2009 is the Bicentennial of Abraham Lincoln’s birth and to honor this great leader, we’ve teamed up with the Library of Congress for a remix challenge! Click HERE to find everything you need to make a Lincoln Remix!
Need a little inspiration?
Check out this video of the Emancipation Proclamation:
How do the principles and values espoused in that document echo forth into the words of Barack Obama earlier this year?:
Now it’s your turn, click the big red *REMIX* button in the lower right corner of the player to mix and mash America Now with America then - add your voice to the great American Remix!
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Today, the eighth anniversary of the attacks on September 11, 2001, is the first time the event will be commemorated as a national day of service. September 11th was officially recognized as a National Day of Service and Remembrance by the Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act, passed with strong bipartisan support and signed into law by President Obama in April 2009.
In a speech this morning, the President emphasized that honoring the tragedy of the attacks can be done in a way that moves the nation forward; “On a day when others sought to sap our confidence, let us renew our common purpose, let us remember how we came together as one nation, as one people, as Americans united,” Mr. Obama said. “Such sense of purpose need not be a fleeting moment.”
Indeed, in times of darkness throughout America’s history, citizens have resolved to make even small acts of patriotic service count. Benjamin Franklin founded the first volunteer firehouse in 1736, a civic tradition that continues today in many communities. During the war for American independence, patriots organized boycotts of English products and raised money for arms. Throughout the 19th century, churches, clubs, and organizations like the American Red Cross began to encourage individual participation in national service.
The Great Depression left many citizens destitute, but Americans rose to the occasion even while struggling to find work. Volunteers staffed bread lines to feed those in need, and a bevy of public service projects initiated by President Roosevelt provided a path to service. One of these projects was the Civilian Conservation Corps, an early environmentalist effort that gave young men the opportunity to make a living while improving the American landscape (the group planted over 3 million trees in one decade):
Another iconic American tradition of service sprung to life after the attack on Pearl Harbor and the surge of US involvement in the Second World War; while men were sent abroad to fight, a new generation of patriotic women (immortalized by the image of “Rosie the Riveter”) rushed to the homefront to contribute their service:
Today, the millenial generation has the opportunity to step up to the proverbial civic service plate, with the new administration’s development of national service programs such as the Americorps, not to mention the thousands of organizations that offer volunteer opportunities across the nation. Overall, 27% of Americans engage in civic life by volunteering, a figure that has hit its highest point since the civil rights era. In a 2002 poll, 70% of Americans thought universal service was a good idea. The strength of the country can be found in the efforts of its citizens, even in the aftermath of tragedy.
On September 4th, 1957, Arkansas Governor Orval Faubus deployed the national guard for what could hardly be considered a worthy cause; Faubus intended to bolster the ranks of segregationists who physically blocked nine African-American teenagers who hoped to attend Little Rock Central High after Brown v. Board of Education made integration possible.
The nine students who bravely attempted to reach the front door of their new school were heckled by a hostile crowd and intimidated by the presence of the guard. The incident made national headlines and brought a vivid picture to the American people of the disturbing vitriol that the civil rights movement was met with.
The U.S. Justice Department issued an injunction that ordered Governor Faubus to withdraw the National Guard, and the Little Rock Nine slipped into the school on September 23, 1957. Here’s a clip of the students entering the school, surrounded by protesters:
The nine underwent a challenging year, taunted by parents and peers and subjected to verbal and sometimes physical abuse. Still, their strength and courage became an important symbol of the civil rights movement; they served as an example of dedicated youth who were determined to seek equal opportunity. Here’s a brief news segment with Ernest Green, one of the nine students:
The Little Rock Nine were invited to attend President Obama’s inauguration in January 2009.
While many of the surface-level social barriers to equality have been surmounted in our nation, it’s surprising how much some things have stayed the same. The Little Rock Nine may be history in the sense that it is no longer socially acceptable to decry the integration of schools, but in a more subtle way America is still fundamentally divided. The percentage of black children who now go to integrated public schools is at its lowest level since 1968. For example, 87% of public school children were black or Hispanic; in Washington D.C. this figure was 94%. In Los Angeles, 84%, Detroit, 96%.
Social barriers to integration may not be as pronounced as they were when the Little Rock crisis occurred, but unintentional segregation of schools has barely changed, and in some urban areas, increased. In this sense, the legacy of the Little Rock Nine is unfinished business.
41 years ago today, the city of Chicago was plunged into chaos as anti-war protesters and riot police clashed during the Democratic National Convention.
1968 was an increasingly bleak year for many Americans; Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert Kennedy were assassinated within months of each other, the Vietnam war was at its height, and nuclear tensions still ran high. This mounting stress erupted as the Democratic party convened to nominate a presidential candidate.
Two major groups rallied to protest the Vietnam war; the National Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam drew thousands of protestors in Chicago, and the Yippie movement gathered a more mirthful crowd, engaging in lighthearted antics like nominating their own presidential candidate, “Pigasus the Immortal,” a live piglet.
Over 10,000 protesters were met by riot police, who had been given carte blanche by Chicago mayor Richard Daley to squelch any signs of disorder. Violence ensued for several days, as police reacted with brute force to the protesters, and even innocent bystanders (Dan Rather was famously punched in the gut).
Here’s a clip that shows footage of what became known as a “police riot”:
Also, check out this remix from member reedk1:
The Chicago DNC riots marked a turning point in the history of protest; many activists were turned off by the violence that occurred and dissuaded by the crude response Daley offered. Factions of once-peaceful organizations like the Students for a Democratic Society split off into radical minorities, like the Weather Underground. While some of the violent tactics that these radical groups used were initially successful in gaining public attention, they soon destroyed the movement’s credibility and left the American public with an uneasy feeling that allowed for conservative backlash.
While there is definitely no clear comparison to be made, while dwelling on the events of 1968 and the radicalism that followed, it’s difficult not to think of the current brouhaha surrounding conservative protests. Opponents of healthcare reform, both individual citizens and mobilizing organizations, have been overtaking local political town halls with disruptive protests. On numerous occasions, protestors have even showed up with firearms, a disconcerting trend. Here’s a clip from a town hall meeting that dissolved into vicious heckling in Tampa earlier this month:
Clearly, the anti-reform protesters at this event worked against their own agenda by shutting down any hope of informed, respectful debate where both sides could learn from each other. The fact of the matter is, protest is usually a tool of the political minority, those who feel stripped of majority power. It’s understandable that conservatives now feel threatened by the health care reform debate while they are a minority in Washington, just as anti-war activists have been drawn to protest during periods where the government seems to be set on engaging in conflict abroad.
As marches and letter-writing campaigns are increasingly ignored by the media, those who are in the minority but desperate to make their voices heard may turn to more disruptive, more violent measures; sadly these measures only obstruct political progress.
So how do we protest? Maybe the American political system is too entrenched with corporate lobbyists and a complicated hierarchy of power for protest to be effective in this era, but maybe it isn’t. Perhaps protest movements will find a new, non-violent way to promote their agenda, or revert to old-school communication with local representatives to get their voices heard from the ground up. In any case, both conservative and liberal factions should be able to agree that unproductive, violent, or overtly disruptive protest isn’t going to move our country forwards.
Senator Edward Kennedy, a lifelong champion of progressive politics, died late Tuesday night. He was 77 years old. Born into the infamous Kennedy family, “Teddy” entered politics working on his brother John’s successful 1960 campaign for president. Two years later, just barely old enough to meet the 30 year old age requirement, Ted Kennedy was elected to the Massachusetts senate seat that John vacated for the presidency.
While Ted Kennedy never acquired the glamourous public standing of his older brothers, by avoiding icon status he also escaped the tragedy that plagued the Kennedy clan. Six years after the internationally mourned death of John F. Kennedy, Jr., Ted’s brother Robert was assassinated in Los Angeles while he was campaigning for president. Ted gave a moving eulogy at his brother’s funeral that was one of his memorable public moments.
While many expected Ted to follow in his brothers’ footsteps, a fight for the presidency was never fully realized. After the senator was the driver in a car crash that proved fatal to his passenger Mary Jo Kopechne, scandal plagued Kennedy and it quickly became clear that his insurgent 1980 campaign against incumbent Jimmy Carter for the democratic nomination would not be successful.
Many believe that the fading pressure to ascend out of the senate was a hidden blessing for Kennedy; he became a stalwart on the floor who never failed to emphatically struggle for the American people in need. Kennedy walked with Martin Luther King Jr., and was a passionate proponent of every civil rights initiative that passed in his lifetime. After two trips to Vietnam, the young senator was appalled by the treatment of Vietnamese refugees and became a lifelong skeptic of United States aggression. He was one of the first vocal opponents of the Iraq war under George W. Bush, and voiced loud disappointment with the senate when they authorized the use of force.
Above all, Kennedy was a friend to people in need; while he opposed the war in Iraq he doggedly fought for the safety of American troops, pressuring the Pentagon into providing better equipment and armor. Health care reform was what the senator called “the cause of my life,” and he vowed to fight to “guarantee that every American will have decent quality healthcare as a right and not a privilege.” Indeed, even after his diagnosis with brain cancer, the senator was still fighting in July to pass the bill that now faces the house and senate.
Ted Kennedy became a stalwart in the senate, portrayed by the media as a proponent of old-school liberal politics, and known within Washington circles as a master negotiator, one of the great coalition builders of this century.
Kennedy was one of the first greatly influential political figures to endorse Barack Obama for president, and his support was a tipping point in the race between Obama and Clinton. He made an unexpected appearance at the 2008 Democratic National Convention, and gave a signature, passionate speech reminiscent of his oratory at the end of his 1980 campaign; Kennedy assured that “this November, the torch will be passed again to a new generation of Americans. So, with Barack Obama and for you and for me, our country will be committed to his cause. The work begins anew. The hope rises again. And the dream lives on.”
Kennedy’s legacy, though tinged by personal shortcomings, is ultimately one of immutable dedication to his nation. The third longest-serving senator in United States history, Edward Kennedy was famously captured by an anecdote in a recent biography by Evan Thomas. As the story goes, Ted and his older brother Robert were sitting in a senate session in the 1960s as another member spoke seemingly endlessly on a colorless issue. After some time, Robert, exasperated, leaned to Ted and said, “Do we really have to sit here and listen to this?”
On August 26, 1970, fifty years after women gained the right to vote, prominent leaders of the second wave of feminism led the “Women’s strike for equality,” a nationwide protest meant to foment female activism.
With the rallying cry of “don’t iron while the strike is hot,” over 50,000 women marched in New York city, with smaller groups convening across the country. It was the largest public demonstration for gender equality since the pre-suffrage era.
One leader of the movement was Betty Friedan, who, while at times abrasive, was a compelling and engaging voice of the new feminist movement. Heralded for her 1963 manifesto The Feminine Mystique, Friedan spoke at the rally on the importance of equality not only before the law, but in social contexts as well. Here’s a newsreel from the strike that shows both the women activists and citizens for whom the concept of women’s equality was still dubious:
One year later, congress declared August 26 an annual holiday, Women’s Equality Day. While the first wave of feminism was marked by a fight for civil rights, the movement that Friedan sparked in the 1960s and 1970s placed emphasis on gender equality in all arenas of civil life, from reproduction rights to workplace equality to a value on women as something more than housewives and consumers. Today, women’s issues are still at the forefront of international politics; Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has made clear her dedication to women’s safety, health, and education in developing nations, with an emphasis on women’s ability to promote democracy and wealth through micro-lending and schooling.
In the recent past, Betty Friedan gave a dramatic reading of the 19th Amendment to the United States’ Constitution, which gave women the right to vote:
Last week, Hawaii marked the 50th anniversary of being America’s 50th state. The group of islands in the central Pacific Ocean has had a tumultuous relationship with the United States; annexed in 1898 after the overthrow of the Kingdom of Hawaii, the islands became U.S. territory in 1900.
The annexation of Hawaii is what many view as the first show of American imperialism, and nationalists were dismayed at the forced outing of Queen Lili’uokalani. Years later, congress passed the 1993 “apology bill” that acknowledges misinformation regarding the overthrow of the monarchy and expresses remorse for the “suppression of the inherent sovereignty of the Native Hawaiian people”.
Still, Hawaiian citizens throughout the 20th century were eager for statehood. The islanders hoped that Pearl Harbor would remind the nation of Hawaii’s strategic importance, and those who served in WWII were sure that their patriotic duty would remind the mainland of their loyalty to the states. Many anticipated that the end of the war would signal statehood, and there are even buttons and license plates still floating through collector’s hands that celebrate Hawaii as “the 49th state,” but Alaska would steal this title in 1958.
The island rejoiced one year later in March when the U.S. House of Representatives voted 323 to 89 in favor of granting statehood to Hawaii.
Five months later, on August 21, President Dwight D. Eisenhower made it official, signing the proclamation that welcomed Hawaii as the 50th state of the union. Now, Hawaii celebrates on the third friday of August every year. Check out this historic newsreel that shows the first statehood day festivities!
This year, congresswoman Mazie Hirono honored 50 years of statehood on the house floor.
We just released a new How-To demo which gives you all of the important tips on how to use the Remix America editing software.
Students with more experience in editing can switch from the Easy Editor to the Advanced Editor. The layout of the Advanced Editor is a little more like iMovie and it has a couple exclusive features. For example, the Advanced Editor allows two layers of soundtrack, so you can insert a song AND do a voice over!
Already created a remix on your own software? No problem! Just upload it using the Video Upload button in the upper right hand corner of the home page!
Twenty four years ago today, President Reagan was gearing up for one of his Saturday morning radio addresses. During the sound check, joking around with the technicians, Reagan made the following remark:
This remark was a riff on the intro to his prewritten speech, below:
“My fellow Americans, I’m pleased to tell you that today I signed legislation that will allow student religious groups to begin enjoying a right they’ve too long been denied — the freedom to meet in public high schools during nonschool hours, just as other student groups are allowed to do.”
Although the gaffe wasn’t actually broadcast on national radio, the Soviets got wind of the statement and preemptively put their army on high-alert!
RemixAmerica.org is a multi-partisan, non-profit website that uses the web to give everyone the chance to own the words, the music, the images and sounds of America in digital form; to remix those expressions and ideas with their own; and to send the products of our community's creativity out to the world.
