History @ MindSay 
war
Madame Tussauds opened a new branch in Berlin this month to be welcomed by an abrupt protest. The second man to enter the wax museum allegedly tore the head off of an Adolf Hitler figurine on its opening day. German police arrested the 41-year-old man after two employees at the museum unsuccessfully tried to prevent him from jumping over a table that was in front of the wax figurine.
Within a matter of seconds, the man had tore off the head of the controversial figure. The man claimed that he was protesting against the display, but he has been arrested and is now facing "investigation on suspicion of causing damage to property and bodily harm," said a police spokesman.
The Hitler figure has been removed from the new museum, however it won't be decided until Monday what to do about the display. Though its presence causes a controversy and much criticism, Hitler's role in German history will not be forgotten. The museum aimed to portray the former German leader in a way that would not glorify him, going through such extremes as not allowing visitors to "touch, photograph, or pose with" it, however it is clear that including this display in the museum was upsetting to some.
Would it upset you to see a lifelike sculpture of a notorious leader or would you just consider it a part of history? Was this a poor mistake made by the museum or did the visitor go too far with his actions? Where do we draw the line between the truth and what people prefer to hear?
"the following EM (enlisted men) will be volunteers at the Pine Hill (NJ) Independence Day festivities. Report promptly at 0800 hrs to Mrs. Lindstrom (i think that was her name) at the parade marshaling area in Pine Hill. Uniform required is dress khakis..."
that memo waas signed by the battery commander and posted on the company bull. board. There were 6 names. mine was the first.
This meant that I, who was serving my country as a reluctant missleman for 3 years, was going to mark my country's Independence Day by donating my holiday off to marching in a parade to honor... you know where that's going. Keywords in that memo are, "will be volunteers."
For the record, the ladies of the Pine Hill, New Jersey patriotic committee were so nice and gracious and kind to us that the day was more fun than our captain ever intended for us to have. I visited there often after that until the Army decided I should learn to speak German. That was 1967, btw.
So Happy 4th, 2008 to anyone so bored that they are on their computers instead of out on the deck burning burgers. And as I did at that Pine Hill parade long ago, I'll muse a bit on our Independence.
We rebelled against a government of "taxation without representation." (That line is from my 4th grade history book.)
Now we have taxation with representation... There's a little food for thought while those burgers fry. Oh, and hold the tomatoes, please. At a safe (long) distance.
Constantino sees Philippine History as the struggle of the Filipino People against the Forces of Colonialism. In the drama of Philippine History, there are three principal characters: the colonialist foreigner, the collaborator, and the one who resisted domination and fought. The Catholic Religion is seen as a tool employed by the foreigner to conquer the Filipinos. It was only seen in a much more positive light when it contributed to the goal of freedom from colonialism. Thus, the histories of the various religious revolts and uprisings following the arrival of the Spaniards in 1565 are given prominence in COnstantino's narrative.
Zaide, on the other hand, is sympathetic to the goals of the Church. He sees the Philippines as a special nation because of the arrival of the Christian faith upon its shores. As stduents, we often are made to be proud of the fact that we are 'the only Christian nation' in Asia. This idea is propagated not only in the private religious schools but in the supposedly secular public schools as well. Zaide states that because of this special attribute of our nation, we carry a special task: that of spreading the light of Christianity into our nonChristian neighbors. The differences in these points of view is made much clearer with their treatment of the event in Philippine History known as the 'First Mass".
Given Zaide's view, the question of the exact place where the mass was held holds much importance. When we consider Constantino however, the question of the first mass does not bear any significance at all, for even if the mass was held in Limasawa or in Mazaua, the fact still remains that Christianity was a tool used by the colonialists to convert and conquer the Filipinos. Thus, we see here the importance of considering points of view when discussing the History of the Filipino People. Following after Constantino's theme, the importance of an individual and or a group varies with their relation to the question of whether they contributed to Filipino nationalism or not.
Thus, within the scale of this theme, Andres Bonifacio sits on a higher pedestal than Jose Rizal, in the same way that the revolutionists take a much higher stage than those who compromised or collaborated. It is in this scale then that we could judge the actions of those under Agunaldo's command and Aguinaldo himself. We subject them to the scrutiny of whether they contributed to the freedom of the Filipino People against Colonial domination or not.
"England and France said they would fight Hitler if he took land form Poland. Hitler did not believe them. Besides Hitler now had a new friend. Hitler's new friend was the dictator Stalin. Hitler and Stalin said that they were friends and would help eachother. In September, 1939, Hitler made war on Poland."
That is an actual excerpt from my history homeowork. Obviously, this was written for 4th or 5th graders. I'm in 11th. Hitler had a new friend? Come on now. They talk about WWII like it was a game on the playground, & Hitler was the mean bully. Yeah, they actually say "The agreement at Munich is called appeasement. (Appeasement means to give a bully something because he says he will hurt you.)"
He probably didn't read through & realize that this is not meant for our grade level. All he does is give out worksheets & show videos, that's it. He sucks at teaching, and his personality is not too great either. A typical day of his class: review of yesterday's nothingness, 1 page of notes, video clips, handouts, more video clips, then a long boring video. Everyday.
"pathetically lacking in force or effectiveness"-2nd definition of Lame.
In our next installment of Things You Never Knew You Never Knew, I would like to teach you all a bit about Memorial Day. In honor of tomorrow being, well, Memorial Day.
I have to dedicate this one to my good friend Tom, who asked me to investigate this very thing.
So I learned that Memorial Day is a very old tradition, stretching back to May 5, 1868, after the end of the US Civil War. It was suggested and granted that a day be set aside to honor all of the fallen soldiers of that war. It wasn't until the end of World War I that the meaning was changed to honor soldiers from all American wars.
Orignially, the rememberance was called Decoration Day, as it was tradition to decorate the graves of the fallen soldiers. It was also originally observed on May 30, supposedly because on that day it was likely that flowers would be in bloom all over the country. It was not until 1971 that an act of Congress established it as an official national holiday, moved it to the last Monday in May, and renamed it Memorial Day; though many still refer to it as Decoration Day.
There are several traditions used to observe, including placing flowers on graves and flying flags at half-mast. It is in conjunction with this holiday that the song "Taps" has become known. The poppy flower has become "the flower of rememberance" as a result of the poem, "In Flanders Fields" and both are now well associated with Memorial Day.
After all of the reading I have done, it seems to me the most important thing to remember is that remembering is the most important thing we can do. There are thousands of men and women who have died in service to our country and that is what we honor on this holiday.
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