It was 2007 when the economy of the United States took a devastating turn for the worse, resulting in a stock market crash and record high unemployment levels. Bailouts were handed out and trillions of dollars spent on recovering the situation to a manageable state.

In the last few months, a great deal of attention has been spent on how to heal the open wound the United States received from the recession, but now, after three years, the attention has shifted on how to reform the current economic system to prevent a meltdown of this scale from happening again.

A massive economic reform bill is currently winding its way through Capitol Hill. This bill, which was spear-headed by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, is open to debate in the Senate with hopes of passing the bill within the next week.

Out of every tragedy comes something positive, and I’m learning this first hand at a young age. I found out who Paige Anderson was and I made a decision, a decision to lead a group of students to raise funds for Paige. This money would go toward her medical bills as her family was struggling financially due to her step dad’s lay off from work.

Inattentive driving can lead to serious tragedies, and that’s what happened to three teenage girls on October 10, 2009. Emmy Foss, 18, of Bovey was a passenger in a car that was driven by 18-year-old Hailey Salo of Grand Rapids. Also in the car was Paige Anderson, 16, of Bovey.

Between Tuesday and Wednesday last week, twenty-five people were killed in the long time conflict that has been blazing between Mexican Government officials and drug cartels; a conflict which is commonly known as the Mexican Drug War. The Mexican Drug War has been occurring for decades, but took its worst turning point in 2006, and it has been steadily heading down hill ever since. It started with Colombian cartels and traffickers having to use the land bridge that is Central America to transport cocaine, marijuana, and other controlled substances to the United States after officials in Southern Florida and the Caribbean tightened security. In order to get through Mexico, large Colombian Cartels, like the Sinaloa Cartel or the Gulf Cartel, made deals with Mexican traffickers to reach one of the best global markets: America. Along with the trafficking of drugs came the trafficking of weapons and human beings.

Health care in the United States seems to struggle in its endless fight to ensure and protect Americans. The United States is the only wealthy, industrialized nation that does not ensure that all citizens have coverage, according to the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences. 47 million people in the U.S. have no health insurance (www.aflcio.org). Add the people who are not insured enough and that is a large portion who are not being fully protected. More money is spent per person on health care in the U.S. than in any other nation in the world; Two trillion dollars a year according to the Wall Street Journal. If we are spending so much money on health care, why is it that people are left uninsured? 14,000 people lose their health insurance every day due to job cuts according to the Center for American Progress Action Fund. Medical illnesses and jobs that do not support medical benefits are other reasons why some Americans are left uninsured, giving them no other choice but to pay the high medical expenses or ignore their medical issue.

Injured Darfur Citizen

Darfur, a region within Sudan, has known nothing but one thing, bloodshed. Darfur has been involved in many conflicts, but one holds itself over the rest. The current conflict is so important because it shows how much more work needs to be done before a whole world can stand united in equality. The Sudanese government is accused of many inhumane and genocidal acts. They defend themselves, labeling the many groups that are against the government as rebels.