What is the True Cost of Freedom?

The world’s annual budget on defense spending came to roughly $1.1 trillion in 2011. The United States spent 56% of the global budget for national defense. This comes to a total of more than $693 billion spent every year on wars, national defense, homeland security, and the national military. China ranks second spending 7.3% of the global budget, a number that comes to $76 billion. When you consider that the United States only makes up 4.4% of the global population, the amount that the United States spends on defense is quite outrageous. If China, a country that currently takes up 19.16% of the global population spends $617 billion less than the United States, what justifications could the United States possibly have for such outrageous spending? When the United States are currently facing the greatest economic crisis since the Great Depression, the first place that the nation should look to decrease our debt and increase our surplus should be to trim the fat from the Department of Defense and the Department of Homeland Security.

Politicians on all sides of the political spectrum have been staunchly opposed to any sort of talks that might lead to a cut for the Department of Defense. Even when the “Super Committee” that was formed last summer was told to make cuts or the Department of Defense would be the first place to see these cuts, politicians refused to make any secessions. They then voiced the fact that there would be no cuts to the Department of Defense. This seems to be the only place that politicians can agree, the DOD will not be cut or even forced to slow its spending. The Department of Defense has seen great increases in its budget annually since the days of the Cold War. The increases that the United States approved in the past sixty years all have great justifications as to why these increases have been needed.

The Cold War has been a huge factor as to why the United States needed a large military and why the Department of Defense needed to grow and consume more and more of the US budget. After the end of World War II, the United States was labeled as a global superpower and almost every move the United States made during this time was in direct response to the Soviet Union. The Korean War was the faceoff of the United States and the United Nations against countries under the influence of the communism that was spread by the Soviet Union. The United States was able to step in and influence this war. President Eisenhower even threatened China with our own nuclear weapons in order to bring about an end to the war. The military continued to grow and expand during the Vietnam War, another effort by the United States to stop the spread of communism. The Persian Gulf War required yet again more military growth and even more of the United States’ budget to be spent on wars against communism.  The Cold War was a time that the United States took a stand against communism. This was a time for the US to intervene in other country’s problems and spread democracy to the less fortunate. This was a time for the US to rid the world of terrible dictators. This was a time for the US to ease the suffering of many people in dire situations created by evil communists.

In the past ten years, the United States’ Department of Defense budget has grown at an exponential rate. After the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, the United States began its War on Terror. President Bush authorized Operation Enduring Freedom for the invasion of Afghanistan to rid the country of the Taliban. He also authorized Operation Iraqi Freedom that freed the Iraqi people from the clutches of Saddam Hussein. Whether the original reasoning of finding Weapons of Mass Destruction was pure fiction from the President or not, the new directive was to create democracy and spread freedom. The United States soon had concrete evidence of numerous human rights violations and had the duty to rid the country of Hussein and create freedom. Since military occupation has been required by the United States in order to insure that democracy prevailed, the United States has spent over $800 billion on the War in Iraq from 2003 to the present day.

The Department of Homeland Security has also been forced to continue to increase its budget in the past ten years in light of the terrorist attacks in New York City and Washington DC. For the fiscal year of 2012, the United States has budgeted $432 billion for the Department of Homeland Security. In order to assure safety to all citizens and prevent another such tragedy from occurring, border security became a top priority. Before 2001, there was not much thought given to border security, and therefore not as much money was required to be spent on it. Since 2001, border security now requires money to be spent not only on controlling illegal immigration, but also watching for potential threats. This strengthened watch has also led to a renewal of the War on Drugs. With the Patriot Act signed by President Bush in 2001, citizens surrendered more of their rights as more of their tax dollars were spent on national safety. The United States gave itself the power to detain potential threats to the nation for an indefinite amount of time. Guantanamo Bay was created as a haven for the United States to “interrogate” such potential targets. In their fear of another attack, US politicians stripped away many rights of citizens. Tax dollars that could have been put into schools and the future of the country were turned against the citizens.

National Defense makes up 22.53% of the United States’ budget. In 2012, the US has budgeted $553 billion for the entire Department of Defense. Veterans’ benefits, something that anyone serving in the military will receive, make up an additional 3.26% of the budget. The United States are suffering a crisis, the likes of which has not been seen since the Great Depression. Politicians are looking for ways to not only decrease the national debt, which is now exceeding $14 trillion, but a way to stop the increase of debt. No one wants to make cuts. No one wants to lose the security provided by the military, the retirement provided by Social Security, the help from unemployment compensation, the healthcare provided by Medicare. If something isn’t cut soon, the country runs the risk of losing all of the benefits it has grown accustomed to.

The military can be reduced. If the United States were to withdraw completely from other countries, trillions of dollars would be saved. Due to the fact that the military occupies places like South Korea in order to prevent a nuclear war, this will not happen any time soon. The personnel that are stationed outside the country can be greatly reduced. If the United States were to focus more than 0.84% of its budget on technology programs, there could be huge advances for society. Less people would be required to do the same amount of work. If the United States were to avoid all wars, it would not require such an expansive military. The United States military could cut its military in half and still function if only there was a bit of reorganization. If the United States were to work and cooperate more with the European Union, it would be able to scale back the Navy and share the burden of patrolling the oceans with other countries. 

The United States has been telling itself for hundreds of years that it has a manifest destiny. Part of being an American is spreading freedom and democracy to the rest of the world. If the United States sees communism being spread, it is their job to step in and right things. Trillions of dollars have been spent in the past fifty years on the basis that the US has to stop the spread of communism. What gives the United States the right to step in and tell another country that their beliefs are wrong? Especially when the United States continually enters the Middle East, an area with a history that makes the United States look like a child, what makes the US right? If the United States and the politicians never stop to consider the history of this part of the world, it can never hope to make progress. The fighting and strife that the United States continually tries to put a stop to in the Middle East dates back thousands of years to the Shi’a and Sunni split. If there is any hope of the United States putting a stop to the fighting, politicians and any personnel sent over must understand the culture they are getting involved in. The United States will never be able to force democracy on any society, especially when no one ever stops to think about why there is fighting to begin with.

In the past year, politicians have been bickering like spoiled children about what needs to be cut from the budget in order to try and create a balance. Most democrats have been screaming for the need to raise taxes on the wealthiest 1% of America. With the Occupy Wall Street protests that spanned the nation for months, many citizens picked up on the cry that the wealthiest portion of Americans are being treated much better than the working man. Even with a small tax increase on the wealthiest Americans, there would still be rampant spending. If Democrats proposed to cut something as well as increase taxes, they would have more support across the aisle. Without cutting any programs, the United States will just continue to spend money it does not have. It would continue to build the debt that is eventually going to crush future generations’ hopes and dreams for a better America. 

Many Republicans have been calling for government programs such as Welfare, NASA, the EPA, and job training programs. They claim that these programs allow people to “ride the gravy train” and allows thousands of people to receive government support for free. These programs are said to encourage people to continue to stay out of work or quit looking for a job all together. These programs that are proposed to be cut do nothing for the future of our country. Politicians seem to ignore the fact that these programs take up very little of the current budget. Food and nutrition assistance programs in the United States makes up only 2.83% of the budget. NASA currently only makes up 0.45% of the budget. The EPA makes up only 0.57% of the budget, all government programs designed to protect natural resources only make up a combined 1.12% of the budget. Job training programs make up 2.77% of the US budget. If job training programs were cut, it would affect student financial aid, funds for special education, funds for public schools, and other education funds. Cutting this part of the budget is a sure way to cripple the future generations. Why not trim the national defense instead of ruining the paltry education system the United States has in place? 

Even bringing up the subject of cutting national security budget is going to cause many ruffled feathers on Capitol Hill. Politicians and citizens alike have grown used to the notion that the United States military has to be the biggest and the strongest. The United States must be the force to step in and right every wrong in the world. If the US continues in this thought process, the debt of the nation is just going to continue to grow. The military is too large for a nation this size. Some politicians jump on the idea that by scaling back the military, the military is being disbanded and the country will be open for attack. The US only needs to cut out programs that are no longer needed. Scale back the stations that are in place across the world, find more efficient ways to fight specific battles. If the military was scaled back by only 5% it would mean that there would be almost $35 billion freed up. This money could be put towards other aspects of the government to grow the economy and create a better America. This money could be put toward the $14 trillion debt that the US has created. That’s by only cutting the defense budget by 5%. This can easily be done and almost no changes would be required. If the US cut the budget by 10%, there would be $69 billion freed up. With a 10% cut, there would need to be cut backs, but it would be departments that are outdate. This would require some jobs be absorbed by current employees, but many of the jobs cut would never be missed and would not create a much heavier workload for employees. This would show that there is tremendous waste in the Department of Defense and Department of Homeland Security.  These are cuts that would provide funds for the betterment of the entire American people while reducing debt and never decreasing the safety of the nation.

It is too easy for politicians to evade cutting programs and allowing the United States debt to grow. The easiest and least felt departments that could be overlooked have been held onto out of tradition and fear. Politicians seem to prefer demanding cuts for the less fortunate or disproportionate tax hikes for the wealthy rather than trim away real fat and change the current American mindset. As President Franklin D. Roosevelt said, “We have nothing to fear but fear itself.” The fear that Americans have created about losing an excessive military has not only stunted the growth of a nation, it is crippling it more and more each day. 

Ben Folds Five is Back!!!

For those of you that are unaware, Ben Folds Five has finally returned to the studio to record their first album since 1999. I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm extremely excited to find out about this news.

I've been a huge fan of Ben Folds since I first listened to him in the early 00's. There are few artists that I can say that I own a physical copy of every one of their albums, and Ben Folds is one of those artists. I own every Ben Folds, Ben Folds Five, and The Bens album that has ever been released. Unless there's some unknown album out there not released to the general public. Knowing that there is a new Ben Folds Five album that will soon grace my ears is almost more than I can handle.

Ben released news of the new album in January and I really haven't wanted to talk about it too much since then. Mostly due to the fact that there has been no new information regarding the latest project. Now, I'm happy to say that you can become a part of this project. You can help alleviate the costs of production, studio time, and even helping to raise awareness for Music Therapy. You can make a pledge of as little as $10 to receive a digital copy of the new album and help support this project.

This project was announced on May 7th, this past Monday. I was going to take a moment to urge you to pledge so that this project would be funded, but finals and work decided I would be too busy to actually have time to talk about it. And in the time between then and now, the project is fully funded. Actually, the fans quickly spread the word and awareness and the project was funded in full by Monday evening. You can still pledge and receive some of the perks and know that you're helping an amazing band and raise awareness for Music Education and Music Therapy.

You can learn more about this new project by clicking here and learning more about the new album. And even if you're not interested or unable to pledge, keep an eye out for the new album and any new information!! It wont be too much longer! I think this thirteen year break has been far too long....

What is the right path?

If you all haven't noticed, it's May. This is also typically a time of many college and high school students graduating. This is when they either move into the "real" word or move on to the next level of higher education. Since I just wrapped up my first full year as a college student and I've had the experience of four years of working a full-time job since I graduated high school, I feel like it's time to address something that seems like a crippling fault of the American way of life.

Kids graduating from high school should not be pushed into college directly out of school. The entire way most schools are set up in the US is incredibly dependent on the fact that a high school freshmen are supposed to choose the exact career that they are going to want for the rest of their life. I can't speak for everyone, but I know that when I was a freshmen, a sophomore, and even a junior I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life. As a senior, I thought I wanted to do something "artsy." I didn't consider that I wouldn't be able to go around and take artistic pictures to make a living. I also didn't think about the fact that by making your hobby into work, it takes some of the joy out of your hobby. I was almost ready to head to college right out of high school because I thought that was what I was supposed to do. I didn't think about what I wanted.

Then I was given the option to leave Arkansas and move to Texas. Not only did it get me out of a small town that I never felt like I belonged in, but I had a legitimate reason to put off going to school: out of state tuition. I began to work retail and through a temp agency and quickly found a job that I could support myself on. I found out that the ideals you have in school aren't the way life works. I learned how to be an adult. After three years, I realized I wanted to go back to school. Now, I'm dedicated to not only learning, but also to getting a certain degree and making the most out of the courses I take.

I have a lot of friends that are getting ready to graduate some form of school this month and they're deeply in debt and have no real hopes for finding a decent job. Not only are these people stuck with crippling debt that will stick with them for many years, but most employers are looking for someone with a minimum of three years experience. Why do people think it is a good idea to encourage children to pick their future at thirteen or fourteen? Why are kids being pushed into going to school and never having a chance to learn who they are? I took the time to learn who I am, what I want to do, and what motivates me. If I hadn't done this, I would have either picked 1). A worthless degree or 2). Picked a degree that I hate and gone into a job I would be miserable with. Considering that I spend 45-55 hours a week at work, I'm glad I didn't pick the road of a degree that's "useful." I briefly toyed with the idea of getting some sort of accounting or business degree, but I quickly realized how miserable a career in either of those would make me.

Kids these days are pushed into college and the future without really having any chance of learning about themselves. Should kids be encouraged to take time off between high school and college? Should the path to vocational schools be more defined? Should parents provide more time for their kids to learn about themselves? Or, most importantly, should there just be less pressure on kids when they're growing up?

What is Love?

                People talk of love as if it is a joyous experience. Some view love as a dreamland, a wonderful time that never seems to end. But in reality, love is a terrible, painful experience. To love truly and fully is to open yourself up to another, to become vulnerable. Love is to give away a part of yourself. Love is  consuming fire.  It leaves all wondering “What now?” in its wake. There is no piece of literature that tells of the sense of loss and pain that is felt when your lover leaves you like Edgar Allan Poe’s “Dream Within a Dream.”

                With his own poetic elegance, Poe begins with the end. Poe opens the poem as he is saying his final goodbye to his lover with the lines “Take this kiss upon the brow!/ And in parting from you now” (1-2). Anyone that has ever had to say goodbye to a lover knows a part of his pain. When you are leaving summer camp as a young teenager and you have to leave the person that you just knew you would love forever, your heart is broken, even if it is momentarily. After you graduate high school and you and your lover are going to different colleges in different cities, you must say goodbye to someone you thought you would spend forever with. Throughout your time in college, you will have to say goodbye to people that you loved but you found out later that your views were just too different to have a lasting future together.  Finally, when your lover is passing away, you must say your final goodbye. This last, final goodbye is the hardest thing that you will go through. With every other lover that you left, there was always that chance of a reunion. You knew that there was always a chance of reconciliation or friendship. This time, there is no chance of getting the other back. There will be no future now that your better half has left you. They are gone and you are alone. This is the joyous tone that Poe has laid the ground-works for.

                The speaker even reminds us that “Thus much let me avow/ You are not wrong who deem” (3-4) because he knows that everything our friends and family will tell us will have truth to it. When your friends tell you that you have a right to be heartbroken or  that we’re moping or that we’re losing ourselves in self-pity, they are right on all of these counts. When family members try to tell us that life will move on or time will ease our wounds, this is true. But, in our fragile state, we cannot bring ourselves to admit this. Even when your friends and family try to tell you that you are romanticizing everything in the past, we can’t bring ourselves to admit this. We know that things weren’t perfect, but we can’t help but see everything that once was with this lover as perfect.

                When you are left alone with none but your thoughts, you can’t seem to grasp the fact that what you and your lover had was in fact real. Now that they are gone, you feel as if everything was too good to be true and you think that your “days have been a dream” (5). There will be those that try to convince you that there is more to life, that there is still more to experience, but this doesn’t matter. Poe asks “In a night or in a day/ In a vision or in none/ Is it therefore less gone?” (7-9). After every heartbreak, there are people that will constantly try to cheer you up by reminding you of all the things that you and your lover shared. But you know that these are all in the past, there will be no new memories. Yes, there may be other people out there, but do they replace the one you lost? Yes, you have many wonderful memories of your past, but does this ease the pain of knowing that no new memories can be made? You know in your deepest heart that “All that we see or seem/ Is but a dream within a dream” (10-11). You know that you are looking at the past as if everything was perfect, you are making your memories no more than a dream. You don’t know how to separate reality from your dreams.

                Life is nothing more than noise to you now. You feel as if you “stand amid the roar/ Of a surf-tormented shore” (12-13). You watch people go through life and you just can’t find the energy to care about anything. Without the one you loved, life is meaningless. You watch the waves come and go, you watch the tide rise and fall, but it means nothing to you anymore. You watch others laugh and cry, you watch others grow and move on, but you can’t find it in yourself to care about anything other than the immense pain you find yourself in. As you “hold within [your] hands/Grains of the golden sand” (14-15) you try to at least watch life. You know you can’t participate in life any longer now that your heart has been broken into a thousand pieces, but you can at least be a background prop. You can be the audience that everyone else is performing for. This is all you are now, a prop in the background. You try to watch as other travel through life. With your heart so broken, with your other half gone, you just don’t see how you can continue on with life. This heartbreak is like no other. Your lover has left you alone in this world and without solace or comfort.

                You know it is not good for you to live your life in the background. But you quickly realize trying to be a part of life is worse for you more so than being in the background and being ignored does. You notice “How few! yet how they creep/Through my fingers to the deep” (16-17).  Even when you try to be a part of life, you see how quickly time is passing by. You see how everyone is oblivious to the fact that their time with their own lovers is so limited. You know that your own time was limited with your lover. You wish you could hold on to just one moment and keep it forever. But you begin to ask yourself “can I not grasp/Them with a tighter clasp?” (19-20). You ask yourself why you can’t just have one more moment. You ask yourself why time just can’t stand still. You ask yourself why you can’t just have one moment that will last forever. You know that this will all pass you by. You wonder why “can I not save/ One from the pitiless wave” (21-22) because you just want one moment, one memory, to last.

You want to just save one moment but you know that it is useless to try and hold on to these important moments. The more you try to remember and hold on to something, the faster it slips away from you.  By holding on and grasping at it so tightly, you are forcing it to squirm further out of your grasp.  When you are clutching at memories and dreams and nightmares, you only torment yourself with the past. You do not see any future. You have become nothing more than a shell of the person that you were before. Oh, how your lover would weep for you if only they saw what you had become.  By holding on to the past and your mutated memories, you are now someone that even you don’t recognize.

                Poe knew that to lose your lover, your companion, you other half, would be the most terrible ordeal one could survive. He spoke of the crippling emptiness that fills you when you are the one left. He spoke to us of the madness that clutching at a memory will create. Hopefully, if any of us are left so alone, we can learn how to treasure our past lovers and allow them, as well as ourselves, to move on in life. 

Poetic Analysis

I'm currently working on my final paper of the semester (not counting my final, that is) for my English Composition course. This paper is different from anything that I've ever done before and I'm looking forward to see how it turns out. I'm working on doing a poetic analysis for a poem of my choosing.

I know most people don't really enjoy poetry, so most people would find this to be another form of torture. I, as you all know, am not most people. Names such as "Poe" and "Dickinson" and "Longfellow" and "Shakespeare" and "Frost" are more of a comfort to me. I think of poetry and I think of elegance and beauty. It reminds me of images and pictures. Poetry is a beautiful way of communicating that no other form of writing can achieve.

The poem I picked is Edgar Allan Poe's "Dream Within a Dream." I've always been a Poe fan and this poem just seemed to stick out to me more than all of the hundreds of other poems that I read trying to find the one I wanted to write about. So, for your reading pleasure, is Edgar Allan Poe's "Dream Within a Dream."

Take this kiss upon the brow!
And, in parting from you now,
Thus much let me avow-
You are not wrong, who deem
That my days have been a dream;
Yet if hope has flown away
In a night, or in a day,
In a vision, or in none,
Is it therefore the less gone?
All that we see or seem
Is but a dream within a dream.

I stand amid the roar
Of a surf-tormented shore,
And I hold within my hand
Grains of the golden sand-
How few! yet how they creep
Through my fingers to the deep,
While I weep- while I weep!
O God! can I not grasp
Them with a tighter clasp?
O God! can I not save
One from the pitiless wave?
Is all that we see or seem
But a dream within a dream?