Rationale

Throughout the past 5 years, America has fought through many changes. Although many of these have been foreign affairs, the domestic ones were the biggest changes to come to America. Foreign matters are a big deal to America; however, nothing is more important then what takes place inside America’s own borders. Big changes also do not need to come solely through politics either; sometimes a simple invention will change America much more than a new law. This textbook focuses on domestic changes throughout America’s last five years, and has a variety of types of changes. Whether it is politics, natural disasters, or social changes, all of the significant changes will be explained. Social changes are just as important to the foundation of America as are political changes. One huge social change America has been dealing with for a while is the huge Apple takeover of electronics. Apple has been battling Microsoft for control over the desktop operating systems for many years, and just when Microsoft looked like it won, Apple made its comeback. Whether it is through and iPod, iPad, Macbook, Mac Pro, or an iPhone, Apple has a place in everyone’s home. The reason Apple is a huge deal for America, is that the vast majority of people have a phone or iPod, and even more than that have a computer. So this change will affect almost everyone in the United States of America, whereas some things only affect a select few. With this change, almost everyone will have to think and must ask himself if they need an Apple. With Apple advancing on previous technology, people need to ask themselves if Apple is right for them. Another huge social change was James Cameron’s Avatar. Now you may ask yourself, why is a movie such a big deal? How does a movie change anything? Avatar was not just a movie; it was a cinema-altering movie. Avatar has changed the cinema world forever through its 3D usage. When one thinks of 3D, they think of objects shooting out from the screen and almost hitting them. They think blue and red glasses. James Cameron’s 3D is nothing like that. Instead, Cameron used 3D to create depth and life in his film. Avatar in 3D feels like you are actually at the planet Pandora, and are viewing the whole movie from a safe glass box. From Avatar on, more and more movies are coming out in 3D. Even movies that were still currently in development during the time of Avatar’s release decided to switch into 3D because of Avatar’s success. When a movie affects a whole industry like Avatar has done, it should get is rightful fame. With great change comes bad change, and Hurricane Katrina was just that. Striking Louisiana at 7:10 AM on August 28th, 2005, Hurricane Katrina made herself the most destructive hurricane to ever hit America. Katrina cost us $110 billion in repair. This is more then 5 times the amount of money that the previous most destructive hurricane had cost us (Hurricane Andrew, $21 billion). Katrina increased the sea level approximately 22 feet in New Orleans, and 12 feet overall. Hurricane Katrina deserves a spot in the most severe changes over the past 5 years because it changed the city of New Orleans forever. Hurricane Katrina destroyed the city of New Orleans, and changed the lives of the people there. Not only did New Orleans change, but also anyone who had family there was affected, and charities shot up everywhere for New Orleans. Katrina was all over the news during and after, for many months. For a storm to cause that much of a commotion and that much damage, it deserves to be remembered. Although political issues are not the source of every change in America, some bills do change the country. One such bill would be the recent Healthcare bill Obama had passed this past March. This bill expanded the coverage of healthcare throughout the country, adding millions upon millions to be covered. Although this bill cost the country $980 billion over ten years, it was estimated to decrease by $143 billion over the first ten years, and $1.2 trillion the next ten years. In addition, this cost was worth the benefits of expansion of coverage of healthcare. This bill was truly important because it shows how America is still has need for change and is still growing. As every textbook created in the past two years should include, the election of 2008 was by far the biggest change of the past 5 years. Having gone through 200 years of only white, male presidents, this election shattered all tradition. The Democratic preliminaries came down to Hillary Clinton, a woman, and Barack Obama, an African American, both of which were against this tradition. After winning the preliminary, Barack Obama even went on to win the whole election, beating John McCain. This event marked the first African American president, and change in America. This event helped the racism still existent in America to further decrease, and it helped African Americans become more confident and optimistic. Obama’s election changed the face of America forever, from white to black. Some events that many feel are important I left out of this textbook. One huge event would be 9/11 and the War on Terror. My reasoning for leaving this event out is that Domestic problems are more vital then foreign problems. Now, yes 9/11 did impact our country immensely and showed us a need for better security; however, it on a whole affected our foreign affairs more then our domestic affairs. 9/11 sparked a war with Iraq and other Middle East countries. Although this event was monumental, it was more or a less a foreign problem, and since the majority of its consequences and results ended up being in other countries, it is not as monumental as other events which occurred inside our own borders. For example, what how many of our younger population was affect because of 9/11? How many kids even knew it was going on? The event was major, yet only to the citizens who understood what was going on, as does the majority of foreign affairs and political matters do. Every event in my textbook works to explain the current domestic situation. Although foreign problems do impact our country, textbooks seem to heavily focus on them and less on what happens in our borders. One example of this is President Bush’s presidency (the first Bush). He focused heavily on foreign affairs, and what was the outcome? He didn’t get reelected. Domestic problems are more important because they will always impact our borders, always spark an increase or decrease in something, and will always change our country. Foreign affairs may impact our country and will not always affect every person in our country. Many would deem social changes such as Apple flourishing and the spark of 3D in cinema as less important. These people would be wrong. These events impact everyone who likes to watch movies, anyone with a computer, anyone with a phone. These events impact people far beyond what people realize, and they will continue to do so.