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