The Moment I Knew I was an American

The definition of an American is a person who incorporate his/her own culture with the cultures of the diversity in America and given the rights of the Constitution. The moment I knew I was an American was when I went back to China and realized how I differ from my Chinese cousins. In their eyes, I was a foreigner who lived a life of free rights and diversity. In my whole life, I have only made two trips to China. I understood that I differed from them in language, cultures, and nationality. They were all taught formal Chinese and lived in China absorbing all the heritage. Their opinions couldn't be expressed easily and they experiences a strict, competitive education. Comparing to me, I lived in America and had no sense of the real Chinese culture. Even though my parents are Chinese immigrants, I was born as an American in the USA. I resemble a "spring roll" which was thought to be an Americanized Chinese dish. I have a mixed culture of Chinese heritage and American education celebrating Chinese New Year and Christmas at the same time. Even though I am not truly Chinese, my nationality will always be American with a hint of Chinese culture.

Us vs. Them ... Us and Them

The causes of conflicts that lead to death conclusions are seen throughout the story of The Crucible and can be found in our current world. Not everyone agree and share similar ideas on economical, political, and religious issues. People's belief of resolving conflicts by sending their enemies to death is seen widely throughout history. Causes of wars are a prime example in our modern-day society. People's greed for more lust, wealth, and power can cause tremendous conflicts within and against nations. This will bring out wars that will try to rid opposing forces.
Controversial topics of religion are a huge cause of death in The Crucible. The belief of the Christianity and the pure works of God are consider to be of the norm and law. Those who try to sway away from the majority will be considered sinful and processed by the devil. The society's unwillingness to change and strictness of the authorities made it so that those who are not following the implanted set of rules will be punished to the extreme. Some believe that ending others lives will create a solution for their conflict but I think this is a very inhumane way of resolving a conflict. Extreme consequences are not necessary for those who don't deserve it.

John Proctor...Hero or Stooge?

Honest and upright, John Proctor was a good man, but one with a secret, fatal flaw. There are two choices to portray John Proctor in The Crucible. He is seen in my opinion as a tragic hero because of how he saved his wife and confessed about his adultery trying to stop Abigail's crazy rampage. It requires a lot of courage to confess that you actually had an affair with someone. Also, he tried to keep himself away from Abigail knowing that he did wrong before the trials. Even though the truth was told, the timing was wrong and nobody believed him. His betraying servant, Mary, blamed all the "devil's company"on him. Sadly, he was located in a unfortunate situation where nobody believed the truth when he wanted to admit and everyone accusing him. Knowing that the only way to survive was confession, he directed all the witchcraft doings to himself. After forcing him to confess and sign the confession, the court still wanted to post it on the church. Nobody would want their shameful secrets made public. It would have humiliated him and ruin his reputation for the rest of his life. Such an ugly scar is unjust for a man who took a little stumble and once had a great reputation. Why was that even necessary?

Sinners in the Hands of Angry God

Puritan was a strict branch of religion coming from Protestantism of Christianity. This passage of "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God" explains the wrath of God seen in the eyes of Puritans and how we are seen in God's view. His almighty decision of a person going to heaven or hell was determined when one was born. Good works and a righteous attitude does not change the fact of your predestination in the beliefs of Puritans. This is shown in Jonathan Edwards' preachings about the predictions of God's mighty wrath.

If I was listening to Jonathan Edward's speech at this very moment, I would reject his ideas and believe God as a caregiver rather than a wrath divine superior who chooses when to take away one's life anytime he feels like it. Even though I disagree with him in my mind, I would not try to stand up and oppose him. My life will be on the line if I choose to reform their beliefs. There are a lot of people that live by the Puritan rules of the speech of Jonathan Edward. In my opinion, the stress of faith and good works are both essential for true salvation. Predestination opposes the importance equality for all believers. It is portrayed in this passage that Puritans' faith in God can bring potential danger and suffering for them.

Arrivals...There Goes The Neighborhood

As Christopher Columbus set foot onto the earth of America, everything will change for the Native American inhabitants. Before 1492, North America was barely inhabited, unused, and undeveloped. The Native American inhabitants were mostly hunter-gatherers and wanders across the land trying to survive day after day with what they can find. There was no change or revolution, no growth for centuries. Before Columbus, Native American life was nasty, brutish, and short with the sense of that there was no written language, no division of labor, little agriculture and rare permanent settlements. Also, there were endless bloody wars between tribes with undeveloped weaponry. Life would go on for them without any society development. The exploration of America brought an opening for permanent colonial settlements from people all over the world. In the 1600's, Europeans started to bring live stocks to America and also established international trading systems. Then, America flourished and advanced in agriculture and ideals. Missionaries also spread the faith of their religions. This also allowed Europeans and Native Americans to exchange their cultures and heritage with each other. Even though a lot of Native Americans were driven from their homeland, this allowed Europeans for a permanent settlement. Europeans also controlled the ongoing wars of Native Americans. The advancement of America led to an development of ideas and creations of Aristotle, Galileo, Newton, and the thousands of thinkers, writers, and inventors who came to America.Without the exploration of Columbus and the change and contribution of the Native American society, United States of America would not exist.

My Introduction

Hi everyone!

My name is Henley. Even though I am a sophmore, the feeling of 9th grade still flows inside. I came from a Chinese background and was born in Chicago. My hobbies include playing computer games, biking, fishing, watching TV, and sleeping. A good amount of sleep can brighten up the soul. Sadly, I am not too big of a fan in music. Despite the fact that I am not always prepared for school after summer, I will be always interested and curious about learning. I hope that I will learn some intriguing new things and I will try my best in this class.

Economy Downturn

Why is our economy in a downfall? Our current recession was formed from several catastrophic reasons including the war, internet enterprises, and interest rates. It has devastated our lives and slowed the rates of investments. Our government is trying to reassure Americans to spend their money with their proposals and plans.

Before the economy recession of 2001, in 1999, an economic boom in computer and software sales was caused by the “Year 2000” (Y2K) glitch. During 1960’s to 1980’s, the practice of using 2 digits for representing a year rather than using 4 digits was contradicting with the year 2000. By using 2 digits instead of 4, computers would save disk and memory space. Experts believe that the computer would interpret 00 as 1900 and would mess up programs functions. This made the whole finance industry panicked and the bug was a potential time bomb for computers. Therefore, companies created year 2000 operating systems and software. Scared of a computer breakdown, everyone started purchasing the computer products. Leading to an economy boom for the tech companies, the stock prices started to rapidly increase while their production line enlarges. This led to enormous amounts of investors going to any kind of tech company whether they were profiting or not. As the millennium year 2000 came, computer orders declined. Customers had already bought all the software and hardware needed so the supply of computers filled the shelves of tech companies. Leading to a stock market sell-off in March 2000, the stock prices declined and many went bankrupt. In my opinion, I think that they should not have inputted 2 digits years in the first place. Sooner or later, the year 2000 would appear and it would have been obvious that computers would not interpret it accurately.

The “dot-com bubble” was also a cause to the economy recession in 1998-2001. The stock market increased rapidly with the NASQAQ peaking at 5132.52 on March 10, 2000. The rise of internet sites and tech industry was the main cause of the incredible increase of the stock market. The economy began losing speed when the Federal Reserve increased interest rates six times. The bubble burst after the high peak. Also, “Microsoft v. United States” case was being heard in federal court about abusive control power over Intel-based personal computers in operating system sales and web browser sales. This was mainly about the merging of Internet Explorer with Microsoft systems. The case discouraged many Microsoft investors. Another reason was the massive sell orders for the tech stocks that happened following the March 10 weekend. The dot-com bubble crash wiped out $5 trillion in market value of technology companies from March 2000 to October 2002. I personally believe that investors shouldn’t have sold all the stocks right after March 10 weekend because if there wasn’t a massive selling order, the bubble could have lasted longer and wouldn’t collapse as rapidly.

A main cause of recession of 2001 was high interest rates. Although the stock market decline in March 2000, the Federal Reserve continued increasing interest rates to a peak of 6.25% in May 2000. As a result, businesses loans and mortgages rates decreased. The Federal Reserve started lowering rates in January 2001 and rested at 1.75% eleven months later. Also a cause that resulted in our current economy was that the Federal Reserve did not raise interest when the economy was booming in 2004. This caused a housing bubble where investors took advantage of low rates to buy homes to just resell.

In 2006, when the rates were increased, housing prices declined. When the investors realized that they would lose money by selling the house for less than their mortgages, they foreclosed. An increasing foreclosure rate threatened many banks causing them to face enormous losses. By August 2007, many banks were afraid to lend each other money. This led to the $700 billion bailout to assist bankruptcies such as Bear Stearns, AIG, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, IndyMac Bank, and Washington Mutual. The Federal Reserve should not have increased the interest rates when the housing bubble was being magnified but could have raised it after the bubble calms down.

Also, the Iraq War proved to be an economic disaster. The government had spent over $522 billion on the war. With that amount, the government could have provided better Medicaid health insurance and better education. Also, that amount can provide every resident of the country with $1,800. Because of the war, over 1 million jobs were lost. The federal fiscal debt in 2007 was $244 billion. In May 2009, the US owed China $772 billion. In total, lenders from Japan and China held 44% of the foreign-owned debt. I think that the foreign ownership of the Treasury Securities is a potential and dangerous risk if the countries stop buying Treasury securities or sell them off greatly. The national debt equates to $30,400 per person of U.S. population or $60,100 per head of the U.S. working population, as of February 2008. Our debts are disastrous and proven that the next generation will have to pay off our current debts.
On Monday, February 23, 2009, Dow, S&P, and NASDAQ reached the lowest points in nearly 12 years of the stock market. The Dow Jones industrial lost 250 points, or 3.4%, ending at the lowest point since May 7, 1997. The S&P 500 index lost 26 points, or 3.5%, ending at the lowest point since April 11, 1997. The NASDAQ index lost 53 points, or 3.7%. Expects says that nobody is willing to buy stocks and it will continue going plunging until the economy recovers with assurance. I think that people are not willing to invest because of the high rates of unemployment and the declining values of the U.S. dollar.

Soon enough, employment plummeted and major companies fired thousands of employees. The unemployment rate soared to over 9.8 percent in September of 2009. The largest job losses were construction, retail, trade, and government. Therefore, borrowers were unable to pay back loans on homes, vehicles, businesses, and credit cards. Inflation of essential commodities caused people to spend their money more carefully and tightly. Prices of properties and stocks drastically decrease but nobody wanted to invest. As a result, America’s Gross Domestic Production plunges continuously in a downfall.

For the healing of our economy, we need to construct a strategy for the budget and for the investments in education, employment, health care, and businesses. “We will recover from this recession,” President Obama said. “But it will take time, it will take patience, and it will take an understanding that when we all work together; when each of us looks beyond our own short-term interests to the wider set of obligations we have to each other - that's when we succeed.”