Group Presentations

The presentations presented this week were all very good.  I was impressed with each individual’s input.  Project H was very moving.  I could tell the girls actually cared and put their whole heart into the project.  I am glad this group plans to obtain donations for homeless outreaches.  I did some of my volunteer hours at the Arch, so this project touched my heart.  Like many of the young ladies in this group, when I first started volunteering with the Arch I was terrified of the homeless people.  I was fearful of being robbed.  I discovered the people at the Arch were not that different from me. I learned to really enjoy working with the homeless population.  After Work Activism did an excellent job explaining what they desire to do and how they plan to pursue social justice issues with the group in the future.  I had received several emails about AWA, but I did not really understand what is about, until the group explained the vision of AWA.  I honestly don’t have the time to be involved, but I appreciated their endeavor.  The executive orders were very surprising.  It is difficult to believe the governor has so much control and the people have no way of really making executive orders illegal.  This group was also impressive in its ability to overcome so many obstacles in doing the project.  While they may not have been able to present the “intended goal”, this group was very informative.   I also enjoyed the group about the education gap.  It is shocking how much difference location and social class make on the ability to achieve educational goals.  In all honesty, I learned more about the education gap from this group’s project than I did from a supposed professional on the issue.  Overall everyone did an excellent job. 

Social Justice

As I read the last few chapters in Adam’s social justice book, I noticed several chapters mentioned the need to unite, heal, and respect.  What exactly does unite, heal, and respect mean? The last few chapters helped me realize: All human beings must unite in respect for one another in order to heal from past social injustice issues and strive to become more socially just.

Unite: (transitive verb)   1. To put together to form a single unit

                                             2. To cause to adhere

                                             3. To link by a legal or moral bond

        (Intransitive verb)     1. To possess in combination

                                             2. To become one or as if one

                                             3. To become combined by or as if by adhesion or mixture

                                             4. To act in concert

Heal:                  1. To make healthy, whole, or sound; restore to health; free from aliment

                              2. To bring to an end or conclusion, as conflicts between people or groups, usually with                                     strong implication of restoring former amity; settle; reconcile

                              3. To free from evil; cleanse; purify

Respect:            Denotes a positive feeling of esteem or deference for a person or other entity, and also                                      specific                actions and conduct representative of that esteem

Adultism

Oddly enough, I still experience forms of adultism as at the age of thirty-one.  People assume that because I am not married and do not have children, I don’t have adult responsibilities.  Of course, I have responsibilities as do twenty-something’s, teenagers, and children.  Granted my respoabilities may not be quite the same as a wife and mother.  I am personally responsible for my households grocery shopping, errand running, paying bills, and keeping both my mother and brother on a budget.   I am not a wife; however I am a sister and daughter who are highly depended upon to take care of household business.  My brother considers me his personal secretary; I literally take care of all of his personal business.  My mom does help with budgeting issues, but for the most part it’s my job.  I clean and do the laundry for the three of us.  The only thing I am not responsible for at home, is cooking dinner, which I do cook dinner at least once a week.  So why do people with children and spouses or domestic partners think, I have less responsibility and thus more time to do homework and other activities?  By the way, I do understand children are time consuming, but that is part of the reason I have chosen not to have children yet.  Just because some of my classmate, made the discision to have children, does not mean I should be treated less “adult” because I made a different choice.

It is not just classmates, who treat me younger because of my lack of children.  My grandmother even treats me younger than my married cousins with children.  They are eleven years younger than me, but my grandmother tends to think of them as being older than me, based on the fact I am not married and do not have children.

I have probably been guilty of treating classmates and my younger cousins with adultism views.  Like our book states, our society perpetuates the idea that teenagers and young adults are stupid and less than older adults. It is perfectly natural and accepted to compare responsibilities without consider what choices were made that caused those responsibilities.  When you make the choice to become a partner and parent, you make the choice to take on the extra responsibilities that come with it.

Lost in My Own Pain

This has been a very difficult week for me.  The subject matters in all my classes have been very heavy.  I have been in contact with my father, for the first time in over a year.  If you haven’t put the pieces together, my father was extremely abusive to me, my brother, and my mother in every way possible.

While talking to him on the phone last night for two hours, for first time in years I saw him as a person who is deeply hurting.  It is easy to look at him as a monster and allow my anger and hurt to block all human qualities from him.  However as he talked about being alone in the hospital, scared of dying and realizing he had no family, I felt his deep pain and could view as a human being.

What am I suppose to with that?  Do I allow him into parts of my life?  Do I completely forgive his past and choose to move forward from today?  I have a million questions running through my head and a million horrific memories that still scream out with excruciating pain.  I feel lost and confused!