Monday, November 18, 2013

The American Dream

I agree completely with Estefany’s article concerning “The American Dream” for many immigrants. Even though I was fortunate enough to be born in this country not every one has that luck, like my family. Even though I didn’t struggle personally, I did see some consequences the “American Dream” had. My family spent a lot of years not being able to visit their loved ones, which for them was a big burden. My dad worked two jobs earning minimum wage in order for us to live a better life than we would in Mexico. Having a better life is one of the main reasons a lot of people, not just from Mexico, decide to migrate to an unknown land hoping for the best. Just like Estefany said in her article, immigrants don’t come and “steal” the jobs away. Rather they are taking the jobs that the citizens don’t want or refuse to take, like jobs in agriculture and other hard-labor jobs. From the beginning of this country’s history, the only thing that immigrants want is a better life for themselves and their families. Hopefully one day not far from today, Congress passes an immigration law that helps many immigrants fulfill their dream

Monday, November 4, 2013

Is It Really Helping or Hurting Us?

Is it really helping or hurting us?
There have been a lot of recent controversies that make the public wonder about the true purpose of the NSA. When the first controversy emerged, people were angered with the idea of being monitored. Many people including myself don’t like the idea of being spied on even if we have nothing to hide. The government said that it is only used to prevent any more attacks by terrorists and to ensure protection. In my opinion by making it public, terrorists are going to look for a new way of communication since phones are being used to track a possible attack. But a recent controversy revealed that the U.S. was spying on its own allies in Europe. Rather than keeping an eye out for terrorism, they are focused on its own allies. The espionage has gone too far and we might be endangering our relationship with our allies. Now the president and others in the government claim that they were unaware of such thing. You have to wonder is all of this is true or they are trying to cover themselves up. One question that came to my mind was which was worse, a President knowing about espionage or a President that has no clue what is happening inside his own government. I think that some espionage is good to keep the citizens protected from an attack but it should have a limit. They can’t go all around the world spying on what people are doing just because the technology is available. According to the Secretary of State, John Kerry, thanks to the NSA they “have actually prevented airplanes from going down, buildings from being blown up, and people from being assassinated because we've been able to learn ahead of time of the plans."