Who is your Superhero???
John Stossel takes a look at how American voters percieve presidential candidates:
So what promises is your presidential candidate making you? How much truth is in his statements? We have been talking a lot about argument and rhetorical strategies, including audience, ethos, logos, pathos, claims, evidence, style, format, and all the other goodies that form a strong argument! I have pushed your limits of critical thinking and emphasized the fact that there is always multiple perspectives, multiple interpretations, and that nothing is black and white, except for our two presidential candidates. :)
Most of you will be voting this coming election, and even if you are not, you are very aware of who you would choose if you could vote and of course there are a few of you are still on the fence. Most of you know what issues are the most important to you, whether they be the economy, education, foreign policy, health insurance or abortion, your stance on these issues has a lot to do with who you will or would vote for.
Write about what issue is the most important to you as a college student in this century and why you feel your presidential elect has the best platform on this issue. And I want to know that you know what you are talking about, not tid bits of information others have told you. I want to hear you speak with credibility and conviction and knowledge. How do you do that? Research, use of language, style, tone and fairness.
Because, quite frankly if you don't know anything about these candidates, then maybe you shouldn't have the right to vote. What do you think? Watch this last video and determine whether or not you should be voting.
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"Amongst all the reds, the whites, and the blues, who will pay all our dues?"
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In the year 2002 I was in 6th grade, the same year that The No Child Left Behind Act was signed into a law in the month of January. Of its kind, The NCLB (a.k.a. Nicklebee) is the latest reform aiming to improve the education of our children. Many of us don't know about this, but this law wasn't the first one of its kind in recent years; In the 1990's, America's Congress tried to develop a plan known as the Goals 2000 to do the same. About 15 years after the G2000 and 6 years after the signing of the Nicklebee, America is ranked #18 on the chart of world-wide literacy rates provided by the UN. Of course, there are countless issues that might strike at home first, such as the ludicrous prices of gas and the inability of the common man to find a loan to buy necessities like houses and cars, but I believe there is an underlying issue behind all of this we need to work on for the sake of our country in the years to come: That issue is education.
In the year 2001, America experienced an attack on her homeland none of us will ever forget; Three of our World Trade Center buildings were destroyed, two of them the Twin Towers and symbols of freedom high in our skies. As a result, a controversial law written by Congress was signed into effect by President Bush the same year. The Patriot Act gave entities of authority the right to search our homes, seize "suspected" terrorists, regulate the security in our airports, and so much more. Lets look back: In 1776, the Quartering Act granted the government several rights over its colonized people. Ten years prior in 1766 we also had the Declaratory Act. If back then this gave right to corrupt government officials to do as they pleased, why could that not occur now? Anyone labeled a terrorist goes without proof for an indefinite time into Guantanmo, anyone that yells "bomb" in public grounds can be immediately taken into custody, etc. et cetera. Benjamin Franklin once said, "Those who can give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety."
This is why I feel education is such an important issue. For us to understand why America is the way she is today we need to learn much more than what we are taught in elementary and secondary education. We have to question, we have to criticize, we have to read with the grain and then run against it. If we are taught that dictators are evil, yet we support dictators that benefit us (Such as Fulgencio Batista in Cuba and Anastacio Somoza in Nicaragua), and that those who occupy foreign countries to establish their preferred ideologies are terrorists, yet we go into Iraq and Vietnam and Cuba and Chile and Afghanistan to do the same in many different ways, we have the duty to educate ourselves and learn to think on our own. If we should learn anything from the history of humanity it should be that countries flourish, spend their economies on building armies, fail to establish a strong education system, and then crumble apart.
When it comes down to it, I am going to vote for Obama. However, he is not my superhero, he is not immortal, and he doesn't have any supernatural powers. He is a politician, he is a man, and he will make mistakes and probably be judged for it when he does. But if you really sit and look at it, we're all going the same place with these candidates. Both McCain and Obama are questioning the war, yes, but both of them question it economically and not morally. In terms of education, neither candidate provides a good solution. McCain believes charters and vouchers are the solution; Obama says we need to fix the failing Nicklebee act, but what was his plan of attack against the problem? "Let's fund secondary studies and make people turn off the TV at home." What about the many people that work 16, 17, 18 hours a day and can't watch constantly over their kids, who get out of school by 3:00 PM? They can't regulate turning off TV's and putting away video games, and we can't expect them to. In the end, the only American Dream they are getting is when they go to bed at night; Their reality is nothing less of a nightmare.
If we want to do all of the things we are dreaming of doing, we're going to have to start somewhere else. The economy will take more than a decade to repair, getting out of Iraq and then into Afghanistan (sigh) will take a long time... let's start at home because to change issues like these we have to start from within and work our way out. Change will be a long road. Nonetheless, "United we stand, divided we fall."
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