Journal #15

After reading this short essay, I disagreed about most of her views. I believe we need an adequate border protection in order to keep our country safe. She is also very sympathetic for immigrants, but she neglects the major drug trafficking that comes with sneaking across the border. This is a major aspect of the whole immigration issue and it bothered me that she neglected that because of all the violence the drug trade brings and the innocent death toll that comes with it. But on the other hand, I'm a major advocate of our constitutional rights and our protections from federal police agencies. When I read about stories of police brutality, it sickens and scares me. I hate it because it is a complete abuse of power and I feel like there is nothing we can really do to protect ourselves from them. I think it is alarming when she describes our police state because it is everything we stand against. We love our personal freedom and I saw that she did too, but then her perspectives turned sour as she played down the importance of borders. Her essay is interesting and does make you think about our current issues with borders and police.

Journal 14

 To think what I would carry if I were a typical grunt in the Vietnam war is an overwhelming thought. O'Brien constantly reiterated the weight the items described and all i could think was to carry as little as possible. But one thing I couldn't image going off to war without is my necklace with a cross on it. It's more than just a symbol of my faith, it has protected me since I have worn it. When I was younger, I got in a car accident and landed upside down landing in between a tree and a electrical box. Thank god it was literally  no more than 500 feet from a fire station and the first one on the scene mentioned my necklace as it was hanging out of my shirt, and since then I knew it was my guardian angel. Taking that will be like another bullet proof vest for me, offering that layer of protection, mostly for mind and soul. As that seems to be the biggest enemy of the soldier, they begin to lose their minds in a sense as they are dragged through this war and they each had something to hold to in order to keep their sanity. So my necklace would be my token of hope and my little piece of home if I were to be sent off to Vietnam.

Journal #13

I have noticed a reoccurring theme of this uphill battle minorities must fight in America. They are in a constant fight to gain there liberties, freedoms, and equality. The short story “The School Days of An Indian Girl”, by Zitkala, shows this struggle in her short story. In essence, she is fighting for the American Dream. She is continually fighting the setbacks of the education system she is in, for example, at the end of the second chapter she says “…shaking my head all the while until I felt the cold blades of the scissors against my neck, and heard them gnaw off one of my thick braids. Then I lost my spirit.” Indians valued there long hair, and as they chopped it off, she relates to losing her spirit. When one loses there spirit, you would get the impression they would give up and throw in the towel, but she does just the opposite and continues to fight. She is fighting for the American Dream of equal opportunity and freedom of liberty. This story represent the battle minorities had to endure throughout American history, and also gives hope to the continual struggle minorities still face even today. 

Blog 12

"While I had been no more than an interested observer, quietly awaiting the course of justice, and conscious of the strength derived from truth and right on my side, their commissioners, with such influences as their indomitable assurance could command, had been working very had to get the present rule in Hawaii out of its political and financial difficulties, by passing over to the United States a country whose hospitality they have betrayed, a land which they do not and never can own."


This sentence here, found in the chapter My Literary Occupation, I would say to be favorite because it is mocking the United States saying how they can never own us, and  she chooses words such as justice and truth. Words that we would coincide with themes of the United States. So I like how the Queen is standing up to the US despite its overwhelming strength and power. It is almost like a role reversal, going back to the colonies and Britain, and how the US is trying to annex Hawaii in this situation. 

Blog 11

After reading the moving poem "The Lynching" by Claude McKay, one particular line stuck with me. Starting at line 10, it says "The ghastly body swaying in the sun/ The women thronged to look, but never a one Showed sorrow in her eyes of steely blue". I don't understand how can women and children be numb to such a site. It continues to say "And little lads, lynchers that were to be" as the kids are expected to grow up around such violence and racism. They left a man hanging burnt in front of women and children to prove what point? A man of any circumstances should have the dignity to not expose their family to such brutal acts. How can a "true woman" not feel sorrow for such acts, to not be moved at the sight of a burnt hanging body. Where is the humanity? These lynches were justified by exaggerating or flat out lying about crimes they did not commit and it was out of pure blood lust. Are they any more human than the African -Americans they treated as sub par humans. It seems the roles have changed and now these mobs are the barbaric, inferior race who cannot solve a problem with out spilled blood and an African-American to blame. McKay's poetry really brings light in these wrong doings and are very influential there meanings.

Journal #10

Reading The Wife of his Youth, by Chesnutt, ended very surprisingly. It is such an incredible moment of fate for that to happen. As I was reading the story, I started becoming a little confused on where it was going. It just had random segments of introduction about Mr. Ryder's current life and his relations with Ms. Dixon. The story continue's to lead to a love tale to Ms. Dixon by Mr. Ryder as he emphasizes her perfections. Then ironically the little old woman, Liza, comes in to the story, portrayed the quite opposite of Ms. Dixon, and by then I am confused about this whole story, wondering where this going and what not. And the dialogue of Liza was near impossible to fully understand so that didn't help the situation. Then as I continued to read through the end to learn that he was the man Liza has been searching for along. I had no clue that would be coming and I reread that last segment another time and I came to understand. He is today because of whom he was in the past, and that no one can escape their past. But he embraced it and welcomed his past and he did so in such a fashionable manner. I was taken by surprise about how he handled the manner. He did such an honorable act by embracing the wife of his youth and his past. The wife of his past helped drive him to the status he holds, all those events come together, and it was destiny that finally brought them back together.

Journal #9

After reading about the aftermath of the civil war and the chaos the nation was in at the time reminds me of the turmoil our country is in today. We are over 13 trillion dollars in debt and we are in a political stand still. We have a lack of leadership on the part of the president and we have no idea what direction our country is going in. Just like right after the Civil War. Their leader Lincoln was just assassinated and the ripples of his death could be felt through out the country. Their was also a lot of tension between the south and the north. Everyone wanted to take the country in their own direction and no one could agree on anything. There were accounts of dispute between the president Andrew Johnson and congress. He vetoed the 14th amendment and many other reconstruction laws passed by congress. He was soon impeached but saved by a vote. Which sounds a lot like our politics today. We couldn't even agree on whether to raise the debt ceiling until the very last minute and it's all just political warfare and party lines. No one wanted to look past themselves and ask the question what does America really need? So after reading about the confused and perilous times and I couldn't help but to relate to the times we are in now. We have a lack of leadership, direction, and unity in our nation just like the reconstruction era.