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SURFers visit the Santa Rosa Island Research Station to gain interdisciplinary perspectives. SURFers will visit the island twice for hands-on experiences that complement classroom learning.
GuShan Mountain. Home to both an old missionary village and old Buddhist writings carved into the mountainside.
Being that this is a Blog and that we are supposed to voice our opinions as well as finding facts, I wanted to start my blog with an opinion some may find controversial. Children’s Defense Fund (2015) says, “A child of color, who will be in the majority of U.S. children in 2020, is more than twice as likely to be poor as a White child”. I understand statistics, they are talking about the struggle young African American children will have in 2020. However this website is about all poverty stricken children. Are they saying that we “America” should forget about the white children who are born into poverty? That poor white children have better options? Why are we looking at color to begin with. When I look at a person I do not see color I see an individual. Every child born into poverty is important regardless of their skin color. When you are born you do not choose your skin color or your financial circumstances. When I was watching Child Poverty: In their own words. (2015, July 20). https://youtu.be/MLrTZ5IG_Eg I saw children of all color talking about their experiences with financial hardship. These children are not lazy or unemployed. They are the youth of our nation. They need to have the essential things every other child in America should have, food, water, shelter, an education, support, and love. Jiang (2013) says, “Black, American Indian, and Hispanic children are disproportionately low income and poor”. Every statistic I read was about how white children were in the minority when it came to the low income problem. It seems like everyone is focusing on children’s skin color as apposed to the real problem, poverty. Statistics are a good thing to gather. It identifies where problems lie. However I am concerned that people are getting the idea that white children with a low income problem may lay to the waste side.
When watching Edelman’s Poverty Report I found myself reflecting on something she said for hours. Edelman (2015) states, “The greatest threat to national security does not come from an external enemy it comes from the internal failure to build a strong citizenry”. Yes, how do we expect to have loyalty within our borders when we do not take care of our own citizens? The problem is actually an epidemic. The definition of epidemic is affecting or tending to affect a disproportionately large number of individuals within a population, community, or region at the same time. With such a big problem going on in the United States how is it possible that all TV networks only show the brighter side of life going on all around? According to DeMause (2007) “NBC ran the most stories related to poverty, with 25, followed close behind by CBS with 22. ABC aired only 11 stories addressing poverty in the 38-month study period—a rate of about one every 15 weeks”.
Once again I find myself disagreeing with Karen Sternheimer. Sternheimer (2013), “In the big picture, juvenile violence rate have declined”. There have been 142 school shootings in the United States since 2013, according to an index created by Every town for Gun Safety and Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America. This is just accounting for school shootings. Chicago is in disarray with violence.Chicago’s youth: in 2010, 1,109 school-aged youth were shot, and 216 of those were killed. Nearly half of Chicago’s homicide victims are young people between the ages of 10 and 25. (Youth.GOV) I could go on to talk about many other examples but I think we get the picture that there is a violence problem going on in our youth. If taking precautions with the youth and video games is an answer then we should explore this option. I do not believe it is taking away amendment rights. I believe it is protecting our youth’s innocence.
Goldhabers theory is interesting. Goldhabers (1998) explains, “that when our material desires are more or less satisfied, such that we do not feel pressures of scarcity (such as being afraid of hunger or lack of shelter), we are driven increasingly by ‘desires of a less strictly material kind’.” Maybe this is why I see more people traveling as they get older. He continues to talk about living in an age of information and attention. We have infinite amounts of information at our fingertips but it is attention that shapes our reality. Our world contradicts itself in many ways. I agree with Sarah Carrell’s blog post. School systems are constantly finding fault with attention seeking students. Labeling them ADD and problematic. I too was diagnosed as having ADD as a child. My teachers punished me for having attention seeking tendencies. This is an interesting contradiction to how we view actors. Actors are routinely loved and adored for all of their attention seeking behaviors.
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