Entry #2 Robertson and Paulsen

            One thing Robertson said stuck out to me.  He said, “In 1929, it was strictly a gambling casino with loaded dice.  The few sharks taking advantage of the multitude of suckers.”  Robertson was talking about how a few very wealthy people made a fortune off of the stock market, while the rest of the people were making nothing but thought they were going to get rich.  For normal people, it would be nearly impossible to come out ahead.  So many people were buying stocks with money they didn’t have, so it was inevitable that they would lose money.  Hearing Robertson’s story was interesting because when you hear about the depression you assume everyone was completely impoverished, but he and others were financially stable.  He said many brokers made money during the depression while their customers became poor.  In the mid-thirties, Robertson still had hundreds of thousands of dollars to loan to friends.  He attributed some of his good fortune to sheer luck, but it’s still true that some people simply knew how to operate a business during periods of economic downfall.

             Ed Paulsen was an unemployed young man during the depression who rode in train cars.  He explained how ordinary people felt about President Roosevelt and the New Deal by saying, “It was split thing.  They were cursing Roosevelt for the intrusion into their lives.  At the same time, they were living off it.”  Roosevelt made many programs to help unemployed and suffering people, and some would argue that he was interfering with the economy and the lives of Americans.  Paulsen insisted that the suffering people who benefitted from the New Deal still criticized it.  This is interesting because when I did the webquest about the New Deal I thought Roosevelt was becoming too involved in American society and was overstepping his authority as president, yet his programs did offer relief to many people.  The only thing that can be agreed upon is that Roosevelt was trying to solve an unsolvable problem, and the depression might have been even worse if he hadn’t intervened.  Paulsen experienced both sides of the argument surrounding the New Deal.  He was an unemployed person who didn’t understand price fixing and why food should be destroyed when there were hungry people, but he also benefitted from a job with the National Youth Administration.  Over all, Paulsen understood the futility of the depression.

What was the lasting legacy of the New Deal?

          The Works Progress Administration provided jobs for unemployed Americans during the depression, and the projects were useful decades after the end of the depression.  The Lincoln Tunnel, which connects New Jersey to Manhattan, sees 45 million cars a year.  Members of the WPA made ski trials in Vermont that still offer recreation today.  The  Red Rocks Ampitheatre, constructed by the WPA during the depression, provides entertainment even in modern times.  The Federal Writers Project encouraged writers to contribute to a growing body of American literature and helped preserve oral histories, which are still read today.  The Social Security Act, which was passed to provide financial security for retired people, was a starting point for modern Social Security.  Programs like the National Youth Administration gave young people work opportunities that taught them job skills that could be used in the future.  The creation of the Tennessee Valley Authority provided irrigation and flood control to southern states, as well as cheap electricity, for many years to come.  Over all, programs created as part of the New Deal were made in order to provide employment for millions of Americans, but the effects of the projects are still seen today.

Entry #1- CP Ellis and Vine Deloria

Initially I thought C.P. Ellis’s story was inspiring because he went from being a member of the KKK to working alongside African Americans for better schools and working conditions, but one thing about his story bothered me. Ellis said, “They say the older you get, the harder it is for you to change. That’s not necessarily true” (76). Even though Ellis thought he changed and came to respect people of all different races, when he described Ann Atwater he still used racist expressions. I know that Ellis evolved so much, but his usage of racist terms makes me question whether or not his character completely changed. I thought it was interesting that Ellis was able to identify why he hated African Americans and recognize that he was just looking for someone to blame his economic hardships on. He didn’t say it was his dad’s fault for raising him to be racist, even though his dad was a member of the Klan and told him to stay away from blacks, Jews, and Catholics. Ellis was able to admit that his discrimination was caused by personal problems and he became more tolerant when he got to know different people. This makes me wonder if other members of the KKK joined as a way to feel better about themselves and if their opinions on people of different races and religions changed later, but it’s impossible to know because not everyone got a chance to tell their story like Ellis did. Reading Ellis’s story makes it seem more understandable how so many white civil rights activists were willing to work alongside African Americans to improve southern communities.
Vine Deloria had a lot of interesting views about America and the first settlers. One idea of his that was particularly thought-provoking was about the American Dream when he said, “Maybe the American Dream is in the past, understanding who you are instead of looking to the future...Maybe this is a period of reflection” (37). It’s possible that America as a whole has achieved the American Dream because the country is technologically advanced, has democracy, and is a major world power, so now reflecting on how fortunate Americans are is what makes people realize they’ve already achieved the American Dream. Usually in textbooks the relations between settlers and Native Americans are described from an American point of view, so hearing a Native American’s perspective was interesting. Deloria said that in the Great Plains the Native Americans didn’t see Americans as a threat, and each group simply failed to understand the other. This makes me wonder what would have happened if Native Americans and Americans had reached out to each other more and really made an effort to understand the two cultures and find a way to live peacefully.
Both of these people’s stories showed a perspective that usually isn’t represented as much in textbooks, and reading about their opinions and views made me see the time periods differently.