In Thomas L. Friedman’s op-ed column titled “What’s Our Sputnik” the author suggests that the United States is standing at the crossroads that will determine our future. One choice is to continue the “war on terror” and slowly but surely bankrupt ourselves into insignificance. The other option is to meet the economic challenge that China is giving us much like how the country responded to the Soviet’s launching of the Sputnik, as Friedman states “I hope Americans see China's rise as the 21st-century equivalent of Russia launching the Sputnik satellite -- a challenge to which we responded with a huge national effort that revived our education, infrastructure and science and propelled us for 50 years” (Friedman, 2011).
I agree 100% with Friedman’s idea that we need to stop being the world’s police force and focus on the real problems here at home. There was a time when we could afford to try to build diplomacy by helping out other countries for favors down the road, but that time has passed. The current state of our economy and school systems demand we need to reevaluate our priorities and make better use of our resources. If we are to correct the downward trajectory our country has been facing the past few years, we need to find our new “fight”. I think Friedman’s suggestion that it should be energy independence is a great starting point. If we could break our ties to the oil barons of the world and rely on ourselves only for energy, we could free up money that could be used for improving our problems here at home. Energy independence would not only free up money here, but also yet again reinvent our nation’s economy which would bring back jobs and money that have been sent out of the country.
All that money that is now used to protect our interests in oil rich countries around the world could be redistributed into programs to help our urban schools, the poor, improve mental and physical healthcare and reduce our deficit. I feel is one of the biggest problems we are facing now is the problem with the urban schools. While our country continues to produce mega rich people, we are also creating an society where it is very difficult to rise from the poor and underprivileged classes. Students graduate from these urban schools often with a skill set lacking the tools for success in an increasingly technical society. They then are forced to take jobs that pay very little and keeps them in this depressed economically state. This then creates more of an expense for social services which draws resources away from other important areas. Until we can reverse or break what I feel is a cycle of poverty, we are going to continue to slowly decline in power and wealth.
References
Friedman, T. L. (2010, Jan 17). What's our sputnik? New York Times. Retrieved from http://
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