Big Spring High School
Newville, Pennsylvania
Teacher: Mrs. D. Whitmoyer

 

 

 

Little Things Can Make a Huge Difference

By Renee Jones

 

         

Personal responsibility plays a great role in improving the quality of life in our communities today.  In order for everything to run smoothly everyone needs to accept their own responsibilities and help with their community as much as they can.  I think things like volunteering or just taking care of the environment around you along with your surrounding neighbors would improve the quality of life.  Also, if one person would step up to their responsibilities then others around them would see the improvements they are making, and then they would probably like to step up to their own personal responsibilities too. 

         

First of all, I think volunteering would improve the quality of life in any community.  Of course, it would have to be volunteering for something worthwhile that would benefit others in the long run.  A few good ideas would be helping out with a soup kitchen, a nursing home or even shelters.  An hour of your help for one day could make a drastic difference in the lives of some people.  It’s important to help others as much as you can, and then if you ever need help they’ll be there for you also.  If you help others as much as possible then you’re improving their lives in some way and by doing that you’re improving the community a little each day.

         

Another way to improve the quality of life with personal responsibility would be to set up organizations that would help the needy in your community.  A shelter for the homeless would be a great idea so nobody would ever have to be stuck on the streets.  There could be food drives around the holidays so no family would ever have to go without food on Christmas or Thanksgiving.  Also, a teen recreation center would be helpful because it would keep kids off the streets and out of trouble.  The first thing a community would need to make these things happen would be one person to stand up and take charge-that’s where personal responsibility comes in the picture.

         

Just keeping the environment and the area around you would improve the quality of life.  There would be less trash lying around and the image of the environment would just be a lot cleaner and safer overall.  It’d be your own personal responsibility to keep your area clean by never littering or even picking up the trash.  A responsibility could be to organize trash pick-ups where everyone in the community could get a trash bag and walk along the road picking up all the trash people have thrown out.  You could also recycle by sorting through your trash.  It’s very easy to recycle things like plastic and aluminum because all you really need to do is keep it and eventually take it to a recycling center where they do all the work for you.

         

A great, effective way to improve the quality of life is simply to respect the people around you.  Treat others as you would like to be treated and with this philosophy everyone should get along quite well.  If you respect the people around you then it’s likely that they’ll give you respect back, making both of your lives pleasant.  Racism is another problem, and I think, as an individual, you need to put aside what others think and to see people for who they really are, not what color skin they have.  Your own personal responsibility could be to treat everyone fairly and equally.  There would be less crime and hate this way. 

         

Another personal responsibility is to be a good role model for anyone around you.  To get a job and have a good education is pretty important and by doing this you are not only helping yourself, but you’re helping the community along the way also.  You could teach others around you things they may have never known, and it would be easy to influence them to do the best they could with their life.  You could prepare students or single parents for the work place and help them improve their own personal live.  It would be easy this way to infuse your character on others so that your community would be the best that it could possibly be. 

         

In conclusion, there are many ways that you, personally, could help the communities in the world.  Your attitude or just the way you treat people make a big difference, even though it may not stand out as much as something like volunteer work.  Volunteer work is very important though because you’re helping the needy and improving their lives, and by doing that you’re helping the community as a whole.  Setting up organizations such as shelters for the homeless or food drives would also improve the quality of life.  It’s the little things that can be done by a single person that make a huge difference in the world.

 

Answers To Questions Re: Required Reading

 

Q1-  Society invests in marriage in the USA by helping the families on welfare, using things like food stamps to help buy their food.  Also, our society employs marriage counselors and many other occupations benefit from marriage.  Jewelry shops sell diamond rings and they also have engagement rings.  In Manus, society invests in marriage by investing in dogs’ teeth and shell money if it’s a boy and then on the bride’s side the amounts are paid back with pigs and oil.  They look for partners to help invest with and if you’re married you’ll have a better chance for some things.

 

Q2-  The first couple has been married one year and had no other previous marriages.  She says “Look for someone that can make you happy no matter what kind of mood you’re in.”, and he says “You have to get along.”   The second couple has been married forty years with no previous marriages.  She says “You need to compromise when you disagree.”, and he says “Do what you enjoy.”  The third couple has been married about six years and the woman has been married once before and the man has no other previous marriages.  He says “Look on the inside because that’s what is really important.”, and she says “Make time for each other.”  The fourth couple has been married for twenty-five years with no previous marriages.  He says “Be truthful.”, and she says Make time for yourself also.”  The fifth couple has been married for ten years and the woman has had three other marriages and the man has been married once before.  She says “Keep looking until you find the right one, you’ll know it.”, and he says “Tell the truth no matter what it is.”  The sixth couple has been married for twenty years with no previous marriages.  She says “Keep an open, honest relationship.”, and he says “Money is only a material thing and it shouldn’t matter.”  The seventh couple has been married for three years and the husband and wife have both been married once before.  He says “Don’t give up on each other when times get hard.”, and she says “Everyone has a bad side to them once in awhile.”  The eighth couple has been married for 50 years with no previous marriages.  The man says “Look for what  makes the two of you happy and don’t worry about anyone else.”, and she says “Spend some quality time alone.”  The ninth couple has been married for twenty-two years and has had no previous marriages.  She says “Focus on having a family and being happy at the same time.”, and he says “Keep smiling or things will never work out.”  The tenth couple has been married for two years and both have been married once before.  He says “Get along with their family.”, and she says “Keep an open relationship and don’t afraid to be honest.”

 

Q3-  Our collective goal should be what we want from life and what the real purpose is.  Our goal shouldn’t be having everything bigger and wealthier or anything that is material, but it should be what makes us happy.  We should use our values and beliefs to progress to what we consider the purpose of life along with our well being.

 

Q4-  A worthy goal for my local community would be a trash pick-up.   I live along a busy road so there’s always a bunch of trash lying by yards or on the road itself.  I think if everyone would get together once a week, and clean up the roads they would look a lot cleaner.  If everyone pitched in we could get the job done quickly. 

 

Q5-  I think it’s very true that children attach themselves to other human beings.  Mothers are very important people in the eyes of any child and if that child has a doll like their mother they’d be more than happy.  Also, we need to close the gap between minorities and relate to each other and learn from each other instead of pushing others away. A winner take all society wouldn’t help anyone, except the wealthy, so we need to share and understand one another.

 

Q6-  The fact that the USA is a democracy make lawyers particularly helpful because democracy is about individualism and protecting individuals from the state.  Lawyers are responsible and account for many things and most Americans disbelieve the government.  Lawyers have so many functions and have the power to put up a lawsuit against the state.  Diversity makes everyone different and heterogeneous and this brings about more problems and conflicts between people, that’s where lawyers come into the picture.  Wealth comes into the picture when people start caring about the clean air and clean water. Another big issue is healthcare and things like Medicare and then there’s the longevity of live, which makes people think about what the law can do.  As for size, we are a very large territory and it’s not easy like a village, not everyone knows everyone.  A small businessman’s job is to get personalized with people, like a lawyer through his job.

 

Q7-  I would prefer punitive damages because you have to absorb the real cost of the activity and you can’t just deal with the one complaint.  These issues are serious and not everyone has time to stop and complain, but the one that does should make a  difference.  The only other alternative I can think of would be to pay extra close to the complaint that one person has and then maybe put out a survey so others could do that instead of having to talk to the manager.

 

Q8- Three ways society would benefit from the coming retirement of baby boomers would be that they would have time to volunteer at certain associations, they could help out with their local community more and they could also lend their help to their family to baby-sit or cook them a meal.

 

Q9-  I think President Clinton’s anti-poverty plan could make a real impact if we kept pushing it and everyone agreed to go along with it.  A reason is that the government will be generating money into the poorest areas of America giving people ways to start new lives.  Secondly, they’ll provide cheap loans for the poor and last, we have been showing progress because millions have came above the poverty line so it’s not a hopeless cause.

 

Q10-  Truett Cathy and Tom Lewis were both very religious and both helped pull up poor children and give them something to look forward to.  The third thing they have in common is that they both help with scholarships for the children who would like to attend college.

 

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