<p>Prompt (BB test no.6): Is the world changing for the better? </p>
<p>Thanks for grading!</p>
<p>Response:</p>
<p>The fast pace of the contemporary world is hard to keep up with. War after war, genocide after genocide, scandal after scandal; the countless negative aspects of this world are overwhelming and depressing. The world is swerving in a direction that is undesirable, and at a rate that is frightening, but it is not hopeless. </p>
<p>The situation with Hurricane Katrina all too well illustrates the state of the world. In a time when people are suffering and in need, people are stealing money from the government for shopping sprees or nose jobs. People are looting stores not for bottled water, but plasma televisions. The government response is inexcusably slow and inefficient. Those things are sufficient to show how the world has moved, and will continue, to move in a negative direction.</p>
<p>However, it is unfair to say that there was no good in New Orleans during that period; indeed, a multitude of people poured into Louisiana to provide humanitarian aid. These generous, benevolent people were willing to give up their precious time and money to help their fellow human beings. They are a flicker of hope in a dark time; they show how we can be moved to action in the face of human suffering.</p>
<p>Another disaster, the Columbia spacecraft tragedy, reveals despair, but also hope for our future. The deaths of the astronauts were no doubt tragic and caused by inefficient calculations and inspections by those scientists in charge. If our most well-educated scientists cannot keep a group of people safe, what ca we expect of the politicians running our country, industries making our cars, or farmers producing our food? In this disaster, we view the world a little bit more negatively and become more cynical about human knowledge.</p>
<p>The old adage, “we learn from our mistakes,” still hold true, and through the Columbia tragedy we will learn how to prevent the possibility of such an event happening again. Scientists and engineers have already begun to build new spacecraft, sending astronauts into space again within a short time. It turns out that the tiles had overheated, causing the engine to be placed under immeasurable pressure, destroying the spacecraft. As tragic as the Columbia disaster was, new knowledge is gained from mistakes. The world is becoming better through knowledge derived through this tragedy, even though our view of the world has become more cynical. </p>
<p>It is too simple to say that the world is changing for the better or for the worse. It is best that we carefully analyze the world in which we live, reflect upon the events, and learn what we can from them.</p>