Advancement or Encumbrance?

When thinking about advancements that we are living with that our parents might not have had the privilege and enjoyment of (if you consider it to be that), technologically, I have no problem coming up with examples. But when it comes to the non-technological advancements, difficulty arrises. I was wondering why this is, for I know that our society has advanced greatly in the last 20 or 30 years in many ways that do not involve technology, but becuase we have gotten to the point where our lives rely so heavily upon our electronic devices, it is a challenge to point upon anything else that has aided the forward movement of our society. Americans especially, are so focused on the cell phones, ipods, computers, internet, etc. But is this so wrong? Should we be allowing ourselves to grow attached to our compact electronics? Is it wrong that I feel like I am without a part of me when I do not have my cellular phone in hand? Or is this just the way of the future? We are living with so many things that people did not have 30 years ago. But whether they advance our society or just create a need for electronics I cannot say. I do know, though, that I cannot imagine my life without these things and for some reason, this idea scares me.

Inappriopriate Impositions

Politics have been a main focus in our nation in the last couple of years as we were preparing for the most recent election. So what better time for teachers to get their students educated on the matter than right now? Going over both the promises and arguments of each political parties' candidates and the changes that they could each potentially bring is essential to the learning process. But what is most unnacceptaple is the imposition of the teacher's personal opinions being put on the students. As most students are not yet educated enough on politics to form their own concrete views, it seems rediculous that a teacher, someone that students look up to, would express their favor for one political party over the other. (Luckily, my American Studies teachers are so amazing and would never do anything of the sort!) The line has most certainly been crossed when a teacher goes as far as to ridicule a student for their opinions that are opposite of those of the teachers. It is one thing when politics is being discussed in an english or history class but when it is being discussed in a second language class and not even in the language that is being learned , then there is a stretch. Becuase as students, we are like sponges, it is in our best interest to not be surrounded with the opinons of older, wiser and more educated adults who find it necessary to push their strong views on us. It is the job of the teachers to teach students how to form opinons not to be forced into taking-on other opinons.

"We can't take care of our own people"

"We can't take care of our own people" says a healthcare needer who waits along with the hundreds of other people, outside of a free healthcare clinic, hoping to be admitted. Many people travel hundreds of miles each day to get their only yearly treatment, but many of them are turned away without any treatment at all. Our nation is suffering because of our economic crisis and though not all of us are exposed to the direct effects, they are still taking place and many people are being denied the medical treatment that our country supposedly gives everyone. The U.S.A. is known as one of the wealthiest countries in the world and, yet, millions of people cannot maintain a proper health due to lack of money and medicare.
At seventeen, I am not yet old enough to vote but if I were, the struggles of this economic crisis would majorly effect my vote. In most cases I do not believe in raising taxes in order to help support people who need money. I think that the only way for our society to survive is if we have a minority, as bad as this may sound. In my opinion, financial equality is impossible with the way our world is set up. After reading this news article (link below) and watching this short film (link below), I have come to realize that it is not about keeping things the way they are, but it is important that we keep our country's pride. We need to help these people who are in need of medicine and treatment and in that we can give our counrty hope for the future. We need to dig ourselves out of the hole that our falling economy has put us in and we need to do it for the people who are suffering the most.
http://washingtontimes.com/news/2008/oct/14/uninsured-americans-turning-to-mobile-clinics/
Here is an interesting short movie/news report that I found:
http://link.brightcove.com/services/link/bcpid1459208140/bclid1454906906/bctid1845377695

Commiting Minds to Challenge, Hearts to Success, and Lives to the Admitance of a "Good College"

After discussing the topic in class, I found that I was forced to analyze my own opinon on the intentions of New Trier High School. What kind of institution is New Trier?...well to answer this question, I have to say that I do believe that New Trier wishes to give thier students more than just good grades that will carry them into a "good" college. The problem is, our competitive society has taught us that the true focus is the good grades, transcripts, and colleges. In all honesty, everything that I do at New Trier and outside of New Trier, as well, is for my transcript. I am involved in various extra-curricular activites that I do purely as aids to get into what is believed to be a "good college". I admit that some of these activities add nothing to my personal happiness but the idea that, someday, (God-knows-when) I reach success-whatever it may be. Although I believe that this instituion did have the primary intentions of "commiting minds to inquiry, hearts to compassion and lives to the service of humanity," I do not think that that is still the case, today. But is this a bad thing? No. New Trier's job is to get us ready for the "real world", in my opinon, and it is doing just that. It is pressuring us and challenging us to push ourselves to the fullest of our capabilities, and this is exactly what we are going to face in college and beyond.

GITMO

I was eight years old, and, in theory, old enough to know that hitting my brother was not okay. Though, I did it anyway even after my mother had blatently told me not to. Of course, I was caught in the action and reprimanded immediatly. But my mother did not hit me to teach me that it is not okay to hit people because that would not be successfull, and, in essence, this is exactly what our country is doing with Guantamo Bay. We capture our enemies and put them in a caged torture chambre so that we can do to them what they did to get themselves into the prison in the first place. Sounds stupid, right? One might argue that they should get a "taste of their own medecine" but what are we teaching people by doing to the criminals what we do not want people to do? I am not arguing, here, that it is our job as a country to teach the criminals of the world about right and wrong becuase it is not. But it is our job to represent ourselves well, and if it is thought that Guantanamo Bay fulfills that duty, then goodbye, USA. Plain and simple: we are stooping to an extremely-low level. I do not understand how we, as a country, can lock people up for the terrible crimes that they have commited, and then commit the same crime against them.

As punishment for my own eight-year old crime, I was sent to my room, to think my actions over. I was not reprimanded with the same wrong that, I, myself commited. That would have been a crime, in and of itself.

Idealism in the Limelight

Pragmatist or idealist?

When seeing these two words in correspondance with each other, my mind places a halo above the word "idealist", and a pair of devil's horns above the word "pragmatic". Why? I am unexplainably draw to the idea of being an idealist and where this habit originated from, I could not tell you. In evaluating my own personality, opinions, ideas, and actions, I admit to the world that I AM A PRAGMATIST! There, I said it. But why do I feel so guilty? I feel as if I am admitting to terroristic acts, or criminality. I am not an idealist and I never will be. But there is something so free and beautiful about idealism; it draws me in. Why is it that pragmatism has been swept under the carpet and picked from everyone's garden like a weed? How can we put idealism in the spotlight and ignore the issues that our world is dealing with? We cannot keep looking past our problems with idealistic views, in search of a world that we cannot even find. I do not doubt the possibility of something beyond the life that we are living but putting our focus on that is not helping our lives go any smoother. Our society has idealism on the throne and it is, clearly, not working. Our economy is failing and we need to wake up and smell the coffee! I think that if pragmatism can become more predominant, then our persuit for happiness can be more successfull.

I guess that this, alone, is a pragmatic piece of writting. My guilt remains stagnant.

Is it possible that our potential future vice president is racially biased? One would hope that after all that our country has learned from past mistakes, we would not have to even address this question. I, as well, have hoped that but I am beginning to think that Senetor Sarah Palin, the Republican Party's running Vice President is using her skin color to over power Obama. A recent news article that I read at http://news.aol.com/elections/article/palin-says-obama-pals-with-terrorists, discusses Palin and her claim that Senetor Barrack Obama has been "palling around with terrorists". She accusses him and then makes a statement that I see to be quite questionable. She argues, "this is not a man who sees America as you see America and as I see America". She is implying that she knows how American citizens see their country and that she sees it the same way. It seems that she is implying that Obama is some sort of foreigner/outsider with a alienated view of our country, and it just so happens that Obama is of a different race than the stereotypical "American". Palin is using her "American" appearance as a way to reel-in voters. According to the article, "donors on a greeting line had encouraged her and McCain to get tougher on Obama" but it looks like she is only going to hurt her own campaign with this one.

Although I do not agree with Palin's attempts to win over the crowd, and her claim that Obama is involved with terrorists, I must, shortly, note upon on Obama's corrupted view on Foreign Policy issues. He thinks he is going to be able to solve all of the issues that our country has by sitting down with the ruthless leaders of some of the most corrupted countries in the world, by talking with them? By doing this, he would be giving them a chance to justify their wrong-doings. Why should that ever be allowed? He thinks he can convince the leader of Iran to stop nuclear weaponry. Obama is more focused on global warming issues than he is about our conflicts with the Middle East. Obama seems to be a little too non-chalant in this area, for me. Other than that, i think his motivations and intentions are going to take him very far in the upcoming election.

http://mondediplo.com/2008/10/04/obama