New Construction Equals New Problems

Recently, my family drove up to the Wisconsin Dells for the weekend. The ride seemed to be smooth until we approached I90. Near Rockford, IL, the highway became two lanes and there was no shoulder available, so the lanes were very narrow. My car was in the left lane and right next to a concrete wall. So the layout was, concrete wall, my lane, then the right lane, then another concrete wall. As we were moving along, a semi (a huge truck) merged into the right lane besides us. All of a sudden the semi became awfully close and came to a point where it was uncomfortably close. Then, the semi began to merge into our lane, right were my car was. The semi was unaware of our presence in the lane and without hesitation began to come into our lane, not in front of us or behind us, but right next to us in our narrow left lane. My mom sensed the danger and has two choices; get hit my the semi, get hit by the concrete wall or get hit my the car right behind us when we were to come to a sudden stop. My mom began to slow down and thought that was the right decision. As we slowed down, the semi still not unaware of our car, hit our car, and scratched and dented the right side of our car, completely knocking off the side view mirror. The semi, if my mom did not slow down or act according, would have completely totalled our car, and possibly putting my brothers and I in very great danger because we were on the right side of car. My mom, enraged, merged to the right side of the semi, who was now in the left lane, honked vigorously at the truck until she had his attention. In the end, my mom chased down the semi that hit us, made him pull over, and cops gave the guy many tickets, and all was taken care of with nobody injured except for the car.
So I bring this up to show the dangers of the highway construction. With the increase of constructions and decrease of lane space, the accidents will go way up. I understand that the roads need repairing but the measures that the state takes to fix them puts everyone in danger. What if the semi did hit us harder, we could have crashed into a concrete wall or crushed by the semi. My family could have been seriously hurt, but luckily we didn't. I think that the state should do something to fix this problem, and increase the safety of travelers on the road. I don't know how they can do that, but long story short, the roads are not safe, and to know that Chicago only has two seasons, winter and construction, this will be a problem and an issue for a long time to come.

Heath Care

With everything going on with the presidential elections, I often find my self confused and un-sure of where I stand on the political spectrum. A huge factor of where I find my self is when it comes to the candidate’s view on health care. Obviously, it is very important that people stay healthy and that if someone does get sick or need the medical care, they are able to have it. All of that sounds great, but I am torn between two ideas; Obama's idea of "Universal Health Care" and McCain's ideas of helping out the small, private practice. So there are many pro's and cons to both ideas, and I was doing some research and found information on the pro's and cons. You are now probably wondering, what is so controversial? Well, I do believe that everyone should be provided the appropriate care for if god for bid they got sick, had surgery, etc. But, I do have to look at it in a different way. My dad is a doctor for a private practice. If, Obama was indeed elected, Universal Health Care would come into effect, which would effect my dad's job. Universal Health Care does not help out the private run offices of doctors and small practice, it helps out the big crowd, everyone. Part of being a democrat is looking out for all people, the big picture. The republican idea is to help the smaller businesses, like my dad. So what do I do? Do I want to support the idea of helping a lot of people, or look out for my dad, his career, and how this could potentially effect my family negatively. I really am torn. I guess only time will tell.