American Civilizations

Angela Fields

4/8/2016

American Civilization

The issue of the week I am choosing is one of the first ones we discussed in this course:

what was the native perspective? This was from the first chapter in our text referring to the

Native Americans that lived here before European colonization and how they viewed their

arrival as well as how it impacted them. The topic connects many of the classes I have taken at

SLCC, a few of which were my Environmental Science, Yoga, Natural Disasters, English 1010

and courses. During all three courses we were shown another perspective that we may have not

yet taken into heavy consideration.

In American Civilization we saw another side to history, our history, which normally gets

dismissed when referring to the advancements that occurred once settlers reached the America’s

shores. This course put the Natives views into a light that showed the overwhelming and often

negative impacts the European arrivals had to their culture and the land. This correlates to the

new understanding to the impact we have as humans on the Environment, which is discussed in

great detail in both of my Environmental classes as well as in part in my Natural Disaster and

English 1010 courses.

When forming an educated option about something or when discussing options, just as it

is in these 2 large subjects, it is wise to take all aspects and options when making a decision. To

the settlers not knowing that they were inadvertently bringing with them diseases and cultural

habits that were harmful and often deadly to the natives, they consumed themselves with their

own needs and saw the extinction of so many Indian people at times as a sign from God and that

it was their destiny to proceed with settling. If at one point the settlers had taken a moment to

consider the natives perspective and rather than attempting to convert, assimilate, manipulate and

even eliminate them to suit their needs and beliefs but instead lived with them as much as

possible and adapted to their ways of survival that had existed for centuries in those new lands

then maybe our culture would be wholly different today and a lot of the problems we face would

not exist. There may not have been such a total loss of culture and knowledge and on the flip side

to the other classes the like simile of our lack of perspective on Mother Nature, our now loss of

species, fertile soil and lush landscapes that dwindle beyond count in our ignorance.

The settlers were by far the more savage to take what they needed from the new lands

just as humans are to take from this world, rarely looking ahead to the consequences of their

actions. We often make snapshot options about other cultures without fully understanding the

depth that shapes them and their actions. As it is in nature, it’s hard to relate a dust storm in

Africa to be the cause of hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico hundreds of miles away but they do

have heavy impacts on those foreign events. These relationships despite the difficulty we have to

notice them are all around us and the more we take the time to see and understand them the

better the choices we can make. We can miss out on much needed medicines by clear cutting the

rain forest instead of preserving them, just as we almost wholly missed out of centuries of

knowledge by driving the Indians across their ancestral lands to suit our needs carelessly

spreading alien diseases that often resulted in many deaths as well as the displacement of

heritage and the knowledge associated to it.

I learned in this class as well as my English 1010 that to continue the path of ignorance

when we do not fully understanding the vastness of Nature or a people as well as learn from

mistakes we make in the past if repeated or overlooked can have lasting and possible negative

effects. It has been said in the past and as I quoted in one of the papers I did for my English class

about Martin Luther King Jr.’s Letter from Birmingham Jail “For it is the doom of man that they

forget” (Excalibur 1981). However, when we learn from our mistakes and see matters from all

side when making laws, taking actions and building principles based on them, the line and better

path can be clearly seen as Martin Luther King implored,

“A just law is a man-made code that squares with the moral law, or the law of God.

An unjust law is a code

that is out of harmony with the moral law. To put it in the terms of St. Thomas

Aquinas, an unjust law is a

human law that is not rooted in eternal and natural law. Any law that uplifts human

personality is just. Any

law that degrades human personality is unjust.”(King 3)

This topic has enhanced my understanding of many other classes in this further reflection

as well as created a deep rooted determination to consider the complexity in every decision I

make in the future when involving others or Nature. The connections I have made here are of

real world occurrences and various people opinions learned from the various courses I have

taken at SLCC. The greatest lesson I received in my American Civilization class was that there is

always another side to history and to make wise and educated decisions on how to interpret and

precede is to become as versed as possible with all of histories points of views and aspects.

Works Cited

King, Martin Luther Dr. “Letter from Birmingham Jail.” 16 Apr. 1963 web/print. 29 Aug

2015.

Excalibur. Boorman, John. Warner Bros. 1981. Film. 29 Aug. 2015.

Let's think of the ideas or thoughts we want to convey as the water. It flows and often follows where it can be led or follows in directions it already knows. Next, let's think of the act of freezing like the act of writing those things down. We claim a position, sometimes rethinking it and forming it up in other ways, like the melting or thawing of water. If we think of this chemically, then the molecules move fast, if they move too fast they become air and float away, like unwritten ideas but when they freeze they slow down, sometimes barely moving on a point and that is writing them down. It is then we can see them interact with other molecules of thoughts or water (though in other states they can as well), some may even follow another's lead, slowing down to listen or move on with that idea, changing it to fit them. However, it's when many begin to listen or to think about it that it creates the sheets of ice that can move mountains. Sometimes those written sheets of ice move slowly to create the changes in our world. Sometimes in an instance, it finds just the right crack and breaks and crumbles the solid foundations that needed to move aside. No matter the change or speed the water, ice, or stone, makes, it is the constant transformation that writing should continue to solidify within and beyond us.