Nixon Caught on Tape

It's a well known fact that Nixon installed a recording system in the white house, after all, that's how the Water Gate Scandal went down. Fun Fact: In X-Men Days of Future Past, after Mystique tries assassinating Trask, Nixon meets up in his office and tells his officers to start recording the conversation. Just goes to show that even to this day, even Hollywood is having fun trying to make Nixon references and jokes. It just goes to show the impact technology has implemented on the world. If it weren't for the recording system, Nixon and his CIA agents would have most likely been able to escape trial from Water Gate. Countless trials and prosecutions would have been voided for lack of concrete evidence. We can take as Nixon as a historical example of this, but in reality, it happens all around us now in the present day. We are all mini-newsreporters with our phones, being able to shoot video, take pictures, and record sound.  Perhaps one of us, the readers of this blog, might be the ones responsible for catching the president ordering a latte with extra cream at Starbucks, and thus, exposing him and having yourself become very wealthy. That's just how life goes now.

McCarthyism? And a side of salty McFries?

We should all remember who McCarthy was. He's the guy that complains about the food at a fast food chain after he finished eating what he ordered, and then, threatens to sue the company for that. Realistically, as far as I know he didn't sue a restaurant, but what he did do was falsely accuse a multitude of people for being supposed Communists. During the red scare, having this power and influence was a very big tool. A tool for what you may ask. A tool for beating up bushes? Nope. A tool for beating up potential political adversaries or any other individual who may have had posed a challenge for McCarthy. But lets face it, he wasn't the only one with this type of power. Anyone, even seven year old Dylan from Texas (alright, maybe not), could get away with calling someone else a Communist and getting them jailed. The paranoia in the United States at this time was way too great, perhaps greater than when the population blamed George W. Bush for doing 9/11. Just like in politics, there will always be some random salty individual who will take a bite out of his food and blame the restaurant for it; just as McCarthy proved with his fake "Communist list".

Muckraking Project Thoughts

The dilemmas presented during the duration of the presentations all had their own important key elements. The group that presented on the school funding's issue had an important idea to realize, which was that some of us are more privileged than others in this country. This is important because it attacks the idea that some things never change in history. Earlier in American History, we also had these problems were the richer would have more privileges than those who were poor. The group that presented on the costs of child care raised a very important question. How is it possible that pre-school is being turned into a business without no one doing anything about it? It's very important to know that such an issue is happening right under our noses. Perhaps one day, the pre-school organizations will turn into a monopoly and become the next Rockefeller (the dude that owned Standard Oil and become extremely rich).

Connecting Back To The End Of The Year

In the beginning of the year, a long time ago, we learned about how in the early American colonies, religion played a major role. These reflected mostly on the likes of Ann Hutchinson and Thomas "tank engine" Jefferson. Both of these individuals played a major role in the developing religious pursuit in early American History. Thomas believed that the restrictions at the time, the ones that were set by the supposed leaders of the colonies, were unjust and counter intuitive as to the reasoning behind leaving Europe and coming to the Americans in the first place. Because of this, Thomas felt entitled to go on the pursuit of making sure everyone had individual rights that couldn't be taken.

Ann Hutchinson's main struggle was fighting for the belief that we should all be able to practice our religion without the intrusion from the government and rather protect us in our pursuit. Obviously, this didn't flow well with the Puritans, which at the time were a dominant religion. The most important thing to remember from Ann is that she fought for the protective right of freedom of religion. 

Religious Influences on Democracy by Bryan Guerrero

During early colonial life, many aspect of religion were controlled by the colonies respective leaders, carrying over the tyrannically ways of ruling that the Catholic church in England followed. One of these aspects included having everyone in a colony "conform" to the religion in play and abide by whatever rules the leaders. This eventually gave way for individuals to rise against these aspects in the attempt to create a set of irrevocable rights that would apply to everyone in the colonies, later to become the United States of Merica. One of these seekers was Thomas Jefferson. He was the one of the first that strove to create these irrevocable rights, mainly one that would grant religious freedom, free of law restrictions.
Another person who challenged these influences was Mary Wollstonecraft. She supposedly received a message from God. After this, she began to teach others that one shouldn't conform or abide to the restrictions set by others. This began to raise questions about what the true way is to get to heaven, thus challenging the power of those who managed and led the religion, such as from the Protestants.