Thoughts on The GOP Debate

This week we talked a lot about politics.  Yet another GOP debate occurred this week and our class enjoyed arguing and discussing the candidates and their policy ideas.  For my blog post I am going to dare to post my thoughts on this week’s debate.  I want to clarify from the start that if you disagree with me, that is perfectly fine and I completely respect your opinions.

In our class we have students with opposing ideologies who vehemently disagree with one another, yet they manage to discuss and debate different issues with respect.  The amount of disrespect, and irony during the debate was almost as depressing as the proposed plans to carpet bomb citizens in order to take out Isis and to shoot down Russian planes if they enter a no-fly zone.

At the beginning of the debate, Governor Kasich said that his daughter was uninterested in politics because of all the fighting and yelling.  He called for unity between candidates and the two political parties.  Right after he called for people to start working together and stop yelling at each other, the camera cut to Governor Christie who began saying “America has been betrayed.  We’ve been betrayed by the leadership Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton have provided this country”.  This comment seemed so ironic after Governor Kasich had just finished pleading for unity between Democrats and Republicans.  

The main focus of this GOP debate of course was national security after the events in Paris and San Bernardino.  Each candidate had a slightly different plan for keeping Americans safe, but one point all the candidates seemed to agree on was that our military is weak and must be strengthened.  Perhaps I am young and naive, but I do not understand how our military can be so weak when in 2014 the total amount spent on national defense was $613.6 billion.  The projected amount that the government will spend on the military for 2015 is $598.5 billion dollars2.  While the government also spends billions of dollars on other programs, the government still spends the most on the military.  The projected amount spent on the military in 2015 would account for 54% of all federal discretionary spending, and I think this statistic is best illustrated by this pie chart2.

It should also be noted that the amount the United States spends on the military is far greater than many other major countries combined which is also best illustrated by a graph for the year 2014.

The candidates never mentioned statistics or data that backs up their claim that the military is “weak”.  Some candidates talked about military equipment being old and out of date.  If the government truly needs to update military equipment, perhaps the money allotted to military spending could be budgeted better.

While the candidates all attempted to make various points during the debate, most of them were based on this presumption that the military is underfunded, which based on the data, just seems to simply not be the case.

The most important thing, however, that I took away from the debate is that Governor Kasich really enjoys playing Fruit Ninja.  

1http://www.pogo.org/our-work/straus-military-reform-project/defense-budget/2014/total-us-national-security-spending.html?referrer=https://www.google.com/

2https://www.nationalpriorities.org/campaigns/military-spending-united-states/

My Wish List

Each week for the past few weeks we have had the luxury of being able to write about whatever we want in our blog posts.  Nevertheless, each week I try to relate my posts to something happening in class.  This week I have decided to take this freedom to write about something I want for Christmas.

In A Room of One’s Own by Virginia Woolf, all Mary (Woolf’s narrator) wants is money and a room of her own in order to write fiction.  Money is a tangible item that one can obtain, but if one is a woman like Mary in the early 20th century, it is hard to obtain money on one’s own without a husband or a father.  A room of one’s own could possibly be considered a tangible thing.  A physical room with walls is a tangible thing, but the idea of a room of one’s own is not a tangible item.  The desire for privacy is intangible.  It cannot be bought.

As we get closer and closer to Christmas, everyone in my family keeps asking for my Christmas Wish List.  They want to know what to buy me.  As a child my list would go on for pages and pages with items like Chat Nows, Tamagotchis, Webkinz, a digital camera, and a karaoke machine.  This year however I have no list.  There are many things I really want, but none of them are tangible items that can be bought.  It is aggravating when the things one desires no longer can be bought at Target.

The number one item on my Wish List this year is an acceptance letter to one of my top choice colleges.  Even just one acceptance letter to one of my dream colleges would vindicate years of balancing schoolwork, homework, and extracurricular activities.  I care deeply about academic achievement, and I am the type of person who stays up until two in the morning in order to complete all of my homework and study for tests in order to achieve the best possible grades.  For the past four years (and even in middle and elementary school) I have stressed and worried about grades.  I have worked as hard as I can forgoing friends, sleep, and fun just to do well in school.  I have heard over and over that “It doesn’t matter where you go to school.  It matters what you do wherever you go.”  I understand that this is mostly true, and I am sure that no matter where I go, as long as I work hard, I will be able to achieve whatever I want and have a great life.  However, while I have certainly learned a lot by working as hard as possible, getting into just one great school would feel like a reward and recognition of all my efforts.  Unfortunately, an acceptance letter to an amazing college will not be under the tree this year, no matter how badly my parents would like to fulfill my wishes and give it to me.  

College Applications and A Room of One's Own

A woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction.  This is the thesis of Virginia Woolf’s A Room of One’s Own.  Her essay attempts to make points that prove why a woman needs money and why she needs privacy in order to write fiction.  So far in class, we have read about why a woman needs a room of her own.  Each time Woolf’s narrator, Mary  wants to find a quiet place to think or begins to think, she is interrupted.  Woolf writes in a stream of consciousness, which helps demonstrate the narrator being interrupted in the middle of her thought process.

While I personally have never attempted to write fiction, I have and am currently writing many college essays.  While the entire point of Woolf’s thesis is to discuss the inequities and challenges women attempting to write fiction face, I want to discuss the challenges that high school seniors face when applying to college.  I would argue that her thesis slightly altered applies to the college application process.  My thesis would be that “A (man or woman) must have money and a room of one’s own if he/she is to successfully apply to college”.

A high school student primarily needs money.  In order to apply to college one needs to have SAT or ACT scores.  Most students take these standardized tests two or three times in order to achieve desirable scores.  If one cannot afford to take these tests, the colleges one will be able to apply to will be very limited.  Most students as I said will retake the exams and will take the two different exams to see which one they can score better on.  Again, it costs money to take multiple exams.  It costs $29 to take the ACT.  It costs an additional $14 to take the writing test portion which many schools require.  If you sign up late it costs an additional $19.  The SAT costs $54.50.  If someone cannot access the internet and wants to register by phone, that will cost an additional $15.  If one needs to change the date or location or register late, that will cost an additional $28.  If one wants to apply to an elite university, it is necessary to take at least two or three SAT subject tests.  It costs $26 for the first test and $18 for each other test taken on a single day.  While each individual fee may not seem like a lot, it can add up quickly.  Fee waivers are offered for students who absolutely cannot afford the tests, however; many students who succeed on standardized tests take expensive preparatory classes and buy study materials.  Even if a student is able to have the fee for the actual exam waived, the student may not be able to afford preparatory materials, and their score may be lower than someone of approximately the same academic ability who was able to buy preparatory materials.

In addition to the cost of standardized testing, students must also pay an application fee when applying to a college which often ranges from $50-$80.  As college becomes more and more competitive, many students are applying to more and more colleges to ensure entrance into a university that is a match for them.  If a student wants to apply to even 8 schools, this can cost upwards of $400-$640.  It is necessary to have money in order to be accepted to college.

One also needs a room of one’s own.  As applying to multiple colleges becomes easier and easier with the Common Application, many schools are adding supplemental essays to see if students are truly interested in their universities and to see how well they “fit” the school.  There are also additional essays if one wants to apply to an Honors program or Honors college and additional essays if one wants to apply for scholarship money.  The number of essays one has to complete can become overwhelming quickly.  In order to write so many thoughtful essays, one truly needs a room of one’s own.  Not only is it important to find a quiet place so one’s thoughts are not interrupted as one tries to brainstorm and craft the perfect essay, but it is also important to be alone.  It is vital that these essays are a true reflection of the applicant and are not influenced by friends or family.  One must be truthful and honest and write what one actually thinks, instead of what someone else thinks they should think, or what someone else thinks the college is looking for.  If one is not alone during the writing process, the essays may become tainted by others’ ideas.  Colleges often say that they can tell when someone else has helped the applicant write an essay, and that it is a reason for them to reject an applicant.

Virginia Woolf faced two major struggles as a woman writing fiction, and we as college-bound high school seniors currently face the same two struggles as we apply to college; a need for money and a need to be alone.