Civil War Exhibition

The Civil War exhibition led me to a place I have never been before, The MET Museum. I enjoyed the taking the trip there, the Museum entrance kind of reminded me of a gala event rich socialites would attend in a film or TV. show plus the added smell of barbecue with the food stands located in the front. Inside of the museum was very busy it felt like the hallway of the E building whenever there is an event going on. The civil war Exhibit itself was a dark shadowy place symbolic of the war. The walls had a color scheme similar to the vintage photos on display. Most of the patrons were senior citizens with the exception of a few other young visitors. The exhibit was mostly made up of photos that conveyed a tone of sadness or anger. The people photographed in the picture either had an emotionless expression, fatigued look, serious demeanor, or an angry look on their faces, except  a photograph of sojourner truth with a smirk on a face and a caption that read "I sell the shadow to support the substance" a quote I still am trying to figure out. A section was dedicated only to the destruction the battles of the war had on American civilization and the land itself. Grassy plains and towns were turned into barren and desolate wastelands. One photo from this sections that caught my eye was "Ruins of paper mill". The town itself is devastated. And the only thing that remains of a hollowed out paper mills is its brick frame and a destroyed printing press. Our professor was right when he told us total war was declared on the south. “Nothing said about the war was exaggerated” is a quote I receive from the medical photograph part of the exhibit. With that being said the previous photographs I mentioned had nothing on “all in a day’s work”. This photo reminded of a gory horror film a pile of severed feet, something that made war look even darker than described. According to the exhibit wounded soldiers still had to they were no longer functional or useful.  Overall, the exhibit is a lengthy but educational experience. The exhibit makes me feel disgusted about the whole idea of war

Passages from It Cant Happen Here

During two separate classes i was pair up with different partners to close read passages from Sinclair Lewis' "It Can't Happen Here". With my partner Stacy we read Colonel Dewey Haik's summarized version of Buzz Windrip's speech. during our close read Stacy and I were very confused and asked our professor for assistance. he then confirmed our initial thoughts. the speech was supposed to confuse the listeners. the speech was basically trying to sell its listeners a dream. Buzz had one goal in mind, wealth for himself and by doing that he wanted to separated the poor/working class and wealthy. Buzz also wanted to keep business in America and close outside embargo while arming america for an upcoming war. Buzz Windrip's speech had few elements of fascism, confusing people, separating classes of people, and having a scapegoat to place the blame on.  With Antonio we were required  to close read chapter 19. we needed to find out why the minutemen prevent Doremus from getting lynched by the minute men. Doremus had written an anti dictatorship editorial the lynch mob of minute men consisted of all types of people, many of them did not care about the insults to the corpo state they just wanted to join in the violence. The only reason that I believe Doremus did not get lynch was because Shad Leude, Doremus' former gardener turned minute man comissioner stopped the soldiers from lynching him. Shad believed Doremus was a valuable asset to them because he would be able to use his newspaper to influence more people. Instead of killing Doremus the minute men were going to take over his newspaper and put it to use for their own causes.

NY Historical SOciety

The New York Historical Society was an enlightening exhibition. the interior of the exhibition was a dim hallway with various exhibit of World War II. Most of the patrons consisted senior men and women, that  possibly were growing up during the War or maybe born during/after the war. The exhibit had a black and white photography-esque theme much like the Civil War exhibition. The most noticeable of all the artifacts was the "Cyclotron" at the beginning of the exhibition. It help create what would make the first two nuclear weapons ever used during wartime. it caught my eye as soon as I stepped in the hall. it is amazing that something the size of a Cadillac had a hand in destroying two whole cities. It was created during the infamous "Manhattan Project", soon after Dr. Albert Einstein wrote a letter to President Roosevelt expressing his fears of the Nazi's plans for creating "new" bombs. For New York City to be trusted with a project like this, instead of a city closer towards the interior of the nation, where it would be less vulnerable from theft and attack,  makes me feel like New York City is one of the most powerful cities of this country. another exhibit which i personally liked as a big boxing fan was the photo of Harlem citizens gathered around a single radio at what appears to be a fight party. Joe Louis had served a German boxer a first round knock out before the United Stated entry into World War II. Until now I had only known of Jesse Owens accomplishments in the Berlin Olympics. the faces of the party goers in the photo showed so much hope and joy i can't even begin to put it into words. The final exhibit (of the hall) that i like was a sculpture crated by Isamu Noguchi, called "Noguchi On the Atomic Bombings". It was a model for a proposed bell tower that never got put into action. It is a wooden sculpture with 5 suspended clay shapes that were stand ins for bells. the bells were intended to ring in the wind "sounding a ghostly reminder of the souls lost" in honor of Hiroshima. Reading the article on the exhibit kind of moved me. After leaving the dim hallway exhibition I stepped into a well lit hallway with a newspaper themed mural. A political cartoon by Oliver Harrington quickly caught my eye. "War Aims" displays a ghostly figure of a soldier holding a document titled "War Aims" which had the goals of African American soldiers who entered the war. a quote by Paul Robeson next to it stated "Today's struggle of the negro has become part of the worldwide struggle against fascism" the quote is rather moving because when you think of the oppression that plague African American people, you could say that fascism indeed started in America. the hall continued to discussed segregation and had supported claims that America is indeed fascist. Believe the "story" the Exhibit was trying to convey was to make New York look like the hero of the war in a sense. Almost Everything that helped The united states win the war was started in new york. from the atomic bomb to african american troops enlisting in the war.

Repost

In class I watched a film titled "trail of tears” I learned a lot of things about native Americans that I previously didn't know. I never knew Native Americans emulated the old American lifestyle; they kept slaves, lived in houses and adopted their religion. Anglo-Americans also forced their lifestyle on them because they felt Native Americans were not civilized, making the gender roles change among them, the males now are the ones farming and hunting and females being responsible for household duties such as tending to the young. For the most part they kept a peaceful relationship until Anglo- American’s greed tempted them to take over the land they were originally settled in first and force them to march on foot to lands far away. They were safeguarded by George Washington, who considered Native Americans owners of their land and wanted peace between them because he believed it was a violation of the laws of nature if their land was taken from them. It was when Andrew Jackson took office the white man showed their true colors and asked the Native Americans to move westwards away from the white people. Motivated by greed they began to slaughter the Native Americans and forced them out if their lands. This type of greed, which is classified as ethnic cleansing, happened in the past before the American Revolution (such as the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland) and still continues today (Darfur, Sudan). I have heard stories of homes being purchased at the expense of tenants who rented and not owned homes/apartments in the area where the Barclay's center now stands forcing them out to bring in a lucrative business. This is also an issue at willets point where the new Citi field is. Family owned business that have been there for years are at risk of being closed down because big corporations who fund events at flushing meadows / corona such as the US Open want to create hotels and other businesses. It is not ethnic cleansing but maybe the cleansing of poorer people. This may go on overseas after the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan among the others have ended and will continue to go on in the future because mankind will always commit the 7 cardinal sins especially pride, rage and greed.

Never ending greed

In class I watched a film titled "trail of tears " I learned a lot of things about native Americans that I previously didn't know. I never knew native Americans emulated the old American lifestyle, they kept slaves, lived in houses and adopted their religion. Anglo-Americans also forced their lifestyle on them because they felt Native Americans were not civilized, making the gender roles change among them. For the most part they kept a peaceful relationship until anglo-american's greed tempted them to take over the land they were originally settled in first and force them to march on foot to lands far away. They were safeguarded by George Washington, who considered native Americans owners of their land and wanted peace between them because he believed it was a violation of the laws of nature if their land was taken from them. It was when Andrew Jackson took office the white man showed their true colors and asked the native Americans to move west she away from the white people. Motivated by greed they began to slaughter the native Americans and forced them out if their lands. This type of greed happened in the past before the American revolution and still continues today. I have heard stories of homes being purchased at the expense of tenants who rented and not owned homes/apartments in the area where the Barclay's center now stands forcing them out to bring in a lucrative business. This is also an issue at willets point where the new citi field is. Family owned business that have been there for years are at risk of being closed down because big corporations who fund events at flushing meadows / corona such as the US Open want to create hotels and other businesses. This may go on over seas after the wars have ended and will continue to go on in the future because mankind will always commit the 7 cardinal sins.

I believe that the content of the Declaration of Independence has greatly  changed on almost every other of US history even in today's modern times. I also believe that with the US nation's expansion  the across the North American region and abroad they have contradicted the Declaration of Independence.

It is proven throughout history that according to Americans all men are not created equal they are not titled to life or happiness let alone Liberty. One  can look recently from US drone strikes abroard to the bombing of Japan even as far back to the Civil War. Violence is not the only way this document has been contradicted for the US. The US has also used  laws to suppress citizens and humans living in the US.

To refer to the video Scientific racism: the eugenics of Social Darwinism, other races were still at the level of beasts " inequality is the proper way to run a society. those who know should rule those who don't know. men should rule woman, white people should rule black, educated should rule the masses" .

I feel David Walker's appeal was a just agreement that the Declaration of Independence was get for the white man and men of color or not included because they felt men of color  are property or beasts.

the discussion in class brought  up a lot of good questiona such  as is slavery still present even though we are not working for free and we are not in Chains and bonds. Is slavery know seen as a poor/rich issue instead of a race  issue  that is a much deeper topic I will not get into at  the moment.