Blood Stains

In letters, "Bleeding Kansas": A Southern View, by Axalla John Hoole, a man is writing to his family about life in the Midwest for a southerner. Reading his reaction to the events unfolding is actually comforting though. To think of slavery expanding into the Midwest, with territories such as Kansas, is nerve racking. Sadly though, this rational is quintessential of a typical American today. This type of manifest destiny still seems to exist in our present culture. The idea behind expanding and forcing our American beliefs on any people we encounter, and to have law of all lands abide by what we believe as opposed to what works. It's sad to know that any type of conflict the original westerners encountered ended up with violent conflict. The need to fight and kill something seemed to dictate their actions more so than their need to have their values. Its almost as if I'm reading about three year old boys fighting over who gets to own a shiny new toy. I just can't understand where all of this anger and rage stemmed from. I do not understand why there was like some kind of innate capacity for death of others in such a way that seems inhumane. The more I read about our nations history, the more enraged I seem to become. The problem is even after honestly trying to reason and rationalize the decisions that were made, I am still completely confused. I can't seem to wrap my head around this concept of, if someone opposes what you are trying to do with your life, that person should just die. It doesn't seem like any of these settlers even bothered with diplomatically working out their differences. This is exactly the type of behavior that seems to stick to all Americans when being perceived by other nations, and it's ridiculous that I am personally be judged by a standard that was apparent over one hundred years ago.

My Private Fight for Freedom

Always living in Spanish, by Marjorie Agosin is a story about the author holding on to her culture through difficulties in life. Trying to hold on to where I come from has been very difficult for me as well. From moving three times in a year to not having a roof over my head sometimes, Holding on to a part of my past is one of the most difficult things I have dealt with. Of course, the author talks more of tradition and values. The experience that is shared between her and me, is one of fighting to keep the past alive. The past for the author is her upbringing in Chile. The past for me is finding my freedom in writing. Each of our pasts have value to us. But from an outsider's point of view, poor English is more easily made fun of, than the constant feeling of incompleteness I felt from not being imprisoned by my circumstances.

Though the hardships experienced by the author are worse than anything I have ever had to deal with, my family and I moved multiple times due to hardships as well. The idea that I assumed my parents had, when finally deciding to move, was one of seeking a better situation. I have to confess. I do assume everyone in the entire world holds this very same optimistic idea. The idea of trying to find a better situation for myself became so strong for me once, that I had moved out of my parents house before graduation high school.And just as the author wrote, "that other America that looked with suspicion at those who did not speak English," I had experience many people's questioning about why I chose to mover out of my house. Of course, I could understand the simple curiosity at my predicament, the neighbors accusations of my parents' house being a "shit hole" still bothers me.I felt guilt I could not deal with my family like my peers dealt with theirs. I felt out of place that at one point I was living with another family from a different ethnicity. I felt lost in my situation. I felt as though I was learning how to live out in the real world without any kind of real guidance. I can understand how it must have felt for Agosin when she wrote, "not even the sky has the same constellations."

I think that as humans, we try to cope with our situations the best we can. Oddly enough, the author and I share one way of coping with hard times, writing. And though the author used writing as a tool to keep her language and culture alive, I used it to keep my sanity. While staying at a stranger's house for a year, I had found that writing could be a release (of everything that was inside my soul.) Writing had become my Christ. I had gone to writing not because I enjoyed reading, but because no one I knew would read and question my thoughts. It was almost as if text was an entirely separate language from what my peers spoke. I could access any part of my mind and freely work it into a storm of words. Although like all things, this freedom has faded from my life. But I have recently started to write again. And those old feelings of freedom are starting to come back. 

-Yes I know this is a repost. But this is the revised version.

Enjoy.

The Road to Rebellion

An amazing amount of work can be accomplished over a seven year time period. When it comes to the American colonies in the years 1763 to 1776, amazing is not even come close to the description of rebellious progress that was made in those years. From the outright rebellion of British imposed taxes, the start of the American Revolutionary War, to the signing of the Declaration of Independence, the colonies moved faster than a "shot heard 'round the world."

When the English had finished fighting the French and Indian War, England had a tremendous debt. The way that the British parliament decided to take care of this debt was to impose many taxes on the subjects of the British Empire. At the time, a large amount of the colonist considered themselves to be a part of the British Empire despite the differences in opinions. One of these different opinions was the idea that England had the
authority to tax the colonies. Though there were many "loyalist" in the colonies, the opposition to British taxes in the colonies was extremely prominent in the New England colonies. One reason for this opposition came from Benjamin Franklin. When Franklin proposed to parliament, that if parliament is to levy taxes on the colonies, then there should be colonial representation in parliament, only one parliament member agreed with Franklin. This opposition is apparent in a multitude of rebellious acts by the colonist to the crown.
Many of these rebellions were led by Samuel Adams. One type of rebellion that sticks in most people's minds is the Boston Tea Party. This statement of rebellion was one way that rebel leader Samuel Adams gained support from the colonist. The Boston Tea Party was a reaction to the Tea Act, which was only one of many tax acts imposed by British parliament.

This type of rebellion, of course, put the English on the edge of their seats. The British had decided that they needed to end this type of outcry coming out of the colonies. Looking at the colonies almost as children who needed to be punished, Parliament had sent over British troops in order to immediately stop this type of behavior. This type of action by the British could only rally up the colonist even more at this point though. After The Boston Massacre, relations between the British and Colonist were far beyond on edge. From the second the Paul Revere called out "The British are coming!" it would only be logical to think of every colonist in the New England Colonies preparing to defend their freedoms that they felt entitled to. The battles at Lexington and Concord were only the beginning in a very long war, it was in my eyes a much more explosive moment in history than any length of war could ever be. Arguments in the New England Colonist eyes for this, was the idea that the British had directly imposed on their personal freedoms as British citizens, and were more than willing to fight to the death in order to gain that freedom back with or without English rule. Many legislatures in the Second Continental Congress felt the same way about the cause of "New England's war." Congress created the continental army, turning this into a war for all the colonies.

Though the Rebellion of taxes imposed on the colonies could be reason enough to spark an all out revolution through war, no rebellion was greater than that of the Declaration of Independence. Many things have been said about the Declaration of Independence. The numerous firework displays on July Fourth say plenty enough for me. The reasoning for this act of outright legal rebellion was because of the war, as well as Common Sense written by Thomas Paine. Thomas Pain had written a pamphlet that had caused two major effects on the colonies. The first being giving a large portion of the colonist, including congress members, the reasoning it took to look at themselves as people who needed to be free of England. The second effect was that it inspired all the colonies to join in the fight for freedom from England.

In closing, there are many events that took place in the American colonies, in only a matter of seven years. Rebellion, revolution, and declaration of freedom from an oppressor. Though these events have taken place over 200 years ago, the effects of these key events in history have effected every single human being ever to have breathed this earths air since.