54th Massachusetts Regiment

The 54th Massachusetts Regiment was more important than just being the first all black regiment. They changed the mentality of the entire nation about blacks. Many believe that Southerners were the only people who were prejudiced against black people, but that is not the truth. While it is true that slavery continued in the South after the Emancipation Proclamation, Northerners still viewed blacks as inferior even after they were freed. Many felt that blacks did not possess the ability to fight in what some called a "white man's war". The Governor of Massachusetts felt differently about this. He believed they could fight and possessed the ability to lead themselves. Due to criticism he decided to appoint white officers to lead them. At least half of the 600 man regiment were killed or wounded on their attack on Fort Wagner. During this attack they stood their ground and never retreated. This proved to many that blacks did possess the ability to fight and lead and gained the respect of many. This lead the way to numerous other black regiments to be formed throughout the Union army. Undoubtedly this had many more long term effects for the nations mentality and blacks equality. There were many that believe that the intelligence level and abilities of blacks were inferior to whites. This was a big step in changing that. Today we see the effects of this. Everyone today has the same opportunities despite skin color. This is true for the armed forces as well. General Colin Powell  is a great example of this. During the 1990's he was a four star general in charge of the entire army. Presently we have our first black president.  This just solidifies the great strides our country has made to give everyone equal opportunities despite their ethnicity. This doesn't mean that some people do not still hold prejudices, but as a whole I believe most Americans no longer hold these prejudices. The 54th regiment deserves a lot of respect for taking the step they did and giving their lives to fight for a country they believed in, even though most believed they were incapable of fighting. This is a great video explaining the more about the 54th regiment: http://www.history.com/videos/gilder-lehrman-massachussetts-54th

General Colin Powell

Citations: www.masshist.org, www.historynet.com, www.history.com

Life's Ironic Lessons

We have talked a lot about irony in class lately and I started thinking about some songs that I have heard. The first one I thought of is a song by Damien Rice called "Cannonball". The lyrics of this song made me think really hard about how we sometimes learn things in very peculiar ways. This is the last chorus to the song and the full song to listen to:

Stones taught me to fly                                              

Love taught me to lie

Life taught me to die

So it's not hard to fall

When you float like a cannonball

Stones taught me to fly

Love taught me to cry

So come on courage!

Teach me to be shy

'Cause it's not hard to fall

And I don't WANNA scare her

It's not hard to fall

And I don't wanna lose

It's not hard to grow

When you know that you just don't know

We would usually want to be honest with someone we love and care about. When I thought about it, I realized I have been guilty of this. Lying to someone we love to protect their feelings or from harm. We would not expect to learn lying from love but we really do sometimes. Then the lyric of courage teaching us to be shy is strange. We would not think of being shy and having courage to be related to each other. Sometimes is can be courageous to show a shy side even if others might think it shows us to be weak. "It's not hard to grow when you know that you just don't know," this really is true even though it sounds strange. Sometimes we learn and grow not from studying and reading, but from learning life lessons the hard way. Life experiences and the unexpected can sometimes be the the way we grow up the most. We also all know cannonballs certainly do not float. We think of cannonballs being powerful and destroying things they hit. Isn't that true in life? We can give everything we have and be relentless in life, crashing through thing, and then as a result that can cause us pain and inconvenience. We can "fall" quickly from whatever situation we are in if we are powering our way though life not thinking about the consequences. And how can stones teach us to fly? I mean that just seems silly. Stones are heavy and fall easily. So maybe the writer meant we shouldn't be hard, mean, or emotionless. Maybe stones can teach us how not to fall. We can have a "lighter" side of life and not be so "stone cold". I do not know if my conclusions are anything like what the songwriter meant, but I do know as strange as the chorus sounds it is really true to life if you really think about it. The one thing I really think the songwriter was trying to say is love can cause us to do, say, and think a lot of things we might not ordinarily. It really is ironic the way in which life teaches us these lessons.

Sources:

www.azlyrics.com

Never Satisfied

 
As Americans, it seems as if we are never satisfied with what we have. We are always wanting the newest phone, car, or gadget. Some try every new health and beauty product to come out or look to plastic surgery. When we finally get whatever it is we are after, we are not satisfied for long. We get bored and look for what is next. This attitude also has a positive side. We use it to drive and better ourselves. Scientists look for cures, fail, and keep trying. New technology is invented and immediately improved upon. The advances in medicine and technology has saved lives, made life easier, and more fun. In George Steinbeck's novel, The Pearl, he writes about this very thing by saying, “For it is said that humans are never satisfied, that you give them one thing and they want something more. And this is said in disparagement, whereas it is one of the greatest talents the species has and one that has made it superior to animals that are satisfied with what they have.” This seems to be a way of thinking that we need to keep, but maybe we should be careful not to be greedy with it. Plastic surgery is a good example. It is a wonderful thing for people who have been scarred, burned, or deformed. It allows them to be able to look and feel normal again after accidents. What about all the people having it done to simply look better? Do they really need it or has our culture gotten to a point where we feel like we have to look a certain way or like a particular person. According to the American Society of Plastic Surgeons website, last year there were 307,000 breast augmentations done on women and 62,000 nose reshapings done on men. 5.3 million women and 363,000 men had botulinum toxin, Bo-Tox, last year. There is a notable difference in the amount of women compared to men having this done. Is it all necessary though?  We spend so much money trying to look better and make ourselves feel better about ourselves. Is it to make us or society happy? We all want to look our best but part of what makes people unique are our differences. Differences are not a bad thing. Then there is technology. We always want the latest thing to entertain us or to be like everybody else. This might come from a sense of wanting to fit in, show superiority, or just plain boredom. Does all this really make us that much happier? We spend a lot of money on these things, but should be learn to be content with what we have? A lot of people are going broke just to be able to have things that do not really matter. For sure all these things have also bettered our society and increased our quality and longevity of life. Maybe we need to take a look at what we are doing and see if it is worth it. This video shows some things to think about if we want to be happy with what we already have.
 There is nothing wrong with having new things, but we going into debt to have them or to look better. People used to accept others however they looked because they did not have a choice to look different. They had to make do with what they had. I think we should look at what people used to do for entertainment. Most people had nothing to do but talk to each other or go outside. Whatever happened to eating together at the table or sitting on the front porch talking? I do not think we should become stagnant as a society and should continue to invent new and great things. Maybe we should also learn to be a little more content with what we have and enjoy on another's company and not have to be constantly entertained by gadgets and media. Can we find a happy medium or just keep on spending all of our money on fitting in and entertainment to please our own idea of what the world wants?



Sources: www.plasticsurgery.org , www.surgery.org