Primary Source: Immigration Issue

This was a photograph that I have chosen about the immigrants at the Mexican boarder coming to the US. The sign was for incoming cars at Instate 5 Highway in San Ysidro, CA warning the possible undocumented immigrants that would get killed for crossing. It was reported that before this sign was placed, more than 100 undocumented immigrants died from incoming cars while trying to cross the highway. In addition, it is said that the San Ysidro boarder is the most busiest land boarder with 17 million cars and 50 million walkers legally crossing. I have chosen this because it really shows how much immigrants are coming into the US.They have risked their lives to get to America in hopes of improving their life. Also as you can see on the sign, it the little girl seems like she is at the age where she is just dragged into running showing how she didn't even make the decision to immigrate if it was done illegally. With further analysis, this could also be a sign to beware of the illegal immigrants, not only look out for them but catch them if they are crossing illegally.

Primary Source: Letter from a Freedom Rider's Father

Letter from a Freedom Rider's Father
This was a really interesting letter from John Dolan, a Freedom Rider's father. The Freedom Ride was an interracial bus ride to desegregate blacks into the South. It was really different that Dolan's father was actually the one that discourages his son to be a participant. In fact, not only does his father not approve of this, he also felts disappointment for his son. Dolan's father expressed "presumably as a parent, I have miserably failed." I was so surprised when I read that. Although I understand why his father would feel like being in this ride would be putting in immediate danger and shutting his son's chances of finding a good job in the future, Dolan's decision to ride was incredibly brave. Surprisingly the only ones that supported Dolan's decision were his friends in college, "[his] father disinherited [him] and [his] mother was worried for [his]safety."  In relation to the college students today to the students during the Civil Rights Movement, most of us(from what I know) are actually distancing ourselves away from politics and riots rather than leaving home for something so political. Many times we do not take the time to even vote or look at the current events, let alone take part in a nonviolent demonstration that can lead to jail time.

Ch.23

In the 1920’s a lot of dramatic changes began. With almost every American owning a car, there was a boom in the demand for Fuel. This is still if not an even bigger demand for fuel today. It is almost weird for someone not to have automobiles that the prices on fuel is getting higher and higher. The creation of assembly lines were also proven to be an effective way of building a corporation like the Ford Motor Company. However, relating back to what Pope Leo has talked about how working in a factory like this diminishes the creativity of workers, the workers at GM were prohibited to even laugh or talk. It just further shows how these big corporations are dehumanizing their workers in order to gain profit. This is a time where we move away from the rural farming ways into urbanization. Supermarkets and department stores replaced how people used to directly grow food for survival and hand sewn clothes. The effect of automobiles became more prevalent as people saw it as a symbol of freedom and communication. I really agree with that. If I didn’t have a car, I would thing that I lost my legs and prohibited me from going to the places that I really want to go with ease by car.  Also because of people owning cars, the use of coal and electricity also increased. I feel like a lot of the problem they faced such as trying to preserve wildlife while trying to further the use of new technology is still present today. For example, to decrease pollution and use of gasoline, we are now trying to use other forms of oil by electricity and solar power rather than gasoline.        

 The interest of celebrities also became more influential in this era. Likewise, we are mostly interested in seemly ordinary Americans who are famous and their private lives. Magazines, radio, and movies about the famous were ways that people can feel as if they can be whatever they want to be and one day achieve that. Today, we look at reality TV and are more than ever involved in the lives of celebrity’s through social media.

Responses to Industrialization

In response to Leo's quotes about the rights of the working man, I found that there were a few quotes I was particularly interested in. The first ones were all about how work is actually beneficial to the society, which I found that to be true. When we are working, we not only learn new things but also the products that we make are beneficial to our society. We need work in order to further humanity. The quote about how we also have the right to rest is also interesting. We all know that rest is important to us, but sometimes resting gets lost in our busy schedules. During the Industrialization period, people had long working hours and were place in harsh conditions. The people were not given the right amount of breaks which lead to many accidents. It makes sense that without rest, people get careless then there work gets careless which could lead to dangerous accidents. Another quote that I found to be particularly profound was about just wages. A just wage is defined to be a sufficient income that can support a family with a wife, children, and himself. However, a just wage is not always seen. People are taken advantage of, especially if they are child workers. These problems still exists today where workers are given minimum wage and can barely support their family.

Ch.17

While reading about the conflicts of the Natives and the miners and settlers into the High Plains, what shocked me was how animals killed were acceptable and encouraged by the settlers and the Army. Especially when they said that in just one year, 430 bison were killed to feed the workers building the Unions Pacific Railroad. What surprised me even more it that the buffalo were seen as a tool to undermine Native resistance.  

The frontier life was hard for settlers as there was little rainfall and psychological troubles that surfaced. It was hard enough to build a house but such dry lands for even harder to grow crops. If I was living in the time, as a woman, I would also go crazy with the limited supplies and the sod houses that was described to be like the ones hogs would live in. I think I would be like the other who just gave up their land and moved on to somewhere that had more rich soil.

As for the new land that the US seceded from Mexico, even though they promised to protect the Mexicans residence but it never really happened. They were pushed out of their land and the Spanish people were expected to adapt to the Anglo American concept. This is really like the situation we have now where it is ironic that the land we lived in used to be from the Spaniards but we are dealing with immigration issues to keep them out of US borders. This issue still exist since Spanish speaking residents are either expected to go back south of the border or assimilate into the Anglo American concept.

Chapter 13

     While reading this chapter, I was really interested in the lives of the immigrants. When they first decided to come to America, they thought of America as an Utopia where they could have better job opportunity and lifestyle. However, they were really shocked after coming here how difficult it was to even acquire land and be landlords. It made me think of how my family were immigrants that was looking for a better life when in reality it was hard to live in a new environment and in an unfamiliar territory. It mentioned how the Germans were secluded within their own neighborhood because they had their own doctors, lawyers, teacher, and merchants making it hard for them to be influential politicians. It reminded me of how as Asians, we would gather in groups, see doctors who can speak my language, and shop in supermarkets that sell the food I am accustomed to.
     I was also surprised that it the Irish would actually have to compete with the free blacks for jobs. I would of though that since they are Europeans that they would have some kind of advantage over the blacks. It seems like the Irish were the poorest because even if they were skilled, they still had to compete with other Anglo Americans. They ended up working for the lowest paying job because no one else wanted to do them. Then towards the end of the chapter, it also mentioned about how Chinese were disliked as immigrant workers. However, after residing in San Francisco, Americans did not stop hiring the Chinese as workers. That really troubled me because if they really disliked the Chinese flowing into America, the Americans should stop hiring them to stop the immigration. However, it did make sense that the Chinese were probably
 the only ones that would want the kind of job that was offered.

Chapter 12

While reading chapter about the Old South and the life of the slaves during the 1800's, I felt that it was interesting how the slaves did not have that much rebellious events. Or if they did other slaves would actually ruin their plans and have them executed. In the case of Denmark Vasey and his abolitionist group, other slaves actually told the authorities that they were going to seize ammunition and rebel against their master. I found that it was interesting how the blacks saw freedom only as a dream and not actively make it into reality. Although there was the abolitionists who helped blacks escape, these hideouts were actually the first place their masters would find their slaves. Also, because the free states in the North was much more urban and had foreign immigrants competing with the blacks for work, it was actually better for the free blacks to become skilled artisans in the South. I feel like the life of a slave with a family is definitely holding them back from claiming their independence. Black people would much rather work and be with their children than risking for freedom, which seems so hopeless and uncertain. Actually their life in general is very hopeless, even if they had a family, many times, their youngest child would die due to malnutrition, diseases, hygiene problems, other times slave families would be sold off to different slave owners since law does not protect black slave families.