Interstate 10

A Life of Picking Sides in Losing Battles My dad was a cop and my mom was a bartender who smoked pot. I like to use that line when asked about my parents. It’s also a good summation if asked about my childhood. “What were the best and worst parts of your day?” My mom asked me and my sisters at dinner when we were kids. We always joked, “Being here with my family.” It wasn’t an acceptable answer for either part of the question. I hated that part of dinner. But for the rest of my life, past the…

When James Madison outlines the dangers of faction in Federalist No. 10, he defines faction as “a number of citizens, whether amounting to a majority or minority of the whole, who are united...by some common...interest, adverse to the rights of other citizens.” 1 This wording is critical for examining both the goals and pivotal ideas of the federalist movement. At first glance, this definition seems to reflect the very real fear of mob uprising. Certainly, it’s tone insinuates an image of mob…

This can be shown as the words to describe the hawk such as “clawed” in line 9, “tear” in line 10, and “deadly” in line 17 all contains a fiercefully, ruthless, and cruel connotation, contrasting with the words used to describe the preys such as “lost” in line 11, “hopping” in line 12 and “gentleness” in line 13. This contrast between the use of…

In 2012 a family of 4 moved from Madison, Alabama to Bend, Oregon. They have visited Bend, Oregon every year for 10 years. They have watched the area grow and decided they wanted to move here. The family found a home in Awbrey Glen. The area was just the right size, the streets weren't crowded with houses, and the traffic was at a minimum. But after four years they started to second guess moving to the area. Northwest Crossing (a neighborhood in Bend) started crowding both sides of the…

America: Divided by Class It’s all about the money—who hasn’t heard of the Rockefellers, Carnegie, or the Vanderbilt’s? The Gilded Age was a time when wealthy elite amassed their riches and built their opulent mansions while their workers often lived in squalor. Three distinct social classes emerged as life in America changed from rural to urban and immigrants poured into the nation. The Gilded Age is a term coined by writer Mark Twain in The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today (1873), a book…

The American Gilded Age yielded an extreme amount of economic prosperity and industrial improvements. During the late 19th century following the Reconstruction Era, the economy flourished and America transformed from a struggling country to a thriving nation. Railroads, businesses, cities, and agricultural centers benefitted from the growth during this period. Gilded, as defined by The Free Dictionary, means “to cover with or as if with a thin layer of gold” or “to give an often deceptively…

Interstates are crumbling beneath the weight of vehicles and tractor-trailers roaring across skylines. Below, inner cities are crumbling amongst the shadows. These roadways are integral to commerce and transportation within today's ‘just in time’ culture. Just when minorities were gaining steam on their oppressed past, they were crushed once more; their communities and their spirits. Although interstates have sustained an economy of luxury and expansion, they have also shoved families and…

your back in a situation like that? A stealth fighter or a jet nicked named the warthog? Make your chose after you read this and remember that is a real scenario. Among the air force and the government there has been a lot of talk about retiring the A-10 thunderbolts II and F-35 lighting’s II replacing…

presidents have done in the past. When Obama was quoting Teddy Roosevelt and how he broke up monopolies, or establishing our national park systems, or when he is talking about Dwight Eisenhower and how the government under his watch started the interstate highway system, he noted that during all of these big changes there was also resistance from the public but if we look back on the matter now we couldn’t live without some of these systems that were put in place. Obama has framed his words so…

So, in 1944, another act was passed, the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1944, to build 40,000 miles of highways. In 1953, when President Dwight D. Eisenhower took office, only 6,500 miles were completed. So, in 1956, under Eisenhower, the National Interstate and Defense Highways Act of 1956 Act was passed to “protect the vital interest of every citizen in a safe and adequate highway system” as Eisenhower put it. Highways were also built to enhance the mobility of troops. The…