The Scarlet Letter

The excerpt from the introduction to the 1901 edition of the scarlet letter showed the readers about Hawthorne's personal life and how it influenced his writing. Before Hawthorne had ever written The Scarlet Letter, he had lost his job. He was actually surprised when his wife was comforting and actually told him to pursue his writing career. Since he had lost his job it gave him more time to write. It actually turns out that one of the main characters, Pearl, is based on his daughter.

Losing his job actually helped him in the end because the next 3 and a half years he published 3 of his four romances.

Bullying

Bullying has become a big issue in schools everywhere. "Its the kids in the middle of school's social life who are caught up in patterns of cruelty and agression that have to do with jockeying for status" More than 50% of students are involved in bullying, whether or not is is them bullying or they are the victim. Many people believe that many bully so they can get a better status, to become more popular. One student said that he was being called ugly, people were being racist to him, etc. People want to stop bullying but believe that adults cant do anything about it. This shows that there is a foolproof way to stop bullying.

The Enlightened Rich Want To Be Taxed

This article, published by the New York Times, shows how the wealthy are standing up and saying that they should be taxed. The article states that "They seem to recognize that the burden of the economic downturn cannot be borne entirely by the poor and middle class".One man in particular, Warren Buffett who is an American billionaire, urged Congress to raise taxes on the rich. Luca di Montezemolo backed Buffett's idea. After this, the idea was spread all through Europe and now the United States. From this, fifty or more of Germany's richest people have campaigned for higher taxes on the wealthy since 2009. "16 of France's wealthiest individuals urged the government to raise their taxes".

Ninety nine percent of people are middle or lower class and pay most of the taxes. There is only that One percent that is rich and they are saying that they want their taxes raised because they won’t be affected by it as much.

Cyber bullying

Cyber bullying is a big problem nowadays. It is when one sends harmful and rude messages through the internet, pretends to be someone there not to trick others, spread rumors about others, etc. Many kids have been cyber bullied and have never spoken up because they are too afraid. It has caused students to get bad grades, have poor attendance and even commit suicide.One in three middle and high school students report being cyber bullied. Three of out five kids who are cyber bullied actually become depressed and out of those, 48% of people consider suicide.

Some schools are starting to to partner up with parents to stop cyber bullying. They hope that this will lower the rate of it and protect the children. A woman named Susan Smith said "i think it's a good idea, i think parents will be happy that the school is partnering up with them to protect their children".

Even though schools are trying to help, that wont stop many teens from hacking others Facebook and/or emails. Many put their profile on private thinking no one can see their information, but the website can be easily hacked and their information can be put onto the internet, causing more cyber bullying. Marsal Hancock at the internet keep safe coalition said " children who grow up thinking they are sending confidential messages are misled."

Citations : 
Hall, Mimi. "White House Conference Tackles Bullying." USA TODAY. 10 Mar 2011: A.2. SIRS Issues Researcher. Web. 25 Oct 2011.

Kerr, Jennifer C. "More Youth Seeing Their Facebook, Email Hacked." Columbus Daily Reporter. 06 Oct 2011: n.p. SIRS Issues Researcher.Web. 25 Oct 2011.