When I was reading the book Give Me Liberty, by Eric Foner, I learned about the causes that people cared about, and the lengths they went through to try and get things such as gender equality and freedom for all African Americans. It's interesting to look at the reforms people are attempting to recieve today, and see their similarities and differences to the originals. For example, Seattle Times writes about today's health care system, which has for a long time been in deep need of reform. However, the author puts a positive spin on the article, with the new election making the future seem brighter. He comments: "No question, it will still be a tough fight. But you can see the possibility of success".
Another online news source, the Des Moines Register, worries about the success of America's education system, using evidence that during 2006, 15 year olds placed 29th on the science exams out of the 57 countries being tested. Clearly the author of this article considers the reform of education a dire cause, in need of immediate help. It's fascinating to see that despite the progress of America, there are still reforms to be made, but they've advanced from things like the improvement of attitudes towards African Americans to improvement of test scores, and from gender equality to equality in health care.
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Great find with those articles, Lena. I also found an article about environmental reforms that Obama wants to make here:
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aGZs6vevDXyg&refer=home
I think that society will always be making reforms, because there is no such thing as a perfect community. I agree with you that as time goes on, these reforms will change based on the interests of the people. Environmental issues, education, and health care are prevalent to today's society the same way racial issues were prevalent back then.
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