Why didn’t non-violent protesting catch on?

Last class we discussed the civil rights movement and the changes in American society and its global impact. My question is…if MLK was inspired by Ghandi non-violent protest to end British rule in India as a model for change in the United States. Both of which were successful, why hasn’t this approach to change caught on or been more successful. The world is still for the most part changing in places as a result of violence and armed conflict. With the exception of a few places like South Africa, and its push to end appartied we rarely see non-violent protesting as succesful as it was in India and during the civil rights era.

Just something to think about…

Fog of War

I find it interesting Fog of War came out during the high point for the hatred for Donald Rumsfeld. Many people have been critical of both Rumsfeld and McNamara. McNamara for his role in screwing up the Vietnam war. Rumsfeld for screwing up Iraq. Does McNamara’s position support Rumsfeld, or is it critical of Rumsfeld since its showing the mistakes McNamara made, ala Rumsfled is making…

911 is a Joke! At least according to Flavor Flav..

In class we discussed WWII and spent quite a bit of time on Japanese internment. Which I thought was great since I have had a lot of WWII classes already, at least from a Military History NCO, and SNCO point of view. So discussing one of our US history’s more shameful parts was refreshing.

I would argue that you can draw some parralles between our reaction to US Japanese nationals during WWII and our reaction after 9/11. The way Muslims were eyed after 9/11 was suspiciously. Our reaction to 9/11 in the middle east I have internally debated over the years. While the use of military force is justified, the issue is not a military issue. Its a law enforcement issue. The US military can support law enforcement issues during a National emergency, as in Katrina (could have done better) or the War on Drugs (another one we are not sure if we are winning, or not). But the War in Afghanistan should not be seen as War per se, but a law enforcement issue to round up and prosecute, in a US court, the perpetrators of 9/11.

WWII was clearly a violation of our nations soveirgn rights by another nation and therefore military action was appropriate and totally warranted.

Fight for your rights to Purchase!

Last week’s discussion on the rise of the consumer culture got me thinking about how important consumerism is to our economy. Any change in consumer confindence if peopel beging to think the econmony is getting bad, they begin to spend less, which in turns hurts the economy more. Today you can’t turn on the news without hearing how are economy is in a recession or headed towards a recession. Since this could potentially impact consumer purchases this is a dangerous thing to say. Especially when the definition of a recession isn’t even met. A recession is defined as “a decline in a country’s real gross domestic product (GDP), or negative real economic growth, for two or more successive quarters of a year.” This criteria has NOT yet been met, so therefore the media is potentially jeopardizing the consumer confidence and causing the recession to become a reality.

The kotex discussion was a bit uncomfortable. But illustrated that where there is a need the market will develop a product to fit it. Advertising is particular subject I have a problem with. While its clearly needed for me to be successful in business, it is clearly not needed for my oldest son while watching cartoons! Advertising during power rangers just creates false demand for toys, my son doesn’t need. The point of most advertising is to create false demand for products we prolly don’t need. Do we really need all this stuff to be happy? Prolly not, but typing up this class reflection on my MAC Book Pro sure does make me feel clever.

The Game of Life

During the Nativism and Spanish American War lecture prof Boggs brought up the similarities to the Spanish American War and the War in Iraq. Both were about America expanding its influence beyond it’s borders.

Why would a nation care about expanding it influence abroad? Is because Dick Cheney is power hungry despot, is it because Americans demand cheaper oil and gas prices? Access to the markets in China, in the case of the Spanish American War? Maybe…but…

The War in Iraq is not completely about spreading democracy, or completely about finding new markets. Its about preserving our way of life. Democracy leads to individualism…Which leads to choice…Which leads to consumerism…Which leads to capitalism…Which leads to furthering and protecting our way of life, whatever that is. How so? Its hadard to want to fight someone if you have a job, want to live a comfortable life. Free trade and free market economies leads to insuring our way of life.

The same could be argued for the Spanish American War.

Breaking the Law, Breaking the Law!

I hate making light of part of history that is totally and completely wrong, but I got a good laugh when we covered the Virginia law that said inter-ethnicl marriage was against the law in Virginia. When I got home and told my wife that during the 1900’s it was against the law for people of different races to be married, she laughed at the stupidity it of it too. And since my wife is Korean, we gave each other a hard time about whether or not this was the worse law either had broken in their lives.

The discussion about what percent or fraction of a person makes them not white, and, what rights, or treatment was expected to if they were not white, made me think of the day 1/2 Korean, 1/2 white son was born. When he was born and before we left the hospital, the hospital gave us the social security forms to fill out for him, and one of the questions for us to answer was “race”. At this time, there was no “other” box for us to check, so we discussed what we should choose for him, white, or asian. We discussed the benefits of choosing one over the other, or if it really even mattered. And since at the time, it was to hard to tell which one of us he looked more like we could not rely on that. So in the end we chose to check the box asian thinking maybe one day on some college entrance application MAYBE it would benefit him.

Who knows, its stupid we have to chose, and in cosmopolitan places like the DC area, more and more children are born hybrid’s where it totally doesn’t matter.

Civil War

Is it me or did the Gods and Generals movie remind me of the worlds largest Civil War reenactment? The Movie was clearly NOT from the infantrymen perspective, it was all from the leaders (generals POV) …

Cold mtn shows the perspective of the war from the home fronts perspective, and somewhat from the infantrymen’s perspectives (battle of Petersburg.) Conflicting views of civil war, south soldiers didn’t always hate northern soldiers and vice versa.

When Prof Boggs brought up that the Civil War is the most researched, most beloved, and most contested topic in American history made wonder if perhaps the GWOT (Global War On Terror) would one day be studied nearly as much. Our opinions of Bush’s GWOT has divided many American’s. Clearly not as much as the Civil War, but divisive nonetheless.

We read the CSA constitution. Which Says slavery is their right and that whites are better than blacks and have to be slaves masters over them. WOW, that ends any argument about what the war was really over. Those arguments about states rights seem pretty thin now.

Perspective

All of the previous history, and social studies classes I’ve had never discussed history with such a wide range of perspectives. Monday Prof Boggs asked how radical was the American Revolution. From our perspective it was one of the most important changes in history. Compared to the Bolshevik Revolution and to our Russian comrades, how radical and how much of change was it really?

The Patriot is one of the movies that reminds me of those old Soviet propaganda films you might see on the history channel. “The United States; where everything is perfect, and where our values, and beliefs are better than everyone elses.”

We left early to go see Big Willy “Former President Bill Clinton” in the Johnson Center. It didn’t help Hillary though, she lost the VA primary to Obama…

Can’t Imagine

I can’t begin to imagine how horrible it must have been to have been a slave.

Its hard for me to imagine being plucked from your home, stored on ship, sailed thousands of miles, auction off, and forced to labor in extreme conditions. The worst job I ever had was in high school rounding up shopping carts in Wal-Marts parking lot during the holidays. Even in the cold and snow it must have been 100 times better than being a slave. I could quit at anytime and go find something potentially better.

This country was bold enough, thanks to George Mason, to give us our Bill of legal rights, but not courageous enough to give us any human or civil rights until the latter half of this century.

The lecture made be begin to wonder if my ancestors owned slaves. They came to this country n the late 1600’s settling in Virginia. Until recently my family lived predominantly in Virginia and Kentucky. I wonder what the owning slave ration before the civil war was for families? How many families owned slaves? How many southern or southern border states families owned slaves?

The geography of slavery website is very interesting. YEARS ago when I graduated high school and joined the Marines, all we had in history class was a; history book, a wall map, a time line, and a very white perspective of history. The geography of slavery website gives me an interesting perspective on early American life that I had never considered.