Super Hero or Super Villain?

A few weeks ago I saw the movie Watchmen. The movie was pretty good, but what I really enjoyed about it was the way they integrated history into the movie. The movie takes place in 1985 and the United States revolves around the period of tension we are leaning about now in AS; this period is known as the Cold War, a nuclear arms race against Soviet Russia. There are a great amount of historical references such as Vietnam, civil rights, etc., but what I really want to comment on is the decision making put into using weapons of mass destruction in the story.

Towards the end of the movie, the character Ozymandias, one of the super heroes, activates his major secret plan and sets off a weapon of mass destruction in New York City killing hundreds of thousands of innocent people. His old companions are in horrible shock as they learn what he has done; they do not understand how/why he could do this. You want to view Ozymandias as a villain immediately, but this is where the movie's brilliance shines...

Right before this bomb is set off, tensions were high between Russia and the U.S. The type of bomb that Ozymandias set off was not an atom bomb, however, but created from the energy that Dr. Manhattan is made of, a super hero who is composed of nuclear energy. After the world realized that this WMD set off in New York was the energy Dr. Manhattan uses, the U.S. and Russia blame Dr. Manhattan. Within a matter of hours, the tension between the U.S. and Russia dropped and they halted their arms race once and for all as they joined in peace to rebuild the horror that struck the world that day. Ozymandias' plan the whole time was to frame Dr. Manhattan in order to bring peace between these two destructive world powers.

This was a very interesting idea that the movie presented; in order to bring peace to the world, one man thought the only option was to sacrifice the lives of hundreds of thousands of innocent people. I'm so glad I saw Watchmen because I will always look back to this movie when we begin discussing the dropping of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in class. The movie raises a lot of questions that can be raised directly to the parallel decision making put into dropping the atom bomb on Japan. Was it the best option? Was it the only option? Are we heroes or are we villains?

The Trickle Effect

During these difficult economic times, people start to blame each other for their own problems; some blame the government, some blame the rich, and some blame the poor. Accusing each other has so far proved to do nothing, however, and maybe it is time to work together to solve the country's problems. If we do not support each other and fuel the economy, we will only sink deeper into this hole, for we have begun to truly experience what many like to call "the trickle effect."

I read an article in the New York Times titled "Who Gets Hit When the Wealthy Cut Back." The article discusses how the affluent are suffering economically now, and as a result, the lower working class is as well. This article mainly talks about the landscapers who work for the wealthy, and how they are having a hard time finding work now.

We have discussed one way to potentially solve an economic crisis is to put money back into the market by spending. Unfortunately, the wealthy are doing quite the opposite. Some are cutting back on the amount of people they have tending to their homes, while others are completely getting rid of their workers.
Yes, it may seem like the right decision for each individual homeowner to make in order to save money, but it is not helping the country as a whole. These landscapers are a large part of the economy and they are completely dependent on the wealthy class for work.

The wealthy need to support the economy by supporting the lower working class. By hiring and spending money on landscapers again, the lower working class will have more jobs available, they will be able to spend money again, the economy will begin to refuel, and the wealthy can then be refueled by the rising market.

We cannot blame each other during this time of economic crisis. We need to think more about what is best for our country than what is best for the individual. Reverse "the trickle effect!"

Article: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/04/your-money/04wealth.html?pagewanted=1&8dpc

Reverse Our Ways!

An idea we've explored much in our current unit deals with how to fix the economy during difficult times. There is not a simple answer, and there never will be. After browsing through a few articles in the New York Times which talk about our economy's current situation, nearly all of them seem to convey the same plan to fix it. Americans need to reverse the way in which they are responding to this depression.
One article titled "A Downturn Wraps a City in Hesitance" focuses on one location, Portland, where everything is going wrong. Falling house prices, weak consumer spending, and falling investment are really taking a hold of this city. The article only suggests that by acting this way, Portland will only fall deeper into this spiral of depression. It can only be solved by acting in the exact opposite way. Housing values need to rise, people need to put money into the economy, and the stock market should must be refueled.
Portland is described as a place that, "has long attracted investment and talented minds with its curbs on urban sprawl, thriving culinary scene and life in proximity to the Pacific Coast and the snow-capped peaks of the Cascades" (Goodman 1). Large companies like Nike and Intel employed tens of thousands of Americans in Portland and finding a job in this innovative city never proved to be an issue. The city seems have to have completely shut down in this respect, however, as unemployment rose from 4.8% to 9.8% from 2007-2009. The reason a city that always thrived so efficiently is now falling into a deep hole is because psychologically, the city is not acting like its usual self.
No one knows exactly how to solve the economy, but several articles suggest that at this time, the best thing we can do is reverse our ways. Everyone is afraid, and things will only get worse, ironically. America needs to start spending, and housing prices and the stock market need to level off. It seems as if the only thing we can do to save the economy is face our fears and act inversely to what our heads tell us to do.

Article: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/27/business/economy/27portland.html?fta=y