Lee McKinnis (57)
Kristina Marynczak (37)
Killian Noonan (36)
Melissa Castillo (32)
NikoVelazquez (27)
Shannon Ratzel (23)
Michelle Reyes (22)
Kyle Barczak (21)
Maura Bilek (21)
Susan Bayaa (21)
For this weeks journal entry I decided to find out more about the share your soles foundation. Well earlier today the founder of the share your soles foundation Mona Purdy visited the fair that we had set up in the library and gave us a speech about the organization, she was going to show us a video about the organization but I was unable to see it because I had to go to class but I am sure it would have been very interesting and I plan on seeing it sometime. So after going on to the share your soles website and I was able to find out that it is a pretty big organization that has many events. One of the events is a dinner at maestros steak house on Thursday May 24th from 5 to 8pm to celebrate the 13th year anniversary of the organization and the event is being hosted by Mona Purdy along with Jesse White and it is $95 at the door or $75 if you buy the tickets in advance this seems like it will bring a lot of much needed money to the organization because I am guessing that a lot of wealthy people will want to also donate additional money to the organization especially because it has a very good cause. I think that it is very good that organizations host events such as this one at upscale restaurants because I feel like it will attract many people and especially a lot of public attention which is what organizations should want, to be recognized. Overall I really like this organization and their cause and Mona Purdy seemed like a pretty cool person.
Share Your Soles.org, May 1, 2012. web
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Kevin Flores
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Kevin Flores
For this weeks journal I decided to read up on the NATO summit and how it is going to affect Chicago next month. The NATO summit will be from May 20th to the 21st and they are expecting between 10 to 100 thousand protesters. Before reading about the NATO summit I really didn’t know what it was about and what the big deal was but now I learned that it is when 28 countries meet and make treaties and help make decisions that will affect the other countries in the group. What brings a lot of protesters is that they feel that a lot of the decisions that are being made aren’t in the best interest of the people and aren’t beneficial to everyone. I think that the NATO summit being here in Chicago will obviously bring a lot of protesters because usually where ever the meetings are held there is a large turnout of protesters. I don’t really have an opinion I guess you can say about the NATO summit because the way I see it is that it is only going to be one day and I think that the police will be able to handle the protesters and keep things under control. I think it is good that the people are given the right to protest the meetings and I think that the people who protest should have every right to protest peacefully and take a stand for what they believe is right to try to relay their message to the representatives of their country.
chicagog8.com, April 17 2012, web -
Kevin Flores
Animal Abuse
One problem that is usually overlooked by many people is animal abuse. It is overshadowed by important issues such as world hunger, poverty, and war which are by no means minor problems but they are usually the focus of people’s attention. Animal abuse is everywhere around us and is a problem that some people know little about because they’re so many factors about it which I will explain to you shortly. My group has yet to have done our service we are scheduled to go and do our service at the Chicago ridge animal welfare shelter on Thursday April 19th. Where we plan to volunteer and talk to people who dedicate their lives to help animals.
By us doing this service project we plan to learn about animal shelters and how to adopt animals which have come from homes where they were neglected, and or abused physically or mentally. Our goal is to also educate people on adopting animals and give them reasons why they should adopt a pet from a pet shop. We also want to find out more ways that everyday people can identify animal abuse and what they can do about it. This is a problem because a lot of people including myself cannot identify what exactly is and if they do they are unsure about what to do about it and most of the time do nothing about it.
Before starting this project I had vague knowledge about what animal abuse was. I always thought that it was simply physically hitting an animal or not feeding it, or having the animal in an unfit living space. But after doing some research about this topic I found out that animal abuse can either be intentional or unintentional and I found that there are other ways that animals are abused which usually goes over looked by some people. The problem is that a lot of animal abuse is noticed but people do not know exactly what to do about it. One of our goals of this project is to find out what people can do to report animal abuse. This is one question I will specifically ask to a worker there when we visit the animal shelter because I think that one of the reasons why a lot people do not report animal abuse is because they aren’t sure how involved they would have to be in the process and some people wouldn’t want their name to be brought up.
As I said in the previous paragraph animal abuse is sometimes overlooked because its signs aren’t noticed all of the time. Some signs of animal abuse are hair loss, rashes, and open wounds, the collar of the animal growing into the neck, if the animal is skinny and weak, or in some cases broken bones, and missing body parts. Those are signs of cruel intention abuse where a person hurts an animal for personal gratification or out of anger. These can also be sings of intentional abuse where a person physically harms an animal and do not realize exactly what they are doing. This is common with children and young teens when they are put in a situation, and peer pressure is usually present in these situations. The last category of animal abuse is unintentional abuse where a person doesn’t know exactly what they are doing is wrong and that their animal is being affected by their lack of action and do not realize that their animal is being neglected or hurt. The signs of this kind of abuse are similar to the other kinds of abuse but are less gruesome at times.
Some other kinds of animal abuse are much broader and deal with a larger scale, such as dog fighting, cock fighting, puppy mills and animal hoarding. By doing research I found that these kinds of animal abuse carry legal consequences and are most of the time criminally funded. Usually these are handled by the animal police and therefore are usually dealt with by law enforcement. Dog fighting believe it or not can happen anywhere, a lot of people usually think that it only occurs in urban areas but this is not true it happens everywhere including suburban communities. Dog fighting can happen for various reasons but it is usually for money. Money is a big reason why this kind of abuse happened because in a dog fight the owner who wins can win around 10 thousand at the street fighting level and around 100 thousand at a more professional level, the same goes for cock fighting. Another reason why people take part in these activities is for entertainment. Cock fighting and dog fighting still goes on in countries around the world such as Mexico and some countries in Asia. Dog and Cock fighting is illegal in all 50 states.
These types of animal abuse are very hard to notice because they usually take place in secluded places and do not happened during the day time or out in the open. One way to notice if dog has been in a dog fight is if there are open wounds on it, if the animal has a lot of scars, cropped ears, and if it has no tail. Owners of dogs that fight usually crop the ears and cut off the tails so that when the dog is fighting the opposing dog has less stuff to bite. One thing I want to learn when I go the shelter is how dog who used to fight react towards people and other dogs, and how to report dog fighting and what people can do to help stop it. Cock fighting is very hard to find because it isn’t as open as dog fighting and they usually happen in closed places where only certain people can get in. Puppy mills and animal hoarding are another issue that causes some harm to the animal because the animals are usually in very unsanitary environment and it poses a health risk to the animal. By the end of this service I plan to ask a staff member how often they deal with specific types of cruelty and how a person can notice it, what criminal charges can be brought on the people involved in cock fights, dog fights, and animal hoarding.
So far by doing this project I have learned more about animal abuse and the different forms it comes in. I plan and hope to learn a lot more by the time I am done with this project in its entirety. I want to bring it to people’s attention that animal abuse goes on and what people can do to help stop it. Another topic that as a group we want to find out more about is adoption. We want to learn in detail what exact steps a person would have to take in order to adopt a pet so that I can talk to people about adopting an animal and why they should. This is one of the main goals of this project. We want to bring it to peoples attention and inform them about a topic that is usually overlooked by many people and show them what they can do to help solve this issue
Works cited
Petabuse.com
Aspca.org
Do.something.org -
Kevin Flores
For this week journal entry I decided to read more about Trayvon Martin. As you probably know Trayvon was a 17 year old guy that was shot in Florida by this neighborhood watchman. When this story first came out I wasn’t really interested in it because I really didn’t know a lot about the case. But as time went on and I began to hear more about it I became more interested in it. It’s very interesting because there are different circumstances that people have to factor in. Such as the person who shot him had a criminal record. But also the police weren’t able to arrest him because he claimed that he shot him in self defense. In Florida there is a law called the “stand your ground” law which basically means that you can defend your self if you are in danger. This is the defense that Ryan Zimmerman is using. In this article I read online that his attorney has to prove that he was in danger and show evidence to back up his claim that his life was in danger which is no easy task. Another thing I found out by reading this article is that Ryan Zimmerman has his own website and has basically his own charity to raise money for his legal expenses and so that he can live off of. Overall I feel very bad for the family of Trayvon Martin and I hope that justice is found for him but alongside that I strongly feel that there are two sides to every story and there is now way to know for sure what exactly happened.
Liston Barbara, Prosecuter Rules Out Grand Jury In Trayvon Martine Case, reuters.com, April 10, 2012. web -
Kevin Flores
By going today to the Joseph Kony presentation I learned a lot about what is going on in Uganda and other places in Africa that I really didn’t know about before today. I knew very little about Joseph Kony and the only reason I knew little about it was because someone in our class did paper about him and later did an elevator speech about him and the horrible things he does. When he did his speech in class I got a lot of information about this issue that I honestly didn’t even know this was going on. I learned that this has been going on for 26 years and has recently been brought to the attention of many celebrities and political leaders. This is very important that celebrities get involved in this issue because not only do they have money to support the cause but they have a lot of influence on people especially young people who look up to them. When I found out earlier today about some of the celebrities who were involved in this movement I was curious to find out more about the celebrities who are involved. When I google Joseph Kony I was able to find a list of celebrities who are involved in the cause to get rid of Kony. I found that many people who range from singers, rappers, actors, and athletes such as Jay-Z, Lady Gaga, Oprah, Tim Tebow, and Angelina Jolie are celebrities who are involved in this movement. This shows that more people can get involved in this movement to help stop Kony.
BlogXilla, The 20 Culture Icons Who Can Help Stop Joseph Kony, globalgrind.com. web. March 2012 -
Kevin Flores
For this weeks journal I decided to reflect on chapter 8 of why white rice. This chapter was mostly about questions that writers might come across as they grow and mature as writers. One of the questions that was brought up was how can I possibly write five pages about this? This is a problem that I have come across as well as I think many other students have. Unless it is a topic of interest I find it hard to write five pages or a certain amount of words. One way I found to help this is to elaborate more and try my best to some how connect it to something that you can relate to so that you can be able to make a more personal connection with a specific topic or issue. It will not only help you become a better writer but it will also help you attract the reader. One of the ways that was brought up in the chapter is to choose to not be boring. I think that is very important because a lot of times we are given topic to write about that may not interest us 100% but we just have to deal with it and write a paper about it. So what can help make the paper better would be to write about it as the book says from a different angle which means to take a different approach to writing. I was confused by what they meant exactly. This is a very important chapter because in college there are obviously a required amount of words for each paper.
Eric Devillez, Michael McGuire, Thomas Dow, Troy Swanson. “Why White Rice? thinking through writting” Chapter 8 Kendall Hunt. Print -
Kevin Flores
I decided to do my journal on the article the cycle of socialization. It was a really interesting article because it touched on many stereotypes that many people encounter on a daily basis. I was impressed of how the author said that we are basically programmed as soon as we are born based on the people we are around. I really think this is true because I’m sure you have heard of the saying “you’re a reflection of your parents” which I agree with to a point because there are many examples of great parenting but then the kid turns out bad. I strongly believe that we reach a point in life where we are old enough to make our own opinions and have our own point of views whether they were influenced by our parents or by our own personal experiences. As teens you have to reach a point where you make your own decisions and have your own opinions because you cannot rely on your parents for everything and have the same exact point of views as them, obviously some of the things you stand for will be influenced by them but not everything. I think the same goes for stereotypes that people have it all depends on the individual whether he or she wants to believe them or not it depends on their own personal views and what they feel. As far as kids go I feel that children are strongly influenced by their parents because that is what parents are supposed to do pass their knowledge down to their children, but like I said before there is a point in the persons life where they have to make their own decision and decide what they want to do be like their parent, formulate their own ideas, or combine them.
Harro, Bobby. “The Cycle Of Socialization” pgs 15-21. 2012. splatter.writting101.net -
Kevin Flores
Critical reflection of service
Can you make a difference in 3 hours? Can you serve your community? Many people would probably say no because it is such a short amount of time. But what a lot of people don’t know is that anyone can help fix food insecurities in just three hours. Food insecurities is becoming a huge problem in Cook County and is when a family basically doesn’t know when they’re next meal is coming, how they will get it, or do not have a sufficient amount of food. By volunteering at the Greater Chicago Food Depository I learned that anyone can make a difference by simply showing up and being willing to help.
A lot of people (myself included) probably think about community service as something that is forced on us. I always used to have this mentality but by the time I was done helping out at the food depository I felt like I was really helping to make a difference and a part of a solution to fix food insecurity in Cook County. Before doing this project I never volunteered in my life so I had the belief that volunteering at the Greater Chicago Food Depository was going to be boring and a waste of my time. When we first got settled down in our groups this guy came in and started to tell us about the greater Chicago food depository and how they distribute food to hundreds of locations throughout the cook county area. One of the things he said that really got my attention was that one in six families in Cook County face food insecurities. After he told us this he showed us this huge map of Cook County that showed us in detail the places where they distribute food to, and some locations we were going to actually send food that we were going to pack that day.
When we were told that we were going to pack food I really had no clue what he meant until he took the group back to this huge warehouse room where they had this assembly line set up. They had tables with scales and bags then a bunch of boxes and another table with labels and tape. Next they asked for volunteers they asked for people who wanted to bag, then people who would tie the bags, then someone who would put them on my table so they can put labels on them so I can put them in the box and pass it so they can put tape and close the box and put it on a pallet so it can be shipped. This was very simple I honestly feel anyone can do it because they give you one task and all you have to do is take care of your part and do it right. My job was to put twelve bags of pasta in a box put a label on the box and pass it to someone so the box can be closed and put on a pallet. When we started I was able to see how organized they wanted us to be, they had us put labeled on the bags of pasta that said the ingredients they also had the bags weighed to make sure each one was exactly 2 pounds. Everyone did their job and I was able to see that some of the people that were there had to have been there before because they clearly knew what they were doing and worked very hard and fast.
After we finished we were able to pack five pallets of pasta. I don’t remember the exact amount of pounds of the number of bags we packed but I know it was a substantial amount. In three hours we were able to pack so many bags of pasta that will go to help feed families that are in need and are facing hard times and cannot just go out and buy all their food.
It doesn’t take much at all to help make a difference in my opinion, the hardest part is finding out about places where you can go and volunteer. I thin that is the hardest part because there isn’t a lot of information made available to people let alone young adults and teens about where organizations are and what they focus on. Ill use me for example because I never knew that The Greater Chicago Food Depository was near my house and probably never would have if it wasn’t for me doing this project. If more information would be available to younger people I think that it would make more teens and young adults want to volunteer. Especially if statistics are made available also because they are eye catching and are very important so that the people volunteering can now what exactly they are trying to fix.
This experience has given me a different look on a few things one is that this obviously hits close to home because many food depository’s are located in Chicago and that is where I live. When I heard that one in six families in cook county face food insecurities I was reminded how important it is to be thankful for everything I have and how easy it can be taken away and how it would affect my life. Because the times we are living in the economy is so unpredictable no one is guaranteed that they will always have they’re job which can cause economic troubles in families. When families face hard economic times food sometimes becomes more insecure and that is what the food pantries and for and they are supplied by the greater Chicago food depository. One of the other things this experience made me realize is how easy it is to volunteer and how convenient the Food depository is. It is located right off the Stevenson on Pulaski and 42nd. It is very accessible to nearly everyone. To find out more about volunteering there you can go on they’re website http://www.chicagosfoodbank.org. In just three hours you can make a huge difference in peoples lives by helping them put food on their table for their family. Think about how many lives you can impact in that time by singing up to volunteer.-
Nick Kleopa
In response to your critical reflection of service, I think you have done something really great. The paper was layed out really great. It is just amazing what can be done in just 3 hours time. When you think about it, 3 hours time and only one person working hard could put allot of food together. I don’t remember the exact numbers of what had been said in class but I know that it was a pretty substantial amount of food per person. I honestly would have liked it better and found it more interesting if you would have posted some numbers of how much food was actually packed and how many families it would feed for how long. I feel that information would have helped your paper out tremendously. I learn much better with hard numbers such as facts and or statistic or even a personal thought about how much food you believed you put together. Even an estimate would have kept me more interested. I am also interested in finding out the amount of people who attended. As I remembered that 2 people from my communications class attended the last one and 1-2 attended the first time the service opportunity came up. I think that would have made it much more interesting for me to read as well as other readers. I did my service opportunity in an entirely different way but reading more and more good things about the Greater Chicago food depository makes me definitively want to do it for my next act of service for the community. For your comment about people have no clue that these groups exist, you are exactly right. I think it would be a great idea if someone would post updates on social networking sites like face book and twitter to get as many people as possible to come to these service opportunities. That would be a good idea because of how much traffic these sites see on a daily basis. I know I haven’t personally heard of anything like these before the start of communications 102 class. Another thing that I think would help out the cause is to offer more days and different types of hours to attend. I think it would be in their benefit to offer times and days in the odd hours and or early mornings and not just in the afternoon on week days. I say this because people these days are just so busy it makes it hard to find time to help out even for a great cause. I remember that all the days offered through class were all weekdays at around 2-5 in the afternoon which for many people, their either at school or working. Now back to your paper, I really like the fact that you posted where the location of the Greater Chicago food depository is located and that you put where one can find more information in how to join/attend these services. All in all good paper and I think you’ve done a great job helping out our communities with your service. I personally would have like to hear a little more on how this service made you feel as well because I know what others felt by you helping. Anyways Thank you and keep up the good work
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Corey Gallai
I liked your reflection. I wish I could fit time in my schedule to have gone one this trip. I liked your opening paragraph. It was very interesting to read. I agree with you that most people see service learning as a something we have to do. I saw it like this at one time in my life. In high school we had to do all these service hours per graduation requirement. When I read how one in six families in Cook County suffers from food insecurities, I was shocked. I did not know it was that bad. Something needs to be done about that. I liked that they GFD had a good organization system. At share your soles, they did not have the best organization system there. I liked that you talked about what you did at this place. It could raise awareness to one and they might want to go help. I agree with you that it does not take a lot to go help out at a place like the Greater Food Depository. People just need to take the time to find somewhere to volunteer. There also needs to be a better way of advertising this to people. There should also be more information that are concerned and want to volunteer at places. At times it can become overwhelming and frustrating because you don’t know where to look for information or places to volunteer. Again, after reading about how one in six families in Cook County have food insecurities, it made me realize how grateful I am. People need to take more time to realize what good things they have in life. People need to also realize that not everyone is a fortunate as others. If more people start to realize and become aware of problems such as food insecurities, maybe we can start making a difference. Even in three hours, you and the other that went on this trip were able to make a difference. I also liked how you provided a website for those that might want to look into the food depository. I also liked how you added the location of the depository. If more people know that places to help out are close to where they live, they might want to help out more.
Overall, I liked your reflection. I really wanted to go on this trip. This is something I will want to look into helping out at. I liked that you described what you did and what your reaction was to this event. I thought your paragraph were well thought and well written. -
Klem Bachleda
Sacrificing one’s time to aid others is a service that is now almost entirely extinct compared to what is was in the past. In today’s society, every person’s mentality is every man for himself. People don;t take the time to realize what they have and how to embrace it. The more people get, the more they want. It’s a never ending cycle of selfishness.
I’m glad you participated in helping families fight hunger that targets individuals in our own town. Organizations like the GFD show that there are people willing to help others and care for others. If there was a way to advertise this organization more, the potential of supplying food to indivudals and families that need it would be limitless. It’s also amazing that within three hours, so many familes can be fed for a period of time (i partially remember the numbers discussed in class, and it was an amazing amount for three hours worth of work). Reading and participating in organizations like this help people understand and embrace what they have. It help to get our economical mentality back to what it was in the past. It is the same concept and outcome as the Peace Corps. When the Peace Corps were first started, there was plenty potential and volunteers were plenty. Now, the Peace Corps participation and volunteers have decreased. People nowadays are selfish and cannot appreciate what they have.
Try to spread the word about organization like this. People that volunteer are rare, and to find one you would have to force them to do so or find somebody that might have been directly affected by an event like hunger. -
Killian Noonan
This was great to rad. It warms my heart when someone really takes a lot out of the service they do. What made your case so peculiar, was that you had never volunteered in your life before. It is hard for those new to active service and volunteering to really know what difference they make. I’m glad that in your paper really told how you felt. Service is like an addiction, once you help once, you want to do it again. it is the best addiction one can have. I ope that after this class, you continue to volunteer. I feel like a lot of people like you said at the beginning of their paper feel forced into community service. People just need to go out there and figure out what cause suits them. What they believe in and what compels them to act. In the paper you did a great job of going into detail about what was done during the course of service. You even included inner thoughts of what trials and tribulations were going on in your head at them time. Like I said in my last post on your work, I said I looked forward to your future works. You did not upset mo chara. Although I am upset at the departure of Mr. Jaderberg, these things happen. Now the service you did like I said I hope you stick with it. However, do not be weary of going out there and experiencing other acts of service. Really get a feel for what compels you to want to serve. It is unfortunate a lot of people do not get the chance to experience performing service. Many of whom are to caught p in their own lives to care of the matters of many. It is a liberating feeling mo chara. To know you have done something for the greater good. That your service and participation made a difference in any cause you chose. Until we chat again keep up the excellent writing and service mo chara.
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Killian Noonan
Once again I am elaborating on my previous post. I was five hundred words short. I could have swore the parameters were three hundred. However, no use arguing now. It’s to late for that, it has already cost me slip. Unfortunately to say, I am not on track for the B. I’m afraid C is what I’m stuck with. It is sad to know that even my writing which has improved, will not save me now. Although many famous Irish Republicans were fantastic writers. However i did not save them from incarceration or even death. Their writings are what live on and what we remember then by. Despite the fact of their selfless sacrifice knowing that in some dark place in time they were able to put down their thoughts on paper before their untimely end is something to be revered. Although my writing is no where near the caliber of such men. I feel honored to but whisper their name. Keep up the writing and the new found experience of active service. What’s even better, is take time to write about it like you did for this assignment. Your thoughts, and your feelings. Who knows maybe one day people will be reciting works of writing from you. It could even become a masthead and motto for community service organizations. Wouldn’t that be something? Slan go foill
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Kevin Flores
I read chapter 7 in why white rice and the overall point of the chapter is about plagerism. Obviously we all know that plagerism is bad because it is basically like cheating. It is takeing someone elses work and trying to pass it off as your own. The crazy thing is that you can be techniqally plagerizing and not even know it because of a small issue with citations. Citations in my opinion are kind of confusing because you have to get the exact order the right way to have the correct citation. There are websites such as easybib which are very helpful that I was introduced to last semester in com101 but I learned because of Mr McGuires class that we shouldnt always trust machines because they could lead us to the wrong direction. In fact presedent Obama even plagerized techniqually in one of his speeches. Most people wouldnt even know about this because alot of people dont even know exacally what plagerizing is and think it is just copying and pasting it and calling it your own work, but it really isnt. I think it is very important for anyone to read this chapter because obviously if you are caught plagerizing you can face very stiff consequences and even be suspended from school and you dont want that to happen. This chapter basically tells the reader soe of the dos and donts when it comes to plagerism.
Troy Swanson, “Why White Rice? thinking through writting” Chapter 7 “Mash it up…gracefully using sources”pgs163-174. Kendall Hunt. Print. -
Kevin Flores
Letter to the editor
Pollution in our city is a very important issue that can become a large scale problem in years to come. Alot of people donot care really about this problem because they donot know exacally how much it will impact us in years to come. Take this winter for example in the chicago land area the weather was so out of the norm. We would have 50 degree days then all of a sudden it would drop to the teens the next day. These are effect of global warming which is being caused by the pollutions that big cities such as our own excert into the enviroment. This is already causing major weather problems in Florida and in the carribian. This problem will not effect our generation as young adults but it will affect our children or if not most definitly our grandchildrens generation if this issue isnt fixed. This issue can be fixed by simply making small sacrifices that will not other wise affect our life in a negative way. One way is to walk or ride a bike instead of driving. It is small things like this that will help fix this problem before it is to late and we arent able to reverse the affects.-
Klem Bachleda
I like the fact that you are targeting a large issue that is not only national, but global. I do agree wit you in a sense that only we can slow down the damage done to the ozone layer, but a step toward that change would be ery dramatic. Even with all the “go green” campaigns that are in ation today won’t make that huge of a difference. A perfect example is the making of the electric or hybrid cars. Just the energy and resources put into the poduction of that type of vehicle exerts a large amount of polution. On top of that, the bateries in those cars are over 5 times bigger than a regular batery. What happenes with those batteries after a crash? Just a thought to look at to make the article slightly stronger. Also, read through te article. There were a couple grammatical errors. Other than that, I like the stance on polution and the effort to decreasse our global footprint.
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Corey Gallai
I liked your letter. Pollution has become a major problem in recent years. I agree that we do not look at this problem as a problem. We just think this will not harm me, so why should I worry? It may not harm you but it will have a bad effect on future generations. I liked you example by relating to the weird weather we had in the winter. It was warm one day and then it would drop. I am not much of a believer in global warming. But when weather stuff like this happens, it sometimes concerns me. It was a very mild winter for us especially since we had a blizzard last year. Maybe these are signs that all this pollution and global warming are real. I like how you added that it may not harm us, but the future generations will be in bad shape. However, people might think “well, I don’t have to worry about it right now. “ Then when they start to worry, it is too late. If we can all make a small difference it could help the world. The idea of riding your bike or walking to places that are near to you is a great idea. I have done that myself in the past. I think some people have just given up on trying to fix the problem. It has become such an increasing problem that people don’t even know where to begin. It has come to the point that it is overwhelming. I myself have thought of it as overwhelming. That doesn’t mean that we can’t do anything about it. If we recycle more often that could help out the problem. In recent years, cars have become more “eco- friendly”. I see this as a big leap forward. It still has a long way to go though.
Overall, I liked your letter. It is a problem that we need to seriously look into before some major damage is done. I also liked how you made it a global problem as well as a local problem. You might want to add specifics on how areas such as Florida or the Caribbean are being harmed by pollution. I think it gives the reader an idea of how this is can affect everyone. This shows that people can help make a difference in their communities. One thing to maybe do is try and find some more examples or facts that show you care about this topic. Other peer reviews have added a personal story or an article they have read. It would make readers know you care about the topic and want to do something about it. It could also make the person reading this letter want to go and help out with this problem. You might want to also add a few more examples to how we can fix this problem. I liked the example you provided. Also watch out on some of the spelling and punctuation. Some of the words were not spaced out correctly. -
Nick Kleopa
Your letter is interesting. I do agree 100% with what your talking about and know that you and many want to try and change things in the world. This particular topic though in my opinion will more than likely never come to a crawl. This day and age people are not going to give up their cars or other means of powered transportation to take a bus or ride a bike. Its just not going to happen. But what can happen in the next several years is we can come up with an alternative fuel source similar to E85 or E98 that burns corn oil and emits virtually no harmful gases/carbon dioxide’s etc… at all. I think that this would be one of the only solution to keep things in balance. The way I’m thinking of the problem is say yes you do get everyone or a good portion of the people to use public transportation or a non powered means of transportation. This would lead to people not buying gas, people not buying cars, people not getting where they need to be on time etc…. That would lead to a loss of many jobs around the world and more than likely cause a substantial drop in the service industries work force. In conclusion, I do agree with your topic but I feel there are different ways we need to go about taking care of this particular issue. I do like the letter and think it def is a topic that needs to be looked at before its too late. All in all, good letter and keep the good work up, I look forward to reading your next essay/letter etc…
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Nick Kleopa
To add on to this reply, I came up with some more useful things that I feel would only benefit the situation. Besides having alternative fuel sources, I think an idea that might possibly work a little is having work ready car pools. Not your ordinary car pool but have a designated driver from your work drive 3-4 other workers who are on the same shift and either live near each other or on the way to the workplace. Co-workers can split the days up by week or by days if that won’t be too confusing. Having the actual workplace mandate these carpools and holding people responsible to call in ahead of time/have everyone else s contact info if any technical problems arise in which one worker is taking a sick day or cannot come in for other reasons that day etc… In my opinion doing this would only help out the pollution emitted into the air along with several other things. It would help people save money on gas, as gas is now upwards of $4.50cents per gallon, it would prevent less traffic on the road, help with people being able to relax on there way to work as if they were taking the train or a bus. But with the car pools it would honestly make people feel better than taking a bike or bus. So those are my thoughts on the subject, n once again a great paper and I just had to add a little more to hit the required number of words.
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Killian Noonan
Kevin, I think is he first time reading one of your papers and actually reviewing it. I used to have to do Kevin Jaderberg. Though for unknown reasons, he does not post anymore work on here. Pity, he was rather good too. Anyway, let me take a stab at your paper. I found it to be rather short. I thought that some things could have been touched up and elaborated more. I am not aware, as I’m sure most people are of the pollution problem. Pollution is something we all hear about, not really taken into much affect. I myself unfortunately put pollution at the bottom of the pile. What specifically thought the paper could have benefited from, is further explanation of the problems in Florida and the Caribbean. If you are really interested in how pollution in how serious other countries are on pollution, take Ireland for example. They have a radical party known dutifully as the Green Party. They really touch up on pollution, which in Ireland is nonsense, there is more pollution in a busy Chicago street then in the whole island of Ireland. Not throwing “going green” down the toilet by any means its just crazy the steps they take. Call them preemptive if you wish. I am further interested in pollution. Like I said I can be guilty of pollution. Whether it is flicking cigarettes out in a random directions or not recycling. Your writing is interesting to read. I noticed small grammatical errors. Though that is just my pickiness, I do not focus to much on them, we’re all guilty of it. There is indeed a silver lining in the absence of our dear friend Mr.Jaderberg. I get to continue reading more of your works in times to come. Until then keep up the good work mo chara.
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Killian Noonan
Hello Kevin, I am replying again in regards to my lack of five hundred words. It is quite tedious. In this situation, I am unfortunate to have been gifted with the ability to tell it like it is and to sum up what I’m saying. This what I’m doing right now is beating around the bush and counter productive, as i’ve told you all I can tell you about the piece of writing I have just read. However, with the strict regime in place, I will do all I can to make this not completely worthless. I have enjoyed what little I have read of yours. It is very well thought out and written. It is not a simple task for one to put ideas together and for a piece of writing. It truly is something we are not all blessed with, though like I said, our group has a bright bunch of writers in its midst. All of the thoughts and words on my work has been much appreciated. It has helped m shape into a better writer. Likewise I hope my feedback on your, or any of the other group members is the same. Keep it up! Slan go foill
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Kevin Flores
I was reading chapter 5 in why white rice and I was right away captured by the title Dry your hair and dont lick the flag pole. It was about the right way to reaserch and how to not beleive everything you hear and to do your own research. It brought up very improtant issues like not useing wikipedia for reaserch papers, which we have gone over a few times in class. The chapter really showes the reader that there are many ways to do reaserch on a certain topic such as encyclopedias and specialty topic databases. The databases are very important because they allow you to find information that isnt available on the regualr web. There was also an artical the Mr. McGuire wrote called “Googling is not the same as thinking” which tells the reader how important it is for people to not relie on the internet for every little thing and go out and find the information for yourself. I agree with this to an extent because there are some topics if you were reaserching that it would be very hard to find physical reaserch on. But I do feel that if you are reaserching a topic that you can find out information on it other than through the internet that it is good and you should do it.
Eric DeVillez, Michel McGuire, Troy Swanson, Thomas Dow. “Why White Rice? thinking through writing” chapter 5 Kendal Hunt. 2010. Print -
Kevin Flores
By doing the writting project 2 I really got amazed by the saddening statstics. They were very suprising because we live in a contry where alot of people are over weight and we have so many places to get food and fast food is easily accesable to just about everyone and I wonder why cant some of the food go to people i other contries who are living day to day and barley survinng on lack of food clean water and in very unhealthy enviroments. So I began to find out more about this issue because for a while now it has been a topic that has interested me and I found that 1.7 billion people lack acess to clean water and that every five seconds that go by someone dies from hunger. That shocked the hell out of me because it got me thinking why should people have to die just like that for no reason other than they dont have anything to eat. This got me mad because I beleive that no one should deserve to die like that and that haveing something to eat should be in everyones human rights. Doing this paper actually got me into wanting to donate money to careties because I read about how organizations like the hunger project work and the great things they do for people and I would like to help contribute to it. I think it is great if people get involved in something they beleive in even if it is just a small part because I know alot of peple donot want to contribute on a large scale role but I think thats ok because I feel it is better to contribute alittle bit instead of not doing anything at all.
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Kevin Flores
If I was in an elevator and I had about three minutes to talk to someone about global hunger I would first ask him if he feels sorry for people who are starving to death in other contries and if he has ever wondered about helping someone over seas. Then I would give him some statistics that I found out such as the amount of people who died in 2010 due to starvation and then tell him that every five second a person dies of hunger and tell him basically the overall message of my paper which is that in order for a large issue like world hunger to get fixed it is going to need many people who are willing to make small contributions and playing small roles in order to achive a large scale goal. I would definitly tell him about the organizations I found out about such as the hunger project, and care. When we were about to get off the elevator I would ask him if he/she thinks it is ok that people in other contries are starving to death for no reason other than them having no money and if he/she feels it is ok for people to go hungry while people here in the US get fat? thats how I would finish up. This is overall what I would say to the person.
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Kevin Flores
Kevin Flores Do Your Part There are many…
Kevin Flores
Do Your Part
There are many issues in the world today. But to me one of the biggest issues that people face in the world today is undernourishment and global hunger. In fact it has become such a big problem that it affects 925 million people worldwide (FAO.org 2010). Out of these people 98% of them live in developing countries and two thirds of these people live in Bangladesh, China, Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, India, Indonesia, and Pakistan (THP.org, FAO News Release 2010). I feel that these numbers are very saddening because a lot of people go through their everyday lives blinded about what is going on in the world. A lot of people do not realize that there are people in other countries that are starving to death. Many people do not know, my self included, that every 5 seconds a child dies from hunger (MDG Report- Goal 4 2010).
Undernourishment is a world wide problem and it affects people on every continents. In Asia and the pacific there are 578 million people who are malnourished, 239 million in Sub-Saharan Africa, 53 million in Latin America and the Caribbean, 37 million near East and North Africa, and 19 million in developed countries (FAO FAQ”S On Hunger 2010). I was shocked when I found these numbers out because I never knew that undernourishment was such a wide spread problem and was surprised when I found out the amount of people that are undernourished.
Food isn’t the only problem that plagues undeveloped countries. Water is a necessity to live and is very hard to come upon in many undeveloped countries around the world. In fact it is said that by the year 2025 as much as two thirds of the world’s population will be living with water shortages or absolute water scarcity (Water as a Commodity –The wrong perception 2001). Also 1.7 billion people in the world lack access to clean water (WHO- Unsafe Water, Sanitation and Hygiene). To make matters worse I also found out that only 12%f the world’s popul tion uses 85% of its water and none of the 12% live in developing countries (Water as a Commodity). This issue is one that needs to be fixed because water in a sense is more important than food and a lack of clean water can cause diseases and death.
Because of the lack of food or water in undeveloped countries not only are adults suffering but so are children. The children are the ones who are affected the most in my opinion. In an article on world hunger and poverty it is stated that one third of all child deaths in Sub-Saharan Africa is caused by hunger (World Hunger and Poverty Statistics 2010). Diseases are a big factor in the number of child deaths, because of the lack of food and clean water. Children whose immune systems are much weaker than adults are dying because they contract severe diarrhea which causes sever dehydration and eventual death if not treated, pneumonia, malaria, and measles. Even in adults these diseases would be very serious, but are treatable. But because of the lack of medical supplies in undeveloped countries most people go untreated. This causes most of the children to die shortly after getting any one of these diseases.
Despite these horrific statistics the numbers of people who are starving in undeveloped and developed countries is dropping. Earlier I stated that 925 billion people are undernourished and surprisingly that number was down from 1.023 billion in 2009(FAO.org) still this is a very large number of people who are undernourished but there is success being made. Even the mortality rate of children is down, it went from 99 deaths per 1,000 live births in 1990 to only 66 deaths per 1,000 live births in 2009 ( IGME). Also the number of child death in children under the age of five years old and younger has gone down, in 1990 there were 12.4 million deaths and in 2009 that number was down to 8.1 million. There is improvement being made world wide in countries like North Africa, Eastern Asia, Bangladesh, Bolivia, Eteopia, Laos, Nepal, and Madagascar the child mortality rates have decreased by 50% or more. In African countries the birth rate mortality has decreased y 100 deaths per 1,000 births. It is very important that the birth mortality rate continues to decrease because it shows that there are improvements being made in the country and it shows that the improvements in medicine, food, water, and sanitation are helping out. Even though the number of deaths and number of people who are malnourished is dropping there is still a high mortality rate and there needs to be and more rapid decrease.
As you may know overtime the issue of world hunger has gotten a lot of attention from everyday people, celebrities, and politicians who want to make a difference. There are now many organizations that are involved in providing food and relief for people in other countries. One organization that I found out about was The Hunger Project. They provide help to countries that are undeveloped and are in dire need of food, water, and medical supplies. They also allow volunteers to go over seas and help people in other countries. The Hunger Project was started in 1977 and basically did what it does today and distribute food, water, medical supplies, and other living essentials to people throughout the world. Members of The Hunger project are currently stationed in Bangladesh, Benin, Burlingbase, Ethiopia, India, Ghana, Malaive, Mexico, Mozambique, Peru, Senegal, and Uganda. What I really like about The Hunger project is that it inst religion based. I think this is important because it brings people from other religions together for the purpose of helping people in need. The Hunger project is based in New York which is one reason I didn’t like it. But the good thing is that you can still donate money to their organization. I think it is good to donate at least money to help the cause because a lot of people aren’t willing to give up their time which is understandable but money is also needed for them to accomplish their goals. Just by logging on their website anyone can find out a lot more information about what they don and can even make a donation. The way I see it is if someone can donate twenty dollars a month they would be making a huge difference in someone’s life that is a lot less fortunate than them.
Another organization that I found out about is Care; it basically has the same purpose and The Human Hunger Project. It was started in 1945 after WWII because of the need for medical supplies and food in Europe and Japan. It was started by twenty two US companies that would donate supplies to send packages containing food, medical supplies, tools, blankets, clothes, shoes, and school supplies. Now they send packages to 87 countries and are supporting 905 poverty fighting projects. They are based in Atlanta. What I really like abut this group is that they send food based on peoples culture diets. This is very important because it shows that the organization really cares about the people they are helping by respecting their culture and giving them food that people from that specific culture would normally eat.
The reason I chose to write about these two groups was because I really liked the overall goals that they had and so that people can find out abit more information about them and know that they can donate money very easily online and help support these organizations. Or if they are willing to go down to New York or Atlanta and give some time and help the organization. Both of these organizations have been around for a while and I think that is very important because a lot of people who donate money to charities are very hesitant because they do not know exactly what their money is being used for or if they are legit.
I have a few reasons why I chose this issue one is because the country where my family is from is a poor country and I my self have seen a lot of problems that can be fixed but aren’t and want to bring it to peoples attentions how bad the issue of undernourishment is and how they can help fix it and don’t really even have to do much other than give a few dollars. I think the problem is that there are a lot of people who do not care about this issue because they take for granted what they have in their life and fail to realize how life is for other people around the world. I know if people were to take some time and look up some information about global hunger and see some pictures or videos on The Hunger Projects website they will be in shock because I know I was and I’m a hard person to impress. What I also found astonishing is some of the statistics I found; I think if people were to grasp that 925 million people died just two years ago because of hunger they will want to help fix it because it is wrong no one deserves to go hungry I don’t care where you live.
I think that if more people were to not nesserially become activist and donate a huge amount of time into helping fix world hunger but just help make small contributions it would definitely help fix this problem. I think that a lot of people think that to fix a issue you need to become activist and dedicate your life to it, but if a bunch of people were to just do small services here and there it would definitely fix this problem. World hunger is an issue that may never be fixed 100% but over the years as you can tell by the statistics in my paper it is improving year by year. This is a problem that cannot be fixed all at once or in a short amount of time but all that is needed is more people to get involved and take small roles and do their part to help abolish global malnourishment as much as possible.Work Cited
1: http://www.thp.org/learn-more/issues/know -your-world-facts-about-hunger and poverty. Web. Feb18, 2012
2: FAO News release 2010. THP.org. web. Feb 18, 2012
3: FAO FAQ’s on hunger 2010. FAO.org. THP.org. Web. Feb 18, 2012
4: WHO-Unsafe Water, Sanitation and Hygiene.Anner Ustum, David Kay, Lorna Fewtrell, and Janice Batram. PDF. THP.org. Web. Feb 18, 2012
5: http://www.childinfo.org/files/child-mortality-report-2010pdf. United Nationals Inter Agency Group for Child Mortality Estimation (IGME). Web. Feb 18, 2012
6: http://www.foodfirst.org. Water as a Commodity- the Wrong prescription. July 8, 2001 Melissa Moore. Thp.org Web. Feb18, 2012-
Nick Kleopa
Your essay was very interesting. I like the fact that you chose an issue that not only affects people in the us, but in the entire world. Undernourishment is a growing issue that I just didn’t really think about too much until reading this essay. It is mind blowing how many people die every year because of hunger. People can’t even get clean water to drink, cook with, baith etc.. I was side tracked for a split second because of one sentence in paragraph 2 said something along the lines of 925 billion deaths which I know that you meant to say million was probably the only mistake. I completely agree with you when you say that more people should donate actual supplies, food, bottled water etc.. Your example on why many don’t donate money is spot on. The people donating money have no clue what the money is being used for and there’s a greater chance of it being used for things other than food, water, supplies. I think there should also be more people willing to donate and volenteer in certain groups to send supplies over to poor countries and such. I agree that even if the situation is not completely changed, small steps will definately help in lessening the problem. Other than a small number error, I think the essay is a well written piece with tons of information which including facts, examples, statistics. It paints an excellent picture for the reader and it was easy to understand what points were trying to be made. All in all I hope that more is done with feeding and helping the severly malnurished people in the world. Great read and keep up the good work.
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Kevin Jaderberg
It’s really depressing to finally read some of the statistics surrounding this global dilemma. I’ve always thought of the mass starvation of innocent people proof that there is no God. I understand that many people disagree with this notion, but just look at the numbers! 925 million people starve while millions of dollars are spent satisfying the contract of a basketball player in a fully developed country. It’s really a sickening fact. You mentioned that your family comes from one of the areas affected by hunger. I can tell this is an issue you care deeply about.
Reading your paper I could tell that you truly feel the pain behind these terrible statistics. It’s downright unfair that a child dies every five seconds just because of where they were born. I think world hunger should be more widely discussed than it is. If everyone knew the facts that you learned while doing your research, more might be done to solve this crisis. I feel like we as a society collectively pretend the problem isn’t there. It makes sleeping at night a little easier.
The saddest statistic you mentioned was that 12 percent of the population has access to 85 percent of the world’s clean water. It reminded me of the statistic that became so widely discussed after the Occupy Wall Street movement began: Something like 99 percent of the global wealth is controlled by only 1 percent of the population. When you put these two statistics next to each other, I think they paint a very dark portrait of the human race. The contrast between our society and less developed ones should not be this stark. Your chances of survival or success should not be geographical or inherent. We need to build a world in which everyone gets a fair chance.
It was nice to see that some progress is being made. It may not be much, but it shows that some people are trying to help. It would be nice if we could one day put people and their basic needs first instead of wasting so much energy on entertaining those that already have enough. The two organizations you mentioned seem legitimate which is important. The worst thing about world hunger is that there are a number of opportunistic “charities” that seek to profit from this suffering rather than help to resolve it. Naturally, people are wary of being tricked by one of these groups. Perhaps one day Governments will make this issue enough of a priority that charity organizations will no longer be needed. Good will is a hard thing to rely on in a world where almost all of the money is greedily controlled by a mere 1 percent of the population.
I think your paper shows that you are a caring individual. It was clear and well written. I’m not sure if your in-text citations were done correctly, but I could be wrong. I really wouldn’t know, they just looked different from a few of the others I have seen. Over all I thought your paper shed some light on an issue that really needs our attention.
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Klem Bachleda
Ouch. Those stats hurt. It’s good to see a young person interested in something as large as world hunger. A lot of people in developed countries like the US could care less what goes on outside their range of view. I liked all the statistics you included in your essay. It’s hard to follow the amount of children and adults starving in one country, let alone the whole world. It would be a good idea to get images into peoples heads of what hunger looks like. (Not that you can see hunger, just the effects of hunger.) I like the personal experience you included about the country your family is from.
I’m glad to see that progress is being made from 10 years ago, and I can only imagine that it will continue to get better. It’s does show that more people are becoming more involved and aware as technology becomes easier to access, but another factor that would affect the aid received to these countries are the economic standings of other countries. For an economy like we have created today, it would be hard to continue helping other countries if all were doing is making it worse for us. And now since the European Union is getting hit pretty hard, that will affect the other countries even more.
A couple downfalls of the paper are punctuations and run on sentences. There was one sentence towards the end of the essay that was hard to finish reading under one breath. Others just include smaller run on sentences. Overall, the impact you have made on the reader might possibly persuade him/her to get involved. What would make it more persuading would be to incorporate specifics about hunger in america.
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Kevin Flores
I read Dave Eggers story “What It Means”. We went over it in class and I got to hear alot of peoles opinions about it and what they think was the overall meaning of the story. Before we went I didnt read it untill now because I read his other story “Your Mother And I”. In my opinion they really had contrasting ways of hanndeling issues in your mother and I the man and his wife fixed all of societys problems really quickly and simply. But in “What It Means” there were also alot of issues brought up that the main charecter noticed and agreed that they were wrong, and it seemed like he wanted to help fix them but didnt know exacally how to. I overall agreed with the explaination people in the class gave because they were pretty much about the same interpretation as mine. I actually liked this story alittle more than Your Mother And I well first because it was shorter, just kidding, but also because it seemed more realistic because alot of people are like the main charecter they see problems in their community,or just around the world and know it isnt right but dont know exacally how to help fix it. I think that one of the problems also is that very few people actually know about where to go to help these problems like hunger, and poverty. I think if some information would be avalible that maybe some people would help out. What do you think?
Eggers,Dave. “What it means when a crowd in a faraway nation takes a soldier representing your own nation, shoots him, drags him from his vehichle then mutilates him in the dust” Mc Sweenes, 2004 pgs 17-18 Splatter.writting101.net Web. Febuary 15,2012 -
Kevin Flores
Hey sorry if people in my group tried to email me Because the website have the wrong email on my profile
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Prof McGuire
The e-mail is the one you entered when you “signed-up” to post. If you changed it, let me know so you can still access your grade updates. This is tied to the e-mail address you originally entered.
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Kevin Flores
Basically we learned about activism and service. I think the difference between them is a service is a little act that you do for a purpose that can be either you get paid for it or you dont. Sometimes a service is something that you dont wanna do and sometimes are forced to do. Activism is something you beleive in and take a much more proactive approch in and willing to put in the nessesary time and work to acomplish a goal. Dont get it wrong a service can also be something someone wants to do out of the willingness of their heart. I think that either activism or service is good and I think it is very good when people are activist for something they beieve in and are willing to do whatever to help the cause.
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Kevin Flores
I just read the village voice and I found it abit interesting. I never knew much about the peace corps but by reading this artical I found out alittle more about it. I honestly dont think I would ever join it but I think it is a great oppertunity for people to see different parts of the world and help people who are in need. I also think that Rajeev who im guesing is the leader is very good because he tried so hard to get money for the peace corps. And how he also tries to bring celeberties to talk at their rallys to raise money for their cause. I think that if more charites were to have people like Rajeev leading them many chareties would do alot better because he seems very proactive and down for what he beilievs in.
Hessler,Peter.”A Reporter At Large, Village Voice, The peace Corps Brightest Hope.” The New Yorker. 2010. pgs. 101-109.Splatter. Writting101.net.web -
Kevin Flores
The overall reasoning for my decision making on who should and who should live was based on the future of the people. I let Bobby Lang, Mary White, and Jean Hernandez live because they are all young and all in good health so they will surive most likely after and be the future of man kind. The four other people I chose were Mr. Young, Mrs. Clark, Mrs. Hernandez, and Mrs. Lang. I chose Mrs. Lang and Mrs. Hernandez because their children survied and they need to look after their child. Esspecically because Bobby is mentally challenged and Jean is only three weeks old. I let Mr. Young survive because he is handy and is educated in mechanics so he can help with repairs if he is needed. Mrs. Clark survied because she is in good health and still very young so she can have a bright future ahead of her.
I honestly think this assignment was hard because its hard to say who dies and who lives. I let some bias play into my deciens as well as morals because I feel like women and children are innocent and should be spared. -
Kevin Flores
I read the second Dave Eggers story which really mad me laugh the way it was written, but it had a very strong message about issues that face us such as cleaner energy,politics, aids, and life expectency. This story brought up many issues that are faceing us but will really effect our childrens generation. The way he wrote it was good because he brought up issues and found solutions to them with his wife. I really think that Dave Eggers found a kind of humerous way to bring up very important problems and possible solutions for them and made them seem very simple, and funny like when he wanted to increase the life expectancy to 164 by sending people to Greenland. It was a bit hard to read and a little confusing at times because it kept jumping from issue to issue but besides that I didnt mind reading this artical.
Eggers,Dave. “Your Mother and I” p.115-123. Splatterwriting101.net Web 2012. -
Kevin Flores
You can tell a lot about someone by their morals , and what they believe in. You can tell what kind of person they are, their personality and their character traits. If you were to ask someone certain questions based on their morals you can tell whether they have similar or different views. In this paper I will tell you about some of my beliefes.
Peole go through their everyday lives for a purpose each individual has their own reasons and motivations. One of my reasons is that last year I had promised my grandmother and my parents that I would graduate from college so that I will have more oppertunties for a better life. That is the reason why I decided to go to moraine valley community college because they provide a better education and have more things to offer. When I tell peole where I live they usually ask me why I didn’t go to dailey or Harold Washington for school and I tell then that I wanted to go to a better school and get a better education. When I promised my grandmother and parents that I would go to college I knew that I had to keep my promise and finish no matter what because I gave them my word. When ever I promise someone something I always stand by it and keep my promise.
Family and close friends are important to me because I think that in every person’s life they’re ups and downs. It is great to have personal accomplishment and share the moment with friends or family who supported you. And it is great to share happy times with friends. But in life they’re always happy times, bad things happen and sometimes there isn’t anything we can do about it we just have to wait it out until it passes. During times like these it is good to have people who can help get you through theses times, because it is almost impossible to deal with hard times alone. Friends and family are great to have because they will always have your back whenever you need something. Also whenever a friend or loved one need something it is good to know that they can rely on you to help them out. One of the most important traits that anyone can have is loyalty because how can you expect anyone to be there for you when you need something but when they need you help you aren’t there for him. I feel that if you aren’t willing to help a good friend you aren’t a true friend.
If you were to ask someone what makes people angry you would probably get a thousand different answers. I don’t let many things get me angry or upset but there are something’s that I cannot stand at all, is when people are ignorant or disrespectful for no reason. I cannot stand this at all because if no one did anything personally to you why should you disrespect that person. I believe that everyone should be treated with respect until you are disrespected by another person. Another thing that gets me upset is when people mistreat animals. This gets me pissed off because animals do not harm us or have any reason for people to hit, kill or abuse them. Animals are very loyal to owners as long as they are shown love and don’t deserve to be treated badly.
Besides these two things what really gets me upset is when people don’t have any kindness or heart. Like if you were to see an elderly person being bothered by someone some people would go and help that person out. What I am saying is to do what you feel is the right thing to do base on whatever you feel is right. I am a strong believer in the saying “every dog has his day “, and “what goes around comes around”. I think that whatever you give out to the world whether it is good or bad it is in someway given back to you. If you are a good person then your good deeds will be replayed to you eventually. A lot of times satisfaction is how you are repaid in my opinion. If you help someone out you will be satisfied and happy that you helped a person out and have a piece of mind and therefore not have any regrets about it. Regrets I think are some of the worst things someone can have.
There are people who usually say they would die for something they believe in. Which is fine with me, but I believe that a person can only say that until they have come close to facing death. A person can say they would die for something but then be face to face with death and realize that they aren’t willing to give their life for something no matter how much they believe in it. A lot of people, who have different views, want to change something, or have a strong belief in something say they would die to achieve it but I say only a handful would actually give their life for it. The same goes for killing, people like to say they would kill for something they want dearly but until they actually kill someone they cannot say it. The only thing I would kill or die for is to protect my loved ones or myself. Those are the only things I can say I would be willing to kill someone for or give my own life for.
Basically you now know some of my moral beliefs and some of my views, what gets me mad and my answers to some questions. I’m sure there are people who agree with me as well as people who don’t, but its ok because everyone is different and we all share different ideas and opinions.-
Kevin Jaderberg
I agree wholeheartedly that loyalty is valuable. I believe it is a requirement for any sustainable relationship whether it’s with a friend, family member or spouse. I also share your views on family. Families are sometimes the only support group we have when things get rough. It is unfortunately also true that some people cannot turn to their family for support for one reason or another. In cases like these, it helps to have a network of close friends.
Whether your support comes from your friends, your family or both, it’s important to remember that the support comes with the mutual understanding that if positions were reversed, you’d do all you can to help and support them. We’re kind of stuck here. We may as well help each other get by when we can. I like what you said about regret being the worst thing a person can have. I think that knowledge only comes about through experience. I lived with crushing regret for a long time and learned that lesson myself. I’ve since made peace with my past and no longer dwell on it so much. After all, the past doesn’t exist but as memories in our minds!
Your practice of respect to other people and animals is a valuable characteristic. It’s sad how many people lack this basic humanity. The truth is, many people are cruel and I think it’s totally uncalled for. This quote basically sums up my feelings: “Be the change you wish to see in the world.” I can’t recall who said it, and I may have butchered it, but you get the idea. We need to live our lives as shining examples of what’s right. Be as kind as you can to everyone you meet. If someone is hungry and you have food, share it. In any situation, if you can help, don’t hesitate.
It would be quite silly to preach compassion towards a person, but turn around and hurt another. I’m reminded of the old saying, “practice what you preach”.I feel the same way you do about those people who say they are willing to die for a cause or a person. I think I even mentioned it in my paper. Saying you’re willing to die is one thing, actually dying is another thing entirely. I personally don’t believe I could ever choose death for any reason. We are biologically wired to survive. Our fundamental mission is to live. Life is the most important thing in existence because of its rarity. Dying over a patch of land or for cheaper oil is insane.
I think your paper reflects your honest nature and a few of your principles. Your live and let live attitude is a commodity in today’s society. If more people shared your feelings of universal respect towards others, who knows where we’d be? We might even be able to achieve lasting peace! Imagine a world in which everyone was respected regardless of age, sex, race, sexual orientation, or gender identity. I’ll bet Rodney Dangerfield would roll over in his grave.
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Nick Kleopa
I think your paper sparks a lot of interest due to the layout and the fact that you have a lot of great information in it. It definitely grabs the attention of the reader right from the start with the opening paragraph concerning morals. I couldn’t agree more with you saying that you can figure out who people are by their morals. That is something I also look at to figure out who someone is and what they are all about. People’s morals most definitely have a lot to do with what kind of person they are. As far as the “word” I feel the same way, If I don’t do what I say then what good am I. I also agree with you saying that everyone in life has their own purpose and that everyone is basically born for a reason. I have heard others say things like “everyone just lives their life, they don’t have purposes to do anything. I’m am glad that we both see the big picture for what it really is. The subject of animal cruelty or neglect really makes me angry as well. I don’t understand how anyone can mistreat animals. Also as for the respect and disrespect portion, I also agree but have a sum what different perspective. This topic will never change because there will always be ignorant people out there in the world. My way of thinking is if everyone was not ignorant and totally respectful towards everyone, nobody in the world would stand out. I feel that in that particular subject there is a balance that needs to be maintained. All in all, I really enjoyed reading your paper.
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Klem Bachleda
In your paper, I didn’t really see the topic that was to be discussed until the end. I do agree with some points you made pertaining to family and friends, but it seemed very repetitive. It was hard to follow because of the fragments and run on sentences, but a point was made.
I also agree with you concerning what somebody would die and kill for. Nobody really knows until they go through it. One could imagine they would kill somebody, but before it happens, did that person think about what would happen afterwards? Would they regret it? Would they be happier? Would they feel remorse?
Also, it is easier to understand a person based on their morals, but to understand somebody’s morals you would have to be pretty close friends with them. Morals aren’t something that can be simply talked about. It’s actions that count. Once again, anybody could say anything positive about themselves, but how would they react in certain situations?
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Kevin Flores
I think that ecologically literate means to know about the environment, and haveing an indepth understanding about nature. I feel that someone who is ecologically literate should show appreciation of nature and the living things in it. Being ecologically leterate means that someone know about various species of trees, flowers ,animals, insects,ect. I would say that I am not ecologically literate because I dont really know alot about different kinds of flowers and trees. But i do appreciate nature and I respect it. By reading ” Web of Life” i found out really how everything in nature is connected to each other and thats why i guessing Capra titled it the web of life because all of the living things in nature are like a web and held together by other strands which are other things in nature. If one of those strands were to break or not be there the whole web would fall apart and cause a whole bunch of stuff to go bad and it would mess up the entire enviroment. I also found out more about solar energy. Before reading this I really didnt know too much about sloar energy but i found out that alot of peole donot know alot about it and how cheap it really is because they are labled as “external” variables by the government. I found this to be very interesting because it shows that the government isnt really looking into peoles best interests and dont care about the harm that we are causeing to the enviroment. But in the end the government really just wants to make money. I strongly agree with the author that we need to make changes to the way we get our energy and how we reat the enviroment because if we dont we are going to put ourselves in a very bad situation as far as global stand point because we are one of the contries that uses the most fossile fuels which is the cause for these negative changes.
Capra, Fritjof “From the Web of Life” -
Kevin Flores
Its seems fair if you do your work youll get a good grade, but if you put abit more effort into it youll come out with a better grade
Klem Bachleda, 
Killian Noonan, and 
Nick Kleopa are discussing. 
Corey Gallai and one other person are discussing. 
Kevin Jaderberg, and 
Nick Kleopa 10:26 am on April 23, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Great topic, I have not read an animal cruelty/abuse topic so far. You have definitely did some looking into this topic and seem pretty knowledgeable about the subject. Although animal abuse is a big issue, I agree with you saying that not allot of people know how to deal with it as the problem arises. I think there should be more updates and when the community meetings take place and discuss other issues, they should talk about animal cruelty and how one can go about reporting it. I look forward to reading your feelings from the service when you do complete it. I remember another group in class was going to paws and they had to file applications with references and so on. The town takes animal care very seriously and I know the application process can be a pain and sometimes be longer than expected. Another topic you brought up was dog fighting etc.. First thing that came to my mind was some former celebrity, I think sports player was involved in a dog fight ring. There were news articles all over yahoo. I don’t get how people can get enjoyment dog fights. Its so cruel. I also am very interested to see how a dog reacts to people and other dogs or animals after it has been involved in dog fighting. Whether it would be an all around angry animal in my opinion is inevitable. That is what the dog is used too. But yeah, I’d like to see what the dogs are like. I also heard that a lot of times if the loosing dog is injured enough that the owners would just put them down instead of letting them heal. The issue I see with these is now that a lot of the governments resources are being used up for other things, federal and local law enforcement aren’t really taking the time to track down these rings. I think it is very important for the people of the community to report things like this. I think a huge deter to starting or participating in these groups would be to just increase jail times and or fines so that people think twice when they want to start one or even go to view. This will surely deter a lot of the participants but as I said about the celebrity earlier, he was rich and he still participated in the events. So raising fines/jail would only cut a portion out, but it’s better than nothing. Anyway, back to the paper. I like how you posted information on how to know if an animal is being abused or if it has been involved in a dog fight group. I also found it interesting that the actual owners of the fighting dogs would chop the ears and tails of the fighting dogs to have less body parts for the opposing dog to bite onto. All in all, I think you had a lot of good facts and support information. I’ve learned some things and thought that the overall paper was great. Good job.
Klem Bachleda 10:07 am on April 24, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
I’m glad somebody took the initiative and did aim to do something different and help animals. Animal abuse is a big issue. It primarily happens when individuals aren’t emotionally attached to their pets and only look to make an income instead of having normal jobs. This is a big issue and I see ads and commercials everywhere I go now. I did know if the issue of animal abuse was a big deal a couple years ago, or if I never noticed it because I had no pets, but ever since I got a border collie about 4 years ago, I have noticed it more and more. I like also how you didn’t just focus the background information on dog fighting and included the less known aspects of animal abuse like not feeding your pet and hoarding. The information you input into the paper is more than sufficient. It’s also nice tat you put in specifics concerning things like cock fighting illegal in all fifty states and information about animal hoarding. Another plus is the information you input on how to recognize an animal that is being used in fights. The description you ave for recognizing dogs that are bred or raised to fight will probably be burned into my mind now and I will probably look for these characteristics in dogs now. I like how you added in your paper so far the questions you will ask one of the workers at the animal shelter and also advise people to adopt pets instead of buying pets. One thing we have to remember is the less we adopt, the more animals they have to put to sleep to make room for more animals that they will eventually end up putting to sleep if they are not adopted. The circle continues and won’t stop.
In your opening paragraph, a couple sentences seem like run on sentences, and also is hard to follow at times.
When finishing your paper, remember to add the same details you did to the beginning of the paper. This seems like an interesting area to volunteer in and am afraid to hear about the abuse the animals that end up in the shelters went through, but am glad to hopefully hear that individuals came in to adopt these potential pets.
Klem Bachleda 5:25 pm on April 26, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Any word on the rest of the paper. I know you guys completed the service and was interested in what you guys did, whether it was just cleaning and feeding the animals or did you go more like giving the animals a bath. I had two orange tabbies I got from the animal shelter, also from Worth, but my mom kept letting them out and both ran away after about 3 years. Sad. I know. Know I got a border collie from a lady that was going to take them to a shelter because she had 8 pups and nobody wanted them. Had him for 4 years now and is very obedient. I saw the project your group has done for the animal shelter. The pictures you guys took look nice, but it’s lacking a little bit of attractive colors.
Killian Noonan 10:11 am on April 24, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
A great paper indeed Kevin. You really are brushed up and know a lot about animal abuse. Like you said many people do not know it goes on, then there are some who do and do nothing. I mean the only thing I can tell you that I somewhat know is that one animal abuse commercial with Sarah McLaughlin. I myself have a dog and can never come close to doing some of the atrocities that you see some animals have gone through. I’ll be honest in an Irish family like mine all our family back in the old country is very ignorant to animal abuse. I can recall my grandfather explaining to me that if you had a liter of pups and they were no good, he used to take them in a sack and drown them in the river. Now a day that would make the local news and people would speculate that if a young boy did that he would be on the path to being a serial killer. However here in America I had a different disposition. We see animals as pets where as in other parts of the world they are for the work on the farm. However, I still could not come to abusing my dog Murphy. He is a gorgeous Irish setter (obviously lol). I mean myself I see that there is a fine line in training and abuse. When he was a puppy and used to act up and nip, I’d give him a tap on the nose so he wouldn’t do it again. However, I would never lash out on him. You paper was very detailed. It really showed you know what you are talking about. It is awesome you were able to do your service project on something you know a lot about. It was interesting to not only hear about the abuses of dos and house hold animals, but cock fights as well. I’m glad that there is an organization dedicated to stopping animal abuse and individuals that are involved as well. This definitely was not an easy project. Though I feel for you, doing what you love made it a whole lot easier. I am in anticipation for the service fair. It will be interesting to see all the different organizations. I wish you guys all the best of luck and solidarity. One think that brings me sadness to say, is that our time here is nearly at an end. I will no longer get the chance to read and review your work. It has indeed been a pleasure. Your writing is exceptional keep it up. I am very glad I was able to get a group like this to read and analyze my work. I believe it truly has made me a better writer. Any way Mr. Flores, I wish you the best of luck in the future and in whatever you choose to do in life mo chara. It has been a pleasure getting to know you and I hope it has been that way for you. Slan go foill mo chara.