Month: October 2020

Grace O’Malley: The Great Irish Pirate Queen

When you think about pirates, you probably think about the swashbuckling sailors who ravaged the Caribbean plundering everywhere they went. You probably think of famous pirates too such as Black Beard or Captain Kidd. But what if I told you there was a pirate who was tougher, smarter and had much more influence than any of those simple Caribbean pirates? You would probably go “Yeah right! No one is cooler than Black Beard!”. But you would probably change your mind after this.

Grace O’Malley was the daughter of a chieftain in the early 16th century where it was impossible for women to gain any power. This would cause her to focus on education during her adolescence where she would learn many languages such as Latin, English, and French. O’Malley would continue to learn but at the same time, learn the ways of captaining a ship from her father. Her clan were seafarers, so frequently she would accompany her father when they sailed. Life on the sea was tough, and it would teach O’Malley leadership perseverance. So what all these factors give you, is a child who is well educated, can captain a ship, knowledgeable of the politics of Ireland. The right mix of everything a person needs to become one of the greatest pirates to ever live.

As her life continued, she would marry but that wouldn’t stop her from doing what she ended up loving to do, pirate. Grace O’Malley was able to inspire her fellow man into following her to the sea. Today this would not be too crazy (except the whole pirate thing), but back then, a woman with this power is unheard of. But it’s important to know that she didn’t have institutional power that requires people to follow her, what she had was respect, and the ability to inspire and lead others.

A blog post would not be able to fully capture the full extent of Grace O’Malley’s awesomeness, so I’ll just tell you her most famous story.

Grace O’Malley had recently led a rebellion and has constantly been harassing the English who has been trying to impose their will on the Irish people. She would raid and raid but if it wasn’t for the betrayal of some other Irish chieftains, her rebellion would have succeeded. So the main enforcer of English power in Ireland captured and held O’Malley’s own son and cousin as prisoners with the intent to execute them. So what does Grace O’Malley do? She goes to Queen Elizabeth herself and gets them free.

I’m gonna let that sit for a second.

Grace O’Malley decided that instead of going to the enforcer, she thought it would be more clever to go to his queen and argue and make a case for her son and cousin. What ended up happen was incredible, Queen Elizabeth was impressed with O’Malley and decided that she was right and let them free. But she asked O’Malley to stop pirating which of course O’Malley agreed to. But of course, that didn’t happen and after getting her family, O’Malley broke her word and continued to pirate until she was 70, which was old for her time.

 

Paradigm Shift Reflection

The process of writing the Paradigm Shift paper has taught me many things of both myself and many other interesting things.

One of the biggest things that I have learned was my need to do better by inserting in-text citations and organizing my paragraphs in the best way possible. My partner with the peer review was able to convey this information to me without being a jerk about it, so for that, I am grateful.

Another way I learned was through the actual researching process. I was given insight into how different airport and plane security was before 9/11. I was blessed to be able to travel a lot when I was young and recently when I was in high-school, so I know a lot about how an airport runs and the security. So to learn about how lax airports were back in the day really helped give me perspective and appreciate the importance of the extra measures that are taken today to prevent another tragedy like 9/11.

I hope that my reader realizes that major life changes can happen at the drop of a dime. That people will do things and change and adapt in the name of security and protection even if that would mean the potential opportunity to hurt others. But I hope the reader realizes the importance of measures that are taken today are probably the result of something horrible happening in the past and to appreciate them.

This project has helped me learn more about my own process as a writer and what I need to work on. For example, I tend to fill out a weak outline that ends up hurting me later in the paper when I reach a point where I do not know what to write. I know I need to work on this now and I will make the extra effort to do so in the next paper.

Paradigm Shift Outline- Immigration & Border Security After 9/11

Introduction-

Hook- Unless you are older than the age of  30, you probably do not know what it was like to fly or from an American airport without TSA and strict rules.

Establish a shift occurred- Before the horrible tragedy of 9/11, it was not uncommon to show up to flight 30 minutes before departure, now, you have to at least give yourself 2-3 hours in case the lines are long.

Thesis- After the tragedy of 9/11, the United States fundamentally changed its approach and thought process to immigration and border security through new security acts, tougher airport security, and more closed borders.

Body-

A. Immigration-the action of coming to live permanently in a foreign country.

Example: Before 9/11, the processes of immigration were much more relaxed. Historically, America has been for the most part very welcoming and open to immigrants and after the events of 9/11, multiple security agencies such as ICE were created in the name of protection of our borders.

B. Although there were some reasons why people wanted to tighten the borders, especially the southern one, 9/11 ultimately caused the shift to more restrictive mindsets and regulations on immigration.

Example: The multiple agencies that were created to protect the borders and deport illegal immigrants, especially those who were Muslim at the time.

C. Scholars are saying that the consequences of the shift of mindest on immigration in the US have and could lead to many people becoming less accepting and prejudiced against a certain group of people such as Hispanics and Muslims.

Conclusion

Relate the shift to what is happening today and the thought process of people today on immigration. Also, suggest what the trends could lead to and the different outcomes that could occur when talking about immigration and border security.

 

The Sandwich That Started World War I

The year is 1914, and the world is about to go to war due to a sandwich…….

But in all seriousness, there were many factors that caused World War I to happen. Europe was changing, and with that many countries were either trying to prove themselves because they were young such as Germany, or dying off such as the Ottoman Empire. The slowly dying empires in mainland Europe were having to give up land because the people within those empires wanted to form their own independent empires. Austria-Hungary was one such empire and specifically, the people of Serbia wanted freedom. Serbian Nationalists were extremely angry with the Austria-Hungary Empire and viewed those in charge as oppressors. Now, with some of these pieces together, you get a little better understanding of the current state of Europe.

Arch-Duke Ferdinand was next in line of succession of the Austria-Hungary Empire and he and his wife went to visit Sarajevo, Serbia on June 28th,1914. You can probably see the issue with that, right? The successor to the Austria-Hungary Empire was to visit Serbia, a place currently really not liking the empire that was filled with nationalist. Not only that, but June 28th was the anniversary of a famous battle the Serbs fought in that was a symbol of pride for the Serbians. So many nationalists viewed the visit as insulting and even fewer wanted to do something about it.

A small group of extremists known as the Black Hand, after hearing about the visit, made a plan to assassinate the Arch-Duke while he parading around Sarajevo. They gathered small arms and bombs and planned that at multiple points within the parade an assassin would attempt to kill the Arch-Duke.

On June 28th, 1914, Arch-Duke Ferdinand and his wife, Sophie, took part in a parade in an open-top cab surrounded by guards and other officials. There was a big gathering for the parade and for the most part, was pretty happy. But as the couple made their way through the parade, one by one an assassin would either misfire or get cold feet. Until finally, at the very end of the parade, one of the assassins threw a bomb at the cab. He missed and ended up injuring almost 20 people. This would cause the rest of the parade to flew with the Arch-Duke relatively ok. One of the assassins, Serb Gavrilo Princip, who never got his chance saw the plan fail and lost hope, and decided to get a sandwich for comfort food(very important).

The Arch-Duke and his wife decided that they would visit the people injured by the attack in the hospital, even though they were advised not to. This led to them going into their cab and go to the hospital. Their driver, not being from the area, took a wrong turn and accidentally stalled out the car in front of a sandwich shop, the same sandwich shop Serb Gavrilo Princip decided to get his sandwich from. When he saw his opportunity, Princip took two shots and killed both the Arch-Duke and his wife, Sophie.

The assassination of Arch-Duke Ferdinand was the catalyst of World War I and without it, there would have been no World War II a Cold War. So the decision of one assassin, to get a sandwich as comfort food, led to the deaths of millions and the destruction of Europe.

 

The Paradigm Shifts of Immigration in the United States

My current choice of a paradigm shift for the paradigm shift paper is the United State’s views on immigration. I plan to view the different types of legislation that have been passed over the years that directly affect immigration into America as well as the public opinion on such legislation and views on immigrants in general. The time period that I have decided to look at is going to be pre-Revolutionary War colonies into America to the current day, so it would be from about 1750s-2020s. I want to tell the story of how the views of immigration into America has flipped multiple times during American history. That the view of immigration has not been just one big change, but many changes.

I believe that this focus is important to talk about and discuss because it’s a big issue that many people are very polarized about. Immigration was one of the main talking points for the 2016 election between President Trump and former Secretary of Defence, Hilary Clinton. Also, I believe that the more people know about our countries history and previous thought process on immigration, it will allow people to get a better understanding of the issue and see the possible effects of decisions to limit and open up the US to immigration. People need to get a better understanding of everything that is talked about during debates so they can formulate their own opinion instead of taking the side of their party every single time. And history can teach and reveal a lot about not only these issues but ourselves as well.