Greed or Success

The Boston Red Sox won the World Series on Sunday night, but unfortunately that was not the only big sports news that night. The New York Yankees' third baseman Alex Rodriguez opted out of his contract. If you are unaware Rodriguez signed the biggest contract in baseball history in 2001. He had three years remaining with the Yankees that would have kept him the highest paid player in baseball. By opting out it guarantees that he will get an even bigger contract for the next 7 to 10 years. This brings the thought the sphere of success, is Rodriguez just using his talent for success in America or is he just being greedy?

A moment of silence please.

First they want us to take a moment out of the children's school day to say the Pledge of Allegiance, now a moment of silence too? Wait a minute - what if that's against your religion or breaking one of the Ten Commandments because your pledging to an object making it higher than God or you find out in high school, like I did, that you do not have to say the Pledge anymore because they cannot force you to say it, but you did it your whole elementary and middle school years anyway because you were forced to!?! Explain that one to everyone please! Besides, what reason is this "moment of silence" for, to make the children stay in school longer? What next teaching torture in school?

Songs and Their Stories

Due to the numerous amount of essays that we have been reading in our Rereading America book that have dealt with American ways and all the posts that have followed, I decided to take a different approach for this post and recieve some personal feelings from the postees. Music throughout my life has been a very important aspect. I love to listen to music because I personally feel better when I do. For example, if I were to have a bad day (which I have noticed that with college this happens a lot), I would go home and just relax and listen to music for a little while. All the frustrations of the day can be swept away in that period of time. I know some people that I have talked to or known read a book instead of listen to music. Which do you prefer? I personally would choose listening to music over reading a book anyday because to be honest I'm not the biggest fan of reading. I just seem to never actually process what I am reading and when I finish at the end of a page I can never remember what I had just read. Does this happen to any of you? Therefore, I listen to the stories of music and pay attention to the emotions and words the artist portrays because I personally find listening to music a better source of a story than a book.

The college life

Since we did not have class this week and there is nothing to base my blog on I decided to ask how hard or easy was it for you to adjust to the college life? What did you have to change or not change about yourself and what changes do you still have to make to be a successful college student? Also what do you like or not like about NIU?

Justice for all?

http://www.freewarehof.org/justice.html
This person makes a valid point, but i believe that money makes the world go round. I believe that if you earn enough income, you can afford the lawyer that can make they guiltiest man on earth look like the good shephard. There are plenty of reasons as to why people can be exempt from thier dirty deeds. What do you believe earns anyone this so called "justice"? Money, politics, your rank...ect

Was Thomas Jefferson a racist

Thomas Jefferson is obviously most commonly known as the author of the declaration of idependence. One woud assume that he was ahead of his time and have the beleifs that all me are created equal. However, this essay, Notes on the State of Virginia was quite shocking. "...when they should be colonized to such a place as the circumstances of the time should rendermost proper..." Not a quote that I would've thought came out of Jefferson's mouth. However, in his defense, although he was racist for our times, he was at least for the abolishment of slavery. What are your beliefs on this? Was Jefferson a cold hearted soul that should be removed from the textbooks, or do you understand his opinions and beleive he was even a little ahead of his time?

America lost its image?

The one thing America has not seen in a long time would be some favorable news from other countries. Hertsgaard shows us examples of how many people outside and inside of America think not only our are egos to big but also our leadership needs to be improved. Along with that most people in America are also blind to the rest of the world around them. If you think about the 9/11 attacks you could remember that we never blamed the people that did the attacks or even the organization; we started blaming the culture and the entire race even if they were innocent. Americans never actually thought about how this pointing fingers would make us look like primates and just get use ridiculed by the countries that thought we were the best and even looked up to us to maybe even become as great as us (by economic, political, and intellectual). Now most countries want to be just like us in economical. What do you think made America so egotistical and ignorant and do you think that we can ever change our imagine to the way it used to be where everyone would admire us by our economical, political, and intellectual power?

Are we better than everyone else?

According to Hertsgaard, America's sense of superiority may well be the very thing that's feeding the flames of anti-Americanism around the world. America has seemed to always have this outlook, and it does take its toll. For example, 9/11. Who really knows what happened? Most Americans don't have the slightest idea what is going on in the world. Is it because we're stubborn or just too lazy to pick up a newspaper and read. Our country is not innocent, and neither are our leaders. Yet, we still ask ourselves, why does this country or that country not like us? Is it because we invaded your country for bogus reasons? Maybe. If we hadn't of gone into Iraq, what would have happened? Would we be in the situation we are in now? Are Americans going to start waking up or are we just going to be in an ignorant funk until we have realized that every country is against us?