Community Service P.A.D.S ( 3 hours )

Yesterday I did my final hours at St.Mary of Vernon with P.a.D.S. I was exited to volunteer and help the homeless get a nice dinner and a place to sleep. The first thing we did was set up mats for the people to sleep on. We had to put sheets and a pillow on the bed. Then we organized clothes that the homeless could take for free. I was surprised how much clothes the church had to give out; there were boxes of t-shirts, socks, gloves, etc. By then the homeless bus showed up and in came all the homeless people. As I looked at them I noticed how few of them actually looked homeless. Most of them looked like ordinary people that live in a house and live a normal life. All of the people I talked to were very friendly and nice. Some were pretty funny so it was nice to laugh with them and have a good time. This service opportunity was much more special than the first one I did. Since I was actually in contact with the homeless, I could see how they acted/looked/behaved. I’m really glad I decided to do some hours at p.a.d.s because ive never been around that kind of environment I came out of that service with a good feeling that I actually helped people out and gave back to the community.

Final Post

With sociology class slowing coming to an end, I rewind myself to the first day in class. I walked through the door not knowing much, if anything about sociology. Now, I have a much better understanding of the society I live in and how its shaped by all of the different influences that people have made. With all of the activities and the community service I did, it opened my eyes to the reality of the influences. Today, I went to St. Mary of Vernon for p.a.d.s. The first community service I did was at Habit building a house. I felt good for helping out but it was not anything special. I'm really glad that I went to p.a.d.s and helped the homeless today. I was surprised at how they look so much like any other home-owning person. This service opportunity was much better because I was surrounded by homeless people and saw it with my own eyes. I now see the world/people in a diffrent way. Before I was not aware of all the sociological influences around me but now I think with a sociological imagination. Unlike other classes I take, this class taught me things that I use in daily life and how to be overall a better person. Thanks for the great class Sal!

Crash

As I watched Crash, anger and sadness filled my body through out the movie. At times I wished I could punch the middle east store keeper also along with Sandra Bullock in the face because of there actions towards the Mexican worker. Just because Mexicans are stereotyped to be in gangs and bad people dose not mean they actually are. Of course there are Mexican gang members but there are white gangs too so I don't see why some people are so afraid colored people. The younger cop that asked to get a new partner surprised me the most. He came off as non-racist white cop that actually wanted to help out others but at the end he turned out to stereotype his black friend causing him to kill a innocent person. This movie really opens peoples eyes to the society we live in. I think every High school student should watch this movie because its capable of changing the way people thing about others.

Black or White? its not that simple

If your not white then you must be black. Sadly that is how most people think the the U.S/World. Its crazy that people categorize human beings because there are so many different kinds of races. There is not just a black race or white race. When we did the activity where we tried to guess what race the person is, I was very surprised that we only got 4 out of 20 something correct. It made me realize that you cant really tell what race someone is by just looking at them. Just because someone has small squinty eyes doesn't mean they are Asian or if someone has a dark skin color it doesn't mean they are from Africa.

Life in lower class

This week in class we learned about how hard it is to get by in life by working on minimum wage. When we played monopoly I started in the lower-middle class and ended up with 200 more dollars than I started with. Now if we look at someone who started at a higher class like Frank, he ended up with thousands more than he started with! .This activity made me realize how hard it is to move up in class rank. If your living on minimum wage with no college degree there is not much opportunity to move up in class. Unlike living in the middle class where you have money to invest in say the stock market or starting a business, the lower class just doesn't have the money to do things like that. I cant even imagine how hard of a life it would be to raise a family working minimum wage but there are hundred of thousands of people living this kind of a life style for their whole life. So I made a conclusion that life is just unfair if you grow up in a lower class family =[.

Social Class

Most people will say that everyone is created equal in the U.S. I disagree, if you are raised in a rich family then you have a better chance at succeeding in life, or at least you have a "head start" in  becoming rich and successful. Since your family has money to spend, you can get a tutor, go to a better school, have money for college and so on. On the other hand, if you are raised in a poor family, you will most likely stay in the lower to middle class when you are older. Unlike the rich families, you don't money to get help from a tutor, you go to a worse school and the only money for college that your getting is from loans or scholarships. Its sad to see kids not being able to perform at their full potential or get the best educating they can just because they don't have the money for it. Like the kid from the movie that we watched, his mom cant even drive to work because she doesn't have enough money to fix it. He has a much more difficult road to college than a rich kid from linconshire would.

Jail is not the answer

The U.S has only 5% of the worlds population but it has one fourth of the worlds prisoners. With that statistic we have to ask ourselves why? The episode of 30 days helped me understand why we have so many prisoners. It seems like we just throw people in jail for anything these days. I found out that 50% of prisoners are in jail because of drugs. I was really shocked about this because jail is not the right approach to taking drugs addicts off the streets. Forcing people not to do drugs will not help them at all, there is a reason why they are addicted. They need to get help and not just sit in a room all day. Its good that they have a program where they help addicts get clean but its not mandatory and you can leave whenever you want. Instead what prisons should be doing is sending drug addicts to rehab or making all drug convicted people go to some type of drug prevention program. I also think they dint treat mental patients right, again they need to be sent somewhere to get help with there problem. The prison system really has to make some type of change, prisoners should not be sleeping on the ground and be there if its not for a drug problem or has mental problems.