One Must Search for Beauty in All Things
I never had the benefit of a spiritual guide. No one ever counseled me to “search for beauty in all things”. Perhaps it is most beneficial to learn some things through experience.
I ran away from an abusive stepfather and an alcoholic mother when I was thirteen and it was the best decision I ever made. I slept on rooftops and hallways for a year before the state took custody of me and placed me in a group home. Over the next four years I would live in several different homes ranging from a hundred children to less than ten and attend four different high schools. Ultimately though, I finished high school on time and with honors.
Group homes are a strange place to grow up in. There is a structure. Dinner is eaten at a certain time and after eleven o'clock everyone goes upstairs. There are case reviews and mandatory meetings with social workers. We would take turns doing the dishes and preparing meals. Some of the group homes I was in are locked facilities where the children only go out for specific activities. But group homes are also lawless. They are crowded. The majority of the children are on some sort of probation. Violence is rampant. Upstairs there are gang meetings, freehand tattoos, and games of dice. Liquor and hard drugs are common. While we were required to leave in the morning, we were not required to attend school, and as such, most kids did not finish high school.
In many ways, the group homes defined who I am, much the way a person's family and upbringing would define them. The core of my value system was formed during the formative years of fourteen to eighteen. In the group I learned to be discerning without being judgmental. With my friends I was able to go into the neighborhoods where they grew up, neighborhoods I would never have been able to go into otherwise. For a while I lived in a home across from the Robert Taylor Projects, the largest housing projects in the world. In these group homes I met the people who still constitute my family.
For me the group homes were a positive experience, for most they are not. I was fortunate in that I was a little more driven, and maybe a little more intelligent than the average kid in my circumstances.
When Cris Bean was writing the book, he mentioned a couple of times the fact of how traumatizing it can be for kids who end up in foster care. When a kid is placed into the foster care system, it can be very stressful and disorientating the first few days. Probably the hardest part is wrapping your head around the fact that now a child is in the foster care system and why are they there. Many kids that are older probably did not have to follow many rules since the biological parents where perhaps on drugs, alcohol, or not even being there at all. So, living in a new house with rules can be a very difficult thing to follow, or even if the child has reasoning for right and wrong.
The United States has no more important foreign relation ship than that of which it enjoys with Mexico, and vice versa. These two countries share interwoven societies and economies. Although there have been disagreements and turbulence between the two countries, which partnership is without these? The Strength of each country’s democracy is fundamental to the other’s. This relationship that the two countries share directly affects that lives of millions of Mexican and United States citizens everyday. Recently these two countries have become even more unified than ever before. Tackling issues such as Border Control, Countering Narcotics, Dealing with multiple Law enforcement agencies, Human Rights laws, trade and development, etc. There are many issues that they are mutually interested in and must deal with. Yet, there are some vast differences in which these two countries are run. There are also many similarities, which we must take into account. Both Democratic Governments have similar structures, containing a legislative, judicial, and executive branch. Yet, these structures are very different internally, containing specific duties that the other country’s branch may not have.
For thirty-four years Mexico existed under the dictatorship of Porfirio Diaz. During this time Mexico’s industries flourished however the Mexican people remained deep in poverty with little to no opportunities for educational growth. The Mexican revolution was the result of Diaz’s fall from leadership, the peons need for independence, and resulted in a new beginning for Mexico. The Mexican Revolution began due to Porfirio Diaz not allowing anyone to have a voice or say in whatever it is they must do. The people of Mexico were upset because everyone was in poverty because only a select few people actually had money because Porfirio Diaz allowed them to those select few where also the ones in power behind Porfirio. Due to all of the poverty and the poor not having a say in anything they do or have to do it caused an uprising of the peasants led by Emeliano Zapata and Pancho Villa which are greatly known for their effort against the corruption and poverty in Mexico. Although Porfirio Diaz had brought some great things to help Mexico flourish in the industrial form and economical form but for the normal working class citizens that aren’t good friends with Diaz or know him on a personal level are left broke and are left with no way to get away from their financial problems because Diaz doesn’t allow them to make enough money to prosper in anything they do. Diaz’s way of ruling Mexico was so bad that it didn’t even allow the majority of the people of Mexico to get an education because they couldn’t afford it. The only people to benefit from the new rail road systems and factories were the rich hacienda land owners. The rich hacienda owners were also the people who were basically in control over the peons they had control over them as ...
Prisoners were put under a monotonous and strict routine designed to keep them from rebelling. They were given the basic human needs: clothing, food, shelter, and medical care. Any other privileges had to be earned. One of the inmates’ biggest complaints was that it was always cold on the island. Another complaint was the rule of silence which banned conversation between inmates except for during recreation time and meals. This rule was eventually discontinued. Prisoners who acted out at Alcatraz were put in either the strip cell or the hole. Both were cells in complete isolation from other inmates but in the strip cell inmates were placed in the lightless cell naked and the only ‘toilet’ was a hole in the ground.
In the United States’ current state of war with Iraq, its relationships to other world powers have become increasingly important. The U.S.’s relationship with Mexico, in particular, has emerged as one of the most crucial relationships that the U.S. must work to maintain in this state of war. In recent years, the U.S. and Mexico have established and developed a famously strong relationship, and the friendship between U.S. President Bush and Mexico President Vicente Fox has continued to solidify the connection between the two countries. Bush was quoted in the Economist as saying, back in 2001, “America has no closer relationship” . The closeness of this relationship has placed both countries in precarious, high-pressure positions relative to one another with regard to the war in Iraq. In particular, negotiations between the two leaders on issues of trade and immigration laws have shaped the current relationship between Mexico and the U.S. and have consequently contributed to the strain that both leaders have felt, and continue to feel, as they struggle to maintain this close relationship in the face of the war. More specifically, recent developments, or lack thereof, with regard to these issues have significantly influenced Fox’s decision of whether or not to support the U.S. in the war against Iraq. Furthermore, media portrayal both of negotiations between the two countries and of the effects that the negotiations are having on U.S./Mexico relations is influencing public perceptions of the relationship in both countries, and, as a result, may even be affecting the relationship itself in the process.
Have you ever been discouraged or tired of your daily routine? At one point, you become so used to your routine that you are not able to see the great things that are happening in your surroundings. The story A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings by Gabriel Garcia Marquez demonstrates how to see the beauty in the ugly and ordinary through its plot, its character and its oxymoron.
Mexican Lives is a rare piece of literature that accounts for the human struggle of an underdeveloped nation, which is kept impoverished in order to create wealth for that of another nation, the United States. The reader is shown that the act of globalization and inclusion in the world’s economies, more directly the United States, is not always beneficial to all parties involved. The data and interviews, which Hellman has put forth for her readers, contain some aspect of negativity that has impacted their lives by their nation’s choice to intertwine their economy with that of the United States. Therefore it can only be concluded that the entering into world markets, that of Mexico into the United States, does not always bring on positive outcomes. Thus, one sees that Mexico has become this wasteland of economic excrement; as a result it has become inherently reliant on the United States.
The foster system intends to place children in homes where they will remain until they can find permanent residence with an adoptive family. Sadly, this is often not the case with children placed privatized homes and they end up bouncing from home to home until they eventually age out of the system forced to enter into adulthood with no permanent family ties. Over the past decade the number of teenagers aging out of the system without a permanent family has risen from 19,000 to 23,000 per year. These teenages enter into the world without emotional, relational, or financial support and therefore possess a greater risk of poverty as well as low academic achievement. This causes many of these teenagers to rely on government benefits during their adult lives which places a heavier burden on taxpayers. The National Council for Adoption reported that the 29,000 teenagers that aged out of the system in 2007 will cost over one billion dollars per year in public assistance and support. These teenagers who age out are also found to be at greater risk of concerning behaviors, such as: creating disciplinary problems in school, dropping out of school, becoming unemployed and homeless, becoming teenage parents, abusing alcohol and drugs, and committing crimes. The privatized system does not have the best interest of the children in mind and
Hobbes explanation of the state and the sovereign arises from what he calls “the State of Nature”. The State of Nature is the absence of political authority. There is no ruler, no laws and Hobbes believes that this is the natural condition of humanity (Hobbes 1839-45, 72). In the State of Nature there is equality. By this, Hobbes means, that there is a rough equality of power. This is because anyone has the power to kill anyone (Hobbes 1839-45, 71). Hobbes argues that the State of Nature is a violent, continuous war between every person. He claims that the State of nature is a state of w...
Imagine you have just turned 9 years old and in a whirlwind of uncertainty you have just been removed by Child Protective Services from the only home you have ever known. You have been subjected to trauma; physically abused, verbally abused, and to some extent neglected as well. You now live in a temporary shelter where you are housed with 8 other children your age being taken care of by various staff; you are scared and lost, unsure about your future. You are forced to leave the only school you have ever attended in order to attend a school closer to your new “placement.” You have been torn from your family and friends making you feel all the more alone and frightened. This process of movement in school and placement will occur several times over the next few years placing you in a continual state of chaos. Each school transition moves you further behind in a perpetual state of academic catch up. Although this story was hypothetical, this is the long-standing reality for many foster youth. The actual implications of real life experiences for foster youth encompass personal, emotional, and educational problems. This
When I completed Middle School, I was living with my dad and uncle, but during the Summer my dad went into federal prison. My uncle couldn't take care of me so I had to move with my mom's friend down in Florida. Then another situation happened where I couldn't live with my mom's friends anymore so I had to go back to New York and live with my Grandma, since my dad was still in prison. Since then, I still live my Grandma, but I now attend Brentwood High School because my address runs with their district.
Luckily we did not have to move into a shelter. My mom and brothers moved in with her boyfriend and I bounced from place to place for a while. One would think that not having a forever home would have a toll on a fifteen year old, but for me, I felt a sense of pride for having full responsibility of myself. Even though I was away from my mom and brothers it felt like a kind of vacation. Eventually I moved in with my aunt and rode the city bus to school every morning, got a part time job that I worked at for 3 years, and worked harder in school.
There are group homes that take care of sick and disabled children which involve the adults talking to the child and taking them to doctor appointments along with physical therapy. Some of the kids in group homes are too weak to take part in public schools such as cancer and paralysis. These group homes do focus on the children more than the homes that are full of children that did not have a foster home to go to. When there are not enough homes open to foster children they are put in group homes.
There is much evidence documenting the serious damage suffered by children without permanent homes who are placed in substandard foster homes. Children frequently become victims of the "foster care shuffle," in which they are moved from temporary home to temporary home. A child stuck in permanent foster care can live in 20 or more homes by the time she reaches 18. It is not surprising, therefore, that long-term foster care is associated with increased emotional problems, delinquency, substance abuse and academic problems.5