Joliet Central High School

Joliet, Illinois

Teacher: Michael Reilly

 

A Good Life Requires Responsibility

by Melissa S. Ward

Grade 11

 

 

Responsibility.  That is a very important word when it comes to life.  People have to be responsible to live a good life especially when it comes to their community.  Your communities are where you live, raise your family, and it should mean a lot to you.  For those reasons, people need to have a responsibility to it.  They have to treat it with respect and take care of it.  A good thing is that a lot of people do care. They want to live happy in a good, healthy environment.  A bad thing is, however, that a lot of people don’t care.  Life doesn’t make itself good on it’s own, and this is why these lazy, non-caring people have to get up, use their heads, and take on the responsibility of taking care of their community.

    

Your family; this is the number one reason you need to be responsible to your community.  Everyone wants their family to grow up in a safe, healthy community, right?  Sadly to say, this is not the case.  There are so many irresponsible people out there who are just too lazy.  These people could care less about their children and their surroundings.  They don’t care whether or not they grow up in a clean, safe, and protected environment.  People like this need a serious reality check.  They need to realize that they have got to take action.  These people need to make sure that their children grow up in the right way.  Of course, everyone makes mistakes.  That is just a lesson of life.  A hard one, yes, but a very important one.  However, no mistake should be so large that one can’t make up for it.  Everyone needs to teach their children to be responsible to their community and others.  By being irresponsible yourself doesn’t help.  This is why personal responsibility is so vital in living a good life, for you, and your family.

    

Money.  Money is a prime factor in the care of communities.  Of course, the communities with money have the advantage in this respect.  Wealthy communities can pay people to keep it safe, clean, and good.  This, however, requires no responsibility at all.  This is why every wealthy town or city you see looks so nice.  These people can be lazy, take no responsibility, and still everything comes out good.  Now for the less fortunate, it is not that easy.  Middle and lower class communities need to do it themselves.  They need volunteers to contribute to the care of their community.  Yes, it is a lot of hard work and a lot of commitment, but trust me; it will be worth it in the end.  The personal satisfaction of seeing all of your hard work and efforts put to action will pay off so much more than any dollar amount.  It is just so hard to find enough people who are willing to take the responsibility, and take the time to get up, and do it.

    

People need to invest into their communities. I don’t mean with money.  I mean with character, dignity, and values.  Communities today lack in every one of these areas.  It is not good enough to throw in some money to help a community project, no.  We need to physically and emotionally help these projects.  Help plant a tree.  Put together a community garden that everyone can help with and enjoy.  Help put together a community -recycling program if it doesn’t already have one.  Go pick up the trash that some careless person threw out of their car window of their way to work.  Do anything to help, even the smallest thing because believe it or not, the tiniest little gestures will make a big difference.  By doing this you will be doing a great deal of good.  Not only will you feel good about yourself; you will make others feel good too.  You will set a good example for the younger people in the community, and possibly get them to understand the importance of personal responsibility towards their community. However, things like this just don’t happen on their own.  There needs to be a lot of commitment from everyone in the community.  If everyone does his or her part, it will make an overwhelming difference.

    

In conclusion, there is a lot of work that needs to be done, fast.  We can’t be lazy about this issue. We need to take serious action.  This is our life.  Our goals, our dreams, and our hopes.  We cannot let anything get in the way of that.  We can’t let anyone bring us down.  We, the people, need to set the pace, and the example.  Ask yourself, “If I don’t do it, then who will?” Nobody.  Nobody will do it.  It is so unfortunate, but it is the truth. The “rude truth” if you will.  So next time you see trash on the ground, pick it up. Next time fliers are sent out needing volunteers for a community project, sign up for it.  Do what you want, but let me leave you with this, there are leaders, and there are followers. Do what’s right. Not what is right to others, but what is right to yourself.

 

Questions

 

Q1-How does society invest in marriage in the USA and in Manus?

 

In the USA I feel that society really doesn’t promote marriage.  In the USA, more that half of married couples end in divorce.   I think that society does more to promote divorce than anything.  Everywhere you look people are divorcing.  Lawyers left and right are dealing with divorce cases and trying to make them happen. 

In Manus people invest in marriage just like thay would invest in a business.  There is a betrothal payment for a male child, and later the bride’s side pays this back.  And just like stock in a business, if things go bad, the man isn’t worth as much.

 

Q2-Interview 10 married people. (No names) State the length and number of each one’s marriage and a line or two of advice from each on how to maintain a long, happy relationship.

 

26 years-  “Give each person their own space.”

10 years-  “Let each other have their own hobbies and interests.”

5 years-   “Trust.  It’s all about trust.”

17 years-  “Always talk to each other. If something’s bothering you never let it build up”.

2 years-  “If things get rough, never ever lose faith because you can work it out.”

54 years-  “I really don’t remember what a happy relationship is about. Sorry.”

20 years-  “Never give up on one another.”

6 years-  “Always keep an open mind about things.”

19 years-  “Trust in each other. Never lose faith.”

1 year-  “It’s really too early to say.  But I would have to say trust.”

 

Q3-According to Richard Eckersley, what should our collective goal be?

 

According to Eckersley, our goal should be to dematerialize society without reducing quality of life.  Sometimes material things do well and sometimes they don’t. We just can’t depend on them so much that we lose our self-worth

 

Q4- Write a worthy goal for your local community

 

I feel that a very worthy goal for my community is to try and promote civic pride in the history of the city.  There are so many things to be appreciated in my city and people need know about these things.

 

Q5-Comment on the excerpts from “Tomorrow’s Child.”

 

(p. 54) There can never be a real substitute for a mother and I strongly believe that it’s completely idiotic to try.

 

(p.56) This is a very important topic that affects everyone in the country.  As the minority rate goes up, our taxes will go up.  My reasoning is that a majority of people that are on welfare are minorities and when this number keeps increasing, the tax payers will have to compensate because the government won’t.

 

Q6-How does the fact the USA is a democracy make lawyers particularly helpful, according to Kathleen Sullivan?  How does diversity, wealth and size make lawyers particularly helpful?

 

The USA has written laws that everyone needs to follow. There are also laws that give people their rights.  Lawyers are there to be sure that we aren’t violated of thoes rights and to make sure that we stick to them.

 

There are so many different customs in the US because it is so large and diversely populated and because of this, there is a lot of controversy.  Lawyers are need and are very helpful when it comes to fixing problems like these.

 

Q7- Ms. Sullivan claims bad practices are changed either by punitive damages or regulations.  Which do you prefer and why?

 

Personally, I don’t prefer either one of them because they’re both pretty much a lost cause.  When it comes to  regulation, you can never make everyone happy so there is no point to that.  When it comes to punitive damages, it’s pretty much the same thing.  There’s always something that someone can complain about and they will do it if

there’s money involved.  So I really see no point in either.

 

Q8-Briefly describe three ways society would benefit from the coming retirement of baby boomers, according to the required reading.

 

People of this era will be more receptive to new ideas in regards to business.  When it comes to the current generation, the baby boomers will be more open to new ideas.

 

The retiring baby boomers will have better health and have more youthful attitudes.  They will have more energy, and will be better involved with the lives of their youth.

 

This will open up job opportunities for youth because the baby boomers will live longer so there can be special assisted living programs set up.

 

Q9-Evaluate the likelihood of President Clinton’s anti-poverty program making a real impact. Give at least three Reasons to back up your conclusions.

 

I feel that it will make a great impact but it will take time to get it going and to progress.  My first reason is that now is the best time to start and it needs to be acted upon now because at a later date there will be less of a use.  Second, is that our economy is running at full now.  The only way to keep it going is to get more workers, and more buyers. Last, is that now our policy on this issue is better and more efficient.  We aren’t about to throw any more money around until we know what we’re going to do with it.

 

Q10-Name three things Truett Cathy and Tom Lewis have in common.

 

They both aren’t into messing around when it comes to getting down to business,  they have both seen people suffer

And ask for help, and they both have tried to make differences in the lives of others.