I really enjoyed your class. Thank you for putting up with some of the mischieviousness of some of the students, you were very kind and considerate. You made history very interesting. Thank you so much for helping me with putting my blog in the computer and just helping me with the computer cause I have no knowledge, thank you for your patience in helping me.

If Pres. Johnson had to implement programs then obviously there was a problem in our society that kept the poor in an underpriviledged state. He saw a need and was advised by minoritiy groups of different situations that needed to be addressed.

The Housing Program was to help poor especially Black Americans but apartments were built in slum areas so they still couldn't get out of ghettos. Look at Detriot, Michigan and the ghetto uprising where 43 laid dead because of inadequate housing, and to this day Detroit is the worst ghetto, they have tried to fix it but it's unfixable. Don't go there.

The Kerner Report of 1968 said we have 2 societies, Black and White. In Pres. Johnson's speech at Howard University he acknowledges this concept saying Blacks have been another nation, without freedom, hated and no opportunities. He says to gain this opportunity we need to use our abilities but abilities are stunted by neighborhoods you live in, inadequate schools children attend, the slavery history of the Black race which holds them back.

In the cartoon the Black man is weighed down by centuries of slavery shown by the ball and chain, he can't forget his legacy of slavery and the White man doesn't want him to forget it. For the White man to get ahead and on top of the economic ladder he forces the Black man down and steps on him to get to the top(called enslavement). Finally the Black man gets the ball and chain off, the White man apologizes for being a racist but won't help the Black man get on top. White man says that would be reverse racist. It takes a very insecure and scared person to hold another down. A truly secure person wouldn't have to worry about losing everything if he helped somone else to attain their goals.

We had it all, the United States was the super power of the world and still is today, women had modern conveniences, poverty declined, from 30% to 22% by 1960. What more did we want out of life.

60% of Americans were now middle class, there wasn't just the 2 classes anymore of rich and poor, now there was a middle. We had modern conveniences that more middle class people could enjoy like electricity, indoor plumbing, washing machines, and air conditioners. We liked watching TV even though most of us had black and white sets and we didn't have to take the Greyhound bus anymore to visit Grandma because we had our own car now.

But what about the poor Negroes and Asians living in the ghettos, they didn't have TVs or air conditioners. They couldn't even get a good job because of the color of their skin, big corporations wouldn't hire non-whites for skilled work, so they had no choice of job opportunities like the White American. Asians had their land and property taken away from them by the government during WW2 and Native Americans were stuck on the reservation. So these non-white groups were all stuck in the same situation living in the ghetto in poverty. Even if they had enough money saved for a house, the banks owned by the rich upper class wouldn't give non-whites mortgages. Even Levittown was strictly whites only until a lawsuit against Levit made him allow 127 Negro residents inside his suburbs of a population of 53,000. That's just not an acceptable percentage. The government's Housing Act of 1949 built 800,000 units of public housing for low income families, but white urban and suburb communities opposed the construction in their districts, so these units were built in segregated slums. I guess these poor underpriviledged should be happy they got this much, obviously this justified the government's action because they did build new homes but they never said where they were going to put them. The government can say, " We built the homes you wanted and you should be happy, what more do you want from us." This once again proves the rich and powerful must keep the less fortunate in their place in poverty where they are properly controlled so they cannot advance and make something of themselves and make their own choices.

When government laid-off all the women working in war jobs, women lost their independence and now had to depend on their husbands to provide everything for them and since he was the breadwinner he made the major decisions like what car to buy. Married women stayed home, enjoyed all her new conveniences, had babies, cooked the family's meals, look pretty, smile, and be happy about it. She did have choices on how to raise the children but she needed to see to her husband's needs first. This was her life and she'd better like it cause there was no other choice. Women who were able to go to college should look sexy, find a man in college, marry him, live in the suburbs, do the same old thing day after day, watch the soaps and pop a valium. No wonder she's so happy according to all the advertisements depicting housewifes with all the modern conveniences saving them valuable time and energy. I'd look happy too if I was all doped up.

Southern Negroes still had no freedom, they were constantly still in fear of lynchings, the Klu Klux Klan was still burning crosses on people's property, and beating and killing Negroes. Emmett Till's murder, this young life silenced and gone forever, will always be a dark sad spot in our history. The government did nothing at the time to stop these atrocities from happening. Negroes were powerless, they couldn't even drink at any water fountain but had to find one that said Colored Only and if there was none then they had to stay thirsty, they were restricted to Colored Only section in restaurants, also when taking a bus they would have to pay the bus driver at the front of the bus, then walk to the back door, get on and sit in the back. How humiliating! I can't even imagine, like they had some kind of disease the Whites might catch.

So if our politicians in government aren't going to stand up for us and our freedom and our choices guaranteed to us by our constitution, then it takes a brave, gutsy woman like Rosa Parks in Montgomery, Alabama in 1955 to stand up for her rights as a human being. She made a choice that day. And I applaud her!

In 1948 the United Nations General Assembly chaired by Eleanor Roosevelt approved the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. These rights were for all people through out the world. The United Nations felt they needed to be declared on paper so all nations' governments would know what the rights of the common people were and to be upheld.

Freedom of speech was in opposition to the barring of totalitarists in 1950 from entering the United States. This also denied their freedon of expression from not allowing them to relate their world to ours.

President Truman developed the Commission on Civil Rights on 1947 to stop discrimination and segregation in housing, jobs, and courts and also laws against lynching and poll tax. But Congress wouldn't approve this commission. Discrimination is the hate that creates wars, the thinking that one is superior over another. If we can't stop this hate and just see our fellow human being as just another person and not a color then there will always be wars with no peace ever. The superior will always have to control others.

House UnAmerican Activites Commission in 1947 had hearings concerning communist influence in Hollywood of screenwriters, directors, and actors. Without their right to expression, assembly or speech many lost their jobs. Hollywood blacklisted 200 just for their own viewpoints.

Wisconsin Senator Joseph McCarthy accused 205 supposed communists working for the government while committing character assassination he gained fame by abusing his power. Even though many were falsely accused that stigma is still there and people once that seed is planted will still wonder maybe so and so really is a commie.

Freedom of the press was denied when libraries took books off the shelves of great authors like Thomas Paine and Henry David Thoreau. Robin Hood was considered unAmerican. Of course he was unAmerican cause the rich weren't able to keep all their millions but it was given to the poor who were overly taxed and starving. Where's our Robin Hood today? We need him.

The Federal Bueau of Investigation had files on thousands of homosexuals, dissenters, and others not like your all American citizen depriving them of their privacy. Someone's sexual preference should be a private right not a government issue. What does sexual preference have to do with running our country? What one does in their own bedroom is none of my business.

So in 1950 if you have a sexual preference not accepted by U.S. standards and you were seen asking directions from a well known communist and your skin color is chocolate and your birth name is Robin Hood, you better get out of town. FAST!

My question is, "Are women considered human beings?" My own family experience tells me "No". My maternal grandmother and grandfather met each other on their engagement day and then again on their wedding day. Their union was to bring the 2 farms together into 1 large farm. In a sense Grandma was 1 property melding into 1 large property.

Societies of the past all over the world have dictated that a woman should be a virgin so her parents could promise her to a good family, hopefully wealthy, or a successful businessman, or an influential politician. If she had skills like playing a musical instrument or educated all of which adds to her value made her prospects of getting a good husband even better.

If she had been deflowered she was considered a loose woman, not marriage material. Obviously a loose woman can't control her sexual needs and would cheat on her husband and how would he know if her children were his. A man's ego is very fragile and it's alright for him to cheat on his wife but she better not do any cheating.

If a woman was found unpure she, of course, had shamed her family since they were representing her as untouched property and never been used. Now she was valueless and they might as well have drowned her at birth. In my Grandmother's case when she got pregnant all the old women were counting on their fingers when the baby was born compared to her wedding date.

To keep their family's pride these Comfort Women, mostly from Korea, came back home from after the war probably saying they did indeed work in a factory and gave details which family members wouldn't know any different. Their parents would then be able to negotiate a marriage contract with an upstanding family with an eligible husband prospect.

It doesn't matter what country you live in many rape victims are not viewed as victims. Many hear comments, "You asked for cause of the clothes you wear, your skirt is too short, your blouse is too low and you were at the bar looking for a man, you were dancing too sexy egging a man on, so you deserved it." So what does the public say when an 80 year old grandma gets raped in her own home.

To justify what he did 1 former Japanese soldier said these Comfort Women made more money at the war front than they did at home. I see no logic in his statement of raping 12 year old children. A Korean teacher was forced by her principal to tell her 6th graders to go to Japan to help with the war, she feels some became Comfort Women. These children were also consolation to soldiers who might die on the battlefield any day according to another soldier justifying his sick actions.

Korean family members were beaten or killed trying to rescue these young women and when they were sent home there was the threat their family would be killed if they said anything. Since so many families had already been been beaten and murdered this scare tactic didn't need any more reinforcement. The old saying "You can't fight City Hall" is very true. The majority of these Comfort Women came from families with no political influence and a lower class status and no money to fight with. Political officials didn't care what happened to them and military officials felt it was their duty as women to give to the war effort their sacrifice as a human being to be a piece of meat for a man to do with her what he wanted. These uncaring, disturbed creatures never saw what they were doing to these scared, helpless lives.

A Korean Comfort Woman remembers being taken to a hospital and something was done to them and they never had their period again. They were put into a line in front of Chinese soldiers and forced to stab them until they were dead. The women were often beaten by the soldiers and the officers were more abusive. They were drugged with opium on a daily basis to keep them docile so they wouldn't run away. But when they went home after the war their bodies had to go through withdrawal or stay addicted to opium.

Professor Yun Chung Ok in 1988 brought this embarassing situation to the publics attention and tried to get some kind of retribution for these Comfort Women, at least an official government apology. Professor Yoshimi Yoshiaki found documented proof of these atrocities, so the Japanese government could no longer no longer hide under their slimy rock and deny their involvement in these heinous acts. It took the influence and efforts of 2 educated professors (with balls)to confront the government with the accusations. This is not an easy task even with legal documents. We have seen in our history book that outspoken people are often imprisoned for speaking against the government.

These atrocities of kidnapping young women and children for prostitution and sending them all over the word in this century leaves me sick. The young ones have lost their childhood as in the 12 year old Comfort Women. How can this still be hapenning?

FDR's freedom from want was eliminating international trade barriers and also good economics is securing people healthy peacetime in the world.

Freedom from fear is reduction in arms so no nation can commit war against another nation.

For everyday people these freedoms were more realistic like food on the table, house to live in, clothes and shoes to wear, heat in the house. For Negroes no more discrimination in getting jobs. Fear against another country bombing another. For Negroes it meant no more lynchings.

The Manhattan Project was a result of the atomic bomb stopping the war with Japan and hopefully scaring countries so there won't be another war. United Nations was also created to keep war from happening again. FDR's Executive Order 8802 banned discrimination in defense jobs.

In The New York Times article about Bernard L. Madoff's huge investment fraud the IRS has a new plan which applies to all victims of all Ponzi schemes, remember Ponzi in chapter 20.