Andrew Jackson on Henry Clay

Andrew Jackson on Henry Clay:
"...is the bases, meanest, scoundrel, that ever disgraced the image of his god-- nothing too mean or low for him to condescend to, secretly to carry his cowardly and base purpose of slander into effect; even the aged and virtuous female, is not free from his secrete combination of base slander."

Republican Advertisement on Jackson, 1838:
"Jackson's mother was labeled a 'COMMON PROSTITUTE' who was brought to this country by the British soldiers! She afterwards married a MULATTO MAN, with whom she had several children, of which number General JACKSON IS ONE!!!"

(Talk about dirty politics!)

Andy Jackson is an enigmatic figure in history. Is he the hero or the villain? His life and legacy are full of ironies, contradictions, and coincidences.

Jackson, as you may can see on the right had an early hatred of the British. When a British soldier demanded that he "clean his boots," Jackson refused. As a result, the soldier took a slash at Jackson's head, but Jackson caught the sword on his hand and it only scraped his head. This pictures was obviously drawn sometime after his actions with the British, but clearly Jackson's image was being transformed into that of a heroic "George Washington" at the time.




I have no clue why I typed this.

I wondered

I watched the most depressing music video the other day. I was sitting alone at Foy Student Union and eating my lunch. I was sitting behind a flat screen television on the wall and watching music videos while I ate. The Foy employees usually put on something like Fox News, CNN, or ESPN for the students to watch, but on this day MTVU was on. Contrary to popular belief, MTV was actually showing music videos. It is noteworthy to say that it was not the main branch of MTV. The usual artists, such as Kanye West and 50 Cent, were rolling around in a sea of narcissism in their music videos. Then one video came on that really got me thinking. It was a special Radiohead video for their new song "All I Need." Throughout the entire video, it has a split screen between a Chinese boy and an American boy. While the American boy goes off to school and eats a healthy lunch, the Chinese boy is working in a sweatshop making shoes. It's pretty obvious that he's living in poverty. At the end of the video, the American boy takes off his shoes and it so happens that it was the same kind of shoes that the boy in China was making.

Man, talk about hitting you between the eyes. It got me thinking what other kind of objects do we, as Americans, take for granted. What other kind of items were produced from a sweatshop overseas? I looked at my own shoes. It read: Made in China.

I don't think I'm naive enough to think that all products that come from overseas are from the work of a child in a sweatshop. However, I continue to wonder what I do possess that is made from child labor overseas. It's very humbling to know that these things happen, and I wish there was something more that I could do to prevent them from happening.

We are dealt a lucky hand. Unfortunately, I feel like most Americans are ignorant of that fact and take their lives for granted.