Valley Springs High School
Valley Springs, Arkansas
Teacher: Lavina Grandon

 

 

Responsibility as a Person

 

By Heather Keys

Grade 12, Age 18

 

How can a single individual help to improve a community?  Communities can only operate with ease if single individuals assume their responsibilities and become role models for others.  Each person must show good personal character, family integration, school performance, job performance, and community volunteerism.

           

Each individual must show good personal character.  Good personal character is characterized by morality.  For example, people must know the difference between right and wrong and good and evil.  They must practice these morals in many ways, such as not stealing and not committing adultery.  Personal character is also shown by having compassion for others when they are suffering and are having hard times.  People must also be honest.  Honesty is very crucial in having good personal character.  People would not think of others as good people if they could not trust what they said.  All of these characteristics of a good personal character make people enjoyable to be around, trustworthy, and excellent role models.

 

Next, each individual must show family integration to help a community operate with ease.  Everyone in a family has a special role to perform. If this role is performed to the best of that person’s ability it not only makes this person become a better person in their community but it also helps the other members of the family to strive to do better at their roles of responsibility in the family.  This is why divorce should not take place within a family.  Truett Cathy says, “The best gift a mother and dad can give to their children is to love each other and live under the same roof.”  When divorce is brought into a family, it changes the roles of the family.  One parent, mother or father, should not have to fulfill both roles of parenting; likewise, one child should not be expected to assume the role and responsibilities of another family member, but instead everyone must work together in a team effort to fulfill all of the family’s responsibility to become a better person and to help the community become a better place to live and raise families.

           

Third, each individual must have good school performance to help the community to become a better place.  Truett Cathy didn’t have much use for school while he was coming up, but now he has an abiding faith that education improves people and broadens their horizons.  Good school performance would be things such as trying hard to learn and make good grades, wanting to get involved in group activities or sports, getting along well with others, and being on time and ready for class when the bell rings.  All of these things are qualities of good school performance.  These qualities help the community because they prepare people to become workers in the community.  If everyone showed these characteristics, there would be better communities because there would be fewer families on welfare, suffering from poverty, and letting everyone else’s tax money pay for them to live.  So in the long run, something as small as striving to make good grades or being on time for class helps people to understand their responsibility as a person and as a student to the community and to the well-being of others.

           

Fourth, each individual must strive to show good work performance.  “We pride ourselves in individualism, on the fact that where we come from doesn’t determine where we go, on social mobility” says Sullivan .  This is a very important factor in the well being of a community.  Communities would not be enjoyable places to live in if everyone neglected their responsibility to work and their responsibility to show good work ethics for the good of the community.  Every adult should assume his or her role as a worker so that other members of the community do not have to spend their hard earned money to support that person and his family.  People should also show good work ethics, such as punctuality, regular attendance, honesty, and trying to do well at their job.  For example, if a person is never on time for work, regularly calls in sick, and is very negative and spends more time trying to get out of work rather just getting it done, this becomes a headache and a burden for the whole company or place of employment.  Therefore, people should try their best to show good work performance and work ethics.

           

Last, individuals must show active community volunteerism.  Volunteerism is getting involved in the well being of the community and its members.  This is a big responsibility that should be shared among all of the community’s members.  This responsibility is increasingly important because of our non-renewable resources, which if used up can never again be replaced, and because of health factors to people from things like polluted lakes, rivers, and air.  Ecologists say that we are one of the millions of species whose fate hangs on our interactions with other species and the physical environment.  Volunteerism is not only important for the environment but also for the well-being of our fellow humans, such as, disabled people, battered women, homeless people, and less fortunate children.  If someone volunteers to pick up trash or to mentor a child, he is not only helping others but he is becoming a better individual.

           

People should assume their responsibilities and role as active and involved member of a community.  A few of these responsibilities involve showing good personal character, family integration, good school performance, job performance, and community volunteerism.  Believe it or not, one individual can improve a community greatly by just assuming a few responsibilities and by becoming a role model for others.

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References

Barry, J.  (1998).  Doing good by eating chicken.  Philanthropy, 3,5 (96),

Eckersley, R.  (1999). Is life really getting better?  The Futurist, (January).

Sullivan, K.  (1999).  The good that lawyers do [Speech posted on the World Wide Web].  Retrieved November 5,1999 from the World Wide Web:http://www.singerfoundation.org

Wingert, P.  (1998). I do, I do-maybe.  Newsweek, 133 (58).

 

Answers To Questions For Required Reading

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

They invest in marriage by paying for certain things that contribute to that marriage.  For example, a bride’s family pays for the wedding.

 

Q2)  Interview 10 married people.  State the length and number of marriages and a line of advice from each on how to maintain a long, happy relationship.

 

2 marriages-First marriage lasted 3 years, second marriage lasted 2 years until presepresent.  Always keep communication in the marriage.

 

1 marriage-20 years  Listen to each other and be there for one another.

 

1 marriage-5 years  Keep things new and interesting.

 

3 marriages- First marriage lasted 1 year, second marriage lasted 4 years and third marriage lasted 4 years until present. Listen to one another.

 

1 marriage- 22 years  Love each other unconditionally.

 

1 marriage- 3 years  Be faithful and true.

 

1 marriage- 8 years Communication is key in a marriage.

 

4 marriages-First marriage lasted one year, second marriage lasted 3 years, third marriage lasted 7 months, and fourth marriage lasted 5 years until present. Care for one another and be sensitive to one another’s feelings.

 

1 marriage-  14 years Be truthful always.

 

1 marriage- 2 years Love each other no matter what.

 

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

Our collective goal should be to live a healthier, wealthier, happier, and more satisfying life.

 

Q4) Write a worthy goal for you local community.

Our community should make a place for the youth to hang out.

 

Q5) Comment on the experts from “Tomorrow’s Child”.

Children are too dependent on their parents and before too long minorities may have a greater population.

 

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

They can keep an innocent man from going to jail and being punished for a crime he did not commit.  Since our country is widely populated, it’s good to have someone who can help you since not everyone knows everyone else.

 

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

Regulations.  They regulate situations before they become damaging.  No.

 

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

The baby boomers would start businesses and employ young people, the might persuade businesses to have “elder care” and day care, and they might retire and leave their positions open.

 

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 don’t think his plan is very likely to happen because a lot of people don’t want to work, the ones that do may not be qualified, and I don’t believe that everything will change so suddenly.

 

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

They both wanted to create a good business, they were both persistent, and they both were successful.