Activity 3 Mini Project/Lap 9

I chose the songs, when will we be paid by Playing the staple singers, 1971 and you are a tourist by Death Cab for cutie. When will we be paid by Playing the staple singers is about negro’s giving their blood, sweat and tears and getting nothing in return. It’s about slavery, the unfairness of the nation and the wrongs of the whites. You are a tourist by death cab for cutie is about not letting the doubts in your mind turn your rights into wrongs. About not letting society or the place you live affect you.

            Both songs, when will we be paid by playing the staple singers and you are a tourist by Death cab for cutie are about feeling unwelcome in your home, being treated unfairly and doubted.  They both symbolize feeling unwelcome in the place they’re in and not being proud of where they are living. 

(Picture from the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library, courtesy of the National Archives and Records Administration.)

Migrant family looking for work in the pea fields of California in 1935. A whole family is looking for work, even the kids. They're also living in a tent around their car. Now and days you can still see this, sadly. But not as frequently as you could during the great depression.

(Picture from the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library, courtesy of the National Archives and Records Administration.)

During the great depression many farms were forclosed due to the bad economy. Farmers couldn't afford to keep up with their farms, hire workers or trade. Today, America's farms have the money to keep up with their farms and such. Some farms still become forclosed but not many. Not like during the great depression.

A dust storm in 1934 and 1936 drought and dust storms ravaged the great American plains and added to the New Deal's relief burden.

During the great depression there were many dust storms that added to the destruction in America and also affected the economy, in a bad way. Today, there aren't many dust storms in America and if they do occur they aren't as bad or tragic as they were then.

(Picture from the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library, courtesy of the National Archives and Records Administration.)

This is a photo during the Great Depression, a Christmas dinner in the home of  Earl Pauley near Smithland, Iowa in 1935. The children and man are gathered around a very small table and look to be very hungry, the way they're going at the food. This is a dramatic change from how the world is today, you wouldn't expect and mostly likely wouldn't find a Christmas dinner like this in America.

What is un-american? Is it difficult to define? Who gets to decide what un-american is?

I believe un-American is not following the laws of America. There are laws for the citizens and even visitors/tourists that we have to follow and obey. An American is taught from youth to obey the laws America has made and are forced to follow them by law. To follow the laws of America is an American custom and a necessity of a citizen. Some say it is difficult to define what un-American is and I agree. It is difficult to define what un-American is because different people have many different opinions on what un-American is. But to put it simply, being non-American is not being American.  Americans get to decide what un-American is, since they're American. They get to decide what's un-American is because they have the right to have freedom of speech, so they have the right to say what's un-American and what not. Freedom of speech is a law, which American’s follow and obey.