5/11/2017 3 Comments Boston Strong- So What?Over the last month or so, I have been posting blogs about the book Boston Strong. (You can view either of the blogs here or here) Today I am prepared to answer the big question- So what? However, before I talk about the reason that this book matters, I should catch you up on the way that it ends. When I had written my last blog post, I had only read up until the beginning of the bombings. The end of the book was the hardest part for me to get through, but it was essential to understand the takeaway of the book. It discusses what the Tsarnaev brothers did post bombing and how they got caught. The end also talks about how families of victims and victims themselves were coping with their new lives. All of the families of survivors and survivors were invited on a cruise to France to try and help them relax and get to know the other survivors. In the book it says, “This is what the trip is supposed to be all about....People- survivors- getting to know one another, helping each other out, having fun,” (Casey Sherman and David Wedge, 238). The sadness and intenseness of the ending leads me to believe that the takeaway message and theme of the book is that tragedy leads to community. In the midst of chaos, people who didn’t even know each other risked their life to save others. This is what community is all about- people helping people. We need community in our lives, especially now with all of the violence all over the world. In Boston Strong, a sense of community is formed when tragedy strikes and it’s important the we use this ideal in our world today.
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If you have read my last blog post, you know that I am reading a book about the bombings at the Boston Marathon in 2013 called Boston Strong. The book starts off with a letter from the Mayor of Boston, Martin J. Walsh, convincing the public that Boston will not be held back because of the bombings, they will move forward with more strength than before. After the letter, it goes on to tell us about the main characters of the book including the Tsarnaev brothers themselves. In more detail, it talks about why the brothers were motivated to carry out with the bombings and it talks about their crazy life prior to the marathon. In a nutshell, the Tsarnaev brothers carry out the bombings because they believe that the US government is trying to turn the country against all Muslims. After giving us background, the book takes us through what each of the characters were doing on that Patriots day up until 2:50 pm. When the bombs go off, the book goes into full detail about what is happening, what people are thinking, and what people are doing to help. The motives of the Tsarnaev brothers in Boston Strong can relate to the ongoing drama of Trump’s Muslims ban. An Executive Order is an official statement from the president telling government agencies how they can use their resources. In the case of Executive Order 13769 (aka the Muslim Ban), Trump has suspended people from 6 different Muslim-majority nations from entering the United States for 90 days. The countries affected include include: Syria, Iran, Sudan, Libya, Somalia, and Yemen. Trump has received a whole lot of backlash for Executive Order 13769, but he and his team are fiercely defending the ban by saying that it is to prevent terrorism in our country. However, the main motive of the Tsarnaev brothers was the fact that they felt discriminated against because of their religion. Since, all of the countries that have been affected by the ban are Muslim-majority groups many Muslims feel as if they are being persecuted and discriminated against because of their religion. It is scary to see how similar people’s reactions to the travel ban are to the motives of the bombers of 9/11. Hopefully, another terrorist attack won’t happen, but the evidence and similarities suggest that many people are experiencing some of the same discrimination as four years ago before the marathon. 4/24/2017 5 Comments boston strong and how it connects to the actual events of the boston marathon bombingCurrently, I am reading a book called Boston Strong and it’s about the horrors of the bombing at 2:50 pm on April 15th, 2013. Boston Strong is a nonfiction book, showing the different perspectives of police officers, on-lookers, and the terrorists themselves on the day and days leading up to the bombing. Since this is a nonfiction book, the events relate directly to what actually happened. All of the facts in this book are 100% correct and there is a bibliography located at the back of the book. Tamerlan Tsarnaev and his younger brother Dzhokhar Tsarnaev (the bombers) were originally from war-torn Chechnya, Russia and their family came to the United States on tourist visas, but then applied for asylum. CNN says that the Tsarnaev family came to America, “In hopes of starting a new life,” (CNN.com). Through the process of seeking asylum and moving to the US Zubeidat Tsarnaev, the brother’s mother, became more devoted to the Islam religion and read the Koran frequently. At this same time, Tamerlan and soon Dzhokhar started attending local mosques, praying 5 times a day, reading the Koran, and browsing extremist websites such as the digital al-Qaeda magazine Inspire. Zubeidat had convinced her 2 sons that the US staged previous terror attacks such as the attacks on 9/11 to turn the nation against all Muslims. Later, as the brothers grew closer, they read articles such as, “How to Make a Bomb in the Kitchen of Your Mom,” (Boston Strong). In Boston Strong, it tells about how the police officers on duty thought taking the job on the Boston Marathon would be “Easy Overtime.” The book also talks about how carefree the spectators of the race were leading up to the race. No one expected anything bad to happen on April 15th, and they were wrong. Again, since my book is nonfiction, in every article I have read, the facts have matched up to the facts in my book. This means that the events in my book are the same events that happened historically. This book is painfully truthful and does not skip out on details such as Tamerlan Tsarnaev killing his 3 roommates on the anniversary of the attacks on September 11th, 2001, leading up to the boston marathon bombing. The book is hard to read at some points because of how deeply innocent the Bostonians were that patriots day, however it is a great book for readers that want truthful background information about the Boston Marathon bombings. 3/30/2017 0 Comments Homelessness research paperIntroduction According to Urban Ministry, more than 610,042 people are homeless in the United States and the Raleigh Rescue Mission(RRM) says 4,000 of them are in Wake County. Homelessness can have many faces and situations and sometimes people don’t realize it. According to RRM, 2,736 students in Wake County are homeless and one of them could be in your class right now. Reasons for homelessness can vary widely including addiction, illness, disease, high cost of living, a family disaster, domestic violence, mental illness, and poverty. Most people that are homeless don't have access to the many things that we take for granted such as clothing, blankets, medicines, shampoo and conditioner, shoes, and more. Raleigh Rescue Mission (RRM) is an organization located in downtown Raleigh that has been helping the homeless in many ways since 1961. Currently, more than 1,300 winter coats, hats, and gloves have been distributed this winter by RRM. Our goal is donate 300 of the urgently needed items to RRM through a drive at our school. We would also like to make a donation of 500 dollars through a fundraiser. We are interested in this issue because there are many students in Wake County that are affected by homelessness and some of them could go to our school. According to RRM, 1 in 30 kids experience homelessness. This proportion scares us and we can't stand not doing anything. We aren't the only people that should care about homelessness in our community. If you don't care, ask yourself some simple questions. What if you or a loved one ended up homeless? What if you didn't know where you were going to sleep tonight? What if you didn't know if you were going to get lunch today? Would you care then? We would. Also, homelessness affects our community in a negative way because there are people littering the streets with their trash and belongings, which is bad for our community. Having people hanging out on street corners 24/7 isn't exactly the “look” that we want for Raleigh. Even if you don’t care about the homeless population in Raleigh, you should care about the environment and the overall appeal of our city and that is affected by homelessness. The Issue Homelessness is not a new issue. According to the Downtown Coalition to End Homelessness, it has been around since 1640. So, how come we haven't found a solution? It's 2017 and still, 4,000 men, women, and children have to face the county's cold winter nights without shelter (RRM). Children are greatly affected by homelessness. According to RRM, homeless children are four times more likely to get sick than other children. Where do you think homeless children go when they get sick? Their house? No, they have to find a way to get better, sometimes without any medical care, blankets, or warm clothes. Also, according to RRM, 83% of homeless children are exposed to violence. It is hard enough to focus on school and school work when you don't know where you are going to sleep that night, but imagine being exposed to violence everyday. Why is homelessness in our community an issue? A future president, a genius who might invent a life saving invention, a singer, an actress, a mathematician, a teacher, or someone with an amazing talent could be homeless, but we would never know because they don't have the same opportunities that we do. According to washington.edu, homelessness affects a person’s health and their view of themselves as a person greatly. Once a person realizes that they don’t have a home their self esteem can drop substantially and this can lead to even worse personal effects. With this point of view, it’s hard to think about your dreams and your future, and a beautiful mind could go to waste. Homelessness is not a “one size fits all” problem. There are many scenarios of homelessness and one of the main factors that differs is the cause. Some of the more frequent causes include addiction, illness, disease, high cost of living, a family disaster, domestic violence, mental illness, and poverty. If this issue is not taken care of, a big percent of our population could become homeless. Do you want someone you know to become homeless? I didn’t think so. The Solution One thing helping homeless people in Wake County is the Raleigh Rescue Mission. They have helped almost a million people since 1961 when they opened. They make 140,000 meals a year to feed the homeless. Last year they kept 195 children with their parents which is a big deal because to some people, family is all they have. Another thing the RRM accomplished last year is giving shelter to 38,000 people and they also gave 13,335 housing referrals. Raleigh Rescue Mission is doing a lot, but we can do more to help the homeless population in Raleigh if we band together. For instance, you can donate food to the local food bank. You can also make sandwiches for the homeless or you can go to the soup kitchen and volunteer. You may think your service does not help, but it makes a world of difference to the people you are assisting. Because people do this, it gives people food who would normally not get enough nutritious food and everybody needs good, healthy food to live. According to LiveStrong.com the minimum amount of calories somebody should have a day is 1,200 calories or else they will suffer from malnutrition and they will be more prone to becoming ill because their immune system is not as strong as somebody that has a meal every day. Without enough food and calories, homeless people can suffer from malnutrition. The things that come with homelessness are more than just not having a home, you might not always have food which makes your immune system become weak. When you get sick you and can not afford the medicine you stay sick and their is nothing that you can do about it. In conclusion, just by donating food and volunteering you can save a person's life. Although RRM is doing a lot, people still need to help out because at the rate we are going, we will only help some of the many homeless people. It would not it be fair to only help some and not help all of the homeless population. So, we think that the more people that help, the quicker we can put an end to homelessness. Raleigh Rescue Mission can't stop homelessness forever, there are new people becoming homeless everyday, so we need to have help and maybe one day the homeless population will be extinct. Conclusion We propose establishing a drive for all the things that Raleigh Rescue Mission needs most urgently(not including food). The proceeds and all items gathered would be donated to the Raleigh Rescue Mission. Money will also be accepted and donated along with the items collected. Such items would include, but not be limited to: blankets, washcloths, socks, underwear, etc. The proceeds would be donated under the school's name. In order to accomplish this goal we would have to take a particular course of action with multiple steps. First, we would have to obtain permission from the school administration. Then, we would create two large signs along with multiple smaller ones. The large ones would be placed in the bus loop and in carpool. The smaller ones would be spread around the school in stairwells and on water fountains. The signs will be created by the art classes and will advertise our cause and display its name. We would also talk to Mr. Velarde to see if we could broadcast and share information on our school news. This publicity would be sure to get us more donations and support. It would be called the “Martin Middle Homeless Fund” to honor the school. The event would begin two weeks before school ends. Donations would be collected at lunch and after school in the cafeteria. We would set up stations, one for the donation of items and one for the donation of money, both in the cafeteria. Fundraising will finish a day before school ends. The donations would, with administrative permission, be bussed to the Mission in one of our school busses. We would go in person to 314 E. Hargett Street, the location for donating to Raleigh Rescue Mission, and take selected volunteers from the school to assist if there are enough needed items collected. If the Fund were to be successful then it could be continued in later years for longer periods of time and even expanded to include other schools. This year each and every Martin student would be able to participate no matter what grade they are in. The stations would remain in the cafeteria until the end of the fundraising and could be recycled for use in any later events. The goal of our charity would be to donate 500 dollars and 300 needed items to the Rescue Mission, however we would collect donations even after the goal is reached and surpassed. We would keep a tally and have every donation counted to know what we have left to reach our goal. At the end of every day we will need to remove the contents of both the donation stations in order to tally them up. We would place a meter in carpool to show everyone how close we are to achieving our goal. The charity would paint the school in a positive light and elevate our status amongst the rest of the community. We would become role models for similar programs and charities all around the county. More importantly, we would make a huge difference to the homeless community. We would be able to give people things that they desperately need and we would be able to give back to an organization that already gives so much. Bibliography
In my last blog post, I talked about homelessness in our community and some of the causes. One of these is domestic abuse. In 2011, there were 123 cases of domestic abuse in Raleigh alone, a higher number than in 2010. This is not ok. 3 in 10 women and 1 in 10 men in the country have experienced domestic abuse. Why do I care? I care because in my experience of volunteering throughout our city, I have seen some of the horrors of domestic violence and abuse and it’s still shocking every time I see it. It’s crazy to me that some people don’t report domestic abuse and let it go on and on in a terrifying cycle. You should care too, but don't take my word for it. Ask yourself some simple questions and you'll see that it's important to care about these issues. What if you were the victim in a domestic abuse case? Would you care then? What if someone at your school or on your sports team was a victim of domestic violence? Would you want to do something? I would. If you don’t want domestic abuse to keep getting worse we need to take action. To help survivors of doemstic abuse, you can donate many things including clothing, shoes, accessories, gift cards, and more to places like Interact of Wake County. We can prevent domestic abuse cases if we spread the word. If you see something say something. Inform people at your school or workplace about signs of abuse and how to help people. If you or someone you know has been a victim of domestic abuse please report it! There are many resources to help you or a loved one and it is ok to use them. Don’t be scared or ashamed of yourself if you are a victim. If you or a loved one has been a victim of domestic abuse please visit this page for help. Together we can prevent domestic abuse in our community. 3/2/2017 11 Comments Homelessness in raleigh,ncImagine that you are in downtown Raleigh walking on the sidewalk. You see a woman covered in filth and torn up clothes, begging for money. You probably didn’t have to work too hard to imagine this scenario. This is because this isn’t imaginary, it’s homelessness and it’s all over our city. Homelessness doesn’t fall under one scenario, it can range from sleeping in motels or hotels, crashing on friends couches, staying in a homeless shelter, or even sleeping on a sidewalk. Whatever the scenario, there are 4,000 faces that represent homelessness in our city. Out of these 4,000 people, there might be someone with the potential to be the next leader of our country, there might be genius who could invent a life-changing machine, there could be an amazing singer or dancer, but we would never know because they don’t have the resources that we do. Why should we care? We should care because the future of Raleigh could lie in these people’s hands, but they can’t do anything about it if we don’t help. I have volunteered all over downtown Raleigh in non-profits like Wake Relief, Raleigh Rescue Mission, Oak City Outreach Center, and Shepherd's Table and I have seen first hand the effects of homelessness. Most people struggling with homelessness also struggle with other issues like poverty, mental illness as well as other illnesses, domestic violence, disasters, and hunger. Since I have seen all of these things in person, it has helped me realize that helping these people is very, very important. Now that you know what is happening and how it is effecting our home, Raleigh, I hope that you consider acting upon these issues. By volunteering at one of the organizations listed earlier (Wake Relief, Raleigh Rescue Mission, Oak City Outreach Center, and Shepherd's Table) you can make a huge difference in our community. Homelessness is a problem, but if we ban together we can solve it. To learn more about volunteering, you can visit one of these sites: https://www.raleighrescue.org/homelessness/ https://wakerelief.org/ http://www.endhomelessnesswake.org/what-we-do/oak-city-outreach-center/ http://www.shepherds-table.org/ |
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