This is a picture of a woman in history who has changed many lives, inspired many and has done more with her life than I could even imagine. Although she is not famous she is well known in her own little town and community. Born on June 14^th 1961 into true poverty, she lived a hard life till about 13 years old, then an even bigger struggle came her way when her mother suddenly passed away of a heart attack. With her father never in the picture she was moved from home to home, her and her siblings were all separated, abused, neglected, and starved along the way. She rebelled and ran away from many homes and would find herself homeless and getting into things that put her life in danger. But April of 1979 this photo was taken as a remembrance that she would beat the odds and prove everyone wrong, she would graduate high school and go onto get her college degree. This is a high school year book picture from Cordova High School, there was no digital copy so my picture is a picture of a picture, the original is a 5 x 7 print out taken by the photographers at the school and then I took a picture it and now it is a 837 MB picture on my computer. Believe it or not the picture is actually in great condition but the color scheme is a little different from what we are used to seeing in school pictures today. I chose this picture because it is actually a picture of my beautiful mother. Although some would say that she is just an ordinary individual to me she is far more. Without even knowing she has made history, by graduating high school she was able to go onto college and from college she was able to find a a job where she met my dad. of course she married him and now me and my siblings are here. She has been the foundation for many achievements in life for me and my eight siblings, who knows she could be the mother of a potential US president or big shot, without even knowing it we are history. Throughout this class we have learned to look at things from a different perspective and we have seen how history develops because of small details playing into a bigger picture. That’s how I feel about my mom and the role she plans in our history, she has made many small pieces come together to form our future.

Over the last couple weeks we have talked about multiplle different movements and often times those movements would turn into intense protests and riots. It is interesting to see how regardless of how much damage has been done previously because of riots and protests that people still turn to this in order to get their voices heard. We have recently seen this relevant in Baltimore, as it is has been posted all over the internet and news the Baltimore riots got so out of hand that the government had to make the decision to send the National guard in. Sadly some of these people believe that the only way to get their point across is to put an entire city in danger, burn down business, and put many lives in harms way. Sometimes things in history don’t change even when the consequences are severe.

In large lecture Professor Putman said that there are many of us that are scared of the word feminist because of the stereotype it has received. So I have never considered myself a feminist, in fact I always figured I was quite the opposite. I believe that the woman does belong in the kitchen, I believe the woman makes the perfect homemaker, but I also believe that so does the man. I believe that as women we are to honor our husbands (or future husbands) but the key word being honor, not be a servant to. I think that women have roles in society and men have roles in society, sometimes those can be different and sometimes those can be the same. But as we are discussing what feminism is and what it looks like I am seeing that what role I see the women playing is not the complete opposite of what an “extreme feminist” sees. Feminism doesn’t always have to be burning bras and enlisting in the military or protesting. It can be simple as acknowledging that its ok for women to be in the work force the same amount as men. For standing up for yourself when someone sees you as less than because you are female. You can be feminist, stand up for your rights as a woman but still be a stay at home mom you can still respect and serve your husband.

On Wednesday Dr. Cobb gave a presentation on Alexander Hamilton and his impact on our nation and honestly until then I had never even taken the time to see that he was on the $10 bill. Hamilton was a key figure in helping to make what our government is today. From a young age he was set apart from his peers and eventually was put into positions under George Washington that set him up for success. Hamilton was a head strong man and saw that their needed to be changed and made it happen. Here is the $10 bill so now every time I see it I can be reminded of such an incredible man.

My family and I recently went to Disneyland and as we were walking in I couldn’t help but remember how Disneyland was actually related to the Cold War and that time era. The 1950’s were often looked as a time of affluence and strong family values. A big contributor to this and the idea of conformity was the opening of Disneyland. In fact one of the first things you do when you walk into Disneyland is walk down Main Street, Main Street shares many similarities with America’s idealized version of 1950’s suburbia, including a sense of uniformity (we are all sheepol as we walk in lines everywhere), order, community and safety.

In 1945 the United States made a history making decision to drop atomic weapons on Japan, which essentially ended United States involvement in World War II. The decision to use these types of weapons has been put under a great deal of scrutiny as to its true necessity and its misery it inflected. The government has continuously presented the idea that it was because of the Atomic bombs millions of lives were saved but others say it was just a way to threaten and build fear in the Soviet Union. This decision to employ the bombs will remain a controversial topic in our society, because even to this day we are having to deal with the repercussions of it.  Which raises the question of, If the United States had the opportunity would they do it again?

Every day I get a notification on my phone from The New York Times with articles and one of the biggest issues lately has been what kind of military advances we should be making against ISIS. There is a lot of disagreement on what we should be doing and whether or not we should be sending more troops there. What society thinks about what the government is doing as far as military issues has a lot of impact on the decisions they make. This past week in class we have been discussing a lot about the political side of the atomic bomb and how society influenced the use of the atomic bomb. The government had to use different strategies in order for to people to cope and be okay with the idea of the military choices the government was making.

The wage gap is sadly something that has put women in a career long dis-advantage. It is incredible to see that we are able to make such drastic changed in our society but yet something so crucial has not changed in over 50 years!

In lecture professor Blum talked about how we get history from data, and as I was reading from the HIST book this week it was amazing to see events and time frames that I have been able to witness and be a part of. I was able to put onto my own timeline an event that has been the root of many recent changes in our country. Sep. 11th, 2001, I am able to go back to that morning and remember sitting with my dad on the couch in the living room with all his employees. Although we are haunted by history we are also the ones haunting history.