Dear Editor,

       I do agree with WikiLeaks. We should know everything that is going on in the world. We already know that the government is keeping a lot of things from us. What they are doing is that they just want us to know what they are keeping from us. What they are showing is are important and they do shock us and yeah many people may not want to know about it but they are essential in what happens in the world. Like the video they posted of the American soldier shooting journalists is very violent and unbelievable. The soldier is shooting and talking about the people he shot at like it was nothing. He was speaking like he meant to do it and did not care who it was. He was talking like he was playing a game and he had to shoot at the villian. What surprises many people is that the war that they are at is not a game it is real life and they are shooting at real people and they can not play reset and make them come back to life. It does leave many people speechless but everybody knows that they would at least one in their life know what is really going on over there. This is how we find those things out. We know that the things that they are showing us can bring out the anger out in many countries and it might just start a war. Even thoguh it may cause that i still agree with what they are doing.

Treatments

You should treat these people very nive at first and then start playing with their mind a bit. That way you can start getting answers from them. After a while start asking them questions they might not answer at first but after they get really crazy they will answer some questions. If some of the detainees are mistreated they could eventually give you random answers just so you can stop the torturing. Also, they can also get hurt mentally and that could mess them up when they have to answer some questions.

War

The tone of the U.S. declaring war was powerful. They declared war for rights and the people they did not do it for bragging rights or to show that they are tough. They were powerful with what they wanted because they wanted peace and the rights of the people to stay the same. The Germans response was basically bring it on they can handle anything. They knew they had everything they needed to win and nothing was going to stop them from that. they had the right tools and the right stratagies.

SOA

I do not think that U.S. should be supporting a group like the SOA. They are a bad influence. What they are doing is not right. They should not train people to committ those horrible acts to innocent people. Those innocent people in Uraba, Colombia on Febuary 21-22, 2005 were brutally massacared by people who were intrusted by a SOA graduate. They did not deserve it, to train people to do kill Latin Americans like that is not a right thing to do. They must not have hearts for them to go around killing, raping, torturing, assassinating, disappearing, and forcing them into refugge. People suffer everyday because of them. The U.S. should know that what they are doing is not right and they should not operate such an origanization.

Call of Duty

  I do not think that video games should as call of duty should be allowed to exist if they portray war. Yeah kids are playing video games and they think it is cool to be in a war game. They are taught from a very young age what the war is like and what you would see if you are at war. They are also taught how to use a gun and what would happen if they shoot some one with a gun. On top of that the games such as call of duty are really violent and the pictures are really graphic. Some parents by their kids these video games without knowing what happens actually in the video games and what they really look like. The parents just buy their kids these video games because their kids want them. What they do not know is that these video games are that great or acceptable for kids.

    These video games such as call of duty do not actually show off what happens in war but they do show some graphic stuff. These video games show or express that if you die in a game you can still start over. They do not really instill that when you are at war if you die you can not do anything to bring yourself back to life.  A lot of kids that have violent games, that show a war zone, want to grow up and do some thing that has to do with going to war. What they do not know is that war is not like a game you can just shoot and if you get shot then you can just click a button and it will restart the level so you can. In real war if you do get shot you can click a little button on your side and start the whole war over try to make yourself win. When young kids are taught to fight by the videos games they learn to just shoot and not care, but they truly do not know about the trauma that comes with soldiers being in the wars.  

Communications

We talk in many ways. When the soldiers were at war the best way to mommunicate were through letters. When they did write through letters they would not get a response right away they would have to way a while to get a yes or no. Also, if they sent something important througt a letter they would be really anxious for the letter to come back and then they wouold not contrate on the war. They would just worry about wether hor not the reader did get their message. They would be no other way to communicate.

Dogfighting

When a pilot was dogfighting many things were going through their mind. One being that they can die. They know for a fact that if they do something wrong while shooting by any chance they can die. While the pilot was steering the plane and the other person is shooting they worry about the plane. When the other person is shooting they can shoot the wings o the tails of the plane. They spin around in their seat to shoot in every direction. If the shooter does blow off the plane tail or wing the plane can either blow up or fall down. When the pilots are steering they are really nervous of all the possibilities that they can die.

Blogging

I agree with the blogging assessment system because it is a whole lot better then just doing a test or even writing notes. You can prove how much you know on the subject by writing a blog. Yeah you can look at your notes for most things but that will not help you write a whole blog on it. It will just help on the topic and it also helps you get an idea of what to write. It does not give you all the answers. On a test all you have to do is memorize stuff off the top of your head. That would not get you that far. When you are blogging just take a look at your notes and/or what you wrote down in class about the topic. Then you have to do all the work from there. You have to write down what you think and all your feeling on the topic. By doing that you are learning more on the topic. Than going to your class, sitting at your desk and testing a test on things you had to write down and memorize on the top of your head. It helps you organize all your ideas about the topic. When you are taking notes you do not really know what you are writing you are just writing it because your teacher told you to. Most people do not understand the notes or even what the teacher is saying and then when it comes to taking the tests they do not know the information on the topic that well and they fail the quiz or test. Taking notes never helped me because i knew i had to memorize what was on the piece of paper and i am not that good at memorizing anything. So when i blog i feel as if i know everything that i have to write as a blog and on top of that i get to pick two questions to answer from as many as there is. When that i happens i pick the ones that i know the most of and then i do really good on them. When you a teacher tells you have to take a test they just give you a topic to study from they do not tell you a specific to study from. When you are blogging you know exactly what to talk about and you know how you are going to blog. Then on top of that you can take as long as you want to write your blog and they do not rush you. You just have to finish before the quarter will the amount of blogs that have to be done.

Learning

My learning was different compared to writing just pen and paper. The way you learn with writing down you don't really have to think about it just write it and then look back at it if you need to know something. When you are blogging you have to think about the situation and what you are going to write down. When you are taking notes you just copy everything you see on the board or PowerPoint and that is it. Blogging lets you remember and think about everything from the notes and think about how you are going to wirte it down in your own words.

Blog topic

My favorite blog topic of the quarter was the one about the stereotypes of cowboys. It was interesting because from looking at the pictures that were provided you get to understand how they were described in books and shown in movies and in the pictures. What you learn about them is not they same they were not the same as the pictures or the movies or even the books. They were what people imagined them as. But it wasn't the truth. In the blog topic you can say that.

Ellis Island

After viewing the photographs the immigrants comign through Ellis Island experienced a lot of happiness. They wanted to be free and enjoy a better life and by coming through that island they knew the hope that they had all along was finally coming true. There were a lot of people wanting the same thing so they always had to maintain the hope of getting there. A lot of people knew they wouldnt make it but they also knew they had a chance so they must of been really nervous and happy at the same time. All the little children on the boat tried their best to be happy but there were times that family were splitten up and the kids stayed as orphans, but they knew that their family just wanted them to have a better life.

"Song of the Shirt"

The textile factory workers were always tired and weary because of the work they went through. They could not complain because they needed the money to feed their family. The workers didnt know how they could make it but they would push on by singing about the work they had to do and how hard it was for them. They weren't eating frequently or having a break for a rest. They were pushed to just keep working through the pain.They felt like they were slaves because they didnt have any freedom to stop and rest their eyes.

Cowboy

There are so many stereotypes of the American Cowboy. This picture represents some of them. In the picture the cowboy is next to a fire with his boots on and his hat. With a button-up shirt and chaps and a bandanna around his neck. Behind him there is a wagon with all his stuff. Next to that there is a tent where he must sleep in. Another stereotype is the fire in front of him and him pouring beans into the pot. Not everyone set up a camp like that if anything they would set up camp in their wagon with their family. They would do that do protect them from anything that could have happened. Also not every cowboy looked like that. They mostly looked like everybody else around the town. They were not always living in a tent with a camp set outside of it. The cowboys did struggle a lot with some stuff like the reality of their safety and all the bad things that can happen to them. The reality of their job was that they could of gotten killed by drunk men and could of gotten hurt by them just wandering around like nothing. There were a lot of brave people that thought that they were big and bad and not even the cowboys could of stopped them. Even if they tried.
Hollywood always portrayed them as being the one to always fight in a saloon at a open bar fight. They also portrayed them as being the hero or everything being a party for the cowboy when it was not even that. In old western films they showed the cowboys trying to get girls and getting drunk all the time. Which was not true because most cowboys had a family and kids they were moving west with. A lot of problems arose with cowboys trying to move west. Most of their family died or got sick and were in ill condition. Other problems were that they did not have enough money to make a good life for their family. It was not easy things to go through or having to deal with. It was not a big party and it was not all about getting girls, it was about the struggle they had to go through to get west.

Rocky Raccoon

The Beatles song "Rocky Raccoon" describes the wild west like you learn from a child book. Such as a saloon, there weren't many saloons in the wild west. The song is also describing the stereotype for the wild west. I think it is not accurate because it was not like that all the time. They discuss about Rocky carrying a gun and not everyone back then carried a gun with them. They carried a weapon but not a gun.They also talked about a hoe down, they never had a hoe down really. The hoe down is not exactly what they thought.

Oregon Trail

Gaming can connect with learning in many ways. For instance like the game oregon trail once you play it you understand how life was for the families that taveled west. You learn that there were complications on the trip such as getting a disease or having your wagon broken. These are all the things that you dont really learn or experience but once you play the game you understand all of that.

Evicted

Sharecropping is when a former slave stay on his owner's plantation, living in their own house. The disadvantage is that they have to live under the slave owner's rules and regulations. They had a lot of things to under go such as growing and harvesting crops. If the crops died they had to pay the owner money for wasting the crops. To harvest those crops they had to pay money to get the tools for them. They had a choice to take out loans which mostly everybody did, but even with that they had to pay that off. They did not get any money from any where so with all the things they had to pay most of them found themselves in debt. Not knowing how to get out of that they had to be evicted. I chose this picture because it shows how the African Americans would be after they were kicked out of sharecropping. The viewer should understand that sharecropping was really hard to do and it came with out a lot of consequences and struggle.

Reconstruction

The effect the Reconstruction had on them was that they were free but were treated like slaves. They didnt live in the same house as the slave owner but they did live on the slave owner's plantation. Also they did have to live under their rules and the slave owner's contract. The contract stated that they would have to harvest crops and if they didnt they would have to pay a fine. On top of that they had to pay for the tools that they were using. So they would be debt cause of all the money they needed but didnt have. They were better off before the reconstruction yeah they were owned but they wouldnt be debt or anything like that. After the reconstruction they were still being controlled by the slave owners and were under their rules and regulations.

Government

Thoreau said "that government is best which governs least." I think he meant that a government that does not do much people will want more of. They don't want a government that controls them all the time. I do not agree with that. A lot of people want a government that knows what they are doing and for them to do their job right. If you govern more then more people would be wanting that and leaning towards that more.

Stereotypes

Stereotypes are widely used in society because thats what we are used to. In history we taught that a type of person looked one specific way. For example, we learned that slaves always were on then plantation and they were always chained. Which wasnt always the case some slaves were kept inside and if they were on plantations they werent chained. Another type oif stereotype there is how the slave owners looked, they said to wear a suit and a tall hat and live in a white colonial home. Which wasnt the case if anything they wore a suit but not a hat, and their houses werent white they were probably brown houses.

History matters

History matters for many reasons. Its always important to know about the past so you know what has got the world or even your family to the place or stage you are now. For example, its important to know what it took for you to get to where you are now. Like if your family lived during the depression, its an intresting fact to know and to even share with your friends or even with your class. Also, if your parents or family members have pictures that really cool to see and to know about how they got the pictures. If they lived through something like that its nice to know the truth about it espically from their point of view.

Lies

When Volaire said "History is the lie commonly agreed upon" he meant many things. One thing he meant was that we have been told many things that have been false in our history class because teachers go by history books and a lot things in history books may not be the right thing or they are by one point of view. Which means that the people that write stuff in history books are winners, people that won or know the topic very well. SO you never get the truth out of the situastion because someone could lie about the whole thing. On top of that we are being taught it, so its a lie that we learn and agree with it.