Enter the Great War!

In order to persuade the American people to side with entering the Great War, we need to tell them how it started. It started in such a small area, probably why this moment is known as the “spark” of the war. The small area was Serbian and it was under the control of Austria-Hungary. Of course no one likes being controlled and when Austria-Hungary crossed the line a man by the name of Gavrilo Princip gunned down Franz Ferdinand, the Arch-Duke of Austria-Hungary. Each country declared war on each other and the fire was growing. The point is we are a country that fought for our freedom because we were being controlled and we should help those who want that same independence.

                Alliances are being formed and we seem to be the only major power left out. Obviously we should side with the Triple Entente. We would be fighting against Austria-Hungary, Germany, and Italy. We would be siding ourselves with Great Britain, Russia, and France. We also need to look at the pros and cons of each choice in this war. If we don’t join and the Triple Alliance (enemies) wins, then we could be looking at an invasion and imperialistic takeover. If we do join we could be the final push that stops a rising world power. There seems to be only one good choice and that is to join and get it over with. We are Americans, we cannot allow this to just pass by as we watch.

Current Muckraking

Picture of Don Black above.

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/muckraker/don-black-stormfront-legal-fund

                Catherine Thompson publishes an article on July 8, 2015, about an incident that takes place a month before. The incident is a historic black church in Charleston, South Carolina, was a target for a shooting. The FBI suspected and visited a founder of an online white supremacists forum called Stormfront.org. Shortly after the visit, the founder started soliciting donations for a legal defense fund. The man who founded the online forum was the Ku Klux Klan grand dragon and his name was Don Black. He stated, “My free of speech site was attacked and we have to protect ourselves.” He also said that, “We aren’t going to just sit there and let the government do what they want.”

                Soon the man who was involved in the shooting was revealed. His name is Dylaan Roof and he was an online associate. Don Black said he was concerned that federal investigation on his site would scare off the commenters.  He also said that the truth they write is being attacked when the government calls it “hate speech” and tries to shut it down. Dylaan Roof was known to have killed nine people in the church. To read more click on the link above.

Muckrakers

http://www.ushistory.org/us/42b.asp

            A muckraker is someone that exposes corruption in a business or group. In the article, linked above, it is explained when muckraking came about and why. It also has three muckraking incidents straight off the bat. I will give a little summary of each.

            The first one is done by a man by the name of Lincoln Steffens. He exposes city officials working alongside large businesses to stay in power so they could corrupt the public treasury. He exposed them to the public by writing an article called “Tweed Days in St. Louis” in a magazine. It was published in 1902.

            The second one takes place only a month after Steffens’ incident. A woman by the name of Ida Tarbell started her muckraking with a series called “History of the Standard Oil Company.” She mainly wrote about John Rockefeller and his “cutthroat” methods.

            The final one is probably one of the better known. Upton Sinclair, a socialist, wrote a book titled “The Jungle” to show the horrible effects of the meat packing industry. His exposure of the spoiled and dirty meat was huge on the public. Food regulations were formed to what we have today.

            To read more click on the link above. For a slideshow of pictures of muckrakers and reformers, click the link below.

http://www.shmoop.com/muckrakers-reformers/photos.html

 

 

Veterans

My thoughts on murder charges during a war are that if someone or a group comes up to a restricted area or a military base they should be fired upon, but not to kill just to warn. If they open fire back then shoot them. What they have for rules now can be confusing. Say a car happens to drive straight into a US Embassy and you don’t know if they are hostile or not. Do you open fire? You decide not to and it turns out they are hostile and take the place down. You decide to open fire and they were not hostile and now you are charged with murder. Something needs to change.

                As for, “Citizenship is a duty not a privilege…”  I completely agree. People are getting it into their heads that they don’t need to do anything but sit back and watch. Everyone has a job to do. This country is called the UNITED States of America, but we are not united. We are all split into certain groups because each person likes this while the other likes that. We do have the government we deserve but we can realize that we all have a duty. These are my thoughts on the whole citizenship thing. I really think that this country needs to pull it together if we are going to be sending our military out to other countries and wars. We need to be safe in our own country while we make other places safe.

Bacha Bazi Reaction

                In Afghanistan, our military is training the militia against Taliban forces. Everything is fine, except for one problem that won’t let our soldiers sleep at night.

                They here the screaming of boys and they can’t do anything about it. The A.L.P (Afghanistan Local Police) is sexually abusing these boys and they tell the marines to look away because it is part of their culture.

                I don’t know what I would do. They feeling that you can’t do anything about it and then you have to help these sick people. Some of the marines have even stated that the A.L.P is doing stuff much worse than the Taliban! I would feel like I was on the wrong side, but to go to the Taliban is also wrong. Three marines were even shot by boy servants of an A.L.P commander. One of the marines said that the boys think that they are letting this happen, but they don’t know is that they are all sick to the stomach.

                One of the American commanders even beat up a A.L.P for sexually abusing a boy. The American was discharged and left the military. That is not right. The “Bacha Bazi” is even happening on the bases of our own military, and they can’t do anything but look away.