RJ Stangherlin

Keystone Technology Integrator and STAR Discovery Educator

This site is for Mrs. Stangherlin's classes at Salisbury High School.

Highlighting Student Voices: Olga Karounos

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America has been a major world power since World War II; however, like every great society prior to this era, America’s power will eventually fade to make room for a new prospering country. If America wants to keep it’s foothold in the world, it must make changes and adapt with the changing times. The United States has always been a forerunner when it comes to technological advancements. We must continue this trend and invent new, innovative forms of technology, preferable for a militaristic purpose. Despite the differences between all the countries of the world, there is one thing that holds true; money equals power. America needs to rid itself of it’s trillion dollar debt and focus on manufacturing and other forms of material production. Finally, the citizens of the United States need to change their attitude of entitlement. If American citizens are not willing to work to make a difference in our country, we will never succeed. If America is able to reach these goals, we will hold fast to our foothold and continue to be a world power. But if we fail, we could be living on the brink of the collapse of the “American Empire”.

The Manhattan Project, the creation of the atomic bomb. Both the most fansticating and frightening invention of our history, it showed the world America’s power. It warned other countries not to take advantage of us and be cautious when making negotiations. This display of technological supperiority showed it’s face again in 1969, during the Space Race against the Soviet Union. We became the first country to put a human on the moon and bring him back safely. This not only intimidated other countries but showed them what we were capable of; we said we were going to put a man on the moon before 1970, and we succeeded. Again, in the 1980s, during Reagan’s presidency. His “SDI” program, nicknamed Star Wars, might have seemed far fetch’d, but the Soviet Union wasn’t taking any chances. With this fear instilled in the “Evil Empire”, we were able to prevent a nuclear war and aid in the collapse of the Soviet Union. These examples in history have shown just how powerful technology really is. Though we’ve lead the way in the development of the internet, it isn’t enough to continue to intimidate our enemies and give us a strong treshold in the world. We need to create new, powerful technologies in order to retain our standing in the world. We have the best universities in the world; we have the mental capability and the drive, we just need to start seeing results. However, we won’t have the ability to invent anything worthwhile if we don’t have the funds or money to do so.

Over the years, America has always been seem as the country of prosperity; immigrants have always come here to improve their lifestyle and make money. Yet, people seem to turn a blind eye to the increasing national debt our country has built up over the years. In the early 1700s, Alexander Hamilton proposed a managable national debt was good for the country, because it motivated other countries to want America to succeed. However, with the debt clock exceeding a trillion dollars in 2008, our finacial I.O.U’s have stopped being a blessing and starting becoming cumbersome. America’s goal should be to lower it’s debt to a more managable amount. Manufacturing has always been a big business for America; we are currently #1 in the world when it comes to producing goods. However, America has been switching from a more production based economy to a service and consumer based economy; instead of selling the majority of goods to other countries, we’ve started buying. China has even predicted it will surpass the United States in manufacturing during this year.By teaching elementary school and high school children they can still be successful by working in a manufacturing plant as opposed to being lawyers or doctors, we will continue to make money and be on the way to eliminating or controlling our national debt. However, neither techological advances nor lowering our national debt is feasable without the support and willingness of American people.

During President Kennedy’s inaugural address, he uttered this inspiring line,"Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country”. American’s have recently lost this attitude and started to believe the country owes something to it’s citizens. The amount of undeserving Americans on welfare has increased exponentially throughout the years, which has cost the United States economy millions of dollars. Overspeculation on homes people thought they deserved but couldn’t afford has also caused our economy to spiral downward.Expecting the government to fix all of these problems has been a by-product of the ignorance of the majority of the American people. They chose to ignore the “people” aspect of the,"Government created by the people, for the people”. Barrak Obama recently addressed this issue in his own inagural address, similar to President Kennedy’s. He stated the government could not make the country better without the support and effort of the American people. By looking for jobs, trusting our government, and accepting that each person will be required to give a little in order to recieve maximum progress, the American people will change their attitude and deserve what they feel they are entitled to obtain. However, if the America fails to succeed in technology, productivity, and, perspective, we are doomed to slip off our pedistal.
(fails to inspire the American people)

Losing our technological foothold to another nation such as China or the Soviet Union could do more than just make us lose our influence in the global specturm.By forget the importance of technological advancement, it could be us who is cowering under the superiority of another nation, as opposed to the way it’s been in the past. If our national debt continues to increase without bound, we run the risk of becoming subordinate to the countries from which we have borrowed money. All a country needs to do is demand we pay our owed debt to bring America to it’s knees. Losing our manufacturing stronghold will also greatly decrease our GNP and increase our inability to pay off our debts. If Barrak Obama fails to inspire the American people to take action and start working for our country, we will have settled our own fate. A country can never succeed without the support of it’s citizens.  However, if we fail both as a people and a nation to rreach these goals, it could mark an end to America’s success. Unfortunately,only time will tell what route America decides to take.

Olga Karounos
China
national debt
technology
perspective
productivity
Turbo Tagger

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