Research presentation by Lily Fleenor, 7th grade

1. F O R T H E R I G H T R E A S O N S
UNPOPULAR DECISION

2. HARRIET TUBMAN
Harriet Tubman was born into slavery in 1822. She escaped
from her plantation via the Underground Railroad like many others,
thanks to a conductor’s guidance. However, unlike many others
she actually went back to her plantation to rescue other African
Americans who were highly discriminated against.
This work was highly dangerous, and could also mean her life
if she was ever caught. You see, this action of escaping a slave’s
plantation was already highly illegal. Helping people to escape
could mean death.
As you can see, Harriet Tubman had a cause she really
believed in and she went with it no matter what the anyone else
had to say about it.

3. TXBLUE08
TXBlue08, who never uses her real name, is a mother of four
from Texas who writes a blog about her life, her children and her
faith. One of her entries was about raising her children without
influencing their faith with religion. Such as, if you are good you’ll go
to heaven, but if you are bad you will go to hell.
http://ireport.cnn.com/docs/DOC-910282
This brave blog entry has caught the attention of a ton of
church blogs and angry commenters. Even CNN had to get
involved on the controversy. TXBlue08 has many supporters that
also raise their children to be independent thinkers and rely on their
own faith.
The decision TXBlue08 made for her children may not have
been the most popular among Christian parents and other blogs,
but it was certainly brave of her to tell others about how her
children’s faith should be determined.

4. APRIL
April is a Chicano who recently graduated college. She has
been inspired by the banning of ethnic classic books. April was
outraged by this act and decided to mix her art and activism
together to make jewelry.
This jewelry represents the reading of banned books. When
you buy a piece of her art, the money all goes to buying banned
ethnic books, which many believe will be all gone.
This work she does gets a ton of racist comments. Such as,
why would anyone want to read a *Mexican book. Many people
however to agree with her cause and believe it’s just wrong to
separate ethnic Americans from their culture.
The work that April does may not be the most popular
among some people, but she is standing up for her culture.
*Mexican wasn’t the word used

5. MASHA GESSEN
Masha Gessen is a lesbian writer, journalist, and gay rights
activist. “It’s a no-brainer that (homosexual activists) should have
the right to marry, but I also think equally that it’s a no-brainer that
the institution of marriage should not exist.…Fighting for gay
marriage generally involves lying about what we are going to do
with marriage when we get there — because we lie that the
institution of marriage is not going to change, and that is a lie.” This
is just one of her many quotes relating to gay marriage.
Masha’s writings are beautifully well written, yet the hate that
Masha has endured by being a gay writer is unimaginable. Some
people have even refused to read her writings because of this. The
quote above is part of a longer article she wrote.
http://www.catholicvote.org/gay-marriage-activist-its-a-no-brainer-
that-the-institution-of-marriage-should-not-exist/
This writing is incredibly brave for a lesbian writer to come out
with.

6. HARRY TRUMAN
Truman was the 33rd president of the US. He was originally
vice president, but when Roosevelt died he had to take over.
Roosevelt only met with Truman two times and thus he wasn’t
informed about some serious political events that would change
history, such as the Manhattan Project.
When Truman was named president he was then told about
the Manhattan Project. As a fast way to finally end World War II, he
decided to fire an atomic bomb on Hiroshima and later Nagasaki.
After he did this, with the American people not even
knowing about the productions of these 2 bombs, Truman's
approval ratings dropped by 20%. So, even though this may've not
been the most popular decision, he did it because he thought it
was the best way to end the war.

7. RAOUL WALLENBERG
Wallenberg was a Swedish humanitarian who saved about
100,000 Jews from Nazis. In these days the holocaust was
attempting to kill every Jew. The governments involved also made it
close to impossible for them to leave the country.
Raoul gave many Jews a safe house and sometimes a fake
passport to travel to a country not involved in the mass murder.
Sometimes the airline officials were bribed to let the Jewish people
on. And sometimes Wallenberg would have to disguise them to get
them on. Wallenberg’s actions were highly illegal, so he was forced
to sleep in a different house every night to keep from getting
caught.
Wallenberg’s actions were very illegal and he risked getting
caught every day. However, he believed that what these people
were doing to Jews was very unfair and he wanted to help any
way he could.