Final Post

        I would like you to read my “C.P. Ellis and Andy Johnson” post and my “Jane Yoder, Tom Yoder, Peggy Terry, and Mary Owsley” post.  In my C.P. Ellis and Andy Johnson post, I talked about “What it means to be an American” This has been our central topic this year, and I was able to explore it though the readings of C.P. Ellis and Andy Johnson.  I also believe that C.P. Ellis had one of the most interesting stories.  He explained that people join the KKK not because they are racist, but because they need a place to belong.  I think that’s a very interesting concept that we should listen to today.  Today, people join gangs for the same reason.  They join gangs for a sense of belonging.  We need to create more support groups.  I would also like you to read my “Jane Yoder, Tom Yoder, Peggy Terry, and Mary Owsley” post as I connected their stories to “Just War.”  Like “What it means to be an American”, this has been a central topic this year.  I was able to come to a conclusion that World War 1 wasn’t Just after reading their stories.  We need to think twice when entering wars.

Heinemann and Dollinger

       Larry Heinemann was a Vietnam War veteran.  Larry Heinemann didn’t want to get drafted.  He tried everything to get out of it, such as staying in college.  He said, “I wasn’t willing to go to jail.  Nobody told me I could go to Canada.”  This reminded me of a book we have been reading in English.  We have been reading The Things They Carried , and this reminded me of the main character Tim O’Brian.  Both O’Brian and Heinemann didn’t want to fight in the war but fought anyways.  I don’ think it’s fair to make someone fight and risk their life in war.  I don’t think its ones duty.  I think that if America can’t get enough volunteer soldiers, then they shouldn’t be fighting the war.  If they can’t get enough volunteer soldiers than that means that there isn’t enough support for the war.  Guys should not have to risk their lives for something they don’t believe in. I chose to write about Larry Heinemann as we just studied the Vietnam War and I wanted to learn more.

Genora Johnson Dollinger took part in the first sit-down strike in 1937.  She writes about her memories of that first sit-down strike.  She provides an image that allows the reader to try to understand what it was like.  She said, “The police were using buckshots and rifles and tear gas and everything against us. The men were throwing back whatever they could get their hands on; nuts and bolts and hinges.  Any tear-gas bomb that came unexploded, they’d throw back into the ranks of the police.”  It is really hard for us to understand what the sit-ins were like.  By hearing what Dollinger had to say, the men and women who sat got abused.  Yet, they didn’t were asked to not fight back.  This took a lot of bravery and was an important moment in U.S history.  I chose to read Dollinger’s story as I was very interested when we talked about the sit-in movement.

Lefevre and Dante

Mike Lefevre was a steelworker.  He had a depressed attitude on life.  He said, “It’s hard to take pride in a bridge you’re never gonna cross, in a door you’re never gonna open. You’re mass-producing things and you never see the end result of it” (319) He feels that there is no end to his work.  He takes no pride in his work.  He simply does it to survive.  I think it is important that we do stuff with a purpose.  For example, when we read for English class, we shouldn’t read to get it done, but we should read to understand and get smarter.  Mike Lefevre couldn’t find the purpose in his job.  He couldn’t find the pride in his job.  He was only doing it to make money and support his family.  When we go grow up, we are going to have to get a job.  This should be a job where we can “take pride.”  It should be something we enjoy.  Mike Lefevre didn’t enjoy being a steelworker.  Hopefully, we will find jobs that we will enjoy in our future.

Dolores Dante was a waitress.  Like Lefevre, her job came to her as she needed money fast.  She didn’t have the luxury to pick the job she wanted.  She worked from 5:00P.M to 2:00A.M everyday.  She said, “I became a waitress because I needed money fast”  This made me think about how lucky we are to live in Deerfield.  In Deerfield, we get a top tier education.  We need to take advantage of this education and appreciate it.  I am sure Dolores would have loved to receive a Deerfield High School education, which would allow her to work normal hours in a job she wanted.  We need to appreciate our education and take advantage of it.  We need to work hard so in the future we can find a job with proper hours and a job we can enjoy.

Kearney and Malley

Tom Kearney was a cop.  He reflects on the memories of being a cop.  He talks a lot about blacks.  He mentions that some were trying to integrate with whites.  He also goes on to talk about many who feared to associate themselves with whites.  Tom Kearney said, “I wondered why there were so few colored in the crowd greeting the astronauts yesterday.”  He goes on to say that most people believed that it was that they didn’t care about the space race.  Kearney said, “I don’t think that’s true”  Kearney believed that it was not that blacks didn’t care about the great United States achievement, but that they were not at the parade due to their fear in whites.  The government, heavily white at the time, was in charge of the space program.  Many whites were following the space program and were at the parade.  With racial discrimination being a factor, it makes sense that blacks wouldn’t go to the parade.  This was in 1969.  It is amazing to think about how far we have come in about 40 years.  I believe that today blacks would attend the parade.  We have a black president today.  Today, blacks are just as involved as whites in the United States achievements.

George Malley was a blue collard worker.  He reflects on how society has changed.  He said, “Traditions of the past, there are some that I miss.  Chicago was a big city before and yet it was pretty much like a small town. Neighborhood after neighborhood, you know, were like small towns themselves.”  The end of the 1960’s was a lot like it is today.  Today, everyone lives really busy lives.  There is less family time and less community time.  People are constantly running around performing a million tasks at once.  I can’t remember the last time I went three days in a row having the whole family together eating a meal.  As George Malley pointed out, times changed.  When we think about the roaring 20’s, and why it was so “roaring”, it is because people weren’t living busy lives.  People spent more time outside with their family and friends.  While as George Malley points out, traditions will change, we can still remember the ways of the past.  I think as a society, we need to spend more time with our family and friends.

Ota and Hutchinson

Peter Ota reflected on the way Japanese Americans were treated during the war.  He remembers being treated like an animal, and him and the Japanese accepting it every day.  He later reflects “They couldn’t understand it.  They weren’t raised in our culture.  Today, I would definitely resist.  It was a different situation at that time.  This is what we tried to explain to our daughter.  Today if this happened, I think a majority of the Japanese would resist.”  At the time, no Japanese fought back.  This was because they didn’t understand what was going on.  They believed that America was the land of the free and the land of opportunity.  They couldn’t imagine being denied this opportunity just because of their race.  That goes against all American values.  If it happened a second time, as Ota pointed out, I think they would fight back.  People need to fight against unjust laws.  I don’t think America could single out a race again.  The minority would look back on the Japanese and fight back.  When we look back in time, we have to remember that the Japanese didn’t understand what was happening to them.  It wasn’t an act of fear that they didn’t rebel, but it was an act of confusion.

                Betty Hutchinson was a nurse.  She was a nurse because she felt she had to for her country.  After Pearl Harbor she said, “Immediately, I was going to become a nurse.  That was the fastest thing I could do to help our boys.  Here I was only one semester at Fresno State, and by February 5, I was out at the hospital as a registered nurse.”  This relates to what we learned about the home front in America during the war.  Americans felt that they had to do something.  If it wasn’t enrolling in the draft, it was helping out in other ways.  For Hutchinson, it was becoming a nurse.  The patriotic scene on U.S soil was a lot different than we see today.  Today, we are fighting in numerous countries.  Most American’s don’t even know what countries we are fighting in.  We don’t see it televised on the news.  Soldiers are dying, and Americans at home are living their normal lives.  I think as a country we need to appreciate our soldiers more and do more to help them overseas.

Terry and Sledge

Peggy Terry wrote about the stereotypes of the Japanese and Germans during World War II.  She wrote, “In all the movies we saw, the Germans were always tall and handsome.  There’d be one meanie, a little short dumpy bad Nazi.  But the main characters were good-lookin’ and they looked like us.  The Japanese were all evil”  As we learned, the United States made sure everyone knew that the Japanese were evil.  Their were posters all over the streets and cartoons that portrayed the Japanese as evil.  Also, as Peggy Terry wrote, movies also made the Japanese look evil.  This was opposite for the Germans.  In movies, Germans were not the bad guys.  Unlike the Japanese, the government didn’t make an effort to get the news out that the Germans were evil.  This was because the government didn’t want to go to war with Germany.  They wanted the people on their side, so stayed away from negatively portraying the Germans.  It seems as if on the home-front, the talk was about the Japanese rather than the Germans. 
            E.B Sledge was a soldier during World War II.  One quote struck me the most.  He said, “I was nineteen, a replacement in June of 1944.  Eighty percent of the division in the Guadalcanal campaign was less than twenty-one years of age.”  I’m 17 years old.  Guys fighting were 18 and 19 years old.  That is me in one to two years.  I can’t imagine being thrown into a battle.  I couldn’t handle it.  This shows how soldiers were tested.  They were too young to fight, but they had to fight anyways.  They had the responsibility of protecting their country at the age of 18!  These 17 to 18 year olds had to mature fast in order to protect their country.

Introduction and Rasmus

I will like to focus my attention on Robert Rasmus.  Robert Rasmus was a rifleman in World War II.  His life was on the line every single day.  I want to focus on a single quote.  Robert Rasmus said, “You saw those things in the movies, you saw the newsreels.  But you were of an age when your country wasn’t even in the war.  It seemed unreal.  All of a sudden, there you were right in the thick of it and people dying and you were scared out of your wits that you’d have your head blown off.”  This quote really made me think.  When I watch war movies, I always think about how brave the men must have been.  The thing is, I really don’t know how brave the men must have been.  As Rasmus said, you see battle scenes in movies, but one can’t relate until they actually go into battle.  I can’t imagine going into battle knowing that I have a 70 percent chance of dieing.  There is no way to know how you would feel unless you go into battle.  There is no way to prepare.  As Rasmus said, it happens so quickly.  You think its all fun and games and don’t understand it until your first battle.  The quote also made me think about many of the video games we play today.  We play games such as Call of Duty and get this vision that War is so much fun.  The difference between Call of Duty and real war is; in COD if you die you hit restart, in life, its over.  One can’t really imagine what war is like unless they are in the heart of battle.  Rasmus and other war veterans need to be even more respected.  Next veteran’s days, I’ll try my best to reflect on what Rasmus and other men had to go through in order to protect the United States.