Author: Jose Quintero

Throughout the times that there were still small buildings, one was starting to be built to touch heights that haven’t been reached yet. Allowing the time for one of the most famous pictures of the time period of construction workers eating lunch, overlooking Manhattan. And many more will be built with the idea of a steel support at the bottom. However, the first skyscrapers were built during the Progressive Era; a time where the middle class step back and look at what can be improved on their country. Such changes included the Government monopolistic practices, women’s right to vote, and for this conversation, Enforcing work related regulations onto jobs. With this, peoples perception on what should and shouldn’t be considered normal within jobs like factories, rail work and construction are turned to be not only more critical on the employer, but to also give more control to the employee if a work related accident is to occur. However, when learning about this time period it seems to always focus on factories being sweatshops and rail work being dangerous, but never the increasing average height of buildings. Was there any laws or regulations regarding the creation of these skyscrapers and who are the people responsible for these. These high-rise buildings that stand tall should have a story that could be just as interesting as the rest of the Progressive movement and that’s what I want to figure out.

After reading Bilal Rahmani’s Chronicles of a Once Pessimistic College Freshman, it seems that the College is Rahmani’s Intellectual Home. This can be inferred from how Rahmani’s attitude toward the college changed, where on a certain day in college, where their stance on an author and story, Hemingway’s Cat in the Rain, changed. This thought process was altered from their classmates different opinions on the author, with one on them standing out, calling Hemingway a misogynist. It was from these differing opinions that Rahmani finally started to enjoy his time in college, since it forced them to think of the story in ways they would have never thought of. Due to what seems to be a self reinforced notion that their stance on a story trumps anyone else’s opinion, which is supported from Rahmani’s knee-jerk reaction, calling this a “minor slip-up”. It seems that, in their own hindsight, they realized that they were giving themselves an inflated ego. Calling their peers idiots, only because the college Rahmani originally wanted to go to, was somehow better in every way to the place they ended up in. It was from this wake-up call that they finally changed a monotonous life style, to one that they can participate and give back to, not only willingly, but also joyfully as well.