Blog #8

Mike Lefevre was a laborer, he worked in a steel mill. This was around the time of the Depression, so he referred to himself as "a dying breed" (319). Not many people were doing manual labor anymore because of industrialization and the nonexistant job market. He explains how he can't get excited about his job, because all he did was pull steel when he just wanted to sit down. He sure has his head on his shoulders, because he seems very knowledgable about how to handle himself in front of his kids. "I feel bad, I can't take it out on the kids. Kids are born innocent of everything but birth. You can't take it out on your wife either" (324). This shows that he is a respectful guy, and he thinks about others before himself. He also wants to raise his kids right, because he said that his kid is his imprint and he wants them to be successful and happy, not like he turned out to be. The thing is, he had to work so hard in order for his kids to have a chance in the world, you know? He sees potential in his kids, and that is the motive of the working man. Money was tight for Delores Dante, "My husband and I broke up and he left me with debts and three children. My baby was six months. The fast buck, your tips" (329). She worked as a waitress because she had to, not because she wanted to. But she did love the job, she did. She sure knew a lot about her job, but work is never easy. Work is work is work, and it gets stressful and tough at times, but they have to keep pushing because it's a living, and it's the only way to raise children properly and make money for the necessities of the family. These were tough times, that's for sure, and nothing could be taken for granted.

Blog #7

Dennis Hart is a night time cabdriver with a job on the side, and he has a wife and two children. He wanted to be somebody, which I thought was honorable, and we know this when he says, "...I was trying to be somebody. I had these doubts about myself as to whether I had any courage in me at all or was I just gonna be a plant instead of a man" (237). This is why he wanted to serve in the army, or to be a soldier so he could serve a purpose for his country. Still, he was a cabdriver. He definitely knew what he believed in, and he was willing to fight for it, and I found this to be honorable. He believes that communists are not necessarily the enemy, that they are only obeying what they are taught, so it is the concept that is the real enemy. His morals are strong, and he is the kind of person that everyone should try to be; motivated, knowledgable, and he knows his place in the world. Tom Kearney was a patrolman and a detective, then detective sergeant and to traffic division. I like him, because he can see from the other side as well, being a policeman. But when he was asked about riots, and protests, he said, "They have every right to do so, although not to violate the law" (265). He can see why people protest, and he is a genuinely nice guy, but he happened to be a policeman and had to ban that sort of behavior due to his job. He has a good sense of right and wrong, naturally, and believes that people are intelligent enough to handle themselves. I agree with him on this, but I think people have the potential of being intelligent enough, though they do not always live up to it.

Blog #6

Peter Ota was Japanese, but he was also an American citizen. On December 7, 1941, which was the day that the bomb was dropped on Pearl Harbor, his entire family was put into county jail. None of them had done anything, they were just celebrating a wedding, but they were rounded up because of their Japanese descent, and the United States was too scared to risk anything whatsoever. His mother was horribly ill and ended up dying in the sanitarium. They were then sent to a concentration camp in Colorado, and Peter was sent out on jobs. He was drafted into the army while his family was suffering in a concentration camp. Peter heard other soldiers calling him names like "dirty Jap" and was discouraged from his Japanese culture, and he then had to prove that he was American. If he admitted to his past, he would have to admit that he was victimized by America, and that it was his fault.He described that as something him and his family had to hide. He also talks about the differences between today and back then, because he didn't fight back. The truth is, he couldn't fight back, because things were different back then, and that is something he cannot explain to someone who hadn't live through it. Betty Basye had a different story, she wanted to help the soldiers as soon as she could, so she became a nurse. It was sad when she explained that two of the girls had to leave the nursing program that Betty was in, just because they were Japanese. Shouldn't we have more nurses, just in case? More nurses=more aid to the war, why would we get rid of them? It seems absurd now, but back then it was seen as a threat for Japanese people to be in the U.S helping out our country, because maybe they have some insane plan to sabatoge the United States! Anyways, Betty had lost everything in the war. She lost her boyfriend, she lost her kid brother, she felt she had lost her life. The moral of her story is that being a nurse, or having anything to do with the war was almost impossible to resist, because everybody meant something in the war effort. It holds an image in your brain, though, and in your heart.