Reaction to the Flour Riots 1877

Hi, my name is Marcela. This is a reaction from my Violence in American Art and Culture class readings. We been reading and discussing riots in the early years in America. Why and how these riots have occurred. We also have discuss if these riots are justified or not. For example, the flour riots. In my opinion I believe that these riots are justified. We all need food to survive, it’s one of our essential needs to live, if they take our only means of survival, the lack of food and water would make us sick and die of dehydration and starvation. In the book the author mentions that the people aren't dying of hunger but are close. He talks about how these people are starving and riots are erupting to stop the hunger. He describes the people who are on these riots as opportunist and they have no right to have riots because they aren't starving or dying from the lack of food. They are just merely starving and they are complaining for the flour price going up. The author seem really indecisive throughout the article. He first starts saying how these people are complaining about flour prices and how they shouldn't and yet he says he understands and somehow he agrees with them. Does the author really understand these people? 

Reactions to "1877 rail riots" article

Hi my name is Marcela. I am reacting to the “1877 riots: the rail riots of 1877” article, because I feel like the author seems to despise the people who are going on riots and I also want to react to the strikes and unions. In general I believe that riots/strikes lead to create unions. For better or worse now we have unions. In the article the author talks about how he believes the people that are in these riots should be treated like dirt. In my opinion people shouldn't be treated like that, because we all humans and we are equal. What I want to focus on is about when a group of people go on a strike because of working conditions or because of wage salaries, the owners of the job place, in the article the owners of the railroads decide to fire the people on strike and hire new employees for a lesser wage. I feel this is unfair because the people who are replacing this employers are getting pay very low and now the people who were employed and had a somewhat stable job are jobless. Although they are going on strike for a good cause, they are being let to suffer for their actions. Should these people keep going on riots, even if it means losing their jobs? Is going on strike/riots for everyone benefit worth it? I believe the people who replaced these workers that are on strikes aren’t valuing themselves, because they allowing these “bosses” take advantages of them. Take for example today’s economy and what is going on in many of  our states, people in the fast food chain and other companies are protesting for the minimum wage to go up and better working conditions. We can reflect that back then in 1877 rail riots and other riots that they asking for the same thing, better working conditions and better wages.