Saints and Roughnecks

Reading the Article Saints and Roughnecks, there were students at Stevenson that clearly came to my mind that matched the descriptions of the Saints and Roughnecks. There are some kids that do well in school, are athletic, and treat adults with authority, but outside of the building they are quite different. And the same goes for roughnecks as well. I'm not sure if money is the main factor, but appearance certainly has a large impact. And money may play into the appearance that someone has. The students that come to school well dressed, with good hygiene, and sit attentively in class can seamlessly fool everyone. The students that are not well dressed and sit slumped do not have much expected from them, so they only need to live up to those few expectations. This can relate to the 30 days episode. Many People go to prison and they just become hardened criminals. And they return to their old ways because they have not been taught that anything more is expected of them. They have developed this image as a criminal and continue to live life with that appearance.

Deviance and Perception

When we read Saints and Roughnecks, we found that the Saints were never really punished for their misbehaving because the were from middle class families and treated the police with remorse and respect. The Roughnecks however got in more trouble because they were perceived as bad kids from the start and that's all they where ever treated like. I have noticed this over the years at school as well. There's always one student that walks into class on the first looking like a troublemaker and the majority of teachers are rougher on that student. I think this is either because other teachers have told them about this student and how he or she misbehaves, or it could also be because that teacher has had students in the past that walk around with the same attitude and look as this "roughneck" that walks into class on the first day. But in contrast, I have also seen teachers and other authority figures not notice that some kids act nice and polite in class, but outside they can cause trouble. I think as kids get older, they get better at hiding their wrongdoings as opposed to as when they were in elementary school and kids always got caught doing something bad. I felt bad for the roughnecks in the reading because no one ever gave them a chance to be a good kid and they were stuck doing what the other kids in their gang did. This reading has taught me that one day when I'm an adult, I might be put in a situation where I can either choose to give a roughneck a chance to succeed, or not; and I would like to think that I would make the right decision.

What Would You Do?

I wish everyone was as deviant as the man in the story "A Victim Treats His Mugger Right". This story was incredible, but I'm not sure if I could do what Diaz did. I'm guessing if I was in that situation, I would do what the majority of people do, give the mugger my money and run away. So I guess I wouldn't deviate from social norms in that way. Sometimes, it can be very risky when trying to make a positive difference when straying away from social norms. I don't know how Diaz knew the mugger wouldn't hurt him. Its sad that now a days we are more surprised by someone doing something nice when it isn't deservex as opposed to someone being mean. There is a show on ABC that I watch sometimes call "What Would You Do?" The show sets up different scenario with actors that everyone has heard of, but probably not experienced, and there is always someone in some kind of trouble. One time there was a woman being yelled at and pushed around by her boyfriend, and another time there was a cashier trying to rip off a blind person. The show records all the people who happen to be in the area or in any way involve themselves to see how they act. I've noticed that in every episode, there are only a few people who show exceptional deviance from the social norm and help whoever is in need. The host always calls these people heroes. But shouldn't this be how everyone is supposed to act? So how come someone is a hero for doing what they are supposed to do? Probably because the majority of people don't do what they are really supposed to do. And I admit to not doing the right thing all the time either. I hope that one day the social norm will no longer be ignoring people in need, but helping them.

Seed Packing

Every Saturday evening, I help out at the Junior High ministry at my church. Usually we go to service with the kids, and afterwards, all the leaders take a small group of boys or girls and expand on the service with them. But on Saturday April 10, from 5:30pm to 7:00pm, instead of having a normal service and small group time, we participated in seed packing. In the gymnasium of the church, where the ministry is normally set up, there the over 20 table set up as seed packing stations. At each station, there were people scooping seeding in to small envelopes and sealing the envelopes. There were also people who grabbed five packs at a time with a planting instruction sheet and brought them over to the baggers. The baggers put the sets of packs into plastic bags and taped them closed. The boxers then put all the bags in to a box. During this seed packing session, everyone participating packed 23 boxes of cabbage seeds. This will grow 15 million pounds of cabbage. Imagine how many people that will feed! These seed packs are going to poverty stricken countries that the church has partnered with. These packs will be given to people so that they can create their own garden. The food these people grow in their gardens will be used to feed themselves and their families. The excess can be sold to create a form of income. By giving these people these packs of seeds, we are not just given them food, we are giving them skills to increase their quality of life.

Compassion and Justice

On Saturday March 26, I participated in a service opportunity that I had never done before. Each year at my church, everyone participates in what is called Celebration of Hope. This celebration is three weeks long. One of the aspects of Celebration of Hope is the 5 day challenge. With this challenge, for five days the members of the church eat as millions of the poorest people in the world do everyday, on less than two dollars. You are supposed to eat a small portion of oatmeal for breakfast and a cup of rice and beans for lunch and dinner. During my serve, I came to church from 9:00am until 3:00pm and helped pack canvas bags with rice, beans and oatmeal. These bags will later be given out to the church attendees, so they will have the correct amounts of the food they need to complete the 5 day challenge. Each bag contained enough food to last a family of 4 for one day, and it was hardly anything compared to what we eat everyday. All together the group I worked with packed only about 4800 bags, that was only a small dent however in the tens of  thousands that needed to be packed. It was a cool experience to be able to work behind the scenes in an effort to help the members of the church see how fortunate we all are in all the food we have. This would hopefully in turn give them the compassion to participate in the other aspects of Celebration of Hope, which are giving so that the church can help the local and global community, and helping pack 50,000 seeds packs so that people living in poverty can grow a garden in order to receive an income and food for their families. This time of year always makes me excited to see all the people at my church come together with love for people we don't even know, but we are passionate about them receiving justice.

Femininity and the Media

We see and hear all the time from commercials and other forms of advertisement how females are supposed to look. But we also hear so often that the girls in these ads are photo shopped and retouched to make that result someone that is not really a person. But when you hear two opposite things so often, what are you supposed to believe? Is it true that these girls aren't real, or that we all should actually look like them? Just like every other girl, I'm not confident in myself all the time. It's true that the kinds of advertisements that are out there that we saw in the video Killing Us Softly 4 can make a girl feel bad, but while watching the video, I realized that I have learned to tune out some messages that these companies are sending. I think part of it is that I see the same kinds of ads over and over during the years so they stop having an effect, but also I've come to accept aspects of myself. For example, I'm barely 5 foot 1 so I know its actually impossible for me to be taller and have the "perfect body" the media portrays. I've found that stressing over literally unattainable things is wasted energy. I believe that God made every person with a specific purpose and we are all made in his image. God thinks we all are beautiful and knows the number of every hair on everyone's heads. By keeping that in mind, it puts things in perspective for me that if the Creator of everything loves me for who I am, then who do I need to impress or change myself for?  However, its tough for me too keep this mindset when people tell me they don't like things about me. I remember in middle school, another girl who wasn't even my friend came up to me and told me my hair looked bad, that was seven years ago and I still remember it and it still makes me self concious. So we don't only have the media to blame, its the people who we see in public, the ones who's opinions we worry about that make us see ourselves is poorly.