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The memorial honoring those whom had served in WWII was a controversial topic for some when the American Battle Monuments Commission in 1987.  Upon Representative Marcy Kaptur’s introduction of the World War II Memorial act to the House of Representatives, the project was acknowledged, but back-burnered.  Kaptur introduced a bill for the memorial three more times before a Senator Republican Senator of South Carolina, (Strom Thurmond), broke through and had both the House of Representatives and the Senate approved the bill by May 12^th, 1993.  The World War II Memorial Act became public law when President Bill Clinton approved it on May 25^th in 1993.

President Clinton then appointed 12 members to a Memorial Advisory Board and gave the group the responsibility of deciding where the memorial should be placed.  Despite the acquisition of funds from individuals, and veterans’ groups, (like the Veterans of the Battle of the Bulge, Veterans of Foreign Wars, and the American Legion), the placement of the memorial remained controversial and advocates of the Washington Monument, Washington Mall, and the Lincoln Memorial.  The United States Commission of Fine Arts, the National Capital Memorial Commission, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and the National Park Service all attended the meeting to discuss where the memorial should be placed.  The meeting occurred on January 20^th, 1995 and was organized by Colonel Kevin C. Kelley.

Sites that were considered included the U.S. Capitol Reflection Pool, the Constitution Gardens, the Tidal Basin, West Potomac Park, and Henderson Hall in close proximity to Arlington National cemetery.

There has been controversy about the whereabouts of the memorial.  Can you still see the National Mall?  Can you still respect the Lincoln Memorial?  Yes.  The World War II Memorial has no obvious intention of detracting or distracting from the two monuments it is placed between, and though war-related memorials might harbor more intense emotion than others, most of those emotions are of a grateful persuasion juxtaposed an essence of regret or resentment.  Despite the painful memories the memorial may provide for those involved in World War II, it should still be identified that the designers, architects,, engineers, and construction workers  poured their heart and soul into maintaining and commemorating the memories of fallen soldiers and those fortunate enough to survive, (but still graceful enough), to lend us their presence in the war and exemplify the solidarity that they had for their country.

The D.C. community may have skiddish behavior around the monument because of the location.  The area that was chosen for the sight has ruffled the feathers of folks who would prefer a clear path of the National Mall from the Lincoln Memorial, but the design of the memorial hasn’t substantially inhibited enjoyment and view of all three memorials enough to cause reconstruction.

The biggest problem that is faced by people trying to explore the mystery of a history on their own is the fact that they get to bond over the fact that none of them are certain of what they are viewing.  As a victim, veteran or just a witness of the atrocities that occurred during this international struggle, one can surely understand the significance of the memorial.  What’s even better is that that those merely exposed to the tribute can try to and want to understand the magnitude of the affect the U.S.’s involvement took on our citizens.  The memorial is not just for U.S. soldiers, either.  It seems to champion all who were affected by the war.  The peacefulness and serenity of the fountain and the orderly way the 56 columns representing each territory seems to thank everyone who was involved in contributing to U.S. efforts.

Sidenote:

“Kilroy was here.”  This inscription on the monument is unique to the World War II era and is not limited to any particular party that was involved.  It is infamous in the United States for adding comedic levity to situations during intense times because of it’s silliness and representation of solidarity amongst soldiers and citizens, alike.  Though there are many theories behind the origination of the silly cartoon with said inscription, the New York Times credited the phenomenon to J.J. Kilroy in 1946.  Kilroy was an American shipyard inspector that, (according to the New York Times), would tag every ship as it was being built.  The tag peaked in popularity during World War II because soldiers, (that had found the insignia on ship or heard about it from peers), began replicating it on surfaces in their stations sending a supportive/silly message to the men following them.  The meaning of the cartoon is still unknown to this day, but remains a light-hearted, legendary icon in times of turmoil.

The following chart shows the amount of casualties, (civilians included), that lost their lives during World War II. 

My Ngram

compares the amount of attention the Lincoln memorial, the Washington Monument, the World War I memorial and the World War II memorial receive.  I understand why the Washington monument has received a greater amount of attention after the earthquake repairs and general notoriety but I found it fascinating that the World War I memorial and the Lincoln memorial received approximately the same amount of attention and consistently less attention than the World War II memorial.

And here’s my Wordle!

Slide Show!

The closest I’ve ever come to having my identity stolen was having my actual laptop physically stolen.  As traumatic as that was to lose,  I can not fathom the amount of frustration and angst Mat Honan experienced having his whole virtual identity stolen.  Amazingly, nothing on my laptop was hacked, (maybe they looked at my pictures or enjoyed my pathetically short iTunes list), but The article “How Apple and Amazon Security Flaws Led to my Epic Security Hacking” really shocked me into reality about how lucky I was.

I’m pretty decent as far as passwords are concerned.  I use silly phrases with capital letters and numbers and I never include my birthday, last name, or initials.  I’m not a huge presence online beyond social media, so if you want to hack my Twitter you’re going need to do some research.  I’m also very careful about pop ups or signing up to receive information from websites I’m on.  If I’m getting deeper into a website I’m unfamiliar with and they ask for information too soon, I will almost always click out.  I save all of my work online, usually in two emails but I need to start backing up my work in other ways.

I haven’t set up a password for my screensaver out of laziness, but that’s about to change.  I do have antivirus software on my computer and it intimidates me for some reason, (maybe because one of my laptops started smoking when I was trying to fix it), but I vow to conquer that fear and be better about updating and installing new software.

The Teachers Pay Teachers site includes a thorough copyright FAQ and an overview of their personal copyright policy in the informational footer on every page.  The FAQ seems to cover as much information as possible without seeking legal council.  Teachers Pay Teachers appears to have investigated multiple copyright scenarios for member interaction with their employers and amongst themselves.  The FAQ goes to great lengths to describe these different scenarios and what is permitted and non-permitted within each one.  The site is trying to conduct business effectively and legally.  However, instead of warning Teachers Pay Teachers members of copyright policies and they’re employers, it might be shrewder to keep working with the website and school as separate as possible.  Members should conduct their business without curriculum already provided by the school, during school hours, or using school equipment.  The site should almost be considered home-schooling support to protect work from school systems unless the school itself wants to purchase the work and add it to required curriculum.  I think as much separation as possible would keep the site ethically and legally protected.  As long as members maintain their ethical and legal integrity, this site could do wonders for them.

Teachers Pay Teacher’s success story below:

http://www.technapex.com/2012/10/elementary-school-teacher-becomes-a-millionaire/

The Wikipedia page for the World War II Memorial was pretty well constructed.  It was clear, concise, included links that could answer other questions if the reader felt so inclined to further investigate WW II, but kept to basic information about the history behind the building.  The page covered the fundraising, motivations behind site-picking, design, construction, and lastly, the controversy surrounding the building.  The only thing I really thought could be improved was the article’s mention of the “Kilroy was here” slogan.  The article could have gone more into depth about the significance of the slogan inscribed twice in the memorial and the character it added to it.

Allllllright guys.  My screenshots don’t seem to be loading properly on my site so you’ll have to enjoy these two big white rectangles until someone can teach me how to do it correctly.

My topic for the final project is the World War II Memorial and though I know it is an especially sensitive topic for many vet’s, I didn’t realize that those involved — and onlookers alike — would have such mixed sentiments about the memorial’s commemoration in D.C.. The photographs I’ve obtained through Flickr and other various sites are noble and do the memorial justice in magnifying the beauty and effort that was inserted into it’s creation but one part of the memorial I can’t and won’t ever forget is the message transcribed in the “Freedom Wall.”

 “Here we mark the price of freedom”

As a soon-to-be military wife, I’d like to know my significant other’s sentiments about the memorial.  He has been deployed to Iraq twice and I’m curious to see how I can tie in his personal experiences and emotions with that of WWII veteran’s whom have either visited or not visited and loved or detested the memorial created to honor their service.

The readings/video for this class discussed the history of the Internet and the obstacles faced by those trying to be progressive with computer technology.  Timesharing was explained and established as the first concept to suggest that one computer could share it’s power with multiple computers.  DARPA created a network to accelerate knowledge transfer with other computers.

DARPA became he Arpanet leading to the creation of the networks:

1. RAND
2. NPL
3. CYCLADES

These represented the:

• scientific
• commercial
• military

networks of the Internet.

DARPA is currently involved in building real life military robots in hopes of keeping U.S. soldiers out of physical warfare and enabling them to access knowledge of foreign areas that they would otherwise be unable to.

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