Making Our Nation Better
Dear President Obama, As a high school student, i highly doubt that you are going to read this note. Perhaps one of the many secretaries which you posses, but not you. Our world is stagnating, rotting from the inside out due to "the continuing dearth of visionary solutions to the underlying causes of human misery – ignorance and deprivation" (Zewail 231). It is all I can do for you, but to provide possible solutions of a couple of the pressing problems facing your administration. First off: the education system needs a larger budget, if not a radical overhaul. I, like every other student, teacher, or parent, deplore the infrastructure of our schools. To do anything with them is quite expensive in the short term, but American schools, particularly public schools, are rapidly declining in quality and student retention. Tara Paterson deducts from her real life comparison of schools in Japan and the United States, that students in our country are becoming complacent and forget that the the reason for schools is academic excellence (Paterson). As a result, these students do not strive to contribute and instead bring apathy to the table. Which only weakens those who choose to study. This in return leads to a vicious cycle, where Americans trail behind their Asian counterparts in all job markets ("China"), while still being complacent and arrogant enough to keep outsourcing numerous jobs to third world countries to line the pockets of a few business men ("Outsourcing"). Our country will collapse upon itself as rising rates of employment, currently at 7.2 percent of the labor force,("Conrad") consume the country. It is for this reason why I believe that our educational system requires eminent reform, before the United States evolves into the "lawless jungles rules by violence and crime"(de Duve 11) predicted by Christian de Duve in his prediction of the next fifty years. Secondly, the world's freshwater supply is currently at thereabouts of seven percent of the entire water supply ("Water Woes"). In our own interest, we must find ways of conserving and creating water. Sandra Postel believes "By irrigating more efficiently and planting crops suited to their local climates, farmers overall will use half as much water for the same amount of crop production as today"(Postel 78). Another option, as the United States is a transatlantic nation, would be to develop desalinization plants along our coasts. In fact, Tim Mack predicts that 50 years from today, "[California's] shoreline is no longer pristine but populated with a wide range of floating and anchored habitats"(Mack 113). for these plants. Potentially opening careers in these fields could potentially aid the previously mentioned soaring rate of unemployment. Although some will be skeptical of using the money required for these projects, i would point out the old maxim, you must spend to earn. These are worthwhile developments. Some of which are downright necessary if the United States is intended to flourish in the next half century. Even if none of these measures are taken, no matter what, "we are part of a race that survives"(Bricklin 102) and we will continue to do so. Thank you for your time. Claire Elena Manning
Works Cited
Akissa, Bahri. "Water Woes." Nature Publishing Group 456 (2008). 15 Jan. 2009 <http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v456/n1s/full/twas08.39a.html >.Bricklin, Malcom."Future Cars and the Jetsons." 50 Years from Today: 60 Of The World's Greatest Minds Share Their Visions of the Next Half-Century. ed. Mike Wallace. Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2008.
"China's economy grew to world's 3rd largest in 2007 - Los Angeles Times." Los Angeles Times - News from Los Angeles, California and the World. 24 Jan. 2009 <http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fichina15-2009jan15,0,4422931.story>
De Duve, Christian . The Way We Will Be 50 Years from Today: 60 Of The World's Greatest Minds Share Their Visions of the Next Half-Century. Waco, TX: Thomas Nelson, 2008.
Mack, Tim . The Way We Will Be 50 Years from Today: 60 Of The World's Greatest Minds Share Their Visions of the Next Half-Century. Waco, TX: Thomas Nelson, 2008. ""Outsourcing's long-term effects on U.S. jobs at issue."." LA Times 9 Jan. 2009: BusinessD6. Paterson, Tara. "Schools in Japan, Schools in the United States: A Comparative Look." www.nwrel.org/nwedu/summer_97/article8.html. Postel, Sandra. The Way We Will Be 50 Years from Today: 60 Of The World's Greatest Minds Share Their Visions of the Next Half-Century. Waco, TX: Thomas Nelson, 2008. "Sen. Conrad: Stimulus Should Create More Jobs." Morning Edition . National Public Radio. NPR, Los Angeles. 13 Jan. 2009. <http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=99002605>. Zewail, Ahmed. The Way We Will Be 50 Years from Today: 60 Of The World's Greatest Minds Share Their Visions of the Next Half-Century. Waco, TX: Thomas Nelson, 2008. |