Free Writing

Most of America’s infrastructure was build in response to the Great Depression under president Roosevelt’s New Deal programs such as the Works Progress Association.  Since then, we have continued to expand our infrastructure, but have done little to maintain that which already exists.  I plan to discuss the problems with America’s infrastructure and why they need to be addressed.  I also plan to research ways in which they can be fixed even with the tight budget constraints of our time. 

I have found many sources that discuss the problems with our infrastructure.  A lot of these sources contain very shocking statistics that I think will help to make my paper more interesting to the reader.  Many of the sources I have found have estimated how much it would cost to fix our entire infrastructure, and offered suggestions on how the government should fund the necessary improvements.  I expect I will need a lot more sources to write this research paper, including some more scholarly sources. 

I do not think I will have enough information to meet the page requirement.  I expect to have to expand my research from types of infrastructure like roads, bridges, and dams, to other things such as transportation, power grids, water supplies and water treatment, etc.  I will have to research these other types of infrastructure and see if they are in need of repair or updating. 

research sources

Infrastructure report card interview

• In 2007 it was reported that 73,000 bridges in the US were labeled as "structurally deficient."
• Another 80,000 were reported "functionally obsolete."
• Our nation's infrastructure received a grade of a D by the Federal Highway Administration.
• Each year the government spends less money on maintaining our infrastructure.

Hurricane Irene exposes creaky American infrastructure

• Upgrading critical infrastructure can make a difference in the amount of damage done to cities by natural disasters.
• Patrick J. Natale, executive director of the American Society for Civil Engineers said "The problem is, if you keep hammering a weak system, eventually it's going to poke a hole in it and then you're going to have a major disaster."
• 240,000 water main breaks are reported each year due to worn out infrastructure. This adds up to a loss of about 6 billion gallons of water per day.

10 Pieces of US infrastructure we must fix now

• This is a list of 10 roads, bridges, dams, levees etc. that are in need of serious repairs but have been neglected and now work is long overdue.
• 18% of the city of Atlanta's water supply is lost due to leaky pipes.
• Engineers calculated that during any year there is a 1-in-6 chance that the Herbert Hoover Dike will fail, releasing Lake Okeechobee into the surround areas of Southern Florida, contaminating water supplies and threatening 40,000 lakeside residents with serious flooding.
• Dover Bridge in Idaho was given an outrageously low "sufficiency rating" of 2 out of 100 in the National Bridge Inventory. Last year, a 30 x 30-in. piece of the deck was found hanging by its rebar. Nothing was done to fix the bridge because there are no funds for such a product.

Crumbling infrastructure ranks US behind Barbados

• The American Society of Civil Engineers asserted it would require an investment of $2.2 trillion over five years to get our infrastructure into shape.
• The U.S. has seen decline in infrastructure spending, going from 3.1 percent of the nation's gross domestic product in 1963 to 2.4 percent in 2007.
• America's drinking water systems need around $11 billion to replace facilities that are near the end of their lives and to comply with federal water regulations.

US infrastructure is in dire straits

• “Crumbling infrastructure has a direct impact on our personal and economic health, and the nation’s infrastructure crisis is endangering our future prosperity. Our leaders are looking for solutions to the nation’s current economic crisis. Not only could investment in these critical foundations have a positive impact, but if done responsibly, it would also provide tangible benefits to the American people, such as reduced traffic congestion, improved air quality, clean and abundant water supplies and protection against natural hazards.” - D. Wayne Klotz, president- American Society of Civil Engineers
• Americans spend an estimated 4.2 billion hours a year stuck in traffic. 45 percent of major urban highways are congested. 
• Mass transit use increased 25 percent from 1995 to 2005, but nearly half of American households lack access to bus or rail transit. 
• Increasing delays airline passengers experience shows the need to modernize our outdated air traffic control system.

Possible Research Topics

America's Infrastructure

I think this would be a good research topic because it has been in the news recently, and I found a lot of information when researching this topic.  America is far behind other countries when it comes to infrastructure. Improving our infrastructure is something that I think is important for us to both improving our quality of life and to keep up to speed with other countries.  I think there is a definite need for America to overhaul their infrastructure to both maintain what we currently have as well as make improvements for the future.

Heath Care Reform 

I think this would be a good topic as well because it too has been in the news recently, as is an issue met with much debate recently.  I think that everyone should be able to afford health care.  I think that we should have universal health care like most other developed nations.

Visual Rhetoric Assignment - Image & Thesis

Through the use of many rhetorical strategies and appeals the designers of this Coke Light advertisement entice their target customer and persuade them to purchase their product.

Visual Rhetoric Assignment

Response to pgs. 386-389

      The essay “Fat is an Advertising Issue” by Susie Orbach details her workings with the Unilever Company and Dove’s “Campaign for Real Beauty.” It talks about the harmful effect that advertising can have on women of all ages, shapes, and sizes. Today’s advertising affects women and young girls in a negative manner by distorting their idea of what is truly beautiful and lowering their self-esteem.
      Modern day advertising is filled with beautiful women. For most of the female population, this type of model beauty is unobtainable. I say this because cosmetic, clothing, and many other types of companies go through a long process of handpicking their models for their advertisements. The women in their ads are as skinny as possible, have beautiful features, eyes, skin and hair. If there is anything about them that isn’t quite up to their standards, it is computer edited to be just that. Through this process, companies create a sort of “ideal woman” figure that is seen as superior to all other women because they can’t compare to her unequaled beauty.
      Seeing the beautiful girl in the makeup commercial or the clothes model on the billboard can make anybody feel like they are not as attractive. Ads containing these unrealistic ideas of beauty cause virtually all women and young girls to have very low self-esteem. Some will do almost anything for a shot at being as beautiful as the “that girl.” Fifty percent of young girls will engage in unhealthy eating disorders or harmful behavior such as cutting themselves, drinking, or drug use. These are all negative effects of the subliminal pollution that we see in everyday advertising.