Civil Rights Reflection

2.7 Mid-Semester Summary Activity

1. The most important thing I learned about immigration in the late 19th century was that people viewed immigrants differently than we do today. We tended to have a natural bias against immigrants and some of the reason for this was just because they lived in a different country than us and we didn't know too much about them other than the type of communities they are coming from and the crimes they have committed in the US and back home. But back in the 19th century, they were for immigration. They sent ships to and from other places to bring people into the US for jobs and opportunities. We were the melting pot. I think this is important because it shows the difference in history of how we the people tend to think about immigration. 

2. The most important thing I learned about immigration today is that most people base their opinions about all immigrants off of what one singular immigrant did. What I mean by this is, say, an immigrant, who practices as a doctor, is in a restaurant when someone starts to have a medical problem of some sort and causes a scene. This immigrant could very well be the only person who knows what to do medically in that situation and they could end up saving this person's life. On the other hand you could have an immigrant who goes to rob a bank and ends up killing someone while they're there. The story that will stick in people's mind is the story of how an immigrant took someone's life not the one about an immigrant who saved it. I think this is important because though it could be inferred that the majority of immigrants cause harm to the US, not all of them do. There are immigrants out there that do just want to come to the US to live a good life and not cause harm. The problem now is just getting the right people for the US in and getting the harmful ones out. 

3. I think the two most challenging aspects of living in urban settings in the 19th century would be the waste/sanitary conditions and living spaces/tenements. Since people couldn't really go to the bathroom and keep it anywhere in their house, people everywhere would dump their waste onto the side of the street to be cleaned up. This caused a terrible smell throughout the city and also ties into the sanitation aspect of urban living. Because of the waste being dumped in the streets and into the sewers, the water was not sanitary for people. This ties into the living spaces and tenements. Having to fit so many people into the rooms in a building, it caused diseases to be highly infectious. They were infectious through things like water and the air in general that the people were sharing. I think that collectively American success was pretty good with this. Today, we have ways to purify water in our own homes, our homes and hotels are cleaner and safer, and we have health codes that provide all of these things for us. 

4. I think that the overarching idea of the Highline itself connects with the idea of Progressivism in the late 19th century early 20th century. The reason they wanted to build the Highline was so that they could turn a "problem" in to something that the community as a whole can enjoy and grow from. in the Highline video, they talked about how a mile and a half of land was just going to go to waste and even though there were solving a problem, they wanted to do something more. They wanted the Highline to be able to be a place where you can escape from your normal life and reconnect with the city. I think this connects with Progressivism because not only did they solve a problem, they made something out of the solution that people could connect and grow with. 

5.

  

View from the Highline 

Philanthropy

1. Philanthropy means the desire to promote the welfare of others, expressed especially by the generous donation of money to good causes. It is associated with charity, libraries, scientific research, museums, and supporting public efforts. 


2. Andrew Carnegie was a philanthropist. He gave away over $350 million dollars to projects and such in his lifetime. As seen in the book he wrote in 1889, The Gospel of Wealth, Carnegie believed that the rich have a moral obligation to give away their fortunes. Carnegie did this by spending over $56 million on public libraries, building 2,509 of them throughout the English speaking world. 

3. Both John D. Rockefeller and Andrew Carnegie were wealthy men, but Carnegie was the man who always believed in giving back to the community. He believed that there were two stages in a wealthy mans life. 1- Becoming wealthy , and 2- Giving your wealth back to the community to better it. Rockefeller on the other hand, while he did give back, began to give back when anti-trust forces closed in on his Standard Oil Company. Both of these men, however, gave greatly back to the community.  

4. Andrew Carnegie's foundation is involved in a lot today. It has many branches: Carnegie Mellon University, Carnegie Institution for Science, Carnegie UK Trust, Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh, Carnegie Dunfermline Trust, Carnegie Corporation of New York, Carnegie Council, Carnegie Hero Fund Trust, Carnegie Foundation Peace Palace, and Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh and all of his other libraries around the world.  

5. Some of today's top philanthropists are considered to be Warren Buffett, Bill and Melinda Gates, Michael Bloomberg, the Walton Family, and George Soros. Bill and Melinda Gates currently own the nation's largest private philanthropic foundation, The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The foundation was founded in 2000 and its endowment is currently at $50.7 billion. They support global health, international development, and U.S. education. 

6. If I was a philanthropist, I would use my money to give back to the community through worldwide education. I believe that no matter what background you come from, you should be given the same opportunities to earn an education.  

Bill and Melinda Gates 

Sources: 
http://www.americaslibrary.gov/aa/carnegie/aa_carnegie_phil_1.html   
https://www.uh.edu/engines/epi177.htm  
https://www.carnegie.org/interactives/foundersstory/#!/  
https://www.forbes.com/top-givers/#547fb63666ff  

yellow journalism

Yellow Journalism



To Fix Fake News, Look to Yellow Journalism 



"Yellow Journalism" Cartoon about Spanish American War 



Joseph Pulitzer 

   

William Randolph Hearst 



Yellow Journalism Fake News Turns into War 



"Yellow Journalism": The Fake News of the 19th Century 

Immigration Essay

     The government shutdown is having an impact on green card hearings. There are many people who say that that the shutdown is not having an impact on hearings at all and then there are some people who say that it is, in fact, having an impact and a pretty big one at that.

     In the article "The Latest Government Shutdown Won't Disrupt the Immigration System" from boundless.com, it states that during a partial government shutdown, the agencies that are associated with the government do not stop. They are able to do this because agencies such as these are not funded by the government, Congress, tax payers, etc. The USCIS falls under this category. USCIS stands for the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services. In their official statement it stated that the shutdown "does not affect the USCIS's fee-funded activities" and that their offices "will remain open and all individuals should attend their interviews and appointments as scheduled". It also states that common forms will not be "furloughed or work unpaid" like the other employees of the government and in the other parts of the Department of Homeland and Security. It is also stated that there shouldn't be any "extra delays" because of the shutdown. 

     In the article "What Happens to My Case During the Government Shutdown?" from  ilgrp.com, it lists all of the frequently asked questions about the shutdown and then provides answers to those questions. To the question "Can I still file a petition for immigration status?" it responds that immigration petitions can be filed at any time because the USCIS office is open during the shutdown. They also respond that the USCIS has a statement that says "fee-for-service activities preformed by USCIS are not affected by a lapse in the annual funding" because pay fees when they apply for benefits. The other main question is "What if I have a petition that is already filled?" in which they respond "petitions will continue to move forward" and "filed petitions will not be abandoned".

     In the article "Immigration Impact of Potential Partial Government Shutdown" from fragomen.com, it states that an "overview" of the situation is that if a partial government shutdown occurs after December 21, immigration benefits processing at DOL, USCIS, CBP, and U.S. consulates should continue, however, E-Verify, EB-5 Regional Center, and some other USCIS immigration programs would expire if Congress fails to reach a budget in time. 

     In the article "How the Government Shutdown Impacts the USCIS" from fileright.com , it states that the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services is a little different than most of the federal offices because mostly everything else is run majorly off of immigrant fees. In the article "December 2018 Potential Government Shutdown and Impact on Immigration Processes" from nationalreview.com , they state that the president says he will not sign any funding bill that does not include funding for construction of a wall on the US-Mexico border and that this shutdown will end when Congress passes a funding bill and President Trump signs it into law. As many of the other articles have stated, this one too states that a shutdown "would not affect the continued employment of 'essential personnel'" because these organizations are fee-based and self-sustaining. 

     In the recording " Shutdown - Delayed Immigration Cases could Further Strain Backlogged System" from  npr.com, Rachel Martin starts the conversation off by saying that along with all of the consequences the shutdown is causing, the immigration courts across the the country and closed, which is against all of their statements. Laura Benshoff then says that the Immigration Attorney, Matthew Archam, hasn't called up his clients to tell them that they don't have to show up in court. Matthew then replies that he "kind of mentioned" to "a few" of his clients that their hearings will not be going forward because of the government shutdown. Ashley Tabaddor works for Immigration services and she alone has 2,000 pending cases and the whole Immigration Services has more than 700,000 cases. 

     Because of the shutdown, these cases are being pushed back and back and back until they figure out something. So regardless to their statements about not closing their offices or pushing cases back, they are doing just that. 

 

Permanent Resident Card 

Hard work etc

My list is in order is: Hard Work, Skill, Opportunity, Luck.

I think hard work should go first because without hard work then you will get nothing done and also if you don't work hard, then people will not respect you as much as they would if you did work hard. I put skill second on the list because you can work hard and be better than a skilled person but you still need skill to accomplish things. I put opportunity third because you can make opportunities with your hard work and skill but without an opportunity you won't get too far. And I put luck last because luck is nice to have in your corner but it is not something you want to solely depend on because it can easily fail you. 

This man shows that he is working hard to accomplish things and move forward. 

Rats Research 2.1

     In the past, rats have been said to be very empathetic creatures. I read a post about rats and how they are empathetic not only toward their own kind but other rats as well. In the Washington Post article on rats, it said that during the experiment they conducted, they put two rats in a cage; one rat in a tube with a door and one outside of the tube. In both experiments, they put an albino on the outside of the tube but in one of the experiments, another albino was in the tube while in the other experiment, a black spotted rat was in the tube. The albino "refused to help the other albino rat but freely helped the black spotted rat". This was a very interesting end to the experiment.

 

Rat Empathy Experiment - animalcognition.org