College Tuition

I am a college student and I find it ridiculous that each year college tuition is continually increased. Remember when we wanted to be the smartest, richest, and most successful country? Well our country is failing this goal as a college education is out of reach for many Americans. An education is a luxury many parents hope their child take advantage of. For lower income families the dream of their children going off to college is distant unless they can receive scholarships but even just a partial scholarship won’t even scratch into the surface of the outrageous costs. The income bracket of your family does not define the intelligence you have. There is a quote by an unknown author that asks a scary question which is “What if the cure for cancer is trapped inside the mind of someone who cannot afford an education?” This question is scary to think about it because it is so relevant to our tuition expenses. Why are we expected to pay an outrageous amount for an education that could help us save lives? We are paying for an education to earn a title so people listen to what we have to say. Many people don’t even consider going to college for the fact that they will live the rest of their life working to pay off their debt. With the expenses of college those who do plan on attending are working while attending high school to begin paying for these classes, but having to spread themselves so thin they are not achieving as much as they could. In my eyes in order for our country to achieve the goals we want, we need to make a college education more realistic by lowering tuition expenses.

Is Society Too Fast Pace?

Our fast pace society in America has many benefits for our country in the sense we get everything right away, but this fast pace world also has many negative effects that I have been noticing more and more lately. The fact that we as society are so used to getting what we want when we want it we act like selfish children when things don’t go our way. In this fast pace world we all love getting where we are going on time and fast. We all get upset with delays while traveling, which is very common for public transportation, but while I was on an Amtrak train this weekend I saw people’s selfishness at its peak. This is my experience on the train this weekend, the train arrived early, meaning 2 minutes, but for Amtrak this is very impressive since the trains usually are late. So we all got boarded the train and settled into our seats. The first stop after I got on comes along and the girl who was sitting next to me had her bag accidentally hanging out in the isle. As this stop is boarding, a passenger walks toward us and rudely says “Move your shit before I run over it” as he continued walking instead of waiting for her to move her bag. Everyone around us stated how rude he was and how they couldn’t believe someone would be so impatient. Right before our stop in Pontiac our train stopped and one of the train crew members announced that we had hit something and they had to get off and check it out. Everyone on the train groaned and sighed angry at the fact we had to stop. About 45 minutes later the crew member came back on the intercom and confirmed we had indeed hit a person and we would be delayed another 30-45 minutes while we wait for the cops to do the paperwork and everything. As I sit in my seat I hear many passengers around complain loudly and rudely about how they are going to be getting home so late and they have to work in the morning and this is so inconvenient and oh my gosh I have things I have to do. I sit hear and wonder did they not hear what the crew member said? She said we hit a PERSON not an animal a person! Someone’s brother, father, son, or friend just died. That person will not just be late, but they will never arrive where they were trying to go. They will never make it home to see their family. Their families and friends will lose countless nights of sleep from crying over the fact that the person they love is now dead, hit by a train, and thank god they didn’t hear about how many of the passengers on the train were so self-centered that they didn’t care about that person’s life at all. At what point did this fast pace world make so many people so self-centered? The train ended up being 4 hours delayed, which I realize can be a bit irritating, because I’m definitely not saying that I am perfect I mean I am a product of the now generation, but I still have feelings for other people. Don’t let the fast pace world cause you to turn into a fast pace selfish person. So, next time something is an inconvenience to you please just remind yourself worse things are happening around you, and be thankful for what you have.

America Owes Nothing to Illegal Immigrants

In response to “What America Owes Its ‘Illegals’” written by Barbara Ehrenreich in her blog entry I strongly disagree with her statement that we should not fine illegal immigrants for coming into our country illegally. She thinks we should give them a bonus since they are the ones cleaning our offices and doing our lawn work. In times like these where American unemployment rates are extremely high I believe that Americans should not have to fight illegal immigrants for these jobs. I agree the jobs that these aliens are receiving are “dirty work” jobs, but paychecks are paychecks and for someone who has to support their family they would take any job they could and if they lost a job opportunity to someone who is here illegally earning money and sending it to foreign countries I’m confident that they would be quite upset. Being a U.S. citizen is an honor that I am proud to have; my ancestors had to deal with getting into this country legally so they could provide better lives for my family. So if I was losing out to a job that I should be considered for, because someone who is here illegally will work for cheaper wages I would be irate and think that they should be fined for taking the money I could have earned but now I have to collect unemployment which is costing the government and tax payers unnecessary money. A $5000 dollar fine would be to compensate the money the government lost handing out unemployment for an unnecessary reason. She states in her blog entry that she believes that “if someone breaks into her house and steals she would be hell-bent on restitution. But if they break in for the purpose of cleaning it then, in my way of thinking anyway, the debt goes in the other direction.” So she obviously isn’t seeing that these illegal immigrants are breaking into our country and stealing jobs. The ways she is seeing it is that illegal immigrants are doing jobs that wouldn't get done if they were not here. Many Americans work as nannies, construction workers, landscapers, and dish washers which are the jobs she states wouldn’t get done. I’m confident that if America didn't have illegal immigrants all of these jobs would still be filled and completed by the Americans who cannot find work. I am all for immigrants coming to this country to better their lives, but there are steps that are necessary to take to become a legal citizen. After all America is a melting pot of culture.