Wal-Not

In Mark Bonicillo’s “A Proposal for Universal Health Insurance in the United States” he addresses the problems with American health insurance.

Of course the most obvious problem with any countries health insurance program includes those that it does not cover. According to Kaiser Commission on Medicaid “almost 39 million Americans do not have health insurance (1)”. However, there is another group of people who highlight a serious plight with health insurance: those which are employed with sub par coverage.

An example is Wal-Mart employees. Recently Wal-Mart has come under serious scrutiny for its treatment of employees. Perhaps one of the most memorable cases brought against Wal-Mart dealt with the company locking illegal immigrants in the stores at night to work as janitors.

Concerning healthcare Wal-Mart is notorious for its terrible insurance coverage for full time employees. In fact, Wal-Mart has come out and stated that the public healthcare system is in fact better than theirs (www.wakeupwalmart.com). And this is not where the atrocity ends. Wal-Mart compared with other supply chain companies has one of the worst healthcare systems. Wal-Mart has high restrictions on which employees are offered coverage: they have to be full-time employees for at least 1.7 months. Furthermore, employees who are under Wal-Mart’s system say it is far too costly on the salary they make a month.

What are we as American citizens supposed to make of this situation? Millions of people myself included shop at Wal-Mart for their ‘everyday low prices’; thereby, contributing to this growing cooperation. How can we make a stand against companies such as Wal-Mart who knowingly does not provide adequate health care and yet keep our ‘low prices’?

Hot Topic

In Dennis Baron’s essay “Don’t Make English Official- Ban It Instead” he gives some logical falsities for banning English. However, underneath his satirical approach Baron addresses a major political issue: immigration.

If you have read any major (or rural) newspaper lately then you have most likely seen an article dealing with immigration. Whether the article addresses language barriers or a presidential candidate’s stance on the immigration policy, the fact remains that immigration is becoming a serious issue we are going to have to face.

Today hundreds of people immigrate to America. Some come because of the American dream, others because their families live here, still others come to escape a harsh government. For whatever reasons people do come- and in large numbers. It is this explosion of immigrants that has many Americans ‘up in arms’.

Over the past ten years America has seen a large increase in illegal immigrants. Some people argue that these ‘illegals’, as they have been labeled, are a drain on taxpayers dollars. Many people worry about overpopulation of America. Another big concern is the number of offspring from illegal aliens filling the public school system. And of course there is the language barrier.

However, there is another side to this argument: the immigrants. There are some justified and often unvoiced reasons behind illegal immigration. Imagine that you were living without running water, plumbing or electricity. Also imagine that your daily wage was only a few dollars and that just 50 miles away people were making four times what you did working the same job. This is a valid situation. Granted not every illegal immigrant has this situation; some enter illegally because they simply do not want to wait.

What are your views on this ‘hot topic'? Can you see both sides of the story? Or do you take a rigid stance on a particular view?

Men versus Women

In Scott Sander’s essay “The Men We Carry in Our Minds…and How they Differ from the Real Lives of Most Men,” he lays out an interesting question- Is it harder to be a man or a woman? Throughout his essay, he shows that a huge part of the answer depends on the perspective of the reader.

Sanders writes, “it as if they’re [women] trying to overcome a million years, worth of evolution in one lifetime” (par 4). Anneke, a female friend of Sanders, offers a feminine point of view. She believes that it is much easier to be a woman in today’s society. Anneke states, “It’s much easier being the victim. All the victim has to do is break free. The persecutor has to live with his past” (par 7). This is just one example of how a person’s perspective influences their answer to a question.

I proposed Sander’s question to a male friend of mine. He had an answer almost immediately- it is much easier to be a female. To clarify he used the example of dating. During this activity, most of the decisions are made by the man leaving him under a lot of pressure. I personally do not know if this is true with the invention of “going Dutch”. However, I do know that the modern woman has it easier in many ways than our grandmothers.

Now women have many more opportunities available in how they choose to live their lives. The job market is more receptive to the idea of a working woman; in fact, some jobs are predominately female. Schools have opened their doors to the female student and now most classrooms are composed of equal amounts of the sexes.

So what do you think? Is it harder to be a man or woman in today’s world? And how much does perspective influence a person’s answer?

Should We Complain?

When I read “Why Don’t We Complain?” by William F. Buckley Jr. I had to remind myself that the article was written in 1960. As Buckley lists three probable conditions in which people should complain, I remembered a time at a movie theater when I once heard a lady protest because her movie had started five minutes late.

Buckley believes that part of our resistance to complain is due to assuming someone else will deal with the problem. Though this may be true for some, today most people do not have a problem with complaining when something is not right. I believe it is safe to say the world has changed since the 1960’s.

At the moment courts are clogged with thousands of lawsuits. A person can file a suit over the littlest incidences such as spilling a cup of hot coffee in a restaurant.

Please do not misread me I strongly believe that wrongs should be righted. However, I believe that there is a line between constructive complaining and just plain whining.

Perhaps, the public has taken Mr. Buckley’s advice a little too far. We succeeded in making our voice heard but a question still remains. Are we a victim of our on success?