Kadoka High School

Kadoka, South Dakota

Teacher: Teresa Shuck

 

 

 

Improving Our Communities

by Faye O’Bryan
Grade 10

 

When you hear of another school shooting like the one in Littleton, Colorado, or of another drive-by shooting what do you think?  Maybe you say to yourself, where were their parents?  Or maybe you silently pray that God will not let that happen to your family, or that there will be no school shootings at your children's school.  Maybe if you are my age you pray that it does not happen at your school.  What has happened that we are now praying for our safety in school?

           

Is school not supposed to be a place where society's children can learn safely, a place where some of their most crucial years are spent?  Where have we failed in our society to let fear have the upper hand on us?  Is it’s not supposed to be a place where many memories occur, and life-long friends are made?

           

We may think that maybe none of us have failed but it is simply what we sacrifice for our growing economy.  I believe that we have failed greatly though.  If we think that all that is going on is part of our society; we have failed greatly in learning the crucial facts of life. The crucial facts of life are all learned through responsibility.  Responsibility teaches you how to deal with the facts of life.  It teaches you that other people depend on you to carry out your activities so they can carry on theirs.  It teaches you to get up every day and go to work.  Responsibility takes action when everything else has failed.

           

One of the greatest places we have failed is not taking responsibility in marriages.  Once saying "I do" was as sacred as a testimony.  It was a testimony.  It was a testimony in the order by testifying that you give yourself to this person for richer or poorer, in

sickness and in health, to death do you part.  And the person looking at you gave themselves to you with the same testimony.  Why do so many people not realize what they are saying?  Is it no more their fault then the little child splitting holidays between his mother and father?

           

So much more often someone is getting a divorce, and in over half of those there are children involved in them.  So few parents taught them the values of life and ended the divorce gracefully while the other 900/o are left to wonder if it was really their fault.  Many of them go through a tug of war with their parents.  Inside the child becomes more and more confused.  Many more times than likely children who come from broken homes are just that much more likely to commit adultery, do drugs, and go to crime for their heartache.

           

How can we ensure it for the future if not for now to make divorce tougher for couples to go through?  Maybe by making regulations that say you have to go through so many hours of counseling before you can get a divorce.  So many marriages that end in divorce do not realize there are organizations and people out there to get help from.  Maybe the couple is just having a hard time and counseling could maybe save their marriage.  Sometimes all a person needs is encouragement and a hug to say they are not the only ones.  We could start pre-marriage counseling centers to help young people realize that marriage isn't just a big white bow.  It could help them realize there are hard times ahead and teach them how to handle the hardships.  Maybe if they go through the pre-marriage counseling they may decide that they are not right for each other and save them many years, and maybe a child the hardships of divorce.  Another alternative would be making the cost of divorce higher.  A higher cost would make many people look for ways to make their marriage work, I think,

           

Another way to get responsibility back to our youth is to educate them.  One big problem we have in society today is teen pregnancy and STD'S.  We need to educate our youth on the consequences that premarital sex causes.  So many times a young lady becomes pregnant and says only if she knew?  Is it true that these ladies do not know the facts of life, that they do not know where babies or STD's come from?  If that is their loudest cry then we need to answer it.  We need to answer it by educating them on the facts.  So many times we skate around the truth to just cause bigger problems.  We tell the teenagers of today's society that birth control and condoms are the answer but neither one are one hundred percent sure.  We need to get information out to them about the dangers they are creating for themselves.  Whether we do it by radio stations, TV, or driving from school to school to tell them.  If we only reach five kids out of a group of one hundred each time we tell a new group then we are making a difference because they will make a difference through the peer pressure system.  People find the good threw their own will, and their natural will tells them to find the good.  So in that prospect why not tell them that it is good to wait until marriage instead of telling them that sex is the good thing at this moment in their lives.  Tell them that education will carry them high in their futures instead?

           

So, I'm sure that society has failed a great deal today in society, it is just hard to pick a place to start.  We need to start in the family home, to have everyone teaching the values and responsibility our past generations were taught, when they said " to spare the rod spoils the child." We need to get back to teaching the basics to our youth so they can apply them in their future.

 

Questions

 

Q1 - How do we as a society invest in marriage in the USA and in Manus?

 

            In the USA and in Manus society invest in marriage as if it were a business.  Some business owners are in for the long prosperous business, and the others just start a business as a hobby in which they are obligated to leave anytime.  "As we invest in factories or stores or export companies, so Manus financiers invest in marriages, or more accurately the economic exchanges which center about marriage." Many couples are serious about marriages as our past generations were, where divorce was unheard of "Getting married used to be a prerequisite for the most important decisions of life: having sex, living together and making babies." Many couples get married for fear of being alone, thinking they could do no better.  They are not looking into the long run of things.  They are just looking at right now, for this very instance, and not at, 'Do I still want to be with this person twenty years from now?'.  In a society where everything is always changing, where everyone is looking for something different, and people are too worried about tomorrow instead of living for today.  We have let our economy turn into a world where we say worry about ME!  ME!  ME!  Instead of your neighbor.  For marriages to work it has to be about honesty and everything pure and honest between two people.  Many couple's don't take the time to find out the other person's wants, needs, pasts, future plans, and secrets before enduring in a long life commitment.

 

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

 

First couple (2 people) has been married for four years.  The husband said the main key to their marriage was a long courtship and to be open within the marriage.  The wife said even though it is hard at times to still be honest and voice your opinion.

 

Second couple (2 people) has been married for eighteen years.  The husband said at first it is difficult to express your true opinions but as soon as you do it is easier on the both of you.  The wife said to stick with what you start with.  If you enter the relationship for the long haul and plan to stick with them you can make it.

 

Third couple (2 people) has been married for two years.  The husband said its scary at first but after awhile you get the hang of it.  The wife says marriage is not all its packed up to be.  At first you think its going to be easy and then reality hits, but never go to bed upset at each other.

 

Fourth couple (2 people) has been married seven years.  The husband says to be have fun and be honest.  The wife said not to be afraid to voice your opinion.  No matter what don't be afraid to talk to them.

 

Fifth couple (2 people) has been married for three years.  They both said to be honest and do many things together.

 

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

 

According to Richard Eckersley our collective goal should be that we should choose to live to change the world.  I believe that he means that we should not live to better our economy all the time and forget about our lives.  Is 'the quality of our personal, social, and spiritual relationships that give us a sense of meaning, purpose, and belonging' improving?  If not we need to stop and get back to what makes us humans.  If we have no time to stop and enjoy what we have done then what is the point in creating it?  If we have no enjoyment in our fives we have not really lived yet.  I believe we need to stop and find happiness before we can improve anything else and that is what I believe Richard Eckersley means, too.

 

Q4- Write a goal for you local community.

 

A goal that I would choose for my community is for everyone to learn to live in peace and unity.  I believe that when everyone can live in peace and unity they can accomplish so much more.  They can better their community by working together.  It also makes it a safer and healthier place for everyone.

 

Q5- Comment on the excerpts from "Tomorrow's Child".

 

My first comment to the excerpts from "Tomorrow's Child" is it is sad that they refer to children who play with dolls latchkey children.  The way our economy is set up both parents have to work in many cases to make enough income to support their families.  It is also sad that the marketing consultant said 'They'll be able to carry their mother around in doll form.' Shouldn't they be creating toys not babysitters?

            My comment on the second excerpt from "Tomorrow's Child" is I agree with the last thought stating 'How the nation fares in the next century will depend on whether those changes widen the socioeconomic gap between races or help close it.' As many different groups of people come to the USA a day when our children become adults they will have many more accountants with other races than we have while we have been growing up.  We as individuals need to face our fears and make ourselves get along with other races.  The main cause of prejudice in my opinion is fear.  Whether it is the fear of being uneducated about other ethnic groups or the fear of difference.  Hatred is a powerful thing which could break this country in the new millennium we just encountered.  If we cannot learn to get along as individuals what makes us think that our children and grandchildren will?

 

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

 

            According to Kathleen Sullivan, “lawyers are particularly helpful in a democracy by that notion of democracy, going with individualism and social fluidity, is deeply ingrained in our culture.. [lawyers] help, like other internet diaries-between individuals an the state-protect us from the danger of tyranny of the majority.  They create a form of public responsibility an accountability that would not happen in an untrammeled democracy.”  We resist high taxes to sustain it, and that is part of the explanation of why we have lawyers taking on so many functions that in another society might be taken on by government or civil service.

            According to Kathleen Sullivan, diversity makes lawyers particularly helpful by bringing respect to religion, to race, national origin, and in the 20th century with respect to women.

            The third characteristic is wealth that makes lawyers particularly helpful according to Kathleen Sullivan.  They have added programs such as Medicare and Medicaid to access people who worry about longevity of human life.

            The fourth is size.  Lawyers help to achieve what the economists call economies of scale.  They help you save money on repeat transaction by helping set up processes, procedures and rules that enable the same kind of transaction among a lot of people who don't know each other, in a cheaper way.

 

Q7 - Ms. Sullivan claims bad practices are changes either by regulations or punitive damages?  Which do You prefer and why?  Can you think of an alternative?

            I prefer punitive punishment.  Regulations hinder so many people who are innocent.  With regulations many more criminals get away with their crimes.  If punitive punishment would not work efficiently then we would have to come up with some other options.

 

Q-8 Briefly describe three ways society would benefit from the coming retirement of baby boomers, according to the required reading.

 

1.  The coming retirement of baby boomers would offer services to the large number of 

     generation X-ERS.

2.  The coming generation of baby boomers would provide opportunities for teenage   

     entrepreneurs.

3.  The coming retirement of baby boomers may make many generation X-ERs to go into

     business for themselves providing the growing elderly market with home health care, home

     shopping, travel and recreation, and real estate services.

Q-9 My opinion of President Clinton's antipoverty program working is on the less likely side.

            If you are just going to hand out money to people who don't know how to handle money wisely than what is the possibility that they are going to stay in poverty.  If people

don't understand the concept of money or have not been educated about the concept of living cost than how will they know how to use the money.  Why not use the money for schools and places for people in poverty who are uneducated to go and get a good education so they can work efficiently in our society today- OR provide jobs for them to work at to earn a decent wage then slowly work their way up.  My experience is people who have money given to them monthly or on a schedule are less likely not to work because they don't have to.  They are not bringing themselves out of poverty they are just maintaining in poverty with enough to get by.  If they had to work hard for their money like the rest of us they would use it wisely and be sufficient beings in our society.

 

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

 

            Cathy and Lewis are in common by the fact that they both worked hard to start businesses for other people.  They both, I believe, sincerely want to help others.  They both teach Bible studies.  Also they help the youth.  They give them a place to go when they have no other place to go.  They both make great role models of what the American people should be like.