Update on the Shooting in Baghdad

After Mr. Lawler showed us the blog post in class yesterday about the solider that killed five of his comrades in Baghdad, I was able to find an article with an update of the latest information that has been released about the tragic event. On his third tour in Iraq, 44 year old Sgt. John M. Russell of the 54th Engineer Battalion, was charged with five counts of murder and one count aggravated assault at the Combat Stress Clinic at Camp Liberty in Baghdad. Two victims were staff at the clinic and the others were soldiers. Although his concerned commanders' referred him to counseling a week earlier and confiscated his weapon, Russel got into an argument with someone at Camp Liberty and grabbed another service member's weapon, returned to the clinic, and opened fire.

This shooting, although the most severe of kind, seems to be apart of a rising trend of disturbed soldiers. In a recent study it was found that "multiple lengthy deployments to war zones have led to a sharp rise recently in suicides and diagnoses of post-traumatic stress disorder." One in six returning soldiers from Iraq show signs of post traumatic stress disorder and other emotional issues and the suicide rate of soldiers is on the rise. This is a concerning finding. The style modern warfare is causing injury to soldiers to not only be physical but also mental. In an effort to reduce this statistics, military leaders have sought to educate service members about combat stress and its symptoms. However, as this tragic indecent proved, it has not been enough. What can the U.S. goveenment do to further educate and aide suffering soldiers? How can the combat stress facilities be restructured to be more effective? The latest deaths bring the number of U.S. soldiers killed in Iraq during the six-year war to about 4,292. according the the Associated Press count.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/05/12/AR2009051201127.html

Injured Soliders

Yesterday I went on an excursion to Artropolis at the Merchandise Mart (an exhibition of contemporary and modern art), and one of the many exhibits was about the war in Iraq. The activist/artist used powerful images to send a message to the viewers that the war in Iraq was unjust and should be stopped. The one that moved me the most was a simple portrait of a man injured in the Iraq war. Similar to Ron Kovic, the man in the picture was in a wheel chair, but he had both legs aputated below the hip and in their place had two mechanical legs. He was proudly wearing a U.S. Marines uniform adorned with many medals. Not only did this image remind me of the young Ron Kovic from the film, but it also made me relize how little I have heard in the news about the injured. All the time there are reports of how many have died, but rarely are there details of wellbeing of those that have been injured and the effect their injury has had on their quality of life.

I was able to find a similar image of the same man online. His name is Marine Staff Stg. John Jones, and he is 30 years old and from San Antonio, Texas. He was featured in a HBO film about injured soliders titled "HBO's Alive Day Memories: Home From Iraq," which aired September 9, 2007. After about nine months of service in Iraq, Jones was sitting in the passenger side of a hummer that was hit by a double-stacked anti-tank mine in Iraq. In addition to being a double amputee, his other injuries from the accident include loss of hearing and memory, post tramautic stress disorder, and shrapnel in parts of thighs and wrists.

Although he now has a positive mental outlook on situation, many other soliders in a similar situation do not. Jones says that he "hopes to be a positive influence for others and set an example for those who have given up hope." In what mental and physical state is the war leaving soliders? How does this affect their quality of life?

The End of Vietnam and the Lessons the U.S. Learned

This Thursday will mark the 34th anniversary of the end of the Vietnam war, April 30th, 1975. In class we discussed some of the causes of the war and the reason for the involvement of the U.S., but we have not yet discussed the outcome of the war. To recap from class, the U.S. entered the war to stop the spread of communism from North Vietnam to other parts of Southeast Asia and beyond. However, the more interesting part more interesting part is the end of the war and its effect. After more than a decade and a half of fighting, the United States, North Vietnam, and South Vietnam signed the Paris Peace Accords, removing U.S. from Vietnam. This peace treaty came after widespread opposition to the war was occurring in the United States. Once the U.S. troops withdrew from South Vietnam, North Vietnam launched its final attack on the south. The north captured the southern capital of Saigon on April 30th, 1975, known as the fall of Saigon. The city was immediately renamed Ho Chi Minh City after North Vietnamese leader. Soon after the fall of Saigon, North and South Vietnam united as the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.

On the contrary to their original intent, the United States was very unsuccessful in ending communist rein in Vietnam. In the process, 58,000 Americans died and 153,000 were seriously wounded. In addition, 1 million Vietnamese combatants and 4 million Vietnamese civilians died over the years of fighting. Not to mention, many of the soldiers who came back physically unharmed were never the same mentally, with a large number of veterans suffering from post traumatic stress disorder. The Vietnam war taught the United States effects of military intervention in foreign countries, and how the outcome is not always pleasing. So in light of our unit guiding question, what was the Vietnam war good for? How can the concepts learned through Vietnam be applied to the War on Terror and the War in Iraq? What progress has been made between the wars in terms of the US's strategy?

The Cost of College

In the past 10 years, the tuition to attend a public, four-year college has increased over 50 percent. As the tuition increases, so does the amount of debt college students have. The average undergraduate student has $3,173 in credit card debt. Students are charging their school expenses to their credit cards, creating a huge amount of debt they will have to pay off once they are out of college and trying to make a living. The higher the grade level of the student, the more debt. The average college senior has $4,138 in debt, a 44 percent increase since 2004, and the highest this statistic has been since data for it has been collected. In addition, with the economic downturn, these statistics, which were collected for 2008, will still be on the rise for 2009. Lenders are declining private loans for college, leaving some people out of options for college funding (article). What should current high school students do to pay for college? According to this article, the high school graduating class of 2010, will be part of the largest entering college freshman class in U.S. history, a demographic blip that's leading to an admissions squeeze for some students. But the bigger squeeze is figuring out how to pay for the schools that accept them." So what happens when you get accepted into that "good" college of your dreams that you have worked your whole high school career for, but you cannot afford it? The economic downturn is causing student to apply to schools that are closer to home and cheaper, with an emphasis on in-state tuition. Many people's college funds have all but vanished with the stock market, and the average college endowment has dropped a quarter. Students that were counting on receiving financial aid may not be able to receive any, causing some people to loose their dream of going to any college at all. How will this affect the line between privilege and poverty? What will less people receiving a college education mean for the future of our economy?

The Obama administration has responded with a college affordability plan that includes phasing out bank-loan subsidies, transferring funding to small increases in grants for low-income students, expanding the federal student loan and Pell Grant programs and offering some assistance to students who enter public service. However, "even an infusion of government aid won't ease the pain much for most middle- to upper-income families, many of whom won't qualify for grants, need-based scholarships or significant education tax credits." This is where many New Trier students fall; they are in need of financial aid to afford those big price ticket private and out-of -state schools, bu they are not the worst off in the big, national need-based community, so they will not be receiving the aid they need.

People getting desperate in a time of need?

In Wilmette on Saturday, two people robbed Fifth Third Bank on Green Bay Road. The robbers tied up two employees at closing using zip ties as hand cuffs. Dressed in black, ski masks, and sunglasses, the two men were able to escape with money and without harming either of the bank tellers. The police did not arrive in time, and are still on the lookout for the two men (Wilmette Life Article). This robbery led me to wonder if bank robberies have increased since the economic downturn. No surprise, it turns out they have. People have become desperate for any source of income, and have turned to stealing to get some extra cash. According to this article, bank robberies are up 54 percent in New York City in the last year. Experts say there is a direct correlation between recessions and the rise in bank robberies. During the Great Depression, Willie Sutton was notoriously known for robbing banks banks. When asked once why he did it, Sutton responded, "That's where the money is." Some people are looking for any way to get money, and to them banks seem the most logically answer. As for today's economy, one New York resident voices his opinion toward the increase in bank robberies in NYC, "Right now with the economy, people losing jobs, all these corporations downsizing, people are looking to feed their families, they're looking for some kind of support and they're going to do what they're going to do." However, at what point does one become so desperate that they will cross the ethical and legal line and rob a bank to get money for their family? What does this says about the current state of our nation?

Consumer Spending Down

Because of our current economic crisis, consumers having been cutting way back on their spending. However, as we discussed in class, for the economy to regenerate, people will need to start spending again to reestablish the economy. This causes a problem though, because people do not have the money to spend, and do not have enough credit to keep borrowing money. According to this article from The Wall Street Journal, consumer spending on technology has decline 3.8% this year, the largest drop it has seen in years. Experts say it will be a prolonged recovery for the industry. They expect the downturn to slow no time before 2010. The hardest area hit was personal computers, with sales down almost 20%. The technology industry is not the only industry suffering. In response to the crisis, the U.S. government new budget proposal has "to close a record two-year deficit of $17.7 billion, they say, the budget contains a combination of $5.2 billion in spending cuts, $5.2billion in new taxes, $1.1 billion in nonrecurring revenue and the use of $6.2billion in federal stimulus money"(article). Critics are going crazy over this plan. Similar to the video we watched in class where the the critic blamed the government for our current economic situation, critics are trying to raise public awareness. Senate minority leader Dean Skelos said of the budget, "These numbers are absolutely staggering, and the height of irresponsibility on the part of the Democrat leadership in this state. The public should be outraged." Everyone is looking for a scapegoat to blame the economic crisis on, a reoccurring theme in hard times, as was seen in the Depression letters. The government seems like the most obvious things to place the blame on because they have so much power. As the 12-year-old boy said in reference to the goverment in letter (E) from the packet, "I don't know why they [the government] won't help us." Everyone wants to be "bailed out"of this economic situation, but how is that going to correct the economy?

No More Advantages for Working for Ford

Remember the video we watched in class about Ford and the creation of the assembly line? Ford payed his employees extremely well, offered a plan for workers to invest in buying their own car from Ford for a discount, and even provided company picnics for the workers and their families on weekends. All these benefits are no more. This article details the new labor pact that Ford has made for saving money in our nation's current economic state. Although the pact will be "saving Ford millions of dollars in precious cash", it does this by cutting out the cost-of-living payments, performance bonuses and Christmas bonuses. So much for Ford having all kinds of great benefits for its workers. These payment cuts are a result of the global decline in car and truck sales since the summer of 2008. Last year Ford lost $14.6 billion, but has not filed bankruptcy or sought federal assistance as some of its competitors have. Chrysler and GM, the fellow car manufactures out of Detroit, are far closer to needing assistance. As of today, "it's unclear whether Obama's task force will recommend more loans to keep GM and Chrysler afloat, or propose Chapter 11 bankruptcy as the vehicle for fixing the companies." Whichever is option is chosen, the decision must be made soon to kept the companies afloat.

Where has all the labor gone?

How many times have you ever looked at a clothing tag or turned over a product and seen "MADE IN CHINA" stamped onto it?  Thirty-six percent of Chinese exports are imported into the United States.  That added up to 337,789.8 million dollars of goods imported into the US from China in 2008 alone (source).  In this article, a family tries to go a week without using a single product that was made in China.  In the end they are very unsuccessful, because they didn't even realize so many kitchen items they use on a regular basis were made in China, such as Ziplock bags and Kleenex.  When we studied The Jungle, we learned that labor regulations were created to control the terrible working conditions in Packing town.  Because of laws such as minimum wage, labor in the United States has become much more costly, causing industrial labor to move overseas.  China is the most prominent example of this.  Products can be made there for significantly less than they can be made in the United States.  However, this labor is cheaper because American companies such as Nike and Walmart "systematically violate the most fundamental human and worker rights, while paying below subsistence wages" (source).  The factories moved overseas, and so have the poor labor conditions and sub-par wages.  in a Walmart factory that makes handbags in China, "1,000 workers were being held under conditions of indentured servitude, forced to work 12 to 14 hours a day, seven days a week, with only one day off a month, while earning an average of 3 cents an hour" (source).  Is it worth causing lives of poverty for Chinese laborers so that we may live a life of affluence in the US, filled with Chinese made material goods?

Poverty in the US

When I think of poverty, I think of the commercials for world hunger (such as this one) where there are starving children stumbling through the dusty savannah, looking like skeletons because they are so skinny. Throughout these commercials, statistics flash across the screen, stating fact such as "one-third of the world is well-fed, another third is hungry, and the remainder is starving" and "Every year 15 million children die of hunger". However, our discussion in class today of "Susie American" and her "Mortgage Scenario" made me realize that with our current economic crisis, a significant number of Americans in the same situation as "Susie" will be falling below the U.S. poverty line. I was surprised to find that currently one in six children in the U.S. lives below the poverty line. The Stimulus Bill just signed by President Obama has given hope to many American citizens facing financial challenges and the possibility of falling below the poverty line. In a transcript of his remarks after signing the Stimulus Bill in Denver, Colorado, President Obama stated: "it's a plan that rewards responsibility, lifting 2 million Americans from poverty by ensuring that anyone who works hard does not have to raise a child below the poverty line. As a whole, this plan will help poor and working Americans pull themselves into the middle class in a way we haven't seen in nearly 50 years." This bill will hopefully help all those who need financial support.

Agency and Oppression in Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka, an island country about twenty miles off the southern India, has been stricken for the last twenty six with off-and-on civil war between the government and separatist militant organization, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). The LTTE is now forcibly recruiting children as young as fourteen years old to join their forces. They are shooting and killing those trying to flee Sri Lanka's war, which is now one of the longest-running wars in Asia. According to the United Nations, "there were also reports civilians had been killed in fighting inside a newly demarcated no-fire zone on the Indian Ocean island's northeastern coast" (Article). Peace is actively trying to be established in Sri Lanka by the UN, but the LTTE is not responding, continuing to violate the UN's cease fire declerations. The number of civilian deaths since this civil war started in 1983 is mounting. Ron Redmond, a spokesman for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, said, “We are outraged by the unnecessary loss of hundreds of lives and the continued suffering of innocent people inside the LTTE-controlled areas" (Article 2).
The conflict in Sri Lanka is a classic example of angency and oppression. The Agency that the LTTE pocesses is being used to oppress the civilians of Sri Lanka. The civilians are being oppressed by having their homes destroyed and their friends and relatives innocently killed because of this destructive, drawn-out war. What will it take to stop this case of agency and oppression?

Baby Bonanza!

An article from the New York Times that questions the high rate of multiple birth resulting from the lacking laws surrounding fertility clinics reminded me of my Junior Theme topic. I read Sinclair's The Jungle and Harr's A Civil Action, and my topic relates to the laws that were created to regulate their respective industries' lacking standards that were exposed in the books by each author. This article describes that "the United States has no laws to enforce those guidelines" that the American Society for Reproductive for Medicine for the in vitro fertility procedure. The invitro "treatment involves removing eggs from a woman’s ovaries, combining them with sperm in a laboratory, and implanting the resulting embryos in the woman’s uterus. (In some cases the eggs come from a donor.) The number of embryos implanted is often a judgment call and can make a big difference in a pregnancy’s outcome". Recently, some fertility clincs have been implanting up to six embryos in a single birth mother. Although this may increase the chances of a birth, it also inceases the chances of multiple births, especially when the the embryos split, or multiple embyros go through. Recently, a woman who already had six children had an invitro implant of six embryos. All six went through, and two split, resulting in the 33 year old woman having octuplets. Now she has fourteen children, all born through in vitro. As stated in the article, "the United States had retained a laissez-faire stance toward in vitro procedures, instead of regulating the process like some other countries do." Almost one-third of invitro births result in twins or more, and the numberof procedures being done has doubled in the last ten years. With these statisics and the health hazards that multiple births bear for the babies and the mother, maybe the U.S. goverment will have to step up and create regulating laws.

Romanticizing the Lives of Celebrities

When I was hanging out with my cousin the other day, she was reading the latest issue of Us Weekly. She was enthralled with the magazine, and kept commenting on the latest celebrity gossip, saying things like: "Can you believe he did that?" and "Did you know that he was with her?" When I asked her how she was able to keep up with the lives of celebrities so well, she told me about a website she often reads, perezhilton.com. The byline for the website is "Celebrity blog site covering news and rumors of Hollywood stars" and it is updated very frequently with the latest gossip. I found this to be a good example of something that Americans romanticize: the lives of celebrities and the gossip and rumors that surround them. Television shows such Cribs on MTV make celebrity life look like one of endless luxury, showing tours of the stars’ homes and highlighting their most lavish processions such as several very expensive cars. Shows such as this leave many Americans wishing they could become rich and famous and live in a big, beautiful house. Stations such as MTV, VH1, and E! are devoted to exposing the lives of Hollywood stars. Americans romanticize the celebrity lifestyle, making it seem much better than it actually is. Magazines such as Us Weekly, People, and Star focus on what each celebrity is dong with their lives, who they are dating, where their last vacation was, and what they last wore on the red carpet. They make it seem that the lives of celebrities are much more important than the lives of the average American, thus again romanticizing the celebrities lives to be better than their own. They also cause an obsession for some people that has resulted in an industry devoted to just following the celebrities lives and publishing them in the forms of magazines and television programs. Instead of worrying about their own lives and the problems they face, many American indulge in following the lives of overly romanticized stars. In reality, we are all human and therefore why is it so important to follow the lives of people we do not know and most likely will never meet?