Sample essays about symbols, traditions, heros...

Even the President rides in an SUV nowadays. The seal of the president is now placed on america's car of choice, the SUV. But just as the this president has divided teh country, so has the SUV. The SUV is a symbol of our political, economic, and environmental divisions. In fact it is a symbol of our dependence on foreign oil, our desire for power on the road, and even the big old ugly American belief in "might makes right" on the interstate. Critics point out the poor gas mileage, the increase in pollution, and the macho image.

Gas prices are back up to over 2.40 a gallon. the problem is that SUVs don't run well on regular gas. They usually require premium, nad the price of that is near 2.60 a gallon. So on average the SUV owner will be five to ten dollars more each time she goes to the pump. If gas prices do indeed go over 3 dollars a gallon this summer, SuV owners will pay ten to fifthteen dollars more with each fillup. Some Americans will grin and bear it; they will complain but never change their gas buying habits. Other Americans will panic this summer; sell their SuVs and buy foreign fuel efficient cars. But they too will keep driving. The car companies will applaud this move and sell more cars.

It is also true that SUVs are more comfortable to ride in. They tend to be higher up so it is easier to see the road ahead. Yet, some suv drivers have used this as an excuse to tailgate and intimidate other drivers in humble sedans. Americans have always had this cowboy image that the law does not apply to me; "my car can easily cruise at 85 so dammit I will drive at that speed, and to hell with CHP." Perhaps this image is directly from the president who has turned the world against us with his smug brutish ways or pictures of his suv convoy in front of the white house. So the suv thing is a symbol of our national macho complex.

But it is also a symbol of our self-destructiveness and our belief that someone else can clean up after us. So the world leader pollutes the air. The weather patterns continue to change. the gulf of mexico is no longer defined as an ocean. We just don't care about consequences. We will think about it later. Leave it to american ingenuity to invent a huge cleaning system to clean up pollution and we will market around the world and create it in China.

Our wonderful politicians instead of forcing investment in electric cars have opened the way to drill in northern Alaska. We will not say we need to conserve gas; just drill more instead. thus, the suv is a symbol of our macho image, our self-destructiveness, our unwillingness to have an open mind.



Tradition: social security

What will become of our fair sister Social security? It is a tradition that goes back at least 65 years and is the envy of the world. We pay in a little at a time over many years, and when we retire, we have a little nest egg to supplement our pensions. Instead of adding a few restrictions to the system our "forward looking" President wants to abolish our sacred socialistic system. What is the real reason to privatize social security? Perhaps to put all that money in the hands of private brokers like Smith Blarney or the weak stock market. Besides this way, the government will not be responsible for your nest egg. You will--or Blarney.

The problems with social security could easily be fixed; the system does not need to be scraped. We could raise the age of entitlement to 64. we could restrict entitlement to people who are earning more than 70,000 dolllars at age 64. so we don't need to eliminate the system; we just need to tweak it.

Bushie claims he wants to free the American people from the chains of government. Thus, he argues, Bush argues that we as individual shareholders need to decide where our money goes. The government should not control our social security money; we should. While this principle seems noble, it is really a trick. Private investment, especially now in a hostile no growth, sideward moving stock market, is not a guarantee of a return on investment. During the Clinton years, the stock market continued to grow in value. This was because we had no wars draining our coffers and we had a pro-technology administration. Thus, computer stock went way up. Now we have a pro-military technology administration. But many people have refused to put their money back into the stock market. We have a pro war and pro oil administration. No one can deny Bush comes from an oil baron family. We cannot trust him in light of his huge military
budgets. We do not need less government; we need less war spending and more watchful eyes on social security. Private accounts are, then, a bad idea.

Sometimes, we do not need huge changes in government programs. Social security is one such program. Even if only some people decide to put their social security money into private accounts, there is a domino effect. Many that is paid in now is paid out to our seniors. So money taken out is money that cannot be paid out. So in a way we are trapped. But I think social security is a wonderful trap, and it has been a good trap for more than 70 years.


Unwitting Heroine

"Terri Schiavo has died." That was the news I saw when I woke up this morining. As usual, our blessed country is polarized as to what she stands for. To some Schiavo is the heroine for the right to die or death with dignity movement. After all, she did die or was starved to death which was supposedly her wish. To others, the pro lifers (who also despite the contradiction are pro death penalty) Schiavo is the heroine not just of those against mercy killings but also those against abortion.

The fact is Terri Schiavo is dead, and according to her husband, her wish was to die. It takes a lot of courage to choose quality over quantity in life. All of us may someday be old and have basically lost our identity. Look at the early pictures of Schiavo. We see a beautiful young woman who cared pershaps too much about her appearance and hair color. But that was apparently who she was. May be she thought if she could not be beautiful she did not want to live. May be she was superficial or vain but that is her choice and her decision to die was what was communicated to her husband. Besides the spouse and not the in-laws or worse the State should say what happens to a person like Schiavo. So the mercy killers celebrate the victory: the government could not intervene and may be liberty sucks but that is the law as of right now in Florida. She is a heroine.

The pro life movement mourns the loss of more life, just as in the case of fetuses destroyed in every day abortions. Schiavo is a martyr for the cause of life, even if she did not want hers. These people will not forget the case even after Florida changes its laws to prevent any more mercy killing within the borders of its holy state. These people are mobilized and they will continue to camp out. They don't care about money; their cases are too important. So even if Terri did not want to be a martyr for the pro life cause, she is now. She is a heroine. Her name will be mentioned ad nauseam on cable tv same as 9/11.

So Terri Schiavo became an unwitting heroine today, with her death. To the left, she represents death with dignity. To the right she is like a child unborn. To both she is a heroine. As with most heroines, her life is unimportant. Who really knows something about her death? We don't really even know if she wanted to die or not. All that matters now is that what her death means
just like a Catholic martyr. She is a heroine to both sides, but is just another aspect of our polarized society. And the media loves it because it is the group that stands to gain the most.