Tet Docs

Once I read all of the "Tet Docs" I came to the conclusion that their were many views on the war and it was hard to predict what will really happen next. The Tet holiday was supposed to be a joyous day and celebration but it resulted in many deaths of both the American and Vietnamese people. Not only did US soldiers and those from the NVA forces die, but many towns were being attacked which killed innocent civilians. Even though the NVA and Viet Cong suffered about 10 times more deaths than the US and South Vietnamese forces, both sides were effected psychologically. It's crazy to think that just because of one conflict that occurred from a day that was supposed to be a pleasant one could result in the loss of thousands of people and millions of dollars. The event also ended President Johnson's desire to run for office again. Even today, the Tet Offensive "is seen as the turning point of the war" and that is because of the "psychological victory" on the North Vietnamese side. The experience's resulting from Tet had changed the pattern for future decisions and actions of leaders for both the Vietnamese side and the United States.
The Massacre at Hue was also a memorable event. After reading and processing the information from the event..I was startled and appalled at what happened during this time. The number of bodies found was mind boggling. Another thing that shocked me about the Massacre at Hue was that a large majority of the bodies were government officials or employees of the Americans. All of those people were captured by the Viet Cong cadres, and they were all recognized because of detailed blacklists that were carried during captures. If it weren't for all the false accusations and beliefs that the two countries made against each other, many of these little "inner" battles could have been avoided. The rumors that had been started were also a large influence on the Massacre at Hue which made me start to think why the people were so naive. Maybe it was because the public was not being told the whole truth?
Walter Cronkite's CBS Broadcast also had a large effect on the public. Many Americans believed that they were not getting the whole story on what was going on in Vietnam. Walter's opinion influenced the public to doubt their government and fear that they weren't being informed on progress or problems going on in Nam. He kept mentioning a future stalemate in the war, but no one could predict the future. Because he was such a popular celebrity figure, his opinion made a difference in the community. Whether he was being bias or not, the way he came about speaking of the issue in a public manner was wrong and unprofessional. Personal opinions should never be given on issues as large as these. If the broadcast was not aired, I'm sure that many people would not have been so paranoid about the issue.

Terkel #8

                Dolores Dante has been a waitress for over twenty years and surprisingly enjoys her job. She is a hard working woman, her job requires her six days a week from five pm till two am. Many would think that her job is for the needy and the uneducated but Dolores argues that any job is for the needy, people need money to survive. Dolores looks at her job in a different way though, she makes it theatrical and fun for her and the customers. She spices up what she says to her customers and tries to make their meal and experience an enjoyable one. One thing she said is that she looks at herself like an "entertainer", if the customers don't enjoy the atmosphere then they will not leave a good tip. She also spent a lot of her interviewing telling us how there is a certain way of doing everything. There is a distinct way of serving food, certain ways of talking to customers and how you react and act at work. If you have been in the business as long as Dolores has, you would know that work is a cycle. Especially a job as a waitress, after working long hours you go to bed tired and achey but then in the morning you wake up refreshed and ready for the day.. The cycle is a repeating one and its the same way with how you act. She emphasized how there is a specific way of treating others so you can make a living, its all about how you handle and react to the business.
               Phil Stallings is another very hard working person that has noticed the certain stereotypes and cycles that occur at work. He works at a Ford Dealership in Chicago. He has been working there for about three years and is already at the top of the list on the employee list. All of the employees at his work are treated differently and Phil tells us how there is segregation. The whites are with the whites and the colored work with the colored..It's surprising to hear all of this because racism and segregation is supposed to be over with now and it is still occurring in the work place.  Those who sell more cars and are better with people have a higher pay and are higher ranked at work. They are also treated with better respect, which I think is unfair. He also says that you become wiser after working at a job each year you are there. Phil tells us that he has become more mature and figured out all of the secrets and strategies there are at work. Both Dolores and Phil tell us how there is a certain way to do things at work to make a higher pay, work is a cycle. Even if you do not enjoy your job, you can make it interesting and everyday will be a different experience.

Terkel #7

         Both Dennis Hart, and Lucy Jefferson's interviews were focussed around their "images" in everyday society. Dennis Hart is a Chicagoland man who works two jobs and has two children. Throughout the interview, he speaks a lot about courage and pride. It seemed as if Dennis was looking for a meaning to life by the way he presented himself to the public. He said that "freedom is the most important thing in your life" (238) But then he says how in today's society, a white man can not express how he truly feels because it makes him a coward. The main points that Mr.Hart makes is to conform into society's beliefs  if you want to survive and be accepted in "Division Street".  Then he went on to talking about the John Birch Society, which he joined because he believed in what they believed in and felt that he could fit in there. Dennis said that even in the John Birch Society, you had to prove yourself and satisfy your peers to be accepted. After living in and experiencing a lot of different atmospheres, Dennis says that everyone, both black and white people have to build an "image" in todays society to be socially accepted.
          Lucy Jefferson is a black woman who lives in the "Robert Brooks" housing projects in Chicago. She spoke a lot about pride too, just as Dennis Hart did. Both of them grew up pretty poor which may explain some of the same similarities they have in their perception of todays society. Lucy worked very hard as an Aid at a hospital for her two children. She explains how society and her peers did not expect much from her at her work because she was negro. And she also stresses how everyone looked at her differently because she was a black woman who read a lot. She was always seen with a book in her hand at work and that made her coworkers question her intelligence and her intentions. Mrs.Jefferson explains that she was "breaking down" the stereotype that black people were given, that "all Negroes are ignorant" by reading so much and educating herself. (247) Then we learn that her son did not have books when he was going to school because the neighborhood and district could not afford books for the students. By experiencing that and seeing her own child not being able to get the education he deserved, she thought that she should break down the typical beliefs of Negroes and make a new "image" for herself. That was the reason that she carried and read these books, to make an accepting image of herself to her white peers. Both interviews are interesting because they are given from two different perspectives, but have many similarities within each other about conforming and proving society's stereotypes to be wrong.

Studs Terkel #6

The two stories we read today were both about the hardships civilians had to go through, and their experiences during the war. The first interview was with Peter Ota, a Nisei which was sent to a camp during World War 2. Shortly before him, his father and sister were sent away, Peters father was arrested and jailed for an unknown reason. His arrest brought shame to the family and caused his wife to become very ill. Since Peter's mother was too sick to move, she was not sent away to the camps. His father was released from jail and evacuated to Missouia, Montana where he was isolated from the rest of his family. During his time then, he sent Peter letters but they were censored and not very informational. I couldn't imagine that experience, being separated from your family and not being able to communicate with them either. The whole experience seems horrific and stressful. Peter was able to stay with his sister and they were transferred to Santa Aita, there they lived in previous horse stables. Living in that type of environment is disgusting, not only is it gross but its horrible to treat people like animals. In September of 1942, Peter and his sister were reunited with their father. Peter was lucky enough to leave these camps and work in Colorado and other places. Since he was working, he would be excused from the camps. Shortly after getting the job, the mom had died and Peter wanted to be cleared and get her body to burry in one of the camps where the family was. While his leave from his job/camp, Peter had to be escorted everywhere. There were FBI agents and other people following him around as if he were some kind of criminal. The way that he was treated through out this whole process was very inhumanely and disgusting. He later stated that once he was released from the camp and started a family of his own, he knew that he needed to "blend into the community and become part of white America". That statement was an important one because the only reason he was sent to the camps was because he didn't look like an average "white american". The next story was about Betty Hutchinson, a nurse during the war. She went into detail about her experience as a nurse, and the operations she made. The most interesting detail that I noticed was how fast everything happened. Right after she heard about Pearl Harbor, Betty was registered as a nurse and took action to help people. She became a plastic surgeon in 6 weeks and operated shortly after. The experience seemed very quick and rushed which doesn't seem too safe. Betty also spoke about her adaptation to her work, at first she became very sick when she saw something gory. After a while she adapted to what was going on and enjoyed her job much more than what she expected. I think that both stories were important because we never see the personal experiences that people go through during wartime.

Terkel #5

              After watching Band of Brothers, 101st Airborne, and reading Peggy Terry's interview, I realized that war life was worse than it seems. Of course war seems bad, but nobody ever gets to go through what the soldiers do, unless they are psychically there. The movie gave a very realistic presentation of what those who were in the Airborne did, and what happened during battle. The interview with Peggy and E.B Sledge also gave good insight on the during and after war effects on soldiers. Once the movie and interviews were over, I realized that the soldiers don't realize how "real" war is until they are there in the moment. I definitely didn't think war was as brutal as the movie showed, but apparently it was worse. Peggy Terry grew up in Paducah, Kentucky but was interviewed in Chicago where she had lived the last 20 years of her life. She told us about her life after the depression, but what really struck me was when she talked about her husband. Peggy told Terkel that her husband was in the Airborne 101st division and how when he came back from war, he was a drunk and would have nightmares. She said that those were the things that she saw in him, that he showed on the outside..but I'm sure there was a lot that was happening to him on the inside that no one knew about. She said that "wars brutalize people"which is completely true. His experience had hurt him mentally, and even though he was alive and home, Peggy said that it was hard seeing him act the way he was. Right after she was done talking about her husband, she brought up Hiroshima and how it was dropped on innocent people who had nothing to say about war. They were all innocent civilians, and that connected back to the soldiers in war. Those who were traumatized by the war were innocent people who lived normal lives just a year before, and same with those killed or wounded in Hiroshima. E.B Sledge, a ex marine told us in his interview that everyone had a different view on war during the battles. He said that we had a different strategy than the Japanese did, and that all connected back to how civilians see things differently than soldiers.

Entry #4

             In the Introduction, various people were interviewed about different events which occurred in America's history. The main focus was on World War 2, but the Great Depression and New Deal were discussed as well. It was very interesting to hear the numerous reactions and memories of these events from the people.  Each person that was interviewed, had a different vision on the War and its results. Most of the people had flashbacks and spoke about the bad that happened before, during and after the war. One man who was interviewed was a Red Cross member during the war and remembers being happy during the war. He was happy and having fun during war because his job allowed him to support the public and provide aid for those in need. It sounded kind of sad hearing that he was having fun during a war, but if it wasn't for the war..his job would not have been in such high demand. It was interesting to hear one person enjoying the war, and it benefiting his career, and then hearing others complain about it. One farmer spoke about how the Depression completely destroyed his career, home and family. Because of the war, this farmer's home had gone into fore closure, he lost business because crop and cattle prices were so high and that affected his family as well. The Depression might have hurt many people, but the New Deal brought the United States a lot of new opportunities for those who didn't have them before. The New Deal brought job opportunities to women, and African Americans. Even though the New Deal had brought new jobs to women and blacks, 11 million people were still living in bad conditions. All of the interviews in the Introduction to this section were interesting, even though they were all short, it was nice to get several outlooks on the events. I think that the main reason that these interviews were in Stud Turkel's book was because it shows us, the new generation, how memorable these events were and how much they affected, and still affect our country. The second part was Bob Rasmus' interview, who spoke about the differences in his life before the war, and after the war. The way he spoke about his experience in combat was very detailed. I was shocked that he was able to speak about his experience in such detail from just his memory, the interview sounded like he was reading everything out of a textbook. He made several points about the War that opened my eyes to how tragic and real the war was. At the end of the interview, he spoke about how much the war affected his life in the long run and one of the last things he said, was "In a short period of time, I had the most tremendous experiences of all of life". By saying this, Bob Rasmus showed a different, more positive side of the war.  Both parts of "The Good War" were interpretations of the war and the experience that went along with it, which informed the audience of the reality and effectiveness of the war.
           

Studs Terkel #2 & #3

              Oscar Heline has lived and worked on his farm in Iowa for over 78 years, during his interview, he speaks about the farmers hardships during the depression. He starts off by saying that a farmers life was hard and "desperate". During the depression, a large number of farmers were going through the same struggles and he said "the farmers were almost united". Oscar goes on with telling us how difficult it was to sell your livestock, some places even wanted you to pay them to be able to sell your food there.. Imagining the life that these farmers had to go through back then was sad. I couldn't imagine how hard it must've been when many farmers were loosing their homes and personal belongings just because of the depression. Oscar explained in detail how these farmers united and started rebelling in town together, how they destroyed and blockaded highways to get their point across, something had to be changed. He saw all of this happening, and since he worked as a lobbyist for the state cooperatives, he tried his hardest to get some legislation for these farmers. Mr.Heline goes on to say that "Wallace saved us, put us back on our feet." He had agreed to pass a law for the farmers but wanted them to write the law themselves since it was their problem. I think that was a smart thing to do because this problem was in their lives, so they were the ones who knew what would be best. He then talked about how the people can't do everything themselves, that we want that to happen but we really do need the governments help in certain situations. I agree, I think that the people should be making suggestions and then the government should be executing them. The last page of the interview was focussed on the farmers again, throughout the whole journey and depression, they stuck together and would eventually get what they wanted.
              Jane Yonder was a young girl when her father was hired through the WPA. She lived a very poor life, she tells us that her and her siblings were often cold because they had no blankets in their home. She also spoke about the very small amount of food that had at home, and the very high bill they had to pay off for groceries. I was very sympathetic to hear her talk about her family having to ration their food, their wasn't enough for everyone. In her interview, Jane tells Studs that she recalls her brother often wanting to go out and get food but he was too embarrassed of how high their grocery debt was. Another very shocking thing that Jane said was that her mother would only feed them "good" food when they threw up. She said that whenever her or her siblings were sick, they didn't even have a thermometer to check their temperatures, they'd only be taken care of if they threw up. After speaking about all of the negative things that she went through throughout her life, Jane finally told us about the day her father got a job in the WPA. She was kind of ashamed that his job was through that because one of her friends parents were doctors, and she didn't feel good enough. Then she told us that she ended up not caring what people thought because at least the job brought food to the table.  Then she I can't imagine living a life like this, and its really sad to know that this was a long time ago, but there still are families like this out there..

              I chose to read about Vine Deloria, a teacher and Native American author. Studs Terkel interviewed Vine and what he had to say influenced me to be a little more open-minded and appreciative of history, my own and the countries. Mr.Deloria is a 45 year old Sioux Indian who now teaches Political Science at the University of Arizona. His background is what caused him to speak about the issue of people not understanding and appreciating their heritage and history. During the interview, I noticed that Vine is very descriptive and gives in depth visuals on what he saw growing up. By him doing that, it helped me understand the point that he was trying to get across to the audience. He spoke about the struggles that Indians had to go through way back when, while now everyone has it so easy...and we dont appreciate or notice it. One thing he mentioned which I completely agree with was that today, people don't appreciate or even acknowledge the history of the places they travel through. There are many places that I have been, I once took a road trip to Yellowstone national park and didn't even take in the history behind all of the monuments I passed through. There were battles that were fought all around the United Sates and we don't even take the time to overview that or learn about it when we're actually there. Most of the interview was about that, appreciating and noticing the history...One thing he said was "You have to take a new look at what you thought America was before you can figure out where it's going". Translating into, before someone can look forward, they need to understand how they got there and the meaning of their background. Nowadays, people don't look into anything, their history or their thoughts and ideas, which connects back to what Vine Deloria said at the end of his interview about people not living meaningful lives anymore. If people can't appreciate their background and see the deeper meaning of their lives, then their life isn't meaningful until they can appreciate it. By the end of the interview the one thought that I had was that everyone wants the American Dream, but does that even exist anymore? If we can't appreciate our lives, live them to the fullest or live meaningful lives, then how can someone achieve the American Dream?

                After learning about Just War and all of the six principles that go along with it, I believe that the Spanish-American War was a Just war. We did indeed gain Cuba and the Philippines from Spain in the war and the way we achieved that was just, but how we chose to rule the countries after the gain was unjust and wrong. We had chosen to take these countries over for selfish reasons and those actions were unjust. Despite the wants and fact that Cuba wanted to be its own country, we forced our government to take over theirs and went against some of the Just War principles. All six principles were justified during the Spanish-American War and we became a imperialist country once the war was occurring, causing unjust. Our country wanted to go to war with Spain because we wanted to gain power and take over Cuban control, so we intentionally started fury. The way the battle occurred and was fought agreed with all of the just-war points but the imperialist actions after completely overruled those positive just war actions. Therefore, the war itself was a Just-War but America's actions after the war were unjust.

After reading the Editorial in the Washington Post, and the article in Time Magazine, I realized how relevant the Shirtwaist Fire is today. It has been 100 years since the fire and the event is still being spoken about and "celebrated". Once the fire had occurred and years went by, laws had changed and the government established better working conditions for laborers. The minimum wage was created, unemployment insurance was also created as well as other laws benefiting workers. The fire at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory was a real eye opener for the government. I think that in a way it is good that the fire is still spoken about because it really changed the series of events that occurred in history. As Hilda Solis said in her editorial, the fire and conditions could've been prevented if only the workers had a voice. Its important for every individual to have a voice in society, and I think that after the Shirtwaist Fire, people were more open and vocal about certain issues. If anything, the event has made working conditions better for everyone and in a way it really helped change things. I think the story is still very important to us today because it caused so many changes (for the good) and its almost like a good memory to have...

Lorry I. Lokey has been giving millions of dollars to Universities, elementary and secondary schools all over the country. After reading her biography on her giving and sharing process, I wondered where she got all of this money? As I reread her story once again I realized that it isn't where or how someone get's their money, it's what they do with it. When Lorry was a young girl living through the depression, she told us in her story that she learned various lessons from her mother, which lead her to donating millions of dollars to different institutions. She used a great example of a loaf of bread, which cost 9 cents, but one twice as large cost 11 cents, only a few cents or dollars more can make a huge difference. Lorry flies in coach, drives a hybrid car and only spends money on the necessities. She had flown first class, but only when her credit points allowed her to do so. Many people today don't realize how easy it is to save their money, there are many different ways to not over pay for an item, its all about the strategy. You need to know how much an item is worth, and then not overpay for it. In her story she said that she realized one day that "success is not making a million a month or a year. It’s earning enough to live comfortably and being able to finance children’s education." Mrs.Lokey did a good job with saving her money and spending it on things that were worth her while, like charities or schools. After noticing that a persons education is the determinant of their future, she knew that she needed to do something to give other students the access and the opportunities she had while in college. In the story, she shared several different examples of where she has given her money and how much she has given, which is absolutely amazing. One example of her changing a campus entirely was donating $134 Million to the University of Oregon. I think she is an incredible woman and her early knowledge of sharing has really paid off. Today, others should take her example of not being selfish and giving more than recieving. People really need to realize that they should only pay for there necessities and then give to those who are less fortunate, or to donate to institutions that need the money to help shape the future generations.

Throughout the last few weeks in US History class, we have been talking about the issue of populism. We have researched the historical definitions and views on populism, and then connected them back to todays events. Last week in President Obama's State of the Union Address, he had made several different points about "change", which related back to typical populism views. He had stressed that every citizen should have equal opportunities, no matter where they come from or where they stand economically and socially. I completely agree with what he had to say, but I really hope that he executes these "promises" because Americans are tired of hearing that they will be taken care of, and then seeing no change at all. The government is here to help people through their struggles, and populists fought..and are still fighting for the government to do a better job of it.