Wednesday, November 27, 2019

Right Responsibilities And Real Deal By Butler Essays -

Right Responsibilities And Real Deal By Butler Rights, Responsibility and the Real Deal by Jeremy Butler The Right to Free Speech is Protected Ideas are the backbone of democracy. However we see fit to express those ideas is a right provided in the Constitution of the United States. No matter the format of that expression someone will find them offensive and seek to stop that expression. The Communications Decency Act is just the latest incarnation of small minds raging against the tide. The CDA stomps on the first amendment of the Constitution like a bunch of bikers in hobnailed boots. It must be relentlessly pursued until dead. Everyone participating in the 24 Hours of Democracy is part of the hunting party that will see to that. Thankfully we are not alone, the ACLU, EFF, VTW and others are on our side. And let's not forget our most powerful ally is the Constitution itself. The framers of the Constitution fought a bloody Revolution based on freedom of speech and other rights of a truly free people. They included no qualifications on that free speech. That principle has been upheld with minimal exceptions (no shouting "FIRE" in a crowded theater, please). The CDA is not the first (or last) legislation to attack free speech, and it won't survive in the courts any better than past laws. That is the purpose of the judicial branch of the government, to balance the excesses of the legislative (Congress) and the executive (President) branches. Our forefathers included that in the Constitution too, almost as if they knew that government would be dominated by self serving, arrogant prostitutes who could only be controlled by pitting them against one another. I believe in the U.S. system of government, even while questioning the motives and methods of the participants. Our voices and votes will be heard. It's not a conspiracy, it's just government. It is our Responsibility to Maintain the Net Culture Pornography is a tripwire, out in the fringes of the larger issue of free speech. I'm glad it's there, so we know when the storm troopers are coming (no pun intended), but it is not the reason the First Amendment is there. Open political discourse, such as 24 Hours of Democracy, is the idea the founders were protecting. So long as the general public only hears "We want our porn" they will never hear the real message "We are fighting for your freedom". We cannot forget the General Public; we must gather and nurture their support. The Net has always been about openness, but at the same time it has always been self policing (ask any flamee). It is our responsibility to maintain that environment. While the anything goes rule must be protected, we must provide the tools to allow parents to control the content of what their children access. We must voluntarily adopt some form of rating system that makes it simple. We must not only provide the means, we must aggressively and happily promote them (without whining). To do less is to avoid our responsibility and hand control over to others. This is a political issue, if we don't police ourselves then the public will demand that it be done for them. If it is done by the government, you can be assured we will come full circle to this point again. It is that simple. Providing Content on the Net is the Real Deal. The whole telecommunications bill is about the Net of the Future. The floodgates are open, the carriers can now build their pipes from any place to any place, everybody gets to create content for sale and the media giants are happy. Picture the land rushes into the West, a cannon goes off and everybody charges off to stake their claim. The Net has one key difference, unlimited territory. Right now anybody with the right equipment and the knowledge can be a Net/Web presence with the content of their choice and basically doesn't have to ask ANYBODY. That must be protected from central authority, whether governmental or corporate. That responsibility falls to us, because we are here and we understand what we have. We are the Thomas Paine's of our age with a printing press, a burning desire for freedom and the will to risk it all to print a political pamphlet. We have the tools, the desire is evident in 24 Hours of Democracy, and thanks to a functional democratic system the risks are relatively low (no gallows at least). We must create our own territory and defend

Sunday, November 24, 2019

About the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)

About the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) The North Atlantic Treaty Organization is a military alliance of countries from Europe and North America promising collective defense. Currently numbering 29 nations, NATO was formed initially to counter the communist East and has searched for a new identity in the post-Cold War world. Background In the aftermath of the Second World War, with ideologically opposed Soviet armies occupying much of Eastern Europe and fears still high over German aggression, the nations of Western Europe searched for a new form of military alliance to protect themselves. In March 1948 the Brussels Pact was signed between France, Britain, Holland, Belgium and Luxembourg, creating a defence alliance called the Western European Union, but there was a feeling that any effective alliance would have to include the US and Canada. In the US there was widespread concern about both the spread of Communism in Europe – strong Communist parties had formed in France and Italy - and potential aggression from Soviet armies, leading the US to seek talks about an Atlantic alliance with the west of Europe. The perceived need for a new defensive unit to rival the Eastern bloc was exacerbated by the Berlin Blockade of 1949, leading to an agreement that same year with many nations from Europe. Some nations opposed membership and still do, e.g. Sweden, Ireland. Creation, Structure, and Collective Security NATO was created by the North Atlantic Treaty, also called the Washington Treaty, which was signed on April 5th 1949. There were twelve signatories, including the United States, Canada and Britain (full list below). The head of NATOs military operations is the Supreme Allied Commander Europe, a position always held by an American so their troops don’t come under foreign command, answering to the North Atlantic Council of ambassadors from member nations, which is led by the Secretary General of NATO, who is always European. The centrepiece of the NATO treaty is Article 5, promising collective security: an armed attack against one or more of them in Europe or North America shall be considered an attack against them all; and consequently they agree that, if such an armed attack occurs, each of them, in exercise of the right of individual or collective self-defense recognized by Article 51 of the Charter of the United Nations, will assist the Party or Parties so attacked by taking forthwith, individually and in concert with the other Parties, such action as it deems necessary, including the use of armed force, to restore and maintain the security of the North Atlantic area. The German Question The NATO treaty also allowed for the alliance’s expansion among European nations, and one of the earliest debates among NATO members was the German question: should West Germany (the East was under rival Soviet control) be re-armed and allowed to join NATO. There was opposition, invoking the recent German aggression which caused World War Two, but in May 1955 Germany was allowed to join, a move which caused upset in Russia and led to the formation of the rival Warsaw Pact alliance of Eastern communist nations. NATO and the Cold War NATO had, in many ways, been formed to secure West Europe against the threat of Soviet Russia, and the Cold War of 1945 to 1991 saw an often tense military standoff between NATO on one side and the Warsaw Pact nations on the other. However, there was never a direct military engagement, thanks in part to the threat of nuclear war; as part of NATO agreements nuclear weapons were stationed in Europe. There were tensions within NATO itself, and in 1966 France withdrew from the military command established in 1949. Nevertheless, there was never a Russian incursion into the western democracies, in large part due to the NATO alliance. Europe was very familiar with an aggressor taking one country after another thanks for the late 1930s and did not let it happen again. NATO After the Cold War The end of the Cold War in 1991 led to three major developments: the expansion of NATO to include new nations from the former Eastern bloc (full list below), the re-imagining of NATO as a ‘co-operative security’ alliance able to deal with European conflicts not involving member nations and the first use of NATO forces in combat. This first occurred during the Wars of the Former Yugoslavia, when NATO used air-strikes first against Bosnian-Serb positions in 1995, and again in 1999 against Serbia, plus the creation of a 60,000 peace keeping force in the region. NATO also created the Partnership for Peace initiative in 1994, aimed at engaging and building trust with ex-Warsaw Pact nations in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union, and later the nations from the Former Yugoslavia. Other 30 countries have so far joined, and ten have become full members of NATO. NATO and the War on Terror: The conflict in the former Yugoslavia had not involved a NATO member state, and the famous clause 5 was first – and unanimously - invoked in 2001 after terrorist attacks on the United States, leading to NATO forces running peace-keeping operations in Afghanistan. NATO has also created the Allied Rapid Reaction Force (ARRF) for faster responses. However, NATO has come under pressure in recent years from people arguing it should be scaled down, or left to Europe, despite the increase in Russian aggression in the same period. NATO might still be searching for a role, but it played a huge role in maintaining the status quo in the Cold War, and has potential in a world where Cold War aftershocks keep happening.   Member States 1949 Founder Members: Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France (withdrew from military structure 1966), Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, The Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, United Kingdom, United States1952: Greece (withdrew from military command 1974 – 80), Turkey1955: West Germany (With East Germany as reunified Germany from 1990)1982: Spain1999: Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland2004: Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia2009: Albania, Croatia2017: Montenegro

Thursday, November 21, 2019

He implications of asymmetric information for the function of markets Essay

He implications of asymmetric information for the function of markets at both the microeconomic and macroeconomic levels - Essay Example The situation where the market produces more or less than the ideal or the optimal amount of a particular good, it is regarded as the market failure in terms of economics There are several factors that results in the market failure like externalities and monopoly power, and asymmetric information.Еhe implications of asymmetric information for the function of markets at both the microeconomic and macroeconomic levels.In an analysis of the competitive market structure it is always assumed that the buyers and the sellers have perfect knowledge about the market. But in reality this does not happens. When the available information about any product is more with someone than the others then the arisen situation is of market failure and the phenomenon is termed as â€Å"asymmetric information†. The information about the product is an important factor and if the quality of the goods could be judged about whether it being excellent or inferior then the price would have adjusted acc ording to the quality differences. Asymmetry and Market failure and the need of the government intervention A. Market failure and the used car market The situation of information asymmetry leading to market failure is best understood by the example of used cars. In a transaction of a used car, a seller would always know more than the buyer. Considering a case of a second hand Chevrolet Malibu which would cost $15,000 in an ‘average’ condition, if the condition of the car is ‘excellent’, that would cost $18,000 and if the condition of the car is ‘poor’, the car will be priced at $12,000.... without any excellent car will be ready to pay not more than $13500 that is the average price of the cars, which are either in average or poor condition. This in turn will prevent the average car owners from offering their car at such a low price. So at the end the market forces will adjust itself to equilibrium for the poor cars at the selling price of $12000. This is an example of market failure where the market for the excellent and average cars does not exist due to the asymmetry of information. This is a situation of quality uncertainties where the high quality goods are driven out by the low quality goods. (Chauhan, n. d, pp. 224-225) This is explained with the help of a diagram: PH SH P E P’ E’ DH DH’ DH† 0 Q’ Q Figure 1 (a) PL p’ e' SL p e DL’ DL 0 q q’ Figure 1(b) Source: Chauhan, n. d, pp. 224-225 In the diagram Figure 1 (a) DH represents the demand for high quality goods, SH, the supply for high quality goods. They int ersect at the point E where the quantity OQ must be demanded and it must be supplied at OP price. Due to the asymmetry of information, the same amount OQ is demanded at a lower price E†. As the buyers are uncertain about the quality of the product they treat the high quality good as the low quality good and hence the demand curve shifts downwards to DH’. At this lower price some of the seller refuses to sell the product which causes the supply to fall from OQ to OQ’. Hence the new equilibrium is at E’, where the DH’ intersects S H. The OQ amount of high quality goods is sold at a price OP’.As there exists quality uncertainty the demand curve is expected to further slide down to DH† which does not intersect with the supply curve SH at all. This shows how the market for high quality goods fails. In the figure 1(b),

Wednesday, November 20, 2019

IFRS and GAAP Convergence Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

IFRS and GAAP Convergence - Essay Example When the financial statements are available in annual reports, it is the responsibility of the managers to evaluate and discuss results of company performance. External parties use these financial statements to analyze the company’s financial performance. Therefore, external users of financial statements are requires to be familiar with the tools and techniques which are used in financial performance analysis (Needles, Powers and Crosson, 2010, p.1270). Financial analysis includes the analysis of income statement and the assets and liabilities in the balance sheet. It can be done by implementing various tools and techniques such as: common size financial statements, comparative financial statements, ratio analysis, trend analysis, fund flow statement and cash flow statement (Murthy and Gurusamy, 2009, pp.8-9). Accounting Convergence A single set of global accounting standards has to be developed that would be used internationally for international and domestic financial report ing. In order to persuade this practice, the International Accounting Standard Board (IASB) and the US Financial accounting Standard Board (FASB) signed a memorandum of understanding, honoring their commitment towards the convergence of International Accounting Standards and the U.S. ... After the IASB and FASB liberated their disclosure draft on revenue recognition, they got many comments which include the lack of transparency about the transfer of control of services, the accounting for warranties, difficulties in recognizing and separating performance obligations, and the model proposed for licenses of intellectual property. It is found that the proposed standard will cause in the considerable shift in how revenues is documented in many situations. Most respondents believe that the proposed standard will have high impact on their financial reporting and in the process of implementing this standard, additional technology and resources will be required. More or less 41% of the respondent agrees upon the implementation of the IFRS in either 2015 or 2016. Difference between U.S. GAAP and IFRS There are many differences between the U.S GAAP and IFRS rules regarding the revenue recognition, provisions and contingencies, income taxes, leases, financial instruments, intan gible assets, interim financial reporting, and the financial statement presentation. But the most important difference would be in the financial statement presentation. Under the US GAAP rules, normally comparative financial statements are prepared, though a single year may be accessible in certain events. For the public companies, balance sheets for the two most current years are needed, whereas other statements must contain three year period which should be ended on the balance sheet date. Under IFRS rules, comparative information must be revealed with respect to the prior period for all amounts which are shown in the financial statements. Under US GAAP rules,

Sunday, November 17, 2019

Religion and Philosophy Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Religion and Philosophy - Essay Example ThÐ µ yin yÐ °ng sign illustrÐ °tÐ µs thÐ °t Ð µvÐ µn whÐ µrÐ µ you'vÐ µ got two oppositÐ µs, thÐ µy complimÐ µnt Ð µÃ °ch othÐ µr. ThÐ µ blÐ °ck Ð °nd whitÐ µ of thÐ µ two sidÐ µs of thÐ µ sign Ð °rÐ µ oppositÐ µs, but within thÐ µ blÐ °ck thÐ µrÐ µ is Ð ° littlÐ µ bit of whitÐ µ Ð °nd within thÐ µ whitÐ µ thÐ µrÐ µ is Ð ° littlÐ µ bit of blÐ °ck. ThÐ µrÐ µ's Ð ° pÐ µrfÐ µct bÐ °lÐ °ncÐ µ bÐ µtwÐ µÃ µn thÐ µ two. OftÐ µn thÐ µ yin yÐ °ng sign is usÐ µd to symbolizÐ µ mÐ °lÐ µ Ð °nd fÐ µmÐ °lÐ µ forcÐ µs. FÐ µmÐ °lÐ µ usuÐ °lly is Ð °ssociÐ °tÐ µd with thÐ µ dÐ °rk Ð °nd thÐ µ mÐ °lÐ µ is Ð °ssociÐ °tÐ µd with whitÐ µ Ð °nd thÐ µ light. In somÐ µthing thÐ °t might sÐ µÃ µm complÐ µtÐ µly mÐ °sculinÐ µ, not just in pÐ µoplÐ µ or Ð °nimÐ °ls, but Ð µvÐ µn in vÐ °rious mÐ °nifÐ µstÐ °tions of nÐ °turÐ µ or sociÐ µty or whÐ °tÐ µvÐ µr, thÐ µrÐ µ is Ð ° littlÐ µ touch of thÐ µ fÐ µmininÐ µ. Within somÐ µthing thÐ °t might sÐ µÃ µm to bÐ µ complÐ µtÐ µly fÐ µmininÐ µ, thÐ µrÐ µ is Ð ° littlÐ µ touch of thÐ µ mÐ °sculinÐ µ. ThÐ µrÐ µ is Ð °lwÐ °ys Ð ° littlÐ µ bit of thÐ µ oppositÐ µ within whÐ °tÐ µvÐ µr it is you'rÐ µ tÐ °lking Ð °bout, Ð µvÐ µn if things sÐ µÃ µm to bÐ µ totÐ °lly oppositÐ µ.

Friday, November 15, 2019

Roles Played By Reason And Imagination In Knowledge Philosophy Essay

Roles Played By Reason And Imagination In Knowledge Philosophy Essay The role played by imagination was insignificant in the achievement of knowledge due to its confusing and tentative nature and that rational thought was the sources of much knowledge believed Sir Francis Bacon, a deterministic, Renaissance rationalist.  [CITATION TIM62 l 1033]  The Critique of Pure Reason contrasts this view, stating that both reason and imagination are necessary for acquiring knowledge.  [CITATION TIM62 l 1033]  However, to what extent can Bacons views on reason and imagination be justified? This essay will examine such a concept through the exploration of the four ways of knowing (perception, language, emotion and reason) as well as two areas of knowledge, which will be history and the natural sciences. The Critique of Pure Reason is written by Immanuel Kant, a theorist. He mostly concerned himself with the metaphysical world, a reality based on abstract and empirical concepts. The proposition of this idea is bizarre coming from a man who lived in the Age of Reason when being rational was considered the ultimate and most accurate way of knowing. Reason is defined as the process of thinking and gaining knowledge through manipulation, integration and evaluation of facts and ideas, it can be either deductive reasoning (from the general to the particular) or inductive reasoning (from the particular to general principles)  [CITATION TIM62 l 1033]  . Whereas imagination is defined as the power of reproducing images stored in the memory under the suggestion of associated images or of recombining former experiences to create new images  [CITATION TIM62 l 1033]  Using the above definitions, incorporating the four ways of knowing and the two areas of knowledge to address the knowledge issue: are the roles of reason and imagination necessary to gain adequate knowledge in the areas of the natural sciences and history? Firstly, the definition of adequate is to be provided. According to the Encarta English Dictionary, adequate is defined as sufficient in quality or quantity to meet a need or qualify for something. It has been accepted that achieving absolute truth is virtually impossible, thus the knowledge issue is worded in a manner to account for this. History is defined as the study of the past  [CITATION TIM62 l 1033]  by Richard van de Lagemaat and by Britannica Encyclopedia as the discipline that studies the chronological record of events (as affecting a nation or people), based on a critical examination of source materials and usually presenting an explanation of their causes  [CITATION TIM62 l 1033]  ; it is essentially a study of human behavior. In schools, history falls under the humanities subject department or in the literary arts, yet, there are some who contest this idea and believe it should be considered more a natural science than a literary art or humanities subject. The writing language of written history incorporates an emotional aspect. This can be justified by the means of identifying the roles of reason and imagination in history. Due to its definition supplied by Britannica, history requires reason, and because the language used to define the subject, history is made to seem as though it is mimicking a scientific doctrine. A scientific doctrine is defined as the results of an experiment must be both independently verifiable and independently reproducible.  [CITATION TIM62 l 1033]  From this definition, however, it presents a counter argument. It suggest that history cannot be a considered a natural science due to its non-experimental nature; one cannot reproduce or change the past, only analyze and learn from it. It is subjective and owns a subcategory of historiography which is the critical response to an in-depth analysis of sources, transforming them into narratives to justify events, why they happened the way they did and explaining the psyche behind the decisions made.  [CITATION TIM62 l 1033]  Scientists argue that the perspective of a historian is adjusted, predetermined before he starts his work as he will only look for sources and information to prove his hypothesis.  [CITATION TIM62 l 1033]  Nonetheless, with only reason, history would remain incomplete. Ele ments of historiography are more imaginative than historians prefer to let on; there are gaps in the information. There is no possibility that ever single second of history will ever be recorded, and only as of recent, we have managed to become very close to this aspiration with the invention of things such as the internet and world news as it happens, making the recording of history easier but much more open to interpretation. This involves imagination, rather than reason. Reason does not allow for outside-of-the-box thought patterns, traditionally; and imagination is required to piece together the delicate puzzle in a poetic and sensible way. History is also plagued with the idea of hindsight bias. These are tendencies to believe, after learning of an outcome, that one could have foreseen it.  [CITATION TIM62 l 1033]  Hindsight bias can be considered to have rational elements, but also consists of fallacies like cognitive bias. This, according to Wikipedia, is a pattern of dev iation in judgment that occurs in particular situations.  [CITATION TIM62 l 1033]  History, or at least accurate history, is not produced by mere imagination, devotions and poetic utterances, if it were just art; a writer could compose a whole new reality than what really happened outside his own imagination. Historians have archaeology to draw from. They have primary documents that tell them what people were declaring. They cannot verify the way scientists can, but they can be empirical. It can be deduced that history is a science. There may indeed be scientific elements in judging a military situation  [CITATION TIM62 l 1033]  ; nevertheless, there are an equal number of factors that simply cannot be scientifically quantified. In order for history to be as actuate as possible, both imagination and reason play key roles in acquiring knowledge. The role of imagination in history is that with which one can understand the events that transpire around a particular situation. Re ason plays a role in establishing what the event is. Without the imagination, reason is only a few written words; with the imagination, reason becomes more powerful and substantiating. Natural sciences are recognized as a model for knowledge owing to many factors, prime among which is their capacity to explain and make precise predictions.  [CITATION TIM62 l 1033]  Natural sciences are often known as hard sciences, consisting of biology, chemistry and physics. They are often considered to be solely rational subjects that defy religion and question the world we live in, believed to give automatic proof of intellectual superiority because of its empirical data and facts and use of rational thinking, devoid of emotion and laden with precise and concise language. The idea of natural sciences as a literary art is nearly unheard of. This idea follows Bacons school of thought. Alternatively, in the spirit of Kants school of thought, it can also be considered a capacity for imaginative thinking. Most scientific laws and theories known today can be considered to have started with a creative endeavor, beginning with thought and imagination even though it is scientificall y based.  [CITATION TIM62 l 1033]  The thought that reason is the purest and truest way of attaining knowledge, an idea from the 17th century Renaissance, known as the Age of Reason, is slowly becoming contradicted. For example, the now respected idea that a high IQ is not a reliable sign of giftedness may simply indicate convergent thinking. Truly creative children are said to have divergent thinking that tend to find IQ tests boring and do not readily accept the right answer as the right one. A Chicago team devised various tests to spot divergent thinkers, testing 95 school boys. The test asked students to make up alternate endings for fables, instead of simply picking the right answers, and to write stories suggested by stimuli such as pictures which supply many different uses for everyday objects. Surprisingly, the top scores came from those specializing in history and English literature. The least creative, according to Hudsons findings, were the natural science students. Y oung scientists, says Hudson, tend to be less intellectually flexible than young arts specialists and more restricted emotionally.  [CITATION The08 l 1033]  In natural science, imagination is needed in order to correctly interpret data and create further possibilities for experimentation, although reason is used to ascertain whether or not ones findings and ones methods are realistic. There is little to suggest that the artists view point of science is more than just a thought or crazy theory, but it is evidently important for the scientist to view the world from an imaginative perpective. The idea of natural science as an art has only been seen in science fiction literatures, however, the language used in these works are generally emotionally laden even though they give the perception of being scientifically concise. Even though it has the word science in it, and presents logically plausible notions (in some cases), science fiction is often associated with imagination and fanta sy rather than reason and logic. Overall, it can be concluded that neither imagination nor reason are ruling aspects of history or natural science, but are necessary together in creating tangibility and some degree of certainty in attaining knowledge. Both of them create counterparts for each other making them unable to logically exist alone. It can be argued that Bacons views on reason and imagination are fairly unjustified as the roles of both are necessary to gain adequate knowledge and understanding in the natural sciences and history, as without one, the other becomes nearly useless; it supports Kants thesis, The Critique of Pure Reason. It is clear that Bacon failed to see the necessity of corresponding thoughts to create an ideological notion, integrating both aspects of acquiring knowledge for reason and imagination are highly dependent on each other for support. Word count: 1,602

Tuesday, November 12, 2019

How a Friend Change My Life

Friends Really Do Change Your Life I believe friends can impact your life. Whether negatively or positively, the people you surround yourself with have a significant impact on where your life takes you. Specifically, I believe my best friend got me to where I am today. I am now and have been on a path to success since she entered my life. Four years ago, I was a trouble maker, rule breaker and all out rebel. The girls that I surrounded myself were known for their bad attitudes and party habits.I have watched their lives get destroyed because of the decisions they made. I believe by stepping away from them, I have become a more structured and overall better person. During my friendship with my former group of friends, I had no rules. I stayed out hours past midnight, threw parties without my parent’s permission or knowledge, and didn’t care who I associated myself with. Thankfully, I was level-headed enough to never give in to the pressure of trying drugs or alcohol. I w as only in it for the fun.Four of these girls, however, lacked the better judgment I was lucky enough to have. They drank constantly, smoked pot, and ditched school almost every day. After several years of this, I had had enough. Unfortunately, by associating myself with this group I had somewhat ruined my reputation. Even though I stayed away from drugs, people at school assumed I was just as crazy as the rest of the girls. The girls eventually dropped out of school and I was left trying to find people that would accept me.I knew of another girl at school that I hadn’t talked to in a few years. She was in Honors classes and theater, so we rarely crossed paths. Our parents, however, were best friends and always encouraged her and I to hang out but we never found much in common. After separating myself from my former group, she and I became friends. I quickly found myself realizing what true friendship really was and was surprised to have found it with someone I had once thoug ht to be so different from me. Four years later, we are best friends and closer than anyone could imagine.Through the lives of my former friends, I have seen what my path could have been. I could have been without a high school education, without a job, without my dignity and without a true friend. I have learned that who you associate yourself with can have a strong impact on your future. By becoming friends with someone I thought was on the right path, I, myself, can see a bright future ahead of me. I am extremely thankful to have found someone who helped me get on this path. I believe that without her, I would not be who I am today.