LGBT, week 5 of Reinventing the Nation at BHCC

After listening and reading through a few of our selected pieces for this week I have thought more and more about how the privileges of heterosexuals one day can be the privileges of the LGBT community. Many of them are never thought about or mentioned but longed for if you are not straight. Every single person has numerous struggles throughout their life but the ones of the LGBT community in the past have been so very hurtful and abusive. The problems that they face are simply those of basic human rights and needs, this is something that I wish did not have to be fought for anymore but just came to everyone.
In my lifetime I have seen same sex marriages be let into some states which makes many believe that it can be understood and let into America as a whole. There are many things that we labeled wrong & illegal that now seems to be a basic right and I hope that this is the case for the LGBT communities rights.

reaction to Barack Obama's "A More Perfect Union"

Barack Obama's speech about race and how to work on a more perfect union addressed problems that many like to pretend do not really exist anymore. It is easier to do that, and much less scary to think that the nation that we are living in has changed to the point of equality for all that live within it. Obama said, 50 years after Brown v.s Board of Education many of our schools are still segregated which means they are much weaker than they could be." We still have much further to go to eliminate racism, we have gotten so so far from slavery but the minds of some still spew hate. Instead of simply being angry and blaming different groups and classes of people we should be getting to the root of the problems and asking why.
This speech expresses what race means in this specific moment in time by reminding people that we can go further and further away from the way America was when we believed in slavery. This speech reflects on what it is like to be African American in this country because it is for many a silent struggle. Obama was saying that he does not hear the topic of racism come up when he is around his white friends but in the barber shops and occasionally on Sunday's. He also mentioned that the most segregated day is Sunday.

Margaret Sanger-American Woman

"The Morality of Birth Control"
http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/margaretsangermoralityofbirthcontrol.htm

"We claim that women should have the right over her own body & to say if she shall or if she shall not be a mother, as she see's fit. We further claim that the first right of a child is to be desired."

"We know that the masses of people are growing wiser & are using their own minds to decide their individual conduct. The more people of this kind we have, the less immorality shall exist. For the more responsible people grow, the higher do they & shall they attain real morality."

-Margaret Sanger

Why would we ever not trust women with the knowledge of their own bodies? We are not cavemen, we have the ability to choose when we create a child and build a strong prepared family, why would we not use that knowledge? The ultimate goal is to have a world that can handle and support all the people in it, birth control is a major part in creating a place where everyone is taken care of. A child does deserve to have a family that praises its existence and is willing and able to provide everything possible for them.
This article by Margaret Sanger represents what it means to be a woman in America because we do have the right and ability to stand up and demand our rights.

Richard Frethorne, Letter to His Parents

http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/6475 = site to read the letter

This is the source that I chose to read for my reinventing the nation class, it is something that I would of not chosen to read in my own spare time is important to remind us how we got to where we are today.
Reading this letter is a reminder that change does and always will involve risks. It shows you how much suffering people ended up going through to create a new country that stood for more of what they wanted. I think that is how it expresses what it is to be an American, people who were brave enough to leave what they had in order to try and build a place that represents what they stand for. I am a first generation American, my family is from Poland and my parents came here with my sister for the opportunities that were offered. They came because America was the land of the free, the promise land, for the unlimited space and for the challenge to learn a new language and culture. These are all things to be proud to be an American but I do not think that means that now we are done improving our country. We should keep reinventing our mindsets, keep pushing to be the best and keep thinking about our country as a whole, as one country.

Barack Obamas first State of the Union Address

"Our constitution declares that from time to time the president shall give to congress information about the state of our union, for 220 years our leaders have fulfilled this duty"



"We recovered most of the money we spent bailing out the banks, most but not all, to get back the rest I have proposed a fee on the biggest banks. Now I know that wall street is not keen on this idea, but if these firms can afford to hand out big bonuses again they can afford a modest fee to pay back the tax payers that rescued them in their time of need"

-Barack Obama


Obama's speech last week did catch me up to date with all the things that he is trying to change about America, but it also makes you want most of it now.... I guess that is why he later said " I never said change would come easily or that I could do it alone." Two of the biggest things that he mentioned and that I want now are to not give tax breaks to companies that outsource but to the companies that stay within out boarders and to STOP INSURANCE CARE ABUSSES....it makes me wonder if that is possible living in a country that the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer....