Upon visiting the International Space Station program outside of Moscow, in a secretive place called Star City, my group from Albuquerque was invited on a guided tour through the cosmonaut and military base. My feelings were--that as an American--I would be targeted as a capitalist and possibly mugged, or worse yet, killed. But much to my disbelief, I was proven wrong. The NASA people and Russians we had met were working together in the lab, sharing their common interests in MIR, and the International Space Station (ISS). I felt fortunate to have walked through the base as a guest, and treated with dignity by the Russian military. The amazing amount of respect that Russians had displayed for our culture was unbelievable considering the political hatred that has existed towards Americans since well before my birth. They answered all of our questions very thoughtfully and with sincerity.
Any visitor can see is a great deal of conformity for both cultures to labour together side by side; such as learning the Russian or English language to know how to put a craft in space. Star City is in very poor shape but you don’t hear NASA complaining. The buildings were once top of the line- in the 1950’s. There are many other problems with the base, but besides that, those recent space missions (such as ISS) have brought two very different cultures together without political or social strife. Ten years ago it would have been different, gratefully, much has changed between the relations of the US and Russia. They have accepted each other (to a degree) in space missions.
We don’t need to slaughter each other because someone has had a different life than us, or the other person is a smelly hippie, or perhaps we don’t like someone else worshiping a god named Bob.
1) What is the relationship between federal debt and national defence?
Military spending is not a normal economic activity according to Columbia University’s, Seymour Melman. The reason federal debt is so large in the U.S. is to support a massive defence budget. The record deficit this year (for the U.S.) is at $521 billion, but Bush requested Congress to boost military spending by 7.1 percent to $402 billion and increase homeland security funding 9.7 percent to $30 billion. And the Senate approved this plan in March, 2004
Since 1945, the United States has spent cumulatively $4.2 trillion dollars on its military account. What problems would this cause? As quoted in One Life at a Time, Please, Ed Abbey restated the words of Wilson from Patriotic Gore (1962): "We Americans, whose public officials keep telling us we live in the “Free World,”…are expected to pay staggering taxes of which…70 percent goes not only for nuclear weapons capable of depopulating whole countries but also for bacteriological and biological ones which make it possible for us to poison the enemy with every abominable disease from pneumonia and encephalitis to anthrax, cholera, diphtheria and typhoid…If we refuse to contribute to these researches we can be fined and clapped into jail…We are, furthermore, like the Russians…And while all this expenditure is going on for the purpose of sustaining the United States as a more and more unpopular world power, as few funds as possible are supplied to educate and civilize the Americans themselves, who at worst live a life of gang warfare…in the buried slum streets of cities outside of which they can imagine no other world" (Abbey 171).About 52 million people in our country are suffering with inadequate housing and health care while our arms continue to build mountains around us. This structural arrangement defends capitalist principles, and strengthens the misuse of our resources-as well as other countries water supplies, oil reserves, and the list goes on. The Moscow Times reports, “this wider deficit suggests that the U.S. is living beyond its means, borrowing from abroad to pay for consumption at home…we need $1.5 billion or $2 billion a day coming into this country to finance this deficit.” Gravely there is a concern that the deficit will drive up the cost of borrowing, undermine the already dropping value of the dollar, and threaten the world economy. There is an expected 10 year deficit, which will bring unknown problems if not corrected immediately.
“Civilization, if it means anything and if it is ever to exist, must mean a form of human society in which the primary values are openness, diversity, tolerance, personal liberty, reason. It appears doubtful that such a society has existed in the past and at present more doubtful that it will come to be in the near future--that is, within the next century or two…”(Abbey 81). As we all know, violence only begets violence.
2) How do immigrants affect the U.S. economy? What social problems are associated with immigration?
The following is a personal experience of mine as I was an alien resident of the Netherlands, and my point of view on stereotyping immigrants; my roommates squandered their savings to take trips to Egypt, or Eastern Europe. To some, they wanted to be Communists, to show their so-called strength in numbers to other “Westerners” to show their patriotism during the European Soccer Games. It’s funny how they would sit and talk about America, as if it were a vital enemy, while they sat around listening to my music or watching my movies.
In the beginning, I thought something was truly loveable about their house and its filth. The first days upon my entering it was that of a welcomed guest, everyone wanted to know where I was from, and was very polite. As time wore on, I heard little “capitalist” remarks, and anti-American statements, as if it was intended to hurt me. I am no nationalist or much one of saluting the flag—have never been, and to think that the “Commies” could wound me, by shaming my country was instantly hilarious. One night at the bar, a clearly idiotic comment rang in my ears. One of my roommates had to declare in a gruff tone in my direction, “I am Communist!” As if I cared! These “political” comments were meant to be hurtful to me but I have learned not to classify one group of people for the mistakes of a few.
There are a number of common stereotypes that Americans have fashioned about immigrants. Nearly twenty years ago in his novel titled One Life at a Time, Please, Edward Abbey argued against immigration and added a solution: “We must draw the line, say No More, our boat is full. Enough is enough. We are not morally obliged, for example, to serve as Mexico’s “safety valve.” Let us seal the border now, militarize it if necessary, and force the government of Mexico (if there is one) to face up to the nut of the problem created by a population that keeps doubling every thirty years. Despite the fact that this may seem like a farcical resolution to the problem” Abbey proposed a revolution inside the country of Mexico: “Mexico needs not more loans--money that will end up in the Swiss banks of los ricos--but a revolution. A complete revolution, not communist, not capitalist, but moral: a revolt against injustice, cruelty, oppression, squalor and--most obvious--a woman’s rebellion against Our Lady of Perpetual Pregnancy” (Abbey 34). Abbey’s opinion is unfortunately shared-by many in the land called America: immigrants bring raised taxes, take our jobs, lower our wages, and create racial strife.
As our Eitzen and Baca Zinn said, immigrants add 1 to 10 billion dollars to the U.S. gross domestic product. With our deficit the way it is now, we should accept with open arms any newcomer into our country.
3) Is the U.S. really a country that is democratic, just and equal in opportunity?
NO!
For example, John Stuart Mill believed that the equality between the sexes and the legal subordination between a man and his wife was a chief hindrance to human society. “Half of the human race, distinguished different at birth, are never allowed to compete for certain things” (Mill 137). He was a feminist and an advocate of human rights.
It has often been said in the past and today that women do not have interest in politics, and that the natural vocation of women is of a wife and mother. The problem, which arises with this point of view, is that the abuse of power cannot be checked while power is in the hands of men. As we can see, this vicious custom of domination was questioned in the stream of progressive human society as an inequality that must disappear. John Stuart Mill reported that in England, women wanted acceptance into universities and free admission into Parliamentary Suffrage, and protested in many countries against their ‘place’ in society. It has been proven that individuals are no longer born to their place of life, and to some degree have founded the idea of freedom, liberty, improvement of ethical codes, and religious systems. But slavery still remains. Why? It has never been proven that women are not capable enough to govern over men. Women may not have been allowed in the past to have the education to become a Mozart, Beethoven, or Socrates. Mill thought that the idea that women cannot be as great was unfounded and unjust. We know of a small number of reigning queens, in comparison with kings. Many of these queens have shown firmness, intelligence, and vigour in their rule, such as the Queen of England, as well as empresses, and viceroys of provinces. John Stuart Mill stated, “There has never been a society of men without women or women without men. Exactly where and in proportion as women’s capacities for government have been tried, in that proportion they have been found adequate” (Mill 173).
The present situation of American democracy is also described in the wise words of Edward Abbey: “What happens to democracy when 2 percent of America’s families--according to Federal Reserve Board reports--control 40 percent of our national wealth? When 10 percent control 80 percent? We’re drifting toward an El Salvadorian, Latin American form of income redistribution. Lincoln defined democracy as government not only for and of the people, but, by the people. Sounds like a good idea. We should try it sometime in America” (Abbey 77). The abuse of power over others is a depraving agency, and the liberty of the “minority” only benefits humankind.
Works Cited
Eitzen, D., and Maxine Baca Zinn. Social Problems. Ninth edition. Pearson, 2004.
Abbey, Edward. One Life at a Time, Please. New York: Holt, 1988.
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