Humanities II

Close read activity of FDR's first Inaugural Address

"Against that backdrop came what Riley calls "a song about a communal experience"--as much about friendship as about love. That "had kind of a magnetic hold on people, and people couldn't get enough of it," he says."

"Students in Ms. Arjunan's class chose stories about Malala Yousafzai's activism to research for a history project."

"Contrary to popular board game lore, Monopoly was invented not by an unemployed man during the Great Depression but in 1903 by a feminist who lived in the Washington, D.C., area and wanted to teach about the evils of monopolization. Her name was Lizzie Magie."

" Progress Has Been Made, But Still a Long "

"Much has changed for African-Americans since the 1963 March on Washington (which, recall, was a march for "Jobs and Freedom"), but one thing hasn't: The unemployment rate among blacks is about double that among whites, as it has been for most of the past six decades."

"A muslim woman who was asked to remove a traditional face covering, or niqab, by a shopping mall guard, has filed a lawsuit claiming discrimination against the guard and the mall's owners. Wakeelah Salaam, of Elizabeth, has filed a lawsuit against Bridgewater Commons mall, its owner, General Growth Properties, its mall security vendor, IPC International Corporation, and Marc Krause, a former mall guard. On May 20, 2012, Salaam was shopping at Bridgewater Commons with her two young children when she claims she was "victimized, harassed, intimidated, insulted and subjected to unlawful discrimination" by Krause, according to the complaint. The guard instructed Salaam to remove her traditional face-covering known as a niqab,"

"The question of humanitarian intervention has to be rethought thoroughly for our time. Today, it is nearly impossible to commit crimes against humanity in secret; efficient communication media will bring them to light immediately. We are more intimately engaged by them and with them than we were in the past. These acts that shock human conscience evoke the question of whether it is our responsibility to intervene, and what might be the moral justifications behind such intervention. "

""The stock phrase employed by western mainstream media that the bomb struck a 'stronghold of the militant Hezbollah group,' to quote the Washington Post, belies the fact that the area is dense and residential, and that the victims were civilians. This is akin to describing the September 11th attacks in Manhattan as striking 'a stronghold of American bankers.' It may be true symbolically, and also by crude motive of the bombers. But who are the victims and why were they targeted? They were civilians, overwhelmingly from the Shia sect, which make up Hezbollah's base of support in Lebanon. Curiously, despite the fact that civilians were indiscriminately targeted, U.S. mainstream media did not refer to the bombing as a 'terrorist attack.'"

"Maps can be a remarkably powerful tool for understanding the world and how it works, but they show only what you ask them to. So when we saw a post sweeping the Web titled "40 maps they didn't teach you in school," one of which happens to be a WorldViews original, I thought we might be able to contribute our own collection. Some of these are pretty nerdy, but I think they're no less fascinating and easily understandable. A majority are original to this blog, with others from a variety of sources."

"Four decades ago, Ho Van Thanh fled the fighting in his native Vietnam, disappearing into the jungle with his infant son, Ho Van Lang. This week, father and son emerged for the first time - an enfeebled Thanh carried in a stretcher, and Lang wearing only a loincloth made of tree bark. According to the Vietnamese newspaper Dan Tri, Ho Van Thanh, now 82, was last seen in 1973 running into the jungle, after his wife and two other children were killed by a bomb or land mine near his home."

"That moment is the subject of Walker's new book, What You Want Is in the Limo: On the Road with Led Zeppelin, Alice Cooper, and the Who in 1973, the Year the Sixties Died and the Modern Rock Star Was Born. In it, he argues for that year as a tipping point, when big tours - and bigger money - became a defining ethos in rock music. He speaks about it here with All Things Considered host Audie Cornish."

"Documerica set out to capture how America viewed the rapidly deteriorating environment marked by issues of pollution and waste taking shape around the country. Founded by Gifford Hampshire, Documerica lasted about six years, hired roughly 70 photographers, and knocked out 115 assignments in all 50 states. Photographers were paid $150 a day plus film and expenses and were given the creative freedom to interpret environmental issues outlined to them from EPA employees. The results-22,000 images-ended up documenting environmental issues and brought another meaning to environment that focused on local neighborhoods, social issues, political changes, and the remarkable fashion trends typical of the 1970s."

Fruitvale Station has found a particular resonance with audiences this week. A brief but eloquent scene deftly illustrates the subtleties of white privilege - a reality too seldom portrayed in film and too often ignored by its beneficiaries in life. When Hollywood tackles race directly, it's usually by way of uplifting allegories like "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner," "Crash" and "The Help," each of which, in its own way, perpetuates the consoling idea that eradicating racism is simply a matter of purging our negative prejudices. Rarely do films ask audiences to grapple with the deeply embedded, race-based habits that give white Americans an edge in everything from housing to employment, or the positive racial profiling that grants white people countless free passes."

"World War II transformed New York City. A new exhibit presented by the New-York Historical Society, "WWII & NYC: Photography and Propaganda," tells that story. Drawn from a vast collection of historical images, including many from U.S. Navy archives, the exhibit shows how the war touched every aspect of life."

"ow, NPR Music is bringing you a 24-hour stream of music inspired by the civil rights era. There are few better ways to immerse yourself in that era than through its sounds. If you flipped on your radio in the '60s, you might have heard Nina Simone's rambunctious - yet incredibly pointed - "Mississippi Goddam" seeping through the stereo."

"The civil rights movement captured the nation's attention in 1963, and musicians proved no exception. The marches, protests and tragedies of 50 years ago influenced some of the greatest artists of the 20th century, including Aretha Franklin, Bob Dylan, Harry Belafonte and Mavis Staples. We've gathered 100 songs for a special NPR Music Radio channel that commemorates this important moment in our nation's history."

""You're hearing all of that right next to each other and that, I think, is what makes it really wonderful," Werner says. "If, on some basic level, the civil rights movement is about freedom, it's about the freedom to be who you are, not fit yourself into a niche. And I think you really feel that in the soundtrack of '63.""

The poet reading "Facing It." It includes a bio of the poet and resources for using it in the classroom.

"73 years ago, President Roosevelt was mulling a third term, and Charles Lindbergh was praising German air strength. A new book looks at the dramatic months leading up to the election of 1940."