Wednesday, March 4, 2009

Creating social change is not easy

The Stanford student understands that there are experiences that teach us lessons. He believes that there are moments in life that alter the course of time. Volunteering is one of those experiences powerful enough to change one's perspective forever. Studies indicate that students forget half of what they learn passively, but they remember 90% when they do the “real thing.” Much of volunteering is hands-on learning by actually “doing something” and takes you out of the traditional classroom setting and into the community. Volunteering helps one believe in oneself and helps you realize that your voice is a powerful tool for real life social change!

Unfortunately, and I hate to do this but I would have to sadly agree with Thomas Hobbs that men are inherently evil and that by our very nature were constantly in a struggle for power and wealth. Hobbs believes that all human beings are ever concerned with is the maximizing of their own powers. This is all they should be concerned with and that all human beings, by nature, desire power after power. That’s why I believe that eradicating homelessness is something that is unseen in our life time and even our children children’s lifetime. The U.S. is the richest nation in the world, yet is doing nothing to help its homeless citizens. WHY?! What this nation needs is a strong national agenda against domestic violence, and drug and prostitution policies based on rehabilitation rather than criminalization. Putting tax money back into the pockets of the rich can surely wait. For politicians, ignoring the homeless is easy. That’s why activism is important of bringing about social change. Being active for social change will help find ways to keep working towards injustice and creating strong communities which encourage economic, social and psychological health.

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