The Red Cross is an organization that has now become a tremendous part of disaster relief in this country. It provides relief to disaster victims, services to communities, blood to hospitals and clinics, and education for communities. They provide a tremendous positive benefit to so many communities and so many lives. What many people don’t know is that Clara Barton started the Red Cross. Her tremendous positive impact on the community and the country was starting the Red Cross. Clara Barton was a nurse during the time of the Civil War. During the war, she started an organization to get and administer supplies to all of the wounded soldiers. Throughout the war, she helped to nurse the many wounded soldiers. At the end of the war, she was responsible for finding many of the dead soldiers in the war. After the war, Barton traveled to Europe to recover from the hard work from the war. In Europe, she became involved with the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), an organization that provided services to war victims. This inspired her when she returned to the United States, where she lobbied to expand the ICRC to the United States. Eventually, she managed to start the American Red Cross, with the promise that it would provide assistance for natural disasters as well. She became the president of the organization, and the Red Cross of today was formed. Clara Barton dedicated her life to helping people. She impacted the whole country with her organized nursing efforts during the Civil War. Today she continues to have a lasting impact on the country through the organization she created. Lots of people are saved by the blood that the Red Cross collects. So many others survive natural disasters because of the work of the Red Cross. These are tremendous positive impacts that Clara Barton has made on countless people over time.
Fall
This definitely has to be one of the most depressing times of the year. I know lots of people that love the fall because of the changing of the leaves. Others I know love fall because the winter is coming. I hate it. Fall teases me with the nice weather that is hiding the dreary months ahead. The changing of the leaves signals the end of summer, my favorite season. On top of all that, school starts in the fall. I just can’t get psyched about a season that signals lots of hard months ahead. Summer will be gone until May, and school will stick around until May. I like the holiday season, but I hate the weather. Playing in the snow is fun once or twice, I’m no big snowboarder or skiier. Snow and cold weather take away so many fun things to do. Most sports are out of the question and the freezing cold makes going outside unbearable. Fall always helps to remind me of all the bad things coming up ahead always make me feel really depressed. I just do not enjoy the fall.
Grades
I don’t have that same gut feeling of dislike about grades. I definitely don’t have the same grr… reaction to grades because the school system has demanded some way of quantifying students’ performances. They play such a huge role in determining if you can go to college, which can then impact your whole life. So, I don’t think they are going to go away any time soon like the author says. In regards to him saying that they are so “imprecise they are almost meaningless”, I kind of agree. A grade won’t truly tell you how a student does in the class. They are just a letter that carries a connotation, they tell a message of success or failure. However, I don’t mind having grades, because the only other option would be to have a pass-fail system. That would never happen because it isn’t precise enough, people want a quantifiable level of success. I think that grades represent the effort that a student puts forth in a class. Those who work hard enough can generally get an A in any class. This is not always the case, but effort usually has a lot do with it. Sometimes a grade will determine a level of understanding and aptitude, but it is very possible to pass a class without understanding it. I just think grades show mainly effort, and a little bit of aptitude in a class. Still, they are not very precise, and don’t really show a lot. As for what grades should represent, I think they should represent success in a class. However, I really have no idea how to actually make grades show success in a class. Pass or fail would not work this because that would make grades less precise than they already are. This is a really difficult issue because there is no real great way to fix grades. However, I don’t feel grades need to be fixed this second. I don’t really dislike the way they’re done, they really don’t bother me much at all.
Bailout Plan
I think that the government should have let the situation sorted itself out more than they did. The economy wasn’t going to completely crash and lead to another Great Depression right yet. Plus, companies are buying up other companies that are in trouble, which is helping solve some of the problems. The companies were the ones that failed, not the American people. If I were to go bankrupt the government wouldn’t buy me out of bankruptcy. Yet, that is exactly what we are doing with all of these large financial institutions. They made bad economic decisions and now are paying for their poor choices. I think that at some point, the government has to help out the financial institutions. A complete crash of these companies would cause some serious problems for the economy, and that would not be in the best interest of anybody. I think that the situation should be watched for a little while longer. Some of the companies buying each other and going out of business is not always a terrible thing. It would help clean up some of the problems with the financial institutions because the bad companies would be eliminated. However, if the situation gets to the point where the whole financial sector is on the verge of total collapse, then I think the government should intervene. However, I would wait and see first because it isn’t necessary to spend a ton of money right away, especially since the taxpayers have to pay for the huge bill. So, I think we should wait a little longer and have the market regulate itself some.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/21/business/21qanda.html
http://www.care2.com/politics/bailout-pros-cons-rejected-whos-to-b.html
Meanest Mom
I don’t think that this mom was completely ridiculous in her decision to sell her son’s car. I do think it is kind of funny that this story got so much press, it doesn’t seem like that big of a deal to me. However, I do find it quite funny that the mom even called herself the meanest mom. When I saw the little summary and headline, I thought that there was serious reason for the name, or that someone gave her that nickname. It was strange to see that the mom gave herself the name, but it was a pretty clever idea. Obviously, it helped her sell the car because she got so much publicity by publishing the name as the “meanest mom.” I kind of disagree with the punishment; it is a little harsh to sell her son’s car for what he did. While I understand that her son broke the rule that she laid down, selling the car seems a little extreme to me. The post also does seem to show up her son a little bit, I would find that a little bit embarrasing to have people know all about what I did. Still, I see no fault in the mom sticking to her word that her son obey the rules she laid out. Plus, her son probably learned a very valuable lesson in the process.
Junior Year
During my junior year, I really want to begin to preparing for college. I would like to get an idea of what I want to be when I grow up so that I can determine a major that I’m possibly interested in. Then, with some idea in mind, I can begin picking colleges to start applying to in the fall of next year, more specifically start preparing all the essays and papers for scholarships. All of these are really important because I would like to go to a very good college so that I can make lots of money later on in life. Standardized test scores and activities help with college so I am going to do multiple activities and community service. I want to improve on my score of 32 on the ACT and maintain my good GPA. On an unrelated note, I want to get stronger and faster because those really help in baseball. Apart from these lofty goals, I just want to have a fun time being in high school.
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