Past Abstracts
Fall 2016 – Cross-Cultural Encounters in the American West
Timothy Bernard
Jess Campaniello, “The Life of Children at Manzanar: Education and Recreation”
The purpose of my research paper, “The Life of Children at Manzanar: Education and Recreation,” was to gather information on the educational and recreational experiences of the young Japanese American citizens who were interned at the Manzanar War Relocation Center during World War II. I was originally drawn to the topic of Japanese American internment during World War II, because it is a piece of history of the United States that I feel is neglected in our traditional educational experiences. However, I knew that there was a story within the history that I wanted to explore some more. While we may be familiar with why over 110,000 people were forced into these camps, and why it was wrong for this to happen–we don’t typically learn much about their experiences while there. Manzanar is the most well-known of the ten War Relocation Centers, therefore I decided to focus my research on the youth that were interned there. Education was a big part of life for the younger population at Manzanar. To aid my in my research, I read many different books about the Japanese American internment, and also studied the Manzanar Free Press. The Manzanar Free Press was the camp’s newspaper, and was very thorough with providing information about what was going on inside of the camp.
Michael Forson, “Social Mobility of Blacks in Twentieth-Century Los Angeles, 1920-1970”
This paper investigated the 1960s riots across the nation, their causes and effects of these events. The 1965 McCone Report and the 1967 Kerner Report blamed society for neglecting socioeconomic opportunity for blacks. The paper explores three different scholarly narratives: the 1960s, the 1990s, and the 2000s. The 1960 scholarly perspective talked about the failure of the federal government. By the 1990s, scholars discussed Los Angeles’s coalition among white liberals, blacks, and labor organizations. The data available in the 2000s suggested a demand shift from low wage agricultural unskilled jobs in the South to the West (i.e. migration to Los Angeles), high-paying skilled jobs, but when blacks were laid off, they were trapped in massive unemployment and underemployment. My findings confirmed the most recent scholars’ views about shifting demand, and I argue that there should be national communication to highlight this narrative. The new narratives of these events should be better communication to alleviate stereotyping, and interpreting the issue as demand shifts in the emerging economy of the West, to which blacks had migrated in search of their “American Dream” from the low-wage unskilled agricultural South. Also, community-based policing is a key factor, and more blacks should be incorporated into black neighborhoods’ police force, legislation, and public schools.
John Francis, “Throwing Caution to the Wind: The Effects of Fallout from Operation Upshot Knothole”
This paper chronicles the health effects of fallout from the Operation Upshot-Knothole series of atomic tests on residents and livestock downwind of the test sites. This series of tests, conducted in 1953, marked the beginning of skepticism by residents of St. George, Utah, of the safety of atomic testing in Nevada. Three forces were at work simultaneously during the 1950s: the massive campaign to test atomic weapons on the continental United States; an increase in the production of pro-nuclear propaganda by the Atomic Energy Commission; and the spike in radiation-related disease in citizens living downwind of the tests. Each of these factors fed off each other, increasing tensions between the government and the citizens of Utah and Nevada even after above-ground tests were banned in 1963. Eventually through the work of historians and medical studies, the fears and health effects reported by downwinders were validated, but for many it was too late. Radiation-related cancer had wreaked havoc in many small western towns and the impact is still felt by many residents to this day.
Patrick Moseley, “American Colonialism of the West: A Look at the Relationship between Federal and Territorial Governments
In 1850, Senator Stephen Douglas fought against the unconstitutionality of the American colonial system. In an attempt to spread the revolutionary ideas that the United States was built upon, a system of strong federal government developed. This paper examines the structure of territorial government in the American West and the evolution of a colonial system used by the United States. By examining the development of American colonization through the establishment of territories, I show how the ideas of the Revolution were abandoned to preserve the Union. Beginning with the Northwest Ordinance of 1787, the story follows Congress’s decisions as to how a territory will be governed. The paper concludes with the unique case of Nebraska and Kansas, and how the idea of popular sovereignty in a territory shattered the fragile American government. By using legislation enacted with the purpose of establishing territorial governments, I am able to present the working relationship between a territory and the federal government. In the end, a balance of federal control was needed as popular sovereignty allowed for the immorality of society to reign in the political limelight. American colonialism contradicted the ideologies of the Revolution, but served as a method to expand and build the United States.
Troy Perez
Theodore Racicot, “A Voice of Reason: Ralph Carr and the Internment of Japanese Americans in Colorado”
This paper aims to portray a realistic portrayal of Ralph Carr, who was the Governor of Colorado at the outbreak of World War II, and his role in quelling anti-Japanese sentiment within his state. By focusing on his calls for unity, this paper shows how Ralph Carr helped assist the country’s war effort. The paper starts with Carr’s decision to welcome Japanese-Americans from the West Coast into his state, despite anti-Japanese sentiment around the country. It then shows how these Japanese-Americans, even the ones interned by the federal government at Granada, became a vital part of Colorado’s contribution to the war effort. This paper draws on a number of sources, including Carr’s speeches, newspaper articles, and his biography
Ashley Russell, “Chinese Immigration Through Ellis Island of the West”
The purpose of this paper was to investigate the Chinese Exclusion Act and how it affected immigrants living in the United States and their time at Angel Island in San Francisco. This investigation gains insight into why some Chinese immigrants were allowed to pass through the investigation station and why others were turned away. The Chinese were treated much differently in Angel Island than any other immigrant group because of this Act. The Chinese Exclusion Act tried to turn away Chinese immigrants because the higher the population of Chinese workers grew, anti-Chinese sentiment among other workers in the American economy also increased. Interviews were conducted with many Chinese immigrants about their life at Angel Island and their life after the station when they were living in America and how the Chinese Exclusion Act still affected them. My research included sources from archives, interviews with Chinese immigrants, scholarly journals and relevant websites. First, I went through scholarly journals and found a lot of things on why the Chinese Exclusion Act was implemented in the first place. Then, I listened to many different interviews about Chinese immigrant life during and after Angel Island. My most significant finding was on something called “paper sons.” This is when one immigrant sold fake birth papers to another immigrant so they could get through the station. The immigrants were subjected to deep interrogations, where if they got the slightest detail wrong they would be sent back to detainment. This paper contributes a deeper look into Angel Island and how it was never really the “Ellis Island of the West.”
Spring 2016 – Religion in America
Kristen Betrovski, “Christianity on the American Civil War Battlefield”
Theological leader Hames Henley Thornwell once said,” We feel that the souls of our slaves are a solemn trust, and we shall strive to present them faultless and complete before the presence of God. Indeed, as we contemplate their condition in the Southern States, and contrast it with that of their fathers before them, and that of their brethren in the present day in their native land, we cannot but accept it as a gracious Providence that they have been brought in such numbers to our shores, and redeemed from the bondage of barbarism and sin.” Christianity was a crucial aspect to the Civil war to both the Confederates and the Union. Both sides used the Holy Bible to try and prove their side and that God was on their side.They both used scripture from different parts that fit their claim. Union troops said slavery is a sin and Confederates said it was their God given right and their family right. Historians have been talking about this when talking about the Civil War Story because it is wrong to exclude a part of history because it might offend one person. To tell history you need to tell the whole picture not just parts of it. Thornwell also said, “The parties in conflict are not merely abolitionists and slaveholders, they are atheists, socialists, communists, red republicans, Jacobins, on the one side and friends of order and regulated freedom on the other. In one word, the world is the battle ground, Christianity and Atheism the combatants; and the progress of humanity at stake.”
Mike Brothers, “Origins of Hinduism and Buddhism in American History”
The purpose of this paper was to compare Hinduism and Buddhism within America from the earliest inklings of the two religions up until modern times. The paper shows an abundance of similarities and a few crucial differences that highly attributed to the foothold gained by both religions. Originally a question I had was whether one religion was more successful than the other in establishing itself in the U.S. This was quickly addressed as both religions faced similar drawbacks and challenges from their new environment in America. In Eck’s A New Religious America she explains the challenges faced by both Hinduism and Buddhism and it can be seen how similar the setbacks were that plagued these religions. My most significant finding was the extent of the abuse upon Japanese Americans shipped away to internment camps who were 60% Buddhist. They could not maintain possession of any property or businesses and had limited time to sell before being forcibly moved.
Paul Deane, “Jefferson’s Holy Trinity”
In 1804, Thomas Jefferson sat with a razorblade hunched over a King James Bible. He was redacting his own version of the bible into existence, a version comprised of 1,010 individual clippings adhered with glue and bound with the most expensive leather money could buy. Jefferson’s edited account of the stories and teachings of Jesus in the four gospels purposefully omitted Christ’s divinity and instead focused solely on his ethics, which he admires, “A more beautiful or precious morsel…I have never seen.” This divinity-free Jeffersonian Bible was by definition blasphemous and is one of many factors that have led to a misunderstanding of Jefferson’s religious views.
The purpose of this paper was to explore those nuances and complexities, and to gain insights into one of United States’ most influential founding fathers. By delving into the work of previous historians and the letters of Jefferson himself – of which there are over 18,000 – I surmised that, like his bible, Jefferson’s religion was uniquely his own, forged with razor’s edge, both incorporative and dismissive of religion. Additionally, the paper proposes that in Jefferson’s denouncement of the Holy Trinity, he unwittingly submitted his own Holy Trinity of sorts, as evidenced in both his unabashed love for his intellectual Holy Trinity in Bacon, Locke, and Newton and the legacy he quite literally inscribed in his tombstone: “Author of the Declaration of American Independence, of the Statute of Virginia for Religious Freedom, and Father of the University of Virginia.”
Dennis Duplessis, “Religious Diversity in the United States Military”
The purpose of this paper was to investigate the religious controversies that have occurred within the United States Military over the past twenty years. Throughout all the different military branches that we have, each one has encountered some sort of religious issue, where members have felt rejected due to their religious beliefs. This paper digs into some governmental documents issued by the Air Force, and also begins to break down cases that have occurred over the years where military members have been discriminated against due to their religious background. Religion and the military do not mix well together. Being a part of the military, you face different obstacles in your job that people in the general public do not. Members of society who are interested in joining the military have come across situations where people did not join due to the fear of religious discrimination in the military. The United States Military has gone through many different altercations outside of the United States in the past twenty years, where we had to send military members to the Middle East to fight for freedom against radicalized terrorist groups. Some of these groups bring religion into the picture, and say that they are fighting for their “god.” What about the members within our military who believe in the same religion as some of the radicalized terrorists? Why do they end up on the short side of the stick getting discriminated against due to the religion they worship when they are risking their lives fighting for the United States of America?
Ryan Filliger, “Religion’s Influence on the Denominational Placement in the New World”
“Religion’s Influence on the Denominational Placement in the New World” investigates the way religion influenced the migratory patterns of people both to the colonial United States and whilst already in the United States. Concentrating on three main regions and the religious views of each of them and how they limned how the United States grew and flourished as a country. Also, pointing out the struggles of the people who had escaped religious persecution in Great Britain only to arrive her and face more religious segregation and taxes. In order to understand this broad problem I narrowed down the regions to three main states, Massachusetts, Virginia, and Pennsylvania, in the colonial period of this country. I did this because those three are historical epicenters in the United States, with important ties to government and vast social and cultural influences. This illustrates the way that these three states influenced the way the region grew and the United States expanded. In 1989, David Hackett-Fischer wrote the book Albion’s Seed which explore some of these aspects of how religion intertwined with other aspects of culture and government. My work sought to point out some of the ironies of the escape from Great Britain and other parts of Europe to escape religious oppression only to get here and in some places discriminate in the colonies as well. I also sought to point out how much religion influenced the daily lives of people and how the result of that fact religion laid the groundwork for the Country to flourish as a whole.
Andrew Fini, “A Crisis of Cultures”
No abstract available
Ashley Hyde, “Send Money and God Will Answer Your Prayers: A Look into the Rise of Religious Television and Televangelists and its Impact on Modern Christianity”
The purpose of this paper was to investigate the rise of religious television, televangelists, and its impact on modern Christianity. A core question this paper focuses on is if televangelists and religious television has made a positive impact on modern Christianity or if religious television and televangelists have made a negative impact on modern Christianity. I addressed this question by doing a number of things. First, I went through many secondary sources, which seemed to be the stronger source in this situation. Then, I listened to sermons of the two televangelists that I focused on; Oral Roberts and Jim Bakker. Then, I set my paper up so that I would have to do some background research on what was going on during the 19th century in terms of revivalism, evangelism, and fundamentalism. My most significant finding was that televangelists, through their scandal and outlandish actions, have left a negative impact on the people of America’s view on modern Christianity. This is proven through pop culture like music and television shows, but it was also proven through simple interviews with the people around me. This paper contributes a deeper look into the lives of televangelist, religious television, and its impact to the research in media and religion.
Max Leveillee, “Changes in the Interplay Between the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and the World Around Them”
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has been in existence in one form or another since the 1830’s, and has caused waves almost since its conception. Whether it be fleeing from Jackson County in the wake of a controversial article appearing in the Evening and Morning Star instructing the free blacks in the area to take shelter with them, Joseph Smith ordering the destruction of the Nauvoo Expositor for printing unflattering accusations against him, or more recently, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints taking out ad space in the playbill of a famous musical, Mormon dealings with the secular world are unusual, and in earlier times, violent. This paper argues that the reason the public is less threatened by the Mormon faith in recent years is because of their portrayal in the media, both the media they produce and media produced about them. These changes illustrates how flexible the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has been since the beginning of the 20th century, and is a model for other religious groups going forward as to how to deal with being portrayed in a negative light by contemporaries.
Nicholas Majidi, “‘There is No Strength but Allah. Allah is the Highest, Most Powerful’: Bilali Muhammad: The Patriarch of Sapelo Island, Georgia”
African Muslims in the Antebellum South: Transatlantic Stories and Spiritual Struggles by Allen Austin, “Sapelo Island’s Arabic Document: The “Bilali Diary” in Context,” Vol 78 of the Georgia Historical Quarterly, and Drums and Shadows: Survival Studies among the Georgia Coast Negroes by the Georgia Writer’s Project provide the most scholarly research about the little known life of a Muslim slave known as Bilali Muhammad. The research conducted in this paper describes the life of this well-educated, literate, and scholar of Islam as his literacy is proven with the thirteen-page manuscripts of verses from the Qur’an, the holy text of Islam, which is presented in Muslim Jurisprudist in Antebellum by Muhammad Al-Ahari. With more historical research still to be done, it is absolutely known that this individual worked on Thomas Spalding’s plantation on Sapelo Island, Georgia. He was allowed to practice Islam which meant he prayed five times a day, read the Qur’an, and fasted during the month of Ramadan. He was the overseer of the plantation, putting him in an administrative position. He is credited for saving the lives of the hundreds of slaves during a hurricane in 1824. It is reported that his owner armed him and fellow slaves with muskets during the War of 1812. Understanding the known research of Bilali Muhammad indicates the organizational skills, and bravery he possessed.
Cameron Nace, “Gods of the People: Folklore as Civil Religion in America”
In 1967, Sociologist Robert Bellah proposed that there exists a “civil religion” in America, through which secular nationalistic ideals could be examined by religious means. Specifically, this was in reference to the use of God by US politicians, and of the veneration of the Founding Fathers. By using religion to speak about secular events, and by secularizing religious terminology Bellah, and subsequent scholars, have argued that this civil religion helps unite a nation, by using nonexclusive religious terminology to link religious and cultural values to the concept of the nation. This in turn built off previous theories from scholars such as Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Emile Durkheim, among others. Yet these theorists have thus far focused only on the major turning points of a nation’s history, what Bellah calls “crises.” They have ignored the impact had by the stories people tell one another, which embody the virtues venerated by a society in ways no Founding Father can, being seen as being more human, more relatable. This paper then, seeks to rectify that oversight, by not only examining the role of civil religion in America, but also the role of Folklore in the creation of a national consciousness.
Luke Sundstrom, “‘The Jew is Hated Everywhere Simply Because He Lives Everywhere’: An Analysis of Anti-Semitism from World War I to World War II in America”
Anti-Semitism, like the current state of Islamophobia in the United States, was not a new phenomenon when the Nazis gained controls of Germany in 1932. It was practiced unreservedly in the United States between the late 1800s through to the breakout of World War II. Its impact on immigration was felt throughout the Jewish population of the United States and the world. Crafted through a thorough examination of over forty articles from the New York Times, as well as works by David S. Wyman, Richard Breitman, Donald Strong, and Deborah Lipstadt, this paper looks at the effect of anti-Semitism. Broken down into sections, the paper looks at the anti-Semitic groups that were in the United States at the beginning of the twentieth century, and the Jewish population in the country. Overall the paper examines the idea that the desire to return to a practice of “America First” that came about after World War I was not the only cause for changes to immigration policy, but rather anti-Semitism played a wide-ranging role in the move to set up immigration quotas in the United States. But also, this paper finds that the end of American anti-Semitism would come too late for those that became part of one of the worst humanitarian tragedies of the age, the saga of the SS Louis.
Emily Tremarche, “The Branch Davidians and the Events at Mount Carmel”
This paper was written to provide a more in-depth look at the lives of the Branch Davidian members living at Mount Carmel during the raid and subsequent siege in Waco, Texas in 1993. This paper not only gives insight into the lives of those most publicized during the events, but it also analyzes some of the religious and political themes present from the reports written in the years after. The focus of this paper is to investigate the causes and effects of the events, and also to comment on the state of religious respect and tolerance in the United States. By looking specifically as the legal proceedings and the Justice Department’s statements, there was a clear picture of what happened to the people affected by this horrible series of events. The Justice Department’s detailed and specific report on those days in 1993 help to identify the problems associated with this event. This paper tries to identify how and why this event occurred while still maintaining a critical eye on the people involved, both within the Branch Davidian members, and also the FBI and ATF agents as well. The hope of this paper is to enrich the minds of those interested in learning more about the Branch Davidians and their impact on society while bringing valuable and possibly new ideas to the realm of religious history in modern America.
Fall 2014 – Writing Recent History
Kaitlyn Benoit, “Heartland Jingoism: How Nashville’s Cultural Narrative Explains Post-Flood Media Coverage in May 2010″
Sociologist Enrico L. Quarantelli wrote that much of what people know about a disaster, they learn from the media. This is perhaps no more true than in the case of the May 2010 floods in Middle Tennessee. As a result of unprecedented rainfall, the Cumberland River, in what is now being called the “thousand year flood,” rose to a crest of 51.9 feet, inundating the city of Nashville and its suburbs with extraordinary devastation; over the course of three days, it damaged homes, businesses, religious institutions, roadways, schools, and the Grand Ole Opry House. During the first week post-flood, The Tennessean and other local news stations devoted amplified media coverage to the disaster, but national news outlets like CNN, NBC, and CBS arrived late and focused attention almost exclusively on the flood’s impact on country music institutions like the Opry.
While residents criticized – and continue to criticize – post-flood media coverage, this paper draws upon the relationship between Nashville’s cultural narrative, the history of the Grand Ole Opry, 21st century media theory, and the concept of disaster framing to explain why, though mediocre, inadequate in its depth, and exclusive rather than inclusive, given the prominence of the Grand Ole Opry and the country music industry in the development of the cultural narrative of Nashville and Middle Tennessee, this media coverage made sense.
Patrick Bova, “Community Strong!”
In 1995 Robert Putnam wrote an article for the New York Times arguing that the United States had lost its sense of community in the past forty years. He referred to the diminishing “social capital” throughout the country.
Putnam’s theory comes from a pre-internet boom era (where people were unable to connect with one another via the internet.) The sense of community has changed since he wrote his then, controversial article. This paper discusses two case studies to demonstrate their new age of technology is increasing social capital as well as people’s sense of community.
After the events of September 11, 2001 the people of New York rallied around each other and gave their support in whatever way they could. People from across the United States sent their support. Similarly, after the bombing of the Boston Marathon there was also an overwhelming support from those in the community as well as from outside the community. People remain willing to help out their community when they can, especially when their community needs them the most.
Shaun Corum, “The Case of Edward Snowden versus the NSA”
This paper discusses the very controversial topic of the NSA and its role in American affairs. Countless acts had been passed to give them power, perhaps too much power and in 2013 a man named Edward Snowden released millions of these documents to public. Undenounced to the public, they were shocked and amazed at how bad the NSA was going against the constitution right under their own noses. Whistleblower Edward Snowden gives a multitude of video interviews and journal articles about everything illegal the NSA was doing from his own first-hand experience as an analyst for the National Security Agency. He flees to Hong Kong and later arrives in Russia where he still resides in an attempt to escape American prosecution for his so-called wrongdoings. Such first-hand accounts provide a look at the inner-workings of the NSA and what they were really doing behind closed doors. This is not the first time this has happened, but this is the first time of this magnitude. This page is a look into the event known as Edward Snowden’s exposition of the NSA and what his primary reasons were in doing so.
Emily Fee, “The Sustainability Movement and The Twenty-first Century Drive Toward Environmentally Conscious Consumerism and Education”
“The Sustainability Movement and The Twenty-first Century Drive Toward Environmentally Conscious Consumerism and Education” explores the past of the sustainability movement and recent happenings surrounding the movement. This is done in two parts; the first discusses scientific data and multiple historians’ perspectives, focusing on Jeremy Caradonna and Patrick Allitt, while creating a time line of relevant events dating back to the 1960s. The latter half of the paper delves into the impacts past events have had on the current world and discusses an area that is not frequently mentioned by scientists or historians: sustainable consumerism and education. Entirely absent from both Caradonna and Allitt’s works, this paper examines a case study of the School Garden Project in Worcester, Massachusetts and frames it as a culmination of the building sustainability movement and the recently highlighted importance of sustainable education and consumerism.
Amanda Godin, “Education in the 1980s: Improving the Education of Our Children”
Over the course of this paper, “Improving the Education of our Children,” I plan to talk about education in the eighties. Declining test scores showed that America was beginning to slip as the main superpower. This paper will focus on the reports that had come out during this period. These reports would have effects on American education some methods which we still use today. One of the major reports that would come about during the eighties was A Nation at Risk this would scare the nation to a panic as it showed the abysmal test scores of American youth. Compared to other countries American had the lowest test scores. The report was commissioned by the Secretary of Education Terrell Bell in 1983 he had to use his own power as Secretary to have it commissioned and he appointed the members. Another report was also published, An Agenda for Action in 1980. This report focused on solving the issue of school mathematics. This was one of the main issues the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics had when the published the report. However it did not garner much attention and was overshadowed by the report A Nation at Risk. This report A Nation of Risk showcased all the issues that education had not just math. This paper will be going over both reports and showing the differences between them.
Emily Lake, “A City Divided: Race relations and protests in Ferguson, Missouri, August- October 2014”
For generations a gap too big to ignore has taken up residence in cities and flourishing suburban areas. This gap separates two races: blacks and whites. The gap itself has been a physical one, due to the fact that the races continue to live lives separated from one another. It has been this way since the days of the white flight movement, but truly, the roots of the gap are mental and cultural. This paper delves into the recent events taking place in Ferguson, Missouri and seeks to argue that cultural stereotypes and misconceptions are the real issues plaguing the city. The lack of a cultural understanding between both races led to and escalated the eruption that followed unarmed black teen Michael Brown’s fatal shooting by white police officer Darren Wilson on August 9, 2014. Besides evaluating the source of the problem, this paper also creates a timeline of the protests. What began more as riots and citywide uprisings with violence, rage, chaos and mass hysteria have started to evolve into a more mellow and civil time. A time when protesters from all walks of life have started to come together, discover a common goal and slowly make the steps toward achieving peace.
Joe Moriarty, “How to Survive the Drought in the West: Las Vegas’s System of Water Sustainability”
Since 2002 the already dry American West has been facing an unprecedented drought. The seven states that feed off of the Colorado River are all facing the dangerous possibility of running out of water. Las Vegas is especially in danger as it has the smallest allocation of water from the river, 300,000 acre feet, that it relies on for 90% of its total supply. Despite this, population in the city as continued to rise, exacerbating this problem.
Since 1989 when Pat Mulroy took over the Las Vegas Valley Water District, and the Southern Nevada Water Authority (created in 1991) the city has taken steps to secure water for Vegas’s future by utilizing technological solutions, strict water use regulations, and incentive programs. This paper examines these solutions, and the effect they have had on the city, its 2 million residents, and its 40 million visitors a year. This paper draws upon many sources, mainly books and articles including first ha[n]d accounts and interviews to support its claim.
Jillian Orcutt, “School Shootings and Mental Health Care: Finding Answers to Preventing Mass Killings in America 1999-2012”
School shootings and frequent levels of public violence due to inefficient health care is a problem plaguing the United States since before the days of Columbine. School shootings such as Columbine, Virginia Tech, and Sandy Hook have prompted federal reform, and reform in institutions such as schools and local health care agencies. These institutions have taken the necessary actions against such atrocities by providing schools and universities with new safety programs, and better access to mental health care treatment. My specific work focused primarily on the professional opinions and works of American psychiatrists and medical doctors, a pending reform bill placed by the 113th Congress, Columbine author David Cullen, and other case studies and articles written on the subject of school violence and mental health. Stopping such unpredictable events is not something easily accomplished, or even plausible. However, shootings such as Columbine, Virginia Tech, and Sandy Hook have taught people there are programs and systems of political change that can be successfully implemented in order to potentially stop the frequency of such inhumane events from happening.
Jose Peña, “The Origins of the Base”
The origin of the base was largely an effort to meet and accomplish a variety of tasks. The piece revolves around the tragic attacks that took place on 9/11 in 2001. More specifically the orientation of the paper was essentially a background of what could’ve caused the events of 9/11 to unfold. It is a journey into the past to explore and find out just who was responsible for the attack (Al Qaeda) the motive behind the attacks, as well as whom the leader of this group was. Throughout this piece the reader will find that this very recent history is an indirect result of the events the unfolded in the past. The paper focuses on who Osama Bin Laden was and his involvement with the rise of Al Qaeda. It also focuses on the CIA’s unintentional involvement to help establish a terrorist organization with the motives to strike terror into Western countries. Throughout paper the author utilizes a variety of scholarly sources to delve into the history of the Middle East and the United States from as early as the 1950’s to 2001. The Origins of the base is an expedition to scratch the surface and provide insight on the origins of Al Qaeda to readers who are vaguely familiar to the topic.
Jonathan Rizzo, “Moving Toward a Solution: Operation Iraqi Freedom, the Strategies, and Opinions on Rebuilding the Iraqi Nation 2003”
The United States has actively fought in the Middle East since the early 1990s. Operation Desert Storm rid Kuwait of the Iraqi national army led by Ba’athist Prime Minister Saddam Hussein. The Hussein regime survived the Operation Desert Storm defeat due to a schism between the State and the Defense Department. By 2003, President George W. Bush had been exposed to one of the nations most horrific attacks, the attacks of 911. At that time, Iraq was argued by the Defense Department to be a threat to the sovereignty of the United States. As a result, the United States invaded Iraq on March 20th, 2003 under the code-name Operation Iraqi Freedom.
This paper analyzes the strategies set in place by the United States which inadvertently promoted and obstructed the growth of a new Iraqi nation. The United States abandoned its method of containing Iraq due to the neoconservatives who were gaining control in the Bush administration. The administration suffered from inter-departmental conflicts between the State and Defense Department, and this paper employs a multitude of sources including Frontline documentaries, journals (from a Civil Affairs Sergeant and scholarly journal articles), and government reports to provide correlations between the strategies used and the disharmony of the administration caused by the neoconservatives.
Shelby Searles, “Is This Really Happening?: The Sandy Hook School Shooting and its Media Coverage since December, 2012”
The Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in December of 2012 attracted media attention from outlets all over the country. Through analysis of news outlets and individual reporters, this paper argues that the media strives for speed over accuracy while covering key stories. In addition, it calls to attention certain tactics used by the media. Using Eileen Byrnes, a local journalist from Newtown, Connecticut, as a main defendant of media sensitivity, this paper discusses the morality of 24-hour news and the accuracy and ethics during major events. In addition, this paper conducts a study among five major news articles published on the day of the shooting. This study investigated the numbers of victims mentioned in each article and the weapons that were used by the shooter. The conclusion of this study reveals that the media is not always accurate at first, but rather gives readers and viewers any information that they have at the time. The Sandy Hook case raises a question if the media has become too desensitized during fatal events and whether or not there needs to be a change in the current 24-hour news operations.
Joe Vigliotti, “How George Bush Won Florida”
This paper is a study of the 2000 Presidential election of 2000 between Vice President Al Gore and Texas Governor George W. Bush. The paper will only begin with election night coverage, but the main topic the paper will cover is the recount that took place in the state of Florida. The election of 2000 is a confusing topic for many people to understand. From my research I found many people think this election was stolen from Al Gore, and handed to George Bush. The reason for this study is to show readers the election was not stolen and by law George W. Bush was the rightful winner of the election.
Through my research I was able to find the actual story of the recount of Florida. I was able to see the actual ups and downs each candidate had to face. “How Bush Won Florida” will also give a the reader a look into the actual court cases that helped decide the election in Bush’s favor.
The general public still views the election of 2000 as a fraudulent election. The major problem is many people do fully understand what was behind the decision to name George Bush the winner. This paper will show the readers the full story and break down the important court cases that decided this election. Many people believe the Republican Party led by George Bush’s brother Jeb stole this election. By reading this study the reader will find they just interpreted Florida law a way that fit their needs.