When I originally saw the title of the article, I immediately had an idea that the selection was going to be a sob story about how someone became a dumpster diver. To my surprise, there was so much more to this than I thought. Lars Eighner, to me, had a sense of adventure to “scavenging”. It was fascinating to him to “acquire many things from the dumpsters.” He categorized things in an advanced system that reminded me of a computer filing system. No matter how sophisticated a system is, there is always an error. No matter how careful Eighner was he would “contract dysentery at least once a month.” If the categories were not enough, he implicated different sectors society for being overly wasteful. He implicates college students for wasting…
Solomon Northup was born free black man and lived in upstate New York. Solomon was a educated and good working man who was kidnapped and sold into slavery. In March 1841 Northup was conned by two men, claiming that they wanted Northup to be a fiddler in their circus act, Northup was convinced, and went with the men to Washington, from there Northup was drugged, and lost consciousness, when he awoke he was shackled down in an underground jail cell. Soon after Northup was shipped to New Orleans where he was sold at a slave market with a new name: Platt Hamilton.…
In this book, a struggling teenage boy named Dave Pelzer that in his childhood years, got abused by his alcoholic mother and sent to foster care, was trying to put his life together before he turns 18 and gets sent out to the world alone without any support or money. Dave soon drops out of highschool wanting to join the Air Force, so he applies to become a fireman like his father once was. Unfortunately, Dave suffers from setbacks in the Air Force and eventually gets transferred to California where he met his gold digging girlfriend Pasty. He realizes her crazy money spending problems the fact that she was just using him so her family could have a place to live and tries to dump her, until she announced that she was pregnant with his son…
Benjamin “Bugsy” Siegel was one of the most infamous gangsters of his time. Siegel was born and raised in an area of New York that was constantly experiencing criminal acts, so naturally he adapted to the behavior of his community. Sometime in the late 1920s, well known gangster Charlie “Lucky” Luciano and a bunch of Italian mobsters formed a group; Siegel being a crucial member. Siegel and three other men from this syndicate were ordered to kill another gangster, Joe “The Boss” Masseria. They went on with the execution, making this one of the many crimes Siegel got situated with. Siegel relocated to California to continue with his bootlegging and he managed to set up a couple gambling dens and ships while living there. During the late 1930s,…
In 1942 when the intents of hitler were clear to the world, people were trying to help out the jewish community as much as they could. Providing housing for families trying to hide, giving out fake licenses so that jews could hide in plain sight, and risking their own lives for others. All of these people were trying to help out the jewish in many ways but one woman is remembered by everyone for her causes in helping the jews, this woman is Irena Sendler. Irena was born on February 15 1910, she was born into a polish family of doctors and for most of her life she had been assisting her father help people, because of this she cared for everyone.By 1942 she had joined the polish underground group called Zegota, by the end of the war Irena had…
“Who, after all, speaks today of the annihilation of the Armenians?” This question was asked by Adolf Hitler on August 22, 1939, over 20 years after the Armenian Genocide took place. Adolf Hitler took inspiration from the Armenian Genocide and went on to plan and lead the most horrific human massacres of all time, the Holocaust. Hitler believed that no one would be able to stop the Holocaust because no one had taken much interest or had been able to stop the Armenian Genocide. The historical novel Forgotten Fire, by Adam Bagdasarian, tells the story of a boy named Vahan Kenderian who lives through the Armenian Genocide. Vahan’s family lives in Bitlis, Turkey. Vahan is the youngest child of one of the wealthiest and most respected Armenians.…
Born and raised in Brooklyn, New York Robert M. Solow came into the world on August twenty third, nineteen twenty-four. Although Solow and his family weren’t the most fortunate and had to earn a living after they finished high school, his sisters and cousins were the first generation of the family to go off and attend college including Robert M. Solow himself. Robert Solow skipped a few grades in elementary, graduated at the age of sixteen and got a scholarship to Harvard University which he had gladly took the offer from in September nineteen forty. Solow felt that he could contribute more to his country and family, so he left Harvard to be in the United States Army just two years after being at Harvard University. August nineteen forty-five…
Heritage doesn’t say anything about you and what you do. Heritage just tells you where you ancestors came from and what your back ground is. Your acts and your achievements to tell us something about you. Betty Marie Tallchief was faced with prejudice and hatred but she overcame it.…
Turner Thesis is a significant article that was presented in 1893 to inform why the American frontier is important to the development of American history. Frederick Jackson Turner, point of view on America, is that the U.S. is exceptional from other countries due to the fact of westward expansion. For example, he believes the frontier gave new opportunities for the U.S. to improved and become more superior, as a result of the manifest destiny and American settlers restarting from the beginning. In addition, he implies that the free land, cause Americans to evolve and adapt to the new environment, and therefore a better democracy, individualism, civilized, and society was formed. He states that expanding to the west, American settlers became…
When discussing the notable leader of the Jamestown Colony, otherwise known as John Smith, a rather interesting has arisen regarding his genuine experience with the daughter of Powhatan, the Native American Chief. The girl, widely known as Pocahontas, is known for her inextricable link to Captain John Smith, Smith who had a suspiciously idyllic story to share. According to the National Park Service Website on Historical Jamestown, Smith’s tale involved being brought before Chief Powhatan and preparing to have his own brain smashed to smithereens, all before Pocahontas miraculously decided to save him from execution. Contrary to Smith’s picturesque recapitulation of the event, there are numerous reasons in place as to why Smith did not have…
The Jefferson Memorial honors Thomas Jefferson’s ideals of beauty, science, learning, culture, and liberty. Thomas Jefferson was America’s 3rd president and became one of the few to sign the Declaration of Independence. The memorial was built in dedication to him as a president, politician, drafter of the Declaration of Independence, architect, educator, and intellectual. The idea came from Franklin D. Roosevelt, who was upset that there was no monument to honor the great president, like there was for George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. And like everybody else, he felt that Jefferson had a great impact on the nation.…
Maria Reiche Neuman, known as "The Lady of the Pampas", was a scientist in love with mathematics, geography, physics, pedagogy and archaeoastronomy, born May 15, 1903 in Dresden, Germany. Marie Reiche arrived in Peru to 29 years, which started trablahando as educator, translator and assistant. Subsequently, from 1946 until his death in 1998, Maria Reiche dedicated his life to the study and preservation of "Nazca Lines", stimulated by the American archaeologist Paul Kosok, who conducted an expedition into the wilderness in the Nazca region south of Peru.…
Civic duty never meant much to me until I involved myself in the Ro Khanna for Congress Campaign. It began with a 6 hour shift to run a booth and ended with a celebration two weeks ago for Ro’s success in winning the congressional election. I have made phone calls and knocked on people’s doors to talk about why they should vote for Ro. As my volunteer activity increased, I became my high school’s team leader for the election. My responsibilities included gathering more volunteers, contacting old ones, discussing with community members, and finding methods to increase voter turnout. As I spread awareness throughout Santa Clara about Ro, I realized how influential and beneficial he will be for those in our community. I wanted to see change and our current congressman wasn’t providing that.…
In “Harrison Bergeron” by Kurt Vonnegut, the author shows how everyone acting and looking the same way can affect them physically, mentally, and emotionally therefore Everyone should be able to be themselves and show their own creativity. The author writes about this thesis specifically because he wants to show people that being unique is not a terrible thing because it means you are special in your own way and you might be able to do things others can’t do.…
Carl Walther had a tall task ahead of him in 1930s German — build an economical military pistol that would outperform the beloved Luger. He went one better and changed the combat pistol world.…