Semester II Final

Chris Laney

Block D

Semester II Final

Part A:

1. Before doing any research, I would expect to see the three best presidents (ranked by actually doing the best job) to be: Abraham Lincoln, George Washington, and Thomas Jefferson. At the bottom of the list I would expect to see Richard Nixon, Donald Trump, and George Bush (the second one).

2. The four presidents that have been consistently in the top four are Abraham Lincoln, George Washington, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Theodore Roosevelt. No presidents have swapped between fourth however both Harry Truman and Dwight Eisenhower have both swapped between being fifth.

3. The first thing I see from the data is that people's opinions on certain presidents tend to either stay around the same or progressively get better. The second thing is that the presidents closer to the bottom always had their rank lower as the next survey was conducted, like James Buchanan who went from 41 to 42 then to 43. The final thing is that more recent presidents tended to be on this list, like Barack Obama or Ronald Reagan.

4. The participants are all either historians or university professors. I believe C-SPAN has included this information to certify that the list isn't biased and is based on history. If they hadn't included this information one might think that the survey could be taken from random people and there would be biased opinions on certain presidents. The impact of the participants improves the unbiased, factual evidence that these presidents did a good job, the fact that they are all either historians or professors just strengthens the unbiased nature. 

5. The 10 categories the presidents were ranked on were: public persuasion, crisis leadership, economic management, moral authority, international relations, administrative skills, relations with congress, vision / setting an agenda, pursued equal justice for all, and performance within context of times. I found these categories on this page of the site, talking about the methodology, on the side bar to the left that says "Individual Leadership Characteristics."

6. C-SPAN explicitly says they weighed every category equally, found in the middle section of the methodology page.

7. The top three categories I would choose to weigh down, if i did, would be: pursued equal justice for all, moral authority, and public persuasion. These would be my top three because everyone deserves to be treated equally, for moral authority I would say that to be a good president you have to have good morals and not base anything off of greed or hatred. Finally, I chose public persuasion because if you can't persuade your people to your side then you can never truly get anything done.

8. My predictions for the best presidents was more accurate than what I had expected for the worst presidents. I believe this happened because we never really talk about the bad presidents, except the occasional one here and there, and people never learn much about them.

Part B:

9.

"On March 16 we celebrate the anniversary of James Madison's birthday. Madison, traditionally viewed as the Father of the United States Constitution, is also seen by many as a defender of open government. He once wrote, "[a] popular Government, without popular information, or the means of acquiring it, is but a Prologue to a Farce or a Tragedy; or, perhaps, both. Knowledge will forever govern ignorance: And a people who mean to be their own Governors, must arm themselves with the power which knowledge gives."In a similar vein, he asserted that "the advancement and diffusion of knowledge" is "the only Guardian of true liberty." (quote from a United States Department of Justice post)

Paraphrase: The normally perceived "Father of the United States Constitution" has also been seen as a "defender of open government." In writing, Madison said that a government that pleases the people with no information or ways of acquiring such information was the beginning of something terrible. Madison had also stated that "knowledge will forever govern ignorance" and that people who want to have a say in their government have to bear themselves with knowledge. Finally he said that the progression and distribution of knowledge was the only defense of "true liberty."

10.

" . . . [K]nowledge of our own history is essential in the making of Americans. The reasons for this belief may be summed up under four main heads. History makes loyal citizens because memories of common experiences and common aspirations are essential ingredients in patriotism. History makes intelligent voters because sound decisions about present problems must be based on knowledge of the past. History makes good neighbors because it teaches tolerance of individual differences and appreciation of varied abilities and interests. History makes stable, well-rounded individuals because it gives them a start toward understanding the pattern of society and toward enjoying the artistic and intellectual productions of the past. It gives long views, a perspective, a measure of what is permanent in a nation’s life. " (an excerpt from historians.org)

     Madison believes that the progression and distribution of knowledge is what guides people to liberty, and that information is truly the only way towards an open government. The AHA believe that knowledge and history are what cause patriotism, intelligent voters, good neighbors and, stable individuals. While both the AHA and Madison think that knowledge and information are positive ideas and that they create a sense of bettering someone for some purpose. 

     I believe they are both right. Knowledge can create a better and more open government because in today's day and age the people, most of the time, decide what our government does. The people can also speak out on when the government is doing something wrong and will do anything in their power to get them to fix it. On the other hand on the AHA side, the only point I disagree with is that history makes you a more intelligent voter. I disagree with this because history doesn't teach you about present candidates for political positions, what creates a smart voter is being observant and really understanding the goals of a certain person.

Part C:

11. This year I have grown tremendously, I have learned to find great sources and use them transparently. My ability in finding actually useful sources has grown and now if I ever find something I don't believe to be true I look it up and I can use this skill that I've learned. My skill with using the sources transparently has been something I've heard plenty of times and I think I've finally gotten the point of all that talk. I've made progress on writing coherent points and learning how to use my voice instead of rambling on in this seemingly monotone writing. I can't really say much about my work because it already speaks for itself, all I can really say about it is that I worked hard and I benefitted from it. Other than that I only really have one person to thank for all this growth.

12. From the film history project I believe that my best piece of that was the exhibit. I'm most proud of it not because it looks amazing or that it has these interesting pieces of history, although they are very interesting. I'm proud of it because it was something that I found to be fun to do, it was fun finding all these different pieces of history and putting them all together in one pile of history. Another part of it that I found to be really fun to write was saying where I got all the artifacts. I always do better when the instructions are vague and allow me to do what I want with them, this part of the project was where I used that to my advantage the most.

13. Max Miller's work has been very surprising to me, he manages to make it always interesting to read and he is always transparent about where he got something from. From his most recent in-class write about J. Edgar Hoover, he always leads you to your own conclusions and he always states where he got his information from. I could go on and on about all the tiny things he does to improve his work but I feel eventually I would repeat myself because he does all of it so well. (Max's Blog)

14. 
"Mystery creates wonder and wonder is the basis of man's desire to understand." - Neil Armstrong

This quote has always been inspirational to me because its true to me, I've always wanted to know more because I've always known that there are things I don't know. There are so many things that I would probably find interesting but time being the limiting factor I can never learn more, however that hasn't stopped me and I continue to learn more because the unknown is what scares most of us and I want to be someone who clears up some of that unknown.

15. Mini - exhibit

Saturn V rocket launch, I chose this picture because it shows what humanity can accomplish with teamwork and hardwork. (picture from nasa.gov article on the Saturn V)

Man walking on the surface of the moon, I chose this picture because it shows that some people will stop at nothing to get work done. (photo is from the nasa apollo11 gallery)

SpaceX's Starman in orbit around the Earth while riding in Elon Musk's Tesla Roadster, finally I chose this picture because it shows what we can do, its a reminder that we went to space and we can go back and maybe even farther in the future. (picture from wikimedia file of Elon's roadster)

5. In-Class Write

Film and History In-Class Write

1. From watching Thirteen Days, someone can learn quite a lot that is historically accurate. It's set in 1962, it specifies certain events that actually happened like the creation of EXCOMM and arguments over airstrikes and invasions. The information I collected from the office of the historian proved almost everything that happened in the movie did historically happen. The movie portrays plenty of other historical events accurately, the one thing that most likely isn’t historically accurate are the conversations between the characters. Most of the dialogue in the movie is used for either exposition or character development. The historical events are not the only important things in the event portrayed by the movie.

   The movie itself is important because it shows how close the world was to destruction. The world was on the brink of nuclear war and the movie was created to show that we should remember that, and that we shouldn’t threaten each other with world ending weapons. Thirteen Days was less about the latter but it provides a powerful and accurate insight on how chaotic the innards of the White House got. Now I wasn’t smart enough to research specifically the actions of some of the military men in the White House, such as Curtis LeMay, but the movie gave me a pretty good picture of what they tried to do. The movie showed me the yearning for war the generals had, the argument for an invasion and the airstrike were both held by the generals. Anyway, the event was a miracle in itself and if it weren't for the “will of good men” there would be more than just one casualty from this almost cataclysmic event.

2. One important thing to know that was hinted at in the movie but wasn’t really talked about was the Bay of Pigs invasion. It was probably the start of the whole Cuban Missile Crisis, because the U.S. was trying to undermine the rule of Castro and Nikita Khrushchev (the current premier of the soviet union at the time) didn’t really like that. From the textbook I learned more about the Bay of Pigs and found out that it was in fact a failure, and it was started by the U.S. trying to start an anti-Castro movement by bringing in 1,400 troops to start it. Those 1,400 troops were cuban exiles, and they were not prepare at all. They were annihilated by Castro’s troops and after the whole invasion was over and done JFK took all responsibility for it, most likely influencing his decision to not invade Cuba a second time.
   There was also another topic hinted at during the movie that I managed to snag a little research on. It was the effect on Berlin if the U.S. had tried to invade Cuba again. In the movie, while the recently created EXCOMM was discussing the effects of another Invasion on Cuba they hinted at the soviets using that to push farther into Berlin. From my general information grab and source provider wikipedia I found that the U.S. were trying to provoke the soviets in Berlin through their naval “quarantine.” Also from the textbook I found that the Berlin Wall was itself a symbol for the cold war, and I completely agree. It represented a physical divide between two nations and there was a physical divide between JFK and Khrushchev during the Cuban Missile Crisis with them hardly being able to communicate with each other. Back to the Berlin Wall, troops were ordered to “Shoot-to-Kill” and JFK even spoke to Berlin in 1963. There are parts of the Berlin Wall that stand today, however most of it is gone, and it provides a stark reminder of what happened and what should never happen again.

3. If the director of Thirteen Days had 20 more minutes to provide more information on a topic of my choosing, I would definitely suggest to him to provide more on the Bay of Pigs. The Bay of Pigs was probably the whole start of the crisis because the nuclear missiles were put in Cuba to prevent another invasion. I would suggest it be put at the beginning of the movie as a way of contextualizing the catalyst for the missile crisis. If I were to envision the scenes that would be helpful for understanding the reason why it was important I would have a scene of JFK taking the blame for the attempted invasion. Another scene I would have would be the invasion itself, having that as a general reminder that another invasion isn’t ethically sound and would most likely not solve the problem of having nuclear missiles in Cuba. I believe this topic should be taught because it was most likely the start for the Cuban Missile Crisis and its a good way to understand more of the choices regarding invasions later on in the movie.

4. Annotated Sources

Thirteen Days Movie

Office of the Historian (history.state.gov) "The Cuban Missile Crisis, October 1962" - Used for general information

America's History 9th Edition Textbook, Chapter 24, pages 774 - 776. Used for corroborating information from other sources

Learning from the past; Soviet Deception in the Cuban Missile Crisis (www.cia.gov) - Used for facts on soviet deception tactics during the missile crisis

"50 Vintage Recipes Inspired by the Swinging '60s" (www.tasteofhome.com) - used to find foods for the menu portion of project

"U.S. Strategic Air Power 1948 - 1962" (www.jstor.org) - used for insight on the military's perspective of the Kennedy administration

Wikipedia Article on the Cuban Missile Crisis (en.wikipedia.org) - general context on the topic and finding other sources

3. Menu

Menu

Appetizers

Cucumber Stuffed Cherry Tomatoes

The Cucumber Stuffed Cherry Tomatoes will be served at the party because JFK was often a light eater.

Shrimp and Feta Cucumber Rounds

The Shrimp and Feta Cucumber Rounds will be served for the same reason as the stuffed tomatoes but also because they look like miniature explosions.

Main Courses

Smoky Baked Beans

Baked beans will be served because JFK often ate beans or meat for dinner. Also it represents the chaotic mess that was the Cuban Missile Crisis

Meatball Stroganoff

Meatball Stroganoff will be served because during the times of the Cuban Missile Crisis its something they could make with the limited time given.

 Desserts

Creme de Menthe Squares

Creme de Menthe Squares will be served because of the many layers of deception tactics of the soviets and the layers of investigation of the missiles on Cuba.

Chocolate Cake

Chocolate Cake will be served because often times whenever JFK had dessert it was usually chocolate.

2. Exhibit

Exhibit

CIA intelligence briefing book cover

Nicknamed "Caroline's coloring book" because of JFK's daughter, Caroline, coloring over the back cover. This is the original book cover, it is not to be touched. (cia.gov)

Letter from JFK to DCI McCone

This was a letter of commendation from Kennedy to the Director of Central Intelligence at the time, John A. McCone. Original document "borrowed" from the CIA. (cia.gov)

Letter from Premier Khrushchev to JFK

Letter from Khrushchev accepting the end to the Cuban Missile Crisis. A copy of the original document, original was too hard to find on the black market. (cvce.eu)

Crashed U-2 engine

The engine of the Lockheed U-2 that was shot down over Cuba during the missile crisis. It is not functional anymore but it represents how escalated the situation was. Original U-2 engine bought from the Museum of Revolution in Havana. (wikipedia.org)

U-2 photograph of the construction site

One of the many photographs used to brief JFK. We couldn't find the rest of the photographs while getting attacked by nuclear bombs. (nsarchive2.gwu.edu)

President JFK's Schedule

JFK's hectic schedule during the Cuban Missile Crisis. We stole this from JFK through time travel. (jfklibrary.org)

Photograph of JFK signing the naval quarantine

JFK authorizing the naval quarantine on Cuba, although everyone knew it was a blockade. Photo taken when one of our operatives time travelled to get JFK to the party. (jfklibrary.org)

Newspaper article on Adlai Stevenson

Article describes the confrontation between both Adlai Stevenson and Valerian Zorin. Obtained by looking through my grandfather's old newspapers. (jfklibrary.org)

1. Invitation

Guest List:

John Fitzgerald "Jack Kennedy
President during the Cuban Missile Crisis. Invited because he is the one who stopped the whole thing, he used his power to be diplomatic with the crisis instead of doing things by force like the generals had been urging him to do.

Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev
Premier of the Soviet Union during the Cuban Missile Crisis. Invited because he used deception tactics during the crisis and could give useful insight on when they might be used.

Description

Kenneth Patrick O'Donnell 
Special Advisor to JFK. Invited because he could give other solutions, and with his knowledge of being a political advisor he would know what the safe options were.

Robert Francis "Bobby" Kennedy
64th U.S. Attorney General. Invited because he was a member of EXCOMM, and as the movie describes him "conniving" and "brilliant." He could bring some more insight on how to solve the crisis.

Curtis Emerson LeMay
U.S. Air Force General during Cuban Missile Crisis. Invited because he would challenge the others ideas and create more thought behind the solutions to the crisis.

Roger Donaldson
Director of Thirteen Days. Invited because he would have most likely researched the Cuban Missile Crisis to create a movie accurately about history.

Bruce Greenwood
Actor in Thirteen Days who played JFK. Invited because I thought it would be funny to have two JFKs in a room together.

James A. Henretta
Co-author of America's History 9th Edition. Invited because he would know of previous knowledge and how others dealt with the same issues.

2.9 Art and Design research article

          

As defined by Merriam Webster a monument is "A lasting evidence, reminder, or example of someone or something notable or great." and I think a monument should be exactly that, a reminder. With that said the fountain on Court Street is neither a reminder nor something notably great. Its a coverup for the busy and bustling slave trade center that used to be there. Instead of having a bland uninteresting fountain there could be a monument to something that truly moved the society farther forward. Having a monument to the Freedom Riders would be of something notably great as well as a reminder to what they did for the Civil Rights Movement. That monument should also represent the people who participated in that something notably great, and it should mean something to everyone, it has to have its purpose but also resonate with the viewer.

           As I've learned from the Freedom Riders Museum in Montgomery, Alabama, The Freedom Riders were a group of people who's goal was to get the supreme courts attention so they would crack down on the southern negligence of the outlaw on segregated travel. They were trying to get to New Orleans from Washington D.C. by bus as to get the Supreme Court's attention. Not only did they do it, but they were brutalized by mobs and their buses were broken and battered and they kept going. When the buses reached Anniston, Alabama there was even a firebomb thrown into the bus while someone held the door closed (Stanford University Article) The mob attacks on the freedom riders was violent and chaotic. When the buses reached the bus stop where the museum is today, the riders were beaten nearly to death (Freedom Riders Museum). After the mob attacks, the riders kept going. As more and more reports of more riders came in, the government finally gave in. Attorney General Kennedy petitions the ICC (Interstate Commerce Commission) to enforce that all people must be able to ride as equals. As the museum states the Freedom Riders' movement it was a "symbolic resistance to the end of segregation" and as MLK himself put the whole movement as "A psychological turning point in our whole struggle."(Freedom Riders Museum)

Court Street Fountain (Tripadvisor)

          As monuments are concerned, the presentations of them are always above eye-level and are held in high regard. As should a monument be if the fountain on Court Street were to be replaced. A monument there should embody the freedom rides themselves. A symbolic resistance, and something that should never be kept down. No matter the violence or hatred or fire, it would succeed. The design of the monument, I think, should be that of the greyhound bus that the rode on. As per almost every monument, it should be kept high on a pedestal for all to esteem. The statue of the bus should be battered and dented and maybe even on fire, but it should look as though it was still moving towards New Orleans. As the one that drove to Montgomery and got pelted with rocks and had its windows shattered by bricks (Smithsonian Mag). As I have seen from the monuments in Montgomery, all of them fit the criteria of being on a pedestal and being of something of great importance. However not all of them resonate with everyone, as for the Confederate monument memorial it didn't say anything to me. All that tower of stone was for me was a way of appeasing the status quo. Not only that but it seems its hiding from everyone, its hidden away behind trees and the Capital building.

Smithsonian Mag picture of the burning bus

          When I went to see the lynching memorial it really gave a feeling to everyone that went as well as me. It was a feeling of uneasiness and of this "guilt" that we all felt but didn't have a reason to. The memorial was meant to be meaningful and to "contextualize racial terror" through sculptures, art, and design."(EJI Memorial) Its also a place of reflection on the history of America's racial terror and violence, as the creator most literally accomplished with the water streaming down the back wall of the memorial. The memorial square in the middle of the whole structure is a place where you can see all of the six-foot monuments to those who died, and it is very similar to squares where lynchings took place. Later along in time the unclaimed steel monuments laying down baking in the sun will serve as which counties have tried to erase their past and won't accept the truth of history. The Freedom Riders monument, if ever built, must contain a sense of reflection on the past and it should represent those who stood for the movement. It should be important to everyone, whether good or bad depending on their views. However it should be a monument, "A reminder of someone or something notably great."

EJI Memorial for Peace and Justice birdseye view

Sources:
Smithsonian Mag; The Freedom Riders, Then and Now
Stanford Freedom Riders Article
Freedom Riders Museum History
Merriam Webster Definition
EJI Memorial
How to Honor The Dead: Using Art and International Comparisons... 

2.8 Montgomery Reflection

2.7 Mid-Semester 2 Reflection

1. The most important thing I learned about immigration in the late 19th century is that America benefitted from the cheap reliable labor that the many Irish immigrants provided. I see it as the most important because without that cheap labor factories may not have had the same potential as they do today and the U.S. wouldn't have the sam cultural diversity as it does today.

2. The most important thing I learned about immigration in today's era is that peoples reasons for immigrating are different. They can either migrate to America or other countries for many reasons including: war, education, and one of my favorite reasons "Freedom of Speech." I see it as the most important thing because knowing people's motives for doing things is one of the key factors of understanding them.

The First Amendment to the Constitution (Wordpress blog)

3. The two most challenging aspects of living the 19th century urban settings would be; 1. Tenements and their horrible conditions for new immigrants 2. The working conditions of factories. These challenges have since been surpassed by outrage from the people with written works like The Jungle or factory fires like the Triangle Fire, which finally caused some change. That change has been rather successful, factory workers have much less risk of injury and conditions for said factories have been brought up to a standard.

4. The effort of building the Highline is similar to 19th century to early 20th century progressivism because as stated by the text book: "An overlapping set of movements to combat the ills of industrialization." Which is exactly what the Highline did, they took this old train track elevated by dark industrial steel platforms and created it into something the reinvigorated the surrounding area. Not only that but it also brought in many different people to help build it and design it, including gardeners, city planners, architects, and photographers. As well as the fact that progressives of that era heavily advocated with recreational areas like the Highline with movements like the "City Beautiful" movement.
The effort was also dissimilar to Progressivism, in ways that the Highline wasn't against but it just didn't recognize the issues. For example the progressives fought for social equality and they were against corruption, social darwinism and alcohol.

2.6 Philanthropy Research

1. As defined by Merriam-Webster's Dictionary, "goodwill to fellow members of the human race especially : active effort to promote human welfare". Activities generally tied with philanthropy are large donations and creations of foundations to facilitate those donations, as well as actively progressing or endorsing a certain movement. Philanthropy is different from "charity" or "charitable donations" because of the fact it is an "active effort to promote human welfare". (Merriam-Webster)

2. As I learned from carnegie.org, Carnegie was the father of modern philanthropy and after he had sold his company to J. P. Morgan he set out to "distribute his fortune." In doing so he would spend over $55 million on just libraries, he also helped create colleges, schools, nonprofit organizations, several involving his name; Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh, the Carnegie Trust for the Universities of Scotland, Carnegie Institution for Science, Carnegie Foundation, and many others. He spent the money he did on these kinds of projects, specifically libraries, to educate those who wouldn't normally be educated. He believed that those who could be educated would be successful. (carnegie.org)

3. From a University of Houston article I learned that Carnegie's giving was not spurred by anything other than good will, he created several institutes and libraries. Whereas Rockefeller started participating in charitable actions when the trusts started pressuring his company. With his unimaginable wealth, Rockefeller donated for much of the same things Carnegie did. (UH article)

4. As found from the Carnegie Foundation's website, they currently support a variety of networks. The first of which listed on the site is the GBC (Getting Better, California), which as stated by the website is "comprised of two networked improvement communities (NICs) in the state of California". These two communities having to deal with either middle-school mathematics or early literacy. The rest of the networks listed on the site all have some link with education, one being for older people including professional training or coaching(Carnegie Foundation). While the others tend to have a trend with reading and literacy.

5. As shown by Forbes "major philanthropists" are the top 50 who gave away the most money in that current year. In the year of 2017 the top 5 major philanthropists were; Warren Buffet, Bill and Melinda Gates, Michael Bloomberg, The Walton Family and George Soros(Forbes Article). While not considered a philanthropist at all, I chose to follow through what Steve Irwin had done for environmentalism and conservation. While mainly coming from my personal knowledge of the eccentric Australian, Steve Irwin was a great example of what many philanthropists would do from humans but instead of humans he dedicated his purpose to protecting and contributing to the well being of wild animals. As well as that task he took with him all through his life he also managed to fit in educating many people about the specifics and details of wild animals. While he might not have been a traditional philanthropist he was one in the sense that he still contributed to many of the same causes of those who are. "I believe that education is all about being excited about something. Seeing passion and enthusiasm helps push an educational message." - Steve Irwin (brainyquote)

6. If I were a philanthropist, I would spend my time and effort contributing to the pursuit of knowledge and education. People deserve the right to know, and you never know what they might be capable of if they just knew some things.

2.5 Progressive Research

Progressive group research