As an American citizen, do you believe that it's important to vote in the elections? So many people do not vote, while so many do. There are even campaigns that go around, proclaiming "Vote or Die!" Well, if that was the case, I'd be voting every day. However, does your vote really make that much of a difference?
I may not have my facts straight, but from what I've heard, your vote is just a back-up option in the Presidential elections. The real votes are counted by representatives chosen for your state. If those are tied, your votes are something to fall back on. To me, this doesn't make me feel like my voice is being heard at all. The fate of my country's future is in the hands of someone I don't even know. This is someone with their own opinions and mind. Again, my facts may not be straight, but this is what I've heard.
If this is the case, why do we bother voting? Just so that if this does happen we might have a chance at picking our leader? Wouldn't it make so much more sense just to count our votes? It'd at least be much more fair.
Unfortunately, I've just turned 18 in the past few months and wasn't able to vote in the elections. Had I been able to, I probably would have voted for Obama. However, the next time there is an important election, you can count on me voting. Even though I kind of see it as pointless, me being only one person out of millions, I still like to think that somehow, it gets my opinion heard. If it isn't counted, at least there is a ballot somewhere with my name on it saying just who I supported or didn't support.
What exactly is character? Do you know what character is? How would you define it?
According to the dictionary, character is the aggregate of features and traits that form the individual nature of some person or thing. Well, that was a little help in figuring it out. Basically, what makes up character is the traits a person has that makes them who they are. If a person is honest, trustworthy, and happy, these are all traits that make up their character.
Now think, is character something that's really important to our country? What about the caracter of political figures such as the President? A lot of American citizens want the President to have a certain type of character, one with a Presidential feel. Many people believe the President should be honest, careful, calm, etc. After all, we are entrusting this person with running our entire country.
However, would you rather have a President whose character is perfect but is sort of ugly? Or would you rather have a President whose character is lacking but looks modelesque? Could you even recognize what you'd prefer? With the addition of televised political debates in America, we have an opportunity to see our Presidential candidates and to make judgements on their image in addition to their character.
But which one is more important to you? What matters the most at the end of the day?
There is a huge controversy in the music industry right now, that has been going on for a while. This is the issue of downloading music. What is legal and what is not? Do you even know what's legal? Do you know that it is considered illegal to take a CD that you own and copy those files onto your computer so you could listen to them on an MP3 player? Do you know that it is also considered illegal to transfer your MP3's onto a playable CD so you could possibly listen to it in an older car? Sadly, these actually are illegal.
This issue can affect pretty much anyone who listens to music through their computer or on MP3 players. It's incredibly frustrating to both sides. The recording companies and the RIAA do have valid points when it comes to downloading music just because it's free, but I believe that the average listener should not be punished for transferring files that they purchased with their own money.
Downloading music for free off of websites, that can be easy to find, is not something that is considered a good thing to do. However, it's harder to find someone my age that has not downloaded music for free. This does take away money and opportunities from musicians and record labels, however it doesn't take away enough money to where they can't function. At the end of the day, record labels and musicians are still making significantly more money than the people they are suing.
It isn't hard to imagine why someone would illegally download music, whether it was for "sampling" or just because they wanted a song and had no money. I think that the RIAA is going a little power hungry with suing people, even ones who just transferred files. If you bought a copy, I think you should be able to make other copies as long as they are for personal use and personal use only.
How does the RIAA expect us to be able to pay for the same song two to three times at around $1.00 a time? I know, personally, my family could never afford it.
Also, so many musicians pride themselves on being just about music and the art form, but when they don't receive one small payment, they wage war on the world. I don't think that money is important at all. If I was a musician, I would be happy people were actually listening to my music, no matter how they got their hands on it because that just means there will be more people at concerts buying tickets and merchandise. Those are things that can't be downloaded illegally.
Not everyone agrees on music, especially teenagers and adults. When I was a teenager, not every adult agreed with the type of music I listened to. However, I was very fortunate to have a mother who also enjoyed the kind of music that I did. Even though she enjoyed most of what I listened to, she didn’t like some of it. She respected my choices and let me listen to what I wanted to listen to. Even so, teenagers and adults don’t usually agree on music taste.
When I was a teenager, there were many different musical styles. I’m not sure that one could even count all of the styles. In one main genre, such as rock, there could be tens or hundreds of sub-categories, such as Classic Rock, Hard Rock, Metal, Death Metal, Alternative, and many more. In addition to the many different sub-categories, different countries also had different genres. It might have been hard to hear a certain type of music produced from different countries. The styles of music in my teenage years were endless.
Sometimes, different styles of music conflicted with each other. This also included the kind of people who listened to these types of music. Sometimes, if a group of people who were primarily listeners of Hip-Hop and Rap, found someone who listens to Punk or Emo music, they would attack him based on his appearance and musical influence. In my time, there also was a large amount of blending together different genres. For example, my favorite artist, Celldweller, was a blend of Electronic and Rock music, creating the Electronic Rock sound.
The different types of music I listened to, and others in my generation listened to, were completely different from what older generations listened to. Some older generations grew up with what was considered Classic Rock in my generation, or Psychedelic Rock. These were completely different from the genres I listened to, such as Heavy Metal and Electronic Rock. A lot of new genres emerged with the use of technology. These conflicted with what older generations listened to and sometimes older generations considered what we listened to to be garbage or something that just was not good. However, I always believed that it was best to follow what you want in life, and not what others tell you.
In conclusion, the musical styles of my teenage years were sometimes drastically different than those of older generations. In my mother’s teenage years, she never grew up with the Pop or Hip-Hop music we have now. This lead to a sort of dislike of the genres. Some followers of certain genres would also fight with others, based solely on a dislike for certain musical genres. Even though there were great differences involving music in my teenage years, I found that I was happy being presented with a chance to be a part of something new.
