This piece is about the U.S. debt. Uncle Sam is a metaphor for our country, more directly through our military. The act of panhandling is a metaphor for how we borrow money to supplement of nation’s budget. This was the first time I was able to use words in my work. I thoroughly researched to make sure these words were as symbiotic as the rest of the piece. I watched a lecture series ‘Economic Crisis and Globalization’ by Richard D. Wolff, a Professor of Economics Emeritus at University of Massachusetts, Amherst. This allowed me to understand my material and react to it naturally. The U.S. budget is larger than the sum of all the collected taxes. This means we have to borrow billions each year to fulfill our budget needs. If you look at our nation’s budget, over 50% goes to military spending. If you look further, our military is larger then the next 6 largest militaries combined! And they are all allies.

I researched what kind of message panhandlers use to get people to give them money. Most of them isolated a single point for their need for more money. I wrote “Need Money for Control”. Control translates to the control our military has on the world, based on its size and force. I added “God Bless America”, which is a common patriotic saying. I set it up so the word “Bless” was concealed by Uncle Sam’s knee. This impartially removes it from his communication. On a further note, I don’t mean to be negative about my country, just critical. I love my country very much. I want it to be the best version of itself. I believe a large part of our deficiency is the amount of money we give to our abundant military. I don’t shame those who have put their lives on the line to protect my freedom. I just think it can take less lives to do so.