Blog 12: The Last Post....

First of all I thought I would end saying that you are all rather fantabulous people and it has been a pleasure getting to know all of you throughout this course. Throughout this semester I have learned one thing above all others......my history teachers did not teach me anything in high school. I have had to accept the fact that when Stark or Serrata mentioned some famous figure in history, unless they are a president, I was not going to have any clue who they were talking about. After a full school year of Latin American history though, I feel as if I actually know something. Which is pretty cool. This class helped to alter my previous saying of "I hate history and all things history" to "Ya know, history isn't all that bad." My writing has definitely improved as well. Not only do I feel as if I am a faster reader/note taker, I have also become a speedier writer. This is pretty cool for me because it used to take me ages to put words down on a paper, and I would have very little time to edit. Now I have at least a day or two, and I would have more if I didn't procrastinate. Though I would slap a warning label on it about the amount of reading and writing that is required, overall, I would recommend this sequence to any newcomers.

In Response to Caitlin's Blog 11

I think it is amazing that you found this video so quickly. I think that the fact that this video is still around speaks to how important media can be. Your point concerning how this video served to open up peoples eyes rather than reinforce what the population already knew is a really valid great one.It seems crazy to me that the men who beat and murdered Bill Stewart did not bother with the camera man. I do think agree that the fact that the Somoza dictatorship was partially ended with this video is amazing, but I also think that it is a bit ironic. The video made such an impact because of the actions shown in it brutality and disregard for the law. This obviously shocked the United States, including our president. So it does not make sense to me how we can them turn around and justify the funding of the Contra's to destabilize the Sandinista government. The fact that in just a few years we went from being horrified in the face of Bill Stewart's murder to funding the attack on schools and hospitals is astounding. I wonder what the reaction would have been if the rest of the United States had been aware of what was happening?