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.