Education: The Cost of Ignorance

The US National Government is doing poorly when it comes to educating our youth in America. It is interesting to see commercials and candidates speak on how important it is for America to get ahead of other countries when it comes to education. But they then fail to put in the money needed to fund the resources we need to accomplish that goal. I realize that America as a whole is going through a rough economic period, but I still believe education is the main factor that can enrich our future.

Americans have a goal to “connect a million minds” by challenging the youth of today to gain more knowledge when testing on the subjects of math and science. I believe that teachers are at the core of getting children interested in a subject. Teachers may find it difficult to perform their job by not being compensated for their hard work and by budget cuts resulting in classroom sizes becoming larger. These learning environments put stress on the teacher and strain on a student to keep up with their peers.

The National Government should make this realization fast in order to turn it around. This will result in Americans being more educated and able to thrive in a better environment. Sadly, this runs up the line to colleges and universities as well. Every educator out there is being pressed on all sides.

I recently read an article in the Los Angeles Times dated October 21, 2011 with a title of “Senate rejects bill to keep teachers, first responders on job” by Lisa Mascaro. This article highlights how strenuous teachers have it right now and how low education resources are dropping. Sen. Richard Durbin (D-Ill.) stated it well by saying “we’re trying to make sure we save these jobs and give our students a good education across America in these difficult times.” I could not have stated that any clearer than Sen. Durbin.

Education is critical to America’s overall success. The less educated an individual is, the more likely they will need assistance because they are not able to make it in today’s demanding workforce. As a result, the less educated will need to obtain government assistance and more spending will go to those individuals. Why don’t we give education the boost it needs to be on top of other countries? The National Government needs to stand firm on education and make advancement to our future generation’s educational resources. This was a quote that sums up my beliefs: “Education costs money, but then so does ignorance.” -Sir Claus Moser

Are Big Corporations the Puppeteers of the Working People?

In a political blog written by Shamus Cooke entitled “The Smirking Chimp,” I found an interesting article called “The 1% and the Capitalism” dated October 13, 2011. Upon skimming the article I found a main point that stood out where Cooke states “...giant corporations monopolize production, markets, and government...” I have found most articles describing monopolies generally mean someone is being taken advantage of or controlled by a bigger person. This made me want to continue reading.

Shamus Cooke is making the argument on his own personal blog, which includes his biased, left-leaning, and liberal opinions. Being that this is his personal blog, his intentions are to give readers something to think about. Cooke also wrote this article to give a voice to the smaller man in a large working environment.

The intended audience is clearly the “working people.” I assumed this from Cooke’s main focus being the working class. He cleverly includes himself when stating how to solve the problem by saying “we” numerous times throughout the article. He is a social service worker, which shows in a job such as that a person generally cares for the rights of another and wants to see justice served for the oppressed. He is also a writer for Workers Action which proves his main view or concern being the workers.

As a result of Cooke’s experiences and selection of audience, he can be trusted among left-leaning working Americans. Readers can rely on their source if they agree with his political stance and point of view. For these reasons the author has a high credibility among everyone in that category of thinking.

The basic argument of Cooke is that corporations and politics should not be seen working hand in hand as they currently are. There should be some line between the two. The general assumption the argument relies on is making a large profit and giving power to corporations. The article holds the value of workers being more important than they currently are. It also lies on the value that the government should unite the “working people” and provide them with a “strong message” and voice too.

The evidence Cooke provides stirs emotions by making claims that corporations destroy people’s right and benefits as well. I believe the argument is a good one because he successfully points out resources used against workers. The political significance of the argument is that corporations have a hand in many areas of our lives, by controlling media, politicians, banks, technology, etc.  They play with us as puppets when they want to sway our political opinion, by employing politicians into their “cozy retirements” within a corporation.

In conclusion, the argument is successful because Cooke makes a call to the working people to unite and make a stand. The argument confirms my previous belief of the wealthy people getting ahead, more so than the average person. By my accepting the argument I join in his call to unite the “working people” and get more information out to the public. Let us “working people” take a stand and cut the links from big corporations by breaking the ties they have on us. Let us no longer play the puppets to their “pro-profit” policies.