Orange Oppression

Throughout time, oppression in America has been a problem for many different groups of people. Even today, Native Americans, Women, and African Americans are not being shown equal rights everywhere in America. For example, the Native American Pipeline protest, Women not getting equal pay and respect, and the black lives matter/ police brutality movement all have to do with them not being treated the same as the typical white American. To expand on this, the Native American pipeline protest is about Native Americans trying to protect their land and waters from being contaminated and taken away from them right in front of their eyes. Anything they try to do is immediately disregarded or dealt with through physical harm. 

Some say that the reason for all these oppressions are, because people follow the Declaration of Independence and that the document does not include equal rights for everyone, however this is not the case. The document states specifically that, "all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." Nowhere in the document does it state that this does not include Women, Native Americans, and African Americans. In fact, the all "men" part refers to mankind not just men. 

The main reason however, behind all this is the way people look at the world. People grow up with a social stigma and eventually teach it to their kids and others. This prejudice is being passed down through generations, and still even today the treatment of these other groups of people is not fair. It is time to stop this way of living, and to start treating everyone like equals. 

Water-melons

"A date which will live in infamy." (Franklin D. Roosevelt) The attack on Pearl Harbor shook Americans out of their internal controversy, and forced the United States to go to war. The effects of the attack were devastating and disturbed the friends and families of the soldiers. In commemoration of the attack, many sites and memorials were made and placed in Hawaii. One of the memorials that specifically stood out to me when I had traveled to Pearl Harbor was the Waterfront Memorial. This memorial is placed in the USS Bowfin Submarine Museum and Park, alongside the actual USS Bowfin that is currently set up as a Museum.  I think that the reason the memorial is placed in that park, is that is stands next to the Pearl Harbor Avenger (USS Bowfin) which would emphasize the impact that the deaths of the soldiers had on this country. The memorial itself stands in tribute to the 52 American submarines and the more than 3,500 submariners lost.  The memorial is separated into 52 separate pieces, each of which had the names of the soldiers on that boat along with a description and picture of the boat. The 52 pieces shoulder a path that goes into the American flag, which I interpret as, the boats and soldiers that were lost all symbolize the freedom and unity of the flag. Although the memorial was very stunning, at the same time I could not get away from the noise which the museum had attracted. This can be explained by a quote in "Postcards from the Trenches," "Such sites, busy with frequent traffic, are hardly conducive to quiet contemplation, and after a short time the memorial becomes another familiar object of the busy town centre and is rarely looked at"(Whittick 44). The fact that the memorial is placed next to the USS Bowfin Museum often makes the viewer overlook and sometimes miss the memorial all together. Nonetheless, the Waterfront Memorial at the USS Bowfin Museum and Park is a great one and is one that I will always remember.