I was driving home from my mom’s house last Friday when I noticed something strange heading down the southbound lane of 131 at around 2 a.m. It appeared that a vehicle was turning back and forth on the highway.

As we got closer together I realized that the oncoming Jeep was out of control. Right before we passed each other, it made a final, fateful swerve to the left, tucking the passenger side tires under and sending the driver’s side tires up into the air.

With a loud crash, the Jeep landed on its right side and ground down the highway to a halt, facing into oncoming traffic.

I immediately pulled my vehicle over and ran across the highway to help. Someone else had already dialed 9-1-1 so I proceeded to help the people out of the wrecked vehicle. I assisted two women in climbing out of the skyward-facing driver’s side doors. Another person who stopped to help let three of the victims warm up in his vehicle while I let the other two sit in mine.

I was able to use my first aid kit that I carry to help clean up one of the woman’s cut hands. Luckily, this was the only apparent injury of the night.

And what was the cause of this accident? A small animal ran across the road and the driver swerved to miss it. It was that simple.

Never, ever swerve to avoid an animal! Simply slow down without slamming on the brakes.

Our Secretary of State Terri Lynn Land has begun sending out “Tip of the week” as part of the state’s commitment to safety.

“Wait three on green” is designed to make sure we don’t slam on the gas into a green light in case someone else is trying to slide through the light before it turns red.

The “move over” law is another good way to be safe. If there are vehicles pulled over on the highway or other roads, move over to give them the most amount of room.

Of course, wearing seatbelts helped those people survive and not be thrown from the vehicle, and we all know not to drive drunk. It is also said that driving while tired can be just as bad as driving intoxicated.

In closing, be just safe out there. It only takes an instant, one momentary lapse of judgment to change your life and the lives of others for the worse.

Just over two weeks ago, President Barack Obama signed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (also known as the stimulus act) into law. The bill received almost unanimous support from Democrats in both the House and Senate, and unanimous lack of support by the majority of Republicans.

One of the campaign promises that President Obama championed during his run for office was the promise to work with both sides of the aisle in Congress. After numerous tries, the president has failed to do so. It is not his fault, as he has tried to meet Republicans halfway on numerous occasions regarding the stimulus bill. The Right Wing just decided to ignore him and stick to their mantra of “fiscal responsibility and limited government.”

I find it quite interesting that the Republican Party is still sticking to a mantra that has been around for decades when “fiscal responsibility and limited government” is what put the country in this severe recession in the first place. As far as fiscal responsibility goes, it was under the George W. Bush administration that the nation spent billions upon billions of taxpayer dollars on a war in Iraq that most Americans disagree with.

Not to mention that the first $350 billion that was doled out to Wall Street back in the fall of 2008 has suddenly come up missing. In the final days of his presidency, Mr. Bush admitted that they did not track the money that was given to the financial executives. There is also the very small fact that former President Bush left our country almost $1 trillion in debt.

Many republicans claim that limited government is what is required in order to get our country’s economy back on track. It was the lack of oversight of the banking and financial industries of our nation that has caused this whole disaster. Why on earth would anybody want less government when it has been evident by events in the very recent past to cause an economic meltdown?

After President Obama’s address to a joint session of Congress last week, Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal made his debut on national television with the republicans’ official response. I personally would not call it a “response” as it more closely resembled the scolding of a delinquent student by a first grade teacher. Jindal was supposedly “over coached” and does not know how to properly read a teleprompter. In the speech that the Republican Party thought they would use to launch this young, ambitious southern governor superstar onto the national stage, the young governor’s image spontaneously combusted instead.

Jindal’s speech focused primarily on the republicans’ mantra of fiscal responsibility and limited government, and about how their party loves America. If your party loves America, Governor Jindal, then why did every single Republican House member and all but three senators vote against a bill that is supposed to put our country back to work? The right keeps singing their song about how tax cuts create jobs, not more government spending. Thanks to the Bush administration, we now know for a matter of act that tax cuts DO NOT create jobs. Mr. Bush gave millions of dollars of tax cuts to businesses, both small and large. Obviously this theory did not work as unemployment numbers are now at levels that have not been seen since the early 1980s.

The stimulus act is going to spend money on creating jobs while rebuilding our country through the creation of a new electric grid that is primarily supported by wind power and solar panels; rebuilding roads and bridges; and yes, the monitoring of volcanoes. But the republicans across the country think that creating jobs is a bad idea. During the presidential campaign, Sen. John McCain claimed that President Obama voted against bills in Congress that created jobs. Now who is calling the kettle black?

Since “fiscal responsibility and limited government” is what sent our nation into this severe recession, I think the Republican Party needs to go back to the drawing board in regards to their party platform. It was evident in the 2008 election that Americans are sick and tired of the lack of government oversight present during the Bush presidency. Republicans needs to use the next three years to rebuild themselves as a party to benefit both themselves and the nation.

Laughter and tears are both responses to frustration and exhaustion. I, myself, prefer to laugh. I try my best to choose this option as often as possible when confronted with stress. Last Wednesday I went down to Detroit to get my laugh on at the Howie Bell comedy series that happens every Wednesday.

During the three hour ride, a lot was going through my mind. It’s now Mid-semester and I am wondering, “Am I going to survive all of my classes? This semester will soon come to an end. Will I do another summer semester? Where would I live, would I work?”

Then I started sharing my thoughts with my friend. Telling her how laughing eases my mind from time to time. It could not have been a better time for me to go down to the Detroit and get tickled by the comedians.

With today’s fast paced life style many people are dealing with more stress than ever. Factor in money stresses like the high cost of gas and slowing of the economy and it is clear to see a population that is stressed out.

Fun, laughter, comedy, and stress relief games are great ways to ease your troubles, elevate your mood and even improve the immune system. Stress relief online games and desktop games are widely available on the Internet, and may vary according to your interests, preferences and age. (stressreliefsecrets.com)

When you laugh, it doesn’t just lighten your load mentally, it actually induces physical changes in your body, beginning with your face. Laughter enhances your intake of oxygen-rich air, stimulates your heart, lungs and muscles, and increases the endorphins that are released by your brain.

A good laugh cools down your stress response and increases your heart rate and blood pressure. Long term benefits include an improved immune system. Negative thoughts manifest into chemical reactions that can impact your body by bringing more stress into your system and decrease your immunity. Positive thoughts actually release chemicals that help fight stress and potentially more serious illnesses. (psychologytoday. com)

Comedy stress relief can also help difficult situations become a little bit easier. I’m sure you all have experienced an awkward situation where the only possible response was a hardy laugh that helped to alleviate the tension.

Mid-semester headaches are bound to arise from the stressful lifestyle of the every day college student. My advice is to take a step back and visit stressfactory. com or youtube.com to watch some funny clips.

I suggest that you all take a look at Katt Willams pimp chronicles and watch the snippet titled, “tink tink”. Once you see that, all you are going to have to do is think of poor little tink tink every time your having a stressful day.

It’s been just a little over a month since inauguration day and President Barack Obama has been keeping busy designing a stimulus package, going over the national budget, and preparing legislation for Congress.

Mr. Obama recently addressed the people of the United States in a national address that laid out the framework for everything that he wishes to push through Congress and explained details on how to rebuild America’s economy.

“We will rebuild, we will recover, and the United States of America will emerge stronger than before,” he said to a joint session of Congress. He later called upon the American people to “take responsibility for our future once more.”

However, the $787 billion economic stimulus package that the president recently signed into law fails to take into account the long-lasting effects it will have on our country and future generations.

A recent article in the Miami Herald questioned whether the stimulus package and the numerous programs which the Democratic controlled Congress wishes to orchestrate would provide a short term boost to the economy.

Naturally, the stimulus package will increase the federal deficit of 2009, pushing it up to a record estimated $1.4 trillion.

This new piece of legislation puts President Obama’s motives in question as the new bill contradicts the president’s plan to cut the federal deficit in half within the next four years. This notion would be a lot of work in itself even without adding more to the already hefty federal deficit.

The package could help put money in the pockets of the American people now, but may also just add to the amount of taxes that the next generation, our generation, will be subjected to in order to tackle the increasing national deficit.

It doesn’t appear as though the government is taking responsibility for the future of our country if they are leaving such a large deficit for the responsibility of young America to deal with in the future.

It also seems ironic that the American people, who blatantly proclaimed their criticism and disapproval of what President Bush’s bailout of the financial institutions and automotive industry on the grounds of an increase in the national debt, seem less disposed to verbalize the negative impact the stimulus package will have on the federal deficit.

So, does America really need a stimulus package to set the economy back on the right track? Well, in my opinion, not really.

In the 1970s at the end of the Carter Administration, America was experiencing yet another economic recession, one that was even worse than today’s.

In 1980, the rate of inflation hit 13.5 percent and by the end of 1982, the national unemployment rate reached a record high of 10.8 percent. Today, the national unemployment rate has stayed away from double-digit numbers at 7.6 percent with inflation at just about 3 percent.

To combat the economic recession of the time, instead of creating a stimulus plan, President Reagan enacted the Economic Tax Recovery Act which called for personal and corporate tax cuts, reductions in government spending, and reduced bureaucracy.

Reagan’s Recovery Act, along with the work of the Federal Reserve Board to combat inflation by raising interest rates, helped the economy begin to right itself. Then, by the mid 1980s, America experienced one of the largest durations of peacetime economic prosperity in American history.

Clearly other avenues can be taken to set the economy back on the right path, rather than enacting a stimulus package that will result in a significant increase in the federal deficit and inevitable increases in taxes in the future to try to pay off the deficit.