Wednesday, March 10, 2010
Tuesday, March 9, 2010
Sacco and Vanzetti case
Ferdinando Sacco and Bartolommeo Vanzetti were just recently on trail for the murder of two men during a robbery in Massachusetts. Both these men had never had any previous record of any wrong doing. So many people are now asking why? The robbery was said to be done because of an ongoing bombing campaign. Sacco was a shoe maker from Foggia; he entered the United States at the age of seventeen. Vanzetti was born in Cuneo and entered the United States ate age twenty. Even though these men had no prior records of violence, they were followers of Luigi Galleani. Luigi is an advocate of revolutionary violence. Luigi is an Italian anarchist; they are ranked at the top of the governments list for the most dangerous. They have made a lot of attempts at bombings and assassinations. A couple years ago they made an attempt of a mass poisoning; he was deported along with eight of his employees. There had been many different claims, Vanzetti claimed that he had been selling fish at the time of the robbery, and Sacco had claimed that he was in Boston at the time of the bombing. There is a lot of evidence to prove that the two are guilty, for example bullets and a 32 caliber hand gun. The case took seven weeks and the men were found guilty of first degree murder. They left the robbery scene with over $15,000. These two men tried to come up with as many witnesses to back them up, but they were still found guilty by the courts. Vanzetti was the first one to go to trial, he had many witnesses but they were all Italian and spoke little English. During the trial they had translators because his witnesses could barely speak English.
“The Sacco and Vanzetti case is still hotly debated in some circles today as a classic example of the tyranny of the establishment over the poor and politically non-conforming. It is generally agreed that a second trial should have been granted and that the refusal to do so was clearly unfair”. Many people believe that Sacco, and Vanzetti were treated unfairly, because they had so many witnesses to back them up.
The two people that Sacco and Vanzetti were accused of killing were Frederick Parmenter and Alessandro Berardelli. Frederick was a shoe factory paymaster, and Alessandro was a security guard at south Braintree.
The impact of the scopes trial
The scope trail has made it illegal for teachers to talk about any other creationist ideas besides the one in the bible. This conflict has made it very difficult on teachers; they are not allowed to even mention what they believe. There has been a great debate for many years on creationism vs. evolution. Creationism is the belief that God is the creator and rules over the earth. Evolution is the theory that earth evolved from something more than I higher being. Evolution is a change over a period of time. Evolution and creationism both have their own facts but they also have their flaws. Creationism vs. Evolution is a very tough topic not to talk about especially for science teachers. Charles Darwin a famous scientist says that all life is related, and everything has been passed down from common ancestors. Darwin says that complex creatures evolve from simplistic creatures from the pass. Darwin has come up with the idea of natural selection. Natural selection has four main components. The first step of natural selection is “Organisms (within populations) exhibit individual variation in appearance and behavior. These variations may involve body size, hair color, facial markings, voice properties, or number of offspring. On the other hand, some traits show little to no variation among individuals—for example, number of eyes in vertebrates.” The second step is inherited traits passed down from parent to off spring. The third step has to do with population, and high rate growth of population, the fourth and final step is Differential survival and reproduction. “Individuals possessing traits well suited for the struggle for local resources will contribute more offspring to the next generation.” There have been many different ideas about evolution and creationism. The hardest part about this conflict is trying to figure out who is correct. Are the creationist right or are the evolutionist/scientist right. Darwin’s theory of evolution makes a lot of sense, especially because he is the first person to ever have come up with such a complex idea of evolution. Now on to creationism, there are no real facts about creationism, when it comes down to evolution scientist have came up with many facts such as fossils, natural selection and genes that have been passed down. Creationism has one big fact, that one big fact is the bible. Most if not all creationist believe in god, creationists believe god is the reason for the earth being created. Scopes who was a teacher was put on trial for bringing up his opinion about evolution to his students. Evolution and creationism might be one of the hardest topics to decide on.
The Prohibition Movement and the 21st amendment
The prohibition movement is the illegalization of transporting alcohol. Many citizens are breaking laws, even though transporting and manufacturing alcohol is illegal. Drinking is now on the rise, there are many people forming groups to persuade people from drinking. Drinking causes many problems in society, such as murders, and other crimes. The people in the west are viewed as untamed, and the west is a place were a lot of evil takes place. Alcohol became a big deal, there is even a amendment made to protect people from alcohol. The Volstead act says that "beer, wine, or other intoxicating malt or vinous liquors meant any beverage that was more than 0.5% alcohol by volume. The Act also stated that owning any item designed to manufacture alcohol was illegal and it set specific fines and jail sentences for violating Prohibition.” People have begun to do anything to get alcohol; people are even getting prescriptions written from doctors just to get alcohol. Even with prohibition in affect people are still finding ways to drink. There is a new period of gangsters, gangsters are getting people to smuggle alcohol in from different countries. After the alcohol is brought in gangsters are opening up bars, called speakeasies. Prohibition agents now have a new job, there job is very tough. There job is to raid speakeasies, arrest gangsters, and find stills. There is one big problem; the agents are being under paid! And that’s leading to bribery cases; many of the rich gangsters are paying the agents to protect them. Following these crimes and events the 21 amendment was created. The 21 amendment once again legalized alcohol. This is the first time in American history that an amendment has been repealed. The gangsters of the United States have a lot of power, they have a lot of money and many people fear them. The most famous of the gangsters is Al Capone. Al Capone is a very dangerous man, he has a large variety of people working for him. Capone has been caught up in a couple of murder cases but has not been proven guilty because nobody will testify against him. Capone is making about 60 million dollars a year off of alcohol sales; Capone is taking over Torrio’s business. Capone was so successful at selling alcohol because he paid off policeman, agents, and people to keep their mouth shut. Capone has been seen driving around in the city of Chicago in armored limousines, and with armed body guards. Capone is a very dangerous man who has a lot of power all around the world.
The red scare and the palmer raids
The red scare is the fear of communist, after a series of anarchist bombings. The people of the United States are now living in fear; people are being jailed for expressing their true feelings. The liberties of the people are being ignored. The people of America fear the thought of a revolutionary war. The red scare didn’t last very long at all. Mitchell palmer is attacking politics, because he believes they are being unfair. There is a lot of social and political conflict going on, there have been a series of strikes and bombings. After the attack on politics, palmers house was nearly destroyed, the social conflict could have been avoided if palmer did attack the government. Palmer is holding the communist responsible for the series of bombings; palmer has started publicized raids against “radicals and leftist”. The men that are working under palmer are destroying union offices and headquarters owned by communist. People have no freedom of speech, a sailor shot another man for not standing during the national anthem. Palmer is attacking foreigners, who he believes are born radicals, palmer believes radical foreigners are trying to overthrow the American way of life. The American government is now starting to support antiradicals; they have just passed a law supporting the deportation of aliens and radicals. Most of radicals are from non English speaking areas/ groups, in some states such as Idaho and Oregon are passing laws forbidding any written document that is not in English. This law is a law that I believe will help the American government shut down radicals, and aliens. Palmer is asking for the department bureau of investigation to investigate and watch all radical groups. T. Hoover reported back to palmer, that a revolution could start at anytime, after finding out that a revolution could be coming up soon, he has then ordered more raids and more arrest. Many of the people who are being jailed are beginning to be deported. More than have of the people arrested are being deported. African Americans are the main victims of the palmer raids, many whites are starting to fear the fact that African Americans are being employed and there will be less job opportunities, many whites are starting to bring back the racist fears of the past. Racism and conflict with radicals are now starting to become linked together, the social life and the economy is changing because of African Americans, and radicals. The Klux Klan is now making a rebirth do to all the racial tension. The palmer raid was to single out Bolshevik, and the African Americans. The red scare and the palmer raid are truly against radicals and palmer is trying everything he can to get the radicals out of the US. In my opinion that is a bad idea because he is now starting unnecessary conflicts.
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