Valley
Springs High School
Valley Springs, Arkansas
Teacher: Lavina Grandon
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Improving Communities: Where to Start
Lacy Horner
Grade
12, Age 17
Where
does a person start to improve the quality of life in communities today? This
question can be answered by the individual himself. By starting with
self-improvement, a person will eventually start seeing changes in the
environment around him. Eventually
these changes will effect other family members and improve the quality of life
within the family. As the quality of life within the family improves, this
will, in turn, begin to improve the quality of life in the community itself.
To illustrate how self-improvement can improve the quality of life in a
community, consider the example of a person improving his moral standards.
For example, a person who uses profane language all the time influences
other people and may cause them to become more susceptible to doing this
themselves. If this type of
language were not used at all, it would cut back on the use of profanities in
the rest of society. Another
example is the use of courtesy. When
a person practices courteous behavior, those around him notice and are more
likely to return the courtesy to him and others as well.
This concept can be applied to many other things and have the same
effect. By improving oneself, the
person will change for the better and cause a noticeable change in the people
around him.
The quality of life in communities can also be improved by stronger family
values. Take for example, “Amy
and Bob,” in Pat Wingert’s article in Newsweek.
These two people live together and have a daughter but are not legally
married. They feel that there is
no reason for getting legally married if they are happy.
This type of behavior illustrates a lack of commitment for the family
and weakens one of the basic building blocks of society—the traditional
family unit. This in turn causes turmoil in our communities and our culture.
When children are born out of wedlock, their sense of family structure
is distorted. They in turn may
have a disregard for the family and thus continue the cycle of dysfunctional
families and social decay. Wingert
writes, “Getting married used to be a prerequisite for the most important
decisions of life: having sex,
living together, and making babies.” Today
people don’t even bother to get married, doing all the things married people
do and they are supposedly happy. When
two people do establish a traditional family, family life will improve and
this will, in turn, improve the quality of life in our communities.
The
quality of life in communities can also be improved by reaching out into the
community itself. After the
family unit has been improved, the change will start to spread into the
community since families do make up a community.
When a community improves, it gets “healthier, happier, more
satisfying, and more interesting.” As
a community improves, the people in it will eventually become closer and get
to know one another better. When
the people of a community grow closer, a concern for the well being of others
in the community develops and eventually, all members of the community reap
the rewards of a stronger community. For
example, people with strong moral character who have respect for the values
that have been proven to build strong societies, can reach out to those who
are victims of the declining social structure and show them the way to a
better life, so their lives can be improved along with that of the community.
Although not everyone agrees that strengthening a community will bring
good, it will
In
order to improve the quality of life in a community, the people need to be
held responsible for keeping up with their own actions.
This can be accomplished first of all by setting the examples in our
own lives that represent good citizenship.
Secondly, we can re-establish some of the old, virtuous, time-proven
social mores, which built this society and other strong societies in the past.
Traditionally, those who did not comply with the values and mores of a
society were stigmatized instead of rewarded.
When strong moral values are the standard, this helps keep civilized
people civil. When moral values
and decent behavior are ignored. society and culture are debased and our
communities decline. By
maintaining a sense of decency in our own lives, and encouraging others to do
the same, we can take the first step toward improving the communities that we
live in.
Q2-
- #1-married
once, four years- The key to a happy marriage is love and respect for one
another.
- #2-married
once, ten years- I always trust my husband and love him with all by heart.
- #3-married
once, fourteen years- Have a good trusting relationship and involve God in
every aspect of your lives.
- #4-married
once, fourteen years- The most important key to a happy marriage is God.
- #5-married
twice, first marriage-two years, second marriage-seven years- Be
understanding and truthful, always be there for the other.
- #6-married
once, twenty years- Just live each other and always try to find new and
interesting things to do together.
- #7-married
once, twenty-two years- Just be patient with one another.
- #8-married
once, twenty-two years- One has to be loving and willing to go to the ends
of the earth for the other.
- #9-married
twice-first marriage, three years-second marriage, Twenty-four years-
Don’t leave God out of any aspect of your lives.
- #10-married
once, twenty-four years- God is the key to all things even a happy
marriage.
Q3-According
to Richard Eckersley our collective goal should be to dematerialize society
without reducing the quality of life.
Q4-
A worthy goal for my local community would be to help out those who need items
such as clothing or food when times are difficult.
Q5-
I believe that when there are latchkey kids in the world, this means that the
parent or parents of those children should be around just a little bit more
for the child’s sake.
Q6-
The fact that the U.S. is a democracy makes a lawyers particularly helpful in
that they help protect individuals from tyranny of the majority.
And each individual has a fair right to everything. Diversity helps in
that it considers the respect for religion, race, national origin, and with
respect to women. The wealth
helps because the U.S. is a very wealthy country through society and
historical standards and the law can help solve the problems of our
environment. The size of the U.S.
is very helpful in that it is a vast, expansive territory where individuals
can choose to work closer together or further apart.
Q7-
I prefer to use punitive damages because each person or organization should
have to admit to their mistakes and not just make a deal with the plaintiff,
but pay for what has happened in a fair way.
Q8- Three ways that society would benefit form the coming retirement of baby boomers is that more jobs would become readily available for younger generations, more businesses such as health care and home shopping would be needed, and the “gray wave” might start up businesses of their own.
Q9-The likelihood of President Clinton’s anti-poverty program making a real impact is not very likely. One reason is because it has been found that 35% of former welfare recipients can’t perform simple tasks such as finding a place on a street map. The second reason is that 41% couldn’t use a calculator to work out a 10% discount. The last reason is that the poor unemployed may be willing to work, but may not be useful.
Q10-The first thing that they have in common is that they both have huge responsibilities to their companies. The second thing is that they both have an interest in the education of our future leaders. The last thing that they have in common is that they both volunteered to teach children in one way or another.