What do we have to do????

What do we have to do to get people to pay attention to whats going on in our world today..We are all so comfortable in our homes..Yesturday I was sitting at a local Brewery and the woman sitting next to me was reading the paper and I heard her say to her partner "The homeless problem is so sad I cant bare to read about it" I sat there thinking to my self you are right it is so sad and thats the exact reason we should be reading about it...I normally would never say anything to anyone but I couldent let it go..I leaned over and said "We should all be reading about it cause it is so sad...please dont ignore what has been put infront of you..." Im not sure if it was inappropriate but it felt right at the time...I just feel we are all connected and we have to help one another...we are not separate...I feel it in my soul we are not separate.....

Thank You for Inspiring me....

A BRIEF HISTORY OF CO

The roots of modern community organizing are as intertwined with the settlement house movement of the nineteenth century...as they are with the protest movements of the 1960s. 18
- Gary Delgado, Applied Research Center

I never thought about Community Organizing this way

1890 - 1920. The heyday of neighborhood organizing before 1960. Liberals and progressives sought to meet the challenge of industrialization - the bigness of cities and their chaotic social disorganization - by organizing immigrant neighborhoods into "efficient, democratic, and, of course, enlightened units within the metropolis." Since the emphasis of the reformers was mostly on building community through settlement houses and other service mechanisms, the dominant approach was social work.

1920 - 1940. Community organization became a professional sub-discipline within the social work field. Little was written about decentralized neighborhood organizing efforts throughout the Great Depression. Most organizations had a national orientation because the economic problems the nation faced did not seem soluble at the neighborhood level.

1940 - 1960. A new interest in CO from the social work perspective. This development dovetailed with the emergence of the distinctive approach of Saul Alinsky. Federal involvement in reshaping cities and their neighborhoods through the post-World War II urban renewal programs abetted this unique alignment. (Note: more information on Alinsky is included over the next few pages.)

1960 - 1980. Neighborhood organizing became widespread beginning in the 1960s. Literature analyzing events at the grassroots during this period is extensive. Experience with federal anti-poverty programs and the upheavals in the cities produced a thoughtful response among activists and theorists in the early 1970s that has informed activities, organizations, strategies and movements through the end of the century, though many major changes in CO have occurred since 1980.21

Neureoplasticity....not as simple as it seems

Neuroplasticity is not a trait found in a single brain structure, nor does it consist of just one simple type of physical or chemical event. Rather, the brain’s ability to be molded – its plasticity – is the result of many different, complex processes that occur in our brains throughout our lifetime. A host of different structures and types of cells play some part in making neuroplasticity possible. There are even different types of plasticity that, depending on one’s age, are more or less involved in reshaping the brain as it handles new information. Plasticity works throughout the brain not just in the normal processes of learning and adaptation (most obvious in the early developmental years, though continuing throughout life), but also in response to injuries or diseases that cause loss of mental functioning.

Thank you for this piece of poetry

Gandhi is Fasting
By Langston Hughes, 1943

Mighty Britain, tremble!
Let your empire’s standard sway
Let it break entirely—
My Gandhi fasts today

You may think it foolish—
That there’s no truth in what I say—
That all of Asia’s watching
As Gandhi fasts today

You know quite well, Great Britain
That it is not right

To starve and beat and oppress
Those who are not white
Of course, we do it too.
Here in the U.S.A.

May Gandhi’s prayers help us, as well
As he fasts today.

Cowboy and Indians....a childhood fooled

Growing up The Lone Ranger was my dads favorite television show. I never gave the thought of how this show depicted Native Americans a second thought. Of course I was very little and playing cowboys and Indians was the norm in most homes I visited. I remember my little brother and I playing and us both wanting to be the hero the cowboy riding the white horse saving the day... It really wasnt until I arrived at HSU and began recognizing the link between out countries horrific history with Native Americans and how they have historically been portrayed by the media. Its no wonder why so many stereotypes have continued to be accepted as the norm. When will be as a nation fed up with the media continueing these stereotypes. When will we decided enough is enough? I wish I knew, but I can say in my home and in my life I am more aware of what I say and what stereotypes I perpetrate against people more than I have ever been.

#1 rule....Don't Waste Life...

Here I am, walking through time
taking these steps, through this life of mine
Where am I now, and where will I go
Is it all an illusion? - I really don’t know.

Days seem to pass, before long it’s years
While I’ve been contemplating life's hopes and Life's fears.
Watching and waiting, just looking on
before I knew it, my whole life had gone

I awoke from Life's dream, and now here I stand
Looking back at my life with God at my hand
I learned about life and the meaning of love
amidst tears of pain, but was that enough?

In life we can live out our dreams if we want to - its true
the one who decides, takes chances, makes choices
IS YOU

So before you let your life pass you by
think of these words, Live your dream - don’t be shy
All you need, you have within
So live your dream now, let YOUR life begin

Activist Poetry

“Activist Poetry”
“The Middle Passage remains a stain upon the waters”
to see, to touch the past, is, unfortunately
impossible
even a headstone
a shackle, a slave cabin upon the fertile soil of the Delta does
not
does not reach out and throttle the now
but…
however,
a picture, of an ancestor, a stern slave holder
who raped your great-great-great grandmother
that, that creates a churning acid reaction, all the
more potent
for being two centuries later
in the abstract, chickens and cows and Negroes
as property, tabulated
economics fueling westward expansion
labor needed here
laborers, in abundance here
here,
being Africa, there
being the Americas, both north and south
and not all at that, poor white indentured
slaves as well
but
demand -ie white planters and the Five Civilized Tribes in the South,
White merchants and whalers in the North
met supply in the
Black rulers of Africa
the Arab traders shifting from dhows to cargo
more profitable than rum and molasses
ivory and gems
Dutch and English, American and Portuguese,
a trail of blood chumming the Triangular Trade,
French wine and death
wool and Spanish steel
all profited, all suffered
the records of Lloyd’s, deeds of transfers
scoured, seeking names not recorded,
births not celebrated
marriages not sanctified
cultures destroyed and yet,
out of the perished millions there arose
jazz
creole
rap
a pride in being black
being a victim, no longer enough
yes, this marks the resting place of a slave and
yes
this is my ancestor, my family, my tragedy, my heritage
my land
my history
my right to look at the past and say that the
Middle Passage
never ended
never began
that slavery remains an ever present evil under heaven

unknown author

I hope I remember

Individuals would need to live under a rock to avoid the obvious – the world is changing and not all the changes are for the better. Severe weather, famine, drought, flooding, war, disease, the rainforest is burning, species are disappearing, it is enough to make you want to put your head in the sand. However, the world’s problems are not going to go away. In fact, economists, scientists, environmentalists, and futurists, all predict things are only going to get worse. Now is the time to get involved. Start with your community and you can make an incredible impact that will ripple all the way to the top levels of government or big business.
I Love this statement...I wont to remember that I need to get involved I hope I always want to.....

wow!!!

I was so impressed with everyones Blogs today they are so creative and well put together...I learned alot about who they are as individuals and where their passions lie.....I am so thankful to have the opportunity to learn from such a diverse group of people. I have never in my life through all my journeys been exposed to such wonderful point of views that match and contrast my own at the same time..Thank You

Class structure

I want to say I really appreciate Michaels willingness to listen to the students and take in our consideration to what we feel is and is not working in the class..Thanks

Images that shocked the world....

I understand these images are hard to look at...I guess these images are our raw world...People have done great things as well as horrific things....

Community Practice

Social workers are always doing community practice..I love the quote from class today "social workers have taken a secret pledge" (Michael Yellowbird) I believe this fully...I believe that everything that goes along with social work is so intense that when you have made the decision to complete the educational requirements it takes to become a social worker you have really set your life on a path that will change it forever. During my time here in the social work program I have went through many changes and I am able to identify this in myself. I have began to develop or maybe just to recognize my inner compassion that I have towards the human race. I believe that living up here in Humboldt County California I have felt the barriers that I developed without even realize during all my years in Los Angeles. The funny part is I never even realized that I had these barriers up this whole time. Probably all of my adult life. I am very happy to be able to explore this part of myself and feel comfortable getting out of my comfort zone and taking risks.

I really hope that my passion for community work and social justice continues and only grows stronger as the years pass by..

Here we go....

I'm sitting here thinking about what I will talk about...do I have anything to say? I'm not yet sure but I am determined to try..Sometimes I feel like all the words have already been said and there is nothing left for me to say..I think I will talk about something that has affected my life for many years and I have finally received closure this weekend. Eighteen years ago I lived in South Lake Tahoe and I was participating with the California Conservation Corps. One day a young eleven year old girl named Jaycee Lee Dugard was kidnapped from in front of her house, in front of her father as a matter o fact, but he couldn't get to her in time. I have often thought to myself how that must of felt to him and how that must of haunted him everyday of that eighteen years. I remember joining the search for the and seeing her parents sitting at a picnic table with expressions on their faces that I still could not put into words that would accurately describe the pain. More times than I could ever list this girl has come into my mind, I have spoken of her from time to time and always wondered what happen to her. This weekend I sat down at my computer like I have done many times and when my home page opened up I saw something that I never thought I would ever see. The words Jaycee Lee Dugard found alive after eighteen years missing. Instantly I had to read more, mt eyes filled with tears as I read the details of what her life has been like while being the captive of a sick man and his wife for all these years. I began to feel as though society had failed this use to be little girl many times over while being captive because many reports had come into police about this strange man and his encampment prison in his backyard, but they were never checked out past this mans front door. Why do these evil people exist,,,how can this mans wife live in support of this all these years..How will Jaycee recover from this eighteen year trauma, and since she Boer two children by this mad man, will she ever be able to get past this trauma with a constant reminder staring back at her with innocent eyes? What is a parent to do when these sick evil people come to our homes and snatch out children from under our guard. Should we keep our children prisoners, locked up inside for there own protection. Never allowed to run free and explore our world for fear of predators? Why must our reality be that we have to teach our children of these evils not allowing them to feel completely safe in this world..Not allowing then to trust people completely, but to always worry and be cautious. It is not fair that I have had to tell my children to fight if they are in this situation and even if they have a weapon fight for your life because being shot is probably better than what that sick pedophile will do to you when they have you alone..right there with that very conversation a part of my children's innocent was lost..All because of the devils that walk the earth around us looking at our children with there sick, godless eyes. I get it you are probably thinking why teach them just always have them with you in your arms sucked in tight. Never allow then to walk to a friends house, never allow them to go to the movies with their friends, never allow them to play in the from yard, never allow them to roller skate down the street alone, never allow them to grow and explore the world...never allow then to travel with school trips, never allow then to walk to school with their friends..just never allow them to do anything except stay under you all the time or locked up tight in the house..Buy then a TV and a computer and always begin every sentence with "when I was a kid" let them dream and live through your experiences and what you were free to do while a child..Is this the way we have to raise our children??I say no!! we need to take our world back from the fear of the pedophiles and send a lesson that if you are going to prey upon our children we are going to stop you with any means necessary. the war is not over seas, it is here in our own land against the sick, devils that are no longer hiding in the darkest corners but are canvassing and coming out into the sun light to steal our children and commit sick crimes against them..,Lets all stand up and take the power these people have gotten through our fears back and give our children the childhood they deserve . Let them experience a little of the magic that is suppose to happen while we are young instead of rearing a population of untrusting over stressed fearful adults..