Blog #2

While I was reading the story of Arthur A. Robertson, I found myself thinking back to the story about the janitor that lost all his money and took his own life. The reason is, they both took place during the Great Depression, and they both found themselves in situations with banks that were loaning more money than people had, and people couldn't pay them back. For all of this, and other various reasons, everybody's savings accounts had been completely diminished. The only people who didn't lose money were the stockbrokers, and they didn't lose money because all of their customers bought stocks and they were the ones losing all their money! Arthur Robertson was a loan shark, where, of course, people borrowed more money than they had. He didn't necessarily lose too much money though because of the money he recceived from bankers that would borrow from him, and he recognized that the crash was coming, and saved himself some money. "I reconized it in May and saved myself a lot of money. I sold a reat deal of my stocks in May. It was a case of becomming frightened" (104). The point here is, when you have a job as a banker, it is a bit easier to be aware of something like the crash coming in the near future, just like Mr. Robertson did and saved himself a lot of money. Those surrounding him, though, were not doing well at all, because they had no foreshadowing of the crash, and he felt horrible for him. He tried to help out everyone he could, and I think he is a very honorable man for doing so.  Ed Paulson was less fortunate than Arthur Robertson. I found it easier to connect with Ed, because he just seemed more like the majority of America at the time of the Depression, whereas Mr. Robertson got it a little better than most. Ed talked about his stories of riding the freight train, and not being able to find a job anywhere, because the market was terrible at the time. He admitted to him being a criminal, and stealing food, though almost everyone had to be a criminal in order to survive. I never felt so lucky to be alive in a time where even in this recession, most of us still have our household necessities.

New Deal Legacy

What was the lasting legacy of the New Deal?

In many ways, the New Deal signified a new start for Americans, and it was as if everything had been improved in some way, and many new things were established to help everyone gain back what they had lost in the Great Depression. The New Deal had begun in the time of the Depression, which was filled with tons of despair and misery. The new president, Franklin D. Roosevelt, realized that things needed to change. In the movie we watched, "The Century - The Depression", many people reflected on what everything was like at the time. Some had said that "the land itself was blowing away", as if they had literally lost everything, including the land. With the New Deal, many new bridges were created, and old ones were repaired in order to ensure that transportation over them was reliable. For example, the construction of the Triborough Bridge started in 1929, the same year of the stock market crash, and it linked the Bronx, Manhattan to Queens. This saved Americans a lot of travel time. Mrs. Roosevelt received many letters from children asking for clothing, money, and other forms of assistance. Although Mrs. Roosevelt did not respond directly to any of the children, she helped them in other ways. She worked to establish government programs for young people as part of the New Deal. The National Youth Administration (NYA) and the youth-oriented programs of the Works Progress Administration (WPA) are two examples. The NYA gave more than 2 million high school and college students grants in exchange for work, and it also found work for 2.5 million young people who were not enrolled in school. This was extremely beneficial to the youths of America, because they were given a new role in the Depression and could help provide for their families and themselves. Overall, the New Deal made a huge impact on the lives of millions of Americans who had suffered through the Great Depression, and the lasting legacy of it will never be forgotten. Although many people would have disagreed at the time, I think that FDR made an outstanding change with what he started, and he did more than Hoover ever would have thought of doing.

Blog #1

To be completely honest, I didn't like C.P. Ellis very much at first. I thought he was a racist, immoral type of person. But he is not; he used to be, and he learned right from wrong by the things his heart was telling him. This is the best way we will make our dreams come true, like Ellis did; to follow our hearts, rather than our minds. First instinct is usually right because it is our first answe coming from the heart. I can see his mind changing when he said, "My mind was beginning to open up. I was beginnin' to see what was right and what was wrong. I don't want the kids to fight forever" (71). After reading this line, I realized that he reminds me of Martin Luther King in the way that he is thinking about the future rather than the present, because that is what will matter later on. He knew he needed to change, he needed to presevere, and he needed to make a difference. The message here is to never stop fighting for your dreams, and to remember that our differences can only bring us closer together as a nation.