Social Classes in America

It really amazes me that people in America actually live in trailer parks or in their vans while working two jobs to pay for food with the hope of getting out one day. To think that the federal government fails them in this way while celebrities sit on their billions of dollars buying beach houses on a whim and having giant closets for their numerous pairs of shoes. Another thing that bothers me is the way the working class are treated while they do their jobs--thinking that someday, if they work hard enough, they can succeed. In the article Nickel and Dimed, Barbara Ehrenreich is treated like a junior higher who has to be constantly watched to make sure she doesn't do drugs or even talk too long with the customers! Not just the managers treat her this way--the customers do it as well by changing their orders on a whim and complaining for things like "the iced tea is too icy." I sorta wish the rich could only be allowed to get rich up to a certain point and then would be obligated to give to the poor. If only we all treated eachother with respect! If only we gave instead of always taking for ourselves! If only everyone watched for the "waitresses" in their lives (either real or metaphorical) who needed an extra $20 in their tip.

If this all just isn't possible I get that....just wishes!

Prison. ....Albuquerque. See I can do it too.

As we know from Sal's page, the United States has a big issue with the increasing number of people in the federal penitentary. I was able to hear one man's story in the hip-hop service i went to again on saturday night. It was amazing to see this man in a wheelchair tell about his life of gang banging and how his uncle and father were in a gang while he was growing up. He grew up with them as his role models and wanted to get into it as well. He said his worst mistake was dropping out of high school two weeks after he started. In his one district there are seven gangs; so obviously there are fights alot and people get hurt. He was basically getting picked on so he stopped going to school. He found himself with alot of time on his hands so he got involved in a gang. Alot of his friends and relatives were killed while in gangs and instead of making him want to stop it pushed him further because he thought "If they can die for it so can I" he went to prison numerous times and his uncle is serving 18 years right now for a crime he didn't commit. It's crazy that it took him getting paralyzed from the waist down to realize that he wanted to live. but it's just the fact that these people go to prison so many times and get so used to this kind of life that there seems to be no way out. Anyways, once he got out of prison and wanted to be independent he went out job hunting but he had criminal charges on his record and not even a year of high school. no one would hire him. This is how he came to decide that the only way to go would be to start dealing drugs. soon after he went back to jail. The revolving door of "criminals" going in and out of jail.

The real life stories of these people in lawndale really amaze me. we are so lucky to live here and to have the high incomes that we do. (like sal said in class) it's hard to remember in our everyday lives that there are others out there besides us.

Deviance

I think its really strange that one person can think that its normal to talk to yourself, for instance, and another person can look at you strange because of it. Is it a person's childhood that make them this way? Their peers and teachers? I guess it really could be anything. any experience in your life where someone reacted negatively or positively to something someone else did. Its endless! I happen to sing in the car alot....I have fun. my philosophy is that you only live once and who the heck cares what other people think........i guess the fact that i have this philosophy means that i know people react negatively sometimes. I just choose not to care cause singing makes me happy. lol. i guess were all deviant in our own way.
anybody agree or have an example?

Bowling for Columbine & Fear

I definately think that the myths going around about shootings on the rise (your not safe outside your own home!) that are circulated by the news are really very dramatized. In addition, the media continues to teach young boys that shooting people is the answer if you have a problem with them. This all added together creates alot of fear for ones life if you happen to be in a "bad part of town" late at night. Now, there ARE shootings, i'm not trying to say they don't happen, i just don't see it happening to random strangers in the neighborhood very often.

I went to a hip-hop church service called The House in Lawndale (Downtown Chicago) and it was a pretty eye-opening experience i gotta say. It was really cool to see how they talked about things, and even more specifically, what they talked about. The pastor asked the people, "Who's sick and tired of people getting shot in your neighborhood?" and a bunch of people raised their hands! It was amazing to me to see that these shootings actually DO occur! (The next service is on gang violence)

Stereotypes and Teenagers

I've been thinking about how we are nurtured as children these days-since we've been talking about it in class- to understand how to do things and even how to think about things! I went on a big double decker bus with my youth group (about 30 people) over spring break around to places like west virginia (for white water rafting), south carolina/georgia (for working at a girls camp then hiking), and pensacola florida (where we lay on the beach and hung out all day). In between these events we slept on the bus during the night and brushed our teeth/changed for the day in gas stations. it was a really fun time and we all got used to walking around in our pjs in public places like cracker barrels and mcdonalds's. (which could be an interesting point in itself that in our group we accepted this as okay even if people stared at us sometimes) anyways, we met some really nice people (expecially in the south) that asked us about what group we were in and where we were going.



but i'm gonna point out this specific experience in particular. we had stopped off at a gas station somewhere between south carolina and florida at around midnight to get changed into our pjs, brush our teeth, and basically just get ready for bed. what we hadn't expected was that there would be a bunch of african americans with their crazy cool cars hanging out at this gas station too. it's interesting that us kids in the suburbs of chicago are taught to fear this kinds of situation from a young age. they might have been really nice people but we put them in a category of scary, druggie, gang members. now, i don't mean to offend anyone-sincerly i don't-i am simply stating that this is how white kids from the suburbs are taught to think. so were all kind of a little on edge and sorta walking swiftly back and forth from the gas station to the bus and watching them as they watch us. you see, our bus kind of draws alot of attention since it's big, red white and blue, and full of kids getting ready for bed. one of the guys kept calling to us to come over there and our youth pastor andrew went over and chatted with them for a while. then it was about time to leave, and the guy is calling ANDREW! HEY ANDREW! we kinda left after that and andrew told some of us that were by the door watching that they offered him things (a smoke, a ride in his car, and a few other things he didn't repeat to us...lol.) anyways, i just thought i'd remark on the fact that everyone is raised so differently and live such different lives in america. different things matter to us, different things are unimportant to us, but i think we all kind of have similar reactions to opposite subcultures (we think the other culture is strange and stuff like that).

to totally switch topics on you guys, my friends and i were talking on our bus about why we react the way we do to our parents nowadays. (we talk about weird stuff like that..not even sure how it came up! ha.) i believe that we need to dislike our parents so we will feel free to "leave the nest" if you will. we used to do everything our parents did and treat them like they had all the right answers but now it's all about how annoying they are and we even realize that they are wrong every once in a while (or more than once in a while). it happened to all the generations in the past and it will happen again. this reminds me of a sign in my grandparents basement that i used to not understand as a kid and now i understand it all too completely. it's sort of just thoughts of a parent.

"Oh to be Only Half as Wonderful as my Child Thought I was,
And to be Only Half as Stupid as my Teenager Thinks I am"

do you guys have a better explanation for this phenomenon?

P.S. Team Nixon stinks. They ARE crooks. MUAHAHAHAhahaha. Encouragers=THE BOMB.

A Jar Full of Rocks

Just thought i'd post this song...tried to find it for the blog so you could hear it but no such luck. the lyrics wiil have to do. thought of it today during class since we were talking about getting back to focusing on whats important in life. i think my rocks would be loving others and loving god...there are probably a few more. i really hope i don't turn into one of those people that gets too caught up in living to enjoy life. scary to think about.
p.s. i know the song's about newlyweds. hopefully you get the picture.

All I Need by Sara Groves
Newly married, new apartment
All our furniture was saved from the dump
Yes dear maybe we can afford a trashcan next month
All I need is a seat for two and my love for you (love love love)

New baby new life
We will teach him to speak French (poly du france)
We've got no money so we'll make it all ourselves
I'll make the curtains and you make the shelves
All I need is a power saw and a new sewing machine (love love love and a sewing machine)

Honey, this house needs a little something
That bare mantle doesn't look so good (it really doesn't)
Someone told me of a man
Who makes animals from driftwood (he makes animals, little wooden animals)
All I need is your monthly bonus for a wooden walrus

Honey, the Colbaughs are coming over
This house needs some renovations
Just a wall or two, just a little room
And a few new decorations

All I need is a sectional and a satellite TV
dark-wood cabinets that were custom built for me
a painting by that guy that paints with his feet...
Thats all i need...

Tuesdays with Morrie

As we saw in the movie, Mitch is afraid of Morrie's death more than Morrie seems to be (because he has somehow accepted it). Like Mitch, I definately think that Americans are afraid of death...we value life! We spend all kinds of money trying to keep ourselves alive and well! Being an American, I can't really think of it being any other way....do people in other cultures just die instead of using medications available to them? It's a strange idea to grasp for me. I know that we don't like to say "so-and-so just died" to anyone so instead we will say "so-and-so passed away" because it's just that scary to us. The unknown side of the universe-after living so long (according to us) on the earth-is terrifying! I think most of us have a natural fear of death. As a Christian, I know where I'm going when I die (it's still scary sometimes though) but there is a bible verse that relates to this topic of materialism and death. It tells us to worry about the next world instead of being obsessed with things we can obtain on earth because at the end of it all it doesn't really matter how how much our wardrobe costs or how much stuff we own but how we lived our lives.
Hope it's okay if i quote it, "Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also." (Matthew 6:19-22)