The impact of the political cartoonist Thomas Nast has had a positive impact on the American political process.  Thomas Nast has been called the “Father of the American cartoon”. President Abraham Lincoln called him “our best recruiting sergeant” because Nast drew pictures of battlefields in border and southern states. He helped bring down William Marcy “Boss” Tweed who was leading a corrupt corporation.  He played an important role in Ulysses Grants election, Grover Cleveland and Ruthford B. Hayes election.  He helped promote some recognizable symbols today like, the modern Santa Claus, the republican elephant, democrat donkey, Tammany hall tiger, Columbia, and uncle Sam., (Thomas Nast did not create all of the figures listed but he did promote them).  He was able to help stop the corruption of some corporations through pictures. Anyone can look at a picture with a message and can, either agree or disagree with others. An artist can rally lots of people to their cause and create a lasting impact. Thomas Nast had a very positive impact that inspired others to also create political cartoons.  

An article written by Michael Gonchar on the Learning Network from the New York Times talks about the importance of political cartoons in America.  It talks about how political cartoons can change the course of history. This ties in with Thomas Nast because he is called the “Father of the American cartoon” and has greatly influenced how cartoonists today do their work. Another article written by Morton Keller called “The World of Thomas Nast” talks about all of his notable accomplishments and how some of them are seen today. Now none are obvious since political cartoons are not something that people deeply analyze or talk about.  It mentions how he helped bring down the “Tweed Ring”.  The final article I found was written by Robert Duvall and it talks about Nast’s life and achievements and importance at the time. The importance can be traced to today’s society in some ways, and shows even more how important Nast was at the time and now. Nast had a truly positive impact on our society by inspiring other cartoonists to invoke change through their cartoons. That is something truly positive that all started with the help of Nast.

 

http://learning.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/09/17/drawing-for-change-analyzing-and-making-political-cartoons/

 http://cartoons.osu.edu/digital_albums/thomasnast/keller_web.htm

http://lensofhistory.com/2014/01/22/thomas-nast-cartoon-laureate/  

Entry #4

The impacts of the historical event of the Columbine shooting is a bit difficult to decide if it had a positive or negative impact. The Columbine High School shooting happened on April 20, 1999 around 11:19am and carried out by Eric Harris 18, and Dylan Klebold 17. The aftermath of the shooting was different for some people, the families of those injured and those killed were in grief on the political field was thrown into a debate about gun laws and school safety. Schools did not tolerate any violent actives/out bursts from students and, any that were made were meant with swift action. The schools became obsessed with safety to almost a paranoia level. In that way there seems to be a good impact of the shooting, schools wanted to make sure that they had a safe environment for the students. That is a good impact because most people want the schools to be a safe place to send their kids. With the debate on gun laws that’s a little harder to decide in the end it comes down to a person’s opinion on the matter. As it can be seen today there has not been much change in the gun control laws. Schools now have a stricter gun policy but, that’s obviously not enough as seen in the recent schools shooting like Sandy hook shooting. Some people want to band guns all together but, in the Bill of Rights amendment number 2 is says we have the ‘right to bare arms’ that make this matter a bit more complicated. The fact that it’s in the Bill of Rights make the ability to ban guns impossible. We also need to face the fact that if someone really wanted to they would find a way to get in a gun into a school and start shooting students, teachers and other officials. This event has limited our freedoms to carry guns into schools or other public places, which is a good thing but, it also asks us to make the right choice if we own a gun or sell guns. In the end what happens in the future of this debate depends on how responsible we can be with the freedom to carry guns and sell guns to people. This event made us want to make schools safer and sparked a debate that questioned gun rights.  

Entry #3

"Freedom with responsibility means having the ability to do what you want and the conscious to do what's right"- Kai Ford 

I chose this quote from another students blog because I think that it is an important aspect of freedom with responsibility. It sheds light on the self control side of what freedom with responsibility is. It's you that ultimately decides if you keep or lose the freedoms that you have or, the ones you have earned. I also like that it mentions you should be able to do what you want. I know that you need to make sure you make good decisions but, people need and have a right to some amount of freedoms. That also ties into what I said earlier and, what the quote says and stands for. That is at least how I interpreted the quote and why I chose it.

Entry #2

“Freedom makes a huge requirement of every human being. With freedom comes responsibility. For the person who is unwilling to grow up, the person who does not want to carry is own weight, this is a frightening prospect” –Eleanor Roosevelt

I chose this quote by Eleanor Roosevelt because I agree with it.  I know that all of your freedoms you have can and will be a huge requirement of a person’s time, energy and actions. I also know that you need to be very responsible with your freedoms unless you want to lose those freedoms.  People who are immature and irresponsible will not get freedoms, if they do they will most likely lose them. The same goes for people who just want the freedoms and not the responsibility that comes along with it, they will lose it. It can be a scary thing I know but, you should still be responsible. Overall I totally agree with Eleanor Roosevelt’s quote one freedom with responsibility.

Entry #1

What freedom with responsibility means to me is that in order to have the freedoms you want and, keep the freedoms that you already have, you need to have responsibility with activities and matters concerning specific freedoms. You will need to show certain levels responsibility when you hope to gain different types of freedoms and keep the ones that you have already been given and earned. If you should do something that is not an example of responsibility or, you do something irresponsible then you should and will lose that freedom that you were irresponsible with. It is possible to earn that freedom back if you show that responsibility again but, it is a difficult and long process because, it is always harder to earn back the freedom after you have lost it. That is what freedom with responsibility mean to me.