Blog #8 Entry: Larry Heinemann and Jacob Lawrence

Larry Heinemann had a very tough life because he had to fight in the Vietnam War. His younger brother was also drafted into war the same time he was and they had some tough times, "He came back from Germany with a discharge in his hand on the same day I left for San Francisco. We had two hours in the kitchen to sit and talk...And I haven't seen my oldest brother since 1970" (416,420). I can't even imagine that because that must be horrible only being able to talk to your brothers that you haven't seen in years because of war, and only having 2 hours to talk to one of those brothers. I love my brother so much. He is the best brother in the entire world, and I couldn't imagine only being able to talk to him for 2 hours after not seeing him for years if we were in the same situation. That would be the worst possible situation to imagine. After Larry got back from war, he was very scared and ashamed, "When I got back here, I was scared and grateful and ashamed that I had lived, 'cause I started getting letters: So-and-so got hit, So-and-so burned to death" (417). I also couldn't even fathom that because getting letters from people you were close with in war and then finding out awful ways they died is just awful. Larry also got angry and stressed after Vietnam, "The one thing they teach about bus driving is that you're a public servant...Any asshole with a fare can give you shit and you have to sit there and take it. Anyone gave me an argument, I threw 'em off the bus...I was never that way before Vietnam" (417-18). Larry became very uptight, stressed, and fearful after the war, which resulted in him becoming an angry person.

Jacob Lawrence was a painter, "I sit here, I'm looking at my works, I'm reading, I'll go back to my drawing table, do some drawing. That's more or less of it" (521). Jacob worked constantly and was always trying to improve his artwork. He was a very tough worker. He is ashamed that nowadays, schools cut back on the arts (music, art, etc.) because the government needs to save money, "It's too bad we don't have more of that today--government support of the arts. In schools, the first programs cut back are music, dance, the arts. If we don't realize how much these things contribute to the quality of life, we'll lose it. I see these youngsters on the street, never exposed to this experience--they've lost it, their chance at life" (522,23). He shows how thankful he is and his classmates in art are that they had the resources to take part in the arts and find their true passion and occupation in life. He got to realize how much he loved art. If he never was able to experience the arts, then he might have never gotten to see his true talents in the arts and painting. He even said, "If it weren't for these federal programs, I probably would have been lost and drifting like so many young people were, without any sense of belonging. I dread to think what would have happened to me" (523). It illustrates how thankful he is for his resources and being able to take part in the amazing arts. He just feels sorry for those who ended up on the streets and couldn't have the same experience he had in the arts. He even said that he could have easily become one of those unfortunate kids who was on the streets without a sense of belonging. He is very religious and just thanks god for his amazing resources. He is just so thankful that he found what he is very skilled at and what he truly loves.

The American dream is to find what you truly have a passion for and go after what you want and love. Jacob just happened to be one of the fortunate ones that got to find his true love, but there were many other people who ended up on the streets without the same experience that Jacob had because they didn't have the same resources. Jacob did that and became a wonderful painter. However, Larry did not do what he truly loved because he never truly wanted to go to war, but he got drafted so he had to. He had some bad experience, but he served his country and was patriotic, so he was proud of himself and his brothers that also went to war.

Blog Entry #7: Dolores Dante, waitress and Phil Stallings, auto worker

Dolores Dante was a waitress at the same restaurant for 23 years and worked from 5:00PM-2:00AM. She became a waitress because she needed fast money to support her children; her husband left her and left her with debts. She wasn't like your average waitress. She liked being an interesting person by saying things in interesting ways to have more fun, "What's exciting at the bar that I can offer" (330). She also wasn't like the average waitress because she never over-stressed over her earnings, "If you like people, you aren't thinking of the tips. I never count my money at night. I always wait till morning. If I thought about my tips I'd be uptight. I never look at a tip" (331). If someone didn't know what to give her for her tip, she would just say, "...it didn't really matter whether I got a tip or not. I would spit it out, my resentment..." (331). This illustrates her character that life isn't all about money. She was just a happy person in general. She also enjoyed making conversation with her customers and making amusing comments to them.

Phil Stallings was an auto worker at the Ford assembly plant on the far South Side of Chicago. He works from 3:30PM-midnight. His job was very hard and had a lot of negatives, "I stand in one spot, about 2 or 3 feet area, all night. The only time a person stops is when the line stops. We do about 32 jobs per car, per unit. 48 units an hour, 8 hours a day. 32 times 48 times 8...That's how many times I push that button. The noise is very loud. You open your mouth and you're liable to get a mouthful of sparks. That's a burn, these are burns" (354-355).This exemplifies how terrible, difficult, and scary his job was. He could get sparks in his mouth, it was extremely loud (hurt your ears), and he got a lot of burns. There was also racial tension at the plant, "...there's tension here. It's not always obvious, but the whites stay with the whites and the coloreds stay with the coloreds" (356). I just think it is really too bad that everyone couldn't just get along, work, and socialize together. Phil and Dolores tried to achieve and grasp the American Dream by making enough money to support themselves and their loved ones and to succeed in society. Phil didn't love his job, but Dolores liked hers. Back then, there was a lot of racial discrimination, which was too bad. However, nowadays, there is a lot less racial discrimination. Therefore, things have improved over time, which is good. We just have to keep on improving society for everyone.

Blog Entry #6: Tom Kearney, cop and George Malley (a.k.a Henry Lorenz), blue-collar worker

Tom Kearney shows his hatred towards how some people are racist and wishes that everyone could live together in unison. He thinks that it is really too bad how colored people aren't treated fairly and are more likely to get arrested than white people. Something that I found interesting from reading his story was that how times of changed rapidly, like Catholics can marry Protestants and long ago, Catholics only married Catholics and Protestants only married Protestants, etc. Something else interesting was how he didn't look forward to retiring in two years, "Not particularly...I myself haven't done everything a man should do" (271, AR). I find it really sad that because his dad was a fireman, and he wasn't getting apid anything at one point because of the Great Depression, they didn't have food and went on hungry marches. It makes me really sad because his dad worked long hours and didn't get paid much and didn't get paid ay all at one point. Tom as a policeman worked from, "six thirty in the morning and wasn't released until five in the evening without any breaks and no lunch breaks" (262, AR). He also said back in his time there was tons of integration between blacks and whites, like in school and the streets, etc. He didn't really like it, but knew that he ahd to deal with it because it was a way of life back then. His father sent him to a public school and not a Catholic school he's going to have to get used to the inegration later in life, so he might as well get used to it now (early in his life).

Chester Kolar was a technician at an electronics plant and then started a program over a foreign language radio station. He was then celebrated in his community for doing it. He heard over the radio, "...so many people were killed" (273). He wanted to know what happened and why so amny people were getting killed in the war because he felt really bad. He was just happy that he ahd a radio, so he could know what was going on in the war because he didn't use to have that resource (having a radio). He was just having trouble providing for his family because he was a poor man trying to get "...his eight hours of work done to keep his family going, pay his rent, and buy his food..." (273, AR). The American dream for most people is to make ends meet which was really hard back then because of the Great Depression, which made the economy extremely bad and lowered jobs and employment. Everyone wants to make ends meet at least, try to make a lot of money, get a job, have a family, and bring food and water home for the family, have shelter to live under. The American dream is to also not have racial segregation, but back then it was almost impossible for that to happen because there was a lot of racial tension and segregation between blacks and whites. It was just a way of life back then, which was really sad because it was very unconstitutional and morally wrong.

Peter Ota and Betty Basye Hutchinson Response

Peter had a really rough life I learned from the reading. His dad had to go to jail, his mom later passed away, and he and his sister had to go to a camp. His father was later transfered to Montana. His father was later sent to the same camp as his kids. His living quarters were mentioned as, "...horse stables were converted into living quarters. My sister and i were fortunate enough to stay in a barracks. The people in stables had to live with the stench. Everything was communal. We had absolutely no privacy" (206). It illustrates how Peter lived a very tough life early on. I can't even imagine all of that stuff happening to me earlier on in my life. It would be so difficult to cope with all of that. He later went to Utah to find a job that turned out to be minimal pay, but at least he still made some money to help his family. After he got to Union Station in LA, military policemen had to escort them through the station, "...the people recognized me as being Oriental. They knew I was either an escaped prisoner or a spy...they called out names...dirty Jap..." (208). Japanese at this time were treated very poorly, which is really sad because they are just normal people like Americans. The reason for this hatred towards Japs is because of the war going on. Why are people so rude towards people that aren't the same ethnicity as them? Why were people sent to camps under poor conditions and treated badly?

Betty was a girl that went to Fresno State to become a nurse to help out in the war. This is because this is the fastest thing she can do to help out the people at war because women can't fight in the war. Betty did really well at her job, "In six weeks, we became so skilled in plastic surgery that they wouldn't let us go" (213). It shows that women should be treated as equally as men with jobs because they can do as well as men in the job field. Her whole dream was to be a nurse in the war and help out her country and she achieved her goal. How else can women help out in the war besides being a nurse back in those times, where men had many advantages over women because men had more rights than women for most things? In my opinion, Peter could never get the experience of the American dream because he had so many bad things happen in his life, but Betty in my opinion, did achieve the American dream because she got to do what she always wanted---be a nurse and help out her country in war. The American dream is everyones dream.

Peggy Terry and E.B. Sledge (Marine) Response

I learned from the Peggy Terry letter that she had to work in awful conditions to produce war supplies, "Tetryl was one of the ingredients and it turned us orange...some of the woman had breathing problems...The fumes...burned the nose and throat...it was difficult to breathe" (190-91). I feel bad for her because she had to make money for her family, but she was causing harm to her body because she was working in awful conditions that was bad for her health. While she was working one day, "This terrible thunderstorm came and all the lights went out. Somebody knocked a box of detonators off on the floor..." (191). It shows how scary and high risk her job was for her own safety. When her mom's mom got sick and died, she asked to take some time off and they told her no, and she did, so they fired her. It shows you how awful the industry was back then. E.B. Sledge was a marine in the Marines. He had some really rough experiences in the war, "I saw Mac take great pains to position himself and his carbine near a Japanese corpse...Mac was trying very carefully to blast his off the head of the corpse's penis. He succeeded" (201). It shows you how disgraceful some people were to others in war.  He shows some other rough experiences in the war as, "Another kid got his leg blown off" (203). There was an old woman in pain, who had some bad wounds. She asked people to shoot her because she wanted to die. Someone on Sledge's team shot her because she asked for it. It illustrates that Sledge had to go through some extremely rough experiences in war. He survived though. How is an industry allowed to stay open when they are hurting their workers' health and killing them from fumes? I even further realized how tough it is to go to war. I greatly appreciate those who go to war and pray for them because it is such a hard task in every way. You must have to be an extremely strong person and must be extremely strong mentally. Sledge was extremely strong mentally and physically. All of the people who went tow war should be praised a lot. It shows that to be an American you have to be able to support your country by supporting the people that go to war if they want to go to war or supporting the war in other ways on the home-front, like making war supplies or making donations towards the war/praying for those in the war to make sure that they are okay. These things are very necessary because we have to support our country when it is in need.

"The Good War": World War 2: Introduction and Bob Rasmus Response

 I learned from the Introduction that by the end of WWII, Americans had become much more involved in world affairs and the major involvement of women and blacks in the military and industrial industries helped push the civil rights movement in the 1960s and 1970s. Also, WWII caused America to be the top leader in the world/have the best political and military position in the world for the first time in history. I also learned that before the war, blacks couldn't really find any jobs except for being in the military and it was also hard for women to find jobs. The war helped boost the economy drastically and helped end the Great Depression. WWII gave jobs to millions of people in the US and soldiers were paid and women worked in factories to help make equipment that was needed for the war. Making war production supplies really help boost the economy because these supplies were drastically needed for the war and were always needed throughout the entire war, "The war had also prompted the country to invent a miraculous economic machine that seemed to grant as many wishes as were asked of it" (167). The war provided a drastic increase in the economy because of the great demand of war production supplies. Robert Rasmus was in the army and was in the infantry. In learned about Robert's drastic experience in the war in WWII. It affected him in many ways. He doesn't judge people by their appearance or looks now and he had the best experiences of his life in war. He loved it so much. He experienced fear, misery, hope, and excitement. He was very happy to observe such a great experience that helped the US in so many ways, like political, foreign policy, the economy, ending the Great Depression, giving blacks and women jobs, and for him being a small participant in the war. He shows his experiences in the war by stating, "I had the most tremendous experiences of all life: of fear, of jubilance, of misery, of hope, of comradeship, and of the endless excitement, the theatrics of it" (189).  It illustrates all of his wonderful experiences and happiness he got out of the war. He wasn't like most people nowadays because most people nowadays don't want to participate in war, are afraid of war, and don't want to be enlisted in the draft. It shows his courage and determination to help his country and to fight for his country. How did the war impact families of war veterans? How did the war impact the war veterans mentally? Did they have mental and psychological problems later in life because of the war?

Arthur A. Robertson Essay and Clifford Burke Comparative Response

In response to Robertson's essay, I was shocked how many people were out of jobs and how many people got bankrupt from the depression. It really affected so many people. It shows that one of the reasons of the depression was that banks were loaning out money and stocks for not as much as it was worth. An example of this was "Today, if you wanted to buy $100 worth of stock, you have to put up $80 and the broker would put up $20. In those days, you could put up $8 or $10" (100). It just shows that after people got loans of stocks, they couldn't pay the loans back, so the banks went under. It was a major problem and one of the main reasons for the Great Depression. People were committing suicide left and right because people were bankrupt, couldn't buy food and water, and were homeless/couldn't pay for their house anymore. "On Wall Street, the people walked around like zombies. It was like Death Takes A Holiday. It was very dark. You saw people who yesterday rode around in Cadillacs lucky now to have carfare" (101). In these times, some of the rich even became bankrupt. Robertson was talking to his great friend, John Hertz, who was a very intellectual man, who was brilliant in trading stocks/the stock business, "Do mean of your kind put away $10 million where nobody can ever touch it? He looked at me and answered. Young man, what's the use of having ten million if you can't have big money?" (102). It shows that in these rough times, you couldn't put away lots of money in banks because the banks were closed/out of business because they gave away other peoples' money to loan to other people that asked for money because they had no other money to loan away. This is how the banks went out of business. A question that I have about this story was why would some people commit suicide over the Great Depression? It doesn't make any sense to me. There are so many other options for getting your money back, getting food/water, and shelter. That shouldn't even be an option. This story connects to US history because it relates to the Great Depression and how many banks became bankrupt and almost everyone during this time became bankrupt and could barely survive these rough times. This story illustrates being an American because Americans are greedy and are always trying to find ways to to become rich/cheat the system. During the Roaring Twenties, everyone was so happy/it was one the happiest times ever in American history. Everyone was over-confident and too optimistic, which led to overspending and led the banks to become out of business. The main problem for this is greed.

Clifford Burkes essay relates to Robertson's essay because in Burke's essay, Burke said that the depression didn't mean much to him, "If you can tell me the difference between the depression today and the Depression of 1932 for a black man, I'd like to know it" (105).  This is because the best he could do was to be a janitor, a porter, or a shoeshine boy. He ended up later being a hustler for a living though. Burke is really upset because blacks didn't have equal rights to whites and everyone cared so much about the Great Depression because whites were losing jobs and were going bankrupt/homeless, but lots of blacks have been living this lifestyle for a long time: homeless, very low paying jobs, and low food/water. It just shows you that the whole country only cares for whites and not for blacks,"The American white man has been superior so long, he can't figure out why he should come down" (106). It is too bad that blacks couldn't be more involved and have higher paying jobs and better jobs to help out society/end the Great Depression. Blacks had as much potential to work and to be smart as whites did if they were given the equal chance, but they weren't. The American dream is wealth, success, and a family, but blacks had none of that and had no chance of getting any of that back then, which makes me really sad because they were guaranteed equal rights and freedom from the U.S. Constitution, but they were actually denied that in society because they were treated unfairly.

C.P. Ellis Response

After I read C.P. Ellis's story, I realized what a tough life he had. His dad was an alcoholic and could barely make ends meet. His dad worked at a cotton field and died in his forties because he thinks it was from all the cotton. He had a bad  and very intense/tough job. He borrowed money to the buy the service station, which was where he worked then. He worked very hard, but still could barely make ends meet. He was led into the KKK and became the head of the KKK in his area. He at first hated blacks, Jews, and catholics. He at first loved the klansmen of the KKK and fell in love with it because he could finally be part of something (a group) that he liked. He ahd all of the same views as they did. He then realized that blacks are very similar to whites. They also have raggy clothes, like C.P. Ellis and they have trouble making ends meet. He couldn't sleep at night because he couldn't stand being part of the KKK when he didn't believe in what they did. He then finally stopped being part of the KKK because he regrets everything about it. He started associating himself with blacks and became business manager of the Union with a black lady, who at first didn't get along with him at all. Later, they put apart their differences and made dramstic progress and started to like each other. "Why are these dudes comin' out every Monday? They said they were with the Klan and have meetings close by. Would I be interested? Boy, that was an opporunity I really looked forward to! To be part of somethin'. I joined the Klan...became president." (65). This shows that at that point in Ellis's life, he was very depressed and wasn't apart of everything; he had no friends. He needed something to be a aprt of, something he felt good about. The Klan was perfect for him because it didn't matter what it was, all that mattered was that he was apart of something. It followed is beliefs at the time because at that point in his story, he hated blacks because he needed someone to blame for his hatred towards life. This story brings me to question,  why did Ellis follow his father's beliefs in hating blacks, Jews, and catholics? Also, why did Terkel not fight harder for more money for his job? This story connects to US history because it connects to the great depression, post-roaring twenties. During that time period workers were barely getting paid anything for their terrible and tremendously long working hours. Also, it relates to US history because the KKK relates to the Klan that we learned about during this time period that hated and murdered innocent blacks because they blamed all of their hatred towards life/bad economic times on black. They had to blame it on someone just like Ellis had to blame his hatred of life on blacks because he needed someone to blame. This story reveals that being an American doesn't only include glory. It includes bad economic times, hatred of races, religions, etc. The American lifestyle isn't only peace, freedom, and equal rights because those barely existed in this time period. There was a large hatred for blacks during this time, especially because the KKK was a huge and well known group back then. Everyone in society knew about it and they either hated it inside/kept their hatred to themselves, supported it secretly, or supported it publicly. This was a major problem back then, but Ellis "...ran for business manager of the union....and won" (74-75). He worked with a black woman, which shows how he was trying to make change to the country and provide freedom and equality for all. He set aside his old feelings of hatred towards blacks and now supports and likes blacks/is trying to help them. This is because the black lady and him didn't use to get along and then they set aside their differences and started to like each other and made political progress in helping blacks.