Sunday, August 26, 2012

Blog #35 - Musings about history and peace


 


  
Pick one of these quotes and tell me what you think the speaker means by it and what he/she is saying about history/peace specifically.  Please make sure you don't restate the quote.  Explore its meaning, especially for today's world.  

Mankind must put an end to war, or war will put an end to mankind...War will exist until that distant day when the conscientious objector enjoys the same reputation and prestige that the warrior does today.
John F. Kennedy

No man is good enough to govern another man without that other's consent.
Abraham Lincoln

Finishing second in the Olympics gets you silver. Finishing second in politics gets you oblivion.
Richard Nixon

People ask the difference between a leader and a [political] boss. . . . The leader works in the open, and the boss in covert. The leader leads, and the boss drives.
Teddy Roosevelt

Liberty has never come from the government. Liberty has always come from the subjects of it. The history of liberty is a history of resistance. Woodrow Wilson
 
No democracy can long survive which does not accept as fundamental to its very existence the recognition of the rights of minorities. Franklin Roosevelt

The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much; it is whether we provide enough for those who have too little.
Franklin Roosevelt

200 words minimum.  Due Monday, September 10 before class begins.  

24 comments:

Anonymous said...

Jason C.
For my quote I chose John F. Kennedy
What Kennedy is trying to say that if we keep fighting we will kill everybody because war will never end until someone throws in the towel. He’s saying that war keeps going forever unless one side is completely destroyed and that people need to understand that. I also think that he’s saying that the people that send out people to war that they don’t get what it’s like they just say send these people out to go fight their problems. Their getting other people involved in what they’re doing they should go out and fight their own problems so they will know what it’s like and then they won’t want to send all these people out to die know the feeling of never know if you’re going to make it out alive. Peace is the best chose we can do no one get hurt we can just talk everything out and no one has to go out and die or get injured. Also when you fight you can get innocent people involved in the fight like 9/11 and all those people died and they didn’t have anything to do with the fight, even when they were fighting over something silly.

Anonymous said...

This quote is saying that if we don’t put an end to war then war will put an end the man kind because if it never ends then soldiers will die every day and sooner or later we will run out of soldiers, and have to recruit normal people who never signed up to be in the war in the first place and have to risk their life with no way in it at all. Then the Countries will have a reputation for fighting and we can never change the reputation that you get. If we keep fighting then the states and the Unions of the world will have even more reason to fight and the wars will just keep getting bigger and bigger until everyone in the world is fighting and there is no peace or happiness what so ever. Also war will always be around there is no way to prevent war from being her it would only happen in a perfect world which we don’t live in, so until that day comes that this world will be prefect then we will still have war and people will still die fighting for our country.

John F. Kennedy

Jessica W.

Anonymous said...

I choose to talk about the quote by John F. Kennedy. In the quote he says that if mankind doesn’t end war that war will end mankind. He is saying that if mankind doesn’t find another way to solve our problems than with something other than war that we will destroy ourselves. He also says that the contentious objector must have the same respect that the warrior does. I think what he means by that is that we must respect peoples decisions to not want to fight along with the people who do want to fight. So he is basically saying that if we want to be able to end all of the violence and all of the wars that we must be able to respect and support people that object war as much as we respect and support people that are willing to give up their lives for their country. I think that this quote helped people to realize that if we want to be able to stop all of the war and the violence that we need to respect all peoples decisions about if they are willing to fight in wars or if they are not willing to fight in wars.

Max W. 4th hour

Anonymous said...

Mankind must put an end to war, or war will put an end to mankind...War will exist until that distant day when the conscientious objector enjoys the same reputation and prestige that the warrior does today.
John F. Kennedy

In my opinion, this quote relates to any time in our history including today. People from all over the world need to work together to bring peace. Everyone says it, but nobody really does anything about it. Of course, it would be hard to end war everywhere in the world, and John F. Kennedy knows that. It’s human nature to fight for the things that you want, or think that you need. But eventually, if it is not ended, just as John F. Kennedy said: “war will put an end to mankind”, in more ways than one. Physically, soldiers will continue to die, which will damage families emotionally. Looking at it from a governmental point of view, money is lost and countries go into debt. More soldiers are needed to go in and end the war, which only continues the terrible cycle. Today our military personal are some of the best people we have in our country and are widely respected, as they should be. But when the day comes that war has ended for good, Kennedy says that the conscientious objector, or the person that facilitates the end of war, will have that same respect. People will look up to them, as they do to our military today. As we all can hope, that day will come soon.

Demery G.

Anonymous said...

Franklin Roosevel

When I read the quote, the first thing I thought of is helping the people that have little money not a lot of money. Some people already have too much so why help them and not the people that have little? It doesn’t make sense to me. I think what Franklin Roosevel is trying to say that everyone should be equal, a lot of people have too much and some people have nothing so he is just going to try to help the people that have nothing to get something. It’s not right to give people that already have everything they want. He’s going to try and give everyone what they deserve and he’s going to make everyone catch up on each other and he is not going to make anyone feel left out in any way. I really like this quote, I really think that he did the right thing, everyone should be equal, nobody is better than others and that we always need to respect people. This quote is also about giving, not only taking. I like how he isn’t selfish and he actually wants to help the people with the program. So yeah, he’s basically telling us to help people that have little not too much. 

-Dina Kadadi
4th hour

Anonymous said...

I think Abraham Lincoln describes democracy and its importance in this simple yet significant quote. The dictionary definition of democracy is a form of government in which the supreme power is vested in the people and exercised directly by them or by their elected agents under a free electoral system. To me democracy means a society well known by equality of people and their rights. Abraham Lincoln portrays that everyone is equal enough to rule or participate in decisions of the country. I believe that because of the meaning of this quote, we today vote and elect representatives to stand up for our personal beliefs. I feel that most countries in war or countries that are not on peaceful terms generally aren’t run in a democracy type of government. The reason America is its own country and it isn’t run by Great Britain is because of the implication of Abraham Lincoln’s quote. Americans were tired of being bossed around by the greedy and covetous leaders of Great Britain. This also applies to countries, like France, Italy or Russia, who have had either monarchies or dictators, but have eventually overcome them. Some of the reasons for the rebellions were people were being ruled without their input and opinion mattering and because no man should have had more power than another.

Lexi K. 4th hour

Anonymous said...

Zacharias E.
4th hour
I chose to talk about the quote from Abraham Lincoln. What Abraham Lincoln means by his quote is that no one not even hime or any other president would be able to take care of all 50 states. We would need to gather up other men who would take charge of all the 50 stats. And if Abraham was able to take care of all the states he would not be able to maintain the peace in each and every state. The reason why is because different cites would need different types of things. Some might need more water,some might need less electrice, and some might need more food. Now in todays life each the united state has it own governor to take care of there own problems. This way the president wouldn't have to be able to work as hard and dose't have to worry about each and every state. Because of this we are able to keep peace as a country.We would have more riots, more rallies, more shooting, and not have a peace at mind.

Anonymous said...

This quote is saying that nobody can create peace with each other; people try to resolve it with hatred, and killing each other. Since no one will talk it out, they decide to start wars by killing each other. Killing each other won’t solve anything. “Mankind must put an end to war, or war will put an end to mankind...” This quote is saying that people need to end all of the wars and hatred to each other or else more and more people will die. John F. Kennedy didn’t to keep wars going on. He is also saying that since a lot of soldiers are dying, they were drafting people who didn’t want to serve themselves in the war. Kennedy is saying that war will never end until the people will create peace with each other or try to compromise things with each other instead of killing everyone. I feel that war would end when soldiers decide they are tired of all of the hatred between everyone and decide to end the feud so innocent people or soldiers won’t die everyday. If soldiers won’t end the war, the war will continue to destroy mankind.

Jaime E.

John F. Kennedy

Anonymous said...

Jordan B.
No man is good enough to govern another man without that other's consent.
Abraham Lincoln


To me these quote means that no other and is able or prompted to take controller or tell another people what to do with out there say so or there ok and giving their right to do and say so. And how that would applied to modern life is that there is no slavery or no compete controllers of their lives and well being and say that u can`t do that because it just like slavery. So pretty much Abraham Lincoln is saying that it’s not human or un-American to make a controlling to a person live and everything they do. The way that would apply to today be no blackmailing no controlling of any kind to another human bean. But doing nothing to another to human bean.

Anonymous said...

Nixon is saying that we need to get first when we are competing or we will be left behind and forgotten. And if we are forgotten then we would never try to achieve first and what we did to try to get first would be a waste of time in which we could have been doing something that would not be forgotten. Also if you get second you could stop doing that competition or you could try again and try for first, but if you fail and get second then you will be forgotten again and for longer then if you hadn’t competed for the second time. For a politician it is worse if you don’t make first because then you wasted most of your life to get second place and it is harder to get back up to be able to get first when or if you try again. This still means you wasted a few years, in which you could have done something that would have gotten remembered for something else that may or may not have been better than what you could have done in that post. But most people would stop trying for the post or they would try again.
Nico R. 4hour

Anonymous said...
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Anonymous said...

Jacob C.
4th Hour
Franklin Roosevelt Quote

Throughout the course of history there has always been those people who are rich or have a lot of money and power and there has always been the ones who are poor or have no money. I think in Franklin Roosevelt’s quote he is trying to tell us that the world progresses not by making the powerful more powerful, but by making everybody more equal. Basically he is trying to say that we will not progress in life unless we help those in need first. We cannot just keep adding more wealth to the wealthy. We can’t simply progress in life unless we help the needy so that they may help us to grow and progress. For example, if I was to give a person with lots of money even more money then it wouldn’t make a difference. If I gave someone in need the money then they can move forward in life so we can all move forward in life. If you help others get out of the hole they have dug themselves into then good things will come. You will have given them the ability to succeed and do good so that we may all prosper further.

Anonymous said...

Bella A
4th hour
franklin Roosevelt

What Franklin Roosevelt is saying is that they are not giving to those who have. They do not want to add more, or give more to the people that do have, it would not make sense to do that. If they gave more to the ones that do have it would be giving them more then they actually need. What they want to do is give to those that don’t have. It is the progress of giving and reaching out to them, to help them. They are helping them progress, by supplying them to get things they need. Franklin Roosevelt wants to make sure that the less fortunate people are not struggling. He wants to make people feel equal, not one person is better than another; everyone has the same amount so no one feels left out in any way. He wants to make sure that the ones that don’t have, don’t have to little and then ones that do have don’t have too much. If everyone has an equal amount then there will no more problems, because no one will be higher then another person and every person will feel the same. Thats what i believe Franklin was saying.

Anonymous said...

I chose to talk about John F. Kennedy’s quote about mankind putting an end to war, or war will put an end to mankind. I personally think that this means that either people will be smart enough to stop fighting and realize that it isn’t the way to solve their problems or the war will destroy everyone physically and emotionally. I think that this is also trying to let people know that there are other ways to solve problems without fighting all the time. John F. Kennedy is also saying that until we figure out how this works we will destroy ourselves. The second part of the quote talking about war will exist until the distant day when the conscientious objector enjoys the same reputation and prestige that the warrior does today means that the conscientious objector don’t really get to see what goes on during the war because their observing. They don’t fight which means they don’t understand what the warriors feel. In example the warriors could see that there is no point in killing people because they are actually the ones killing but the ones observing don’t really care because they aren’t in the people that are fighting shoes.
-Johne' Dogan 4th hour

Anonymous said...

In the quote from John F. Kennedy, he is saying that if we don’t end war then war will end mankind. We need to find peace in our world and stop fighting. We need to put away all of our differences and become one world. Fighting will get us nowhere but killing each other for no reason. Fighting does not solve any problems. Many innocent people are killed because of these wars and our world cannot afford to lose so many people. We do have differences but we just need to forget about them because we have more similarities than differences. If we have world peace then no one will get killed or be scared of getting killed because the war is going on near them. Many people live in fear of one day getting shot and killed because of war and if we get rid of that, those people won’t have to worry. I feel like when we fight, there isn’t a “legit” reason to fight. I feel that we have no other ways to solve our problems so we go to war because we feel that is the easiest way to get out. It isn’t. We need to learn to solve our problems in rational ways. That is what I think that John F. Kennedy is saying.

Elise S.

Anonymous said...

I think the quote by Abraham Lincoln shows how people have the right to choose who should govern them. It shows how important democracy is in the world we have today. I think he is reflecting back on history when there were dictators who controlled everyone. People did not get a say in who should dictate them and also did not get a say in the choices these dictators made as well. This was not a fair form of government and did not benefit all parts of society. Dictators are often seen as selfish and greedy people who only looked out for themselves. Under Great Britain's rule, Americans were outraged about how they were treated by the King. This led to acts of violence and eventually our independence from Great Britain. In today’s world we have elections where citizens can fairly vote on presidents. I think this is a fair way to elect officials and representatives. Without these elections, there would be no sense of peace in our world. I think he is saying that a good man will never force ruling on others and that a president should keep in mind the opinions of the people he is governing. No man should be able to hold too much power over anyone.

Laura G. 4th hour

Ronald G. said...

Franklin Roosevelt is saying that the government will not be successful if the rich continue to benefit while the poor have to struggle and still receive less than those who have more than them already. FDR served as president following the Great Depression, so I think that the quote also reflects the socioeconomic status of the average American. The only people who weren’t in dire financial straits were the incredibly wealthy, who were able to survive the stock market crash in 1929. This situation is somewhat similar to our current situation where we are rebounding from the “Great Recession” of 2008. Roosevelt’s quote is similar to the philosophy of the Occupy Wall Street movement in that both think that if the nation is going to prosper, it needs to be from top to bottom—not just the “1 percent.” They believe income inequality between the wealthiest 1 percent of Americans and the rest of the population is too great. According to the Quarterly Journal of Economics, the wealthiest 1 percent of Americans controlled 23.5 percent of the overall capital in 2007, just before the recession. Likewise, the wealthiest 1 percent commanded 23.9 percent of the capital in the U.S. just before the Great Depression in 1928.

Unknown said...

Franklin Roosevelt is saying that the government will not be successful if the rich continue to benefit while the poor have to struggle and still receive less than those who have more than them already. FDR served as president following the Great Depression, so I think that the quote also reflects the socioeconomic status of the average American. The only people who weren’t in dire financial straits were the incredibly wealthy, who were able to survive the stock market crash in 1929. This situation is somewhat similar to our current situation where we are rebounding from the “Great Recession” of 2008. Roosevelt’s quote is similar to the philosophy of the Occupy Wall Street movement in that both think that if the nation is going to prosper, it needs to be from top to bottom—not just the “1 percent.” They believe income inequality between the wealthiest 1 percent of Americans and the rest of the population is too great. According to the Quarterly Journal of Economics, the wealthiest 1 percent of Americans controlled 23.5 percent of the overall capital in 2007, just before the recession. Likewise, the wealthiest 1 percent commanded 23.9 percent of the capital in the U.S. just before the Great Depression in 1928.

Ronald G.
4th Hour

Anonymous said...

I chose to write about Franklin Roosevelt’s quote. He talks about our progress as a whole. Roosevelt explains in this quote that for us to progress and achieve we all have to be equal and work together. We must stop supplying the people who have what they need with more, help the people who actually need to be helped. We can only achieve when everyone is achieving. Provide those in need so we all can have equal opportunities and can be successful. If we are equal we can succeed as a whole, not just individually, but together. With the upcoming election I heard a lot on the news about cutting taxes for the middle class. I think this would help make things more equal across the board. This is not a way of cutting off the rich people but a way of helping the poor be given with what they need to be successful. This quote is very simple but also very meaningful. We as humans can be very selfish sometimes. This quote tries reminding us to lend a hand to those in need instead of just worrying about ourselves. There is always someone out there who is in need of help.

Bella H. 4th Hour

Anonymous said...

For my qoute i chose Richard Nixon, and what I think this quote means is that if you come in second then you now getting what you want, and what you want to achieve and that is to be the first and the one thing you want to do is be first and succeed. This is also saying that you can’t be the one who is always in second to someone else and you’re going to have that one day where you just beat that person or any person for that matter and then once you know the feeling of winning then you wouldn’t want to lose to that person again or anybody for that matter. To some people they don’t like to lose because they have felt that one victory before and don’t want to just be that person who everyone is not talking about, and not in the good way like you think everyone is you think that there saying they are saying it in the mean way and saying he didn’t win that other person did and that would just make you feel bad to hear someone talk about you and not congratulate and to me is what I think this quote means.
Davion Curry 4th Hour

Anonymous said...

I chose the final quote from Franklin Delano Roosevelt. This quote is especially relevant today, with the controversy over the re distribution of wealth, and with occupy Wall Street, and with the modern economic crisis. Roosevelt was living at a time where there was an economic depression, like the one we are in now but much, much worse. He is saying that if the government is going to properly fix the economy, then their concerns must not lie with people who have enough money, but with the people who are struggling financially and don’t have enough resources. In a recession, the government should concentrate its energy on caring for those hit the hardest. Franklin Roosevelt illustrated this when he set up the entire system of welfare in the United States, to protect those who were greatly struggling due to the depression that ravaged the country. Roosevelt is re iterating how important it is for a government to care for the poor, and why the state needs to set up programs to help people get back on their feet, especially in times of economic recession. In order for an administration to be considered successful, it has to go to great lengths to take care the needy.

Patrick Takata- 4th hour

Nicai Sorrell said...

I believe what Abe Linc was implying about the ‘governing one another’ fiasco is truly no matter how high up you are in the community or even what you’ve done on this world as a being gives you permission nor privilege to tell another what that person must and mustn’t do without their consent. I feel it was rhetorical that this doesn’t apply to parents or guardians because a child will need guidance and that would just be a joke if he didn’t imply that. Also it is a reference towards people whom believe they can control another without any reason what so ever, it’s like a guy on the street telling you to stand more upright and stop breathing so hard; it’s idiotic. However, one thing that I can’t come to terms with is the situation he’s in, he’s the president telling others that one doesn’t have the right to govern another, which completely contradicts his power as presidents and presidents to come. I don’t think it’s that big of a deal at the same time since he, or should, imply the presidency is one of the only positions that allows one to be guided and governed to an extent. Not wanting to be directed under that rule, one could simply leave the country and move to a more fitting enviorment.

triviaquestions said...
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Anonymous said...
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