Do the Right Thing

To all those Senor Love Daddies out there,  
     There are many similarities between the movie Do the Right Thing and How Bigger was Born. First off, both showed societies in which there was a lot of racial segregation. In  How Bigger wa Born, Wright expressed his belief that African Americans got the worst of it, becuase they were forced to live as if they were not equal to the whites. However, in Do the Right Thing, Spike Lee wanted to show that blacks were not the only race which received negative effects through segregation. He felt that all races were affected by segregation, whether you be black, Asian or Italian-American. Everybody hated everyone else, and stuck up for their own race. Lee exemplified this when he showed people of different races speaking to the camera and insulting another race by using stereotypical names.  Therefore, both Wright and Lee acknowledged that racial segregation was present, both had a different view on how that segregation affected society.
     I believe the ending was not the ending any of the characters wanted. For example, I feel Sal got the worst of it, because he just got done saying to Mooki he thought of him as a son, and then another African American comes into the store, looking for trouble. I think it was Sal's right to put whoever's picture he wanted on his wall, and he meant no disrespect toward African Americans, but just wanted to show pride in his own background, as an Italian-American. Therefore, I don't think Radio Raheem was doing the right thing by supporting Buggin' Out because he was just antagonizing Sal, and trying to start a fight that wasn't necessary. Also, when Mookie stood up and throw the garbage can through the window of Sal's Pizzeria, I truly think he was doing that to save Sal and his son's. Mookie was just told that he was like family to Sal and I feel he wouldn't want to harm Sal because of that.

Thanks for tuning in

King in Watts

To my humble readers,
After two men were pulled over and abused by police officers in Los Angeles, it caused riots from many African Americans. Martin Luther King Jr. found out about these riots, and decided that although many people were worried about racial segregation in the south, maybe they needed to pay more attention to the North as well. I think King was making a wise decision by coming North and preaching his belief of nonviolence to the rioters. If he had not, I believe their would have been many more casualties and more damage done. King tried explaining that he was brothers with Islamic leader Elijah Muhammad, since they both share the views of nonviolence. I also noticed that King did not receive much respect from the audience at the beginning of his speech, with one bystander even saying, "Get out of here Dr. King." However, as he went on he kept winning over the crowd with his words, inspiring people and letting them know that violence will not solve anything. The fact that he was able to do this is important because it proved to everyone what an influential and respected representative he was for African American's freedom. Therefore, I think it was essential for King to spread his message of nonviolence because it kept people from becoming out of control. He was able to remind people that nonviolence accomplishes more than violence and riots. I believe his speech led to a decrease in riots and helped African Americans be more open to marches rather than violence.

Beloved Chapter 9 response

To my heartwarming followers,
Memories bring back pictures and details from your past, sometimes ones that you want to remember, and some that you don't want to remember. Sethe used to think that bringing back these memories would be harmful towards herself, but now that Paul D is with her, she realizes that memories need to be remember, because they are an important part of making you who you are today. Sethe thought, "Paul D was adding something to her life- something she wanted to count on but was scared to. Now he added more: new pictures and old rememories that broke her heart," (112). Sethe comes to realize that Paul D has told her rememories about Halle, which allows her to more fully understand why he wasn't where he said he would be. It allows her to have some closure about the very difficult topic, and having Paul D and herself share stories could do just that- give closure. However, we also learned that bringing up past memories can be a painful experience as well. Sometimes there are topics that are too personal someone does not want to be reminded of them. Sethe, after being rubbed by Beloved, is reminded of the touch of the ghost's hands, "the suspicion that the girl's touch was also exactly like the baby's ghost dissipated," (116). Sethe is reminded of her baby's ghost, and how it was trying to strangle her. This was very painful for her to think about, because she must be wondering what she had done to force her baby's ghost to strangle her. Overall, memories are very important in life, because they allow you to look back on your experiences in life, and use those to make choices about how to act in the future.

Emerson's Thoughts on Society

To all my die hard followers,     
     For starters, Die Hard is a great movie and an even better series. That was random. Now my response...
     Emerson believes that every man should be himself. Conformity, according to Emerson, is not the right way to go. If you conform to what everyone else does, then you are not being true to yourself, and, therefore, lose a part of your self. "The objection to conforming to usages that have become dead to you is, that it scatters your force" (23). This quote explains that when you conform to society, you are giving a part of your character. Emerson also believes that people should find their own path in life, instead of conceding to the path everyone takes. Emerson argued that how you behave affects how the rest of your life will turn out, which means that he believed strongly in the idea of karma. This relates to his idea of society, which he believes is a large group of people which agree on certain ideas and then conform to those ideals. That is why he thinks society is not a good thing. He strongly feels that people should not conform.

Thanks for tuning in, keep those comments flowing,
JoeJoe El Futbolisto

Response to the Quran burning

To whom it may concern, I am blogging about the plan Rev. Terry Jones has about burning the holy Muslim book, the Quran. I believe this will have many terrible side effects if he goes through with this. It will be very disrespectful to all Muslims and it would send out a bad image of what Americans think. It is also enforcing the stereotype that many Americans believe all Muslims are terrorists, which they are not. Also, if Al Queda finds out about this it will make them, as well as most other Muslim groups very angry. They will look at this act as a form of disrespect. Even if Jones does not go through with this plan, he has already disrespected and harmed, emotionally, the Muslim race. "whether or not he burns the Quran, Jones had already hurt the heart of the Muslim world." There is a very large difference between freedom of speech, which is allowed in the constitution, and acts of racism and indecency. Overall, this is a very unfair and racist act, and therefore I do not think he should go through with this.


Thanks for tuning in,
Joe Joe el fultbolisto

Whatever happened to the signers of the Declaration of Independence?

The main point of this piece was to exemplify how brave and how much the signers had to sacrifice in order to fulfill their pledges. They gave up their wealth, land, family, etc. all so that the United States could emerge. I believe this is very heroic of all of them because they knew that they were going to have to sacrifice a lot if they were to successfully create a nation. John Hart had it the worst, in my opinion,. "Driven from his wifes bedside as she was dying... returning to find his wife dead and children vanished," (pg.70). So, I agree that these men were heroes for our nation, and that without there mighty sacrifices our nation would not be what it is today. It might not even exist.

The American Crisis Response

Dear fellow bloggers,
The main point of Thomas Paine's piece titled "the American Crisis" is to tell the people of the United States that they should be fighting not only for better rights, but for independence from Britain as well. This is a point that Paine tried to prove to Americans by creating his pamphlet. "For so unlimited a power can belong only to God," Paine wrote. This tells us that he felt the British had too much power over the US and that this was unjust to them. Therefore, he stressed the point to Americans everywhere that they should fight for their independence, and that is what they ended up doing. I believe that Paine was a very honorable man for doing this because he formed his own opinion, and stuck with it. I feel that he played a large part in motivating people during the American Revolution. So, I strongly agree with the point he is making in this piece because I, too, believe Britain had too much power for one country to have. I am glad that Paine was able to stand up for what he believed in, and lead America to Independence.