Essay/Term paper: Answering americas call

Essay, term paper, research paper:  Definition Essays

Throughout the history of America there have been several different answers to her call. Every different time period has had it's own call, from the days of Jefferson and the Constitution, to the days of Kennedy and the Vietnam conflict. What is this generation's call? With the Cold War dead and behind us, America is calling from a different line.

No longer is America in need of a sophisticated high budget military, but for new minds and ideas. Long gone are the days of fighting in the streets over a lone silver dollar. Instead America is in the race for new technology and the minds and sophistication that go with it. So long M-16, hello IBM, satellites, and laser technology.

Earlier generations had no idea of what electronics could provide. The strongest country in the world was the one with the most men. Then came guns, then nuclear weapons, and finally computers. No longer do we need to send most of our country's men off to fight. Rather we can just sit some of them down on a computer and do just as much damage. With computers and the viruses that go with them, people can destroy the economies of whole countries without wasting a single American life. Countries can crumble with the push of a few simple buttons on a keyboard.

But to understand all of this new technology requires a great deal of knowledge. Not just anyone can sit at a computer and make a country crumble. It takes an intelligent person to even turn on a computer. No longer can America turn to just anyone off the street to help the country. So with this in mind, we strive to answer Americas call, education.

When forming the government, it was feared people would not be smart enough to understand the rights and privileges granted to them; people now should be as equally concerned. Not that the government will not survive, but rather if it is going to prosper, as it has, with all of this new technology. No longer will a high school education prepare people for the workplace, as it did just ten to twenty years ago. Now people need not only a high school education, but a college degree, and more to prepare themselves.

With the thousands of colleges and universities to be found, everyone should be able to receive this education required for the everyday changing society. But not everyone is seeking the education required. People have lost interest and the desire to stay in school. But with the society changing, people must have the training to produce and use new technology. This is where Americas call must be answered. People must begin to realize that instead of breezing through school or dropping out they can make a difference to our country by staying in school. Their education could produce the super computer that puts America ahead in the technology race. Their education could provide this country with a means of defense by simply having new ideas of how to defend people.

With this new knowledge of technology comes not only power but defense. The nation's defense and individual's defenses. With the new technology comes new medicine and ways of prolonging American's lives. But for America to even begin to produce new medicine, someone has to discover it. Once again America cannot turn to just anyone off the street. America is going to have to look for educated people to become the pioneers of modern day America.

Instead of just using brute strength to fix problems, America can use cunning and wit to prevail in any situation. But to have this wit America must be educated. With the education America can provide, it will prosper for generations and generations to come as long as people are willing to "Answer America's Call."