Your sociology teacher is typical for this field. She has succeeded in her goal if she has made you feel bad about being an American citizen. Keep this in mind, not all people see society through the lens of the bad in human nature.
Some of us see society through the good in human nature and the strength that people can muster when the chips are down. The US is not in imminent danger of defaulting on any financial obligations. The federal government spends more than it collects because it collects more and more each year with an economy that continues to expand.
Your teacher is a typical liberal. Keep that in mind when you write essays, because if you argue a conservative point-of-view, you will get poor grades.
We will never be able to repay our morbidly obese National Debt. The world's banks just haven't cut up our credit cards-----yet.
I cant really gove you an answer,but what I can give you is a way to a solution, that is you have to find the anglde that you relate to or peaks your interest. A good paper is one that people get drawn into because it reaches them ln some way.As for me WW11 to me, I think of the holocaust and the effect it had on the survivors, their families and those who stood by and did nothing until it was too late.