We Give Thanks

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving.  Every year in America, families across the USA celebrate this very important day in history by giving thanks.  As it has fallen into being a tradition, families eat Turkey, stuffing, green bean casserole, sweet potatoes, and various other things that have come into being parts of a "TRADITIONAL" dinner.  The day is meant to be a day spent with family and friends remarking on what has happened over the past year, eating good food, and telling what you are grateful for.  Every year I find it to be harder and harder to say what I am thankful for.  That is not because I am becoming less grateful for some of the small things that I have, but because when I explain what I am thankful for this year I want it to be meaningful and have an impact on the people at my table.  In my family, when we sit down for dinner we go around the table and tell what we are grateful for.  It is our family tradition to do that but not everyone's tradition.  I have learned some traditions that other families have, and some of them strike me as being slightly odd.  But overall in the world, things are not going very well so I ask what are you grateful for this year?    Is it something that you thought you would be thankful for?  

WE CAN CHANGE!!

It is official!  After a nearly 22 month campaign, it is official that Barack Obama is the 44th president of the United States of America.  He is the first african-american president of the USA!  This election was a historic one no matter who won the election.  And as the election got closer and closer, the polls showed that the race was tighter than ever.  However, with almost all the states reporting, Barack Obama won the presidents race by a landslide.  With Obama having 349 electoral votes and John McCain having only 163 electoral votes, it was by any standards a landslide victory.  My dad was talking to me about how when I grow up I will be able to tell my kids and grandkids about this election and how it was so historic and that I was at an age that I not only knew what was going on, but could form my own opinion.  And I realized something, that this was a very historic election and that I will be able to tell my kids and grandkids about this but that to them, it probably won't seem like it is that big of a deal.  Why?  Because hopefully by that time this country will have had many other African-American presidents, and female presidents, and other types of presidents.  The idea of them not truly understanding what a big deal this was shocks me.  But also reminds me of how our grandparents must feel when they tell us about big things that occurred during their lifetimes that we can not relate to at all.  History has been made and it will be able to be discussed later but people truly will not understand it in the future. CONGRATS OBAMA!!

Hard Partying

Everyone knows that teens party, and drink, and try various other things that are not good for them but they do them.  But it has been getting increasingly worse over the years.  More and more teens are getting totally wasted on weekends and on week nights too!   It is becoming an epidemic and it is not going to go away by lowering the drinking age!!  I understand the idea of lowering the drinking age to give kids a chance to drink before going to college so that then they do not abuse it and then fewer college kids end up with alcohol poisoning but i don't believe that it is going to help at all.  I think that the only thing it is going to do is allow more kids to party and get wasted and drink heavily.  And it isn't as if teens do not have access to alcohol now or can get it.  Parents, older siblings, even the teens themselves can go and buy liquor and then drink it and party so what is the point in lowering the drinking age?  All it is going to do is get more and more teens to go out and get totally wasted!  And it will most likely increase the number of cases of alcohol poisoning.  I totally get the idea of exposing kids to the drinking thing to try and prevent alcohol poisoning but I do not believe that it is going to help anything.  What do you think?  Should the drinking age be lowered?  Why or why not?