Religion

Throughout the course of this semester I couldn’t help but think about how much trouble religion has cause. Strayer mentions the fact that Bin Laden and his Al-Qaeda group attacked our World Trade Center because of our troops that were on their sacred land. If we would’ve know the importance of the land to Bin Laden and his religion, would it have made a difference on what happened on September 11? Stayer also mentions the fact that Bin Laden and the United States were both fighting to end the reign of the Soviet Unions, so if we both had a common enemy, and Bin Laden saw the power that the United States had, why would he consider attacking us. I feel like religion tends to make people go crazy because everybody convinces himself or herself that there religion and their God is almighty. Instead of focusing on the teachings of their Gods, I feel like people get too caught up on the power of their status. If people really understood and followed the ways of their teachings there shouldn’t be any bloodshed or fighting. For the most part religion is based on ideals of peace, harmony, and love. There shouldn’t be any violence when it comes to spreading your beliefs. 

Feminism

Reading about the effort the women in the past put into to fight for our equality makes me realize how grateful I am to live in a time era that accepts the freedom and equality of women. We have come a long way from being oppressed and there are still laws that should be changed so that women have the same rights as men. What stuck out to me during the reading was when one the African group told the UN Convention “contrary to the best intentions of ‘sisterhood’, not all women share the identical interests”. This has to be one of the most memorable quotes to me because it is true. What some people want in our society is different than other societies. It reminds me of why my parents pushed us so hard to go to school and do well in school especially my sisters and I. My parents came from Vietnam and my mom and her sisters were not expected to go to school. They were expected to stay home and help my grandmother around the house. When my parents finally came to America and had my sisters and I, my dad pushed on us that we were supposed to help my mom around the house. My dad always said that as the first-born daughter I was expected to know my mother’s role. I was supposed to learn from my mom because if anything ever happened to her, I was expected to do everything that she did. My mom on the other hand was the complete opposite. She pushed me to study hard in school because she didn’t want me to just become someone’s wife and mother. She wanted me to make a name for myself; she wanted to know that I would be able to take care of myself. When I look back at my life I realize how independent I have become and it is hard to imagine a life where I nothing but an item to a man. 

Economic Globolization

While reading about the Globalization of the world, I couldn’t help but think about how jobs must have been lost due to the movement of companies. I couldn’t help but think about how my parents left Vietnam to start a better life in the United States, but little did they know, all the jobs they would qualify for would be moved back to the countries they left. Growing up, I remember my parents talking a lot about jobs that they would qualify for. My parents didn’t want to be stuck in a low paying job for the rest of their lives, but their lack of education and lack of English stopped them from getting a better job. I remember my parents applying to all these companies and they would be turned away because all the big companies were movie to the other developing nations like China, Vietnam, etc. Because all the jobs were being moved away, I remember my mom trying to go on a strike. I remember her telling us that we were not going to buy anything that was made from China, Vietnam, or Korea. Now that I think back to it, I find it funny because majority of stuff I own are from these countries. It is hard to find things that are not made in these countries. One major issued my mom had with these big companies being moved out of the United States was that while people of other countries are making our items, they still pay so much for the items. I know when my mom goes back to Vietnam to visit she always go back with a lot of presents for my cousins because she says although the factories are located in these countries, they still can’t afford to but the items themselves. It is very unfair that these workers are not getting the items they are working on for a lower price.

            The one thing that has always been mind boggling to me is the international credit cards that are floating around our countries.  I work as a cashier at Forever 21 and the most difficult transactions are the ones where I have to deal with the out of the country credit cards. I am not sure how they run things in countries like Japan and China but often time when it comes time for the customers to pay, their cards are often declined. The main issue for a lot of the card is that the customers try to use it as a debit but our systems do not recognize the out of country debit cards so we have to run them as a credit card. Often time when I run it as a credit card it will work but on the rare occasion they will still be declined. What I find so weird is that the currency in both countries is different, yet the cards from China still work in the United States. I guess it just shows how technology has improved our world so much, because every time I buy something from eBay, I find it weird to think that the person I am purchasing my items from is from China. 

Nonviolent Tactics

While listening to the Dolores Huerta speech I couldn’t help but think about the impact of nonviolence tactic. Violence is an approach that I am more familiar with. When I was in third grade the attack on the Twin Towers happened, and shortly after President Bush declared war, so growing up I remember a lot of talk about war and deaths. Hearing about Dolores Huerta’s speech showed me that while there may be a lot of violence there will always be people that try to fight with their will. It was interesting to hear about how the police officers would attack the protestors and they would just sit there and take it. It must have been hard for the men to sit there and see their wives, sisters, and mothers nonviolently protesting the unfair working conditions. I know that a lot of men can be short tempered and they would fight back. Thinking about all nonviolent tactics that people like Martin Luther King Junior, Gandhi, and César Chavez participated reminded me of the protest that happened in U.C Davis a few years back. A chain of students were sitting and protesting the tuition hike and the police officers came up and peppered sprayed the students. It is great to see that there are people who are participated in nonviolent tactics today because it shows that there doesn’t have to be violence to get your voice heard. 

Cold War

At the end of the chapter, Strayer asked his reader whether or not students and historians should make moral judgment about the events and people that we study, and my answer is no. The people and event that has happened is what shapes our society today. There may have been time where certain people should have double check what they wanted to do, but for the most part we learn from out mistakes. While reading about the Cuban Missile crisis, it made me think about how badly the world would have been if everybody involved had shot his nuclear weapons. The world may have been destroyed if that would have happened. Reading about all the nuclear weapons makes me worried about any future wars we maybe involved in the future. Now that everybody has their own nuclear weapons they could decide that they want to be the super country in this world and fire their nuclear weapons. It worries me that all the countries today want to be number one and they want to prove that they are top dog, so I fear for the day that a war might break out again.

            Another think that I couldn’t stop thinking about while reading the reading tonight was whether or not the use of the nuclear bomb on Japan was a good idea. I feel like during the Cuban Missile Crisis people were too afraid to use the nuclear bombs because they didn’t know the consequences. I think the countries used the bombs as a threat but they would never actually use it. When the United States decided to drop the bomb, they showed the world that they were not afraid to use full force when fighting another country. Now that people know what will come of the use of a bomb, they may want to use their bombs and/or nuclear weapons to take control. It really is scary knowing that all these countries today have nuclear weapons to use. 

The Rise and Fall of Communism

Communist’s ideals have always been taught to students at school as something that is bad. The leaders of the communist group try to make everybody equal, which results in the unfair distribution of work. A doctor who is working hard to save lives can make the same amount of income as someone who is working out in the fields.  This is what I have always thought about communism, but while reading the Rise and Fall of World Communisms, I realized that there were some good that came out of the communist ideals. In the 1920’s, Stalin created an organization called the Zhenotdel organization, which is a group that will fight for Women’s write. Because of this group, women were allowed to go to school, illiteracy was not allowed and women finally had more freedom. Women now had the freedom to divorce their husband without taking the blame for there failing marriage. Strayer writes that, “the Marriage Law of 1950 made it possible for women to divorce easily, it ended concubinaged and child marriage, permissions for widows to remarry, and equal property rights for women” (669).

The Marriage Law is a good that came out of communism. I remember doing some research on the marriage law and I realized that women had no name to themselves. Women were passed along from father to husband, and if their husband died before they did they were passed along to their sons. It is hard to imagine a life where you couldn’t choose your spouse and if your marriage was an unhappy one, there was nothing you could do. My parents were lucky enough to have married each other out of love but I remember my grandparents telling me stories of how they met each other. My grandmother said that she didn’t know what to expect on her wedding night, but she was hoping that her soon to be husband would be a good man. My grandmother was one of the lucky women who were able to fall in love with my grandfather. Although I never met him, I was glad that  my grandmother didn’t have to go through a loveless marriage.