Save The Peak

De Crevecoeur spends a significant amount of time, during Letters To An American Farmer, considering the landscape, because afterall, he is documenting his discovery of this new world.
In the introduction (introduction page8)  American identity is described as "...the largeness and fertility  of the land are celebrated, as is personal determination and freedom from institutional oppression."


I am choosing to focus on the "celebration" of the lands, which De Crevecoeur again demonstrates in chapters four and six with the description of Nantucket and The Island of Martha's Vineyard.

I believe that this enthusiasm for surroundings in an aesthetically pleasing way as well as a historical way, is still prevalent in America.
For example...http://www.hollywoodsign.org/savethepeak.html  is a website, on which people are protesting against the land around the famed Los Angelino landmark being used to build housing on. This would result in the famed sign being torn down.
However, in 2010 Hugh Hefner (the famed playboy) along with Tiffany & Co, Aileen Getty and other contributors including Hollywood leaders, and fans around the world, the view that people flock to the Hollwood Hills to see, will now be classed as a cultural landmark and is therefore protected.

Govenor of California, Arnold Schwarzenegger spoke at the celebrity-attended press conference held on the Cahuenga Peak, and thanked Hugh Hefner and all other contributors for their help to "carry our efforts across the finish line".

According to www.hollywoodsign.com/savethepeak ;
The Sign now stands at: 

H	45 ft. high by 33 ft. 6 inches wide
O	45 ft. high by 33 ft. wide
L	45 ft. high by 31 ft. wide
L	45 ft. high by 31 ft. wide
Y	45 ft. high by 35 ft. wide
W	45 ft. high by 39 ft. 9 inches wide
O	45 ft. high by 33 ft. wide
O	45 ft. high by 33 ft. wide
D	45 ft. high by 33 ft. wide

Blogs for Victory - Why America is Different (and Better) Than Other Nations

The contemporary example showcasing visions and ideas expressed by De Crevecoeur in 'Letters from an American Farmer' that I have chosen is the webpage http://blogs4victory.wordpress.com/2011/07/04/why-america-is-different-and-better-than-other-nations/.

I decided that, in order to obtain a real, first hand insight into American values, exploring pages that wouldn't neccessarily be seen as reputable, such as blogs and popular websites, was extremely benefitial.

The 'Blogs for Victory' page I have chosen to analyse suggests that De Crevecoeur's perception of America as a new and exceptional nation has grown and intensified over time, as early as the title; boldly named 'Why America is Different (and Better) Than Other Nations'. This sense of explicit Americanism resontes throughout the text, and can be closely compared to the ideas of De Crevecoeur, particularly in the third letter of 'Letter's from an American Farmer.

A piece of text from the wed source that particularly drew my attention was when the writer confidently states that, in relation to settlement in 18th Century North America, 'Only the most stern, disciplined and motivated people would even try…and only the best among them would live. A nation founded by such people was bound to be unique – and better than any other nation out there; and so it has proved. This quote presents the idea that America is essentially the amalgamation of all of Europe's most elite individuals.

This can be closely associated with the words of De Crevecoeur in the third letter of his text, in which he explains how 'Americans are the western pilgrims, who are carrying along with them that great mass of arts, sciences vigour and industry', and 'here they are incorporated into one of the finest systems of population which has ever appeared.' It could be suggested that the comparison of these two extended quotations supports the idea that the basis American values and visions have stayed the same over the nation's history, and the more subtle approach of De Crevecoeur compared to the blog writer's overt nature suggests, if anything, that the views have strengthened over time.

The writer of the blog also shows that De Crevecoeur's theories about opposition to the American ideal continue today. Letter Nine sees the writer explain how areas like Charles-Town in South Carolina are adopting customs such as slavery; opposing American values. Although the writer of the blog isn't specific in the way he desciribes opposition to the ideal, he does explain how there are 'forces out to destroy the American ideal'. The level of fear and concern that the character of James and the writer of the blog possess illustrates the importance of American values to Americans and the intensity of their belief that the American way in the right way.

The fact that these themes resonate so strongly between two texts written by writers from different walks of life and from different time periods illustrates the continual strength of the nation's dedication to exceptionalism and

Obama's State of the Union Address

http://www.npr.org/2011/01/26/133224933/transcript-obamas-state-of-union-address

In this particular speech President Obama is discussing America's economy and job opportunities. I chose this speech to show that in 2011 De Crevecoeur's idea of hard work and new opportunity is still very much rife amongst Americans. For example in De Crevecoeur's book Letters from an American Farmer he states "Here individuals of all nations are melted into a new race of men, whose labours and posterity will one day cause great changes in the world" this is paralleled in Obama's speech where he says "What we can do — what America does better than anyone else — is spark the creativity and imagination of our people. We're the nation that put cars in driveways and computers in offices; the nation of Edison and the Wright brothers; of Google and Facebook." This shows that what De Crevecoeur was suggesting will happen has happened and for the reasons he put forward, through hard work and the idea that you're rewarded for this in the United States.

Another idea that is seemingly paralleled between the two texts is that of reinvention and reformation. In Letters from an American Farmer in Letter 3 page 43-44 De Crevecoeur is discussing "What then is the American, this new man?" Throughout this passage we see repetition of the word "new" suggesting to the reader that America is a place of renewal, a place to forget your past. Again this idea is shown in Obama's speech with the quotes "That's what Americans have done for over 200 years: reinvented ourselves." and "What's more, we are the first nation to be founded for the sake of an idea — the idea that each of us deserves the chance to shape our own destiny. That's why centuries of pioneers and immigrants have risked everything to come here."

A section of De Crevecoeur's "What is an American?" letter that I found interesting is this, "The American is a new man, who acts upon new principles; he must therefore entertain new ideas and form new opinions" firstly the repetition of "new" again reinforces the idea of renewal and reform that America gives the settlers and secondly something that is quite prominent is the use of gender. De Crevecoeur is clearly referring to males in his letter despite women also settling in the United States. This is something that differs in Obama's speech, the continual use of the personal pronoun "we" shows that America has become an equal society. The quote I chose from Obama's speech to compare with this is, "From the earliest days of our founding, America has been the story of ordinary people who dare to dream. That's how we win the future." I think it is important to note that in his speech Obama uses the word "people" to describe the settlers, which contrasts what De Crevecoeur was saying at the time of settlement. However the message that both are trying to convey is very similar, America is a nation built on new ideas by people who dreamt of better standard of living. This is what they made for themselves in the United States and this whole idea of renewal, leaving the past behind and America offering something new is still the driving force of immigrants that go to the United States today in 2011.

Colonel Sanders

http://www.americanunderdog.com/article.php?id=KFC

I have chosen the story of Colonel Sanders and the story behind KFC as it mimics much of what De Crevecoeur says about the “second and better class” in a contemporary America. At the bottom of page 54. referring to the second class of Americans. He talks of the next generation of Americans who can fully benefit from what America has to offer after what the initial settlers had done. This being the groundwork of building a substantial civilisation that future generations could develop in. De Crevecoeur goes on to describe the second class as “respectable for their industry, their happy independence, the great share of freedom they possess, the good regulation of their families, and for extending the trade domination of our mother country.”

These traits apply to what is written in the article about Harland Sanders (Colonel sanders) and the way that he seised the opportunities life in America gave him c.1900. The fact that he came from a humble background where he had to become the man of the house at the age of seven after his father’s death shows that he was left to regulate the family as a father figure a lot like what De Crevecoeur expected of the second generation. His business is now global “KFC is one of the largest fast food franchises in the world” mimicking about what De Crevecoeur says about “extending the trade domination of our mother country”.

A New Discovery of a Vast Country in America

Hennepin, Louis. A New Discovery of a Vast Country in America, by Father Louis Hennepin. 
(17th Century / 1698)

www.americanjourneys.org/aj-124b/

I chose the Louis Hennepin account that I found on the American Journey's website.

Louis Hennepin starts his account, by stating his views and motives for taking the trip across the water; here he explains his reasons and the true passion that drove him to take the voyage, he also mentions this again in chapter four.
In chapter two he then moves on to comment on the means to which he had to grow accustomed to throughout his trip, such as fatigue from his "laborious mission."

Hennepin focussed mainly on describing the new world he'd stumbled across, which is entirely understandable when you think that no one has ever seen anything like this before. Louis does what most people would do, and writes about what he can see, and how he reacts to it, and compares it to the old-world.
He pays particular attention to;
 - Fort Catarokouy, which later became Fort Frontenac
 - The "greatest and pleasantest [lakes] in the universe"
- Fall of the river Niagra (Now known as Niagra Falls)
- Lake Ontario
- Lake Erie
- Lake Huron

It's also in Chapter XIX Louis comments on how the Spaniards were the first people to discover Canada, and how they set to work naming the locations.

Adriaen Van Der Donck- A Description of the New Netherlands (1649)

My account is from a Dutch settler in the New Netherlands called Adriaen Van der Donck (1649). I found my account of an early settler to the United States on the AmericanJourneys.org webpage. I began to read the account and came across a section called "Of the manners and peculiar customs of the Natives of the New Netherlands" which discusses a settlers view of the Natives. I found this part of the account particularly interesting so decided that was the section I was going to analyse.

Van der Donck begins this section by giving a physical description of the Natives. "Properly formed and well proportioned persons...men and women commonly have broad shoulders and slender waists" are a couple of examples of how he describes the Natives and this description is similar to the images we saw in Wednesday's lecture. I feel that this is quite a positive representation of the Natives as it suggests they are strong and healthy people. Another aspect of Van der Donck's physical description of the Natives that interested me was "their hair...is jet black and uncurled and nearly as coarse as a horses tail. Hair of any other colour they dislike or despise", what interested me and to an extent shocked me about this was the latter part of the quote about the Natives disliking or despising any hair colour other than black. Later on when Van der Donck is defining the skin tone of the Natives we get an idea about the weather/climate in the New Netherlands in 1649. "Their yellowness is no fault of nature, but it is caused by the heat of the scorching sun, which is hotter and more powerful in that country than in Holland" here we can see that the settlers are having to climatise in this new country. The physical description that Van der Donck gives us is overwhelmingly positive which suggests that he was either trying to entice individuals from Holland and Europe over to America or he genuinely did see the Natives in this positive and fascinating way.

He also provides us with a small snapshot of what the Dutch felt when they first met the Natives "they appear singular and strange to our nation, because their complexion, speech and dress are so different, but this, on acquaintance is disregarded". This quote implies that the Dutch were a little skeptical of the Natives when they first arrived in America as they were so different to the people and customs they were used to in Holland but felt that when they first met them they should be gracious and embracing of the Native's culture as it was the Dutch who were invading the Natives land. Van der Donck also puts a particular focus on the Native women and how the Dutch men felt about them when they first arrived in America. "Their women are well favoured and fascinating. Several of our Netherlanders were connected with them before our women come over" to me, this quote insinuates power amongst the Dutch men over the Native women.

In this section of Adriaen Van der Donck's account there was one particular part that stood out for me and this was when he describes the Natives as a whole group and why the settlers call them wilden. "Although they are composed of different tribes...all pass by the appellation of (wilden) wildmen and this name was given as far as we can learn...first, on account of their religion, which they have very little and that is very strange and secondly on account of their marriages, wherein they differ from civilised societies; and thirdly on account of their laws which are so singular as to deserve the name of wild regulations." This passage is interesting to me as there seems to be a sudden shift in his feelings towards the Natives. Early on in his account he shows them in a positive light as strong and healthy where as in this passage he seems to look at the Natives as inferior due to the difference in their culture. There were two phrases that stood out for me especially, one was was "they differ from civilised societies" which implies that the Natives are lesser than the Dutch or any European society and the other was "deserve the name of wild regulations" where the verb deserve is very strong and in a way mocking of the Natives laws. I also think it is important to note the use of the adjective wild not only in that particular quote but in that short passage in general which again denotes this idea of the Natives being uncivilised and inferior to the settlers.

Another part of Van der Donck's account I found fascinating was the description of the ritual that takes place after someone's death. "Whenever and Indian departs this life, all the residents of the place assemble at the funeral...the nearest relatives extend the limbs and close the eyes of the dead; and after the body has been watched and wept over several days and nights, they bring it down to the grave, wherein the do not lay it down but place it in a sitting posture." This is very different to the rituals that are in place in the UK which is why I find it so fascinating and this was probably the reaction of Van der Donck as, from this piece we are able to tell that it was clearly a new experience for him. An additional part of his account that clearly shocks him is the non existence of any form of currency "gold, silver or any metallic coin is unknown among them" this must have been a very different experience for the settlers coming from Europe, the idea that a society can live in harmony without any money or trade.

After looking at Van der Donck's account of how he perceives the Natives it is clear that the settlers were highly skeptical about the Native's culture and customs as they were very different to their own. Throughout the account there are many positive things said about the Natives especially regarding their physical appearance and presence which the settlers seemingly felt was well formed and healthy compared to themselves. There also negative aspects of this account whereby I feel the settlers see themselves as the superior race or nation out of the two, but overall it seems as if there is a lot of uncertainty amongst the settlers regarding the Natives as they are unknown to them. I believe that this would have been a mutual feeling amongst settlers of America coming from Europe.

Barlowe, Voyage to Coasts of America (1584)

The account I have chosen to analyse is taken from americanjourneys.org, which hosts a selection of documents written by some of the original European settlers in America. After searching the site I came across a facinating account taken by Arthur Barlowe during the first voyage to the coasts of America in 1584 to Roanoke; under instruction from Sir Walter Raleigh. The reason it caught my eye was because the account gives us an insight into both the settlers reaction to the landscape of America and their reaction to the indigenous peoples.
Barlowe's initial reaction to the coast of America is extremely positive. He explains that 'I thinke in all the world the like abundance is not to be found'; revealing the majesty and utopian nature of the new world. Balowe's description resonates with the common associations we make with America as a new, fresh and overwhelming place. Barlowe goes on to exaplin that 'this island had many goodly woodes full of Deere, Conies, Hares, and Fowle, even in the middest of Summer in incredible abundance. The woodes are not suche as you would finde in Bohemia, Moscovia, or Hercynia, barren and fruitles, but the highest and reddest Cedars of the world'. The fact that this section is purely relating to the natural beauty and bounty of the America landscape reflects the industrial, dull nature of Europe in the late 16th Century, which Barlowe was used to; directly illustrating the appeal of the new world.
For the remainder of the account, Barlowe talks about the native people he and the rest of the crew encounter. He shows how good the relations become between the settlers and the natives when he states how he and the other men 'were entertained with all love and kindnesse, and with as much bountie as they could possibly devise'. He goes on to explain how 'We found the people most gentle, loving and faithfull, voide of all guile and treason, and such as live after the maner of the golden age.' It is clear through Barlowe's description that he is already warming to the natives at this point, and understands the immense dissimilarities between his world in Britain and this idyllic new world.
The vast difference between the two cultures is explored throughout the document. For example, during a meeting with the natives' King, it is revealed that ‘When we shewed him all our packet of merchandise, of all things he sawe, a bright tin dish most pleased him’. The natives were fascinated with the used of metal by the Europeans, although having it is second nature to the settlers. Interestingly though, Barlowe learns a lot from the indigenous people, and somewhat reverses the image of the Europeans being superior; marvelling at their craftmanship and admiring them for there ability to be entirely self-sufficient with very few tools and equipment.
It is evident that Sir Walter Raleigh's mission to Roanoke, led by the likes of Arthur Barlowe, was an overwhelming success. Despite the horrific events that would follow years later between the native Americans and the European settlers, it is clear that the earliest, original experditions saw positive relations develop between the two groups.

Russia: American Capitalism; gone with a whimper.

http://english.pravda.ru/opinion/columnists/27-04-2009/107459-american_capitalism-0/

...is the website that I chose.

The article on this Russian website comments on America's descent into marxism. Marxism is the philosophy of Karl Marx, which states that society will develop towards communism through the struggle between different social classes.
The article states that Americans, or "televangelists" are selling their souls and their flocks to pledge allegiance to "one Marxist politician or another".

"They care more for their "right" to choke down a McDonalds burger or a BurgerKing burger than for their constitutional rights."  - It's this particular quote, I would say I disagree.
The second amendment, is that American's have a constitutional right to bear arms (adopted on Dec 15, 1791) and there are many protests against this, as well as many other subjects.
American's care so much about their rights, that the 18th Amendment, the prohibition of possession of alcohol, was repealed by the 21st Amendment.

Personally, I believe that America is not growing into a commercialized communist, I just believe that this is the way it is being viewed from the outside world, particularly the Eastern countries.
I agree that America, as well as the rest of the appropriate countries, enjoy their "right" to have fast food, but I wouldn't go as far as to describe that this was America slipping away from capitalism and into Marxism.

The Obama Bounce

http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,647954,00.html

The website I chose to look at is a German news site that works alongside German news magazine Der Spiegel. After Wednesday's lectured I was intrigued to see if Obama was actually as popular in Germany as it seemed, as I noticed in the Wall Street Journal article Germans didn't appear on the list when asked whether 'America's cultural influence on the world is positive'. However 82% of the German population think that 'After the election of President Obama, America's political influence will be' positive and this article seemingly backs this point up.

The Spiegel article is focusing on the results of the Transatlantic Survey which was carried out a year after Obama became President and just three months after the Wall Street Journal article. The results state that 92% of Germans have a positive view of Obama's handling of foreign affairs compared to the 19% who a few years earlier had a positive view of Bush's handling of foreign affairs! What surprises me about these statistics is the difference one man can make on a whole country's outlook on the United States. Which begs the question do German's really love Obama or did they just want rid of Bush? Personally I believe it's the latter, Germany have never stereotypically been Anti-American like countries such as Russia but until the election of Obama they had never been overly Pro-America either.

As the article suggests there is clearly still skepticism from Germans and Europeans as a whole surrounding Afghanistan and the global economic crisis but overall Obama's presence in the American Government has done nothing but good for America's popularity in Europe. However the survey the article is based on polled 13,000 people from the U.S and 12 European countries and we are not told how many German's this includes so we do have to look at the results critically and consider that this might not be the view of every member of the German population. For example the feedback about the United States on the website Love US Hate US is mixed, not everyone loves Obama or America's foreign policy as the Spiegel article suggests.

Overall I do believe that Germany as a country have always been Pro-America and I do feel they have a more positive outlook on the United States since the election of Barack Obama, the statistics suggest this. I'm just not entirely convinced that they love him as much as the Spiegel website article is implying. However I did look round this website to try and find a negative article about American foreign policy or America in general and everything I found was more Pro-America rather than Anti-America which made me wonder, if German news magazines are continually printing articles that show America in a positive light are the German public just passively taking in all this information?

Russian online article

http://english.pravda.ru/opinion/columnists/03-10-2011/119205-america_still_dead-0/

The website I have chosen to analyse is from Russia. I chose to use a site from Russia after reading the Wall Street Journal article we were given. I quickly realised that Russia's statistics seemed to indicate an overwhelmingly negative attitude towards America. For example, the survey suggests that just 10% of Russians believe that America's cultural influence in the world is positive, and a mere 27% of Russians thought that after Obama's election America's political influence will improve, compared to much higher percentages from other nations. The ideas and thoughts expressed in the article I have chosen seem to reflect the statistics in the Wall Street Journal article. This is immediately made apparent, with the title "America is still dead" opening the article. It can be suggested that this resonates with the statistic in the Wall Street Journal concerning Barrack Obama's unpopularity in Russia. The writer's choice of title opposes the common belief that Obama's election was a new beginning and a positive change from the nightmare years of Bush; instead claiming that the country is still dead, no positive change has taken place, and Obama is far from the Nobel Peace Prize winning President that America thinks he is.

This section in my opinion best encapsulates these views;

"The "Nobel Peace Prize Winning" Obama and his cronies have also done everything in their power to promote illegal detentions, torture and the extrajudicial executions of American citizens. Attorney General Eric Holder, a self-professed paradigm of "integrity" who demonstrates far too little of it, refused to prosecute corrupt CIA officials who, in defiance of a court order, destroyed videotapes that depicted the torture of detainees. And, in a revelation exposed by Wikileaks, it was discovered that Obama strong-armed foreign governments to prevent them from filing torture and/or war crimes charges against Bush and/or his minions".

The article uses America's ideas and policies to criticise the nation in an attempt to expose its hypocrisy. It explains how the Bill of Rights has "protected the fundamental freedoms of its citizens" for many years, but then explains how "all that ended with the recent extrajudicial execution of American citizen Anwar al-Awlaki in Yemen". He goes on to explain how on paper America is a very fair and just nation, but in reality, the way the government acts in and out of the country contradicts its laws.

By looking back to the first and second 'Red Scare' in America in the 1919 and then from 1947 to 1957, and well as, of course, the Cold War, it is easy to understand why such a negative view of America can come from a Russian article. The American treatment of the Russians, particularly during the second Red Scare, as well as the conflict during the Cold War will undoubtedly have an effect on the writing of a Russian article. On one hand, the overwhelmingly biased approach taken by David R Hoffman, and the formal style he uses suggests a frantic, opinion-based reaction to the United States, which would suggest that perhaps his views aren't entirely valid. However, a deeper analysis of the article reveals a more factual based argument, which uses quotations from a variety of sources and examples of America's negative political influence in a host of nations, rarely mentioning Russia; suggesting that his writing is in fact quite valid and not completely underlined by historical Russian-American rivalry.

Maps - A Texan's Map of the USA.

This is the map I selected to choose from the website suggested. It was a choice between this one, or a map which indicated how many songs mentioned a certain state, and that would constitute the state's size.
However, I chose this map because I can't decide whether it was created to take the mickey out of the people of Texas, or advertise that "Everything is bigger in Texas" as so many people from the Lone Star State like to repeat.
Each other state aside from Texas has been renamed aptly, to something that either sounds like what it is meant to be (Missouri - Misery) or becomes completely derogatory (California - Uninhabitable, New York - Damned Yankee Land).
This comedic postcard caught my attention mainly because the whole of Texas, which is the largest state anyway, has taken up the whole middle section of America, pushing the other less important states aside.
To me, this postcard gives a feel of Why Go Anywhere Else, When There's Texas? Which I suppose supports Texas' commericial side, making the postcard a success.

Week 3: Americans on the move.....

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2009/03/10/us/20090310-immigration-explorer.html

This is an interactive map of the changing patterns/distributions of the American population.

What are the reasons for the changes? - why do people migrate and relocate?
Why are Americans so 'mobile'?
Are the reasons the same for each historical period?
Look at the different patterns of the ethnic groups - what generalisations can you make?
This is a map of great complexity; it's a challenge to find the simple patterns, but, the simple approach is.....
Where? And, why there?
Are "environmental factors" influential? What evidence is there?
Good wishes,
John

American Map: Positive State Mottos

The map of America I have chosen to analyse is named 'In Mottos We Trust? United Statements of America', which replaces the name of each state with its state "motto".

The immediate thing that stikes me whenever I look at a map of the USA is the sense of disunity through the separation of the states.

The reason this map interested me was the way that it reveresed this notion and showed a sense of coherence between the different states, represented through state mottos. For example, the words "justice", "equal/equality", "liberty/liberties", "union", "freedom/free" and "independance" all emerge more than once, some of them several times; which tells us a lot about America. In the vast majority of other maps I looked at on the site, America was represented through its contrasts and differences state to state. This map, however, inadvertently reveals an important sense of unity between the American states; in which a sense of optimism and a strive for a fair and just society resonates, as well as the fighting spirit that we often relate to Americans. To me, this map reveals a positive aspect of America, one that unites the often vastly different states of America.

Map Analysis

When I first saw this image I had no idea what it was meant to be. Then I read the description that came with it. These are maps of the United States as drawn by teenagers in Las Vegas. The teenagers were asked to draw what they thought the outline of the United States looked like, much like the activity we did on Wednesday! As you can see not one of these maps are the same, some are similar but they're are never the same. Are these maps simply just what we see in front us, a bunch of drawings by American teenagers who don't quite know what their country looks like? Or do they hold a deeper meaning, are these maps sending the message that we seem to be bombarded with? Everyone in the United States is different but their common factor is that they are American and proud to be. Does it show that every individual in America perceives the country differently and being American means different things to different people? I feel it can be looked at in both ways, at a first glance these maps do look like a collection of cows on page and do suggest that the majority of these teenagers don't know the outline of their own country but I also believe there is a deeper meaning to these maps. Each person drew their interpretation of a map of the United States and this was their task, draw what YOU think a map of America looks like. No one told them draw a map of the United States as it is physically. Therefore it was always open to interpretation and does to some extent show that America means different things to its people.

Positive and negative images

NEGATIVE IMAGE.
This is an image of the infamous Columbine shooting victims in Colorado 1999.
Two students Dylan Khlebold and Eric Harris who had been plotting this massacre since 1997, of which had a history of mental problems and had previously been arrested and then put on probation were responsible. Some may ask as to why children who have a history of violence and mental problems are allowed such easy access to guns? This is all due to the second amendment, "The right to bear arms" which the founding fathers originally granted in the bill of rights as a means for militia and hunting. However, some may argue now, that the militia system has evaporated, yet the right to bear arms is still intact. This leads to the knock on effect of 40% of schools having a problem with kids owning dangerous weapons such as guns, as they can buy it from their local walmart! The constitution is the driving force behind americans' beliefs, the judicial process, the law etc, but when it allows incidents such 63 school shootings in 11 years, then maybe this calls for a change?

POSITIVE IMAGE



This image shows the case of "Brown v board of education Topeka 1954"  This case did not only overturn a previous ruling of the supreme court fifty eight years previously, but it was also the first step into overturning segregation. Brown V Board all started when a ten year old girl wanted to go to school locally, but couldn't because she was african american and the school locally to her was for white people only. Instead, she was forced to go to a school for african americans, miles away from where she lived. Her mother took the board of education in Topeka, where she lived to court and won against them.

This did not only deem "Plessy v Ferguson" which recognised african americans as being "separate but equal" and condoned segregation unconstitutional, but it also led to the integration of elementary schools in Topeka which then spread. Affirmative action initiatives such a busing (mixing different classes of children into the same schools in a bid to make them equal) then followed. This is a positive image as it shows how one case led to the overturning of a controversial and social issue such as segregation and the vast change that followed, which the constitution allowed for, not only this but it allowed for the supreme court, the highest judicial court in the land to "check" itself and adapt the law to society as it evolved.

Positive & Negative Images of America

As soon as we were set this assignment, this image popped into my head. A famed American landmark, supporting the awareness of something not only sweeping through their nation, but the world.  The White House is the executive office and home to President Obama, and in 2008 bright pink lights decorated the exterior of the building – in honour of National Breast Cancer Awareness Month.  To me, this is an image of positivity because it not only highlights the attention to detail the White House is paying to the rest of the world, whilst they are wrapped up in their own business, but also how a country like America can pull together and display their awareness with such effortless clarity.

This image may easily be seen as a popular positive choice, what with Glee being so popular and the Cheerleaders being rallying enthusiasts for their teams. However, forget that this is actually an image of the Glee cast, and what I actually chose this image for was the stereotypical American high school that we see all through the media. It’s where we have learned that Cheerleaders are hotter than people who read books, and that every single Frat party involves bad music and cheap beer in red and white cups.  Who are we to argue with what we are bombarded with from every angle? To me, this image displays the plastic faces of teen-girl America, with their high ponies and overly white sparkling teeth as they stomp all over the individuality and personality of others with their Sketchers clad, pedicured feet.