Death and Destruction

  As you may have guessed, this title sums up most of the articles I've been reading over the past few days.  Recently the attack on the U.S. Embassy in Syria has taken over many of the front pages I frequent, making it a hard article to avoid.  With new details emerging every day, it seems like this story might be around for awhile.  I find it interesting that there are other articles directly associated with Obama and how he's handling this situation, especially in the wake of his speech at the DNC.  I believe he had talked about how the fighting was almost over in Iraq and Afghanistan, but I can't quite remember what he said about Syria...  Apparently he spoke too soon, regardless.
  Another article I found intriguing was one about the Chicago Teachers Union and the strike that has so far lasted four days, (the "destruction" of Chicago's education system).  Recently in one of my classes, I read an older article about the Chicago school systems and how they were looking to reform somehow.  The teachers have now taken education into their own hands, however the mayor seems less than thrilled about it.  From the way the current article is written, I get the sense that the mayor of Chicago doesn't care about the teacher's wages, but just wants kids back in school.  Whether that's a good thing or a bad thing, I'll let you decide.  I think it's great that he's worried about the kids education being disrupted and parents being inconvenienced, but he should also be showing some willingness to cooperate with the teachers union.  The article made him sound like it was a chore to him, and that it's the teachers' fault that the students aren't getting an education right now.  I'm not sure why the pay increase wasn't enough for them, but it's not entirely the teachers' fault for striking and leaving a lot of students out of school.
  Maybe it's just because I'm an English Teaching major, but the second article that I read resonated more with what I pay attention to on a daily basis.  As I take note of this, I might try to read more about education in the online news archives to see what's happening on that end of the spectrum.  It might come in handy at the end of this semester, when I'm thrown into the real world.