Homework

A reminder to all students:
Many of our assignments are assigned and completed during class time. Please take care that these are finished within a timely manner. Also, if no specific homework is listed for a given evening, please consider re-reading your notes and typing them up for future reference. Both the Americas and Government classes will be having tests in the near future. The Americas class with be tested on the current unit, which is the Civil War later next week, depending on how much time we need. The Government test will be late next week or early the week after depending on time constraints as well. The current unit in Government is the Executive Branch.
Thanks.

Civil War

Sullivan Ballou Letter:
http://www.civil-war.net/pages/sullivan_ballou.asp
Questions to be answered:
1.Why do you think Sullivan Ballou wrote this letter?
2.If you were Sullivan’s wife or children, would you plead with him not to enlist in the Union army? Why or why not?
3.In how many ways does Sullivan comfort his wife by what he writes to her?
4.Does he have regrets for himself, or only for his wife and children?
5.Sullivan writes that he is "communing with God, my country, and thee." What is his relationship to the claims that each of these make upon his life?
6.Images of "wind" and "breath" appear and reappear in the letter. How are these images related at different times to "God, my country, and thee"?
7.Sullivan says that he is perfectly willing to die to pay the debt owed to those who fell in the American Revolution. What debt, if any, do you feel you owe to Sullivan Ballou and other men like him?

Title IX Sports and Society

http://www.nytimes.com/learning/teachers/featured_articles/20011019friday.html

Crossword Maker

http://www.varietygames.com/CW/

State of the Union

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/01/25/obama-state-of-the-union-_1_n_813478.html

Olympic Games Notes

The Olympic Games
A. Ancient Roots
-1st Olympics 776 BC
-Founder was Oxylos and later continued by Ifitos
-All fighting in the Greek World ceased during games
-Held at sacred site of Olympia
-One event- foot race
-Later became 10 events
-No women as participants or spectators
-The time between two Olympic Games is called an Olympiad (4 years)
-Abolished in 593 AD by Romans as Christianity became official religion of the Roman Empire
-Olympics were viewed as idol worship

B. Revival
- Began in the 1800’s culminating in 1896 in Athens, Greece
- 1st Modern Olympic Games
- French Born Pierrer de Coubertin and Greek Dimitrios Vikelas founders
- At first only amateurs were allowed to compete
- mainly to keep the working class from participating
- Only 13 countries came in 1896 (including USA)
- Winter Olympics started in 1924
- Olympic Flame- symbolizes continuity between ancient and modern games
- Past- sacred flame at the altar of Zeus
- Today - lit at Olympia and carried to host city (1936)
- Olympic Symbol- 5 interlocked rings represents friendship
- 5 rings symbolize five continents at time of modern games

C. Tragedy and Politics
- 1936 Berlin Germany
- Adolf Hitler used the games to showcase his Nazi party
- “master race” was foiled by Jesse Owens
- Terrorism
- 1972 Munich, Germany
- Arab Terrorists attacked Israeli athletes at the Olympic village and killed them
- Protests
- Tommie Smith and John Carlos
- Raised black gloved fist on victory stand as national anthem played
-protested civil rights in US
-Cold War
- USSR vs USA
-Communism vs Capitalism fighting for world domination
- Taken to the playing fields
-USSR not allowed to play until 1952
-Began to immediately dominate winter games

D. National Pride
-1972 USSR wins controversial medal in Basketball
-1960 USA wins hockey gold medal
-Boycott
-1980 US and 50 countries refused to go to games in Moscow
-Protest Russian invasion of Afghanistan
-1984 USSR and 15 Eastern Bloc countries boycotted Olympics in Los Angeles
-3 times in history Olympics were cancelled dues to war
-1916, 1940, 1944