The Meaning of 9/11 Dialectical journal #4

       I.            The Meaning of 9/11 Dialectical journal #4

    II.            Berman, Morris. “The Meaning of 9/11.” They Say I Say. Eds. Birkenstein, Cathy, Russel Durst, and Gerald Graff. New York: New York/ London, 2009. 442-458. Print.

   III.            This short article “The Meaning of 9/11” talks about how the true meaning which the United States, as a country, went into war. In addition, it talks about how the Nation’s Leaders lied and convinced its citizens that war was the answer to their problems when not even the citizens thought so themselves.

  IV.            “The next step, then, was to make up a story and sell it to the American people; the State of the Union address of January 2002” (page 445).

§  “Talk about bringing ‘democracy’ to Iraq was also PR; it also played well to the gullible American public” (page 451).

     V.           

If the President would have never lied in his State of the Union address most likely the United States would not be in war with Iraq. Furthermore, not only did the President lie but he invaded the wrong country.  Then, he lied again to cover for his mistakes.

Can you imagine a country with a money surplus and no hedge fund tax break for the top one percent? I can, it was called the pre-Bush administration. The war we, as a country are in, is nothing more than a futile effort by our government not to adhere to their mistakes as well as try to control the oil supply that comes out of Iraq & Afghanistan, nothing more.

The way that the author states, that we, the United Sates, as a nation of diverse population, were dumb enough to believe in our Government at the time of war. The lies about the United States bringing democracy to another country seem ideal right?

Well I wouldn’t doubt that at that time the country was already in despair about being in war as a result of the downward spiraling economic nature of the United States at that given time.  Additionally, in order for the government to keep the troops over in Iraq & Afghanistan they needed to lie. Otherwise, the government did not have the full support of its American people.

 This is something that the “war against terrorism” really desperately needed.

Generation Debt Dialectical Journal #3

                                     I.      Generation Debt  (Dialectical Journal #3)

                                  II.      Kamenetz, Anya. “Generation Debt.” Dialogues: An Arguement Rhetoric and Reader. Eds. Goshgarian, Gary, and Kathleen Krueger. Longman: Boston, 2011. 543-547. Print.

                               III.      The short essay “Generation Debt” is about, well from the title it is easily to differ that the essay is about massive debt amongst the masses. There is one thing that you don’t know and that is what country is the most affected by debt. Not only that but how debt affects a majority of college students in the United States.

                               IV.      “Young people are falling behind first of all because of money. College tuition has grown faster than inflation in the last three decades, and faster than family income in the last fifteen years” (page 545 They Say I Say).

¨      “Financial aid has lagged behind” (page 545 They Say I Say).

                                  V.      One of the reasons that I chose this quote about raising tuition and how it grows faster than family income is because I know from a first‑hand experience. Raising tuition affects a household and family especially when your parents only make a certain amount of money a year for all of their expenses.

                    Not to mention when you are supporting five kids with the two eldest in college, it tends to pull your income very thin. I know I struggle with the fact that in order for me to be attending college I had to take out loans.

                   The amount of money that I was able to take out “borrow” in reality is barely enough to cover my tuition which leaves me to pay my books all alone; with whatever money I can scrape together since books are extremely expensive.

                   As of right now, if I keep having to borrow money for school by the time I am out of college I will be about twenty-five thousand dollars in debt. It makes you look back on high school and appreciate the fact that you didn’t have to pay for any of your books, classes, materials etc.

                  I know for a fact that I can relate to a lot of  the college students in the Cal States since now we are about to experience more raising tuitions and fewer classes for all of the budget cuts that are taking place.

                  Lastly, ironically colleges don't have the money for more teachers or classes, yet, every college is getting a complete renovation. why is that you might ask, well only the deans know.

Confronting Inequality Dialectical Journal #2

        I.            Confronting Inequality (Dialectical Journal #2)

    II.            Krugman, Paul. “Confronting Inequality.” They Say I Say. Eds. Birkenstein, Cathy, Russel Durst, and Gerald Graff. New York:  New York/ London, 2009. 394-403. Print.

 III.            The article “Confronting Inequality” is primarily about the inequality amongst the classes in the United States and how not everyone has the same opportunity to advance.

 IV.            “Democrats rallied to the support of hedge fund managers, who receive an unconscionable tax break” (page 329).

v  “Not only don’t Americans have equal opportunity, opportunity is less here than elsewhere in the West” (page 328 They Say I Say).

    V.            Not only do Americans not have equal opportunity it is less likely for one to advance if they come from a low-income family. Unfortunately, for the rest of the population the kids that score from in the lower fourth of the exam but they came from a wealthy family are more likely to finish college than someone who scored high on the test and come from a low income family. 

           Nevertheless, the inequality also plays a major way in how the United States is run by the government. The government gave a huge tax break to the hedge fund managers in the top percentile of the country instead of helping out the lower income families. This is all due to the fact that the hedge fund companies not only support the Republicans in their race to be elected but they also support the Democratic party as well.

          In addition, the tax breaks for these wealthy individuals not only affects the way the government is run it also affects the country’s revenue. As a result of the tax break on hedge fund managers leave the country with a deficit of over six-billion dollars in American currency, which would be the equivalence of “providing health care for three million children” (Krugman 322 They Say I Say).
           In the end where have all the ideals that the United States was built on gone? It is unfortunate to think that this is true.

           Regrettably, the reality of it all is do we as Americans really think we have more equality than we really do?