Social Awareness Project

Reading response on a social issue in a literary work.

The poem “Not Waving but Drowning” by Stevie Smith addresses the issue of people in society not caring about other people. The poem does this by making a situation where this young man is disconnected from the world. It is obvious that society doesn't understand this man. This makes him feel dead inside and uncared for. This poem shows how society just cuts people out and makes them feel like they’re not important.

The poet’s wants people to think about how sad and distant people feel when they’re cut out.  The poet also hopes that in the future everyone can be accepted and people can stop ignoring other people.   The message also is that people don’t understand other people and that is a problem. People should try to understand other people by seeing what is with the person.

In this poem there is one person trying to get help from other people, but no one is helping. The person who was trying to get help was “drowning” because he was all alone and the other people assumed that he was all right. In the poem the poet uses the words “not waving but drowning” twice. This makes me feel bad for the person who was drowning from loneliness. The opening line is “Nobody heard him, the dead man.”  It makes me feel bad that the person could not be heard even though he is moaning.

In the middle stanza the other people sound like they know everything about the person who is all alone. Their attitude towards the other person is very uncaring.  When they say “poor chap, he always loved larking,” it sounds like they think they know what this man is like. But it is obvious that they have no idea who this man is when he says “Oh, no no no.”

            This poem is about how people in society should care about other people.  


            Reading response on a social issue in articles.

“Scientists trace the current warming trend to the industrial revolution.”  The issue is whether or not Obama or Romney has a better vision on global warming. Obama has a better vision and record on the environment because of his plan to wean the United States from depending on coal and oil, so new energy technologies such as solar, wind and battery powered cars can be used.

  Obama has a better vision and record on the environment.  For example, he plans to wean the United States from relying on coal and oil so new energy technologies such as solar, wind and battery powered cars can be used.  Also, Obama’s cap-and-trade and renewable –electricity bill would have improved the environment. These example’s make Obama’s plan better than Romney’s because Romney would “increase oil drilling offshore and in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, roll back the Environmental Protection Agency’s regulations on coal-fired power plants and oil refineries, and slash government subsidies for renewable energy.”  These examples prove that Obama’s plan is better because scientists have figured out that “technology breakthroughs led to huge increase in the burning of fossil fuels to power factories and cars and heat and cool our homes and offices. Since the late 1800s, the amount of co2 in the atmosphere has increased by more than 35 percent, and Earth’s average temperature has risen by about 1.40F (0.8C).”  This statement makes the problem look like burning fossil fuels is the problem making Obama’s plan is better because he wants America to stop using oil and coal. This would be an attempt to stop making global warming worse.  Therefore it is a good idea.  But, Romney on the other hand wants to increase the use of fossil fuels, which could be making global warming worse. Thus, Obama has a better vision and record on the environment.

I think Obama has a better vision and record on the environment because he wants to try and stop global warming from getting worse. Obama will do this by attempting to wean America from relying on oil and coal which could be the cause of global warming. I think this is a good idea because fossil fuels are probably the source of global warming and by not using them anymore it will be better for the environment because it will get rid of C02 and polution. So in all, the articles make me feel like Obama has a better vision on global warming. 

              Observing your surroundings

List of scenes or situations I see:

·         Neighbors not considering the effect of what they are doing on the people living nearby;

·         Displaced Sandy victims;

·         Muggings/house break-ins;

·         Homelessness/poverty;

·         Unemployment; and

·         Lack of school funding.      

Today neighbors don’t consider the effect of what they are doing on the people living nearby.  For instance the electric leaf blower, a very modern convenience makes one person’s job of cleaning their front sidewalk easier.  For people living nearby though, it just makes sweeping more time consuming by adding more leaves that need to get picked up.  I come across this problem almost every week. I usually sweep once a week as a chore, but when my neighbor comes out with his electric leaf blower I have to sweep again because he blows all the leaves from his sidewalk onto my front sidewalk.  In my experience, neighbors don’t consider the people living near them.

 It is all caused by inconsiderate neighbors who are trying to save time cleaning, which sounds like a good thing. Well it is not, the leaves just blow onto someone else’s front making their front dirtier. Also, the leaves that weren't picked up are brushed over dog poop because dog owners don’t want to pick up their dogs poop.   Eventually, the poop is stepped on and smeared all over the block. All this could have been stopped if neighbors actually picked up their dogs poop. Also, the city coming around with sweeping trucks more often to collect some of the spread leaves would help. But most of all this problem could be solved if everyone just picked up the leaves in front of their houses instead of spreading them onto their neighbor’s front sidewalks.  

Bibliography 
Freeman, Suzanne. "Wild Weather." Junior Scholastic Vol. 114 No.14 (Apr 23, 2012): 6-8.  (Edited by Ann Hoffman/school librarian).

Davenport, Coral. "Obama vs. Romney--Energy: Fuel for the Fire." National Journal (Aug 23, 2012).  (Edited by Ann Hoffman/school librarian).

Smith,Stevie. "Not Waving but Drowning." Poetry Foundation. <http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/175778>.

Blog #2

In the book Shadow by Michael Morpurgo, a little boy named Aman and his mom run away from Afghanistan hoping to get to England to seek asylum and stay at their uncle’s place. Six years after they get to England and seek asylum they are arrested and detained at a prison called Yarl’s Wood.  When they’re at the detention center, Aman and his mother were going to get shipped back to Afghanistan until Matt, Aman’s friend, and his Grandpa write an article in the paper telling people to come protest to stop Aman and his mother from getting shipped back. After hours of protesting with hundreds of people they finally get what they want: Aman and his mother can stay in England. Matt and his Grandpa are very persistent.

Matt shows that he is a very persistent person throughout the story. Matt is persistent because he wants his Grandpa to go see how his friend Aman is doing and he isn’t happy until his Grandpa does. This shows how persistent Matt is because he won’t give up trying to know how Aman is doing inside the detention center. Even though his Grandpa is scared, Matt will not let him go home until he goes inside.   Matt doesn’t give up when no one shows up to the protest, but soon friends and several families show up and the crowed gets bigger and bigger.

Grandpa shows that he is very persistent throughout the story.  He won’t  give up on Aman because he loves Matt. So when Matt wants to help Aman, so does Grandpa. Since Grandpa had been a news paper writer, he writes up an article and gives it to his old editor to put on the front page of the next day’s paper. Grandpa does this because Matt suggests it to try and get more people to know what is happening. After being up all night Grandpa and Matt go to the protest to help Aman.

The book is named after a dog named Shadow who helps Aman and his mom get out of Afghanistan. Shadow’s story is a lot like Matt and Grandpa’s story because Shadow would not let Aman and his mother down by letting them get hurt. He did this by leading them to safety.  Matt and Grandpa are a lot like Shadow because they also lead Aman and his mother to safety by fighting for them to be able to stay in England. So in all, Matt, his Grandpa and Shadow are very persistent. 

Nonfiction Reading – Review and reflect

In the two articles I read Disruption From Storm May Be Felt at the Polls by Michael Copper and A Slow Return to Normal Skips the Gas Station by Elizabeth Harris, they both talk about the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy and its disruptions. In the first article by Michael Cooper, it explained how some places had no place to vote since the storm either damaged or destroyed the polling buildings. It also explained how those voting buildings were being replaced by military trucks or the people were told to go to another area to vote. In the second article by Elizabeth Harris it explained how there was not enough gas to go around and how some people waited for hours to try and get gas but when they got to the front of the line there was no gas. The article also explained that gas was being reserved for first responders who needed the gas. Both of the articles talk about how Hurricane Sandy was still causing disruptions after it left.

In the article Disruption From Storm May Be Felt at the Polls the author explained how voting in some areas was going to be done a little differently than normal for some people due to storm damage. For example, “some New Jersey voters may find their hurricane damaged polling sites replaced by military truck, with-in the words of the state’s lieutenant governor, Kim Guadagno-“a well situated national guardsman and a big sign saying ‘vote here.’” After reading this the author made me think about how hard some areas got hit by the storm that some couldn’t even vote in local buildings like they normally do. Also after reading this article I realized that some people probably didn’t vote because they either didn’t have a place to or just didn’t feel like going out to vote.  

In the article A Slow Return to Normal Skips the Gas Station the author explained how gas supplies were a problem after the storm. For example, “Tony Kurasz sat in his sport utility vehicle for three hours on Saturday at an Exxon station in Bayonne, N.J.; he was six cars away from the pump when the station ran out of gas. It was his second gas line of the day. The first station ran out, too.” After reading this I thought that there should have been a plan to get gas to all the gas stations so they didn’t run out.  Also, after reading this the author made me realize that there really was a bad problem with the lack of gas because there were probably a lot of people like Tony Kurasz who couldn’t go anywhere since there was no gas.   

The articles Disruption From Storm May Be Felt at the Polls and A Slow Return to Normal Skips the Gas Station really explained the difficulties the disruptions from Hurricane Sandy caused. Also, these articles showed how voting places for some areas were changed due to severe damage. In addition, they explained how gas was running low throughout the area which was causing major problems. In all the articles changed the way I thought about the storm and made me realize that it really was a bad storm that caused a lot of problems. The articles contrast with my life because it was hard to get gas to get around the city. The articles make me wonder how long it will take to fully recover.