Rationale

Craig Michelbacher Rationale

In my textbook I chose what I thought of as some of the biggest topics from 2005-2010. I chose topics including the BP Oil Spill, The Election of 2008, Swine Flu, and The Iraq War. It also focuses on how daily life was changed through technological increases. The BP Oil spill happened in summer 2010. It was a huge event in national and American history because of the length of the spill, and the amount of oil spilled. An oil slick the size of Kansas was produced, and some of the oil is still missing. The oil spill was started when the Deepwater Horizon exploded in the Gulf of Mexico. The oil rig burned for days, and oil spilled for weeks. This event has shaped American history because of how much oil was spilled, and because of the cause of the spill. The Election of 2008 shaped American history completely with the election of the first colored president. Barack Obama from Illinois beat John McCain from Arizona to become the 44th President of the United States of America. President Obama won with the term goals being to get out of Iraq as fast as possible, increasing energy dependence, and to create universal healthcare. President Obama won 28 states, and 365 of 538 possible Electoral College votes. Social Growths in the country since 2005 have been phenomenal. Smart phones which can browse the web, send emails, send text messages, sync with your Google Calendars, and make phone calls are very useful tools for the everyday business man. The number of different options available is unbelievable as well. The introduction of 4G technologies should make these things work faster, and better. The music industry has also sky rocketed. The amount of change that iPods have gone through is amazing. From one option, to an option to fill everyone’s needs, iPods can surf the web, play music, and hold hours of entertainment. Facebook and Google have also exploded over the past 5 years. Google has become more than a search engine, creating Droid software for phones. And Facebook has become the most popular social networking site. The Swine Flu Pandemic of 2009 swept through North America like wild fire. It is believed to have started in Mexico City, and spread into the USA killing 1,812 and infecting over a million. Symptoms usually lasted for 4-6 days, and if vaccinated you where considered sterile after 7 days. This pandemic put a national health scare into effect, and killed millions of pigs worldwide. The disease is spread through Pig to Pig contact and then to people to pig contact, then person to person contact. Now that there is a vaccine, the flu is not considered to be a threat anymore. The War in Iraq and Afghanistan has been going on since 2001, but there were many important things that happened in the 2005-2010 time span. The Airstrike on al-Zawahiri, a suspected al-Qaeda hot spot was a huge thing that happened. Another big thing was Bush’s release of the CIA prisons worldwide, these where top secret, and not known about until the release. 3 years after the release of the information prisoners died in these prisons because of suspected brutality, this made for an investigation. Around the same time, the London Bombings caused for a security threat. For as much as I put in my textbook, I also left out some events that could have been put in it. These events where not included in my textbook because I believe that the event that I used are just important, and are more significant to daily life of United States citizens. My events where national problems and growths in the country, and affected daily life of the average US Citizen.