Thanksgiving!

Every other year my family and I travel to one of my grandmother's houses. We will stay home for the long holiday weekend and spend Thanksgiving with my father's side of the family or drive to Pennsylvania to see my mother's family. Each year we share new traditions between the two families. Although we always have new traditions, some always stay the same between the two different families. Both families always say what they are thankful for before eating, help each other cook all day and play family vs. family soccer in the back yard in the afternoon. I am happy that throughout each year these traditions have always stayed the same, but I am also glad that my family creates new ones for each year. What are your families Thanksgiving traditions?

Auto Industry Due For A Crash?

Recently with the stock market falling and the global financial crisis, many industries have begun to run into trouble. The auto industry is one. GM and Ford motors have asked the government for a federal bailout. They believe that receiving money is the only way for them to stay open. Both companies have been cutting spending, letting employees go, and delaying future products. Even doing all this is still not enough to keep the companies afloat in 2009. That is why the auto industry wants to be included in the Bush administration’s $700 billion financial rescue plan. The CEOs of GM and Ford flew on the company private jet to Washington to beg for money. Does this seem a little ironic? If they are trying to cut spending why don’t the CEOs fly commercially and take taxis instead of limos? It makes no sense. However, the companies say that with the bailout they are going to change spending habits but how can one be sure? AIG was given bailout money from the government earlier this year. After receiving the money the top members of the company flew to California to spend a weekend in a nice resort to ‘talk things over’. The company spent ¾ of their bailout money getting massages, playing golf and trying to ‘figure out how to fix their financial problems’! That is crazy! This shows the government that giving bailouts isn’t necessarily going to help the company. I think that the auto industry should be given money to help with their financial problems. However, the government can not keep handing out money left and right so the CEOs of GM and Ford need to change their spending habits for 2009. What do you think? Should the government fund the auto industries bailout?

No Gray Area

You either love it or you hate it. There is no in between. Lately, many more people have been protesting or supporting the war with Iraq because of the presidency. Protestors of the war can’t wait for president elect, Barack Obama, to take office so that the troops can start coming home. Some of these people believe that you either support or protest the war. You can never just be neutral and in between. I agree with this because you should be able to pick your side and fight for what you believe in. Although picking a side does not require you to be radical, it does require some sway away from being neutral and towards your side. This idea goes along with Arthur Miller’s book, The Crucible. Danforth, the judge for the witchcraft trials, wants everyone to understand, “that a person is either with this court or he must be counted against it, there be no road between” (87). He is talking about his workers attacking the court and he wants them to know that they are either with them or against them. He makes it clear that there is no gray area. This is like the war issue. One has the choice to be ‘with it or against it’. Do you think there can be a ‘gray’ area in issues today?

Change Is Coming

The campaign slogan of Barack Obama, the 44th president-elect of the United States, is “change we can believe in.” The day after Obama was elected president he was working the next morning on the issues of America. He is not in the white house until January, and he is already working hard towards a brighter future. Working right after the election makes me believe that he will make these changes while in office. Although I am confident he will change what he has promised I am not so sure how long the American people think it will take. Obama is planning on removing the troops out of Iraq immediately after taking office. This plan, along with other ideas for change, will take a couple of years to complete, because one cannot remove thousands of troops all at once. I know that with Barack in the white house change is coming; however, do the people of the United States have the patience to wait?

Civil Liberties

This week in class we looked over the examination of Anne Hutchinson during her court trial in Newton, MA in 1637. We were asked as a class to determine if civil liberty issues were brought up in the trial. My group discovered that Anne was denied the freedom of speech and the right to peaceable assemble. In the trial, Anne was charged with maintaining, “a meeting and an assembly in your house that hath been condemned by the general assembly as a thing not tolerable.” (Page 35 in manuscript). She was denied the freedom of speech and assemble because she gathered men in her house and held prayer and bible group meetings. Anne was not the only person to be denied civil liberties. In Arthur Miller’s book, The Crucible, the girls were caught dancing in the forest at nighttime and were all condemned for witchcraft and conjuring of the devil. These girls were left without their rights to freedom of expression. Although in Anne’s case she was exiled whereas in the dancing girls were given a chance to confess and face jail time or be hanged. I think that they shouldn’t have had their civil liberties taken away. The right to freedom of speech, assemble and expression are very important and they shouldn’t have been denied those rights. What do you think?