Implementing Nosql Databases On The Critical Line Of...

The following represent the key reasons for companies to implement NoSQL databases in their critical line of business applications. 5.1 Amazon Response times directly impact customer satisfaction and revenue thus are more important today with businesses having many competitors just a click away. NoSQL solutions like Apache Cassandra have the ability to write data faster and deliver compared to RDBMS. Amazon found that every 100ms decrease in site response time gave them 1% more in revenue. 5.2 Ooyala Scalability and performance go hand in hand, with companies needing to accommodate new users and data volumes in their line of business applications. Traditional architectures have failed to predict correctly. Ooyala choose Cassandra over†¦show more content†¦Netflix, which is one of largest cloud application in the world, uses Cassandra to make sure zero downtime for its customers, storing 95% of its data in Cassandra. 5.4 Adobe The term â€Å"location independence† means being able to read and write to a database regardless of where that input/output operation occurs and to have any write functionality propagating from that location, so that it is available to users and machines at other sites. Such functionality is very difficult to architect for relational databases. Cassandra allows both read and write capability with its peer-to-peer architecture and thus delivers true data location independence. Adobe appreciated this feature and used it in marketing cloud application. It runs it’s DataStax Enterprise/Cassandra database cluster between two data centres just to ensure that its customers can both read as well as write data fast no matter where they are located. 5.5 NASA Owing to a flexible data model, ability to accommodate structured, semi-structured and unstructured data of Cassandra, NASA has deployed it for some specific purposes. NASA uses it for security applications to track hardware and software patches and deals with data that is both structured and unstructured and allowed them to insert data much more smoothly than prior RDBMS, and achieved this with reduced query response. 6. Cost-Benefit Analysis To derive a cost-benefit analysis, we have compared benefits such as latency, operations/sec

Architecture in the Middle Ages Chartres Cathedral

The cathedral was the most important building in the town of Chartres. It was the centre of the economy, the most famous landmark and the focal point of almost every activity that is provided by civic buildings in towns today. Chartres cathedral has upheld its importance in the life of the people within the community, and has lived up to its labour and expectations. The cathedral was important in the everyday life of all, whether it was used as a church, a marketplace, or just a marvel for all to view. Because of its diversity, it brought a lot of attention and prosperity to the city of Chartres, which helped it grow more, which then created a magnificent cycle to be lived up to. Chartres cathedral was an important structure in Medieval†¦show more content†¦While the windows were removed from it, the Germans would use the cathedral as a social club during their occupation in France. This cathedral is first seen as †¦a place of worship and reverence, sacred to God. But crossing that threshold in the Middle Ages took you into many places at once: a town hall, a social club, even a marketplace, and yet also a temple, a place of authority, and indeed nothing less than a kind of heaven itself. Although Chartres is known for its socio-economic success, its architecture is also a renowned subject pertaining to this cathedral. This cathedral is important because it has changed the way that many people look at architecture by looking at new architectural features, structural defeats and architect’s modesty. â€Å"In 1194, the master-builder of Chartres outlined new principles which would inspire all the great architects of the 13th century†¦Ã¢â‚¬ Ã¢â‚¬â€Chartres cathedral had â€Å"established several new architectural features never seen before (flying buttresses and the arches used) and pioneered new techniques for construction at high elevations above ground (†¦war machines†¦ into hoisting cranes).† This would later change some of theShow MoreRelatedGothic Cathedrals, Compare and Contrast Two846 Words   |  4 PagesGothic Cathedrals The Gothic style has been the root for some of mankind’s most beautiful works of art. It was introduced by the Romanesque style of building. Romanesque style only lasted for nearly one hundred years before the Gothic style replaced it entirely. 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The Forbidden Game The Kill Chapter 13 Free Essays

Dee took the lead, with Summer following her lightly and Michael and Audrey after that. Jenny wanted the others to go ahead of her partly because she was afraid, and partly because she didn’t want any of them trying to save her if she fell off. Heights. We will write a custom essay sample on The Forbidden Game: The Kill Chapter 13 or any similar topic only for you Order Now She had always hated heights. But she was damned if she was going to let this bridge stop her from getting to Tom. It wasn’t all that bad at the beginning. Steep, yes, and narrow, yes. And there were no handrails. If the whole structure had been six inches off the ground, Jenny could have walked it easily, without a chance of slipping. The problem was doing it twenty feet off the ground. But if she looked straight down and concentrated on her own feet, she couldn’t see how they were climbing. Just then, though, something drifted past her feet-a wisp of mist. Alarmed, she looked to one side. No, they weren’t cloud-height. They really were only twenty feet off the ground. But mist was rising around them. â€Å"Oh, spiffy,† Michael said from somewhere ahead, and Summer’s voice said, â€Å"I can’t see.† Dee’s voice floated back from even farther ahead. â€Å"Reach back and hold hands with each other. I can feel my way along.† Jenny reached forward and took a handful of Audrey’s nylon jacket-Audrey only had one good arm to use. She shuffled forward, gritting her teeth. Everything around her was white. She could barely see her own hiking boots. In a few minutes, though, her head broke through the mist. She went on shuffling upward, inching out of it. Her legs were aching, and she hoped they were getting near the top. It was only when Audrey stopped short in front of her, and gasped, that she looked around. The mist was gone. What she saw beneath the bridge now was-unearthly. It was dark, and arching through the darkness were other bridges, delicate and airy, some fiery, some that looked like ice. They led to clumps of land that looked like islands floating in space. â€Å"Like Neverland,† Jenny whispered. â€Å"A bunch of Neverlands. What are they? And where are we?† â€Å"Oh, I don’t believe this,† Audrey said just as softly. â€Å"I do,† Dee said from the very top of the arch. Her head was thrown back on the slim dark column of her neck. Faint light from the bridges shifted on the planes of her cheekbones, and her eyes glowed. â€Å"I do.† Some of the islands were brighter and more substantial-looking than any landscape Jenny had seen on Earth-sharper in detail, more exquisite in clarity. Others were dim and vague-as if they had been partly formed and then abandoned. Between the clumps of land Jenny could see stars -but not normal stars. These stars rippled and waved as if she were looking at them through a clear stream, or as if they were studded on a flowing length of black silk. There was something incredibly lost and lonely about them. â€Å"But what are those things? Those other islands?† she said again. Audrey gave herself a little shake and seemed to focus. â€Å"I think-those are the nine worlds. From Norse mythology-Norse, like the runes. I told you about them once.† â€Å"You mean-we’re above the Shadow World somehow?† â€Å"I guess. Now that-that’s probably Asgard, the one way up there. It’s got to be.† Jenny tilted her head back. Far above them-the farthest away of any of the clumps-was an island world that seemed all silver and gold. She could just glimpse something like a shining mountain rising into a golden cloud on it. The bridge to it was very narrow and seemed to be on fire. â€Å"That’s where the gods live.† â€Å"The gods?† Jenny spoke to Audrey without looking down from the shining island. â€Å"So the myths say. Hmm, and I’ll bet that’s Vanaheim. World of primal water and plenty, where some of the less important gods live.† Audrey pointed to an island painted in jewel-like colors, dark blue and dark green. â€Å"Vanaheim-any relation to Anaheim?† Michael murmured. Audrey pinched her mouth on a smile, but ignored him. â€Å"And that’s Alfheim, world of light and air,† she said, nodding at an island that was much closer to them, shimmering in the colors of sunrise: yellow, pale blue, light green. â€Å"Home of light elves-like good spirits. I’m remembering all this, isn’t that amazing? I must have been about eight when I learned it.† â€Å"What about those?† Dee said, pointing straight outward. Two island worlds were floating at about the same level as the bridge they stood on: one rocky and lashed by what looked like tornadoes, and the other so bright with orange fire that Jenny couldn’t make out any details. â€Å"The rocky one’s Jotunheim-the world of primal storms. And the other one has to be Muspelheim, the world of primal fire. Nothing lives there but killer giants.† â€Å"What’s that?† Michael said, staring downward and to the left. Audrey looked. â€Å"Hell† she said simply. â€Å"I always thought hell would be hot,† Summer said, her eyes widening like cornflowers blooming. â€Å"Hel with one l. It’s the underworld, where everything sinks in the end. Ruled by Hella, queen of the dead.† It looked like a frozen lake, colder and blacker than the empty space between the worlds. Jenny had never seen such a lightless, joyless place. The bridge to it was like a slide, broad and frosty. â€Å"We definitely wouldn’t want to go there. Or to that one-the one that looks like a cavern. That’s Svartalfheim, the subterranean world.† â€Å"No more caves, thank you,† Michael said. There was only one island left. It was the one directly below them, and both ends of the bridge they stood on seemed connected to it. From here, the surface was obscured by dark mist and shadows. Audrey said, â€Å"Niflheim, land of ice and shadows. The Shadow World.† She shook her head. â€Å"I still don’t believe this.† â€Å"Why not? It’s no weirder than anything else we’ve seen today,† Dee said. â€Å"But I only count eight worlds. Where’s Earth?† Audrey looked around, then shrugged. â€Å"Maybe we don’t get to see that bridge until we finish the Game.† â€Å"Who cares? Look, we wanted to walk between the worlds, right?† Dee said, her eyes shining. â€Å"And now we’re doing it. So-shall we?† Jenny nodded. She felt very tiny and insignificant standing here, and her throat was tight. And she had the feeling that it was going to be harder going down than going up-because now the fall was so much longer. They started moving. It was hard to walk in the place between the worlds-physically hard. After two or three steps Jenny began to feel muscle-burn in her calves and thigh muscles. She could hear Audrey panting in front of her. And the barest glimpse of the fall on either side made Jenny’s internal organs feel as if they were plunging out of her body. Her legs wanted to freeze. She wanted to get down on her rump and scoot the rest of the way-no, get down on her stomach and slither. But that wasn’t the worst. She was afraid she would faint. If I faint up here, I’ll fall. Of course I’ll fall. Nobody faints neatly forward. I’ll slide off the side. The moment the thought of fainting occurred to her, it blocked everything else out. She was going to faint. Just thinking about it made her dizzy. She was so scared of fainting, she felt like jumping. Hysteria began to bubble up inside her. She shouldn’t have thought about jumping. Now she was afraid she would jump, just because the idea had occurred to her. She had to try not to think about it. Think of anything else. Think of Tom, think of getting to Tom. But the idea of jumping was now stuck in her mind. She started to picture it. She could get it all over with, turn to the side and just let go. God, no-she didn’t want to, but she was afraid she’d go crazy and do it. †¦ The voice came from her own brain, but it was so harsh it seemed alien. You keep on moving, girl! Jenny realized she was stopped, frozen. Staring down at her own feet in their brown leather hiking boots, and the white ribbon of bridge, and the formless darkness on either side. Just put one foot in front of the other. The right foot. Put out your right foot. I can’t, she thought. Yes, you can! But if I faint-or jump – You expect everybody else to face their fears, and you can’t face yours? You’re not your only master if you can’t even control your own feet! You’re just a coward! The right boot jerked a little and stepped forward. That’s right. Now the other one. The other boot came forward. Jenny was walking again. She could do it-command her own feet. Just put one foot in front of the other. And one more step. And one more. Don’t look to the side. One more step. And one more. There were only a few body-lengths of bridge in front of her. She could see where it ended. Ten feet. Five feet. On legs that had suddenly gone weak as angel-hair pasta, Jenny stumbled and fell onto safe ground. Dee bent over her. â€Å"You okay?† Weakly Jenny patted one of Dee’s hightops. â€Å"I’m terrific, thanks.† â€Å"I shouldn’t have let you be last. I forgot.† Jenny sat up and wiped her forehead. â€Å"I did fine by myself.† â€Å"Yeah, you did. You seem to be doing a lot of that these days.† Jenny was very happy. Then it hit her. They were across. They’d made it. Tom. She looked up so fast her vision swam. After the alien grandeur of the place between the worlds, it was something of a comedown. They were on the central island in the artificial lake at Joyland Park. The lighthouse looked the same as it had all night, white and shining. The park around them was a riot of lights-but ordinary lights, illuminating ordinary rides like the SuperLooper and the Tumble-bug. Everything looked very ordinary. Behind her, the bridge arched gracefully over the lake water, and the water reflected a wavering arch back. There was no mist, and no sign of any other worlds. The top of the arch wasn’t more than forty feet high. â€Å"A hallucination, I guess,† Audrey said slowly. â€Å"One of Julian’s things. And I suppose it must have been from me, since I’m the only one who knew about those other worlds.† Jenny opened her mouth, then shut it again. She thought Audrey must be right-but she wasn’t sure. And the truth was that they would probably never be sure. She looked back at the lighthouse. â€Å"Come on, people. This is it.† When she got up her legs were shaky, but she took the lead and Dee let her. The lighthouse looked bigger as they got closer. It was life-size, with a widow’s walk around the top and a weathercock. And it was attached to some broad dark building that Jenny hadn’t seen before because it wasn’t lit up. A restaurant, maybe, she thought. There was a wooden door in the lighthouse’s side, with a large iron handle. â€Å"Monster positions,† Dee reminded Jenny as she reached for the handle. Then Dee stood ready to kick the door shut if anything unfriendly was behind it. â€Å"Tom and Zach will be at the top, of course,† Michael said, resting with his hands on his thighs in anticipation. But they weren’t. It was funny, how the end began. Jenny had been waiting for so long, working and fighting, and all the time waiting for the moment that she would see Tom. She was so used to waiting she wasn’t really ready for it to end. She wasn’t-prepared. She almost couldn’t deal with it. But when it started happenings it happened fast, and prepared or not, she was thrown into it. She pulled on the iron handle, and the wooden door swung open. There was no need for Dee to kick it shut. Everything inside was illuminated, and nothing came rushing toward them. Black metal stairs curved up on Jenny’s left, circling upward toward the top of the lighthouse. But straight in front of her she could see the interior of the broad building. The lighthouse had no back wall, and opened right into it. It was a wonderful place, with a huge diorama two stories high as a backdrop. It looked like a movie set of a wharf scene, but the numbered flags on poles betrayed its real purpose. It was an indoor miniature golf course. â€Å"Treasure Island,† Michael said, peering around her shoulder. â€Å"Pirates, see?† It was pirates. The diorama featured a mural painted on the far wall of the broad building, a marvelously realistic mural with a volcano in the background. Painted smoke and little neon lights for sparks showed that it was erupting. There was also a mammoth storm in the painted sky, and forked lightning that really flashed. At the bottom of the mural, just behind the golf course itself, two dinghies were landing on some fiberglass rocks. One boat was painted, with a pirate in an eye patch and hat, a lace cravat, and boots. The other boat was real, with Tom and Zach. Jenny touched her mouth. Then she was running. There weren’t any words for what she felt next. When she’d been separated from Tom in the paper house, it had been for hours. This time it had been days. She was exhausted, overstressed, starving, on the verge of collapse-and she’d never been so happy in her life. Just the sight of him brought back everything that was good and homelike to her mind. It was like coming back to her own room after being away a long time with strangers. It was where she belonged. She threw her arms around him. And then she just held on, her heart pounding and pounding. â€Å"Watch out, Jenny. He was here just a minute ago.† And Jenny, who had for so long associated Tom with protection, with safety and security and coziness, found herself feeling passionately protective of Tom. As if he were Summer. Looking into his dear face, handsome and rather brooding just now, and his wonderful green-flecked eyes, she said, â€Å"Don’t worry. I’ll take care of you.† â€Å"Just let me out, please,† Tom said sharply, and then gave up and kissed her back. Jenny’s solicitous feelings had thrown her into a perfect spasm of love for him, and it felt so good to kiss him again. â€Å"If you two could tear yourself apart for just a minute†¦Ã¢â‚¬  Zach’s voice said. Jenny looked up. Her cousin was in the back of the dinghy, yes, the same cousin she’d lost, she thought a little deliriously. Exactly the same, with his wonderful beaky nose and his ash-blond hair pulled back in a casual ponytail and his keen gray eyes. â€Å"I missed you, too,† she said and scrambled back to hug him. â€Å"We’re tied up,† Tom said briskly. Jenny saw that his brown wrists were tied behind his back with some kind of thick cord. â€Å"No problem,† she said, just as briskly, and pulled out the Swiss Army knife. I’ll never go anywhere without one again, she thought, and, crouching by Zach’s feet, she began carefully sawing at the cord. â€Å"Hi, Dee,† Tom said, calm as if he were meeting her Saturday at the ball game. â€Å"Hey, Audrey, Mi-† He broke off and bolted upright, and Jenny cut his hand. â€Å"Sit down,† she said. He didn’t seem to notice. â€Å"Summer?† â€Å"Hi, Tom,† Summer said shyly. â€Å"Summer?† â€Å"She wasn’t dead, just asleep,† Audrey said. Jenny said, â€Å"Sit down, will you? We’ll explain later.† â€Å"Yeah-sure,† Tom said weakly. He sat down. Jenny finished cutting the cord enough so that he could pull out of it. Then, while he was rubbing his hands, she turned to Zach. â€Å"Are you both okay?† she added. â€Å"I mean-not hurt or anything?† â€Å"We’re fine,† Tom said absently. â€Å"He just put us here a little while ago. We were in the lighthouse, before, and it wasn’t too bad-except I was afraid you’d come.† â€Å"You knew I’d come. I hope.† â€Å"I hoped you wouldn’t. I was afraid you would.† â€Å"Tom†-a strand on Zach’s cord sprang apart- â€Å"you don’t have to worry about me.† She looked up to find him looking down at her, in that new way, the way he had since the end of Julian’s first Game. As if she were something infinitely precious, something that bewildered him, but amazed him-something he didn’t deserve, but trusted. â€Å"Sure I have to worry about you, Thorny,† he said simply. â€Å"Just like you worry about me.† Jenny smiled. â€Å"Nobody needs to worry right now. We’ve won the Game, Tom. We went on the treasure hunt and now we’ve found you. It’s all over.† â€Å"I’ll still be happier out of here,† he said, and Zach said, â€Å"That goes for me doubled, tripled, and quadrupled.† Jenny glanced around. She supposed it was a spooky place in a way-if you were sitting and anticipating trouble. There were real cave entrances below the mural, leading to other parts of the miniature golf range. There were mock buildings holding the same thing-golf holes-with names like Lafitte’s Black Powder Works. It was dark inside all these places. â€Å"Don’t tell me. You guys were afraid of the parrot,† Michael said. Jenny followed his gaze to a section of the building beside the golf course, apparently an area for eating, because there were orange plastic tables and stools bolted to the ground. There was also a small stage with a sign that read: cap’n bill AND SEBASTIAN, THE WONDER PARROT. AlSO a mounted TV showing Woody Woodpecker cartoons, mercifully silent. â€Å"No, we were afraid of the eyes,† Tom said, stepping out of the dinghy and over a length of thick rope that sagged between two wharf pillars. Jenny’s head snapped up. â€Å"The eyes?† â€Å"The ones that sit in the shadows and look at you. And the whispering.† Jaw squared, Jenny sawed through the last of Zach’s cord and rubbed his wrists. So the other Shadow Men were around. Tom was staring at Audrey’s arm. â€Å"What happened to you?† â€Å"Believe me, you’re happier not knowing.† â€Å"You guys all look like you’ve been playing with the Raiders-and losing,† Tom said. It was true, Jenny thought, following Zach over the rope. The prisoners they’d come to rescue looked fine, just as they had when they’d disappeared behind Julian’s wall of fire. A little crumpled and stained about the clothes, but otherwise fine. Zach still had his 35 millimeter camera around his neck. It was the rescuers who were bloody and battered. Even Summer looked wounded, like a broken-stemmed flower. Audrey, usually the picture of elegance, looked more like a young hiker who’d been in a bad accident. Dee’s jeans were stained dark at the thigh. Michael looked as if he’d been ducked in swamp water and then tumble-dried. â€Å"You’ve been through a lot,† Zach said, and for once his gray eyes weren’t cool or unreadable. â€Å"Thanks, Jenny.† Jenny waved dismissively, but she felt a glow inside. â€Å"What happened back there in the fire, anyway? One minute I was holding your hand, the next†¦Ã¢â‚¬  â€Å"I fell,† Zach said. â€Å"Pure dumb luck. I tripped, and when I got up, I didn’t know which way to go. I stumbled around and ended up back in Julian’s base.† â€Å"Out of the fire, into the frying pan,† Michael said. â€Å"And then Tom came back for me.† Zach looked at Tom, and something passed between them without words. The introverted photographer and the star athlete had never been particularly close before, but Jenny had the feeling that that had changed now. She was pleased. â€Å"Aww,† Michael said. Audrey said, â€Å"Shut up-mon cher.† Dee interrupted. â€Å"Here’s a map of the park.† The map was wood, painted to look like parchment, with iron chains around it. â€Å"It is an amusement park, then. We could see some of it out the lighthouse window,† Tom said. â€Å"Okay, look, here’s my plan†¦.† His voice trailed off. Audrey, Michael, Dee, and Summer weren’t looking at him. Instead, they were looking at Jenny expectantly. Tom looked at Zach, who was standing with his arms folded, something like amusement in his sharp-featured face. â€Å"Okay, uh-why don’t you tell us your plan?† Tom said to Jenny. Jenny was fighting amusement, too. â€Å"I don’t have one. We don’t need one. We’ve won, and we ought to be able to just walk out of here. The only thing I don’t understand is why Julian hasn’t shown up.† They all looked at the various dark doorways and crevices. â€Å"Do you think maybe-he’s watching us?† Summer said. â€Å"Of course I’m watching; that’s what I do,† a weary voice said. How to cite The Forbidden Game: The Kill Chapter 13, Essay examples

Obesity Effect on Developing Diabetes

Question: How the obesity effect on developing diabetes ( the mechanism) by increase insulin resistance? Answer: Obesity is known to be associated with higher risk of type 2 diabetes. The people who are obese the adipose tissue is much more compared to the healthy individuals. This adipose tissue releases high amount of non esterified fatty acids, hormones, glycerol, pro-inflammatory cytokines and some other factors as well that play a major role in the process of development of resistance of insulin. Two factors have been identified to be responsible for obesity to elicit type 2 diabetes- first: the impairment of the response of the skeletal muscles to insulin, which is a major and primary condition in obesity and secondly the pre condition for the onset of type 2 diabetes. When insulin resistance is also accompanied with the dysfunctionality in the working of the pancreatic islet cells (cells that are known to be responsible for release of insulin), it often leads to loss of control of the blood glucose levels. Therefore, the abnormalities associated with islet cells is critical factor in e valuating and assessing the onset and progression of type 2 diabetes (Kahn, S., Hull., R. and Utschneider, M., 2006). Another factor that contributes to the association between obesity and type 2 diabetes is the intake of glucose and several macronutrients that leads to oxidative stress and inflammatory changes. Obesity is, thus, the proinflammatory state accompanied with oxidative stress. Also, the increase in the plasma concentrations of the inflammatory mediators like TNF (Tumour necrosis factor) and interleukin-6 causes the interruption in the insulin action by downregulating the insulin transduction pathway. This is expected to intrude with the anti inflammatory effect of the insulin and may lead to inflammation (Dandona, P., Aljada, A. and Bandyopadhyay, A., 2004). References Kahn, S., Hull., R. and Utschneider, M. (2006). Mechanisms linking obesity to insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes. Nature, 444: 840-846. Dandona, P., Aljada, A. and Bandyopadhyay, A. (2004). Inflammation: the link between insulin resistance, obesity and diabetes. Trends in immunology, 25(1): 4-7.

Melting Pot free essay sample

The melting pot has been used metaphorically to describe the dynamics of American social life. In addition to its descriptive uses, it has also been used to describe what should or should not take place in American social life. How did the term originate? How was it used originally? How is it used in contemporary society? What are some problems with the idea of the melting pot? How is public education connected to the idea of the melting pot? How does the melting pot function in American cultural and political ideology? These are some of the questions considered in the following discussion. The Statue of Liberty is by now a universally recognized symbol of American political mythology. She stands at the entrance of New York harbor, wearing a spiked crown representing the light of liberty shining on the seven seas and the seven continents. The statue was a gift to the United States from the people of France in 1884. We will write a custom essay sample on Melting Pot or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page It is made of riveted copper sheets, only 3/32 of an inch thick, ingeniously attached to a framework designed by Louis Eiffel. Its construction is such that it will not be stressed by high winds or temperature changes (The world Book Encyclopedia, pp. 874-875). The symbolism of the statue is reinforced by Emma Lazarus’poem â€Å"The New Colossus†, which is inscribed on a plaque at the base of the statue. Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame, With conquering limbs astride from land to land; Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name Mother of exiles. From her beacon hand Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame. â€Å"Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp! † cries she With silent lips. â€Å"Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the tempest-tost to me. I lift my lamp beside the golden door. † (Emma Lazarus, 1883) The Statue of liberty, dedicated in 1886, became a visual symbol of American ideology. Between 1880 and 1930, 27 million people migrated to the United States (www. pbs. org/fmc/timeline/eimmigration. htm). Most of them entered by way of Ellis Island in New York harbor. Most of them would have ended their long six weeks’ journey with by seeing Miss Liberty come into view. These immigrants were about to enter the â€Å"golden door. † What lay behind it? What opportunities were imagined? What kind of life was imagined? How were these turn- of- the- century souls to become part of America? A Brief History of the Common School One powerful social institution that played an important part in the integrative process of immigrants, beginning in about the middle of the 19th century was the common school. Horace Mann, the first state school superintendent in Massachusetts and a strong advocate for a number of social reforms, including a system of public education, articulated the ideology of a common school in his Twelfth Annual Report of the Board of Education in 1849 (Boston: Dutton and Wentworth, 1849). He says: It (a free school system) knows no distinction of rich and poor, of bond and free, or between those, who, in the imperfect light of this world, are seeking, through different avenues, to reach the gate of heaven. Without money and without price, it throws open its doors, and spreads its table of bounty, for all the children of the State. Like the sun, it shines, not only upon the good, but upon the evil, that they may become good; and like the rain, its blessings descend, not only upon the just, but upon the unjust, that their injustice may depart from them and be known no more. This flowery description of the possibilities inherent in a system of free schools was to become part of American political ideology. Public schooling was seen as having the power to recreate and reform European immigrants into respectable, tractable, productive American citizens. Through a system of common schools, a variety of creeds and cultures could be amalgamated for the social stability and economic good of the country. By the late 1800s the public school movement in America was robust in the Northeast but just gaining momentum in the South. Its progress had been halting, proceeding at different rates under the influence of varying geographic, cultural, and economic circumstances. The common school, as it was first called, was to be tax supported. It was to have a common curriculum, regardless of the social station of its clientele, it was to be open to all, and it was to foster a common set of civic virtues. The public school movement in the Northeast began to gain ground in the early years of the 19th century. It was powerfully influenced and directed by the rise of industrialism, by charismatic reformers such as Horace Mann, by new modes of transportation, and by the contributions of American inventors. The historian S. Alexander Rippa says â€Å" In the history of American education, one of the most significant outcomes of the Industrial Revolution was the gradual emergence of a new, public school- minded working class in the northern cities. Indeed, the rapid growth of manufacturing depended on a readily available source of labor for the new factories† (Rippa, 1984. . 100). The labor force in the northern factories and mills was augmented by European immigrants: Between 1815 and 1845 almost 3 million emigrants had left their home shores for America (p. 101). Significant numbers of immigrants in mid-century America profoundly affected the public school movement. They formed a nucleus for organized labor, whose agenda included an interest in education; and their very presence in such large numbers fueled fears for the fragility of a young nation (p. 102). The common school was seen as an avenue for the assimilation of immigrants into American society. Formal schooling was not systematic in America in the mid-1800s, despite the regional efforts of strong advocates for public education. There were wide regional and cultural differences in attitudes toward the idea of tax-supported, systematic formal schooling based upon a common curriculum. Various religious groups had established schools for the perpetuation of their theology and culture, especially in the mid-Atlantic and Northern states. These groups were fearful of relinquishing responsibility to political authority. In the Southern states, slavery and a strong caste system were impediments to the development of public schools (p. 97). The influx of huge numbers of immigrants exacerbated religious and cultural tensions and engendered conflicts with American workers who were fearful for their jobs. This volatile situation created even more support for systematic public education as a socializing agent. Public education became part of a wider humanitarian movement addressing all kinds of social ills created by urbanization, industrialization, and immigration (p. 105). A diverse group of largely middle class reformers called for action to abolish slavery, to improve the conditions of the poor, to increase the legal rights of women, and to improve the educational opportunities for all classes of people. The social changes of the latter half of the 19th century buttressed a general belief in education as a pragmatic social institution. The South presented a special case, however, especially because of the devastating effects of the Civil War and Reconstruction as well as its long history of slavery. In the South, the integration of masses of newly freed slaves was an enormous task, especially in a decimated economy and in a social milieu that was still strongly class conscious. African Americans were largely illiterate because of a history of legal restrictions against educating them. There was also a â€Å"rising tide of illiteracy among the southern white people† (p147). The Peabody Education Fund, a philanthropic endeavor established by the wealthy financier George Peabody for the purpose of improving southern education, found that from 1862 to 1872 the white population had increased by 13%, but the illiteracy rate had increased by 50 % (p. 147). In the twelve years following the Civil War, the period known as Reconstruction, local government in the South was directed by the Federal government. This was a bitter pill for many white Southerners to swallow. Public education was identified in their minds with the agenda of Northern interlopers. It was further stigmatized in their minds by its association with charity schools. Therefore, the ideological potency of public education as a great equalizer was embraced primarily by a core of black leaders, progressive white leaders such as Walter Hines Page (p. 154), and some northern philanthropists. It would be decades before public education was firmly established in the South. â€Å"While a devastated South fought and struggled to survive, the North, ironically, passed through the tragic years of war and reconstruction more prosperous than ever,† says Alexander Rippa (p. 156). In the 1880s another wave of immigration began, settling primarily in northern urban centers; and these â€Å"new† immigrants, mostly from Eastern Europe, brought with them cultural patterns which differed greatly from native-born Americans and the northern and western European immigrants who preceded them. Between 1890 and 1920, 18 million new citizens debarked in America (Booth, Washington Post). Existing social problems became even more pressing. There was a perception among native-born Americans that the social problems of the cities stemmed from the changing character of the new immigrants (p. 71). There was a new urgency to Americanize these latest groups. This urgency played its part in the general willingness in the northern states to establish systematic public education. The Melting Pot What did it mean to â€Å"Americanize† a non native-born population? It meant much more than teaching English to new citizens. It also meant establishing a loyalty to the United States, instilling a devotion to democracy, and breaking up ethnic and cultural loyalties (p. 171). The public school became directly involved in this social task in the late 1800s. In 1908 a play opened in Washington, D.C. entitled â€Å"The Melting Pot† (Booth, Washington Post). The playwright was Israel Zangwill, a Jewish immigrant from England, and the message of the play was that all immigrants could be transformed into a new alloy in the crucible of â€Å"democracy, freedom, and civic responsibility† (ibid. ). Zangwill believed old cultural hatreds had no place in a new country; he claimed that God â€Å"was using America as a ‘crucible’ to melt the ‘fifty’ barbarian tribes of Europe into a metal from which he can cast Americans† (www. pbs. org). This was not a gentle metaphor. The product of the melting pot would be completely transformed; the original metals would have lost their original identities under the influence of the extreme heat. Zangwill’s chief concern was that the old cultural and religious hatreds of the emigres would be perpetuated in America, but he believed that part of the melting pot effect would be that people would marry across ethnic and religious barriers. Other conceptions of the melting pot focused on acculturation and economic assimilation through deliberate means such as public education and projects such as Jane Addams’ Hull House. The metaphor of a melting pot had idealistic overtones as well as fear of social chaos built in. There was also an element of xenophobia and fear that immigrants would maintain their loyalties to foreign powers. But there was also a genuine desire to help people improve their lives and become economically and culturally successful in their new country. Zangwill himself believed that if immigrants would undergo the melting pot, they would be â€Å"just as American as anyone else† (ibid. ). The melting pot was a quite complicated idea, with regional differences as well. A chief goal of American classrooms, especially in northern cities, was to melt down the distinctive cultural metals into the new American alloy. Compulsory attendance assured that all children would be exposed to this process. By the end of World War I, most states, regardless of geographical differences, had enacted compulsory school laws, although the upper age limits differed (Rippa, p. 172). In 1911 in the major urban centers, over half of the public school population consisted of the children of immigrant parents (p. 173). The melting pot was not a universally accepted social vision of the way America ought to be. An early critic of homogeneity and uniformity was the essayist Randolph Bourne. He envisioned a pluralistic society in which difference would be valued (Fischer, et. al. , 1997, p. 15). In a 1916 essay, Bourne asks â€Å"whether perhaps the time has not come to assert a higher ideal than the ‘melting pot’. . . . America is a unique sociological fabric, and it bespeaks poverty of imagination not to be thrilled at the incalculable potentialities of so novel a union of men† (ibid. pp. 16, 17). Bourne believed that a cosmopolitan society would be creative and would most accurately embody democratic ideals. Some of the harshest rhetoric in this article, first published in the Atlantic Monthly, is reserved for the role of the public school in perpetuating a shallow popular culture: â€Å"This ( a public school education) does not mean that they (immigrants) have actually been changed into New Englanders or Middle Westerners. It does not mean that they have really been Americanized. It means that, letting slip from them whatever native culture they had, they have substituted for it only the most rudimentary America the American culture of the cheap newspaper, the ‘movies,’ the popular song, the ubiquitous automobile. The unthinking who survey this class call them assimilated, Americanized. The great American public school has done its work† (ibid. , p. 16). Although the term â€Å"melting pot† was, and is, generally associated with assimilating European immigrants, especially eastern Europeans in the early years of the 20th century, the issue of assimilation extended beyond this group. In the South, the problem of assimilation included bringing African Americans and poverty stricken white children into the economic mainstream. The south, as a region, had to redefine itself as part of a nation and not as a separate culture. In the southwestern states, assimilation was focused on Native Americans and Mexicans who lived in the territories ceded to the United States by Mexico in 1848. In the western states and territories, the immigrant population of concern was Chinese. What kind of education was provided for the immigrant population? Jacob Riis was a humanitarian reformer, a journalist and photographer who chronicled the lives of New York’s immigrant poor. A representative description comes from Riis’s The Children of the Poor (Best Sidwell, 1967). . . . and the discovery has been made by their teachers that as the crowds pressed harder their school-rooms have marvelously expanded, until they embrace within their walls an unsuspected multitude, even many a slum tenement itself, cellar, â€Å"stoop,† attic, and all. Every lesson of cleanliness, of order, and of English taught at the school is reflected into some wretched home, and rehearsed there as far as the limited opportunities will allow. No demonstration with soap and water upon a dirty little face but widens the sphere of these chief promoters of education in the slums. . . . Naturally the teaching of these children must begin by going backward. The process may be observed in the industrial schools, of which there are twenty-one scattered through the poor tenement districts, with a total enrolment of something over five thousand pupils. . . .Whatever its stamp of nationality, the curriculum is much the same. The start, as often as is necessary, is made with an object lesson soap and water being the elements and the child the object. The alphabet comes second on the list. Later on follow lessons in sewing, cooking, carpentry for the boys, and like practical â€Å"branches† of which the home affords the child no demonstration. . . . Very lately a unique exercise has been added to the course in the schools, that lays hold of the very marrow of the problem with which they deal. It is called â€Å"saluting the flag,† and originated with Colonel George T. Balch, of the Board of Education, who conceived the idea of instilling patriotism into the little future citizens of the Republic in doses to suit their childish minds. To talk about the Union, of which most of them had but the vaguest notion, or of the duty of the citizen, of which they had no notion at all, was nonsense. In the flag it was all found embodied in a central idea which they could grasp. In the morning the star-spangled banner was brought into the school, and the children were taught to salute it with patriotic words. Then the best scholar of the day before was called out of the ranks, and it was given to him or her to keep for the day. The thing took at once and was a tremendous success. Kindergarten also became a popular mode of education for assimilation as it was thought to instill order in the young child (ibid. ). Booker T. Washington and W. E. B. DuBois Two of the early twentieth century’s most powerful voices in black America disagreed with each other on matters of assimilation. Their argument echoes in contemporary America. Booker T. Washington was born into slavery in Virginia, and was liberated at the age of nine at the end of the Civil War. His rise from humble circumstances into prominence as a nationally recognized educator and spokesperson for African- Americans was chronicled in his autobiography, Up From Slavery (1901). Washington worked in coal mines and salt furnaces before attending Hampton Institute, an industrial school for African-Americans. He later established and administered Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute, emulating the model of vocational education he himself received (World Book, vol. 21, pp88-89). Washington stressed vocational education and the social skills that would allow African-Americans to move relatively seamlessly into the economy. It was an incremental approach and â€Å"the schoolhouse† (Best Sidwell, p. 281) was essential, followed by the very best of vocational education. Washington, writing in 1904 in Working With the Hands (Best Sidwell, p. 281) says, â€Å"We must be sure that we shall make our greatest progress by keeping our feet on the earth, and by remembering that an inch of progress is worth a yard of complaint. . . .All the Negro race asks is that the door which rewards industry, thrift, intelligence, and character be left as wide open for him as for the foreigner who constantly comes to our country. More than this, he has no right to request. Less than this, a Republic has no right to vouchsafe† (ibid. , p. 283). Washington’s vision of the assimilation of African-Americans into the mainstream at the turn of the century had much in common with the ideology of the melting pot. At Tuskegee Institute in Alabama, Washington’s system of industrial education was aimed toward creating economically indispensable workers who would have the skills, the work ethic, and the demeanor of the larger society. W. E. B. Du Bois was born in Massachusetts three years after the end of the Civil War. His great grandfather was a white plantation owner in Haiti, and his mother was a free African-American. Du Bois’ childhood and education were much different from Booker T. Washington’s. He attended racially mixed schools, and was encouraged by his high school principal to enroll in the college preparatory curriculum. White benefactors funded his college education at Fisk University. Du Bois eventually earned a Ph. D. rom Harvard University, gaining preeminence as a pioneer in sociological survey methods. He was a political activist, passionately committed to the belief that African-Americans deserved the educational opportunity denied them by a segregated society, including and most especially, the opportunity for university and professional education (Gutek, 1997, pp. 371-392). Education played an enormous role in the personal lives and the visions of both Washington and Du Bois, but t heir educational emphases and methods of assimilation were antagonistic to one another. Du Bois wanted to push the society: Washington believed African-Americans, as a group, had to deal with the harsh realities of a segregated society by first demonstrating that they were indispensable to the economic health of the society. This implied vocational education rather than scholarship and political activism. The interpretation of equal educational opportunity would be re-visited in a serious way in the 1940s, 50s, and 60s. The metaphor of the melting pot seems an ironic one for a population which had been deliberately excluded from mainstream culture for hundreds of years on the basis of a salient difference skin color. Zangwill’s notion of ethnic blending through intermarriage did not sit well with southern white society, and was referred to as miscegenation. And yet, Booker T. Washington’s view of assimilation is congruent with the idea of merging, melting, and blending into the economic whole. The ideas of W. E. B. Du Bois, on the other hand, require another metaphor. Du Bois challenges the structure of the society itself. Beyond the Melting Pot In 1963, two sociologists took an in-depth look at the role of ethnicity in the life of New York City. In the preface to their book Beyond the Melting Pot (1963), Nathan Glazer and Daniel Patrick Moynihan say, â€Å"The notion that the intense and unprecedented mixture of ethnic and religious groups in American life was soon to blend into a homogeneous end product has outlived its usefulness, and also its credibility. . . . The point about the melting pot, as we see later, is that it did not happen. At least not in New York and, mutatis mutandis, in those parts of America which resemble New York† (p. xcvii). Glazer and Moynihan focus on the third and fourth generations of â€Å"newcomers† (ibid. as represented by five identifiable groups in the city of New York: African-Americans, Puerto Ricans, Jews, Italians, and Irish. The title of their book implies both the time and place of their scholarly focus as well as the need for a new metaphor to describe what they see. One of the major conclusions of Beyond the Melting Pot is that â€Å"The ethnic group in America became not a survival from the age of mass immigration but a new social form† (p. 16). Thus, the authors take the melting pot out of the realm of ideology, and see it in its descriptive elements. Essentially the melting pot does not exist except in the imagination, they believe. Glazer and Moynihan are not much interested in the role of education as a social institution. Rather, they are interested in the way social groups form and identify themselves and work toward common interests. They acknowledge that immigrants to America did lose their language and alter their culture, and that several generations ago it did seem reasonable to project that eventually ethnicity would give way to a new national identity. But they note that ethnic groups re-create themselves as something new, which mark them off. And these differences are operative in social policy (ibid. , 12-14). In a sense, ethnicity is as much an interest group as it is a cultural group, so there is a reason to maintain the differences rather than blend them. Getting ahead in the society would depend upon maintaining this interest group and the political power it wields rather than diminishing the difference. In this case, the metaphor of the melting pot would be counter-productive to the actual interests of the â€Å"ethnic† group. In Glazer and Moynihan’s work, we see the immigrant in a new light. The immigrant is not one to whom something must be done or someone who must somehow be brought into the fold or helped in some way. Now the immigrant is spoken of as a political force. Civil Rights and Equal Opportunity The 1960s and 1970s were decades in which the language of assimilation evolved into the language of civil rights and equal opportunity, largely as the result of a group of highly educated African-American legal scholars and charismatic leaders such as Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. . The melting pot metaphor was left behind, and a language of rights was put in its place. Again, public education became a focus, and for several reasons. The separate but equal system of education in the southern states was a sitting duck for legal challenge. The system was patently unequal, and it took only the doggedness of lawyers such as Charles Hamilton Houston and the legal expertise of the NAACP to mount a challenge to this system. The end result was the Brown vs. The Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas decision, which struck down the separate but equal legal precedent. Public education became the focal point for discourse about how to bring African-Americans into the economic mainstream and how to foster their access to all the opportunities of a democratic society. This was not a melting pot issue because African-Americans themselves were challenging the moral authority of the political system. They were demanding the natural rights that the United States Constitution bestowed on its citizens. They were articulating a theme which had not been fully acknowledged in public discourse about assimilation that certain groups had been deliberately denied the American dream of social mobility and social equality. Public education was seen as an important avenue for social mobility and economic parity. It was, and is, a perceived means to achieve the goals of creating and maintaining a common set of civic virtues and economic and social stability. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 forbids discrimination in any federally funded program, including, of course, public education. The Elementary and Secondary Education Act passed by the United States Congress in the following year made significant Federal dollars available, thereby enticing school systems to conform to the 1954 Brown vs. Board mandate. The courts and the Congress were challenged in their own terms to respond to the demands of a minority interest group to have the promise of America made good. The legal system and the United States legislature were again used as instrument to address the neglect of other interest groups. Schools were to be venues for promoting equality, in response to legislative and legal mandates, but they were not serving as melting pots. In 1974, the United States Supreme Court ruled that school systems denied students their equal opportunity to receive the benefit of a public education if they did not provide language instruction for children whose primary language was other than English (Rippa, p. 408). Public Law 94-142, signed by then President Gerald Ford in 1975, established the right to a free, public, appropriate, least restrictive education for students with physical and intellectual disabilities (pp. 397-398). This original law has undergone a number of amendments that essentially expanded and refined the original law. It is now best known as the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act – IDEA. In 1972, Title IX of the education amendments of the 1964 Civil Rights Act made it illegal for anyone to be denied on the basis of sex the benefits of any activity or program receiving Federal funds (p. 277). The melting pot idea has been turned on its head through the efforts of special interest groups who have no desire to be thoroughly assimilated into the dominant culture, but who wish to have equal opportunity for economic and political parity in America. Contemporary Melting Pot Issues In the 21st century, the tension between common national values and pluralism, or multiculturalism, is prominent in national discourse. Some have called this the culture wars, but it is more profound than that: it is a philosophical and psychological tension inherent in democracy. The debate shows up in school matters, for example, when curriculum and instructional decisions have to be made about teaching English as a second language. Should non-native speakers have instruction in their own language as well as learning English? Will they be held back if they are placed in classes designed for non-native speakers of English? Should they be taught to be competent in the grammar and syntax of their native languages as well as English? The larger question might be, â€Å"Can one hold dual citizenship, so to speak, in America and in one’s culture of origin†? The notion of cultural literacy, as articulated by E. D. Hirsch (1987), proposes that there is a common core of cultural knowledge which all Americans should possess if they are to be fully educated, capable citizens. Cultural literacy†, of course begs the question â€Å"Whose culture? † An answer satisfactory to all parties in the debate has not been given. What knowledge should be common to all citizens? What should public schools require as cultural literacy? Again, where is the balance to be struck between maintaining cultural identity and national identity that transcends cultural differences? The push for values education as a part of the formal public school curriculum also embodies an argument concerning which values should be taught as well as who has the authority to make such decisions. A more extreme version of this issue centers around whether to allow faith-based groups to have formal connection with public schools to teach religious values. Tracking, special education, magnet schools, single gender education, and giftedness programs all designed to meet special needs and foster economic stability are not uniformly accepted as good. Do they create strong class barriers of a different kind, or do they ameliorate barriers that prevent particular classes of people from reaching their growth potential? Summary Some careful observers of American culture in the 1700s predicted that in a society of pioneers and emigres, traditional ethnic, religious, and cultural differences would be erased as people adapted to a new society, intermarried, and focused their attention on prospering in a new social order. The idea was that assimilation would be a natural, gradual, somewhat orderly process. J. Hector St. John Crevecoeur, a French essayist who eventually settled in New York State, writes in 1782: What, then, is the new American, this new man? He is neither a European, nor the descendant of a European; hence that strange mixture of blood, which you will find in no other country. I could point out to you a family whose grandfather was an Englishman, whose wife was Dutch, whose son married a French woman, and whose present four sons have now four wives of different nations. He is an American, who, leaving behind him all his ancient prejudices and manners, receives new ones from the new modes of life he has embraced, the new government he obeys, and the new rank he holds. He becomes an American by being received in the broad lap of our great Alma Mater. Here individuals of all nations are melted into a new race of men, whose labors and posterity will one day cause great changes in the world (Crevecoeur, pp. 41-45) In the early 1800s, and again in the years surrounding the century’s turn, the notion of natural, gradual assimilation was challenged by the sheer numbers of new immigrants and by the fact that the later waves of immigration consisted of eastern Europeans, who were much different in culture from the already established groups. Egregious urban social problems and escalating tensions between the new immigrants and established groups created a new urgency for the solution of these problems, which were perceived as threatening the social order. Public schooling assumed a prominent role in assimilation in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Its job was to enculturate the masses of new immigrants, to instill in them a sense of loyalty to the United States, and to make them economically viable. The school as a social institution has been mobilized to effect massive social changes since the mid 1800s. Whether these changes have always been successful is arguable. Schools have been enlisted to reinforce the new Republic, improve the moral character of the society, decrease social class differences, assimilate immigrant groups, teach citizenship skills, provide skills for economic success, meet the needs of individuals for personal growth, improve the nation’s competitive advantage in the world market, provide social mobility, model democratic virtues for the young, and reduce racial and ethnic prejudice. American political and cultural ideology has contained a set of tensions from its earliest articulation. E pluribus unum and diversity are twin American values. The melting pot, as a metaphor and an ideal has its critics. Homogeneity of culture and values is in tension with cosmopolitan vitality; pride in being an American contends with the possible loss of one’s particular cultural identity; an emphasis on economic prosperity as a mundane value competes with more abstract values. And the nature of the process of assimilation has a variety of contentious advocates: there are those who recommend a gradual process through economic productivity, and then there are those who demand immediate recognition and acceptance into the mainstream. The interest groups evolve, but the arguments remain the same. In the 1960s and 1970s there was a renewed interest in assimilation that focused less on ethnicity and cultural differences in defining the discourse of assimilation around the language of equal opportunity and civil rights. Women, African-Americans, Native Americans, and Latinos became vocal as interest groups, and their issues were primarily centered on economic advancement and other social opportunities. Politics became at least as important as education as a means to these ends, although education was still seen as a key to the golden door of opportunity. In contemporary America, the discourse of assimilation includes distinctively educational matters. The structure of schooling, assessment of learning, curriculum content and materials, instructional strategies, special needs of students, school fundingall contain the tensions of the melting pot. The discourse around these issues and others seems to have made a metaphorical shift from â€Å"the melting pot† to the militant â€Å"culture wars† or â€Å"class wars† or â€Å"gender wars† The metaphor of war was being proposed as early as the 1930s and 1940s. Louis Adamic, a widely read and respected novelist and journalist, describes â€Å"a psycho- logical Civil War† in his work Two Way Passage (1941, p. 85). His book explores the growing tensions in American society in the pre-World War II years. He says: Economic and industrial problems, labor, education, trends in writing, the theater, architecture, and other arts were attracting a lot of attention (in the 1930s). They interested me too. But little heed was paid in print and on the platform to the United States as a conglomerate of peoples the result of a great migration. Little attention was directed to the intricacies and maladjustments which grew up in its train. There was little realization that in the process cultures were being shattered. This last fact appeared to me most important. The old-stock American cultural patterns of a hundred years ago clashed with the Old World ways ( as revised by the slum and the factory ) of new-immigrant groups and partially destroyed them. It was a negative business. Many values, both old-American and new-immigrant, were not adjusted to the needs of contemporary America. Nor did they fuse or merge. They were simply ground out, pushed aside, scrapped, without giving rise to new values. They either went down through lack of character, through irresponsibility and vulgarity, or they were clung to desperately, in toto and thus perverted and devitalized. . . . Like the peoples of Europe, we in America have not yet completely synchronized the two-way impulse to homogeneity and diversity. We have experienced both but, as our sporadic psychological civil war with its several fronts demonstrates, we have not achieved a steady, continuous balance between them. When we examine our resemblances we find that one of them is our common against-ness; when we look at our differences, most of them charged with potentialities for good, we see that all too often they function defensively against other differences.Where can this take us? (1941, pp. 87-88). This seems an apt question to ask 60 plus years later. Glazer and Moynihan made direct reference to a metaphorical shift in the title of their 1963 work, Beyond the Melting Pot. They also questioned the reality of the melting pot. This seems to be the abiding tension in the idea of the melting pot finding a balance between pluralism and homogeneity in values in multiple public arenas education, politics, popular culture, social policy, and economics. If cultural metaphors belie true modes of thinking, it should be somewhat disturbing to note the metaphorical shift to â€Å"war†. Wars imply victors and the vanquished, a state of affairs America has not seen since 1865.

Finding the Truth in the Impossible essays

Finding the Truth in the Impossible essays From an early age, we have been taught that honesty is one of the most important things in our lives. "Tell the truth" is one of the phases we hear over and over again when we are little. But, is truth really so important? Is knowing the truth or telling the truth really one of the most important things in our world? Knowing the truth has always been a driving force in our lives. People have always asked for the truth. From the beginning of human history people have always asked question of truth. Questions like, How was the earth created?...is the world flat?...and is there an afterlife? Many different successful people and civilizations lived happily believing different truths to these questions and others. Clearly not all of these answers could possible be correct, but people were able to be successful and happy while constantly being fed false truths. So, my question is this, does the truth really matter, is knowing the truth really so important? I will examine different scenarios to try and determine an answer to this question. First, is an example that would affect a lot of people's lives. Say there was a man who planted a bomb in a city. If the bomb went off hundreds of people would lose their lives. Police catch the man and try to find out where he placed the bomb. If the man tells the truth the police will me able to defuse the bomb and everyone will be saved. If the man lies the bomb will explode and many people will be hurt as a result. This brings me to my first conclusion; if a lie can hurt other people then the truth and honesty are extremely important. I do not believe that there could be any way to look at this situation and think that lying would be the right thing Next, I look into the story of Oedipus. For his entire life he had been told a lie; he had been told the Polybus and Morpe were his parents. This lie greatly affects Oedipus's life. If he had known the ...

Modest Proposal-Satire Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Modest Proposal-Satire - Essay Example And even under Obama, the US is still involved in a deadly conflict in Afghanistan, in which many young men and women are dying on a fairly regular basis. Of course, in these situations, it was not just the US presidents who were sending their forces into war: Ho Chi Minh, Saddam Hussein, and Osama Bin Laden have also been there on the other side, sending their own forces (although fewer young women are among them) to die in the name of a politicized, extremist religion. The solution which I propose to the pervasive problem of war between nations is simple and effective, and it is amazing that no one has thought of it before. To fully understand the solution, you must put yourself into the boots of a ground soldier. It is no matter what army they are fighting for; you make take your pick. In every case, they are fighting for someone else. They are fighting because someone is telling them that, for example, Iraq has WMD, or that America is the Great Satan. A lot of them are young men and women with no personal, political, religious, or ideological stake in the war for which they are expected to lay down their lives. My friend Pat from childhood went to Iraq with the Navy; he joined the Navy out of high school as a way to earn extra money for college, and he wanted to buy a sports car, which he was able to do with his signing bonus. Pat did not care about Iraq or WMD: he could not even locate Iraq on a map. He had no personal dealings with, or vendett a against, either Osama Bin Laden or Saddam Hussein. For that matter, he didn’t like Bush; he used him as an example of a person who had a â€Å"free ride.† Now that you know Pat, and how much he didn’t care about the issues before he was sent to Iraq to risk his life, you might wonder who should have been sent, and who should have fought. Here is the simple answer: George W. Bush and Saddam Hussein. They are the