talked about her “romances” as a nurse. The nurses were used as escorts to the officers, which was a big deal. Although these women were just nurses, they played huge rolls.

            If Betty knew where the two Japanese nurses went and why they had to leave, would she or you have taken a different stand on thoughts about being a nurse?