Artifacts of the vietnam war

Some of the artifacts that i remember were personal prized possessions.  For example awards, photos of people they admired and loved, comics, games, etc.

When I read the book and the first chapter of the O'Brien book it made me realize that these people were no different than any of us.  It tells me more of what they went through and what they carried to keep themselves occupied.

put an end to sb1070

I am still against this law but after analyzing it I have come to an understanding on the law but I still do feel it is going a little to far to fix the problem.  Although I am against sb1070 I agree with some important aspects of it.  When people migrate to our country illegally we have to pay for it.  We as the people of America have to pay for them because if they get really hurt and need care they do not have their papers here so they do not have insurance.  And they cant be billed because they do not belong in this country.  I do also see a lot of the gangs that come from Mexico and violence that comes along with it.  I do understand they are not the only ones but it still is contributing to the violence in America.  But aside from all of that they are still human beings and they deserve the right to want a better life for themselves or for their children because it is so dangerous in Mexico rite now.  So I am still against sb 1070 and hope to see an end to it soon...

Sb 1070 And Its Impact

I am really passionate about this law because I have famiy members that are still immigrants in this country.  I do feel that immigrants will do close to anything to get money to support their families...especially the fact that they do not have their papers so their options are very scarce.  I find it heartless and evil how some of these businesses treat these people on the job.  They get paid far more less than the minimum wage and they cannot really speak for themselves because they have nobody to stick up for them, they are just grateful enough to be able to be in the country.  Even though this is true, nobody has the right to treat anybody with such disrespect and cold-heartedness.  But what the immigrants do not understand is that these corporations need them more than the immigrants need them.  Without the immigrants nobody else would do the jobs that they do especially with the little pay that they get.  All of the businesses in the end arent doing anything for anybody but just profiting themselves.  With all of the illegal immigrants working for them i doubt that they take out taxes out of their checks so the country does not really benefit from any of this..

How Much Is To Much In the USA

The SB1070, to my knowledge, is a law that was recently passed not too long ago that gives the police in Arizona the right to "Check" or pull over anyone who looks of hispanic descent.  I still do not know how these people got away with this law.  I completely understand that we really do need a restriction on illegal immigrants because of overpopulation in the USA, but there is no reason anyones rights should be violated just because of the way they look.  I thought all this racism stuff was gone a long time ago, but it is sad to witness it for myself and for it to be allowed.  I feel with the immigration issue we should make better laws for these people and enforce work visas so if they are allowed in the country they must be contributing, not just living here.  How much is to much now in days if a law like this can be passed....



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LRfEb0D5I_s&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rzP08smVosE&feature=related

My op-ed piece

John O’Brien

English 1A

Wallace

April 29, 2011

Our Depressing Country

            America is facing one of the biggest recessions it has seen since the Great Depression and it is only getting worse.  Some may pose the question of who got us in this mess and how.  The recession is basically caused by all of these big banks and corporations basically trying to make big profits in business without trying to help out the US economy.  All they care about is making money for them and that is it.  Even if it means making poor people suffer and ruining the economy for the now and for the future, as long as they make their profit is all that matters.  All of the outsourcing that these big corporations use to charge these third world countries, who will do anything for money, the smallest amount of money to manufacture their goods is hurting the US economy in so many ways. What they do not realize is if they were not so money greedy and just had everything made in the USA this alone would raise our GDP and help us out of this recession.  

            According to Robert B. Zoellick in Global Issues, Local Arguments, “The economies crisis has already pushed an estimated 100 million people back into poverty”(161).  The banks are now doing things for the political concept rather than for economical reasons.  Banks are always looking to get an extra dollar out of people and they do not care how they do it.  Banks lend out loans to people now with horrible credit history and who come from a low-income background because they know do not have the money to pay them off.  They do this because they are pretty much betting that they will fall behind on payments and will end up paying twice the amount of the original loan all because of backed up interest.  They like to target the audience that they think they can get the most money out of.  But what some of the major banks made a huge mistake on was that giving out loans to people who they knew could not pay them back, well those people didn’t pay them back.  After a while it caught up to them and they ran out of money and went bankrupt.  But the messed up thing about it is that we as the working people who live in the US payed their way out of debt and we did not even know about it. 

            According to Ralph E. Gomory in Global Issues, Local Arguments, “What is good for America’s global corporations is no longer necessarily good for the American economy”(179).  When big corporations go to other countries to pay for really cheap labor they are increasing the other countries GDP instead of ours.  From 1973 to now, the GDP has increased as new technologies have been invented the productivity had improved.  But since we are always outsourcing and manufacturing our goods in other countries we, the citizens of the US, are not profiting from this at all because we produce all of our products in other countries.  In Global Issues, Local Arguments, The Bureau of Labor Statistics writes, “Our unemployment rate is up to 9.5 percent as of June 2009”(139).  While this is happening in the USA ,why wouldn’t they just open up factories in the US. It is because they do not care about anybody else but themselves and this is what has caused our recession.  We are losing our jobs and people are not even majoring in technological or engineering as much anymore because there is not many job openings anymore.  Even though if these big corporations would not be making as much profit if they only made products in the US but they would be helping the economy by having the products made here we are not profiting other countries we would be profiting ourselves.  The money that us USA citizens pay for taxes is basically recycled to the economy.  So what do we think we are doing when we are always outsourcing with other countries.

            Will our recession get better before I get out of college and try to find a job?  Will the US finally realize what we are doing to the economy?  Or will the rich and wealthy keep profiting from the lower and middle class?

My Thoughts On The Global Financial Crisis

As we all know we are far from recovering from this horrible recession that we are currently in.  Good jobs now a days are far more scarce than they used to be.  Its getting to a point in my life where I am not going to college for my passion I have to go for a major in which I think will make me the most money.  It is sad that the people fresh out of college with their degrees in such good majors but can't find a decent paying job.  I mean there are some jobs out there but if I had just graduated with my masters and the only job open for me at the moment is a grocery store job, you might as well slap me in the face because I did not put in all that hard work for nothing.  Hopefully when I graduate the recession will be a little bit better...

McDonald's CEO Bio and Stock Price History

Jim Skinner is the current CEO of the well - known McDonald's franchise.  Skinner has been the CEO since 2004 and leads the world's largest food service company with over 32,000 restaurants in a heaping 117 different countries.  On average, McDonald's serves approximately 60 million customers per day with over 1.7 million employees in corporate, as well as restaurant positions worldwide.  According to his online bio,

"In 2007, Dow Jones/Marketwatch named Skinner 'CEO of the Year,' and Restaurants & Institutions magazine bestowed him '2007 Executive of the Year.' In 2008, Skinner was named one of 'America’s Best CEOs' by Institutional Investor magazine. Chief Executive magazine named Skinner the '2009 CEO of the Year' and he was recently named one of Barron’s '30 Most Respected CEOs'.”


[http://www.aboutmcdonalds.com/mcd/our_company/bios/jim_skinner.html]


Despite a slight downfall near the end of the century, McDonald's has been a relatively stable stock performer throughout it's history.  In 1992, McDonald's set the stage for it's consistency as it broke through it's $10 mark.  By the end of 1999 it's stock was set at $48 per share.  Right before the recession, McDonald's stock hit a low point in late 2003.  Ironically enough, however, as the recession hit it's hardest, McDonald's stock had hit it's all - time high by the summer of 2008 as the world's largest restaurant chain. Since then McDonald's stock price has been pretty constant, if not increasing little by little. As of yesterday, April 28, 2011, McDonald's stock price opened at $78.00 and closed at $78.03. For more information about McDonald's stock price history please feel free to visit: 


[http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=97876&p=irol-stockLookup&t=HistQuote&control_firstdatereturned=]