Final Episode: Sam Talbert and Larry Heinemann

Both of these articles are incredibly interesting, but I found it somewhat difficult to read the interview of Sam Talbert because his language was very poor.  I thought Sam had some great ideas and it was interesting to hear his perspective in which he believes that people are ruining society.  He says, "It scares me sometimes thinkin' people are never goin' to learn.  I sometimes get to thinkin' people's gettin' too hard-hearted.  There's no trust in anybody.  Used to be hitchiking, you'd get a ride.  Now they're afraid they'll be robbed, but people has always been robbed all their life.  So it's hard for me to pass up a hitchiker" (pg. 415).  Although this idea is relatively simple, the fact that he would give open arms to a hitchiker today is very daring.  I personally would never do such a thing simply because there are lots of bad people in the world.  I think Sam understands that, but he is willing to trust everyone, until their devil is released.  On the other hand, being a war veteran, like my grandfather, there are many stories to tell.  In the case of Larry Heinemann, he chose to begin his story talking about life back at home after the war.  When explaining that MLK Jr. had just been killed, he said, "I was gettin' a haircut for my wedding. These guys in the barber shop were talking, I remember: Somebody finally got that nigger....Black cities were just going up in flames.  And then Bobby Kennedy was shot.  It was almost as if I had brought the war home myself.  I didn't want any part of it whatever" (pg. 417).  This was the most intriguing statement in the entire passage because it really makes me think.  The Civil War occured a little over 200 years ago from this point in time and yet the issue regarding race still lingers in our history.  I also thought it was interesting that he blamed everything on himself, he said that it was just as chaotic at home as it was in Vietnam.

Post #8: Dolores Dante and Mike LeFevre

Dolores was a very interesting girl.  She was a waitress who had broken up with her husband in which he left her 3 children and lots of debt.  She was forced to become a waitress because it was the only way to make quick money.  She says, "I have to be a waitress. How else can I learn about people? How else does the world come to me? I can't go to everyone. So they have to come to me.  Everyone wants to eat, everyone has hunger.  And I serve them.  If they've had a bad day, I nurse them, cajole them.  Myave with coffee I give them a little philosophy.  they have cocktails, I give them political science" (330). This is an incredibly interesting quote because she takes her very demeaning job, as she puts it, and turns it into something optimistic.  She eventually tells us that she likes her job and that she enjoys the conversations that she has with people. 
Mike Lefevre had a different kind of story.  I thought the beginning of the story was the most significant because he layed out his perspective of his job.  Unlike Dolores, he didn't really appreciate what he did.  He said, "You can't take pride anymore....It's hard to take pride in a bridge you're never going to cross, in a door you're never gonna open.  You're mass-producing things and you never see the end result of it" (319). This is the exact opposite to what Dante said.  Dante could have looked at her job and said, 'I never get to eat anything that my costumers eat which sucks.'  That is kind of what Lefevre is saying here.  He isn't appreciating the fact that he is helping out the community by building that road, by making that door, by building a house.  These are all important features to a successful society, and he is a major part of it that he doesn't originally appreciate.

Blog Post 7: Division Street America

Tom Kearney's story was incredibly interesting in the sense that he tried to portray this world as two groups of people.  There are those who were nationalists and pro-America, and then there were those who either hated America or were indifferent. However he says, "You’re going to have to get along with them. They’re here, so you might as well go to school with them and get along with them” (265) referring to the communists, which are the people who are on the other half of the spectrum.  It is interesting in the life of a policeman because he understands this separation of the worlds.  It is interesting because he notices all of the little things and all he wants is for the world to be at peace.  He didn't have very much money growing up because of the depression, and he mentions how he would have had a better education if only his father could have provided for him.  The fact was, was that his father was not able to provide for his family and they were forced to live the life that they currently live, in Chicago.  He doesn't seem to have many complaints but that's a completely different idea in itself.  Chester Kolar, on the other hand, discussed modern day society rather than the past.  He basically discussed how the press and the media networks that we have today are huge influences.  It is interesting because he claims that news is actually bad for us because in most cases, no news, is good news; this idea is contradictory to the say that any new is good news.

6th Blog Post: Peter Ota and Betty Bayse

I would just like to start this blog episode by commenting on the title of the section.  It is called, "The Good War."  I feel like this is very ironical in the sense that this was one of the worst wars of all time and yet people are calling it the good war because it ended up being a positive thing for the United States collectively.  Anyways, It is interesting to see the both sides of this.  Peter Ota explains how on the day of the bombing, his father was taken by the FBI due to the fact that he was Nisei and was brought to one of the internment camps. He explained how his father was put into prisoners clothing and was essentially treated like an inferior to the Americans. On the positive note, I thought it was incredibly interesting that Betty had made her decision to become a nurse as quickly as possible to help our troops.  It is interesting because, in this notion, it kind of does feel like it is the good war.  People seemed to come together and there was this feel of community within the people.  To go off on another tangent, this war reminds me a little bit about religion.  In all religions, people celebrate the holidays mostly by coming together and eating food.  For the record, what better way is there to celebrate a holiday by coming together as a family and eating dinner? Anyways, I'm not saying that war is necessarily a holiday, but at home, it seemed like it was a little bit like a get-together.  People were celebrating when the soldiers did something fantastic and they would party and celebrate and build weapons together, as one unit.