Your Ancestors

Have you ever thought about who might have made your family the way it is today? Well you should try it and see what you get.


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The 'Weight of Words' an American History

         6/17/2008                                                                                                          Aron Smestad                                                   History                                                                                                                Final Report

                                                                                                                    

 

                                                             The ‘Weight of Words’

         In America there have been many people who have fought for racial justice, workers’ rights, and how poor people live.  These are just some of the examples that some people stood up for.  Many failed and some succeeded.  But they still kept fighting.  As we live on we see people who still fight for what they believe today.   

 A.      The following are some of the people who did try to make life better.  Susan B. Anthony believed that nobody should be discriminated against because of gender or race.  She worked with an anti-slavery movement until the 14th amendment was passed in 1863.  She became known by using persuasive words to change the U.S. Constitution to include equality for women.  Fourteen years after her death, the 19th amendment was created and was called the Anthony Amendment.  

       Ida B. Wells was a journalist who wrote and spoke against the war on racial injustice.  She had been born into slavery.  Wells talked about the senseless lynching of blacks that took place between the years of 1889-1918 in the South.  2,522 blacks were lynched-50 of those were women.  In 1909, she was cofounder of the N.A.A.C.P. along with Du Bois.      

       W.E.B. Du Bois was born in Massachusetts and became the first black American to earn a Doctorate from Harvard University in 1895.  As a professor at Atlanta University he wrote many essays. The Souls of Black Folk, was one essay which was written to help the goal of advancement and equality for blacks.  Du Bois was also a cofounder of the N.A.A.C.P., and wrote and was editor of their magazine, Crisis, for 24 years.

       Booker T. Washington was born a slave in 1856 and worked as a school janitor to pay for schooling at Hampton Institute.  He believed that blacks would gain equality through education and hard work.  He established the Tuskegee Institute as a major school.  In 1901, after he gave his Atlanta Compromise speech, President Theodore Roosevelt invited Washington to the White House because of his speeches on being patient and encouraged blacks to become educated.  Also he insisted that blacks develop friendly relations with their white neighbors.  

       Jacob Riis, a Danish immigrant, told about the condition of the poor in New York.  He showed this through photography and magazine articles.  In 1890, his book called, “How the Other Half Lives,” caught the attention of then New York Police Commissioner, Theodore Roosevelt.  Riis highlighted in his book the poverty, ethnic and racial backgrounds of different neighborhoods and the unhealthy conditions of living in tenements.  Riis, with his book and pictures, caught the eye of middle class Americans and made them aware of the problems caused by urbanization.

        Karl Marx, a German, thought that workers were always struggling to gain rights under the wealthy factory owners.  He wrote for these workers, and about the dangerous living conditions of workers in large cities.  Marx met with a man named Friedrich Engles, another writer, who inspired Marx to write The Communist Manifesto.  One of Marx’s quotes was “Workers of the world unite! You’ve nothing to lose but your chains and a world to win”. 

         William Jennings Bryan was America’s most famous public speaker between the years of 1890 and 1925.  He was born in Nebraska.  Three times he was the Democratic candidate for president but lost every time.  He felt deeply that America should adopt a silver rather than gold standard and argued against the imperialism of nations.  As a strong Christian believer he drafted laws to prevent the teaching of Darwin’s evolution theory in schools.  People remember Bryan as lawyer of prosecution.

        Many years before Theodore Roosevelt was the 26th U.S. President, he was known for writing factual stories of the American West and the War of 1812.  ‘Teddy’ Roosevelt was also known for his protection and love of nature.  When he was President he established the National Park system.  He also stood up against injustice.  Roosevelt liked to quote a proverb: “Speak softly and carry a big stick...”  He also spoke famous words after he was shot, but recovered and those were, “No man has had a happier life than I have led; a happier life in every way.”

C.        Karl Marx and Ida B. Wells were two people who stood up against problems.  Karl Marx was born May 5^th, 1818 and was a 19^th century philosopher, political economist, sociologist, humanist, political theorist and revolutionist.  He was often called the father of communism.  Karl Marx always thought their was a fight between the Rich and the Workers or the Poor.  He approached this task by writing a book called The Communist Manifesto.  This book portrayed, as Marx called it, the class struggles.  He told workers through his book and through speech that change happened only through revolutionary action.  Marx thought that Jews were the body of communism and that all the evils of it were because of them.  Ida B. Wells Barnett was born in 1862 and was oldest of eight children.  When their parents died in 1880 she took the problem into her own hands and decided she would become a teacher to give themselves money. Although it was hard she never gave up and in 1888 she became a teacher in Memphis, Tennessee.  While she was living in Tennessee she became a co-owner of a local black newspaper "The Free Speech Headlight."  She wrote her editorials under the name of "Iola".  A respected black store owner and friend of Barnett was lynched in 1892, and Wells used the newspaper to argue and attack the evil of lynching.  She also encouraged black women to move west.  When she was attending an editor's convention in New York, Wells received a message saying she was not to go back to Memphis because her life would be in danger.  Wells then took her cause to England to gain help and support.  Once she returned back to the United States, she lived in Chicago. While there she formed the Women's Era Club, the first civic organization for African-American women.  She never forgot her fight against lynching.  She made a book called “A Red Record” which recorded race lynching.  Wells married and had four children.  Once she had had her second child she finally devoted her life to raising her then two children.  But even then she didn’t stop.  By the Twentieth century, lynching and race riots happened across the United States.  In 1909 Wells was asked to join a group called “The Committee of 40”, which became to be known as the NAACP, the oldest civil rights organization in the world.  Wells-Barnett continued her tireless struggle for equal rights until her death in 1931.  Wells and Marx used different ways of disputing their ideas but it still got to the public with a strong will.

D.         In the past we have seen people who did great things for others.  But even now we live with problems in the United States.  Here are some.  Even though we live in the U.S.A. their is still discrimination against some people.   Some people think that everyone who has different skin color than white is inferior.  We might not see that happening but, it happens.  There is racism against religion too.  I have seen with my own eyes a Nazi emblem while playing baseball in the dugout.  This emblem is a sign of hatred!  Another problem that occurs in the U.S.A. is food charities aren’t gathering enough money or donations to have enough food for homeless.  This is happening more and more now because of gas and food prices rising.  People used to make, lets say for example, $120 a month and were paying overall (gas, food, etc) $70.  So they had $50 dollars to give to charity or save in a bank.  Now people are making $130 but, are using $120 dollars and now have only $10 to give to charity or save.  This problem has been rapidly increasing through the past years.  A final problem in the United States of America is the increasing amount of pollution and destruction that man has done to nature.  This is becoming a bigger and bigger problem  because of more and more gas cars on the rode each year.  But, there has been efforts to try and prevent pollution, with the use of Hybrid Cars.  The destruction of nature happens through new roads being built, logging, telephone poles, etc.  Although we do need most of them we could use them less.  These are four issues that I see going on in the U.S.A. today.

 

 E.         The issue that I feel most deeply about is the sky-rocketing prices of things we consume daily.  This is an issue that has been around for quite some time now and it isn’t going away too easily.  Although we are coming up with ways of lowering the cost of products by collecting coupons for stores, there are still problems for the working class.  Even car dealerships are giving away $2.99 dollar gas cards.  This may help for some time but it isn’t going to last forever.  The solutions to this may be only to find more gas and be able to grow more food in our own country.  America needs to become less dependent on foreign countries.

          Gas prices have increased tremendously in the past two years.  I remember it being $2.85 or $3.00.  Now I look and I see $4.09.  This is ridiculous!  We are talking about one gallon, not three or four gallons.  This is effecting people who aren’t as fortunate, money-wise, because they need to buy food as well as gas.  People who don’t have jobs or were fired won’t last long because of the tremendous price increases.  Food charities aren’t even able to help locals who can’t support themselves with their own money.  That is because they aren’t getting enough charity money for them.  We, as Americans, need to help others in need!  Although this problem is way out of reach we can try to find a proper solution.  This a problem that all of us should stand up to.    First, let us look at the facts:

         Gas prices in America are about average all over the world.  Here are some major countries and what they are paying for gas:

So we know that America is paying a record high (for America) $4.09 a gallon.

Venezuela is paying 14¢ a gallon.

Japan is paying $3.84 a gallon.

The United Kingdom is paying $5.64 a gallon.

Gas prices aren’t the only prices soaring.  A CBS news reporter asked a Stew Leonard CEO how much things cost.  He talked about how much tuna fish cost him.  He explained that the man’s cost of fuel used to be $250 and it is now $1000.  Milk has also gone up 18%, since last year, and sadly it costs more than a gallon of gas!  Flour’s price rose 4 times than the price that it was in August and is increasing by the days.  This is due to the cost of fuel that truckers have to pay, in order to transport goods all over the country.  Gas only takes up 4% of a family budget while food takes up 13% of a budget!  Some people argue that gas takes up more of their budget.  This can go either way; it just depends on what is the size of your family and how much you travel.  

         If people in the U.S. learn to grow their own food it would make life less expensive.  We might not even have to grow our own food if us, Americans, didn’t eat so much on a regular basis.  There are people in other countries who might have to starve for two days until they get a meal!  Meanwhile we are stuffing our throats with food and throwing away leftovers.  Can’t you see how picky we are!  We think we can pay for all the food we consume but, maybe in a couple of years we will be the ones who are starving for two or three days.  Is this what America is going to become?  A prosperous country and nation on the verge of starving people who can’t pay for a daily meal.  

         We need to start asking ourselves what we need to do to make America a low-priced country.  One idea could be to go and gather our own oil instead of paying others to do it.  That could lower gas and oil prices tremendously.

         In conclusion, experts say that gas prices and oil prices aren’t lowering anytime soon.  We need to act now to save of country from crumbling.  Do we want to become as poor as dust?  Is America going to become an Africa?  That’s what is going to happen if we don’t take matters into our own hands.  

         People of America, work together!  We are the home of the brave!