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In today’s modern society, there are numerous amounts of Americans who complain about the current issues and status of our country, but how many of them are exercising their rights as Americans and taking responsibility to make an impact? We live in a land of opportunity, although the majority of us are followers, we as a human race have a habit of waiting for someone to take the initiative, express, or lead us. Although I’m still young and still pursuing my educational career, I can still take ownership of my actions, and take responsibility to impact our astonishing country, one step at a time. My responsibility to America is to aim for success and utilize my acquired skills to help establish a more robust foundation for the future generation …show more content…
of Americans. One of my essential responsibilities to America is to appreciate and take advantage of the privileges given to me and exercise those rights and privileges to enhance the community. We are blessed to reside in a country that respects our basic fundamental values, yet many of us still take our privileges for granted. We shouldn’t waste the opportunities we’re fortunate enough to have when there are various countries who are less fortunate, with few opportunities to pursue. As I listen to the conversations being held every day, I’ve come to realize some students simply don’t desire an education, and the majority of them don’t appreciate the benefits of education, they take it for granted, with most of them planning to drop out at the legal age. On the other hand, there are millions of children worldwide in third world countries who’ve never been offered the opportunity to an education due to poverty, and according to Humanium.org, more than 71 million children in third world countries of primary education age are not in school. Luckily I was fortunate enough to have the privilege of receiving an education, which makes me capable and offers me the potential to utilize my knowledge to good use such as: helping others who require it, graduating high school, and expressing my knowledge through work that could influence the community. Everyone has the ability to harness their skills to improve the community, even if you’re a teacher sharing your knowledge to your students. In addition to that, working hard is a fundamental and empowering responsibility we as Americans should possess, and without hard work it would be difficult to succeed in accomplishing our goals and dreams.
Richard Trumka taught me an influential lesson from his quote, he states, “You see, without hard work and responsibility, there is no American Dream. Hard work lays the foundation. Our solidarity makes work pay - for all of us. For the greater good. That’s what our vision of shared prosperity is all about.” It’s a simple life lesson commonly forgotten in the shadows, because those who have things handed to them tend to become lazy and forget the values of hard work. Those out there who work hard to strive for success or just to get by, are truly the ones laying the foundation for our future. Similar to them, I’m making an attempt to achieve success by working hard in my educational career as a student, and it’s my responsibility to destroy the boundaries separating me from my end game. During my 7th grade year my friends convinced me to tryout for the school’s soccer team, although I had no experience in the sport or any sport at the time, so I decided to experiment with the recreation department as well as attending the school’s soccer conditioning. Despite the disasters on my first few trial runs and hardly having the capability to run a mile beneath 8 minutes, I buried it in the past and worked harder every day with the goal of making the team. After months of …show more content…
pain, sore muscles, and pure hard work, I gained the capability to run a 5:30 mile and made the team the following year in addition to the next. With that in mind, just imagine a community filled with hard workers striving for their goals such as becoming a doctor, making a sports team, or whatever their passion may be. Hard work is an essential responsibility we should all acquire, after all the price of success is hard work. Finally, my last responsibility to America is look after and refine the future of America.
It’s important that we do everything within our power to help create a better future for the next generation of Americans. Some people may argue that we don’t have any obligations to people who don’t exist yet, but regardless of those arguments, I believe they deserve to live in an environment where prejudice, environmental issues,political issues, and violence is reduced to a bare minimum. According to the CDC over 780 million people worldwide do not have access to safe drinking water, and An estimated 801,000 children younger than 5 years of age perish from diarrhea each year, mostly in developing countries. Considering those facts, we should do our best to preserve the good factors of America, and remove the negative factors such as pollution, so our children and their children can enjoy the America for it’s true worth. Everyone can contribute to the cause by completing small tasks that lead to big changes such as recycling, picking up trash, conserving energy, spreading optimism,
etc. Overall, the pathway to change is paved by responsibility, we all have the ability to make a difference whether big or small. Although I’m just an ordinary person in a world engulfed by people, I realize my contributions combined with those of others can lead to a bigger picture. Don’t be a follower, be a leader and take ownership of your actions and play your role in creating a better foundation for our future generations.
Finally, President Obama calls for action. He reminds us, through anaphora, that “our journey is not complete” until we are all equal and more opportunistic, per-se. Obama tells us that that is our task, alluding to the Declaration of Independence, to “make these words, rights, these values of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness real for every American” is a task that we will all go through together as one to achieve for all. Concluding his speech, the president reminds us that we are the hope; we ARE the change.
In my life, I had not had the chance to be a part of something that influenced me much, until I joined football my freshman year in high school. Joining football was perhaps the most devoted and wisest thing that I did because shortly after joining I began to see changes for the better, and from then I saw the person that I wanted to be in the future. In other words, it shaped the person that I am today and will be for the rest of my life. Not only did the sport influence me but it also equipped me with a new mindset that affects me today in my decision making skills, time management and many other beneficial life virtues. I believe that these virtues will bring me success in the nearest future because I feel confident about myself and I feel more in control in my life through my actions, all thanks to simply joining what seemed to be a “regular” extracurricular.
I am a strong believer in hard work. It is no wonder that Colvin’s principle of hard work parallels the success in many areas of my life. One being my very successful reign in school, and while this may not seem like an exceptional accomplishment compared to sports or music, it is important to me. Over the years I have been successful in all areas of school. I have been able to learn a variety of subjects, process the knowledge, and showcase it through homework or tests. I know t...
Those that identify with duty-based citizenship norms are more likely to participate in traditional electoral style political behaviors such as paying income taxes, voting in elections, or serving in the armed forces- historically, this has been the most prevalent form of citizen involvement in politics. In recent years there has been a shift in focus among the younger generation from conventional duty based citizenship norms to a more involved, hands-on form of participation described as engaged citizenship. Those that identify with the engaged citizen model may still participate in electoral politics but are more likely to involve themselves through behaviors such as volunteer work, protesting unethical public entities and directly contacting public officials about issues that concern them. Duty based citizens differ from engaged citizens not only in the ways that they involve themselves politically, but also in the types of issues that they tend to focus on- for example, while duty-based citizens are more likely to focus on issues of the administrative, regulatory and fiscal variety, engaged citizens tend to focus on social, cultural and humanitarian issues. It could be argued that the duty-based model
The word “my” is defined as “of or relating to me or myself especially as possessor, agent, object of an action, or familiar person.” I don’t feel that this word correctly describes my relation with our country. If I were to, in any way, have possession of this nation, I would be able to control what goes on; but I’m not. Citizens in general (especially minors) have extremely little control in our government; even adult citizens who can elect their representatives are motivated by false pretenses. Potential voters bombarded by a multitude of facades put on by professional role-players trying to snatch the largest demographic group ...so... (?) that they can and coerce them into supporting their candidacy even if the voter's views don't agree with the candidate's. Politics is a land of half-truths and empty promises.
Athletics has made a difference in my life through its redefining of the word “success.” Before I got involved with track and cross country, success was measured by goals I set and achieved for myself that made me happy. Since then, I have realized that success is much more gratifying when it is dependent on making those around me proud. In track, success is when I have trained hard enough so that I am able to help my relay team win a race or break the school record. In cross country, success is when I have built up enough endurance to contribute to the team score and help my team move on to the state meet. This mentality has translated to my daily life, as I am constantly working hard to please those around me. At school, I always do my homework and get good grades so that my teachers do not have to focus extra energy on getting me to do my work. At work, I strive to go above and beyond my typical duties so that I can lessen the responsibilities of my co-workers. At home, I help out with chores without being asked so that my parents can have one less thing
I decided that I wanted to play a sport, I chose volleyball. Most of my friends played the sport so it wasn't hard for me to adjust and make new friends. Becoming a student athlete was a big adjustment for me, I could no longer float through my classes but I need to excel. And that's exactly what I did. For the first time in my high school career I made not only honor roll, but principal’s honor roll. For the first time my mom was proud of my report card, that made me even more proud. From then on I knew I wanted nothing less than what I earned, good grades and a proud family. From my decision to chose to become a student athlete not only make me work harder but, be great at everything I put my mind to. I had motivation to stay successful, to stay eligible. Three years ago if you were to ask me where I thought I would be my senior year, I probably would have told you low level classes barely making it by. Now here I am today excelling in my education preparing to take the next step in my future, college. Even if we don’t understand why we go through them, we have to be willing to let our obstacles become out
Evironmentalism: The Next Step Broad Social Change Through Personal Commitment Introduction In the last thirty years, America has witnessed an environmental revolution. New laws like the 1963 Clean Air Act and the 1974 Safe Drinking Water Act forged new ground in political environmentalism. Social phenomena like Earth Day, organized by Dennis Hayes in 1970, and the beginning of large-scale recycling, marked by Oregon's 1972 Bottle Bill, have help change the way Americans think about the environment. As we approach the third millennium, however, we must reconsider our place on the planet and reflect on our efforts and progress towards a sustainable society. As global warming becomes a scientific reality, natural disasters make monthly appearances in the headlines, and communities continue to find their ground-water contaminated by industrial and nuclear waste, we must ask ourselves: are we doing enough? The environmental movement in the past has largely been a social and political phenomenon. While many of us recycle (yet still only 35 percent of us) and take dead batteries to our town's Hazardous Waste Day, most Americans have not made the environment a personal issue. Very few of us have taken the kind of personal life-changing steps that are necessary to create an environmentally sustainable society. It is simply naive to believe that America's present rates of consumption, waste production, and environmental contamination are sustainable. The kind of social change required can only happen when we as individuals embrace the effort in our everyday lives. Only then will corporate America and the government realize that they too must change to maintain their customer base and public support. This kind of personal commitment to change would also create a new social ethic based on the environment under which people and companies who do not care for the earth would be held socially and financially responsible. In six parts, this article will re-examine our place in the environmental movement and investigate exactly what changes we can make in our personal lives to bring about positive change. These areas are transportation, energy, recycling and waste management, toxins and pollution, food, and water. Some of the changes discussed will require sacrifice. But, more important, these changes will often simplify our lives, bring our families and communities closer ...
Everyone in this world always looks for the easy way out. In that case, it wasn't me. One time that my hard work paid off was during my freshman soccer season. The two past years I didn't get into the boy's soccer team because I knew that I wasn't good enough to be on the team. That didn't mean I should just give up on soccer because I'm not good at it. That only meant I had to get better. ON the summer when I was going to become a freshman my friends invited for them to join their team. I did and we practiced every day in the park with 90-degree weather.We were so good won the summer league in our local soccer stadium. I continued to work hard after summer because soccer season started in January.January came and I went to the tryouts for
When I think of America I think of freedom and citizenship. The right to vote or the right of free speech are aspects that, as citizens, we posses. Being born in America automatically gives you these rights and many more, and most importantly, you become a citizen. Now, with citizenship comes responsibility such as obeying the law and paying taxes. So if you follow these simple rules does this make you an effective citizen? This question, in my opinion, is almost impossible to answer for a number of reasons, which will be addressed in the following paper. It was extremely hard to come up with a clear cut answer as to what an effective citizen entails. I grappled with this term through many drafts and in the end came up with many conclusions about effective citizenship. Let me state my main point of this paper, and that is, effective citizenship entails so many things and the true meaning of a “good citizen” differs from person to person and from time to time. In this paper I will share with you how the idea of effective citizenship varies according to person and time and my personal beliefs on what is effective citizenship.
...at we need. Clean up the rivers and streams, lakes and oceans. Reduce the use of chemicals and pesticides. But society must do something, even if only donating money to an organization who does. Just do something to help, before even more animals disappear, before all the fish and forests are gone, before the earth has so little diversity that only humans remain.
There are many things we need to change in society to become sustainable for future generations. One thing is for certain, we all need to do our part to contribute to this effort, and there is no time like the present to change our ways.
As you know, I am not a famous ball player or athlete. I am not a famous actor, entertainer or person with millions in the bank. I am not an ex-con who is going to tell you not to take the same path I took. However, my bio is quite powerful. Everything I went through made me the strong man I am today. I knew that education would be the key to my success. I developed the hunger and desire to be successful at a young age. I had so many reasons to become a statistic or to fail. Every one of those reasons would only have been excuses. I simply refused to become another negative statistic and that was a conscientious choice I made.
As an environmentalist (or a "radical" environmentalist, as I am often labeled by members of the mainstream environmental movement), I feel it is my duty as a protector of the Earth's well-being to write this editorial as a means of bringing into the American consciousness a variety of frightening environmental issues. Though some of you may be aware of these problems, I know many are not, and thus may be shocked to learn about the degradation of our Earth and the people living in it. Indeed, I truly believe that "since the dawn of the industrial age, America has behaved like an alcoholic with a good job—prospering despite a lifestyle that jeopardizes the future and ruins much of what is good with irresponsible behavior.
I believe that we have several responsibilities towards future generations, including sustainable energy sources, managed resources, conservation, and to impart knowledge of environmental sustainability in a widespread way. I believe that must fulfill these obligations for the continuation of the human species survival in the future.