Essay in History: Three Events that Forever Changed History of Modern America Forever
Essay in History: Three Events that Forever Changed History of Modern America Forever
Introduction
Indeed, the history of pitfalls and triumphs of public concerns for Americans over the last few decades, and centuries, have highlighted all kinds of social problems, and economic achievements to arise. Many believe that the United States experienced a ‘golden era,’ during which nothing but hope seemed to lie ahead. We all know that the world has changed. Assuming the task of being interviewed by a large national corporate representative, this essay takes the form of answering the following question: What three days, important events or major achievements, forever changed the history of modern America? Those three herein the discourse include: (a) slavery and the antebellum period of the Civil War conflict, (b) the terror attacks in New York City on September 11th, 2001, and (c) social media. Hopefully, this reflection will posit cogent food for thought in considering these things.
There is perhaps no greater, or divisive controversy, in matters of American history than the events concerning slavery and the Civil War. While it is true that many would argue for the Southern states cause of Confederacy, or take a stand on pro-slavery or against, yet the situation was complex. Shedenhelm (2015) explains the cause of the Civil War, from the political view of basic five Southern states, as their desire to retain “the institution of chattel slavery” (p. 51). Those key states were comprised of Mississippi, Alabama, South Carolina, Georgia, and Texas – although Florida and Louisiana were in the mix. The Southern slave-holding states’ perspective embraced the philosophy that Black people were less than human, and that their condition of servitude was justified because they had ‘rights’ to possess property. This factor, while it presents a politicized rant, introduces a disturbing assumption at the historical core of the country’s evolution that had a huge potential to forever create a mindset of hatred against darker-skinned peoples.
In terms of setting precedence for a turning point, of a long-term trend in modern America, some of the aftermath can be seen in unapologetic police brutality against Black boys, men, and even women. Deep in their hearts, Southern plantation owners knew that their slaves were fully human, but to admit this would abolish the free-labor system they had come to depend upon an enriched economic foundation. If the South lost its rights to slave-holding, it would undermine the entire economy of the region. Bitter words, and socio-political quarrels led President Abraham Lincoln to make a hard decision to go to war. One Texas declaration, documented by Shedenhelm (2015) recounted a vow stating that “the African race had no agency,” and that they were “rightfully held,” being regarded as inferior (p. 52). If you really think about it, and try and put color aside, they merely tried to find a federal policy which would be constitutional, to protect them from becoming destitute once free cotton-picking was abolished and the Union was one.
Several Southern states sought to secede from the Union. Obviously, then the Civil War broke out, demonstrating the ill sentiment between the U.S. Constitution and the Southern Constitution. The particular brand of American slavery bore a heinous, nasty cruelty unlike the kind of slavery rendered in the ancient world of the Roman Empire, for example. One historical source notes that the trans-Atlantic slave voyages to the Americas ran from “approximately 1526 to 1867,” involving nearly 13 million Africans involuntarily shipped from their native lands (“Facts about the slave trade”). The passage was dangerous, holding people like naked sardines, to sleep, eat, and defecate in their own excrement. One long-term fallout is that resentment, prejudices, and unjust laws and policies held the former slaves down, even after it ended.
On the economic side, much of the South is still lagging in commercial growth. However, common knowledge shows an influx of auto manufacturers established assembly plants in the South – such as Ford, Kia, Honda, and Toyota. This brought a positive change. Black and whites have been able to get jobs at these enterprises. Despite the negative outcome of the Dred Scott decision, who sued for his freedom in 1847, when Judge Taney (staunch supporter of slavery) denied the man, today there are interracial families in the South. It is true that slavery in the United States really put Black people in a downward economic spiral as a group, blacks and whites have a shared history in building this country. Many will always consider it ‘one nation under God.’ Furthermore, excellent primary sources have been included in Part 2, the Slide Show, depicting Army participants both black and white.
Almost every American can remember where he or she was, when the televised news of the events of September 11th, 2001 occurred. This important event did so much, to not only change America, but changed the entire world. The attacks on the World Trade Center had a devastating effect, emotionally and psychologically, on most every American. Historically, in modern society, it had seemed that the United States – deemed the most powerful, and richest nation on Earth – could not be touched by such a level of collective deaths. The event opened up an international discussion about why the United States had not been loved by all the world, and that some of its foreign policies were hurting other people’s lives.
The events, commonly known nowadays as 9/11, brought about both negative and positive permanent changes to modern America. An article in Crain’s Chicago Business depicts the true story of one man’s experience who survived the 9/11 attacks, and his recounting of the ordeal. Kapos (2014) writes of Keating Crown, an executive at the Aon Financial Services Group, had been standing nearby elevators on the 78th floor, exclaiming “There were more than 200 people on that floor and I was one of 12 to survive” (“Years After 9/11”). Drudging up painful memories for Kapos (2014), Crown was only 23-years-old at the time and remembers after being hospitalized and hearing his families’ voices for the first time, he broke down and cried. As a result, Keating Crown became an avid supporter for the 9/11 Memorial, in the form of sitting as a board member although he returned to live in Chicago. However, according to the same report, Crown admits that in the back of his mind he always quickly checks for the exit signs wherever he goes.
The aftermath of the 9/11 attacks brought about myriad changes in modern American history. Security, in terms of both infrastructure and military, were brought to bear. Others screamed of conspiracy, but none of the arguments could bring back the dead or calm the nerves of being mentally or emotionally disturbed by the entire set of events. A plethora of thoughts rose from the ashes of 9/11 including opinions on Arabs and Muslims, the morality of sustaining the Iraqi War, airlines security protocol, and American political policy as it affects foreign nations.
Many lessons were learned from 9/11. In one journal article, North et al. (2013) conducted a research study looking at how in “the second year after the attacks, 85 employees of five highly affected agencies” participated in focus groups in a discussion pertaining to mental health issues (p. 101). Apparently, as North et al. (2013) note, the attacks in New York City on 9/11 on United States soil was “unparalleled by any other terrorist attacks in American history both in scope and magnitude” (p. 102). Their commentary peruses the factors that huge numbers of ordinary workers were suffering feelings of intense fear, and distress as a result. Also, their data findings showed psychiatric symptomology which gave reasons why the workplaces should have supportive services to help employees manage. In other words, people at the center of the attacks who survived, were very traumatized by the disaster and companies used the focus-group study to learn more. Of course, 9/11 events discussions were not only on the lips of academics and scholars. It was as if the whole country had awakened out of a kind of slumber, realizing we were not a lonely ‘island’ not affecting – nor being affected – by our neighbors in the world.
One reporter nicely sums up four key elements of formidable, lasting change that 9/11 brought to bear. Green (2015) lists the four main impacts in forever-change from 9/11 as: (1) ongoing wars in the Iraq-Afghanistan region, (2) severe immigration awareness, (3) flying the ‘un’-friendly skies of the airlines, and (4) a “mushrooming surveillance state” (“How 9/11 Changed”). The spots of warring in Afghanistan and Iraq intensified a budget-jump to over $43 billion-dollars of Homeland Security spending, argues Green (2015) from the same source. Also, everyone knows that due to the box-cutters threat of an individual people now have to undress their feet at all American airports. Seven years thereafter, 2008 witnessed a global economic recession sparked by the American mortgage crash and crisis. This indeed solidified the factor of our common worldwide economy. Additionally, a crackdown with more surveillance has caused even more controversy, but many Americans have become increasingly sympathetic to civilian foreigners who have suffered the plight of war and death in their countries. In other words, a keen awareness has been brought about that we are all on this Earth together. Two primary source materials, of photo journals, are presented in Part 2.
Social Media
It is not a single event which gave birth to social media. Yet we all may agree that its evolution spawned from American ingenuity, in computer science and the invention of ubiquitous Internet connectivity. Generally, social media began its important climax with the popularity of MySpace and Facebook. One source reminds, that LinkedIn – although for professionals – is also a form of social media, giving a forum to them delivering a way to “network with each other” (“History of Social Media,” 2015). It would be hard-pressed to argue the importance of social media as a long-term trend, which is here to stay. The context of electronic communications has changed nearly every aspect in the world, in the way we do business, play, and interact with one another. The emergence of Facebook and Twitter, in 2005, burgeoned into Tumblr, YouTube and widespread forms of digital exchange.
Of course, there is the good, the bad, and the ugly. Salubrious effects of social media bring good fortune and outcomes, yet bad ones – such as the infamous Craigslist killer – can result in murder. Nevertheless, Leonardi, Huysman, and Steinfield (2013) point out that social media has an unequivocal positive place within organizations as internal tools “for communication among employees,” and as such there is a great need to understand how to implement better developments in fruitful activities (p. 1). In other words, the concern is to explore how social media communication in the workplace drives workplace messaging and transmission, as a platform they argue – rather than a mere “channel” as a function (Leonardi et al. 2013, p. 2). Social media technology in business and organizations has become a very big deal. With one bad rumor, a company’s reputation can be destroyed. But on the positive side, praises about an enterprise going viral has the potential to boost profits and reputation to the heights.
Social media is everywhere. In terms of economy, it has allowed American enterprises to communicate across oceans and more easily hire global competitors for jobs. For many Americans, this is bad news. Yet, the trend has welcomed many foreign nationals into job situations or contract work otherwise difficult to attain, except by way of expensive and time-consuming travel. Obviously, without social media and the Internet, this kind of move would be impractical and counterproductive. Jamali (2015) in a book review of Jose van Dijck’s “The Culture of Connectivity: A Critical History of Social Media” is explained the opening scene of the story how each family member is using social media to do different things, like play games, learning, or other goals (p. 173). Jamali (2015) makes the observation that social media has a main characteristic of supposedly demonstrating ‘transparency’ on the Web, but questions whether this is true because you cannot be perfectly sure of the identity of other users. If you really think about it, this can be a huge problem and calls for caution when using social media.
The matter of privacy has important implications, therefore, when it comes to social media usage. You cannot always trust the words you read, either that they are true, or that the source is what you believe it to be. As evidence, for example, one may be posting a comment on a YouTube video podcast only to receive a rude, or crazy sounding response. At that point you really cannot be assured whether the person posting is trolling, and just looking for trouble, or if they represent a more sinister background. Who can tell? And this is the problem. However, social media has contributed beyond tools in enterprise, or the problems associated with fakery and deception. There are problems and issues with social media as a conduit for human relationships. One hundred years ago, or even fifty years ago, people met and dated face-to-face and developed relationships in the normal way.
Today, social media has had an enormous impact in terms of shifting relationships. Let us be honest. Anyone can go onto a social media dating site, and ‘hook-up’ electronically with virtually anyone. Exchanges of messages, and even intimate or nude photographs can quickly or casually be shared. The real tragedy some believe, is that social media has allowed a kind of shift in relationships, which is to say a cognitive shift in terms of psychology. Chayka (2015) addresses these aspects of this issue, suggesting that it is very weird that ‘relationships’ can occur in cyberspace (p. 8). The discussion posited is quite interesting, and provocatively perceptive. The author continues to express that we need to get a clue, as a society, and realize that online friendships are not much different than ones in the ‘real-life’ physical world of face-to-face interactions.
References
Chayka, K. (2015). Let’s Really Be Friends. New Republic, 246(2/3), 8.
ComputerWeekly.com. (2016, January 4). Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg sets person AI challenge for 2016. Retrieved from http://www.computerweekly.com/news/4500269760/Facebook-CEO-Mark-Zuckerberg-sets-personal-AI-challenge-for-2016
The Gilderman Lehrman Institute of American History. (2016). Facts about the slave trade and slavery [Data file]. Retrieved from http://www.gilderlehrman.org/history-by-era/slavery-and-anti-slavery/resources/facts-about-slave-trade-and-slavery
Green, M. (2015, September 10). How 9/11 changed America: Four major lasting impacts. KQED News. Retrieved from http://ww2.kqed.org/lowdown/2014/09/10/13-years-later-four-major-lasting-impacts-of-911/
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Jamali, R. (2015). The Culture of Connectivity: A Critical History of Social Media. Media International Australia (8/1/07-Current), (155), 173-174.
Kapos, S. (2014). Years after 9/11, he still checks for the exit signs. Crain’s Chicago Business, 37(40), 0006.
Leonardi, P.M., Huysman, M., & Steinfield, C. (2013). Enterprise Social Media: Definition, History, and Prospects for the Study of Social Technologies in Organizations. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 19(1), 1-19. doi:10.1111/jcc4.12029
National Archives. (2016). Engineers of the 8th N.Y. State Militia, 1861. No. III-B-499. Cropped from Select List #5. [Data file]. Retrieved from http://www.archives.gov/research/military/civil-war/photos/
National Archives. (2016). The 26th U.S. Colored Volunteer Infantry on parade, Camp William Penn, Pa., 1865. 165-C-692. National Archives Identifier: 533126 [Data file]. Retrieved from http://www.archives.gov/research/military/civil-war/photos/images/civil-war-006.jpg
North, C.S., Pfefferbaum, B., Hong, B.A., Gordon, M.R., Kim, Y., Lind, L., & Pollio, D.E. (2013). Workplace response of companies exposed to the 9/11 World Trade Center attack: a focus-group study. Disasters, 37(1), 101-118. doi:10.1111/j.1467- 7717.2012.01295.x
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Shedenhelm, R. (2015). The Cause of the Civil War According to Confederate Leaders. Objective Standard: A Journal of Culture & Politics, 10(3), 51-56.
National Archives. (2016). Engineers of the 8th N.Y. State Militia, 1861. No. III-B-499. Cropped from Select List #5. [Data file]. Retrieved from http://www.archives.gov/research/military/civil-war/photos/
National Archives. (2016). The 26th U.S. Colored Volunteer Infantry on parade, Camp William Penn, Pa., 1865. 165-C-692. National Archives Identifier: 533126 [Data file]. Retrieved from http://www.archives.gov/research/military/civil-war/photos/images/civil-war-006.jpg
