Criteria of American Rebels John Reed, Joseph Freeman, and Louis Research Paper

Criteria of American Rebels John Reed, Joseph Freeman, and Louis Fischer Used in the History Evaluation - Research Paper Example The developing stories of World War I, the Mexican Revolution, and the Bolshevik Revolution show the various stages through which the world has evolved before accomplishing its status. Apparently, the universe has been through series of social, economic and political transformations for the longest time since the introduction of the industrial revolution followed by series of inventions and discoveries that have shaped the world to what it is today (John Reed’s Selected Writings 76-158). Many people recognize the contributions of John Reed in the analysis of the Mexican Revolution as well as the happenings of World War I that have influenced international relationships between countries across the globe. Despite the raging debate over the contributions of World War and the infamous Mexican Revolution to the current status, it is important to recognize the views and opinions of the John Reed that have also illuminated understanding of many learners across the globe (John Reedâ €™s Selected Writings 76-158). In particular, Reed focused on the positive and negative aspects of the Mexican Revolution of 1911. He used unique criteria to create a clear and more comprehensible understanding of the Revolution, which has influenced the social, economic, and political dynamics of current Mexico as well as the neighborhood (Reed 63-78). The Americans (USA) did not understand the 1911 Mexico Revolution. However, the revolution found a soft landing in short stories, silent films, and American novels. The novels have particularly displayed a comprehensive analysis of the stages through which the country went through before attaining political, social and economic independence. Today, the United States and Mexico share fundamental similarities, which have immensely helped the process of shaping up an understanding of the relations between the two countries. Stereotypes about Mexico dominated American films during the 20thcentury (Reed 63-78). The first criteria that John Reed used were to examine and analyze whether or not the people of Mexico engaged in the fierce fight for the sake of it or because they wanted things they could not afford through the alternative option.  

Prayer in Public Schools Essay Example for Free

Prayer in Public Schools Essay In the essay named Banning Prayer in Public Schools Has Led to Americas Demise by Gary Bergel, the argument is made that by removing prayer and any form of religious contemplation has caused America to plummet from righteous living, prosperity and success within the last quarter century. He states that from around June 25, 1962, when 39 billion students were forbidden to pray in school, Americas moral decline began to accelerate more rapidly. Bergel supports his claim by stating the main reasons behind the U. S. Supreme Court ruling and by issuing some religious tidbits. Even though Bergel lists some facts and names some general ideas, he has an extremely weak argument for the simple reason of the claims and warrants not being supported with factual or personal evidence. The opposing article that I have chosen is titled Argument against School Prayer by Adam Frucci. Frucci first starts out by saying that the article is not intended to bash God, or Christianity. But its purpose is to argue all forms of religion in schools, high school in particular. He states that high school is a place where you begin to separate from your parents and begin to form your own ideas. Keeping this in mind, its the absolute worst place to start forcing values and beliefs on you. He further states that religion will never be non-discriminatory; it can never totally include everyone. There will always be someone who doesnt fit in simply because of a personal belief, and high school is not the place to institute isolationism and criticism on any level outside of an academic level. Again, I like this article but it is somewhat biased because of the writers status of a student in a catholic high school. I get the feeling that he is really bitter about having the catholic beliefs forced on himbut frankly he, or his parents, chose for him to attend the school so he might as well adapt, learn, and become stronger from the situation. Both of the arguments are weak in their own ways and strong in others, and I will attempt to acknowledge most of their faults. Beginning with Bergels argument of the demoralization of the US as a result of the removal of prayer from public schools, I get the since that he is very adamant about getting his views across regardless of analyzing the other side of the story. The whole essay is just the ranting and ravings of a bitter Christian. No support is given to his main thoughts anywhere throughout the paper. In all of his main thoughts, he spouts some statistics and information about different factors that have influenced the topic, however there is no substantial evidence of factual data, but rather only his own opinion. In the first section of the essay, he mentions that there has been a decline in family and morality. How does one evaluate a decline in something so abstract and so subjective? It is clear that from here on out, he is making general assumptions based solely on his beliefs. Bergel goes on to argue that removing prayer from school creates the secular system beyond the power of God. This is a faulty argument for the simple Christian fact that if God is all powerful, how can anything be created beyond Gods power. If anything, removal of prayer will keep children from experiencing God in more than a church setting. He also argues that in doing so, religion in being stripped from the lips and minds of children. Its not restraining a child from totally expressing or acting religiously, its simply preventing prayer to be forced on those who arent believers. Its, in essence, protecting the first amendment rights of those affected and moreover, is a gross exaggeration of the case in hand in addition to the fact that religion cant be totally taken from some one. At a point in the article, he mentions the Engle vs. Vitale Supreme Court case. The whole ruling has nothing to do with keeping kids from learning the religion, its concerned with children who arent believers of Christianity not being forced to participate in something that they dont believe in. Bergel seems to forget that the basic principle of separation of church and state is that the US isnt a professed catholic state therefore it cant just allow the use of one religion over another in any public arena. The Engle vs. Vitale ruling doesnt eliminate the learning of religion, it simply doesnt allow institutions to force the practice of Christianity on kids of other faiths. In general, his rational appears to be based on passionate fervor rather than rational thought and analysis of the Engle vs. Vitale ruling and its surrounding issues. He never pinpoints the issues and examines them within his analysis. He never presents an argument against the opposition but rather rants and raves about what he believes to be right thus stacking the evidence and therefore making it seem as if anything that is in opposition to his beliefs are wrong. In addition, he never mentions anything about his main idea of prayer in school prayer, thus committing a red herring. In Fruccis article concerning the argument for the removal of school prayer, it has both good and bad aspects to it, thusly providing me with the evidence that this is a stronger argument than that of Bergel. Frucci suggests to us that high school is the worst time to impose such a subject for the simple reason that its a time when one is learning about ones self and its not the time to impose new mindsets. Firstly, Religion cant be imposed but rather be encouraged and taughtits up to the educated whether or not to accept the knowledge. Fruccis statement is purely circumstantial because people learn at all times of life and new ideas are presented everyday. Therefore, the teaching of religion in schools can only offer more options rather than changing ones whole mindset. In saying that the setting is inappropriate, Frucci is clearly showing signs of his immaturity. In my own opinion, school is the one of the best places to teach religion. The childs inability to concentrate and focus on the task at had does not warrant removal of school prayer. If thats the case, school in general should be gotten rid of because of the childs inherent nature to be easily distracted and loose concentration. One of Fruccis strongest arguments within the paper is that prayer in schools does create a since of discrimination. However, he takes it to the extreme when saying that the since of community will be ruined because of their nonparticipation. Overall, Fruccis essay is stronger than Brugels in the since of me, the reader, being able to relate to the authors point of view, as well as the amount of support that was given to each point raised. Fruccis essay presents more of an argument, as opposed to Brugels which is more of an outcry of ideas. However both essays are pretty weak in their persuasiveness, but since I have to choose on, Id have to say that Fruccis is the stronger of the two.

The advanced language proficiency stage Essay Example for Free

The advanced language proficiency stage Essay In this stage, the students now gradually progressed to be self-sufficient with the language they are about to used and is now condensed to participate actively in classroom discussions and activities. Students can now speak grammatically correct and may be more prone to fewer errors to writing and speech defects. Motivation from their classroom advisers and family is what the learner really need for the fast pacing of the continued process he / she might be undergoing especially in context areas of writing. This stage is gained after five to seven years of the initial stage. In this stage more problems occurs specially in the maintenance of the new language acquired. One of them is the too fluency to speak of a native language that enables them to follow the flow of the second language. At the beginning of this stage, teachers widely suggest the emergence of the second language that of the language known by the students’ native tongue. Another hindrance is that, the students may took the language learning easy and may look out the sound of the speech and writing as good and not of its basic content. This occurs specially during the times when students thought they had known enough of the new language now, not peculiar to them. Teachers of children with limited English proficiency need to be not only good models of language use but also the good representation of someone the students could look up to in terms of enjoyable learning and camaraderie. In particular, they should give buoyancy to the children to practice English as much as possible. Providing these students corroboration of speech and writing by intensifying on the childrens vocabulary repertoire and by speaking coherently even ahead of a small group will help them adjust more of the said language Adjustments in instruction, however, should not include a lowering of standards and setting off the traditional records for these children and this would only be possible with the aid of the school administration itself. The instructors should formidably do their task of finding more ways to improve the speech and writing abilities of these students that will promote new techniques and would eventually lead them to be more intelligible adults of their era. If they weren’t willing to participate in class, this doesnt mean they are not learning but just think that they are willing and so, lead them to further advancements for them to gather enough confidence. There are no such fast learners. As soon as they become fluent to the new language, they would become easily at ease adapting and using what is taught to them. References: Haynes, J. ( 2005 ) Stages of Second Language Acquisition. Retrieved April 25, 2007 from http://www. everythingesl. net Reed, B. ( 2003 ) Overview of the Second Language Acquisition Theory. Retrieved April 25, 2007 from http://www. nwrel. org/request/2003may/overview. html John Stanford International School. Stages of Second Language Acquisition. Retrieved April 25, 2007 from http://www. seattleschools. org/schools/JohnStanfordIntlSchool/Teaching/kand1/immersion_stages. html.

Work Of Muhammad Anwar Al Sadat History Essay

Work Of Muhammad Anwar Al Sadat History Essay On the sixth of October 1981, Anwar el Sadat reviewed the troops on the anniversary of the 1973 war. When all of a sudden a vehicle veered out of the marching column, men stormed out throwing hand grenades and firing with machine guns. Many were wounded and eleven dead, among them Anwar Sadat. Those men were uniformed men, which means they belonged to the Egyptian Army. Again this means that the Egyptian President was assassinated by his own army. Thus, many questions occur; who why etc. In order to find the answers, one has to dive into the life, events and history of this distinguished, controversial character, on whose tomb was carved, A man who lived for principles and died for peace. Muhammad Anwar Al Sadat (25december1918-6 October 1981) was the third President of Egypt, serving from 15 October 1970 until his assassination on 6 October 1981. He was a senior member of the free officers group that overthrew the Muhammad Ali Dynasty in the Egyptian Revolution of 1952, a close confidant of Gamal Abdel Nasser, whom he succeeded as President in 1970. He was born on the 25th of December 1918 Mit Abu al-Kum, Egypt. Died on the 6th of October 1981 (aged 63). In his eleven years ruling as president he changed Egypts direction, departing from some of the economic and political principles of Nasserism by reinstituting the multi-party system and launching the Infitah. His leadership in the October war of 1973 and the regaining of Sinai made him an Egyptian hero. His visit to Israel and the eventual Israel-Egypt peace posthumously, but was an act enormously unpopular with the Arab world and Islamists, and resulted in Egypt being expelled from the Arab League. Plotting against British Rule and King Farouk As a schoolboy, Sadat frequently demonstrated against the British, who occupied Egypt at that time. His heroes were all nationalists: Mahatma Gandhi, Adolf Hitler, Ataturk, and Egyptians Saad Zaghlul, Mustafa Kamil, and Mustafa Nahhas. He also admired a peasant martyr from Dinshaway (near Mit Abul Kom) whom the British had executed in 1906. One result of the 1936 treaty which Prime Minister Nahhas signed with the British was the opening of the military academy to lower middle class youths like Sadat and Gamal Abdel Nasser. Sadat graduated from the academy in 1938 and was posted to Manqabad in Upper Egypt. There he first met Nasser, a leader by nature, serious and somewhat aloof. The enthusiastic young officers talked politics, debating the best way to rid their country of the British. In 1939 Sadat entered the Signal Corps. While Nasser was off in the Sudan, Sadat plotted direct action against the British. Occasionally he met with Hassan Al-Banna, the Supreme Guide of the Muslim Brotherhood, a group of religious zealots who wanted to root out Western and secular influences and turn Egypt into a theocracy. Axis forces based in Libya pushed into Egypt in 1941, hoping to seize the vital Suez Canal. In the following year the British arrested Sadat for plotting with two German spies who were living in a Nile houseboat and trying to send information to Rommels army. Escaping from jail in October 1944, Sadat hid out until the end of the war which made it safe for him to resurface. He then participated in an unsuccessful attempt on the life of former Prime Minister Nahhas, who had cooperated with the British during the war. Sadats role in the killing of Amin Osman, an Anglophile politician, landed him back in jail in January 1946. Sadats friendship with King Farouks private doctor linked him to the Iron Guard, a secret palace organization which struck at the kings enemies. The trial of Sadat and others in the Amin Osman case was overshadowed by the outbreak of the 1948 Arab-Israeli war. The principal defendant escaped; Sadat and the others were acquitted and released. After dabbling in business schemes for a year or two Sadat won reinstatement in the army. He reestablished contact with Nassers circle, which were now calling themselves Free Officers and planning to overthrow the corrupt and inept government. The riots of January 1952 destroyed foreign-owned businesses throughout Cairo and completed the publics disillusionment with the king and the old politicians. Nasser summoned Sadat to Cairo from his post in Sinai on the evening of July 22, 1952. But finding no further message from his chief, Sadat took his family to the movies and nearly missed the coup. However, it was Sadat who broadcast the news of the coup to the public on the morning of July 23. King Farouk was sent into exile and Brigadier Mohamed Naguib served as the Free Officers front man until Nasser broke with him and put him under house arrest in 1954. The posts Sadat held during the Nasser years were not quite at the center of power. He edited the regimes newspaper, al-Gumhuriya. He served as secretary-general of the Islamic Congress and of the National Union, the forerunner of the Arab Socialist Union and Egypts only political party. During the 1960s he was speaker of the National Assembly. Sadat, along with Field Marshall Abdel Hakim Amer, bears much of the responsibility for Egypts disastrous involvement in the Yemeni civil war (1962-1967). Then Egypts defeat by Israel in the 1967 Six-Day War nearly destroyed Nassers regime. Aware of his ill-health and of plots against him, Nasser named Sadat vice president at the end of 1969. Nicknamed Major Yes-Yes for his acquiesces to Nassers wishes; Sadat had outlasted most of the other Free Officers who might have inherited the presidency. During Nassers presidency During the presidency of Gamal Abdel Nasser, Sadat war appointed Minister of State in 1954. In 1959, he assumed the position of Secretary to the National Union. Sadat was the president of the National Assembly (1960-1968) and then vice president and member of the presidential Council in 1964. He was reappointed as vice president again in December 1969. Presidency After Nassers death in 1970, Sadat succeeded him as President, but it was widely considered that this presidency would be shortly lived. Viewing him as having been little more than a puppet of the former President, Nassers supporters in government settled on Sadat as someone they could easily manipulate. Nassers supporters were well satisfied for six months until Sadat instituted the Corrective Revolution and purged Egypt of most of its other leaders and other elements of the Nasser era. In 1971, Sadat endorsed in a letter the peace proposals of UN negotiator Gunnar Jarring which seemed to lead to a full peace with Israel on the basis of Israels withdrawal to its pre-war borders. This peace initiative failed as neither the United States nor Israel accepted the terms discussed then. Sadat likely perceived that Israels desire to negotiate was directly correlated to how much of a military threat they perceived from Egypt, which after the Six-Day war of 1967, was at an all time low. Israel also viewed the most substantial part of the Egyptian threat as the presence of soviet equipment and personnel (in thousands at this time). It was for those reasons that Sadat expelled the Soviet military advisers from Egypt and proceeds to whip his army into shape for a renewed confrontation with Israel. 6th October War On the sixth of October, 1973 the shattering, unexpected news broke and spread all over the world. A war was launched by the Egyptian army against the Israelis putting an end to the latter occupation of some Egyptian and Syrian lands. The long-awaited victory was achieved. Bar Lev line was devastated, and the legend of the invincible Israeli army was dispelled. Using petrol as a weapon was for the first time declared in this war by King Faisal, the king of Saudi Arabia. This bold, decisive and wise action had indirect tremendous effects on that war, as it was an ingenious way of forcing the leaders of many (if not all) countries to change their over supportive policy towards Israel. The glorious triumph of Egypt and Syria following the 1973 war, restored dignity throughout Egypt and the Arab World, and for years Sadat was known as the hero of the crossing. Without faith you might just as well commit suicide. Those words were stated by Sadat reflecting his belief in God and himself wh ich are weapons no non-believer can fight. Besides, self confidence is the last thing Anwar Sadat lacked. Being announced by that faith and confidence, Sadat became the first Arab leader to visit Israel and speak before the Knesset in Jerusalem seeking a permanent peace settlement. The Egyptian-Israeli Peace Treaty The Camp David Accords between Israel and Egypt in 1978 led to a negotiated peace between those two nations signed in Washington DC on March 26, 1979, the first between Israel and any of its Arab neighbors. Israel had a consistent policy since its founding in 1948 that called for direct, one-to-one negotiations as the method of resolving disputes with the Arab countries, but until Sadat brought Egypt to the table no Arab country had been willing to even talk to Israel. Sadat and Begin shared the 1978 Nobel Peace Prize for their historic agreements. However, the initiative was far from universally popular in other Arab countries or even Sadats own country, Egypt. Other Arab nations, and especially the Palestinians, saw Egypts agreement with Israel as a stab in the back, leaving them weaker and with less bargaining leverage against Israel. Without Egypt, the united Arab front had no credibility. Sadat became isolated in the Arab world and increasingly unpopular at home, conditions that finally led to his assassination in 1981. Since the signing of the treaty, Egypt has stood by its commitments, even after President Sadat was assassinated by Muslim extremists. The Israel-Egypt peace pact was denounced by all other Arab states and no further progress was made toward an end the Israel-Arab conflict until the Madrid Conference in 1991. Unpopularity and conspiracy theories The last years of Sadats reign were marked by turmoil and there were several allegations of corruption against him and his family. In January 1977, a series of Bread Riots protested Sadats economic liberalization and specifically a government decree lifting price controls on basic necessities like bread. 120 buses and hundreds of buildings burned in Cairo alone. Dozens of nightclubs on the famous Pyramids Street were sacked by Islamists. Following the riots the government reversed itself and recontrolled prices. Near the end of his presidency, most of Sadats advisors resigned in protest of his internal policies. The deaths of the Defense Minister Ahmed Badawi and 13 senior Egyptian Army officers in a helicopter crash on 6 march 1981 near the Libyan border increased the public anger at Sadat and his policy. C:UsersSaifDesktopnEO_IMG_DSC_7083.jpg Sadats Tomb, with a memorial of the Unknown Soldiers. Islamistis were enraged by Sadats Sinai treaty with Israel, particularly the radical Egyptian Islamic Jihad. According to interviews and information gathered by journalist Lawrence Wright, the group was recruiting military officers and accumulating weapons, waiting for the right moment to a launch a complete overthrow of the existing order in Egypt. Chief strategist of El-Jihad was Aboud el-Zumar, a colonel in the military intelligence whose plan was to kill the main leaders of the country, capture the headquarters of the army and State Security, the telephone exchange building, and of course the radio and television building, where news of the Islamic revolution would then be broadcast, unleashing-he expected- a popular uprising against secular authority all over the country. Assassination and aftermath On 6 October 198, the month after the crackdown, Sadat was assassinated during the annual victory parade in Cairo. A fatwa approving the assassination had been obtained from OmarAbdel-Rahman, a cleric later convicted in the U.S for his role in 1993 World Trade Center bombing. Sadat was protected by four layers of security and the army parade should have been safe due ammunition-seizure rules. However, the officers in charge of that procedure were on hajj to Mecca. As air force Mirage jets flew overhead, distracting crowd, a troop truck halted before the presidential reviewing stand, and a lieutenant strode forward. Sadat stood to receive his salute, whereupon the assassins rose from the truck, throwing grenades and firing assault rifles rounds. The attack lasted about two minutes Photographer Bill Foley captured one of the last shots of a living Sadat. The photograph is titled The Last Smile. The lead assassin Khalid Islambouli shouted Death to pharaoh! as he ran towards the stand and shot Sadat. After he fell to the floor people around Sadat threw chairs on his body to try to protect him from bullets. Eleven others were killed, including the Cuban ambassador, an Omani general and a Coptic Orthodox bishop, and 28 were wounded including James Tully, the Irish minister of defense, and four U.S military liaison officers. Sadat was then rushed to a hospital, but was declared dead within hours. This was the first time in Egyptian History that the h ead of state had been assassinated by an Egyptian citizen. Two of the attackers were killed and the others were arrested by military police on-site. Islambouli was later found guilty and was executed in April 1982. Maybe now, we became able to find sensible answers to the previously mentioned questions; who why etc. In addition, we get to fully understand the words engraved on his tomb and how appropriate they are. He was really a man who lived for principles and died for peace. Quotes Said By Anwar Al Sadat Fear is, I believe, a most effective tool in destroying the soul of an individual and the soul of a people. Many people seek after what they do not possess and are thus enslaved by the very things they want to acquire There is no happiness for people at the expense of other people Love is what we were born with. Fear is what we learned here. You block your dream when you allow your fear to grow bigger than your faith. Russians Can give you arms but only United States can give you a solution.

OBriens Things They Carried Essay: An American Nightmare

History has shaped every country and their people, in particular negative experiences like the Holocaust in Nazi-Germany or the Vietnam war, involving the United States in a grueling controversy from 1964 until 1975. The author Tim O'Brian confronts an American audience in his short stories "The Things They Carried" with the inhumane consequences of political and military power decisions by rewriting history from a subjective,individual point of view. Thus he forces the audience to take a stand, to ask questions, to get morally and ethically involved. The narrative structure of the "Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong" and "How to Tell a True War Story" contains two levels, the first on being a discourse about the characters of Vietnam stories. The "I", the narrator, introduces 'Rat' Kiley as his source for the narrative that follows. He characterizes stories about war as "strange", "swirling back and forth across the border between trivia and bedlam, the mad and mundane". The stories have a life of their own, reality is not absolute, not final. With this image he describes the ambiguity of war itself, the normality that turns into insanity, he summarizes the narrative about Mary Ann Bell and her experiences with the war. The narrator clearly states the purposes of these stories, he is not interested in factual truths about the war, he openly questions the reliability of his source: "Rat had a reputation for exaggeration and overstatement". He wants the audience to "feel exactly what he felt", an emotional experience, a subjective app roach. The second narrative level tells the story about Mary Ann Bell, the "Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong". The narrator, probably the author, retells Rat's story in his own words, so that t... ...ositive as well as its negative accomplishments. But how is this to be done, how do we deal with history personally and politically? Ths author Tim O'Brian gives us one answer in "How to Tell a True War Story" on page 69: "You can tell a true war story if it embarrasses you. It you don't care for obscenity, you don't care for the truth; if you don't care for the truth, watch how you vote. Send guys to war, they come home talking dirty". In other words if you don't want war watch how you vote. The connotation of this statement is far reaching, it naturally places responsibility on the American government for having participated in the war, but it foremost appeals to the american public to take responsibility and to use this history, this story to create a better future. Works Cited: O'Brien, Tim. The Things They Carried.New York: Penguin Books USA Inc., 1990.

United States Intelligence Agencies :: essays research papers fc

Although the cold war has ended and the Soviet Union has disbanded, there is still a need of intelligence collection for the United States. Finding itself as the leader of the rest of the world, the United States must prepare to identify problems as they arise, the earlier the detection, the more likelihood for success. With any one intelligence agency having too much information, problems could arise; therefore, it is imperative to keep a close watchful eye on these agencies to ensure that personal rights are not infringed upon. The success of intelligence gathering agencies is hard to determine. It is difficult to argue that covert operations had much of an impact on the outcome of the cold war (Nutter), but the cold war was not and is not the only objective for intelligence agencies. In fact, since the cold war the intelligence agencies of the United States have accomplished several tasks set before them; for instance, assisting other countries in identifying terrorists like Carlos the Jackal in Sudan, the head of the Shining Path in Peru, and the ring leader of the World Trade Center Bombing in the Philippines. As the leader of the world in the 21ST century, the United States intelligence agencies must keep up this highest level of information gathering procedures in order to stay ahead of any upcoming problems down the road. With intelligence gathering operations being utilized as collection assets on embassies of opposing nations based in the United States, careful consideration must be used when working so close with the American public. Everyday information that may appear irrelevant could be very valuable to domestic or foreign-based companies for advertising campaigns, marketing forecasts, and price gouging. This type of information leakage is a violation of an American’s rights. One problem with having so much information at home and abroad is seeing the correct way to solve dilemmas before they occur. While in war actions of questionable ethics often go unanswered and are hardly given a second thought. In 1941 when the Czech military intelligence service approached the British Special Operations Executive for assistance in an assassination of a German SS Officer no questions were raised, not even about who the target maybe (Richelson). With any agency possessing too much knowledge internally, it may choose to take the short road to ensure success of a mission. Thus, the American public should support the United States intelligence agencies, but keep a close watchful eye on them as well.

People Like Us :: Literary Analysis, David Brooks

This essay will discuss the intrinsic relationship between diversity conceptualization and social integration presenting a response against David Brooks’ essay entitled â€Å"People Like Us.† In order to do this I will discuss four crucial elements: the influences of different definitions of diversity in cultural unification, Brook’s ideas about social groups working together and social groups coexisting together, the importance of diversity, and the influence of diversity in social changes. I will examine why some people have the perception that our American society ignore or see as unworthy diversity. Thus, I will dispute Brook’s view stating that our society disregards diversity, and Americans just pretend that it is important to them. First, I will discuss the influences of different definitions of diversity in cultural unification. The major problem concerning this issue is that many people differ in the real meaning of the concept and how they view their personal involvement. Brook argues that â€Å"we do not really care about diversity all that much in America, even though we talk about it a great deal† (306). However, they are the general, erroneous interpretations of diversity that are really creating this wrong image of indifference. According to Kira Hudson Banks in her research entitled â€Å"A Qualitative Investigation of Students’ Perceptions of Diversity,† many people defined diversity as race and do not include other types of diversity (153). The real definition of diversity includes different elements of the identity and culture of each person. Diversity involves cultural differences, such as origins, religious or political affiliation, race, and gender, and other more profound differences, such as experiences and personality. As Banks argues in her research, the real definition involves several elements of our identity (149). Therefore, the way in which we define and conceptualize diversity affects the way in which we interact with people of others culture, race, and affiliations. Second, I will discuss Brook’s ideas about social groups working together and social groups coexisting in a specific area. According to Brooks, in the United States we cannot see neighborhoods with different races or cultures because people always try â€Å"to group themselves with people who are basically like themselves† even in their workplaces (306-307). He makes this asseveration giving just an example on how wealthy Democratic and Republican lawyers do not tend to buy expensive houses in the same neighborhoods (307). However, in our country we can see middle class neighborhoods where we have different social groups coexist together, such as Coral Gables in Miami, Fl or Pembroke Pines in Broward, Fl.