America Falling Behind?

I have read that America is falling behind in testing.  Yes, that's right.  The great United States is falling behind other countries...and I have a theory as to why that's happening.

Because of the media and what we see on a day to day basis, we've discovered that you don't have to be educated to make lots and lots of money.  Look at today's reality television stars who have made ridiculous amounts of money without having to have any sort of education.  They're simply themselves and they get paid to do it in front of lots of other people.

When mind-sets like this start to settle in, we develop a laziness that is practically an epidemic.  No one is free from it.  No one.

We trun on the television and we're hit with television shows that tell us that we don't really need to work to be rich or famous.  All we have to do is worry about ourselves and do whatever we gosh darn well want, and things will eventually work out.  This is another reason why exercising has also gone down the drain.  We don't want to do all of that hard work, and this is the same with school.  When we have everything at our fingertips, we begin to think that we shouldn't have to work hard in order to get things, but all this truly leads to is an unhealthy mind-set that hard work is old-fashioned.

Because of this mind-set, we are practically encouraging kids to cheat their way through school and not put any effort into the learning process.  When we let them think that this is okay, we are degrading the values that our nation was founded on.

The idea that hard work can get you anywhere is true, but the problem is no one seems to want to put in the effort to do so, which is what is causing our gradual downslide in testing and in almost every other aspect in our lives.

This is an epidemic.  It's called...

Laziness.

I was once a victim, and I admit that I'm still recovering from it, but it can be cured.  I was put through a series of harsh wake-up calls about my life in order to notice it and catch it in time, but at least I finally noticed it.  I was raised in a family where hard work was a part of our daily lives, and my parents enforced it, but I'm just now understanding what it truly means.

It means this:

Get up and be productive, gosh darnit!!

The link to the New York Times article is here:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/28/opinion/28friedman.html?_r=1&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss

Forced Prostitution?

I read an article on the New York Times website and was shocked at what I had discovered.

Some young girls are forced into prostitution in order to pay off their smuggling debts in order to get into the United States in order to have a chance at a normal life with a normal career.  This story that I read just about made me livid!

Someone forcing someone else to sell their body for sex on a regular basis in order to pay off a debt needs to be in prison, at least.

Read the article here:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/28/opinion/28kristof.html?partner=rssnyt&emc=rss

Tolstoy's Centennial

So the centennial of Leo Tolstoy's death was celebrated (or mourned?), and as I read the article that was written about him, I will admit to the fact that I cried.

Although I've never read any of his works, I can still appreciate one of the greatest writers of our time.  I can understand how he thought.  He once said,

“The aim of an artist is not to solve a problem irrefutably, but to make people love life in all its countless, inexhaustible manifestations.”

And even though his thoughts became those of helplessness later on in his life, I believe wholeheartedly on this one.  Being someone who is an artist and loves to create in almost every sense of the word, I agree that an artist's job is to show the world how to love life in all of its' aspects.


Although Tolstoy was a novelist and a crusader, he still remained incredibly influential on the people of the time.  All the way from Ghandi to the czar himself, he will remain, at least in my book, one of the most influential writers of our modern day.

My Favorite Book

I was starting an assignment for my Approaches to Literature class, and I got the chance to use a book that I haven't read in a long time, but has been a favorite of mine for years. It's called The Music of the Dolphins, and it's written by Karen Hesse.

The book can be read in just a couple of hours by almost anyone, but it has one of the most haunting messages in it that I've ever come across.  There's a link to the first twenty-seven pages of it, and to a couple of reviews down at the bottom of the article.

Although many people might find the book to be almost mind-numbingly simple in the beginning, it still has something to it that I feel holds a very deep meaning.  In a review on the back from the School Library Journal, they say that it is "Haunting and unforgettable."

I remember what first caught my eye to this book when I was younger: I saw the cover.  That was all that it took to capture me, and that was how I bought most books.  If the book cover caught my eye, then that meant that the story must be good as well.  The picture gave me an image for the story and caught my attention.

(It didn't hurt that I was absolutely obsessed with animals, dolphins being one of my favorites)

Doing this essay brought back memories for me, and I felt that I should share these thoughts with you.  I would recommend this book to everyone, and feel that it is a must read.  Please read it and enjoy Karen Hesse's writing as much as I have.

http://books.google.com/books?id=EZ0rlycAwRwC&lpg=PP1&ots=4neTIoiB0i&dq=music%20of%20the%20dolphins%20by%20karen%20hesse&pg=PP1#v=onepage&q&f=false



From Teen Idols to...Something Else

So...  I came across a slideshow that showed a few teen idols in their before and after shots.  And by that I mean showing the difference from when they originally started to who they are now.  I'm disappointed.

I came across one that showed Christina Aguilera and I was...well, not shocked because I'd heard and seen a few things, but I was, as I said before, disappointed.  She was an amaizng singer with such raw talent, but now her talent has been changed into selling sex in music and in what she wears.  This seems to be a trend among many female stars who start out young.

Because I've seen this, it reminds me that if I ever do record anything and sell it (my fingers are crossed!), that I don't want to become that way.  I want to stick to my morals and to the real reason why I do music.  I do it because I love it!  The real reason why these girls started has been lost throughout the years, and I grieve for the young girls that they left behind.  They've lost a part of themselves that they'll never really get back because of what the world now knows them to be.

Because their' focus has shifted, so has their' image, and this is sadly a common trend among almost all stars in the entertainment industry today.  I mean, think of the most wholesome actress or singer that you can think of, within the past fifteen or twenty years, and then look them up on google images.  I will bet you that you will eventually find some scandalously trampy photo, of some kind, of them. 

I just wonder as to how they live with that, knowing that there are people that see them only in one way: a sex symbol.

I hope that we can still have some artists that stick to the real reason as to why they got into music in the first place: for the music.