The Blog Homework

1) Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to discuss the required post about the USA of now versus 1910 AND to choose ONE of the optional posts labeled A-D.  For the USA post, comment there.  For the posts labeled A-D, comment on the post that you choose.
2) This will be worth 20 points total (10 points each), and will be due by 11:59pm on May 7, 2010 (yes, that's Prom Day!) . . . if your posts are time-stamped anywhere near that time, I will know that:  a) you (like me) are boycotting Prom, b) Prom is NOT going well, and/or c) you are a true history nerd!

Good luck!

Required -- The USA of Today and the USA of 1910

a. How is the USA of now (2010) better than the USA of 1910?  Explain.
b. Provide ONE specific factual statistic to support your answer to (a).
c. Include the proper citation (web address is okay) of the source of your statistic in (a).

d. How is the USA of now (2010) worse than the USA of 1910?  Explain.
e. Provide ONE specific factual statistic to support your answer to (d).
f. Include the proper citation (web address is okay) of the source of your statistic in (d).
g. MAKE SURE YOUR STATISTICS ARE UNIQUE...NO TWO STUDENTS MAY HAVE THE SAME STATS...FIRST IN WINS!  If your comment is not posted by me after 24 hours, go to Plan B, and find another statistic(s)!
h. Most Importantly . . . put your first name on your comment so you get credit!

Option B -- Ronald Reagan

a. Ronald Reagan is considered by some to be one of the greatest USA presidents ever; he is considered by others to have caused great harm to the USA and the Republican Party.  Currently, there is a proposal in Congress to replace US Grant on the $50 bill with Reagan.  Where do you stand...did Ronald Reagan help the USA so much that he deserves to be on the $50 bill, or did he harm the country so irreparably that he does not deserve to be on the $50 bill?  Explain.
b. Provide ONE specific factual statistic to support your answer to (a).
c. Include the proper citation (web address is okay) of the source of your statistic in (a).
d. MAKE SURE YOUR STATISTIC is UNIQUE...NO TWO STUDENTS MAY HAVE THE SAME STAT...FIRST IN WINS!  If your comment is not posted by me after 24 hours, go to Plan B, and find another statistic(s)!
e. Most Importantly . . . put your first name on your comment so you get credit!

Option A -- Bill Clinton

"Forget the Monica Lewinski debacle. She's irrelevant.  Clinton was a disaster for liberals and Democrats because he was a closet Republican and was a major cause of the wealth and income gap that exists today between the rich and middle- and low-income Americans. Voters now identify his economic policies that benefitted investors and the wealthy at the expense of workers . . . ." (Source: http://www.kellysite.net/modrep.html)

a. Was Clinton a closet Republican?  Explain.

b. Provide ONE specific factual statistic to support your answer to (a).
c. Include the proper citation (web address is okay) of the source of your statistic in (a).

d. Explain how your specific factual statistic supports your answer to (a).
e. MAKE SURE YOUR STATISTIC is UNIQUE...NO TWO STUDENTS MAY HAVE THE SAME STAT...FIRST IN WINS!  If your comment is not posted by me after 24 hours, go to Plan B, and find another statistic(s)!
f. Most Importantly . . . put your first name on your comment so you get credit!

Option C -- The Equal Rights Amendment

The Equal Rights Amendment was passed by Congress in 1972 but never ratified by the required 38 states (only 35 states voted for it by the time the deadline for ratification passed in 1982).  It has been reintroduced in the House of Representatives on July 21, 2009.  It said, in its entirety, the following:

Section 1. Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex.

Section 2. The Congress shall have the power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article.

Section 3. This amendment shall take effect two years after the date of ratification. 

a. Do we need an Equal Rights Amendment to the Constitution?  Explain.

b. Provide ONE specific factual statistic to support your answer to (a).
c. Include the proper citation (web address is okay) of the source of your statistic in (a).
d. MAKE SURE YOUR STATISTIC is UNIQUE...NO TWO STUDENTS MAY HAVE THE SAME STAT...FIRST IN WINS!  If your comment is not posted by me after 24 hours, go to Plan B, and find another statistic(s)! 

e. Most Importantly . . . put your first name on your comment so you get credit!    

Option D -- Richard Nixon

Richard Milhous Nixon, as president, did some amazing things...amazingly good and amazingly bad.  Should history be kind to Nixon and elevate him to the level he deserves, or will history be unkind to Nixon and dump him on the ash heap of history where he belongs?  Explain.

b. Provide ONE specific factual statistic to support your answer to (a).

c. Include the proper citation (web address is okay) of the source of your statistic in (a).

d. MAKE SURE YOUR STATISTIC is UNIQUE...NO TWO STUDENTS MAY HAVE THE SAME STAT...FIRST IN WINS!  If your comment is not posted by me after 24 hours, go to Plan B, and find another statistic(s)!

e. Most Importantly . . . put your first name on your comment so you get credit!

The Tet Offensive 1968

1) What was the Tet Offensive?
2) Who won the battle in the end militarily? ...psychologically?
3) What impacts did the Tet Offensive have at home in the USA, especially on the 1968 presidential election?

The MLK, Jr. "Dream" Homework . . . due by Tuesday 4/13/10!

1) View MLK, Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" (scroll down to March 17!)
2) For your 10 point homework assignment, add a comment to this post that does the following:
a. summarize in one sentence what King's message is
b. answer yes or no about whether you feel King's dream has been achieved
c. provide ONE specific factual statistic to support your answer to whether King's dream has been achieved (you might look at data for college admissions, workplace integration, community integration, church integration, school integration, health care by race, political participation by race, education levels by race, poverty by race, etc. -- sources might include the CGHS or D155 School Report Card, factfinder.census.gov, Village of Cary/FRG website, Google Search, etc.)
d. include the proper citation of the source of your statistic
e. explain in one sentence how your statistic supports or opposes the achievement of King's dream
f. MAKE SURE YOUR STATISTIC IS UNIQUE...NO TWO STUDENTS MAY HAVE THE SAME STAT...FIRST IN WINS!  If your comment is not posted by me after 24 hours, go to Plan B, and find another statistic!
g. Most Importantly . . . put your first name on your comment so you get credit!