Step 1- Read all the comments from the previous assignment.
Step 2- Choose one comment which is thoughtful.
Step 3-
First, paraphrase the comment you are responding to: For example: “Mr. Baalbaki thinks that…”
Then, write a question about the chosen comment. The question must be: clear, sincere, useful and be the sort of question which leads to more questions. The question you write must complicate the comment’s argument, make the reader of the comment you are questioning think deeper. Stir up some intellectual trouble. Find an example from US history which disproves their theory.
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18 comments:
My fellow classmate, Mohamed Elsaid says that he thinks the central theme for America, is that "America is still developing with new ideas; and little things can interfere with that; such as things like greed." He then refers to this greed by stating the current economic situation with banks. Mr. Elsaid gives his opinion on what should be done about this greed, he states that, "Instead of spending billions of dollars for the banks to fix this problem, the money could have gone to labs to make new discoveries or build new inventions to make the Earth become cleaner." My sincere question to Mr. Elsaid is that, do you really think that the Central Theme of America is that America is still developing with new ideas? Would this theme summarize all that has been said in the quotes that were written in the previous blog entry? Yes it is true that America is still developing with new ideas but if you have stated that as your Central Theme, how is it that your ending sentence in your previous blog entry states that, "This is how America will grow and reach a higher level of development." I'm not sure what question you were answering? The question about how America will grow and reach a higher level or the question about the Central Theme. An example from U.S History that disproves Mr. Mohamed Elsaid's theory is the quote by Samuel Clemens "It was wonderful to find America, but it would have been more wonderful to miss it." Mohamed's theory of the central theme does not cover this quote therefore this quote in some way disproves his theory.
Tiffany Gong thinks that the past will affect our future. If this is true, what bad things have we done in the past did to us now in the future and what good things have we done in the past that have changed our future?
Mr. Baron thinks that when Arnold Joseph Toynbee CH said the quote “America is a large, friendly dog in a very small room. Every time it wags its tail, it knocks over a chair”, he meant that every time we try something new or we make a new idea about making the nation superior the plans never works. Baron thinks that an example that supports that quote is when George W. Bush sent troops to Iraq for the purpose to fight off terrorists. Where did you get the idea that that was the purpose for the Iraq War? How is President Barack Obama also an example that supports that quote?
Ms. Niara Morrison says that “…the war of 1812, WW1, and WW2 gave us opportunities to create some of the weapons that have made man so dangerous like guns…” even though guns were created in 1200-1300 A.D, several hundred years before those wars and even before America was known to exist to the rest of the world.
Mohamed Elsaid said that the central theme for America is that America is still developing with new ideas and little things can interfere with that because of little things like greed. I disagree with Mohamed. One reason why I disagree with Mohammed is because many things are interfering with our plans and it is not necessarily greed. Yes, most Americans are indeed greedy but that isn’t the problem. It won’t get in the way of our developing ideas. What are we greedy for? There are many things that are interfering with our developing ideas. One is the Iraq War. There is no point of a war if we aren’t gaining anything. You call that greed? Also, America is developing new ideas but why can we not agree on everything before our ideas progress. George W. Bush, our former president went into War without agreeing with congress. Maybe it looked like a good idea from his perspective because he wanted to stop terrorism but now look at our citizen’s perspective. He should’ve agreed with congress before he went to war. In many families their love ones are dieing. This is not greed. Greed isn’t interfering with economy plans. Our economy problems have bigger things interfering. Our economy is falling into the wrong direction. In our economy we have a cycle. The bad part about our economy's cycle is that everything depends on one another. If our economy continues this cycle many people are going to lose their jobs and companies/businesses will be bankrupt. Depending on one another is interfering with our plans because like dominoes if one idea goes bad they all fall. Mohamed Elsaid also said a lot of people were greedy so they stole the people’s money. Instead of spending billions of dollars for the banks to fix this problem, the money could have gone to labs to make new discoveries or build new inventions to make the Earth become cleaner. First of all who stole whose money? Nobody is stealing and if they did it is not about greed. Banks don’t have many problems except if no one is taking lones from the Bank and paying them back. So the whole part that when he said we could’ve spent this money that we wasted on bank problems could’ve gone for lab work to make the Earth cleaner. That is total nonsense. How can money help banks solve there problems?
This is why I disagree with Muhammad Elsaids central theme.
Mr. Martinelli thinks that Thomas Jefferson and George Santayana contradict each other because ''Jefferson is practically saying that the future is better than the past, while Santayana appears not to agree with that statement." That isn't entirely true. Thomas Jefferson believes that the dreams of the future is better than the history of the past and Santayana believes that the ones that don't remember the past are condemned to repeat it. Santayana doesn't disagree with that quote at all. If anything, they both mean almost the same thing. The past shouldn't be repeated in the future and the future has more great things to hold than the past did. This is why i disagree with Justin Martinelli's statement.
Jason Tsang states that, “The central theme in American History is wars. Without wars, we would not have the power we have now. We would still be controlled by Britain. Our allies in WW1 would have lost if we didn’t decide to help them.” I’m don’t think that that is the central theme for American History. One reason that I disagree with Mr. Tsang’s quote is that I don’t think that it covers the whole idea of what he stated before. For instance, you don’t have any examples from history to prove that the central theme of American History is wars. In addition, none of the quotes that were stated by the authors implied that. None of the authors, in their quotes, stated that war is what America is all about. In my opinion, I think that there is a better central theme that summarizes the all of the authors’ points.
Justin Francis believes, like Abigail Adams, that power will result in the downfall of people and cause major problems for America. One event that he used to prove his ideas was that William Taft was accused of holding offices in the Philippines while president. Are you sure that this is true? Taft was the Governor-General of the Philippines from 1901 to 1903 and he was president from 1909 to 1913. This means that he was not the Governor-General of the Philippines during his presidency. Also, William Taft did many great things for America. For instance, he promoted the idea of world peace because he wanted to end all wars on Earth. Therefore, I disagree that power will result in the downfall of people. How would America be today if George Washington’s power of being a general caused our country to loose the Revolutionary War?
Jason Tsang states that, “The central theme in American History is wars. Without wars, we would not have the power we have now. We would still be controlled by Britain. Our allies in WW1 would have lost if we didn’t decide to help them.” I’m don’t think that that is the central theme for American History. One reason that I disagree with Mr. Tsang’s quote is that I don’t think that it covers the whole idea of what he stated before. For instance, you don’t have any examples from history to prove that the central theme of American History is wars. In addition, none of the quotes that were stated by the authors implied that. None of the authors, in their quotes, stated that war is what America is all about. In my opinion, I think that there is a better central theme that summarizes the all of the authors’ points.
Jason Tsang of class 723 thinks that the quotes of Thomas Jefferson and George Santayana contradict each other. Thomas Jefferson’s quote comes closest to his beliefs – he thinks there is no need to study the past because it does not influence the future. Jason also thinks the central theme in American history is wars and that without wars, we wouldn’t be where we are today.
I disagree with him, though. I think that we should study the past because it influences the future. Don't your past actions influence your future? In the past, we took the ideas of Slater, Lowell, and Whitney and built on them. This resulted in more sophisticated cotton-cleaning machinery, and standard interchangeable parts.
Also, how is the central theme of American history wars? It is true that without wars we wouldn’t be where we are today. But not all wars are helpful, especially ones that last long. An example of such would be the War in Iraq.
Kimberly stated that the central theme of American history is to study it so we don’t make the same mistake twice so that we can follow the American dream! I don’t think that this is the central theme of American history. One example to show that I disagree with this statement is that Thomas Jefferson said “I like the dreams of the future better than the history of the past.” That means we don’t have to worry or remember about the past and just wait for the future; that is how America will grow. This is why I think that Kimberly’s idea for the central theme of American history is not correct. My question to Kimberly is which incident from the past, which was harmful to America, have we learned from and never performed in the present time?
Kimberly Jerome stated “The central theme of American history is to study it so we don't make the same mistakes twice and so that we can follow the American Dream.” I find this statement incorrect because the central theme means those events that happen repeatedly along the American history. A central theme can not refer to what you are supposed to do now but, as I said before, to what we observe in history that has happened with quite frequency.
My second point of disagreement is: What does the central theme and making mistakes have to do with following the American Dream? The American Dream refers to the freedom that allows all citizens and all residents of the United States to pursue their goals in life through hard work and free choice. It often refers to the opportunity for immigrants to achieve greater material prosperity than was possible in their countries of origin.
Finally, I also found that some events in American history disapprove your theory. For example, the treatment the Native Americans received was as negative as the slaves received years after. This means that we didn’t learn from the past since we made the same mistakes. The Native Americans were removed from the land they were living on and taken to the reservations where their lifestyles changed dramatically leading to the loss of the Native American spirit and essence. The slaves brought from Africa received an equally disgraceful treatment when they were deprived of their rights as human beings. All in all, history repeats itself and it seems we are not learning from our previous mistakes.
Mohammed said that the central theme of America is that it is still developing. I disagree with this. America is being influenced but not developing. We are still looking for ways to better ourselves by criticism, but not action. My question is: How exactly are we developing? If by development, you mean that everyone owns a Wii, then you are seriously confused about true development my friend.
Kimberly in class 723, said that the central theme of American history is to study it so we don’t make the same mistake twice so that we can follow the American dream. I don't believe that this statement is true. Also, a theme is how something or someone changed from the beginning to the end. This theme does not state that. And also, What is the American Dream? Not everyone's dream is the same.
My fellow classmate, Niara Morrison, beleives that none of the authors disagree with each other. So when Geroge Santyana said that "those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it" and when Thomas Jefferson said "I like the dreams of the future better than the history of the past",they mean the same thing?
As my fellow classmate Vlad had stated, Niara Morrison said that none of the qutoes seem to contradict. But what about Abigail Adam and Walt Whitman's quotes? They both clearly contradict each other.
Have a nice summer! :)
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