I chose to read about Rex Winship, a trader. I read this because I wanted to know exactly what a trader does, and what it traded. Winship explained what trading was, but he also explained something far more interesting to me. He explained the cruel truth of business and corporations. In the corporate world, it’s a free for all; everyone for themselves, because everyone is trying to make more money; but that money has to come from somewhere. Winship summarized the corporate world with this quote, “Why should you make a profit? Without loss, no one can win. Unless you have losers, you cannot have winners” (Terkel 404). Someone has to lose money in order for someone else to make money. In order some someone to benefit, someone else has to suffer. This made me think about the wedge in society; it has existed in America for decades. The core of capitalism is greed, and as long as greed exists, the wedge is society will always exist.

I also read about a Vietnam War veteran named Larry Heinemann. I chose this story because I wanted to see an in depth look at the Vietnam War from a soldier’s perspective. Heinemann was drafted in 1966 and fought in Vietnam from 1967 to 1968. When he returned home, he was a different person. Heinemann recalls being angrier and feeling more isolated from others. He was going through symptoms of delayed stress. Heinemann hated the war when it started and hasn’t stopped hating it. He feels that the war damaged him psychologically. He saw parades honoring the Vietnam War veterans, and he was disgusted, “I don’t think the country learned anything from the war. […] They wanted so hard for it to be all right. It’s not. It’s going to be an evil thing in our lives and nothing’s gonna change it” (Terkel 420). Today the US continues to get involved in foreign affairs, and send in American troops to fight someone else’s war. Has America learned anything from the Vietnam War?