Rebuild This Bridge!

The President came to Cincinnati yesterday to talk about the aging Brent Spence Bridge and his new 'Jobs Bill.'

Would President Obama agree with Andrew Carnegie's Gospel of Wealth? Why or why not?

American Pie

In the autumn of 1971 Don McLean's elegiac American Pie entered the collective consciousness, and over forty years later remains one of the most discussed, dissected and debated songs that popular music has ever produced.

But who was Miss American Pie and what does the song mean?

Segregation & Education

On May 17, 1954, the Supreme Court of the United States handed down its decision regarding the case called Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas, in which the plaintiffs charged that the education of black children in separate public schools from their white counterparts was unconstitutional.

Brown v. Board of Education meant that the University of Alabama had to be desegregated. In the years following, hundreds of African-Americans applied for admission, but all were denied. The University worked with police to find any disqualifying qualities, or when this failed, intimidated the applicants. But in 1963, three African-Americans with perfect qualifications—Vivian Malone Jones, Dave McGlathery and James Hood—applied, refusing to be intimidated. In early June a federal judge ordered that they be admitted, and forbade Governor Wallace from interfering.

The event was depicted in the 1994 film Forrest Gump.

Bottled Freedom?!

In 1969, The Coca-Cola Company and its advertising agency, McCann-Erickson, ended their "Things Go Better With Coke" campaign, replacing it with a campaign that centered on the slogan "It's the Real Thing." Beginning with a hit song, the new campaign featured what proved to be one of the most popular ads ever created. The song "I'd Like to Buy The World a Coke" had its origins on January 18, 1971.

What was the song really selling?

The 1890s were a transitional decade for the United States. Rapid growth in industry following the Civil War had resulted in greater national wealth, but by the end of the century Americans learned that their economy was far weaker than they could have ever imagined. The "Gilded Age" had passed, leaving in its wake labor conflict, business corruption, racial violence, population surges, poverty, unemployment, and markets saturated with manufactured goods.

America's great Western frontier had closed. After nearly three centuries of American pioneering on the continent, the lines between settled and unsettled territory had vanished. The destiny of the nation, long rooted in the spirit of exploration and expansion, suddenly seemed uncertain.

The United States economy needed foreign markets to sustain itself, the federal government was under pressure to secure its power and prestige in the world community, and Americans yearned to be reassured of their national prowess. As Theodore Roosevelt told a friend in 1897, "I should welcome almost any war, for I think this country needs one."

What gains did the United States make as a result of Roosevelt's Imperialistic position?

Recently the Chinese government has accused the United States of 'Cultural Imperialism' and blocked internet sites including YouTube, Facebook, and now Google. The Chinese Governement claims that "unlike advanced Western countries, Chinese society is still vulnerable to the effect of multifarious information flowing in, especially when it is for creating disorder." (Read more)

Is the United States truly guilty of 'Cultural Imperialism?'

Another Language Goes Extinct

Chief Marie, 89, of the Eyak tribe in Alaska, learned her native tongue from her parents, but the spread of English and competition from the Tlingit, another aboriginal tribe, meant that she was the last 'traditional' speaker. A survey backed by the US National Geographic Society found that Native American languages are some of the world's most endangered.

Every year more and more languages are gone forever as their last speakers pass away. I'm reminded of the gloomy prediction that half of all languages will disappear this century.

Some linguists argue that the birth and death of languages is a natural phenomenon that we shouldn't worry too much about. The global success of English, for example, has changed it forever. But it's hard not to mourn the loss of a language and all that it stands for.

Imagine not being able to speak ever again. What difficulties would you have?

What happens to a culture when their language is lost?

Why is preserving these languages important to the rest of us?

You don't have to travel all the way to Alaska to witness this disappearance.
Click here to learn about the efforts of the Miami Tribe to preserve their language.

Do You Believe In Ghosts?

The Native Americans believed. By the 1890s a new religious practice was being taught at all of the Sioux reservations called the 'Ghost Dance.' Big Foot's band, which consisted mostly of women who had lost their husbands and/or other male relatives in battles with Custer, Miles and Crook, would dance until they collapsed, hoping to guarantee the return of their dead warriors. All Indians who danced the Ghost Dance would be taken up into the air and suspended there while the new earth was being laid down burying the white men. The new soil would be covered with sweet grass, running water and trees; the great herds of buffalo and wild horses would return. Then the Indians would be replaced there, with the ghosts of their ancestors.

Did they succeed?

Send Me a Postcard

Check out these postcards from the Chicago Worlds fair of 1893 and then design one of your own on the paper given to you in class. Be sure to tell me all about the fun you had!