Hello Everyone!
Today's topic is Early Americans responding to neediness. I thought this was an interesting topic as I can answer the modern Americans with ease, but Early Americans is a difficult one.
I would have to say that Early Americans appeared to not really give into neediness a whole lot. To me, they seem to enjoy brushing it under the rug so to speak. An example is from last week, or Monday, in class when we had the students reading the skit of the blind woman's testimony of being warned out of her town. I think that this shows kind of what Early Americans were like when people needed help. The government anyways. They sort of were like, "Hmm... you're pregnant? Oh sorry. We're warning you out. You can't have your baby here. Sorry!" It was a cruel sort of thing to do to these people who could have had help. The pregnant women for example weren't ill or anything, they were simply bringing new life to the town.
On the other hand, there is the private charities which were set up to help people in need. This was set up probably because the government was not all that willing to give out charity to those who need it. It moves me to see the charities being created to help others live a somewhat happy life. I think these are the people who are respected amongst the lesser privileged because they don't have as much. These charities made it their mission to help and it helped and carried well into modern American society. We have countless charities and they aren't all for the homeless or the needy. The fact that people in Early America knew the importance of helping others who were in need touches my heart. I also love to learn about them acting just like we do because we as students typically only hear about the bad history (the wars, the plague, etc.). It's a breath of fresh air to learn about people being genuinely nice.
Until Next Time,
~Amanda
Friday, November 21, 2014
Friday, November 14, 2014
Community Service and Early America
Hello Everyone,
Today I am exploring the topic of how communities exclude, judge, and/or restrict people in today's society through my community service as well as Early America.
In today's society, especially the Day-By-Day Warming Shelter, it is clear that even though there is another shelter they can be turned away. the Warming Shelter is a place that the homeless can go when they are turned away from the other shelter for not passing their background checks. Since the warming shelter only runs on a temporary basis, they can only have a certain amount of people in the building. Their limit is 25 people which really is not a lot so the volunteers are then forced to turn people away which may seem a little disheartening.
In Early America, I noticed that there was a lot of let's ignore the homeless and the poor. For example, in Salem, MA over 50% of their profits went toward poor relief. When they looked at their statistics they went "Oh sorry, we are spending too much on you. We're going to make a welfare program." So they then went and did that to push people off of poverty. These people became excluded from their society in that respect. They were forced to find their own resources because their government was judging them based on what they didn't have.
I feel as if in both societies poverty is seen as something that is always hidden. These people have gone through some tough things to get where they are. So why do we judge them? We don't know half of what they have gone through. Is it our right to exclude, judge, or restrict them? I don't think so. They have gone to great lengths to stay alive as the trainer at the Warming Shelter said. I think they should at least be respected.
Until next time,
~Amanda
Today I am exploring the topic of how communities exclude, judge, and/or restrict people in today's society through my community service as well as Early America.
In today's society, especially the Day-By-Day Warming Shelter, it is clear that even though there is another shelter they can be turned away. the Warming Shelter is a place that the homeless can go when they are turned away from the other shelter for not passing their background checks. Since the warming shelter only runs on a temporary basis, they can only have a certain amount of people in the building. Their limit is 25 people which really is not a lot so the volunteers are then forced to turn people away which may seem a little disheartening.
In Early America, I noticed that there was a lot of let's ignore the homeless and the poor. For example, in Salem, MA over 50% of their profits went toward poor relief. When they looked at their statistics they went "Oh sorry, we are spending too much on you. We're going to make a welfare program." So they then went and did that to push people off of poverty. These people became excluded from their society in that respect. They were forced to find their own resources because their government was judging them based on what they didn't have.
I feel as if in both societies poverty is seen as something that is always hidden. These people have gone through some tough things to get where they are. So why do we judge them? We don't know half of what they have gone through. Is it our right to exclude, judge, or restrict them? I don't think so. They have gone to great lengths to stay alive as the trainer at the Warming Shelter said. I think they should at least be respected.
Until next time,
~Amanda
Thursday, November 13, 2014
5: Community Experience
Hello Everyone,
Last Thursday I had the chance to spend some time participating in a simulation related to poverty. Of course, this wasn't seeing the public but we got to learn about what kinds of things people went through and how stressful the environment was.
Please note that the community service I have done was quite minimal at the point. I have six hours left and most of that was sorting food. The Saturday after the simulation took place I had an hour and a half training for the warming shelter. My contact with the citizens of our community was extremely small.
The simulation itself was pretty straightforward. I had the job of running the day care and making sure the people sent their children here, payed for the fees, etc. There were two families who didn't have to pay a penny for childcare because their family had "prepaid." The others, however didn't seem to want to have their children cared for.
At the start of the simulation, week one, everyone and their mother's brought their stuffed dolls to me. At the end of the week, people forgot to pick up their children and pay their fees so I had to enlist the help of the police officer who sent these people to jail.
The whole experience made me realize, especially in my part, that people don't get the help that they need. At one of the stations there was a voucher to pay for child care an no one got the voucher. I was shocked because I even said that they were available when I introduced myself. Since most of the simulation there wasn't a whole lot for me to do, I was able to people watch. I saw the small groups of strangers sitting on the floor in their "homes" and arguing about how to pay for things just to pay for food, transportation, etc. It was kind of eye opening.
Until Next Time,
~Amanda
Last Thursday I had the chance to spend some time participating in a simulation related to poverty. Of course, this wasn't seeing the public but we got to learn about what kinds of things people went through and how stressful the environment was.
Please note that the community service I have done was quite minimal at the point. I have six hours left and most of that was sorting food. The Saturday after the simulation took place I had an hour and a half training for the warming shelter. My contact with the citizens of our community was extremely small.
The simulation itself was pretty straightforward. I had the job of running the day care and making sure the people sent their children here, payed for the fees, etc. There were two families who didn't have to pay a penny for childcare because their family had "prepaid." The others, however didn't seem to want to have their children cared for.
At the start of the simulation, week one, everyone and their mother's brought their stuffed dolls to me. At the end of the week, people forgot to pick up their children and pay their fees so I had to enlist the help of the police officer who sent these people to jail.
The whole experience made me realize, especially in my part, that people don't get the help that they need. At one of the stations there was a voucher to pay for child care an no one got the voucher. I was shocked because I even said that they were available when I introduced myself. Since most of the simulation there wasn't a whole lot for me to do, I was able to people watch. I saw the small groups of strangers sitting on the floor in their "homes" and arguing about how to pay for things just to pay for food, transportation, etc. It was kind of eye opening.
Until Next Time,
~Amanda
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