Life

In the intro to The City Terkel asks Dr. Philip Hauser, "is there a street in Chicago today where all manner of ethnic, racial, and income groups live?" and Dr. Philip replys, "... There is none..." (221) however, i believe he should have said there isn't one specific one. Anywhere you go especially in the city you will find people that are off all different races and income groups. You will find people with different opinions on everything and in each part of the city you go to you will find a difference in the attitude of each part of the city. Each area has there own problems and different types of groups. The place that Terkel is looking for all depends on what kinda of information, stories, and opinions he wants to get. If he wants a wide variety all he has to do is go to a few different suburbs or parts of the city and ask everyone the same questions and he will find a big difference in how everyone answers. Even though every town and part of the city has their own racial and income makeup there are parts of the city or different suburbs that have a wider variety than others and have more problems than others. Therefore, I don't agree with what Dr. Philip says to Terkel when he answers his question but I also don't think that Terkel asked the right question.

America Coming Together

Before Pearl Harbor most people were opposed to go into war. However, after pearl harbor everything changed. Everyone did everything they could to hekp out with the war. more and more men signed up to be apart of the military and women did everything they could to be apart of it too. A lot of them became nurses or what ever they were allowed to become. For instance Betty Bayse Hutchinson said, "immediately, I was going to become a nurse. That was the fastest thing I could do to help our boys." (211) everyone was very supportive of the ar and did everything they could to help out the war effort and the soldiers that were being sent across the world to fight for our country. Hutchinson also says, "all the regular nurses began to drop out and join the army." (212) people started to do everything they could to become part of the war. A lot of people started to try and get jobs in the factories to help make the machinary and everything to send over to the men that were fighting. America really came together after Pearl Harbor to support the war and their country.

We Are Sending Boys

Everyone thinks a soldier is a highly trained, muscular, brave, specialist in killing everything in their way. People believe that they are very brave and aren't scared about the war and what they are getting themselves into. However, this is completely false. E.B. (Sledgehammer) Sledge says, "there was nothing macho about war at all. We were a bunch of scared kids who had to do a job." (196) Even though they are trained a fair amount in cardio and a little combat there is nothing that could prepare them for the things they had to do and things they had to see. There is nothing that could prepare them to see their friends and fellow soldiers being killed and having their limbs come off in front of them. There is nothing that can prepare them to deal with actually killing another human being especially if they were innocent and were killed for no reason. It is also scary to not know what the other people are thinking especially because of the different backgrounds everyone comes from. For instance, E.B. Sledge talks about Japan and how they, "fought by a code they thought was right: bushido. The code of the warrior: no surrender." (197) he talks about how you really can't understand the true meaning of that until you really see it. he says, "you really don't comprehend it until you get out there and fight people who are faced with an absolutely hopeless situation and will not give up." (197) no one can understand each other because people don't sit down and try to they just kill each other instead. Nothing can prepare these soldiers for what they are going into and they know it. They aren't always really the image people put with them.

Should We Trust Memory?

In the intro to the "Good of War" it says, "this is a memory book, rather than a hard fact and precise stastic." (161) This was an important quote for me because it made me realize that all these stories that we hear about war are memories. They can be fuzzy and altered. Also, everyone remembers event differently. There is one verteran that could remember an event completely different than others. Another problem with this is everyone has their opinions about what they did. If they didn't agree with what they were told to do in war then they might change their story based off of the fact they didn't agree with it. All the stories that we hear are based off how a person viewed terrible events yet we don't know how much of it is actually facts and what of it is bad memories they had or the bad views they had on each event. All the images are so scaring to them and some people change so much we can't know for sure the facts they give about event that happen while they are soldiers are 100% true. Also, a lot of people talk about the war many years after it happens. For instance in the intro they talk about it 40 years later. However, they might not remember most of it or might get one event mixed up with a different one.

Klansman At Their Worst

I really enjoyed reading the story of C.P. Ellis. The part that i found interesting was learning more about the KKK and who was apart of it. I always assumed that the people in the KKK were a bunch of rich white men that were just mad that someone that was different could be something in America. However, in this story i learned that the KKK actually is made up of mostly poor or low-income white men that for the most part aren't very well educated. They are men "who really didn't have a part in something. They have been shut out as well as the blacks" (66). they were men who had nowhere else to go and no one to blame their problems on. Most of them were there because the black race was an easy target for people to blame for their problems. They thought if they restored the white purity to the US their problems and the US problems would magically dissapear. I didn't think that this was the reason most of the people joined the KKK. I thought they just didn't like the black race and wanted to stay superior. But now i see most of them just needed someone to blame for all their problems and the black race was just the easiest target. THe thing that bothered me the most was when he said, "we had a lot of support from doctors and lawyers and police officers." (66). The fact that the people that are supposed to help enforce the law and make the US a safer and happier place for everyone were major supporters of people that randomly killed other people because of their race. Because they needed to blame something for the downfall of the US and the black people were the easiest target. Those lawyers and police officers were easily manipulated and went against everything they were supposed to stand for. If the US can't even keep their police in line and stop people from blaming others for no reason then how can they fix everything else?