billymadisonfromamh-blog

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Tumblr Post 9 - Final post by Matthew Gold

For my Tumblr post, I want to discuss my feelings about my AMH2010 class with Professor Morton, who is very passionate and put a social-media and modern-concept twist on American history leading up to the American Civil War. I wish my schedule wasn’t so rigorous this semester, so I could've dedicated more time in enjoying this course. Some of the topics discussed in class was obviously Andrew Jackson! He eliminated the Second National Bank and abused his power of the executive branch. In class, I found it pretty funny when we started talking about the irony behind Jackson being on the $20 bill, when Jackson would probably roll over in his grave. However, by connecting a modern-twist, I learned that Harriet Tubman (a powerful anti-slave activist who helped hundreds, if not thousands of slaves escape) was a nominee to appear on the $20 bill and here we are today it was announced, Tubman will appear on the new $20 bill! Some of the topics in class, I think were totally appropriate in learning, especially learning about the American Demagogues also dating back to Jackson and Polk. I enjoyed writing my Tumblr post on Louis Farrakhan which was a life-changing to learn about some of the views of Farrakhan using his religious demagogue ideas to explain his input on Donald Trump, ISIS and the unfortunately partially-corrupt U.S. government. As we did very well learn about American Demagogues, I think we should’ve went even more in depth, maybe even have a separate quiz for it, as the content seems to be almost never-ending, but very interesting. I truly don’t think I disliked any assignment we have done, I just think at the beginning of the semester with the whole historical fiction was kind of a waste because my partner never showed up and I couldn’t ask them questions about it and some of the fictions is irrelevant to US history Civl War and before. As for the bias in this class, everything was neutral and fair (to avoid confrontations with students with opposite political beliefs or historical beliefs), I think the social-media twist and films really made the course enjoyable and I would most definitely recommend this course to anyone. Lastly, if someone was in their first semester, probably with easier classes, this student would get a lot more out of the course (possibly change their life), than I did because I had to put attention elsewhere into upper-level science courses. Thank you for an interesting and passionate semester. 

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EC Movie Post 2 by Matthew Gold

For my second tumblr movie review, I have chosen Lapu-Lapu (2002). Lapu-Lapu was the king of an island in the Philippines called Mactan. He is remembered as the first true hero of the Philippines and the first to resist the Spanish in their conquest to try and take over the island and convert it to Spanish settlement - make the islanders convert to Christianity and was left by explorer Ferdinand Magellan. This is basically what the film portrays despite having to watch it without english subtitles; I truly was able to see Lapu-Lapu’s struggle with the Spanish and his overall struggles as king. The best scene of the movie was probably the battle scene which was the Battle of Mactan (in history took place on April 27, 1521) between the Spanish and the Mactan inhabitants, that literally took up about fifteen minutes of the film; it was very realistic. The reason I say this is because in history and based on our AMH2010 discussions about the Spanish, I am picturing a strong and powerfully armed military (swords and armor) against natives of a small island in the Philippines who probably have a small chance due to their lack of technology (used mainly spears) and the movie paints this picture flawlessly! I was truly impressed by it all and the reason why Lapu-Lapu is so important in history is because he defeated a unit of the most powerful military in the world (at the time in 1521) with the best technology. Ferdinand Magellan went in there all cocky and got crushed by the Mactan people, after Magellan and the Spaniards were left devastated, Magellan tried to make a deal with Lapu-Lapu twice to obey Spanish rule and such, but Lapu-Lapu denied his offers and decided to declare war on the Spaniards! Lapu-Lapu was very wise in this manner because he seemed to really care about his Muslim homeland of Mactan and especially his people. I found it pretty difficult to spot any errors in the film, but the main fictitious part of the film I will point out is probably how the movie showed Lapu-Lapu fighting Magellan in the main battle at the end like superhero versus villain, which we know in history, this never happened. From class, I know Ferdinand Magellan was very well killed in this skirmish, but it was by a poisonous arrow shot in his leg, where he then died with a few of his men, but some of the Spaniards did escape to their ships when Magellan ordered the retreat. In addition, the real battle took place in the low-tide, not on the beach of how the movie portrays the Battle of Mactan. However, due to the very-low budget this movie had, when Magellan finally arrived during the second half of the movie, instead of showing a scenic arrival with his three ships in the harbor (which in history happened); the movie displays one ship which mocked Magellan’s ship and that was it.  This was definitely a missed opportunity to really make the movie very historical. One thing that stood out to me about this movie is that a lot of the scenes of this movie portrayed Lapu-Lapu as noble and always making these powerful stances for the camera just like his statue stands in Cebu to really drive on home of how much of a hero he is the audience. Most directors of these movies usually make these mistakes to think that historical figures tended to just stand around with a powerful pose and make several speeches. In conclusion, despite having to watch the movie without English subtitles, I still think this movie did a pretty good job with its budget and didn’t really show that many inaccuracies for the most part, but the way Lapu-Lapu was killed at the end by his enemies seems like bogus because I have conducted a little research on the government website of Lapu-Lapu City, Philippines and there are only legends of how Lapu-Lapu died of natural causes or how he never actually died and just became a statue to continue to protect Mactan. I think this can be a really great movie in modern-day 2016 with a larger budget and a more accurate representation of the Battle of Mactan and Lapu-Lapu’s time of rule and Humabon. By just imagining an epic group of three Spanish ships docking into the Mactan Harbor upon Magellan’s arrival and arrows flying everywhere during the actual Battle of Mactan (since Lapu-Lapu, the movie didn’t really show any) as well as a better ending to the movie would really make this piece of history and historical figure one to remember. I would definitely recommend this movie to anyone who enjoys history, a native Filipino or Spaniard, as this is a major part of their history.

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Tumblr Post 8 by Matthew Gold

For this week’s Tumblr post, I will discuss the documentary “Myanmar: The Hidden Genocide”. I can’t believe for almost 4 whole years, I have never heard of any of this... To sum up the documentary, basically on May 28th, 2012, a Rakhine buddhist woman was tortured, raped and killed by three bengal muslims. After this incident, a bus full of ten Rohingya muslims tried passing through Toungop and the residents of this anti-muslim town, beat all ten of them to death. Now Rohingyas were outraged, but no government action was taken. On June 8th, 2012 post-Friday prayer, Rohingyas brawled with Rakhine in a Rakhine district, Rakhines came out with force - modern genocide and ethnic war was beginning. People were butchered and shot; houses were burnt down, etc. This film is a perfect example of ethnic-cleanising, due to the fact that Rohingya and Rakhine were at war with one another. Rakhines are not welcome of any sort of Rohingya unfortunately. Rakhines are taking advantage of Rohingya and vice-versa, by means of human-trafficking which then leads to rape and slavery, yes, even in modern-day slavery does exist. Just like the 18th century, this is all chattel and forced-labor slavery. Next, there is most definitely a certain bias in this documentary, I see film makers really are pushing the fact that Rakhines are issue, but Rohingya started this all from the beginning and I am sure Rohingyas have done cruel things to Rakhines.  After finishing this documentary, I am wondering, why did the government just open-fire at Rohingyas? What about other countries or even allies of Myanmar, was there really no action taken on these issues other than genocide? The U.S. is involved in every issue, but not this makes, which me cringe, I googled if President Obama has spoke on this issue and stumbled upon a video on his speech at the University of Yangon, Myanmar. He emphasizes that discrimination must stop against Rohingya, which I respect. However, the U.S. tries to get involved in Syria with ISIS and all, but Myanmar deserves a little bit of our effort too, whether it’s a few task forces or special ops. It is pretty obvious at this point that the Rakhines out number the Rohingyas and it is a modern Holocaust with the camps and etc. I am influenced by this documentary to feel sorry for the Rohingyas and this hate; this is the first time I have ever heard about the “Myanmar ethnic genocide” and will continue to look into any charitable donations or any support for any help for displaced Rohingyas and families. I also think social media should expose what goes on in Myanmar to really catch peoples’ attention. In addition, I have done a little research about the issue of this ethnic-cleansing and the best way to make a difference is to use social media to expose and spread awareness and I have found a direct non-profit, charitable organizations called World Food Program and Action Against Hunger to help the displaced Rohingya families and children. Fellow Americans or anyone can donate food or a a few bucks to help these people in need. As I wrap up this post, I am going to continue to monitor the ethnic crisis going on in Myanmar and donate a little something to these organizations and mention to my family who are usually generous with donations to look upon this issue.

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EC 1, 1492: Conquest of Paradise by Matthew Gold

For my first extra credit assignment film, I chose 1492: The Conquest of Paradise (1992). A quick overview about this film: In 1492, Christopher Columbus went on a voyage "west" to go to "Asia", but ended up discovering the "New World", but really? Columbus sure enough made it to the caribbean, but that’s it. This film was obviously fictitious in nature because this movie made Christopher Columbus look like a “hero” or a “good-guy” which we all know from Professor Morton’s AMH2010 class; Columbus shouldn’t be the person we celebrate to because of how much of a monster he is, truly! The film makers wanted to just have a good time and imagine how Columbus mythically discovered the real world and there are so many facts about this movie that are wrong, wrong, wrong and LIES! For example, in this film, Columbus is portrayed as the man that is so ahead of his time and so smart contradicting the flat Earth theory and that the Earth is round, but most people believed by this time that the Earth was indeed round, we didn’t need Columbus in the movie to prove anything because ancient Greece mathematicians already had proven that the Earth was indeed round remembering one of our class discussions. Another example how the film depicts Columbus as a man ahead of his time, they make him look like an absolute genius when navigating by the 24th parallel and the navigating by the north star. None of his crew in the movie had any idea how to navigate by the stars or anything, but yet again, by this time, navigating by the stars is a pretty-known method at this point in time, so make Columbus look so unique? Next, another inaccuracy in this film, according to my notes from class, Columbus’ first voyage was not nine weeks; it was five weeks… In this film, they show the crew almost revolting against Columbus because there was no site of land anywhere over nine weeks, but it was really five weeks. Also, when the first site of land was discovered on his first voyage, it was believed to have been around midnight/early morning, but in the film it was at like sunset. Also, who ever discovered land first, Columbus made the award to be 10,000 coins, but no, in history, the King and Queen made the award. This film also makes Columbus borderline peaceful in some manner - when he discovered the Lucayans, in history he wanted to make them servants, kidnap them and steal their gold. In the movie, Columbus respects the Lucayan people, which we know the real Columbus from class was NOT like this AT ALL; he is a monster. This movie just makes me hate Christopher Columbus so much more because he is a rapist and in the movie, he’s shown laughing and being such a “good-guy” to these innocent little girls/children, in history, we know by his journal that he was the complete opposite, I don’t even want to imagine anymore about this guy and the poor children because in history, Columbus gave his crew 9/10 year old girls as gifts for them to rape, in which the movie “rape would be punished”, unbelievable. There are many more inaccuracies, but for the sake of my Tumblr post, I want to start reviewing the film as a bad movie of history. I am not so angry about the inaccuracies portrayed in this film; it is mainly due to the fact the Columbus is celebrated as the hero, when we all know he’s not and a big coward. This film will also brainwash people for this exact reason to continue to celebrate Columbus Day. I can’t even imagine if a family went and saw this movie and went on to think “Wow, Columbus is such a great explorer and hero!” I personally think this film, even being produced in 1992, shouldn’t have gone this far about all of this, to even have the audacity in regards to historians and to people who know their history. The film was obviously filmed in a tropical island which is great, but there is a lot of scenery used for the wrong purposes and the whole scene on Columbus’ first voyage when land was discovered, it was all magical, foggy and suspicious (in history, it was discovered at night time). We all know people who know their history will view this film as just a little wanna-be and fictitious event in history, of which most people wish (including my self) that Columbus really discovered North America and was a smart and gentleman, but after learning the devil he truly is, I can’t comment anything more in his favor, sorry, but not sorry Columbus; I wish I had known all of this before I enjoyed my day off from school, on October 12, 2015 thinking that Columbus actually meant something to history, except he’s yet again a monster and I hope he’s rotting his grave.

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Tumblr Post 7 Demagogue - Matthew Gold

This week’s Tumblr post features American demagogues that have been around since the beginning of the American democracy since Jackson and Polk. In class, we discussed that demagogues have existed way back to B.C. times! For this assignment, I had the pleasure of watching the documentary “Louis Farrakhan: Angel or Devil?”. A brief summary about the demagogue I chose starts by topics addressing racism, terrorism and peace. A very religious demagogue like Farrakhan’s using the Quran’s philosophy, but only for the better- PEACE. Louis Farrakhan, runs the Nation of Islam group and is also an educator amongst the American people. Alex Jones interviews Louis and discusses his religious knowledge and ideology from the Quran and Bible. Louis Farrakhan, addresses the presidential candidates running for nomination and he totally surprised me when he said “I admire Mr. Trump.” Louis admires him solely because Donald Trump said “NO” to the lobbyists, the rich capitalists and other politicians; it’s not about money with Donald Trump, he’s running for office only for America and the people, where Farrakhan mentioned that the rich have an agenda for the prospective candidates like Ted Cruz, Rubio (no longer in the race), but Trump will not have an agenda, but his own, since he said “NO” to the rich which is why Farrakhan respects Trump. Farrakhan also agrees with the limiting of Muslims on entering the United States. Farrakhan address that due to our shift in foreign policies in regards to muslim immigration, hatred is concentrating big time in the middle east. So Louis mentions, why let in these refugees if the hate for America is already so great? Farrakhan then praises, “We would be letting in our OWN destruction.” This is probably the most influenced I have been in the past year for someone to truly explain what is happening in the middle east and what would most likely happen if we continue to let in destruction. I’ve never heard of Louis Farrakhan until this week and my first and last impression will mainly be he is only for the better for the people and his philosophy is very enriching that the American people deserve a government, as for our police force- the job is to work on behalf of the government and bring those criminals to justice, not kill them. When the criminals are killed, the police have unfortunately failed the government and the government has failed the people, obviously if the police forces’ lives are in danger that is different. The media has lost all credibility by lying to the public. Barack Obama is the CEO, according to Louis Farrakhan, he just runs the business of “USA INC”. JFK was killed because he understood the conspiracy back to the Founding Fathers of the wealth and banks of America. I understand that this documentary is a conspiracy theorist interviewing one of the most respected black male in our nation, but I solemnly agree with the fact that some of the American people are using Obama for racial division. We need peace and that’s what Louis Farrakhan preaches, he says “Tornadoes, fires burning in California, destruction of farmland, terrorism…This is all just the beginning…A War is coming.” It all makes sense now, we must resolve every issue destroying America, destroying the World; we need the 2016 president to agree and come to peace with all and save America.

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Tumblr Post 7 - Matthew Gold

For this week’s assignment I have chose to watch the documentary about Dick Cavett’s Vietnam War show from 1968-1975. On this show, Dick Cavett invites many guests- from pro-atheletes, military generals, authors, actors, etc. My favorite part was watching Woody Allen crack a joke about how he entertained Americans that fled to Canada to escape the draft, someone booed and Woody Allen responded, “...if you disagree with anything I say...come down here and we can sock each other in the mouth a couple of times.” 

Vietnam was a French colony before the war, but communist patriot Ho Chi Minh, drove his forces into North Vietnam and continued his revolution down to South Vietnam by the end. After World War 2, communism was a global phenomenon. The Pentagon Papers that had gotten leaked in the 1960s that questioned every single American’s trust in the U.S. Government; this was an issue since 1947. President Kennedy, in 1961, got America so much more involved in Vietnam- expenditures including helicopters, weapons and etc. JFK wanted to see a stable government in North Vietnam. In August 1964, the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution was the absolute start to major involvement in Vietnam; it gave President Johnson to take any measure needed to secure southeast Asia.

Amongst these actions, President Johnson set a draft to 50,000! As a healthy, male, college student, I would have been most likely drafted. I can’t imagine the fear and anger amongst all of the college students at the time of war and even last-year high school students. Some of these students, never had the opportunity to ever set foot in a college classroom; there last memory may have been getting ambushed by Vietcong. 

One bias in this documentary that continually stuck out to me, is Fredrik Logevall who seemed to be very against all of President Johnson’s and the U.S. government’s actions. He said, “...apply a little more military power in different ways.” I have a question for you Fredrik Logevall, what different ways/more military power are you talking about? I think JFK (missile crisis) and Johnson (Vietnam) had the hardest decisions to make. Overall, most of the bias in this documentary is definitely anti-Vietnam thinking the Johnson administration did everything wrong. I agree with actor Warren Beaty. He was pro-war and blamed this Vietnam phenomenon on himself and the American people, the experts can’t do it all! I agree with this statement by Timothy Naftali (historian), “The best and the brightest got us into this war, but can't get us out!” Lastly, this is pretty much what Warren Beaty said because we relied on the best in the game, but it’s really we the people, that need to step-up. 

The Kent State tragedy where four unarmed college students were killed by state officials is absolutely terrible. The country was at a boiling point after we invaded Cambodia. Nixon wanted to withdraw troops, but continued to bomb North Vietnam and even though he wanted to shrunken the war, he seemed to have made it a lot worse. According to Dick Cavett, everyone is just confused! John Kerry’s words truly shocked me, when he was in Vietnam, he didn’t feel that he was fighting for safer democracy, he felt it was just to fight. 

This time in U.S. history was probably the biggest devastation to our military and American people. So many lives were lost, all for a cease-fire agreement and peace in January 1973, all to be broken and Vietcong to concur South Vietnam and unite Vietnam as a communist country. The bottom line and overall point to this documentary is, don’t get America into a war that we can’t get out of. There are many secrets to this war and time in U.S. history, all we can ask and hope for is the truth someday and to honor all of the men and women that lost their lives during this time of panic in U.S. history.

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Voting EC - Matthew Gold

Voting in the recent primary was my absolute first time voting in my entire 20 years of life! It was a great feeling being able to use my 15th amendment and vote for my candidate of choice. I participated in the Florida Closed Primary, since I live here in Florida, but I actually had to register for a new voter’s card since I was actually an independent before this. I am choosing not to disclose my party affiliation for this election. My process in casting my vote was very simple, I did the early voting and just sent in the ballot through the mail which was a lot more convenient. The ballot to vote off of was very clear and not confusing at all luckily, I was a little nervous about that. It all went very smoothly. As for concluding my decision on whom I wanted to vote for, I used some of my decision by watching the debates, listening in our current AMH2010 class and reading several online news articles. I read CNN, FOX and the NY Times articles almost everyday to stay on top of things. Obviously, FOX and CNN are very biased on certain presidential candidates and such, but NY Times really pointed out the obvious and wasn’t as biased in helping me conclude my decision and pledge for the preferred candidate of my choice. I found it very interesting though, the voting process is heavily influenced by the journalists and news stations, but now even Facebook is helping in brain-washing certain people who know nothing about the candidates.

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Matthew Gold - Tumblr post 5

To start off, I am a true advocate for equal rights amongst race, gender, religion, etc. I think from the start of time, women should’ve always had rights, but with past history this was not the case. The colonies didn’t value women’s rights until the Seneca Falls Convention (1st female rights convention in America) in 1848 and in 1920, the 19th amendment was ratified for women suffrage – granting women the right to vote. However, there were still many discrepancies between men and women rights because voting is everything. After viewing the film, “Untold: Women Who Changed the World,” it made me realize that many of these feminist ideologies and even household/family events still occur in today’s society, even in my household. Some examples, man goes to work, woman goes shopping and cleaning, then cooks dinner and then cleans it all up while the man sits on the couch and watches TV. I do remember my mom sometimes calling my dad a “Couch-Quarterback” as a joke, but as time went on and I got older, I started doing chores and helping out, but these events of making women do the “house work” still is present today! Next discussion, Betty Dodson, told about her story and her sexless marriage. The pill came out and evolved women’s rights and their boundaries sexually, the pill helped prevent pregnancies. Women were afraid to have sex because of the risk of pregnancy, but at the time of the pill abortion has on the line of becoming illegal, so women fought for their rights, since it is their body. Many horrific events were as a result of abortion being the “shameful act”, some women unfortunately died from trying to terminate their own pregnancy, just so people wouldn’t find out. I am pro-abortion for ONLY two reasons, but the two reasons: 1) rape and 2) the mother or fetus is in danger.  Lastly, the first black woman to run for president, Shirley Chisholm, said she was “…discriminated more on the fact that she is a female, rather than her being an African-American…” That was a statement that stood out to me because this can be anything on the nature of employment, education and etc. I am actually a pre-med student and I just couldn’t get over the fact that in the 1970s, medical schools would only admit 5% females in the medical school. Then, later in the 1970s, it jumped to 30% and now present-day it is pretty much 50/50 male to female. The Equal Rights Amendment was the greatest change to feminism in U.S. history. This amendment pretty much said that the U.S. constitution applies not only to males, but to females as well in all states of America. This marked the end to women’s rights movements and now in present-day, there are a few discrepancies that still exist, but for the most part, there is full equality in the work place, education and etc. However, ERA at the time seemed great to women, but it showed the women are victims to the patriarchy. There will always be differences, but my final opinion of it all, women should be entitled to abortion when it is appropriate (as I stated earlier) and women should be entitled the same working, education rights as everyone else as these rights are continuing to revolutionize as women run for office, CEO and etc. 

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Tumblr Post 4 - Matthew Gold

After watching the articles and videos, it is very clear to me of the difference between religious freedom and religious liberty. Religious freedom has to do with the first amendment - Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof. What this means is pretty much that as long as the United States of America’s constitution is active, then religious freedom (to practice any religious wherever and whenever) will always exist in America. Next, I like to think of religious liberty more or less as whether the United States’ citizens accept that religion. Unfortunately, in present times, we are going through a time of a reform. ISIS is to blame and it is causing a stereotype on those who are American Muslims. Some Americans are for any religion, but some American citizens are becoming “Islamophobic” and stereotyping Muslim Americans. This type of stereotype and anti-religion was present during Plymouth in the early colonies. I can truly say we are a true Christian nation, because many presidents, many bills, supreme court decisions have proved that America is a Christian nation, for example, Presidents Abraham Lincoln and Andrew Jackson made many speeches in which they referred to the bible as well as going back to the Pilgrims on April 10, 1606 – The Charter for the Virginia Colony read in part: “To the glory of His divine Majesty, in propagating of the Christian religion to such people as yet live in ignorance of the true knowledge and worship of God.” There is a whole lot of other examples as to why America is a Christian nation, but what I found interesting, all through America’s history most President’s refer to God and the Holy Bible, but many presidents later on in the years never specified the religion as America has only become more diverse in religions. In the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, originally formulated by President Clinton in 1993, was a great thing to protect American’s free exercise clause of religion, but now as many states sign a different version, liberals are concerned that this bill is an excuse to discriminate unfortunately. Social conservatives feel that it will protect the citizens’ right to religious liberty, but like I said before many people may not accept that certain religion, just like the example of a Muslim prisoner having a very long beard and practicing his religion freely in prison, under the Freedom Restoration Act from a supreme court decision. I truly think that, for the states that have already signed these versions of Clinton’s Freedom Restoration Act, gay marriage should be legal as it is booming now because it is protected against our first amendment of religious freedom and free exercise clause. Whether or not, we are always going to have the Christian background as a Nation, but fortunately as we move forward with religious freedom and equal opportunity, discrimination and “anti-religious liberty” will become a thing of the past, however, it is a privilege for free exercise. Going back to our Declaration of Independence is filled with Christianity, but we as American citizens must support our first amendment.

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Tumblr Post 3 - Syrian Refugee Crisis by Matthew Gold

The Syrian refugee crisis has displaced over 60 million people and is the largest refugee crisis in a very long time. To make all matters a lot worse the political parties can’t seem to meet halfway to resolve this urgent matter. Republicans are mean-hearted, anti-Muslim, “blah blah blah” and the democrats are too soft, too liberal and have no sense in putting security first, “blah blah blah”. Due to the horrid event that had just taken place in Paris, more than 50% of Americans are scared for their security including myself and as we know 29-31 states have put a ban on allowing Syrian refugees. This is one of the hardest decisions that must be made since JFK and the Cuban Missile Crisis in my opinion. Are we scared of letting in orphans and windowed mothers? Americans can’t seem to answer this question, but as a conservative myself, I think we need to save orphans and widowed mothers from this crisis and create some sort of a system to bring them back to reality in a safer place for religious equality and a new life. I do agree with President Obama’s statement, “…not American, we don’t have religious tests to our compassion.” However, the main issue is Americans do not want to accept refugees solely because of the security issue. Like Donald Trump said in an interview with Barbara Walters, “They have no papers; it’s easy to forge documents.” We do not know what type of people we are letting in, however, I stick to my word, we must allow children and widowed mothers in. They are trying to escape the same terror in their countries as we are, that is ISIS from what Tom Wolf of Pennsylvania stated. I strongly disagree in banning all Muslims/Christians or letting only Christians in because it does not make a difference, hence this is America, the land of the free. Yet again, President Obama shouldn’t just let 10,000 Syrian refugees in good faith, maybe we can let the children in and widowed-mothers, but not whole families and single men, as we have no true way to background check them and such. This is a tough decision, as many politicians can come off inhumane, but we need to put OUR people first - the American citizens. Switching gears, as far as the topics covered in class, this is somewhat similar to Thomas Morton and his close alliance to the Indians. It’s almost like the opposite to America and Syrian refugees at the moment, America doesn’t really want to let in the Syrian refugees, however, I am sure that the Indians were not too thrilled letting in the pilgrims/British/Dutch/etc. Although, Thomas Morton was able to keep a somewhat close alliance with the Indians to bring more success to the colony. Unfortunately, back then it was a lot easier to trust/distrust a group of people because the technology wasn’t as advanced as it is now. Back then, the Indians would know if Thomas Morton wanted to destroy them from the start as they would’ve pretty quickly initiated a war, but Morton chose to keep peace and thrived as Plymouth turned into a monopoly. Unfortunately, with our modern world, we have no idea who to trust, as like Trump and many other conservatives say, “They have no papers and no background checks.” 

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Matthew Gold - Tumblr Post 2 Wounded Knee

On February 27, 1973, about 50 cars were honking and belligerently driving their way into the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. In just hours, 200 American Indian movement activists and Ogala Lakota seized major buildings as police closed off the area, The Wounded Knee had begun. These activists wanted redress for past incidents from present day at the time to over 100 years ago! This all took place for a whopping 71 days, as strong-armed federal troops cordoned the area against the activist Indians. These poor Indians just wanted justice and almost to not get stereotyped anymore. One Indian (Ponca) in the interview said that Americans just wanted them to become American and Christian, yet the point of America is freedom. However, holding hostages was no way to try and get their way, but it did spike the federal government to look at past Indian treaties if they were broken and such. Negotiations were under way and so was the gunfire at night... I truly admired the non-Indian activists, some were even Vietnam War veterans. One thing that I didn’t understand was the “Goon” Squad. They shot in both directions, they wanted the Feds to move in and take back Wounded Knee, but still shot at them to show their anger. In 1868, the Ft. Laramie Treaty was signed to bring peace to the whites and Sioux in the Dakota territory, as well as protect land in the Dakotas, Montana, Nebraska, and Wyoming. However, as years went on, the many treaties were broken! The Federal government, used the Indian Relocation Program to “help” the Indians. Many were unemployed and put them in dumpy motels, etc. These poor Indians then decided to take action leading onto Wounded Knee. The filmmakers - I think did a great job. I like how they included different tribes of Indians on the documentary and many federal gov’t positions; it was very straight-forward. They include a lot of oral-stories from Indians, reenactments, first-hand experiences and linguistics. However, I think the film makers could have interviewed more Indians and more Indian women because it seems that all of them are saying the same thing and their horror story. The main bias in this film was how white people tried/did wipe them out as they pushed them to Christianity and to speak the English language. The Indians who were interviewed were okay with all of that, but what they were going through has been going on for what was then 400 years and it probably was getting old for them and tired of hearing it. The main reason Wounded Knee happened from really exploring/analyzing this film was that the US Government will always seem to side with the rich and powerful. Then, the powerless have to speak out as a group to really get attention. Lastly, my question for the film makers: Why didn’t you mention more about Nixon and Watergate? I’m sure Nixon was more involved with Wounded Knee than what this film is depicting. I do think this film is spectacular and wouldn’t change a thing, but to interview more people, since all of the people getting interview were in the previous We Shall Remain episodes. 

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Matthew Gold, Tumblr Post 1

History to me is a lot more than just reading a book and memorizing important events. I truly appreciate history and it is probably a strong reason why I am here today. The first time I got to appreciate history was when I was in 7th grade – I had the opportunity to travel to Washington D.C. with my class along with some “no-neck”, football coach, history teacher. I am thankful to this day that I was able to attend because I got to go to almost every Smithsonian Museum, Holocaust Museum, Vietnam War Memorial, monuments and etc. As a 2nd generation Holocaust survivor, I got to truly understand what the Holocaust was at the museum. It was devastating to see all of the shoes, jewelry and mass graves on the slide shows they had playing. I think about the Holocaust almost every day of my life because my grandpa, who is a Holocaust survivor suffers from a few mental disorders because of that, hence he lost his whole entire family, except his mother. I question myself very so often, as to how this genocide took place. I still haven’t grasped as to how a government could let Hitler gain so much power so quick. However, I appreciate this history because reading up on and learning about D-Day and eliminating the Nazis is so fascinating. Some of these war heroes were just 18-years-old, when they stormed Omaha Beach and Utah Beach near Normandy and ran into almost instant death. Between our military force and our allies, we had over 140,000 troops, where as the Nazis had about 50,000. There were about 10,000 casualties for us and the allies and yet again, there were many who were just 18-years-old. I’ve come to wonder what it would be like to get drafted and go to war so young, but in today’s society it’s far different. We are still fighting what seems to be a never-ending race war with our own people and the Syrian refugee crisis because of ISIS. History is encountered everyday, are we in almost a repeat of Hitler’s Holocaust, as ISIS wipes out anyone not complying to their radical beliefs? Can another genocide be in the midst? To change gears, none of my history teachers from high school had any passion for teaching, as I was simply given a worksheet and memorize dates. Most of the history I know is because I decided to read up on it on my own. My stronger interests are in WW2 and Hitler’s Holocaust. Having said all of that, I am thankful my partner (Kenzie) picked an amazing book about the Holocaust that I am thrilled to read about for the historical fiction, How Do You Kill 11 Million People? This book may ideally change my life and answer my question that I ask myself very often of how this genocide took place. For my piece of historical fiction for my partner to view, I chose the HBO mini-series, “The Pacific”. It’s one of the best examples of U.S. Marines fighting for the battle of Iwo Jima. You get to see what WW2 was truly like, as 200 million dollars to produce this mini-series can go a long way! The show was based on memoirs of two U.S. Marines: Eugene Sledge and Robert Leckie and their books. By far an amazing show that may have changed lives and to appreciate history a little bit more!