The Success of Failure

Failure is not an options they say. I have heard that in education, I've heard it in sports. "We have to win, failure is not a option". Sadly my team didn't win state, and i never got straight A's so failure was an option. Failure is not an option only when there is no other alternative or the outcome of failure is unthinkable. "We have to defeat Nazi German, failure is not an option", "I have to get this job to pay my rent, failure is not an option."" I have to save my child from a burning building, failure is not an option"...The list of examples can go on forever. In order for failure not to be a option you literally have to have your back to a cliff or have the prospect of failure being so horrible that it inspires you to greatness. With that truth made clear, in America is failure an option?

Is failure an option in High school? Most Definitely!! When the WASL ( Washington Assessment of Student Learning) became a graduation requirement over 30% didn't pass the required sections, so they lowered the standards to have more people pass. The power of failure! The same was true of our senior project, it was a "pass or fail", there was almost no way to failure even if you didn't do it they would find "alternative projects for the student to do" to "pass".   

Sadly in American failure can be a better option then success. As many prospective and current college students know, the majority of scholarships go to really rich or poor individuals. If your middle class your not rich enough to have the income to be able to spend addition money on your son daughter for special classes or hobbies that can bring with them opportunities for college scholarships. If your poor there are a whole world of scholarships open for you, because of the choices of your parents. I'm not saying that you shouldn't have scholarships for the poor, but you shouldn't create incentives for people not to save or be reasonable with what they have. I came from a mid to upper low income bracket growing up. My parents are teachers, and for most of my life i had one stay at home parent. I wasn't rich or poor but because my parents saved to much i didn't qualify for scholarships but i still could really afford to go to college. I picked up jobs in college and during the summer to pay for my school because i had no other options.

For a lot of people in my generation government money and welfare programs pay for a lot of services and life styles of those who don't really need it. I have friends that are 19 that are on welfare, but they don't want to get a job because they could lose their welfare money. I know college students that spend all there money on beer and liquor but get food stamps. The power of failure!, Why save when others will front the bill!

Even TARP (Troubled Asset Relief Program) has provisions for debt forgiveness, so if you spent too much money and couldn't pay it back don't worry Obama has your back . Some of the biggest problems we face as a nation are because of this mind set, why transcend over adversity, if your guaranteed mediocrity?

Information Wars: Media Bias in America

If you have ever been interviewed by the newspaper or been quoted for an article, what happened and what is reported can often be extremely different. The Washington Post came out with a article about the Bias in American mainstream media. ( Article) The article talks about how news programs like MSNBC & FOX have a very one sided form of news reporting and how there report to a very specific political group. With the media taking sides, its no surprise that the political candidates are also so polarized. Because of the political bias, candidates and officials have been using non-common modes of marketing to get their political agenda across. Obama went on the View, the Tonight Show, and on MTV to get his message across about health care reform. If the president is going to those channels for better exposure, what does that tell you about our news programs, If you have get on a  talk show to get the news out.

With new media forms such as blogging and twitter, creditable news is hard to come by. When some people in the media see "fact" as malleable and relative, it surprises me that those people could be given the job of giving us the news. This sad true is easily seen on college campuses across the nation with the students newspapers. Through my travels i have yet to see a truly neutral student paper. It seems that the nations future journalist are following the journalist method  that you have a story and you have to go find sources, instead of reporting on whats going on. Having run a political club on my campus i have only been approached by the student journalists only to be miss quoted or attached by the paper. If they can't miss quote me they don't quote me. This trend you can see on a national level with mainstream shows. They only bring an elected official on for an interview to support their views not to understand the person in question. With studies out that show that more people get there news from comedy shows then news shows, makes you wonder about the future of the American press.