Author Archives: akoester

Sports in Washington, D.C.

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The topic I plan to pursue is the history of sports in Washington D.C. The area is a huge political mark in America and sports are also huge in America. There is a lot of government involved in sports also. A huge part of American sports today is the legislation of Title IX. Title IX brought equality to women and men in the education system, and then it translated to sports also. Now women’s sports is more equal to men’s than ever before. The geographical landscape of DC has also made it difficult at times to hold sporting events. With many rivers, streets, and national monuments, building stadiums for sports has been difficult to do. Interest in sports in Washington, D.C. has been pretty low until recently. The struggle of developing sports in the nation’s capital has been tremendous.

Topics in History

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Sports

Since I am in love with sports, I think sports are a huge part of society. Sports contribute to many people’s everyday lives. The history of sport has been very impacting on the development of our culture in the world today. Things that occur in sports that do affect our society are people like Jackie Robinson. He was the first professional black baseball player in America, and because of this it caused a lot of tension. After people began to accept him as a baseball player, the color barrier in America seemed to diminish. Other than just the racial problems in sports, America can be reunited from sports when things aren’t the greatest. Last year in Boston was a difficult time because of the Boston Marathon bombings. When the Boston Red Sox took the field soon after the tragedy, the whole stadium was brought together by a simple game of baseball. After winning the World Series, the Red Sox brought life back to the city of Boston. Throughout history, sports have brought people together and seriously impacted the society we live in today. I want to learn more about events that have occurred that influence our daily lives. To further my research, I would probably inquire about things such as why sports are related to politics so much. Sports were made as just a game for fun, and yet they are connected to politics every game. Every game the players and spectators stand and admire the National Anthem. What does a song have to do with the game about to be played? What has transpired over the course of history to make sports and politics become to closely related?

Crime

Crime throughout the world has always been a detrimental thing. People are usually taught and raised to not be people who commit crimes, or do things against the law. So why do people do it? What is different about the way some people are raised compared to others who end up in trouble with the law? No one wants to go to jail, it’s a terrible place. It is confusing and yet interesting why some people commit the crimes they do such as murder and rape. At what point from the beginning of the human existence did people realize we humans were capable of things like murder and rape? And if everyone knows you will go to jail for doing crimes, why are crimes still committed? Research for crime can date back very far in history, and that is a huge surprise to me because of the transformation in technology from before 1,300 to the modern day. Today, there is a huge list of laws that can be broken, but back then they didn’t have as many laws or as many opportunities to commit the crimes they did. I also don’t believe people had the intelligence or bravery to do the crimes they did. The transformation of crimes is unbelievable, and yet very simple still (like murder). The affect a crime being committed can have on society and families is also phenomenal. Families are heavily impacted if a parent goes to jail, and the economy is hurt when people destroy buildings and steal large amounts of valuable objects. Steps to approaching this topic would be to look at crime from the early times, and then look at how much it has changed. Also to look at what were the first major crimes and who decided they were crimes.

Primary Sources of DC

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 http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84026749/1914-02-09/ed-1/seq-1/

This is the newspaper “The Washington Times”. The date was for February 9, 1914. The newspaper shows things like weather, sales, jobs wanted, and government issues. The headlines of this newspaper are mainly presidential actions. The times in DC seem to show there wasn’t a lot going on other than government affairs. After reading these story lines, small crimes were more important and the money was a lot less, in the sense that today a lot of problems are dealt with hundreds of millions of dollars and here it was only $2.3 million. I found this source fairly difficult to work with because of the language used. It was hard to understand the government talk of the early 1900’s. A lot of this newspaper was about government issues so it would be boring and unappealing to a person like me who doesn’t like to read about politics. This paper corroborates well with other newspapers of this time because they all talk about government and local problems that don’t seem like very bad problems in the modern day. Things like someone not wearing the proper clothes to church would be broadcasted in the newspaper back then, however now it’s all about murders, bank robberies and other large crimes.

 http://www.loc.gov/resource/g3850.ct001206/

This primary source is a map of Washington D.C. in 1857. The city clearly wasn’t very defined and detailed at that point. however there are still the same roads and some same landmarks. The Captiol is also labeled in this map. Everything on this map seems to feed into the Capitol. The map also contains all of the house and building numbers. For the 1800’s, this was a pretty good map to read and go off of for directions and such. I think this map would be very good for someone who had no clue how to get around the area. It has house numbers, building names, and street names. The map also has an interesting section of notes that tell the population by the decade, explains how many certain pieces of infrastructure there are, and the size of the city. The notes section even explains how the roads are named and setup.

Current map of Washington, D.C.

Website Reviews

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9/11 Memorial Website

The 9/11 Memorial website is more of a museum type website. The website is very user friendly and intriguing. The site shows different categories for people to be able to plan a visit to the memorial, donate to the memorial, tour the museum and learn about the 9/11 significance. The main purpose of this site is to show people how 9/11 affected America, and paying tribute to the lives that were lost during the tragedy. The site also gives the users the ability to view the 9/11 in memorial through a tour. There is also a Google Earth 3D tour available. There is also a way to sign up your email to receive updates on when the website has changes, news and events. The website seems a little to joyful with the colors when you relate it to the tragedy. Normally, a tribute to this kind of event would use darker colors to show sympathy and sadness. However, this site uses a bright blue and gives the affect of happiness and joy. Overall the website is very well off in the fact that it has a tour for any viewer, and the ability to become connected to a big part of patriotism in America.

A Chronology of American Slavery

The table of contents page is really unappealing and not something people would be interested in reading. This website is an archive site with a bunch of photos and letters attempting to show American slavery. The website is nice because you are able to send in your own comments to the page and you are able to sign up for newsletters and events. This website has very long pages and summaries on slavery during certain time periods, however unless the research was needed, many people would not take the time to read this lengthy website. This website would be good for research only purposes but as for someone who is purely interested in these facts and archives, they probably wouldn’t like the site because of how boring and unappealing it seems.

9/11 Memorial

HIST 390

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My name is Alexander Koesters, but I go by my middle name Ryan. I am a freshman living on campus and I am a sport management major. I’m from Chesapeake, Virginia. Sports are a huge part of my life and I am a fan of the Denver Broncos, New York Yankees, and Tampa Bay Lightning.

Internet Use

My on line experience is very basic but very extensive. I have been using technology and the internet for about 10 years. I have been using social networking sights starting with MySpace and moving onto Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Youtube, and using search engines like Google and Yahoo. The only reading I usually do online is on ESPN or NFL websites. I don’t read very much unless it is sports related. I have been texting and using the internet for a very long time and can do most basic operations with technology. I like to use technology and use it everyday. I hate the fact that colleges and other schools still use so many textbooks when they are so unnecessary. Almost everything can be accessed online and it would be cheaper, easier, and more efficient than textbooks. A lot of people know how to use the internet and computers and would be able to access resources needed for research. Even documents that are primary sources written in the 1400’s can be posted online and available for everyone to read. Technology makes a lot of things easier and being proficient with it will help everyone in the near future.

My preferred website to read