Thursday, July 2, 2020

Thursday 7th grade Writing Class Homework DUE: July 9, 2020

HOMEWORK:
1) Work on your "Closets" essay and make it perfect
Fill in the checklist

2) Go back over your essays that were don before the "Closet" essay and get rid of banned words and contractions Make it better - do not simply exchange a banned word for a synonym - make the essay better.

3) Write a FANTASTIC, ORGANIZED, and INTERESTING  one paragraph essay about Betsy Ross. 



Here is some great source information on Betsy Ross. Watch and read it. Organize it a way that makes sense to you and create a GREAT one paragraph essay about Betsy Ross.


REQUIREMENTS:

all dress ups
all openers
1 M3

Include your checklist at the bottom of your essay
NO banned words
NO contractions
No dialogue 
You may use the quote that I have changed to red font (near the bottom of this post). Be sure to attribute the quote to the right person. :-)





Betsy sewed the flag, but who designed it?

In an affidavit made public in 1870, Betsy Ross's daughter, Rachel Fletcher, testified :
"[The committee] showed her [Betsy Ross] a drawing roughly executed, of the flag as it was proposed to be made by the committee, and that she saw in it some defects in its proportions and the arrangement and shape of the stars. That she said it was square and a flag should be one third longer than its width, that the stars were scattered promiscuously over the field, and she said they should be either in lines or in some adopted form as a circle, or a star, and that the stars were six-pointed in the drawing, and she said they should be five pointed."




Why would Betsy Ross be chosen to make the flag?

It was usual in that day for upholsterers to be flagmakers. As Betsy Ross prayed in the pew next to George Washington and had already sewn buttons for him, and she was a niece of George Ross, it is not exceptional that these members of the Flag Committee formed by the Continental Congress would call upon Betsy Ross to make the flag.

Why are the stars in a circle?

The stars were in a circle so that no one colony would be viewed above another. It is reported that George Washington said, "Let the 13 stars in a circle stand as a new constellation in the heavens."

What do the red, white, and blue of the flag represent?

The Continental Congress left no record to show why it chose the colors. However, in 1782, the Congress of the Confederation chose these same colors for the Great Seal of the United States and listed their meaning as follows:
  • Red: Valor and hardiness,
  • White: Purity and innocence
  • Blue: Vigilance, perseverance, and justice.

The Birth of Old Glory
Percy Moran, 1917
LOC id: cph.3g02791

Betsy would often tell her children, grandchildren, relatives, and friends of a fateful day, late in May of 1776, when three members of a secret committee from the Continental Congress came to call upon her. Those representatives, George Washington, Robert Morris, and George Ross, asked her to sew the first flag. George Washington was then the head of the Continental Army. Robert Morris, an owner of vast amounts of land, was perhaps the wealthiest citizen in the Colonies. Colonel George Ross was a respected Philadelphian and also the uncle of her late husband, John Ross.
Naturally, Betsy Ross already knew George Ross as she had married his nephew. Betsy was also acquainted with the great General Washington. Not only did they both worship at Christ Church in Philadelphia, but Betsy's pew was next to George and Martha Washington's pew. Her daughter recalled, "That she was previously well acquainted with Washington, and that he had often been in her house in friendly visits, as well as on business. That she had embroidered ruffles for his shirt bosoms and cuffs, and that it was partly owing to his friendship for her that she was chosen to make the flag." <------YOU MAY QUOTE THAT IF YOU WANT.
In June 1776, brave Betsy was a widow struggling to run her own upholstery business. Upholsterers in colonial America not only worked on furniture but did all manner of sewing work, which for some included making flags. According to Betsy, General Washington showed her a rough design of the flag that included a six-pointed star. Betsy, a standout with the scissors, demonstrated how to cut a five-pointed star in a single snip. 

Betsy Ross -- Extra Facts 

  • Betsy Ross was born January 1, 1752 and died at the age of 84 on January 30, 1836.
  • Betsy had 7 children, 5 of whom lived to adulthood. 
  • At the age of 21, she eloped across the Delaware River to Gloucester, New Jersey, and was married there. 
  • She was widowed three times during her life.
  • She was the 8th of 17 children. Large families were not unusual in the 1700s.
  • She did tailoring for George Washington.
  • She has been buried in three different locations: Free Quaker burial ground at South 5th St. near Locust, Mt. Moriah Cemetery, and now on Arch Street in the courtyard adjacent to the Betsy Ross House.
  • A major Philadelphia bridge is named in her honor.

Tuesday, June 16, 2020

History of the Greek Alphabet

In a nutshell, trade with the Phoenicians led to the Greek Alphabet.  

While the history of the Ancient Greek civilization dominates our textbooks, novels, and movies – there were civilizations that predated the Ancient Greeks that had an impact on how the Ancient Greek culture formed. 


Among these prior civilizations were:


the Minoans  (3000/2600BC to 1100BC)

the Mycenaeans (1600 BC to 1100 BC) 

the Dorians (1100BC to 1000BC)  

Note: some sources say Dorians ruled for 400 years.  

(1100BC to 700BC)  This period of time in ancient Greek history is called the Greek Dark Ages.

more info: https://greece.mrdonn.org/dorians.html  and  https://www.historyforkids.net/the-dorians.html


The Minoans first rose to prominence on Crete but were taken over by the Mycenaeans who ruled for centuries in the area, and were then pushed out by the Dorians.


A combination of factors including the Dorian invasion made the Mycenaeans migrate out of the Greek mainland. This major migration gave way to the development what we know as Ancient Greece. However the settlers who established their roots in Greece and built Athens and other Ancient Greek points, were influenced by the ideas and culture of prior civilizations. One of these items passed down through the civilizations was the Greek alphabet.

The Mycenaeans and the Phoenicians

The Mycenaeans were known for their war-like demeanor, which expanded their empire through brute conquests of surrounding settlements. Additionally, they were known for their business prowess. The Mycenaeans were strong traders and set up commerce systems with traders to the east of Greece, specifically the areas that are now Syria and Egypt. Along with products, knowledge was shared between the settlements.
The Phoenicians were one of the peoples with whom the Mycenaeans traded. The Phoenician empire was headquartered in the city of Tyre, which at the time was located on what was the coast of Syria. Today it is called Lebanon. The Phoenicians shared a language and notation system with the Mycenaeans. This has evolved into the Greek alphabet.

The Phoenician Alphabet

The fall of the Mycenaeans began around 1200 BC and by 1100 BC most of the Mycenaeans had migrated out of Greece. During this time of transition, a new language system was slowly implemented. 
Around 750 BC, the Greeks started to adopt the language system from the Phoenicians. This alphabet was different from what the Minoans used, which was referred to as Linear Script A, and from what the Mycenaeans used which was Linear Script B.
The Ancient Greek language did draw on the Mycenaean Linear B, but the notation system used to record Ancient Greek was derived from the Phoenician alphabet. While some letters and word forms varied from region to region, the Phoenician system became the dominant alphabet throughout the Mediterranean. The Greek alphabet was a successor to the Phoenician system, most notably with a change in certain letter values to represent vowels. Greek however was not the only written system derived from the Phoenician alphabet. Latin and Cyrillic also have roots attached to the Phoenician Greek alphabet.

Saturday, February 3, 2018

John Fitzgerald Kennedy's Inaugural Speech


JFK's Inaugural Speech was delivered on January 20, 1961

Vice President Johnson, Mr. Speaker, Mr. Chief Justice, President Eisenhower, Vice President Nixon, President Truman, reverend clergy, fellow citizens:

We observe today not a victory of party, but a celebration of freedom -- symbolizing an end, as well as a beginning -- signifying renewal, as well as change. For I have sworn before you and Almighty God the same solemn oath our forebears prescribed nearly a century and three-quarters ago.

The world is very different now. For man holds in his mortal hands the power to abolish all forms of human poverty and all forms of human life. And yet the same revolutionary beliefs for which our forebears fought are still at issue around the globe -- the belief that the rights of man come not from the generosity of the state, but from the hand of God.

We dare not forget today that we are the heirs of that first revolution. Let the word go forth from this time and place, to friend and foe alike, that the torch has been passed to a new generation of Americans -- born in this century, tempered by war, disciplined by a hard and bitter peace, proud of our ancient heritage, and unwilling to witness or permit the slow undoing of those human rights to which this nation has always been committed, and to which we are committed today at home and around the world.

Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, to assure the survival and the success of liberty.
This much we pledge -- and more.

To those old allies whose cultural and spiritual origins we share, we pledge the loyalty of faithful friends. United there is little we cannot do in a host of cooperative ventures. Divided there is little we can do -- for we dare not meet a powerful challenge at odds and split asunder.

To those new states whom we welcome to the ranks of the free, we pledge our word that one form of colonial control shall not have passed away merely to be replaced by a far more iron tyranny. We shall not always expect to find them supporting our view. But we shall always hope to find them strongly supporting their own freedom -- and to remember that, in the past, those who foolishly sought power by riding the back of the tiger ended up inside.

To those people in the huts and villages of half the globe struggling to break the bonds of mass misery, we pledge our best efforts to help them help themselves, for whatever period is required -- not because the Communists may be doing it, not because we seek their votes, but because it is right. If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich.

To our sister republics south of our border, we offer a special pledge: to convert our good words into good deeds, in a new alliance for progress, to assist free men and free governments in casting off the chains of poverty. But this peaceful revolution of hope cannot become the prey of hostile powers. Let all our neighbors know that we shall join with them to oppose aggression or subversion anywhere in the Americas. And let every other power know that this hemisphere intends to remain the master of its own house.

To that world assembly of sovereign states, the United Nations, our last best hope in an age where the instruments of war have far outpaced the instruments of peace, we renew our pledge of support -- to prevent it from becoming merely a forum for invective, to strengthen its shield of the new and the weak, and to enlarge the area in which its writ may run.

Finally, to those nations who would make themselves our adversary, we offer not a pledge but a request: that both sides begin anew the quest for peace, before the dark powers of destruction unleashed by science engulf all humanity in planned or accidental self-destruction.

We dare not tempt them with weakness. For only when our arms are sufficient beyond doubt can we be certain beyond doubt that they will never be employed.
But neither can two great and powerful groups of nations take comfort from our present course -- both sides overburdened by the cost of modern weapons, both rightly alarmed by the steady spread of the deadly atom, yet both racing to alter that uncertain balance of terror that stays the hand of mankind's final war.

Who Wrote JFK's Inaugural? Does it matter? By Mike Vuolo

Who Wrote JFK's Inaugural? 
Does it matter?  

by Mike Vuolo
In my childhood imagination, John F. Kennedy slotted somewhere below DiMaggio and above De Niro in a loose ranking of latter-day American deities. When I was just a toddler, the late president left a lasting impression on me, literally, after I pulled a terracotta reproduction of Robert Berks' iconic sculpture—weighing considerably less, thankfully, than the 3,000-pound original—down from a sideboard and onto my head. On my bedroom wall hung two plaques, one a list of "coincidences"—many trivial, some factually incorrect—between the political careers and assassinations of Kennedy and Abraham Lincoln. The other, also arguably incorrect, was a portrait of Kennedy embossed on black metal, staring out above his famous entreaty in all caps:
ASK NOT WHAT YOUR COUNTRY CAN DO FOR YOU,
ASK WHAT YOU CAN DO FOR YOUR COUNTRY.
It's no secret that presidents often speak words they themselves did not write. When George Washington delivered the very first inaugural address, on Apr. 30, 1789, he was reading from a reworked draft composed by his friend and frequent ghostwriter James Madison. In 1861, with the country on the brink of civil war, Lincoln pitched his address to a restive South and planned to end on the crudely formed question, "Shall it be peace or sword?" That is, until his soon-to-be Secretary of State William Seward suggested a less combative, more poetic conjuring of "mystic chords" and "the 
better angel guardian angel of the nation," which Lincoln then uncrossed and altered to "the better angels of our nature." Small matter, perhaps. We don't require that our politicians be great writers, after all, only effective communicators, and they in turn sometimes benefit from a misattribution in perpetuity of someone else's eloquence.
In Kennedy's case, the gift of rhetoric was owed largely to his longtime counsel and legislative aide, Ted Sorensen, who later became his principal speechwriter after the two developed a simpatico understanding of oratory. In his 1965 biography Kennedy, Sorensen wrote:
As the years went on, and I came to know what he thought on each subject as well as how he wished to say it, our style and standard became increasingly one. When the volume of both his speaking and my duties increased in the years before 1960, we tried repeatedly but unsuccessfully to find other wordsmiths who could write for him in the style to which he was accustomed. The style of those whom we tried may have been very good. It may have been superior. But it was not his.
Kennedy believed his inaugural address should "set a tone for the era about to begin," an era in which he imagined foreign policy and global issues—not least the specter of nuclear annihilation—would be his chief concern. But while Sorensen may have been the only person who could reliably give voice to Kennedy's ideas, the coming speech was too historic to entrust to merely one man. On Dec. 23, 1960, less than a month before Kennedy would stand on the East Portico of the Capitol to take the oath of office, Sorensen sent a block telegram to 10 men, soliciting "specific themes" and "language to articulate these themes whether it takes one page or ten pages."
Although Sorensen was without question the chief architect of Kennedy’s inaugural, the final draft contained contributions or borrowings from, among others, the Old Testament, the New Testament, Lincoln, Kennedy rival and two-time Democratic presidential nominee Adlai Stevenson, Harvard economist John Kenneth Galbraith, historian Arthur Schlesinger Jr., and, we believe, Kennedy himself.
But an unequivocal puzzling out of exactly who wrote what is, with some exceptions, impossible. Late in his life, Sorensen, who died in 2010, admitted to destroying his own hand-written first draft of the speech at the request of Jacqueline Kennedy, who was deeply protective of her husband's legacy. When pressed further, Sorensen was famously coy. If asked whether he wrote the speech's most enduring line, for example, he would answer simply, "Ask not." During an interview with Richard Tofel, author of Sounding the Trumpet: The Making of John F. Kennedy's Inaugural Address, Sorensen seemed to suggest that preservation of the myth was more essential than any single truth about the man:
I recognize that I have some obligation to history, but all these years I have tried to make clear that President Kennedy was the principal author of all his speeches and articles. If I say otherwise, that diminishes him, and I don't want to diminish him.
If Jacqueline Kennedy and Ted Sorensen were willing to tear up what may have been the only categorical proof of Sorensen's primary authorship, President Kennedy—in an incident that can only be described as out-and-out deception—was willing to lie. On Jan. 16 and 17, 1961, at the Kennedy vacation compound in Palm Beach, Fla., Sorensen and JFK polished a near-final draft of the inaugural address and even typed it up on carbon paper. Later on the 17th, the two flew back to Washington aboard Kennedy's private plane, the Caroline, with Timecorrespondent Hugh Sidey, whose reporting on the president veered between the credulous and the hagiographic.
At some point during the flight, Kennedy began scribbling on a yellow legal pad in front of Sidey, as if working out just then his thoughts about the speech. What Kennedy in fact wrote was some of the precise language that had already been committed to typescript. During an interview with historian Thurston Clarke, author of Ask Not: The Inauguration of John F. Kennedy and the Speech that Changed America, Sidey recalled thinking, "My God! It's three days before the inauguration, and he hasn't progressed beyond a first draft?"
Not only had Kennedy progressed well beyond that, but he and Sorensen had nailed down what we know to be the penultimate version. Even worse, Kennedy later copied out by hand six or seven more pages—directly, one assumes, from the typewritten copy—and dated it "Jan 17, 1961." After JFK's assassination, the pages were displayed in what would become his presidential library and identified as an early draft.
There are a total of 51 sentences in the only text of the inaugural that now matters to the world, the speech as read on Jan. 20, 1961, though it can't be said, without at least some conjecture, that Kennedy was the principal author of any one of them. I asked Tofel, who is now president of ProPublica, what it means that Kennedy may have been a mere messenger of what many Americans consider to be one of the most pivotal speeches of the 20th century, second only to Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream":
Kennedy lives on in our history not because of, frankly, enormous accomplishment—he died, at the most generous, before he could accomplish a great deal—but because of his ability to articulate, I think, our most profound values and highest aspirations much better than anyone has before or since. And that is his. It is not Sorensen's. It is not Galbraith's. It is not Schlesinger's. We are talking about him at great length here 50 years after his death, and I believe we are doing that because of the power of words. And in that sense they are his words.
Should Sorensen's original draft or other lost fragments ever materialize, whatever they might say is surely no match for the shrine that history has erected and the symbolism that hung on the walls of my childhood bedroom. And in that sense, those words belong to me.
∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞
SOURCE: http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/history/2013/11/john_f_kennedy_s_inaugural_address_who_wrote_jfk_s_speech.html

Inaugural Speech:
https://helpfulhistorynotebook.blogspot.com/2018/02/john-fitzgerald-kennedys-inaugural.html

Quizlet (Speech's literary devices): https://quizlet.com/115913932/jfk-inagural-address-flash-cards/

Help with Language and Composition: http://alsaplanguageclass.blogspot.com/2014/09/jfk-questions.html

Rhetorical Analysis of the Speech - various essays:
https://www.bartleby.com/essay/Jfk-Inaugural-Speech-Rhetorical-Analysis-PKRVRPCVJ

By Max Atkinson  Rhetoric expert
Author of: Lend Me Your Ears: All You Need to Know about Public Speaking and Presentation and Speech-making and Presentation Made Easy
Analysis and observations:   http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-12215248

6 Secrets to the Success of this Speech:
  • 1. Contrasts
  • 2. Three-part lists
  • 3. Contrasts combined with lists
  • 4. Alliteration
  • 5. Bold imagery
  • 6. Audience analysis

Tuesday, February 23, 2016

How Judges and Justices Are Chosen


Legendary Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes once said that a Supreme Court Justice should be a "combination of Justinian, Jesus Christ, and John Marshall."
Why are venerable former justices sources of guidance in understanding necessary qualities for federal judges?
The Constitution is silent on judicial qualifications. It meticulously outlines qualifications for the House of Representatives, the Senate, and the presidency, but it does not give any advice for judicial appointments other than stating that justices should exhibit "good behavior." As a result, selections are governed primarily by tradition.

The Nomination Process

The Constitution provides broad parameters for the judicial nomination process. It gives the responsibility for nominating federal judges and justices to the president. It also requires nominations to be confirmed by the Senate. First, look at the numbers.
More than 600 judges sit on district courts, almost 200 judges sit on courts of appeals, and 9 justices make up the Supreme Court. Because all federal judges have life terms, no single president will make all of these appointments.
But many vacancies do occur during a president's term of office. Appointing judges, then, could be a full-time job. A president relies on many sources to recommend appropriate nominees for judicial posts.
Recommendations often come from the Department of Justice, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, members of Congress, sitting judges and justices, and the American Bar Association. Some judicial hopefuls even nominate themselves.
A special, very powerful tradition for recommending district judges is called senatorial courtesy. According to this practice, the senators from the state in which the vacancy occurs actually make the decision. A senator of the same political party as the President sends a nomination to the president, who almost always follows the recommendation. To ignore it would be a great affront to the senator, as well as an invitation for conflict between the president and the Senate.

Selection Criteria

Justice Clarence Thomas
Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas was nominated to fill the position vacated by Thurgood Marshall. He served on the U.S. Court of Appeals before his nomination to the Supreme Court by George Bush.
Presidents must consider many factors in making their choices for federal judgeships:

  • Experience — Most nominees have had substantial judicial or governmental experience, either on the state or federal level. Many have law degrees or some other form of higher education.
  • Political ideology — Presidents usually appoint judges who seem to have a similar political ideology to their own. In other words, a president with a liberal ideology will usually appoint liberals to the courts. Likewise, conservative presidents tend to appoint conservatives.
  • Party and personal loyalties — A remarkably high percentage of a resident's appointees belong to the president's political party. Although political favoritism is less common today than it was a few decades ago, presidents still appoint friends and loyal supporters to federal judgeships.
  • Ethnicity and gender — Until relatively recently, almost all federal judges were white males. Today, however, ethnicity and gender are important criteria for appointing judges. In 1967, Lyndon Johnson appointed the first African American Supreme Court justice, Thurgood Marshall. In 1981, Ronald Reagan appointed the first woman to the Supreme Court, Sandra Day O'Connor. All recent presidents have appointed African Americans, Latinos, members of other ethnic minority groups, and women to district courts and courts of appeal.
Because federal judges and Supreme Court justices serve for life, a president's nomination decisions are in many ways his or her most important legacy. Many of these appointments will serve long after a president's term of office ends. Whether or not the results are a "combination of Justinian, Jesus Christ, and John Marshall," these choices can have an impact on generations to come.

SOURCE: http://www.ushistory.org/gov/