Hello everyone I’m back with another blog post. This post will actually be part one of two because this project had 2 parts. The trip to the United States and then the actual video. This part will be about the video we made after. Let dive right into it
So before this project we learned of four words resilience, adversity, survival and hope. The first 3 tie into the last which is hope (the topic of our project).
Our driving question for this project was “what lessons and inspiration can we draw from the stories of individuals and communities that have faced tragedy and overcome adversity?
I used unity as my main example in my video. Specifically how unity in traumatic or difficult situations creates hope. I used JFK’s assassination, The Tulsa Massacre, Oklahoma City Bombing and Woody Guthrie as the main examples of my theory.
JFK Assassination:
JFK (John F. Kennedy) was killed on November, 22, 1963 when a man named Lee Harvey Oswald fired three shots from the sixth floor window of the union book depository, two of which hit JFK in the head and neck basically killing him instantly. This had a massive impact on the entire country as they had just lost th,eir president in which they had hope In. However the country quickly mourned and moved on with the new sworn in president LBJ (Lyndon Baines Johnson)
Tulsa Massacre:
Was a racially motivated massacre of the community of greenwood in Tulsa Oklahoma. Burning the entire community to the ground and murdering hundred of men over false accusations. However greenwoods community rebuilt and has honoured that piece of history with tours and paintings.
Oklahoma City Bombing:
On April 19th 1995 a man named Timothy McVeigh drove a Ryder truck packed with exsvplosives and parked it right in front of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City. He detonated it killing 163 people 14 of which were children. After the bomb went off people and first responders rushed to find people still alive in the rubble and pull them to safety After this attack the world was not the same and the people of Oklahoma had to face the trauma they did this by unifying and healing as one
Woody Guthrie:
Woody Guthrie was a man born in the dust bowls during the Great Depression In Oklahoma. His family was rich to start but lost more as the dust bowl continued Woody when he was old enough hit the road and hitched ride on trains to spread positivity and love through music. He would sing about equality among races and love and peace. He was unifying the country in these very hard times. He was creating hope all across america. You may know his song “This Land Is Your Land”🎸
Anyway back to the main part of this post. After I witnessed these historical sites and stories I really understood the meaning of hope. Hope is created from positivity so actions that create that positivity create hope, the biggest example being Guthrie’s positive music. When,,humans are together we feel more comfortable especially in dark times. That comfort is the creator of hope in those dark situations
Here is that video:
Part 2
The trip was really fun I really enjoyed myself on it and learned a lot of things. All the places we visited were stories of hope like Greenwood and Dealey Plaza. I had tons of fun ate lots of good food got to see some really interesting sites and record myself at them. Being at the sites really helped for making my video as I got my own footage. I also got a great interview from our tour guide of Blackwell street/Greenwood he was a massive help when it came to the video and background knowledge
Also massive thanks to Terry Baccus from Greenwood for letting us interview him
Instagram: @terrybaccus
In conclusion there is a lot of knowledge that can be gathered from stories like these. Love and empathy flourish in times and hope is key. Without hope nothing is possible. Hope cannot be forged without resilience, adversity or any sort of comfort. Hope is the key to Survival. I will leave it at that thank you very much for reading, have a good evening. 👋