Difference between Paula Gunn Allen and other Womens Viewpoints

   In the story "Where I Come From Is Like This" the author Paula Gunn Allen's view of women was very different than that of the Anglo women of her time.She views women from her particular ethnicity where women were viewed as people of power and authority and hard workers.She discussed in particular the subject of menstruation.Her viewpoint is an example of native American women and their ability to actually influence men and strength that they were empowered with unlike their Anglo sisters who were seen as weak and sometimes were treated like subservient peons.Paula Gunn Allen was not raised to believe such things her family worked hard and women were responsible for labor intensive daily chores that were empowering and gave them what I understood to be respect in their communities.Within the Anglo communities women literally received little or no recognition for bearing children and keeping a house in order,raising children,or any other things they were responsible for or to. Paula Allen Gunn truly made me see that the traditions of her people were much more respectful and clearly a better view of women and the place of respect that all women deserve. My experience is that women are to be treated with love and kindness.Though I believe respect  is earned and not given  between men .Women deserve to be respected for who they are and what they actually represent which is actually the makers of men.Without the caring and gentleness of a woman I am quite sure men would not learn to have compassion and empathy for other people.My personal view is more of an equal and interdependent type view whereas the energy of both sexes can create unity and equality through mutually respecting each others schema.I enjoyed this story and hope that as our society continues to grow and change people will ultimately be viewed for their individual ability rather their sex and jaded views of our countries colonial past.               

             

Reflection of what I have learned about Reconstruction

During this part of this course I have learned that the U.S. government was very disorganized and many of the government officials could not agree on what policies were to be implemented.The  rights of the freedmen were not the main focus of reconstruction. The freed slaves were discriminated against and impoverished as a result of laws that were passed especially by the Southern states they truly did not support equality of black men and did nothing to protect their Civil Rights as American Citizens. It was a sad example of equality and a poor example of what our country stands for. The persecution of anyone under the laws our forefathers had in mind was not shown in the Reconstruction era of the late 1800's.My understanding of what actually happened is that our countrymen failed to uphold the rights of the newly freedmen and also the many white people who tried to stand in unity with the blacks hoping that they could change the way our society viewed them as people and as Americans.Though the end result was new laws being passed to protect all citizens under law the violence that led up to these changes will forever be a mark on our society that for many years to come would prove that equality among men of any race can and will be defended throughh peaceful Resistance. The bloodshed between Americans was truly a waste of human life and I believe it could have been avoided if the Executive  branch of our government would have been more instrumental in forcing the Southern state governments to support the emancipation of the slaves.It was a hard road to change the belief systems of the South and though it was a hard fought battle the end result was an equal view of all people under the Constitution so the end result was positive but the sacrifices were too many I am glad that the pursuit of liberty,justice,and the pursuit of happiness was preserved for me and all others through this terrible time in our country

Revision of group paragraph

In the third part of the story Bierce describes Peytons fall from the bridge and his supposed escape from the union soldiers was a dream.The point in which we suspected the story to be a dream was when he found a road which led him in what he percieved to be the right direction. The language suggests that the escape is not happening based on the fact or suggestion that the roads were untraveled and that there appeared to be no signs of life. we believe the verb tense is that of the present

Brayan Alverado
Josh Overton
Natalie Neri
Casey Riland

Definition of two terms

Radical Reconstruction: The Reconstruction Acts of 1867 divided the southinto five military districts.They required the states to guarantee black male suffrage and to ratify the Fourteenth Amendment as a condition of  their readmission to the Union

Black Codes: Laws passed by Southern states immediately after the Civil War in an effort to maintain the prewar social order. The codes attempted to tie freedmen to fieldwork and prevent them from becoming equal to the white Southerners.

Open Letter to President Mckinley

In an "Open letter to President McKinley"the colored people of Massachusetts were trying to address the massive outbreaks of violence against the blacks in the south. The issues the raise are the specific times and places that black people were trying to gather and protest the rights that were being violated and the violence that occurred and the total disregard of rights as citizens of the United States as written in the Constitution.The murders and racial unrest was caused by the state governments passing laws that prevented black people from living free as they were granted through the thirteenth and fourteenth amendments of the Constitution.Personally I believe that if the northern troops would have kept a military presence in the south and not allowed southern politicians to take office unless they seceded from the Union as did President Johnson who himself was a southern Democrat from Tennessee and a former slave owner would have prevented the state level politicians from creating laws such as the "Black Codes" causing all freedmen to live under oppressive laws that were not unlike slavery.The laws created by racist southern lawmakers only sought to take the freedom given to them by the "Emancipation Proclamation" and reduce them to second class citizens and make their lives a living hell subject to violence at the hands of violent white racists.I see the conditions of living that were forced on these people to be awful and unjust the only way it would have been different would be to have continued to keep the south under "Soldier Rule" which also meant "Martial Law". This would have resulted in a more peaceful and better living situation for all races and enforced the new way of living that the Civil War was fought for and many people's lives could have been saved.

Metacognitive Reflection of my Reading habits

  I tend to read alot during the evening. I find myself reading short stories and novels. My passion in my life is about my children. I am a very introspective person.All of my life I have been drawn to working with other people. I try to read in the morning when I arise to fill my mind with positive thoughts about the path I am on and give myself a better perspective of what it is I want to accomplish each day. My goal in reading is to expand my mind and my perspective to allow new ideas to help me to create a better life for myself and my children.Keeping my mind alert through reading lots of different topics and authors definitely allows me to broaden the way I see this world that we live in. I have created a life today that through reading I am able to find the self confidence to return to school and try to regain the self confidence to become a better man and an example to my children.I read voraciously and try to fuel my mind with many ideas and thought process's that hopefully I can utilize to give my kids a better view of our society. I once held beliefs that were engrained by my father that as I grew older I found were quite distorted and even a little racist. My belief that people who are judgemental are usually ignorant and uneducated.I believe through reading I have,can,and will be the man I believe God wants me to be and if I just try everyday I will find first my own personal truth and then my purpose in the life I am living today.I am a good reader because when I was young my mother spent alot of time reading to me and through that time that she took out of her day I found that I eventually  learned to read and see the intrinsic value in spending that time with children.Which is why I participate in a program at the youth center where I live in south county helping young people learn to read.I want to show them that reading everyday can help to create a better future