pics i liked :)

Religious Tolerance in the US

its great to have a country that tolerates people of all ethnicity, backgrounds and religions. huge numbers of people escaped their countries because of religious prosecution. between 1815 and 1860, millions of Europeans immigrated to the united states to escape religious prosecution in their origin countries. most of them were Germans and Irish. later on, many Jews escaped from Europe and the soviet union looking to protect their beliefs and in some cases their lives too. The US still stands by the principle of religopus tolerance to this day, however, there have been cases where a religous idntity became a problem and a red flag. the most obvious case is after the attacks of 9-11, the war on Afghanistan and Iraq. many Muslim refugees immigrated or seeked asylum in the united states after the destruction caused by the war. they were treated fairly, however, the patriotic act made seems like no muslim has rights in this country. you can be arrested and interrogated for days or maybe longer without suffecint evidence. you become a suspect just because of your religous idntity. the government justfied this of being a state of war on terrorism..etc but even when the war is long ended, few bad example still surfaces every once in a while. this whole stiuation reminds me of the civil rights movements. it ended with the blacks getting their rightsd and segregation supposedly over, nevertheless, we still hear about many cases of racism and discrimination. the recent shooting of the black kid by the white officer while the facts are still unclear to me but it appears as te civil rights movements did not finish the job. there yet many things to improve and many things to do to achieve the perfect sciety in the united states but the people are doing their best in achieving the perfect c

President Carter's Translator :)

it is important for any administration to have a great leader. a leader that can make moving speeches. it also helps if that aforementioned leader hires a capable translator for when he travels abroad. President carter in 1977 went to Poland for some political talks regarding the whole state of the cold war and some other stuff. he did not have a translator so the state department hired a freelancer called Seymour. he was supposed to be fluent in polish. his expertise was to translate WRITTEN polish into English. apparently he wasn't capable of doing the same thing with the spoken language. During Carter's opening speech, Seymour translated the the English sentence said by Carter, "I have come to learn your opinions and understand your desires for the future." into the Polish, "I desire the Poles carnally." wow, that must have made the polish super confused. it didn't stop their, the translator kept on making mistakes, saying that the president would like to touch or grasp the polish people's private parts. he also stated that Carter left the united states and never to return and ended the speech saying the president thinks their constitution is ridiculous. I can't begin to imagine how the people attending this speech must have felt. he likes us waay too much apparently and now he wants to stay but thinks our constitution is ridiculous. the state department fired the translator and hired another one who was fluent in polish but horrible in English. this one feared to repeat Seymour mistakes so he kept his mouth shut during the president's toast. finally a translator from the polish government stepped in and cleared the misunderstandings. 

individual acts of protesting for the Civil rights movement

The civil rights movements was an iconic event that triggered a wide spread demonstration that led for many groups of people to gain their rights. it did not only benefit Blacks but also other minorities that feels that were treated unjustly. during the 1960's, when the civil rights movements occurred, many individuals became famous for taking actions and setting a bright example for others to follow.
Rosa park is the first icon during this movement. she started it all. she was the trigger that started the whole demonstration. kind of like the guy from Tunisia "Bu Azizi" who burned himself in public in 2010 and ignited the Tunisian revolution that took down the corrupt government of Tunisia. Rosa simply refused to give up her seat for a white man . a simple act that took courage and caused many more to refuse to give up their rights.
another example is Mohammed Ali. he threw his Olympic Gold Medal down the Ohio river in protest for the racism against the blacks and because he was refused service by a whit's restaurant because he is black.
Thurgood Marshall is an important character too. he was a lawyer that fought really hard to end segregation. he won the case "  Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka" which ended the segregation in public schools.
finally, the most iconic person is Martin Luther King Jr. nothing needs to be said about him. he became an icon even outside the continent. his famous speech " I have a Dream" inspires many people all around the world to this day.

God Bless You

i read that during the middle ages, when the black plague spread all across Europe, the phrase " god bless you" became a custom thing to say to whoever sneezes. the reason is that sneezing was a symptom of being infected with the plague. therefore anyone that sneezes is presume to be infected and destined to die. this is why people started using " god bless you" for anyone who sneezes because it meant that he or she is dying. this idea stuck for centuries. when I read in the book about the diseases that swept the colonies in America it reminded me of that time in the middle ages, which wasn't that far. Yellow fever, Cholera, Malaria and other epidemic broke all around the colonies. the difference is that in the middle ages, they opted into saying "god bless you" and that was it. there was no hope and no attempts of treatments while in colonial America some people came up with theories to analyze the diseases and to treat them. Physicians thought that miasmas coming from bad vegetation were the cause. they also thought being touched by dirty hands might be the main culprit. many efforts of quarantine took place to no apparent success. they may not have found a solution, but they sure did an awful lot more than their counterparts in the middle ages.