Kadoka High School
Kadoka, South Dakota
Teacher: Teresa Shuck
The Role Of Personal Responsibility
In Improving
The Quality Of Life In Our Communities Today.
by Luke Vander May
Grade 10
In order to improve the quality of life in our communities today people need to get involved and help clean up the town. People need to get involved in various activities in the community to help improve it.
Getting involved means entering groups or clubs in the community that help the community. Some of these clubs or groups would be the Lions Club, church groups, or other community clubs like this. These are usually targeted for the middle age and older people of the community. In these groups, the people provide services to others in the community and help keep the place clean.
Children can get involved too. There are groups in schools that help keep the community clean and make sure people have food to eat and in some places make sure these kinds of people have a place to steep. Some groups in school that help improve the community are FFA, FBLA, student council and some classes also help. The FFA and FBLA chapters raise food for people around the community who might need or want it. The FFA and FBLA chapters also help clean the communities and area around them. The student council helps keep the towns clean. They also help to raise money for various causes around the community.
Most of the work that these groups do for the community is volunteer work. In order to keep the quality of life in our communities improving we need to do work for free. People today need to do more work for the community that is volunteer. People today expect too much in return for everything they do.
In cleaning up the towns we need to pick up trash, help with the up-keep of old buildings in the town help the needy people, and try to keep the crime rates lower. I feel that if we tried to accomplish all of these, it would improve the quality of life today.
If people of the community help pick up trash around town, it will make the place look better. When we have clean streets, it makes the towns look good so people may enjoy living there more. We also need to help with the upkeep of old buildings in the towns and cities. If we just let these old buildings fall in or demolish them, a piece of history from the town will be gone. I feel we need these old buildings around the towns and cities to help tell of the past generations and their accomplishments.
In today's communities there are large numbers of homeless and hungry people. People like this need to be treated just like any other person that walks the streets today. If we help get homeless people a home and food, they will not be living on the streets anymore, and that will also make the community look better and make some people feet safer.
Another way to help make the communities safer is lower the crime rate. Today there is a rise of teen crime. If children were raised different sometimes, the would not grow up to be criminals. Children need to be taken better care of and parents need to pay more attention to their children. If they would do so, that would lower the number of gangs and gang crimes. Children feel that they are not loved or are not accepted so they will join a gang and end up a c just because they felt that they were not loved. It would also lower the number of school shootings across the country. If parents would teach that those kinds of things were wrong, it would lower the number of the shootings and other crimes happening in communities across the country today.
I feel that there needs to be more groups or clubs where teens can go hang out, have fun, and play games with each other. Groups like letterman’s club, pep club, or just have a place where they can go to have fun would help. This would make kids feel like they had a place to turn when things got bad. It would make people feel like they always had a place to go or somebody to talk to. It might keep some of the teenagers out of gangs, which would then help keep them out of trouble with the law.
In communities now days, it is to easy for teens to get alcohol and tobacco products. Some teenagers take on things like smoking or drugs because they have nothing else better to do with their time. If it were harder for teens to get alcohol and tobacco products, it might cut down on the under age use of them. If there were a harsher penalty for using these products under age people would not experiment with them because they would be scared of the penalty. The penalty for over use or under age use of these products needs to be harsh enough that teenagers are scared to use them.
I feel if people would try to accomplish some of these things in our communities today, the quality of life would greatly improve. We may never be able to get all of these things accomplished, but there needs to be a great effort put forth to try to make them happen.
Questions from the readings
1.) How does society invest in marriage in the USA and in
Manus?
In the US. marriage is kind of a spiritual or ego thing, while in Manus it is taken seriously and is a big deal. In the US, Marriage is not taken as seriously as in other places in the world. "People give to a male child, dogs' teeth and shell money and the recipients on the brides side pay these amounts back in pigs and oil."
2.)
Interview 10 married people. 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.
4 yr We need to have communication. We need to understand each other.
11 yr We need to trust each other. If a couple doesn't trust one another, it will not work.
7 yr What we do to make our e List is have fun together. We also need to love each other.
31 yr We have been through some tough times, but we have trusted each other to make it last.
25 yr The way we have made our marriage work is
communication. If you don’t have
com-munication a marriage will not work.
40 yr Trust, love, and communication is what is takes for a long Lasting marriage
15 yr You have to be a good match. We are alike that is why we are together.
10 yr If a couple does not have @t a marriage will not work.
7 yr You need to love each other to make a marriage Last. If two people are together just to be together it won’t work.
20 yr A couple needs to have a "happy home" for a good marriage, with a lot of communication.
3.)
According to Richard Eckersley, what should
our collective goal be?
Our collective goal should be not to keep growing. "We can’t keep getting more if in doing that we deplete the natural resources and damage the ecosystem process on which all life on earth depends, ourselves included." He says "the task is not simply to abandon growth; it is to move beyond growth.
4.)
Write a worthy goal for my community.
A worthy goal for my community would be to clean it up a little bit. There are many old buildings that need something done with them; either restore them or tear them down. There is also trash that needs to be cleaned up in the community. We, the community, need to team up and clean up the town.
5.)
Comment on the excerpts from
"Tomorrow’s Child."
My opinion on "Tomorrow's Child" would be that it is true. Children in the future will be able to carry their mother around in doff form. Nowadays they have doffs and toys of eve . Before we know it children will be c dolls of their parents with them. I think that we need to eliminate things like this that will replace parents. A doll can not come close to accomplishing what a mother or father can. A doll can’t feed, bathe, clean, or do any of those things that a real parent can. I think that we need to keep parents in the home and not try to replace them with dolls or action figures.
6.) How does the fact that USA is a democracy make lawyers parochial helpful, according to Kathleen Sullivan? How does our diversity, wealth and size make lawyers particularly helpful?
Our diversity, wealth and size makes jobs for lawyers. There are always people fighting and lawyers trying to help settle those disputes. Lawyers help to achieve what the economists call economies of scale. If it weren’t for lawyers, there would be more crime because people would try to settle their problems them selves and the result would not always be good. People have a choice in what they want to so they can argue for their belongings or they can just let it go.
7.)
Ms. Sullivan claim bad practices are changed
either by regulations or punitive
damages. Which do I prefer and why? Can I think of an alternative?
If someone has a bad practice and they put regulations on it the person will have to
change their practice or find an alternative practice. If then do not find an alternative, them might be able to get by for a while, but will eventually get caught and punished for disobeying the law. I agree with putting some regulations on a bad practice. They will have some punishment then. If people are just charged with punitive damages, that would not affect many of the rich people.
8.)
Briefly describe three ways society would
benefit from the coming retirement of
baby boomers, according to the required reading.
When some baby boomers retire the community will benefit. Whether it is
providing jobs for younger people or providing services to them, the community will benefit. When some people retire, they don’t do much after that. Some will still provide services to other people and volunteer all of their work. Some people try to help improve the community. They will join church and neighborhood committees. Some of the retirees help to advocate for everything from land conservation to preserving Social Security. So whether it is retiring and making open jobs for other people, services to others, society would benefit from their retirement.
9.)
Evaluate the likelihood of President
Clinton’s anti-poverty program making a real
impact. Give at least three reasons
to back up my conclusion.
I feel the anti-poverty program will work in some places and it will not work in other places. Not every poor person will change when President Clinton’s plan is put into effect. I grow up on the South Dakota Sioux Reservation and see how people act. People on the Reservation will not pay attention to the program. They get money the way it is now, they will not work for it if they can get it for free. Other places people will go along with the plan. Some people are sick and tired of being poor and they will work for money if there is a job there for them.
10.) Name three things Truett Cathy and Tom Lewis have in common.
Truett Cathy is the Founder and CEO of Chick-fil-A, fried chicken sandwich. Truett Cathy is a respected philanthropist who believes in using his gifts from Cod. Cathy invented the Cluck-fill-A sandwich, which went on to make him a lot of money. He had a positive influence on people. He set a good example and showed people how to succeed. Truett Cathy took in unloved children and acted as their parent.
Tom Lewis was also committed to helping the needy children. He also set a good example for others to follow, and had a positive influence. Both Truett Cathy and Tom Lewis have shown society how to be positive and how we can help the people who need help.