The US through the 19th Century
Stage One: In Search of American Roots
09/16/00: A night on the Navajo Reservation
Ten minutes to sundown. The sky glowed golden in the west and purple in the east; shadows blanketed the valley. With the exception of the occasional goat ambling along the dusty, unpaved road, the only life for miles around appeared to be me, Daphne, and Blue Bertha...
09/20/00: Think Dinosaurs are scary? Try Greenhouse Gasses
The US is responsible for about one-fifth of the total greenhouse gasses! Driving cars, heating homes and businesses, and creating electricity is responsible for about 80% of the emissions of carbon dioxide, about 25% for methane, and about 20% of global nitrous oxide emissions in the US.
09/23/00: Running Strong for a Brighter Future
Running Strong for American Indian Youth is an organization that develops programs to help young Native Americans get the assistance they need and feel positive about their heritage.
10/04/00: Hero? Villain? The team gets MAD about Columbus
Was Christopher Columbus such a man? What heroic deeds did he perform? Why do we celebrate a day in his honor?
10/07/00: The indentured servant trade: still rearing its ugly head
The ancient idea of "selling" your time and labor to pay for something, like passage to America, is still thriving today. Eventually, colonial indentured servants "bought" their freedom, but many sweatshop workers today toil for years with no end in sight to provide goods for the wealthy.
10/11/00: Reparations: Payback for slavery
The article discusses the idea to repay African Americans for lost time and wages during slavery. The idea is compared to the reparations currently being made to Japanese-Americans and Jewish people, A museum in Washington DC, similar in scope to the Holocaust Museum is proposed as a secondary idea.
10/14/00: Murder most foul and an innocent Indian
Two FBI agents allegedly searching for a young Indian accused of stealing a pair of used cowboy boots spotted several men enter a red pick-up truck. They followed the truck briefly. The occupants of the truck pulled over. Shots were fired though no one knows who fired first
10/18/00: Sometimes the wrong side of the law is the right place to be
It can be if you are forced to follow an unjust law. This is called civil disobedience and it has been practiced for centuries all over the world. It means peacefully refusing to follow a law if your conscience does not agree.
Stage Two: The Birth of the United States
10/21/00:30,000 shot dead each year - what YOU can do!
These statistics only get worse when we look at children and youth. The U.S. has the highest rate of overall gun death, gun suicide, gun homicide and unintentional gun deaths for children under 15 years of age, as compared to the rate for 25 other industrialized countries combined.
10/25/00: Government By and For the Wealthy: What You Can Do
This article is about how the principals of democracy were founded by the white and wealthy and how money continues to dictate who runs the government based on campaign contributions.
10/28/00:The (not so) Wild, Wild West
Make a difference by protecting our natural resources and ecosystems by supporting the Wild Forests Protection Plan. The government should not be able to build pipelines and destroy the fragile landscape in the process.
11/08/00: English only? No, nyet, nein!
The majority of U.S. Americans speak English. This fact is the basis of a political movement that seeks to amend the Constitution and declare English the official language of the United States. Read to learn how government control of language damages the rights of minority citizens. 11/11/00: Explores the role of poverty in our society and the impact it has on our children.
There are more than 12 million U.S. children living in poverty, while other Americans ride the wave of a huge economic boom. We can afford to make a difference in their lives. Will we?
11/15/00: Homeless shouldn't mean hopeless.
Since the 19th century, the American Reform Movement has made enormous improvement to the general welfare of society. However, one severe problem that still remains is the nation's homeless. The options for shelter and agencies for assistance are often under-equipped to handle the problem.
11/18/00: Depression, anxiety and irritability: the lowdown on being too thin
As the Women's Movement continues it finds ever disturbing the societal images being placed on women today. Bulimia and anorexia ravage women's bodies as they try to look like the ideal. The results can be depression, shame, guilt, body dissatisfaction, and stress.
11/22/00: Cigarette smoking is: a) dangerous, b) lethal, c) smelly, or d) all of the above?
Put a little cyanide in that cigarette: Arsenic, cyanide, and 4,000 more chemicals are just a few of the reasons why you shouldn't smoke. Here's how to find information about the dangers of smoking -- and how you or your friends can quit.
12/02/00:America's shame: A death penalty that includes teens
Examines the status of the death penalty in America in the year 2000. Suggests ways for students to call for an end to the death penalty.
12/09/00:Police brutality: When the law is NOT on your side
Eight years after the horrifying scenes of the Rodney King beating that rocked the nation, police brutality continues on and goes mainly unchecked.
12/13/00:When our wars destroy our children
Our children are the victims of our conflicts. They suffer because we go to war. Not only do children become soldiers and die in battle but they are used throughout the war industry in a variety of dangerous labors.
1/03/01:Love might make the world go 'round,
...but hate groups continue to grow in number and power. It becomes increasingly important to take a grassroots approach to eliminating the intolerance and ignorance that fuels hate groups in the United States
1/10/01:Immigration's Top Myths
As we enter the new millennium, immigration, the backbone of America's growth and source of its power, is still a controversial issue. It seems a bit ironic that a nation built on the efforts of immigrants from the past would have problems with a continuing influx of fresh strength, but such is the case.