Black Friday

Over this past weekend, many people looked forward to enjoying a large Thanksgiving dinner with their families. Additionally, many of those same people look forward to waking up bright and early to go shopping for black Friday. In fact, the turn out for this annual day of shopping was insanely high, once again. Stores prepare for a rush, and madness that isn't seen on any other day. Profit for stores generally raise. In fact, the mass amounts of people trying to get a good deal can lead to extreme situations, such as one employee getting trampled.

But has this day gone too far? When someone's life is lost because of something like shopping, should there be changes? In my opinion, there should be a better, and more organized way to handle the mass amounts of crowds, even if that means limiting the amount of shoppers per store. We shouldn't let good deals turn us into uncivilized human beings. What do you think?

A New Type of Patriotism?

There is an ongoing conversation in Mr. Bolos' blog "Born in The USA on Veterans Day". I wanted to continue this conversation through one of my own posts.

There are a considerable amount of songs that are criticisms of our government, or some aspect of our country, that have not limited by the government. But, there have also been some songs that were limited, such as many of Seeger's songs. I would argue that the government chooses to not limit some songs based on if they are still somewhat patriotic. Even though a song may be criticizing our country in some way, it can still be patriotic if evokes emotions of change for the better. For example, in "Born in the USA", Springsteen criticizes the Vietnam war for the purpose of saving American lives, and saving hardship for families. Therefore, there is a notion for change that would, in Springsteen's opinion, better our country. For that reason, this song can be considered patriotic, and was allowed to be publicized.



What is your opinion on this? What makes the government limit certain songs while allowing others to become widespread? Also, can a song criticizing our nation also be patriotic?

Wasteful Thinking?

During class this week, Doc Oc proposed a question about if there are jobs that are a waste of education. I kept this in mind when I went to visit colleges this weekend, and something interesting occurred to me throughout my conversations with other students. Several times, I was told something was a "bad major" because you couldn't get a "good job" from it. Or I was told not go over to certain buildings because there were classes for "dumb subjects" taking place in it. As a part of my research I looked up what majors were the "best". The results were all of the classes that led to high paying jobs.




This didn't shock me but it made me think. Is it a waste of an education if your major leads you to a "bad job"? I think not. If one wants to pursue something that is interesting to them, but differs from the usual path of a college student, they should be encouraged to. After all, all different sorts of jobs are required for society to function, and for that reason I believe there is no such thing as a waste of an education. What do you think?

Election Lies?

We are two days before the presidential Election Day, and the news stations are doing everything they can to create a good story for us Americans. Last Friday, in class, we held a minor discussion about the accuracy of major news networks polls’ on the race. As a result I looked up several different articles about who has the lead in the presidential race. Every network differed but it seemed as if they all held one thing in common. Every source tried to make the race sound like it was extremely close and exciting, and it was going to come down to the last vote. In reality, this race is no more exciting than any other presidential election. CNN's article is a good example of this type of news.









So why do this? Why should a news station try to make the election more exciting than it is, instead of just giving the entire truth? One reason could be to boost their stations ratings. The more exciting a race is, the more viewers it is going to get, and in turn, the better ratings that station is going to get. Why do you believe most sources of news make the election sound so close and exciting when in reality, it isn't. Also, how can we trust the information that we are getting now? If news stations aren't being entirely truthful, then where can we receive information that is reliable?