The Beginnings of 9/11

From the documentary we've been watching in class, it is clear that the 9/11 terrorist attack was premeditated. In other words, it was planned ahead of time. Organizations of extremist Muslims began preaching about a "jihad", which is a fight against people whose religion was something other than Islam. Gradually, terrorist networks began to pop up all over the country, which spread the extreme teachings to miniature terrorist hotspots in the United States.

Osama Bin Laden was one of these extreme Islamists. He began the movement for a jihad in the United States and was backed by all of these terrorist hotspots. The group that he founded was named Al-Qaeda and it still exists today. It wasn't very difficult for him to fund the hotspots and terrorist training camps because he came from a very wealthy family. One of the strategies he used for recruitment was that he made every new terrorist recruit one to two new people to their radical organization; this strategy helped spread Al-Qaeda hotspots to places all over the world, such as Yemen, Germany, Australia, and more. Contrary to popular belief, Al-Qaeda was not just some messily organized group of terrorists; Bin Laden actually required his recruits to complete official paperwork.

The main impetus for Osama Bin Laden's declaring war on the US is that he believed that the US was minding the business of other nations, such as Afghanistan and Saudi Arabia, which US troops occupied. Another reason was that the US was made of "godless capitalists" who only cared about doing business for profit.

Summary: The Columbine Shooting

On April 20, 1999, in the town of Littleton, Colorado, a school shooting was carried out by two teenage boys named Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris. Thirteen people died and twenty were wounded before the boys shot themselves. However, many more (hundreds) could have died if the boys' attempt to set off the 20-pound propane bomb in the parking lot had worked. This meant that they didn't aim to kill a select few; the boys meant to get rid of virtually the entire school population. Out of all school shootings in the nation's history, the Columbine shooting was one of the worst. Unlike previous shootings, this one occurred in an affluent suburb that was relatively safer compared to larger cities.

Here are some things that the people blamed for having a bad influence on the boys that led them to carry out the shooting:
1. Video games that involved shooting and violence (such as Doom)
2. Other students at school who might have bullied them, and the boys wanted revenge (they were actually bullies themselves)
3. "Goth" music and culture

None of these theories were proven to be true, and in actuality both of the boys suffered from mental illness. It was later discovered that Eric Harris was a narcissist psychopath who believed that he was superior to everyone else in the school. Dylan was Eric's accomplice, and was very suicidal and depressed during the period of time leading up to the shooting. In my opinion, the people were misled because they didn't want to believe that the boys were mentally ill, which is a stigma that still exists in our society today.

Lois Gibbs and the Love Canal Incident

When Lois Gibbs found out that she and her family were living on land poisoned by toxic chemicals, she began to investigate the impacts of the environment she lived in on other people in the area. Gibbs discovered that her entire community was negatively impacted by the toxic land. She started the Love Canal Parents Movement (LCPM) in June 1978 to educate her community about the dangers of living near the Love Canal.

The Movement spread awareness of the conditions surrounding Love Canal, and it solved the problem, but only to a very limited extent. The Love Canal Homeowners Association (LCHA) was formed, and it was made up of 500 families that interviewed families and made a map of disease clusters around the Love Canal area. An important study completed in 1979 found that rates of stillbirths, urinary tract disorders, nervous breakdowns, hyperactivity, and epilepsy increased. Additionally, there were three times as many miscarriages as last measured, and 56% of the babies in the area were born with a birth defect (like mental retardation, or growing another ear).

The LCPM and LCHA began appealing to the public and even the government because the previously mentioned study was dismissed by the state authorities. A second evacuation of children and pregnant women was issued, and a total evacuation was completed in 1980 after being issued by President Carter. In the end, the residents at Love Canal were proved wrong in the belief that the government would always be there to protect them.

Anita Bryant

Also known as a singer and former winner of the Miss Oklahoma beauty pageant, Anita Bryant is one of the most famous anti-gay activists in American history.

Her involvement in her "Save Our Children" campaign, a movement to repeal the prohibition of discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, played a large part in ruining her career. Bryant's anti-gay views drastically changed the way many people viewed her. Her campaign was based on the belief that homosexuality was a sin and that gay people would often steal children. She thought that this was true because, if homosexuals cannot biologically reproduce, they'd have to "recruit" young people. Bryant once stated, "What [homosexuals] really want.. is the legal right to propose to our children that theirs is an acceptable alternate way of life." She said that if the government granted rights to homosexuals, it would then have to give rights to prostitutes, "people who sleep with St. Bernards, and to nail biters".

I'm curious as to what shaped Anita Bryant's beliefs and what caused her to be so averse to giving rights to homosexuals. From my experience, people generally aren't inherently racist, religiously intolerant, or anti-gay, but they usually have some kind of influence that makes them buy into things like that. How do you think someone like Anita Bryant would be viewed today?

Social Movements of the 1960s

In class, we just finished watching a documentary about the social movements of the 1960s. I thought it was interesting mainly because I learned quite a lot about the background of modern movements from this documentary. From my point of view, I believe that the 1960s and the times before then were filled with disappointment - that is, for people whom society was not tailored to. In other words, anyone who was not a straight white male felt some kind of disappointment as to how their rights were limited by society and government. They decided, based on these conditions, that it was finally time for them to take action. Women began questioning the status quo of how they were being treated and the expectations that society laid out for them. Like the Blacks Civil Rights Movement, some homosexuals and advocates for gay rights risked their lives and almost paid the highest price for getting the rights that they deserved.

Today, we are seeing more and more social movements because of conditions that parallel those of the 1960s: growing disappointment among the people. The Women’s Marches that happened quite recently mirrored the 1960s Women’s Movement; however, the former was much larger and advocated for a wider range of issues, such as women’s rights, LGBT+ rights, respect to minorities and people with disabilities, and more. It saddens me to say that we have definitely made progress over the past fifty to sixty years, but still not enough.

MLK's Letter from Birmingham Jail

Earlier this semester, my English class analyzed and discussed Martin Luther King, Jr's Letter from Birmingham Jail as part of our persuasion unit. It was during that unit when I read his Letter for the first time, and it was the most important document of the Black Civil Rights Movement. Coming back to it a few weeks later raised my interest in it once again.

King wrote his letter about the inequality and unfair treatment of African Americans in the United States, as a reply to another letter that eight clergymen had originally written to him. The targeted audience of his letter is clearly the clergymen, as well as anyone else against equal rights for African Americans. King's letter is written in a way that speaks to the public, and his supporters and enemies.

One thing King did particularly well was that he narrowed the rifts between himself and his audience. Unlike King, these clergymen were clearly against equal rights for people of all races, as can be inferred from their original letter. However, one thing King and the clergymen shared was their religion, faith, and the Bible. This is why King begins his letter with the phrase “My dear fellow clergymen,” as a reminder that he is on the same level as the clergymen despite them having addressed him in their letter as if he was below them. In addition, King makes many historical, philosophical, and Biblical references to especially appeal to these clergymen. After stating that he “would agree with St. Augustine that ‘an unjust law is no law at all’”, King goes on to “put [this situation] in terms of St. Thomas Aquinas: An unjust law is a human law that is not rooted in eternal law and natural law…” as the clergymen would recognize as a famous priest. It is clear that these clergymen would not be likely to challenge the word of such a well-known religious figure; thus, King makes these allusions to build bridges between himself and the clergymen, as well as refute their reasons to be anxious over his "willingness to break laws".

I believe that writing his Letter to the eight clergymen was a great way for MLK to express his disappointment towards the Black Civil Rights situation at the time, and to stand up to some of the people who perpetuated racism in his society. One lesson we can take away from King's letter is that we should face our opponents directly when speaking up for what we believe in.

Black Civil Rights Movement Reflection

When reflecting on the documentary we watched last week, I noticed a few overarching themes that encompassed the strategies of the Black Civil Rights Movement. These themes seem to be united under nonviolence, sacrifices, and appeal to the public. For example, Martin Luther King, Jr’s approach to the movement came in the form of nonviolent protests; he also appealed to the masses through his well-known “I Have a Dream” speech. This strategy of inspiring his supporters to make change and encouraging them to break the law was effective. We can also see a similar strategy among the Freedom riders, who were blacks and whites who rode the greyhound buses together. Although a handful of them died at the hands of people who opposed the Black Civil Rights Movement, the message they sent to the public was that the Freedom riders, among many others, were willing to give their lives for what they believed in. Finally, many events relating to the Black Civil Rights Movement were broadcast on television and the media, so that they would reach an even broader audience and spread awareness of the movement.


We should keep in mind what we have learned from past civil rights movements, such as the effective and proven strategies utilized by Black Civil Rights activists, and apply those to present-day issues. Minority, LGBT+, and women's rights have not completely been achieved yet, not in the federal government nor everyday society. Our country has a long way to go before we achieve equal rights and representation for people from all walks of life.

Great Depression vs. Great Recession