Out for an adventure...Railroads

     For my blog post this week I am posting my opinion about Riding the Rails, a video we watched in English. It was really quite interesting.
     Life in the 1930s for everyone was rough, many families were desperate and the teenagers were tired. Some teenagers went on the trains for and adventure, others were running away from home due to dysfunctional families and others were traveling for a job so they could send money back home.   There was a 72year old man still riding the railways. One black man was riding the railways back into Louisiana and the authorities were looking for a black man matching the description of this teen. The alleged culprit was black so the conductor kicked the kid off the train. The man later remarked that being kicked off the train saved his life. There were so many migrants  coming to California that for 6 weeks there were not migrants allowed to go to California. I liked the personal stories about what made the teens so desperate to pick up and leave. I did not like that California closed its doors that is TOTALLY unconstitutional. I loved hearing what made the teenagers want to pick up and leave just like that. I loved comparing their mentality to the mentality to teenagers today. I loved hearing how riske and how on the edge these teenagers were. I loved the compare and contrast with our world and theirs back then.

Comparing the T(ea

     
   I want to apologize for the no show post last week so I have 2 posts one a Utah write and the other a T(ea) chart  based on the SAGE testing.
    You may notice my title comparing the T(ea). Kade Jackson inspired me to compare Mormons and tea and I decided to do a T chart comaring the SAGE testing that went  on in my English class today.

              SAGE  Testing    (sage '15)                    |      last year SAGE
_______________________________________|___________________________________________
                                                               
* Sage testing has a section more essay writing   | * SAGE was done at the end of the year
based                                                                     | *SAGE essay questions were less stupid
*sage '15 text to speech was worse                       |* SAGE there was a lot more pressure on students
*sage '15 is more weighted in politics                  | *SAGE It was harder for me to type a paragraph in
*sage '15 felt less stressful                                    |  1 hour
*sage '15 I was given more preparation before    | *SAGE the prep my teachers gave me before
  the test (thanks Mrs. Bailey!)                             |  SAGE was not beneficial b/c teachers were very
*sage '15 had stricter policy                                 | clueless


              |
  The most basic guaranteed ideas that some have considered a right through modern history. "If you work hard you can achieve  financial success"- Ben Franklin. That famous quote is the root of one of the most internationally known ideas about America, the American dream. The question posed asks if the American Dream is alive and available to all today?  The American Dream is defined as: equality to all citizens to the same privileges and right before the law.(By The People, 2008) Belief is different from availability. The fight for the dream, the ideals fought for, and the American Dream today are all part aspects of the American Dream and its availability.
    The fight for the American Dream is one fought by almost every type of ethnic group and every type of people.  People have fought for the ability to receive the American Dream and the chance to have it. One of the most famous articles written during the Civil Rights Movement is the Letter Dr. Martin Luther King wrote while in Birmingham Jail to some clergymen. In the letter Dr. Martin Luther King said, "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere." Meaning that no matter where injustice is it is a threat. Injustice is a threat to the American Dream because the American Dream is just and injustices always threaten the just. The Civil Rights Movement wanted the American dream for the African Americans who did not have the ability to get the American Dream. Langton Hughes in the poem Let American Be America Again stated " I am the poor white, fooled and pushed apart, I am the Negro bearing slavery's scars. I am the red man driven from the land, I am the immigrant clutching the hope I seek-- And finding only the same old stupid plan of dog eat dog, of mighty crush the weak." Meaning that the fight for justice has involved everyone, or to take it a bit further the fight for the American Dream has involved everyone. The fight for the American Dream started out as the Revolutionary War. Colonists were tired of England bossing them around.England's law preventing them from doing whatever the colonists wanted to do.  During war there has always been a fight for the American Dream. Men and Women die so that our nation will remain  safe and free. That their children and grandchildren will be able to live in harmony and free from fear with the ability to do whatever they want. The American Dream fight has been shown through suffrage, the Civil War, The Revolutionary War, both World Wars, the Civil Rights Movement, through Supreme Court Cases and millions of protests. The fight for the American Dream has been going on since the beginning of our country and continues today.
     The American Dream interpretation has changed over the years yet the principles stay the same. Martin Luther King fought for tension for force change a change of injustice racial signs, and civil rights equality. King said, "Its ugly record of brutality is widely known. Negroes have experienced grossly unjust treatment in the courts." To King and many others the American Dream included equality for the African Americans. In the poem Let American Be American Again it stated "Equality is in the air we breathe. (There's never been equality for me, Nor freedom in this "homeland of the free.") ." Meaning Langston wanted equality for all. "Some of the most common principles to the dream are social equality, economic equality, equal outcome, political equality, equal opportunity. "(By The People, 2008) President Lyndon B. Johnson said, "We should double our wealth, conquer the stars, and still not be equal to the issue, then we failed as a nation." President Johnson said that addressing the inequalities that taint the American Dream. When asking my mom what the dream meant to her she said that the American Dream is "The dream that I will continue to have the freedoms our forefathers secured, to have a chance at good retirement,  and a secure economy. The American Dream involves  a job that I enjoy, enough money to comfortably support myself, the government as far away as possible, freedom, and that my kids will grow up in a safe and free land". The basic principles are equality(in every form), freedom, and a chance. The American Dream is composed of three basic principles and knowing what those principle are will help us better understand their value.
     The American Dream  and what it is today. I am a political science college student and for an assignment my professor asked us to come up with things that are absolutely necessary to be identified as an American for. Ideas like born in the country, opportunistic, social hierarchy, melting pot, free education, and  being united by football were thrown out because they were not absolutely necessary to be identified as American. I then said the American Dream was absolutely needed to be considered American. While that idea was shot down there were some good points to it. The American Dream is something internationally recognized. The American Dream was obviously a dream for Americans and some ideals in the dream were good. However, the thing that shot the American Dream down was the fact that the number of  people who believe that the American dream is available or even possible has significantly gone down in  recent times.  Hughes even said in his poem that  the "dream is no longer today."  While Martin Luther King gave his famous "I have a Dream Speech"  and the whole point of his speech was to make the American dream possible for everyone. Statistics from 2012 show that only 35% of Americans still believe in the dream compared  to 80% in the 1960s. Many who don't believe in the dream said things like "the American dream is harder for people to achieve" or "There never was such thing as total equality like the dream states". The American Dream has changes over the years to today.
     In conclusion the American Dream is alive and Available today is a matter of opinion. Everyone before us fought to have the American Dream and to those then the American Dream was either alive then or about to be realistic to everyone. Understanding the ideals behind the American Dream play an important role in deciding if the dream is alive and available to all today because the ideas change. The three basic ideas behind the dream are equality, freedom and a chance. President Bill Clinton said,  "If you work hard and  play by the rules you should be given a chance to go as far as your god given abilities will take you." To most Americans the American Dream is neither alive or available today.  The American Dream is the dream of hope, equality, freedom and a chance.