Looking Back

I have always considered history to be an important subject because, in my mind, there are not many things that are more educational than knowledge of the past as a foundation for the present. This philosophy, however, has been difficult to maintain because history is typically taught in a way that is extremely difficult for me to grasp and enjoy. This apprehension was ramified when Mama Pugs took charge of the class. With Mrs. Gertmenian, I was sure to endure another year of drowning in history. I learned a ton under Mama Pug's tutelage, in fact i wanted to learn in her class. My participation improved because I actually understood what she was asking us and I wanted to jump in and contribute.

I used to think of history as linear and one dimensional, but this year, I learned that history is still widely open to interpretation. I learned how to write opinion pieces about history, which was enjoyable because it gave me something to explore and taught me to be interpretive. I believe I have a better handle on the present better because I know a bit about the events that brought us here.

What is really cool, is that I find myself reaching for the New York Times, which didn't happen that often before we started blogging and writing on current events. I feel a desire to be informed. I used to avoid books that had historical foundation, but now I am not afraid to tackle them because i have a bearing as to where to put that information in my mind. I know this class was worth my time, and an asset to my future as a writer.

I owe all my enthusiasm for history to Mama Pugs: thanx for an amazing second semester!

Different Goals of Chinese Communist Party

I think the approach of the Chinese Communist Party differed based on who they were talking too. In the first box on pg 766, peasants were being informed of the crimes that the previous government policy inflicted upon them by taking as much of the harvest as they desired. In the second box on pg 769, I find the goal to be different. In this case, an army of rebellious teenagers has broken into an officials house and essentially told him that the people no longer answered to the constitution that the official had previously dictated and impressed upon them.

Memories of the Witch-Hunts

Me: What is your first memory of the Cold War? When did it intrude upon your life?

Dad: My first memory of the Cold War was when hearing about the Communist witch-hunts sponsored by senator Joseph McCarthy. He would bring people in front of the House UN-American Activities Committee and grill them to find Russian sympathizers in the US, and discover people in the US who had communist ideals. I saw newsreels of the hearings. It was frightening. Investigating threats of subversion or propaganda

Me: Did they torture them?

Dad: No, just investigations in a courtroom.

Me: Did they condemn any of the people you saw on the tapes?

Dad: Some of the people lost their jobs, and were publicly humiliated. Some people were black listed even though many of them were not communists. To me it was a form of domestic terrorism. He accused people of pro-soviet subversion and propaganda.

Me: Any racial profiling involved?

Dad: I was too young to understand it. Those hearings were in front of the press and the whole world was watching people being accused of being anti-American.

Me: What kind of emotions were involved?

Dad: Constant rivalry. Everyone was afraid they were going to bomb us, or that we would bomb them. It got so bad that anyone who believed in liberal politics could be accused of being a soviet communist. We were basically at war with another country even though we weren’t at war, or at least trying to avert a war.

Note: After talking to my dad, I did a little research of my own, and discovered that Joseph McCarthy had no direct involvement with the anti-communist investigations. It was actually chaired by John W. McCormack, Samuel Dickstein, and Martin Dies Jr.

Borders

The map of major oil-producing areas easily tells us why some families are hording wealth while the vast majority have nothing. I would like to take a moment to look at the borders of the different countries. From the topographic map, it is clear that most of these borders were not drawn based on land marks, but based on roughly drawn lines most likely written in around the Middle Easts' independence. It is also pertinent to notice that these rough borders fall near or on top of oil rich areas. This must have some significance because conflict could easily erupt around who has jurisdiction over what section of the oil preserves. No one wants to share their chance at the "good life."

Middle Eastern and African Books

Iqbal is the fictional account of a young boy who was sold into slavery at a carpet factory. His determination to strive for a free future changes the lives of all the other children working with him.

http://www.sonderbooks.com/ChildrensFiction/iqbal.html
http://www.powells.com/biblio/1416903291

The Storyteller's Beads by Jane Kurtz is the story of two Ethiopian refugees in the 1980's from different religions who must overcome prejudice so that both of them can reach the safety of the Red Cross.

http://books.google.com/books?id=OaTYhkvelNUC

AIDS in Nigeria

According to the WHO statistics, AIDS is the number 1 cause of death for people of all ages in Nigeria. 16% of all people who die in Nigeria, are on their death bed because of AIDS. AIDS is the second most prominent cause of death for children under 5 years of age. And with 70.2% of all citizens living below the poverty line, these statistics are not indicative of improvement.

Armenian Genocide Research Questions

My research questions address the political tension surrounding the acknowledgment of the Armenian Genocide as it pertains to foreign relations, as well as the genocides significance.

What does Turkey have to gain by denying the Genocide? Is it a cultural or political reason?

Why did the Ottomans want to exterminate the Armenians?

Do Armenians feel safe in Turkey today, especially since Turkey does not acknowledge the genocide?

Why was the Armenian monument in France stolen? Did someone want the memories to disappear? Was it a simple theft, or was it connected to the particular monument?

Is Turkey's acceptance into the EU hindered by Turkey failing to acknowledge the genocide?

Will Obama risk the America's relationship with Turkey in order to bring up Turkey's denial of the genocide?

Did any countries come to the aid of the Armenians back in 1915?

Armenian Genocide and Politics

In a BBC article, titled Armenian Diaspora Bound by Killings, Steven Eke touches on how modern day Armenian identity is greatly connected to the events of genocide. Also a law was passed in France “forbidding denial “ of the Armenian genocide. In a second article from the BBC, police investigated the theft of an Armenian genocide monument in Paris. It was said that the Armenia bill might have triggered this attack because there were influences against the bill including Turkey, which still strongly denies the past genocide, and the EU, which also criticized the law. In 2007, Turkey “threatened to restrict US access to a key military base used for its operations in Iraq” states a third article from BBC news, as well as provoke “anti-Americanism throughout Turkey if the bill is passed.”

Dinesh D'Souza and "The End of Racism"

In 1995, Dinesh D'Souza published a controversial bestseller titled The End of Racism. The book discusses how America is no longer fighting racism because people have simply accepted that racism exists, thus stifled progress to prove such ideas wrong. Dinesh D'Souza explores questions regarding racial prejudice and whether or not such a characteristic is innate or culturally acquired. Although I could not find D'Souza's answer to this question, I believe that every individual recognizes racial differences, but I do not believe that racism is an inborn trait. I know that I sometimes use racial profiling and I am sure that this is not naturally a part of me. I most likely observed it in movies or perhaps, unfortunately, from my family. I do not believe that racism started with differences in color; I believe it began with cultural divides and people trying to comprehend why cultures differ. I believe racism developed from confusions and misunderstandings that can occur from language barriers. It was easier to label someone as being strange or foreign rather than trying to find common ground.

The Taliban Vilify Another Minority

On the New York Times website I came across a five minute video Op-Ed called Last Jew in Afghanistan. This is the story of Zablon Simantov who still lives in Kabul, Afghanistan. Most Jews have fled out of fear and pressure from the Taliban even though their Jewish roots have stemmed from Afghanistan since “the seventh century A.D.” and even “as far back as 720 B.C.” Zablon admits that he even sent his daughters away from Kabul. This man is driven by his idea of destiny, and he will never leave Afghanistan because God has chosen this fate for him. The video takes the viewer inside the Flower Street Synagogue that has been ravished by the Taliban. This short film moved me because this man takes a stand in a world that is suffocating his beliefs. The Taliban have made their motives clear, and Zablon knows well that he will not be alive to see a resolution: why else would he send his daughters away? Even those Jews who want to return to Afghanistan cannot until a proper government is established and security returns to the borders. This video proves that schoolgirls are not the only ones being punished by the Taliban: Jews are receiving the barbed end of the whip as well.

Women's Roles in the US

The roles of women have evolved a great deal, and it has been known that such progress typically takes place in the midst of war: when the capabilities of a country are stretched, so are its social rules. I believe that the role of women in both world wars was to stay at home and sport the home front until the situation became so dire that the government was forced to ask women to take some duty for the war. In WWI, they hired women as nurses and telephone operators overseas. In WWII they needed army plane pilots. The first ever all women’s pilot program, known as WASP, was founded on experimental grounds to meet the need for pilots to fly the planes coming off of assembly lines and the demand for supplies to be flown from one place to another.

The only apparent difference in combat was that in WWI, the soldiers loved having the women around. However in WWII, the soldiers made it very clear that they disapproved of women flying planes for the military. After the conclusion of both wars, women’s roles fell back into their previous mold. After WWI, women returned to their homemaking, and after WWII, women were not able to fly for the army for another thirty years. This proves that total war has forced exceptions to gender roles onto society that the majority of the population was not psychologically prepared for.

The Presence of WWII

Movies:
The Sound of Music- The musical story of a family living in Austria in 1938. Captain Von Trapp is summoned by the Third Reich to continue his service in the navy. The family must leave Austria to escape Nazi officers trying to track them down.

South Pacific- A musical comedy taking place in 1943 on the Solomon Islands where military nurses and US navy men are preparing for an invasion toward New Guinea and the Central Pacific.

Theater:
The Diary of Anne Frank at the Ashland Shakespeare Festival- the story of a Jewish girl and her family hiding from the Nazis.

Dance Concert (at ODC):
In the Memory of the Forest by Brenda Way- Choreography of the memories of a young Jewish girl who escaped Warsaw by traveling through the forests of Russia

Books:
Milk Weed by Jerry Spinelli- the story of a Jewish orphan boy in Warsaw during the Nazi occupation, and his experiences and losses in and out of the ghetto.

A Separate Peace by John Knowles- The story of two teenage boys attending high school during the early years of the war.

The Defense Regulation 18B and the Fifth Column

Published December 4, 1940

Defense regulation18B was implemented this past May to protect Britain from possible traitors and spies residing there. For those who are unfamiliar with this legislation, it is used to take a person into custody on grounds of association or participation with a threat to the state, without a trial. Only days after the Defense Regulation 18B was put in place, the British Union of Fascists was stripped of its influence because of a number of arrests. The party was put under close observation after it released an advertisement aimed at recruiting teachers. The stated purpose for this regulation was well intended, but eventually paranoid officials used the regulation as grounds to arrest people that should not have been detained. A schoolteacher this past June was taken into custody after discussing with her students the tragic potential of a Nazi world, one in which British families might even feed on household pets. A harsh reprimand seemed appropriate punishment, while imprisonment seemed unnecessarily harsh. In August it was determined that more than 1,600 people were being detained without trial under the Defense Regulation. The numbers swelled because of the Fifth Column, a system in which anyone associated with a group that was known to have aided enemies could be imprisoned. Although it could be argued that Britain had no moral right to arrest people according to their political beliefs, this was a measure of precaution that the Secretary of State thought would better protect Britain. The Nazis engendered a certain fear in the British government, like feeling there was a tick on your skin after someone else has found one. However, there should be a limit to the power government has with which to govern especially in trying times because otherwise anxiety can undermine the need for trust.

Facing Decisions of War

I think NBC aired this piece on the 50th anniversary of the atomic bomb because, despite whether or not it was the right thing to do, it was still a momentous event in history that requires ample reflection. I do not condone the use of the atom bombs in 1945, however back in WWII, the circumstances called for a new rulebook. The threat of the Nazis made all moral codes appear obsolete in the decisions of warfare. In the eyes of the US Government, the bombs were a realistic counterattack to the horrors initiated by the Nazis. The Nazis killed millions, versus the bombs killed less than five hundred thousand.

The only aspect of this video that scared me was hearing an elementary school girl say that every time she hears a plane fly overhead she fears it will drop a bomb. I find it surprising that she would still fear such an attack when the war is long past. Does this imply that her teacher did not explain that the threat of another bombing died with the war's end? I can only hope that this kind of fear will not morph into a desire for revenge, or justification for strengthening nuclear warfare capabilities.

Similar Textbook Construction

Our textbook separates the events leading up to the Holocaust and WWII by country instead of by date, which for this chapter I thought was appropriately done because so much was going on at once that inserting all that was going on in one year in all the different countries would have gotten all scrambled up. I much prefer to fully learn what happened in one country at one time and then move on to the others, so that I can naturally weave the chronological order together in my head. If I was writing this textbook, I would have done this chapter very similarly as it was done in our history textbook. I would title it The Holocaust and WWII, start with an introduction of early fascism and then its first real application with Mussolini in Italy. Then I would dive into Nazi Germany and complete the German history before moving on to the countries. Then while introducing other events experienced by other countries I would weave in connections to Germany.

My Parents' Connections to WWII

Dialogue with my mom:

Me: Did Poppi enlist to fight in WWII?

Mom: After graduating from college at age 17, dad decided to sign up for the navy. He was quickly recognized as a potential officer for the navy.

Me: What does being an officer mean?

Mom: I don’t know exactly, but it meant that he wasn’t going to fight. He was further tested and determined to have a very high IQ. He was brought into a special ‘think tank’ where he was involved in breaking codes and breaking strategy.

Me: Did he ever tell you about it?

Mom: Throughout his life, he was most reluctant to discuss the details of his experience, which he said was because his involvement was ‘classified.’ I also know that dad met mom immediately after he enlisted and they were married two weeks later, only days before he went into service.

Me: Do you know any of the codes he helped break?

Mom: Not really. I know he was involved with breaking the Japanese code. He was also involved with interpreting encrypted correspondence between Nazi allies. He never learned to operate a gun, he was a navy brain.

Dialogue with my Dad:

Dad: My dad was a doctor. His name was Milton. He was an eye surgeon. He was an officer in WWII, he was called a flight surgeon. He was stationed in Massachusetts, I’m not sure of the town but somewhere in Massachusetts. So he enlisted as a doctor.

Me: Did he tell you any stories about it?

Dad: He never spoke about it with me. Also my uncle, your great aunts husband, Arthur Roth, was a pediatrician in the army. But they were all based in the US, they were not in the European theater of operations.

Me: What is the European theater?

Dad: It referred to the battlegrounds in Europe.

Me: Anyone else?

Dad: I think my uncle— your great, great uncle— was an attorney for the US army in New York City, His name was Hyman Chipkin.

Me: Do you think it was especially important for your family to be involved in WWII because they were Jewish?

Dad: Oh yes. They were Americans fighting for freedom. This was a war against oppression. This was a righteous war. This was not like any other war that we have ever had. WWII was fighting against a force that wanted to dominate the entire world. The Fascist government of Germany was trying to subdue every country including our own. Because my family were American Jews they felt doubly responsible to help the war effort.

Me: Because they could?

Dad: Yes because here, in America they could. I know so many people whose grandparents were in concentration camps. Nazis were snuffing out the innocent just because they were in the wrong place at the wrong time. It’s just unbelievable.

Me: Do you know anyone in our direct family that perished in the holocaust?

Dad: No one in my direct family was lost. They immigrated from Austria before the war. They were smart. I never talked to my grand parents about what happened with their parents.

Proposition 8: What Would Hitler Really Say?

Over the past few decades, very few political parties have equated the opposing side to Nazi Germany. Right here in California such an argument was made in late October over Proposition 8. Since it was passed in November, Prop 8 eliminated the rights for same-sex couples to wed in California. Back in October, a spokesman for the ‘Yes on Prop 8’ campaign preached to a crowd of supporters drawing a parallel between the opponents of Prop 8 and Nazi Germany. In other words, Brad Dacus warned that if Prop 8 were to be struck down, it would be like letting the Nazis win. Brad Dacus is the President of the conservative Pacific Justice Institute, an organization of lawyers who specialize in defending religious freedoms. In a video posted on YouTube and many other prominent websites, Brad Dacus fervently spoke to a group waving yellow “yes on Prop 8” signs. Dacus reasoned that because the Church allowed Hitler to take care of “the soul of Germany” bombs fell on Germany and its churches. He closed with the phrase: “Let us not make that mistake folks.”

In this case, Dacus made the mistake. He mistook the bell of change in favor of equal rights for the threat of terror released by the Nazis. Dacus should have thoroughly explored the history behind his metaphor before preaching it to a group of supporters and a hungry cameraman because his comparison was completely off base. Since Dacus released this can of worms, I felt I had the duty to reassess his comparison. First of all, Dacus and Hitler were both rightwing extremists, who hated homosexuals. I see a much greater similarity between those two men than between the Nazis and supporters of gay rights. Hitler strove to create an Aryan racial state, by eradicating all people who were not Germanic. Does this sound at all like denying marriage that is not between one man and one woman? A form of xenophobia cultivated by religion and propaganda convinced people, even in the twenty first century, that the sanctity of their marriage and their children’s marriage was under attack. In extension, Dacus actually implied that gays should be rounded up and sent off to concentration camps, and maybe even the gas chambers because their differences made them incompatible with the “right” way of life. And, as everyone knows, “might makes right.”

Gay marriage is a particularly difficult issue to bring into political debate. It is almost impossible for people to separate their church from their politics because it is their religion that helped to formulate their views on this topic. I understand that some people voted to enact prop 8 because they feared the “homosexual lifestyle” would be exposed to children, but Dacus made no such argument.

According to Dacus, defeating homosexuals is like defeating Hitler. I believe Dacus used such an analogy because he thought that no one would dare contradict such an argument. But the truth is that Christians were not the ones persecuted during the Holocaust, so Dacus has no right to put forth such a horrendous analogy. Gay people wanted the same rights as every other racial or religious minority. There was no room for such differences in Nazi Germany; I hope that one day everyone in our country will choose to include those who are different.

The foundation of America was built on the idea that religious and racial freedoms would one day be equally acknowledged. At one time it was women’s rights, and then interracial marriage. Our constitution was written to protect minority groups, and that is why the California Supreme Court voted to extend marriage to gays in May of last year. However, the statewide vote on Proposition 8 stood against the foundation of our constitution. This proposition asked the majority to determine the rights of a particular minority group, one that many religions have a particularly hard time accepting. I believe it was wrong to place this question before the public because minority rights are designed to protect the minority from the majority. Because gay people are a minority group, having their rights defined by public majority vote is therefore, by definition, unconstitutional.

Appeasement

For the most part, I am not the type of person that likes to resort to appeasement, however, this rule of thumb is broken when it comes to my needy miniature dachshunds. When Cocoa gets on my lap, I know that she will stare at me longingly wagging her tail, climb up my stomach, and lick me until I pet her. Of course, if I give into a few pats, this usual leads to a long belly rub. On days that I don't drive home, Cocoa jumps into my lap and starts her routine that ends every time with me appeasing her. My dogs are the only ones that I appease: my parents are not so lucky. With my parents I would much rather argue it out than let them have their way without substantial reasoning. The only times I recall appeasing them is if I am wrong, lethargic, or lackadaisical.

Once Upon a Time Hitler was not a Threat

William C. White discusses in his article, Adolf Hitler, The Man and His Program, the threat of Hitler before WWII. White inaccurately compares Hitler to the “racket” the Klu Klux Klan once made in America. In March 1932, when this article was written, the Klu Klux Klan was the most concrete comparison to Hitler and his followers. From the tone of this article, I sense that America allowed Germans to idolize Hitler and his ideals because the Germans were helpless from the depression. Hitler was their hope, and the consensus in America was that there was no harm in letting Hitler reassure the broken Germans. This idea was completely misguided, yet it was supported by the impressions of Hitler reporters published. The Germans, in the eyes of the Americans, were suffering from the inheritance of reparation payments for a war they did not fight in or cause. Hitler did not try to pacify the anger of the Germans, instead he “offer[ed] someone to blame for their misfortunes— the Jews.” Hitler gathered the people’s anger and hurled the combined fury into the most destructive accusation in history.
Hitler himself did not have a proper German citizenship until after he was released from prison, and not long before his nomination for the Presidency of the German Republic, yet he later condemned people that did not fit within his Aryan racial state.
The article argues that Hitler is only a threat if he manages to take power, which at the time was completely improbable because Hitler had vowed he would not take the reins of power through illegal means, and statistics provided evidence proving that Hitler could not win the majority in an election. Whoever calculated those numbers focused on mathematical laws and forgot to account for the capabilities of the human mind: people are unpredictable, especially in a state of perpetual desperation. Turning to Hitler was not a rational decision, but none of these people had asked to be subjected to the Treaty of Versailles either.

Fascism in the 21st Century

Attending school to receive a proper education has always been an expected part of my life whether I wanted it for myself or not. I feel privileged and somewhat guilty when I hear of the terror befalling girls in Afghanistan who simply want to attend school, and are barred from doing so because of the Taliban. These girls risk their lives everyday just walking to school, but for them, the opportunities that an education make possible greatly outweigh the risks.

The political momentum of the Taliban today has similarities to the fascist movements that took place in Europe during the 20th century. The Taliban target activities that do not follow certain strict traditions: women attending school are encountering acts of violence by the Taliban, increasingly so since public schools for girls were shut down. The role of women in Afghanistan has been progressing into a new phase, but the Taliban want women to remain in their traditional place as mothers and housewives who cover themselves completely when outside their own homes. The fascist movements in Italy and Germany put constrains on the freedoms of women as well. Presenting the ideal role of women as mothers and homemakers. These figures in Europe tried to convince women that they should return to a recently abandoned image of a woman's place in the home through means of persuasive propaganda and occupational limitations.

The goal of the fascist ideals constructed for women in Europe is different from that of the Taliban. The Europeans believed that increasing the population was a sign of a strong leader. In order promote large families and subsequently increase birthrate, propaganda was widely distributed to provide men with the image that the ideal family raised a flock of children. In contrast, the militia in Afghanistan are not concerned with whether or not their terrorizing tactics garner support. Their concept of control requires fear to induce conformity. Mussolini and HItler used systems that gained mass support by sympathizing with the plight of the citizens. Hitler's approach gained active support from his followers by initiating an oath of loyalty. The Taliban do not aim to win over the hearts of the Afghans: their mere compliance is good enough. For many people, the fear of death associated with disobedience will keep them out of school, but just as many Afghans will pursue their education because it holds the most hope for a better future.

Although the Taliban have once again gained momentum, I do not believe they will have lasting power because so many people experienced a taste of a freer life. No one who has experienced the potential unleashed by education would give it up without a fight. Even thought the Afghani government has given the Taliban some legal power, as Hitler once did in Germany, I believe that the Afghanis will endure this set back and eventually rebuild public schools for girls because the ember of determination has already been set.