Week 10

The assigned readings and video should be shared on T.V. instead of a lot of these commercials that waste a lot of time and money. For the first reading when the author said, “What forces are in motion” reminded me of how that is the hardest for me to figure out. That is one of the things that constantly bugs me every day, what forces are in motion that is steadily causing these inequalities? It seems like a lot of forces are in motion everywhere, except some kind of forces that are not being given the opportunity to take place. When it was said that there are flesh and blood women and men that are involved, it made me think of how I heard in another class lecture that was said about how humans have made all of this happen. Which leads to the question of, only a certain group or all? From the looks of it, the dominant group is causing all of this chaos. There are people who are living in inequity without a choice to do anything else, so when the author had said that there hasn’t been any finding good ways to go from unequal to equal, I feel like there are ways and it is just not being done. Maybe I shouldn’t say that because I don’t know everything that is going on in the world but if I can wish for world peace, and think of at least a few ways to fix some things, then surely there must be so many brilliant brains and ideas out there with solutions that can be established that could work better than it is now. The system was made into what it is today and I believe that it can be fixed to meet the needs that are urgent, by doing what is not being done, by doing it instead of all this procrastinating, but I guess it doesn't happen because not everyone is stepping toward the same goal: justice and liberty for all.

Another fact mentioned was how your birth defines you. I find that interesting in how it supposedly relates directly to astrology, which that is the case of how your birth defines you, that the time and place of our births define each of our personalities that are defined and created by the different locations of the planets and the stars that affect all aspects of our lives. But speaking in this social foundations of justice context, there are labels that are destructive and created by the dominant group. The last questions of the chapter were the same ones that I have been asking, who sets the terms? It is time to set the right terms, it is time to get the right people to set the terms straight and keep it the way that it should be.

 In the second reading, it verifies that banks have a responsibility other than just profit. When the author had mentioned how one of the students had said that they needed to balance the budget for the good of the country instead of helping others, that made me automatically think to myself, what was the country like in the first place? It seemed like it was doing good enough without all this complexity.  It wasn’t always like this, so how did humanity survive before all of these issues? Native Americans seemed to live in peace amongst each other with the way things were before someone came over here trying to dominate and control everything. This country is built and based on a bunch of whatever you want to call it and it has made excuses for everything that it has done in the past. It is time to get down to the nitty gritty and settle the real issues once and for all.

Now the video really pressed my buttons. The very fact that when people come out of prison and there is nothing there for them, except being labeled as a felon where most jobs wont hire, difficulties with Medicaid preventing people getting their medicines, along with neglected trauma victims, and convenient liquor stores, what other options do they have? The system has only came up with incarceration as the only answer to the problems that exist. Wow, I mean if it doesn’t get any more obvious than that. (I still don’t understand). But if someone does good in jail just because someone is there to feed them, tell them what to do, then that means when they get out, there is no where to go, nothing to do, because all options have been taken away from them, there is nothing out there for them because of the way that it has been made to be like that. Nobody trusts them, or gives them the opportunity to try again. That is what people need, these chances with a real opportunity, and not just something that they can barely get by with.

One of the girls has all of these goals and when she starts talking about her father, she says she doesn’t care, but she starts to cry, saying she doesn’t want to talk about it anymore. In my opinion, she has to talk about that to someone who can help her get through that, get some kind of therapy counseling because I know what it feels like, to not have a father there when needed. Yes, my father loved me and said that he wished he was here with me but he made the wrong choices that led him somewhere else, even though he has found another wife, had two young kids and he is finally doing for them what he never did for me and my older brother and sister. He is still not there for me, financially, mentally, emotionally, he says he would help me but he never does. He has problems of all sorts, supposedly now he is sober, and it still affects me because its like I made the mistakes in my life because he wasn’t there, but I knew what I was doing in the past, or maybe I didn’t. But whatever happened, happened, now I am on the right track, and I still need his help but I know that I cannot depend on him and that still hurts, but I got to grow up and be the woman that my kids need me to be. I feel better that I have told him how I felt, but its all the same. That is like when these people get out of jail, they still need help and they don’t get the help that they need. For the kids, they got their whole life ahead of them but the way that the life is made for them sets them up for failure. Imagine how many kids grow up without the parents that they need to depend on? It is time the USA as a whole community makes the changes that need to be made now. All these institutions and people who get paid for a living to work in all those bug buildings need to get started on something and keep up with it. They got started on something that is obviously not working, so what is the next step? Have a meeting, talk about these issues that exist, mass incarceration, discrimination, laws, employment, education, etc. It is time for these systems to be updated.