Sunday, October 19, 2008
Dreams Causing Perilous Times?
For many, a large part of the "American Dream" is owning your own house. For some people, owning a house was an "ideal" goal and was not probable given their current financial position. After mortgage restrictions were eased, many families qualified to get loans for houses they could have only dreamed of. Unfortunately, some people who got loans should have never qualified for them, which helped cause the current economic crisis. Some of those people could not keep up with the mortgage payments and end up foreclosing. This caused banks to lose lots of money, and some banks even failed. Now it is harder for businesses to get loans, and those that do get loans have high interest rates. Then investment in those businesses declines and many people lose their jobs. It is hard to imagine that something this perilous can be related to people just pursuing their dreams.
Sunday, September 28, 2008
Everything's an argument
For question two in "everything's an argument" I read an
editorial from the New York Times called "Presidential Children Don't
Belong in Battle." It was written by John S. D. Eisenhower, son of
President Eisenhower. In this editorial, Eisenhower explains why the
children of Presidents and Vice Presidents should not serve in the
military while their parent is in office.
His reasons are that the President is busy enough without
worrying about their son or daughter, the soldier would be a prime
taget and endanger other soldiers, and they could be used to blackmail
the President if they are captured.
This was a very good argument because there were no logical
fallicies and there were good examples for support. Also, Eisenhower
has personal experience on this topic, because he served in the
military when his father was President, which he now realizes was a
bad idea.
editorial from the New York Times called "Presidential Children Don't
Belong in Battle." It was written by John S. D. Eisenhower, son of
President Eisenhower. In this editorial, Eisenhower explains why the
children of Presidents and Vice Presidents should not serve in the
military while their parent is in office.
His reasons are that the President is busy enough without
worrying about their son or daughter, the soldier would be a prime
taget and endanger other soldiers, and they could be used to blackmail
the President if they are captured.
This was a very good argument because there were no logical
fallicies and there were good examples for support. Also, Eisenhower
has personal experience on this topic, because he served in the
military when his father was President, which he now realizes was a
bad idea.
www.nytimes.com/2008/09/28/opinion/28eisenhower.html?_r=2&ref=opinion&oref=slogin&oref=slogin
Sunday, September 21, 2008
Perilous Texting?!?!
I read a recent article from the New York Times about the dangers of texting. Texting itself is not dangerous, but it can make doing other activities deadly. Texting has caused many drivers and pedestrians to lose focus and get in many accidents. According to a survey in the article, almost 40% of the surveyed 16 to 30 say they text while driving. This can lead to a very perilous time on the road. Sadly, the recent crash of a Los Angeles commuter train was caused by texting. The engineer failed to stop at a red light because he was texting and did not see it. Luckily, these are the kind of perilous times that can easily be prevented.
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
Perilous Flood
This past week may have been quite a perilous time for many people in the Chicago area. The excessive rain has caused many houses and streets to flood, which has brought lots of damage to cars and furniture.
Last Saturday when the weather first started to pick up considerably, a large "lake" suddenly appeared in the middle of the street that I live on. A few people went over a few blocks to check out the damage in our surrounding areas, and they concluded that our street had much more water than those near by. The sky looked as if it were going to rain again fairly soon, and something needed to be done. My neighbor called the Village of Glenview Maintenance and described the large amount of water in the street and asked for something to be done about it. The Village said that all of the streets were like that and the water would recede shortly. My neighbor was persistent and finally convinced the Village to send a few people over. Once the Village Maintenance Crew arrived, one of the guys said, "Wow, that is pretty bad." They explained that there really wasn't anything that they could do except leave a large pile of sand for us to make sand bags out of.
Even though only a few people on my street were actually severely effected, nearly everyone that lives on the street was helping in some way. Some people were putting sand in bags, some were wheelbarrowing the bags down the street to the water, and others piled the bags into walls to stop the spread of water into the homes. Eventually we did as much as we could, but it greatly reduced the impact of the next wave of clouds.
In this perilous time, the small community on my street first turned to the local government for help. After we received none, we turned to each other and helped our neighbors. Even though many people could have been chillaxing inside their dry homes, they decided to help the greater good and aid the other community members, because they knew they would do the same for them.
Last Saturday when the weather first started to pick up considerably, a large "lake" suddenly appeared in the middle of the street that I live on. A few people went over a few blocks to check out the damage in our surrounding areas, and they concluded that our street had much more water than those near by. The sky looked as if it were going to rain again fairly soon, and something needed to be done. My neighbor called the Village of Glenview Maintenance and described the large amount of water in the street and asked for something to be done about it. The Village said that all of the streets were like that and the water would recede shortly. My neighbor was persistent and finally convinced the Village to send a few people over. Once the Village Maintenance Crew arrived, one of the guys said, "Wow, that is pretty bad." They explained that there really wasn't anything that they could do except leave a large pile of sand for us to make sand bags out of.
Even though only a few people on my street were actually severely effected, nearly everyone that lives on the street was helping in some way. Some people were putting sand in bags, some were wheelbarrowing the bags down the street to the water, and others piled the bags into walls to stop the spread of water into the homes. Eventually we did as much as we could, but it greatly reduced the impact of the next wave of clouds.
In this perilous time, the small community on my street first turned to the local government for help. After we received none, we turned to each other and helped our neighbors. Even though many people could have been chillaxing inside their dry homes, they decided to help the greater good and aid the other community members, because they knew they would do the same for them.
Wednesday, September 3, 2008
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