Are We Falling In The Same Slump As The Great Depression

Many people fear that our country's economy has still yet to recover and might even fall further into the slump that it is in now. Are we going to fall into a great depression similar to what was seen here in the 30's. Most likely not according to economists who wrote in "The Shadow of Depression" written by Robert J. Samuelson. According to these people our economic status is nearly as much of a problem as it was back then although if the country continues to be tight with their money we could see this depression last for longer than expected. Although its hard for citizens and companies to spend money at times when they know the dollar will fall short, it needs to be done to get money flowing back into the system to help revamp the economy. If people weren't so tight with their money and spent it wisely it could help to create more money flow to help us climb out of this depression. Another thing that is reassuring about our economic status is the fact that our country is a lot more developed than it was back in the 30's. We now have federal unemployment insurance that help many struggling families and it was non existent back in the 30's. The other role that is going to help revamp the system is the government which has tried to more quickly help with slumps in the economy than it used to. All in all we as a country can rise from this slump in our economy if we are willing to let a little more money go back into the economy to help get it on its feet again, because if we don't our economic future is uncertain.

Alcoholism in Teens

As a child my father and I had a very close relationship and would do about everything together. We have pictures of me and him working on his old white k10 chevy and I couldn't have been any older than 5 at that time. I was rocking a pair of cowboy boots and attempting to help him put the lug nuts back on the tire. We would go and spend time in the woods hunting for mushrooms or when we got a chance to fish we would. As a child I always wanted to grow up and be like him. Then he started hanging with parents of my younger siblings and they would drink on the weekend and his personality would change and sometimes so much I couldn't stand to be around him. It made me view him in a whole different way and we started to grow more distant and I started going to my mom for more things than I used to. Well after this went on for a few years he decided to cut back on his alcohol consumption along with most of his friends and we are starting to get our old relationship back, that Ive missed so dearly. This summer he is going to help be build ranch hand bumpers for my truck and repair the rocker panels, cab corners and doors to remove all the rust from my truck to help it look nicer. I hope that these go through because it will be some good bonding time for us before I have to move out to go to school and won't be able to see him everyday. The point I'm trying to make here is alcohol is the tool of the devil, and a bar is a pit stop on the way to hell as one of my dads friends always put it. I keep seeing more and more teenagers going out and getting wasted every weekend because they think its fun, or because they just want to say they got wasted. Whats the point of this? You don't remember a thing that happened over the weekend and probably won't remember much from your teenage years consequently. What memories are you going to have to look back onto when your older or what stories will you have to tell your kids? Oh when I was kid I went out and got wasted every weekend, what kind of story is that to tell your kids. You would think you'd want some interesting story to tell them such as some of the things that have occurred over my weekends where no alcohol has ever been involved such as going fishing in a farm pond with your friend and catching 5 pounders, or sitting around a bonfire with your closet friends or best of all setting your best friend on fire because everyone got a little to cocky one night. Kids these days need to understand that you don't need to drink to have fun, especially drinking so much you can't remember what happened. I wish people would start broadcasting this message more than the one that you have to drink because everyone does in their teenage years because its fun.

Portraying Nature the Wrong Way?

Are our current generations parents portraying the outdoors in the wrong way making kids think it is a bad place to go. Many kids haven't fully experienced nature but would prefer to be glued to a television screen inside somewhere. Although are these kids to blame? Many parents are very protective of their kids and preach to them about the dangers of being outdoors like pedophiles, rapist, and getting hurt. This makes the kids want to go outside less and less because of all the images that are being put into their head. I think my age group was the last to really experience what nature was, not as much as generations before me who could leave home in the morning as long as they were back by dinner. Now you can hardly leave the yard without the eyes of your parents on you. This limits the amount of things you can do but even then they are limited more because if they aren't safe then the child will be scolded. I like the example I've heard were parents preach for their kids to go climb trees but not to high because they could get hurt. I think parents need to relax a little so that kids will willing go outside. I've seen it with my family my brothers won't go outside unless forced compared to me who spends all my time outside. They have tons of free time but they use all of it to play video games and with what free time I do have I use it to do something outside, even if it involves hard labor i'd rather be outside doing that than stuck indoors. Its sad to see newer generations appreciate nature less and less because of the ideas that we are putting into their head.

Childhood Memroies

With the up and coming warming weather and precipitation in the forecast I can't help but think back onto my childhood and the things my father taught me. He would always say that we could start hunting for mushrooms as soon as it warmed up and we had enough moisture in the ground to allow them to pop up overnight. We would scramble through the woods looking high and low for them and some years we would finds 3 or 4 grocery bags full and others we would be lucky to fill one, but that wasn't what mattered now that I look back onto it. Ive now come to the realization that those are memories I will always hold with my dad and the campground that we belonged to were we would go about hunting for them. This wasn't the only thing he taught me about nature though, when camping we could spend hours on a little 10 foot john boat fishing our hearts away.
Children now a days don't get to experience all of this stuff with their parents because they are all so wrapped up in some electronic device what seems to be 24/7. I think parents need to start regulating the time children spend in front of a television, playing video games, or watching videos through their phone and take them outside to show them what they can do to entertain themselves. The way they act now they won't have those special memories like I do of my childhood with my father that I hold onto so closely. I guess since I will be leaving a little over a year for a different college it makes me look back onto my childhood and all my memories and then compare them to my brothers who are victim of the electronics era.
I feel parents should try to implement nature in our children's lives and show them how much stuff their is to do if they would venture away from the television and step outside. It can't be healthy for a child to sit in front of some electronic device for 6+ hours a day like my brothers do. I wish they would get up and go outside and do something but they have fallen victim to the era that never wants to go out and do anything that involves physical labor, so they'll rot their brains inside staring at a screen. Children need to experience the outdoors with their family like I have because their family isn't always going to be there, so it would leave them with some fond memories such as the ones I have.

Following Educational Funding

After reading the article in Arguement that was wrote by Mrs. McCabe I think many americans should also read this article. Our country is constantly talking about our kids growing need for education but how do we plan on supplying them top notch education if we are allowing companies and millionaires to get away from paying their fair share in taxes. She goes on to say some of the people she interviewed said they would see a company move into their town and get a ten year tax break and then when ten years was up for them to start paying taxes they would leave that facility and relocate. Not only does this leave many people without jobs it also decreases the amount of funding available to the school. This is then return cause county governments to raise the middle class's taxes in order to help provide for the school. If these companies werent given such a long tax break more revenue could be brought in for the school allowing them to maintain nicer facilities for our students to be educated in. I came from first hand experience of this, where my schools science lab could barely be called a science lab and prevented us from doing anything in it. The lack of the lab also prevents the high school from offering dual or AP credit biology and chemistry because they dont have the facilities to hold theses classes. New buisnesses arent the only ones to blame though, the average person pays $12 in taxes for every $100 they make, but if you make more than a million a year your are only taxed about $5 for every $100. How is this fair to tax the people with the most money less than those who might be struggling to get by. I feel that TEF needs to keep pushing foward as it had been to reform the coporate tax loopholes so that businesses and millionaires are taxed fairly compared to everyone else in this country. This would allow schools to maintain nicer facilities for the kids and faculuty to provide them with excellent education.

Should Business Owners be Allowed to Refuse Service?

The state of Arizona has caught a lot of attention over the past week with the new bill that was being thrown about in their capital building. This new law would allow business owners the right to refuse service to gays and lesbians. After making it through the Legislature it was vetoed by Arizona's governor. After it was vetoed many of the people holding protest signs outside the capital building changed the signs thanking the governor for what she had done.
After reviewing this article I partially agree with the state of Arizona on the fact that business owners should be allowed to refuse customers service if they please to. They should be able to have some line of defense against someone who they believe could potentially harm their company, or who they don't have agreeing viewpoints with. Without this being in place any company would have to let anybody in, now as a prospective business owner I'm not found of this idea. I'd like to have the comfort of being able to refuse a person service if they don't look like they can pay for it or they could cause harm to myself or my co-workers. Since this bill was vetoed I feel it could open up more opportunities for people who it wasn't attended for and could cause problems down the road. With that being said anybody could go into a store and buy whatever they like and can't be refused because of this law being vetoed.
I feel that this country's citizens are to worried about how everyone else thinks of them and we are trying to please everybody. In order to correct this mayhem I feel like we should tell the attention seekers, who do what they do for their 15 minutes in fame to sit down and find a job and stop trying to get everyones attention. I also feel we should stop catering to specific people, what we do for one group the next group is going to want the same treatment and eventually that could get costly. We need to realize that we can't be liked by everyone and still have a functioning country like we had only a few years ago. This country could be in trouble for future generations if it keeps on the path it is and this bill is a perfect example of the government trying to please every sexuality, race, and gender. People need to step up to the plate and realize that they can't be liked by all and accept that so this country can get its backbone back and be the great country that it once used to be, returning all patriotism to this country and allowing us to solve our own problems so we can go back to helping other countries with their problems.
http://www.cnn.com/2014/02/26/politics/arizona-brewer-bill/

Facebook Privacy

After reading the article in the book about the change in Facebook terms and services policy and how it muddied the water I realized that they are fully necessary for the full privacy of your information. You are the prime candidate to protect yourself from the bashful people in the world by not posting a status update with every new thing you find relevant. With any little bit of digging what is posted on the internet can be found by anyone not matter the privacy policy. This should worry students as if wanted by colleges they could check a students social website and see the vulgar photos of them that were posted or if they are constantly talking about getting trashed at a party. Many people worried about what Facebooks new terms meant, if it was just a legal fix, or if it had deeper meaning but primarily they aren't responsible for your posts. If you want to save yourself the embarrassment of having people find things that were supposed to be kept private keep them off of social websites. So next time you are thinking about updating your friends of what you're doing think is it really relevant for them to know and would I mind other people seeing it or would this be frowned upon by the workplace or college? Be smart about what you post online because within a few clicks anything can be found.

Minimum Wage to Low?

After feeling the burn myself of trying to just make a truck payment on miminum wage, I can only image the stress that families are feeling who are only capable of obtaining jobs that pay minimum wage. Many people dont realized how little minimum wage is and if a worker is scheduled a max amount of hours a week then most need to take on two or even three jobs to make ends meet. This is a scary thought for myself who plans to rent an apartment when I transfer from ICC to U of I in the fall of 2016. If minium wage isnt increased then there is no possible way to go to school full time and be able to pay the bills. I will have to face the choice of not going full time and working two or three jobs or be forced to live in the cheapest apartment I can find no matter its condition and be rationed on a ramen noodle diet. To myself this doesn't seem like a viable thing for any college student to do. Why should we have to sacrifice our living standards in order to further our education? At this rate we would all be better off finding a full time job out of high school and working our way up the ranks instead of eating an unvaried diet and living in shambles of an apartment. One of my friends is into politics and he said that you can make more money per year on welfare than you can working a minimum wage job. I believe that this is something that our government needs to take a deep look into. Why should someone be given more money per year than somehow who is out working hard for the small amount they are making. I believe like many politicians the minimum wage should be raised allowing people to live comfortably on it. It doesnt need to rise for them to live in luxury but at least be able to live in a decent home and eat something other than the cheapest food item they can find. An article I read debates on how high minimum wage should rise, with it saying that $10 might only be a start becuase of inflation and the rising prices of goods. With this being said I'm hoping to see politicians fighting for a higher minimum wage to allow students to be able to pay for college and the cost of living and allowing the number of families in poverty decrease.
http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2014/02/22/a-1010-minimum-wage-might-not-be-high-enough.aspx

Freedom of Speech

After reading the article "The Schools Are Destroying Freedom of Speech" wrote by Mr. Whitehead I feel an important topic is brought up. The citizens of this country are losing their freedoms and not fighting back about it. The government and courts are taking sides of schools and other groups who are taking these rights away. I myself don't agree with this because the constitution states are freedoms and these rights are being taken away. Multiple schools have shut down graduation speeches because they don't agree with what the person giving the speech is saying. What gives them the right to determine what is right and wrong to say in a speech? School authorities should not have control over what students can and can't say to an extent. There are certain things that should be filtered out of the school language such as foul language an threats to hurt another person but under no circumstances should a student be censored when they bring up religion. Our founding fathers wrote the constitution to ensure our rights as Americans so what gives government nowadays the right to take them away. If we allow this to continue to happen and continue to not educate our student fully on the consititution it could allow the government down the road to have control of what we can or can't say, what can and can't be published along with many other bad things.
I believe our school systems should put more of an emphasis when learning about the constitution and what it means and allows us as Americans to do. Along with this courts need to start siding against schools in law suits where a student was censored at school for something that the constitution allows. With these two problems fixed young citizens will know their rights and the government won't be able to have more control down the road as it looks right now. Not everyone is going to like what is said by another person but that doesn't give them permission to keep them from talking, they should just choose to ignore the information.

What happens behind closed doors at zoos.

After reading a recent article on fox news my blood started to boil. A zoo in copenhagen put down a giraffe because they wanted genetic diversity and to stop interbreeding between the other seven that they house. The giraffe was named marquis and was two year old healthy male and just starting his life as a captive animal. After he was put down by a bolt pistol he was dissacted, skinned, and chunked and then fed to the lions for the public to watch. Granted no caged animal lives to its full life expectancy in captivity but what is expected when they cant perform the activities they normally could do out in the wild.
I do not agree with this practice becuase this animal didnt choose to be held in captivity. If the zoo didnt want anymore genetically similar giraffes it should somehow prevent them from breeding, instead of breeding and letting them kill their offspring. The zoo had many other options of what to do with the animal but wouldnt change their mind on what they wanted to do with it. Even with a petition signed by 20,000 people online and numerous offers from other zoos to take the animal into their location. One zoo offered a sum of money close to 3/4 million dollars but it was turned down because that zoo was not in the same association as this particular zoo. Now that we have seen this catastrophy in public who can image whats happens to the animals behind closed doors?
This article has given myself a different perspective on zoos. At first I thought they were nice because it allowed children to see a variety of the worlds animals in one place. After reading this article I disagree with the practice of keeping animals at zoos in exhibits only a small fraction of the area they would see in the wild. No person would want to be trapped in a classroom for their whole entire life to be put on display to the public, so why should we allow the same to happen to animals? If we insist on keeping animals in enclosure for our viewing pleasure, I think it should be in the same manner as Wild Life Prairie Park does. One large open exhibit of 10+ acres for the animals from one area of the world to roam freely. I also believe that something should be done to mimick their natural habitat as to make them more comfortable because they are living creature also. If we find something unethical in the human race it should be the same for animals because we ourselves are animals. Its unethical to shoot a person and against the law so why shouldnt it be the same for other living creatures.
This article has made me consider if what we do to some animals unethical and unpractical because we are the ones at fault for them being in zoos and interbreeding. They should be allowed to roam free on multiple acres of land and nature take course. That would provide the same lesson that this zoo was trying to imply.I myself will not be going to a zoo or supporting a zoo anytime soon unless the ways of housing animals changes drastically to better the animals lives.
http://www.foxnews.com/science/2014/02/10/copenhagen-zoo-met-with-online-rage-after-putting-down-healthy-giraffe-to-stop/

A Failing Education System

I chose the article "Left Behind, Way Behind" from chapter 22 in the Argument! textbook. In this article Bob Herbert the author mention that the United States has fallen behind many other countries education system. When compared to 29 other countries the U.S. only ranked 24th which I think is really sad. He goes on to explain the problems with our education system and a way to implement a new one to increase the number of students who graduate with a diploma and are ready for college courses.
I agree with Mr. Herbert in the fact that our nations schooling system has taken a flop for the worse. I know at my high school you were required to take four math classes but which ones you took was up to your discretion, so most of my class senior year took the easier math class that didn't prepare them well for college. I feel there should be more of a stress on taking higher level math classes while in high school to prepare for college math. I believe it should be this way with most classes such as english and any science classes that would be furthered at a collegiate level.
With the test scores dropping to a low, the nation should work overtime to correct this problem with all the stress they put on kids about going to college. If a kid can't properly prepare themselves for college why should they be at fault and have to take lower level classes before getting into classes that count for  credit hours for them to graduate. The other reason the nation needs to work overtime is when looking at test scores, they are completely pitiful and the nation should be ashamed to release them to the general public. Only 41% of nonpoor fourth graders achieved proficiency at reading in 2003, and only 15% of poor fourth graders achieved proficiency. There needs to be an equality across the boards for all students no matter their families social status. Either way both school systems need to step up and provide more help for their students who have difficulties learning and provide more practice for them to achieve the skills they need.
I believe that the schools though aren't the only thing at fault of our nations struggling education system. Parents are at fault to because of the lack of stress they put on how important school is. I know from experience of my little brothers all they want to do it get on some video game, play on their phone, or watch television which is okay to treat yourself to but it shouldn't consume your life. Now a days kids are consumed by all these things and begin to worry less and less about their school work that will impact the rest of their life. I think with cooperation of parents allowing kids to spend less time with electronics and more time studying along with schools providing a reform of how they teach the nations test scores will rise.

Being famous prevents you from being punished by law

     Over the course of the last few weeks there has been news of Justin Bieber being arrested for many charges. The charges include driving under the influence of marijuana, alcohol, and prescription drugs. These charges were also accompanied by charges of driving on an expired license and blocking off a street to turn it into a drag strip. Any normal citizen who faced these charges would be facing years in prison but because he is known nation wide all charges were dropped except for one. Why is it okay for someone famous to be above the law and never receive punishment for their actions and what kind of example is it setting for generations below him. This isn't his first run with the police either he faced them earlier in his life but was never charged of anything, and claims that the reason he acts this way is because he had a rough childhood. If a 19 year old citizen told cops that they were drinking because they had a rough childhood that wouldn't stop them from being thrown in jail, and serving their time for their crime. How is Justin ever going to learn that what he is doing is wrong if he is never punished? Some might say he was fined, but a $2,500 fine is nothing compared to what money he has. That would be like a citizen being able to be released from county jail for $10.
     I would have liked to have seen jail time come from this case but as usual he has escaped with barely any punishment. If not jail time I think he should have to attend driving school like any other citizen who gets a speeding ticket or is issued a DUI. So whats stops him from doing this again? Next time he could actually hurt or kill innocent people with an act like this. It hits very close to home with me this topic. My girlfriend lost her mom due to a drunk driver and now has to be raised by her grandparents. Does that give her permission to go out and do all the things Justin did because she had a rough life? No, it doesn't because she isn't known nation wide as a star. We as citizens need to put our foot down and show that this isn't right and that anybody no matter their status in life should have to pay for the crime they have committed.

 http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/news/justin-bieber-arrest-dui-and-drag-racing-charges-dropped-in-drastic-uturn-9087249.html