Society’s Moral Fiber, Change

On Monday one of my coworkers said something interesting that addressed two interesting topics. The first was how the way you look at current events changes when you become a parent and the second was about how society’s moral fiber changes. This post will mainly address the second topic primarily, but if any parents are reading this, I’d love to hear about how their views changed by comparing how they looked at things before and after they had kids.

Society’s moral fiber is a very interesting topic because the easiest way to see this change is through the change of style of women’s clothing. I’m not saying it to address anything in a sexist or negative manner, but the change over the last 100 years basically shows how society changed what they accepted over time. In the beginning women were basically wearing large dresses that covered up the majority of their body and swimsuits were one pieces. Now, we see little girls in mini-skirts, spaghetti straps, and women on the beach in bikinis.

The way this topic came up was because one of my coworkers mentioned how she wasn’t really bothered by Miley Cyrus’ behavior. My other coworker quickly asked her how she could say that when she had a kid. He asked her how she would feel if she had a daughter doing that on stage for the public to see. Her response was that society was coming down too hard on Miley and that no harm came from her performance. His final response was that there was no apparent harm, but it could set a precedent that other people base their decisions on. Given enough time, this precedent could lead to other more vulgar performances. His summary was, society’s morals change slowly over time, the change is so slow that people overlook how much harm this change can cause, at the end of the day if it isn’t stopped now, then society lowers its standards, resulting in comparably low moral fiber.

In a sense I do agree with what he is saying. I don’t have a problem with fashion because at the end of the day it’s another form of expression. I must admit I am not in favor of Miley’s decisions, but it’s her life, her image, and ultimately her freedom of expression. Ultimately I feel that society is ever changing. What we agree to one day may not be the same idea, action, or policy that we agree with in the future. The results of our approved standards or moral fiber is what we as a society must deal with whether they are positive or negative.

Thanks for reading. Feel free to comment/share your thoughts or experience.

MLK’s Dream, Stalled Progress

This morning when I was waiting for my orientation to start, I saw a TIME magazine with Martin Luther King Jr’s face on it. I decided to read the article One Dream. In the article, the author describes how MLK’s famous “I Have A Dream” speech came to be, how his vision was a spark for change, and how the progress from that change is still a work in progress.

The most interesting thing about the article is it only addressed the issues that African-Americans face in society today. To a certain degree I understand why that is. African-Americans face the most negative stereotypes in society today. They are one of the most harassed minorities when encountering law enforcement. Society itself also tends to behave differently around African-Americans thinking they are criminals or less educated. For the most part the civil rights movement did have a positive outcome. But the progress has seemed to stall. The blatant racism and hate crimes are rare occurrences, but Americans still have issues with all minorities.

I have no problem with the author’s focus on African-American civil rights because of the magnitude of the issue in our country’s history, but to leave out the issues that all minorities face in an America where the minority’s voice is louder than ever is just a shame. African-Americans aren’t the only ones who’ve suffered racism in our country’s history. Mexican Americans/Latinos/Hispanics deal with just as many social stereotypes as African-Americans. The likelihood that they are harassed by police is close to African-Americans. Asian Americans face jokes about their last names, eyes, and accents. Everywhere you turn, what may seem like a harmless joke about race is actually a form of racism. Even if you have no malicious intent, telling these jokes only tells others that racial stereotypes are funny.

The likelihood that these stereotypes go away is very low, but being aware of the things we say, do, and think about minorities is a step in the right direction. What we need to remember is that America was built on the backs of immigrants from all over the world. Every race/ethnicity has just as much of a right to be in America as the others. No one ethnicity was the sole reason why America is as successful as it is now. The true meaning to being an American is about coming together and working for a better future for ourselves, our children, and our society.

Thanks for reading. Feel free to comment or share.

SNAP Challenge – Stepping Into Someone Else’s Reality (PT.2)

Alright, in this post I’ll be continuing and concluding the topic of food insecurity. Like I said before, I got this idea based on Panera’s CEO, Ron Shaich’s own experience with the one week SNAP Challenge. On his last day, his post highlighted the main things that he learned through the challenge as well as the mind-boggling statistics regarding the reality that many of us are unaware of.

In his post, he cites statistics from the USDA and the Census Bureau regarding the 45 million Americans who live below the poverty line. In case you don’t know where the bar is set for the check out this link to see the chart the details what counts as poverty in America. The USDA states that approximately one in six Americans are affected by food insecurity. One in six, think about that. This means someone in your block, your apartment complex, or your townhouse community is struggling to make ends meet and feed themselves or their family. What’s even more shocking is the level of education that some of these people have.

Food insecurity doesn’t only affect immigrants, people without high school or college education, or the homeless. We need to remember that the elderly live on a very small budget once they retire. Life gets tougher as you grow older, not easier. The elderly are constrained not only by the amount of aid they get from social security, but also by the proximity and availability of affordable food options in nearby grocery stores. Those also affected include college graduates who struggle perhaps due to debt, unforeseen circumstances, or the struggle to find work. Included in this issue are children. Children suffer the same fates their parents suffer. The tragedy of this issue affecting children is they depend on food to develop physically as well as mentally. If these children’s ability to develop is stunted due to lack of nutrition, it will only result in further struggle for them when they mature.

So what’s the point of this post? To bring about awareness. Most of the people who read this blog are my friends who are around my age. If we become more aware of such a pressing issue, maybe we are then able to take notice of the problem and try to assist in this issue. After all, this may look like a personal struggle, but overall it is a social issue that needs to be addressed. Many people feel that government aid is a sham that ends up being exploited by criminals, but at the end of the day, what system isn’t being exploited? What matters most is that there is some form of assistance for those who really need it. If we were to shut down or reduce the budget of every program that the government provides, then college grants should be cut, social security/unemployment should be cut, and public parks should be shut down. But again, the exploitation of public programs isn’t where we should be focused. Our focus should be on who we’re trying to help and whether it is making any sort of impact.

Thanks for reading. Feel free to comment.

SNAP Challenge – Stepping Into Someone Else’s Reality (PT.1)

So this will be my first multiple post topic on this blog. I felt that this matter is too complex to fit in one post, primarily because I don’t like leaving my readers with a full essay to read.

For those of you who have never heard of the SNAP challenge, it’s basically a challenge for people to live on the weekly budget given to those who live on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (food stamps). The weekly budget for this challenge is $31.50, $4.50 per day for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. This year I was reminded of this challenge because there was an article about Ron Shaich, the CEO of Panera Bread, taking up the challenge and blogging about its effects on him each day. Ron’s partaking of this challenge isn’t something sporadic. First off, Ron actively works to spread awareness for in his words “food insecurity in America.” Secondly, SNAP is being threatened with cuts in funding by a proposal in the House of Representatives.

The reason why I want to blog about this topic is because it is something that Americans overlook. Too many Americans take food for granted. We go to the grocery store and look down on off brand products. We are blessed enough to be able to afford choice selections of fruits, meats, and snacks. More importantly, we don’t have the stress of counting how much our basket costs and whether we can afford it or not. With $31.50/wk these things we take for granted become unavailable choices.

In college, I realized how wasteful Americans are with their food. Growing up in my household, leftovers were and are never thrown away. Sometimes it gets to the point where we’d be eating the same assortment of plates for a few days, but food is never thrown away unless it has spoiled. But my experience in the dining halls changed how I thought other people conducted themselves with food. Having a buffet style dining system meant people would be grabbing 2 or 3 plates regardless of how much they weighed or were able to eat. I saw people take single bites out of certain things and never look at it again. All of the leftovers eventually went into the garbage can. This wasteful habit that many Americans have developed is an example of how our prosperity is taken for granted.

Unfortunately taking these things for granted is a reality of life, and what you do with your prosperity is your choice. But the goal of the SNAP challenge as well as this post is to let people know that there are in fact people who are less fortunate than us. It’s a reminder of how good your life is and if you have the ability to throw food away, maybe you need to recalculate what portions you’re making, as well as how much food you’re buying.

Thanks for reading. Like I said above, this topic will be a multiple post topic. Feel free to comment.

 

Something To Live By

In life, every single human, plant, animal, and organism has a code that they live by. It may be something as simple as raw survival to something more complex such as wanting to be the best in a particular aspect of life. This code, whether we are aware of it or not, is quite possibly the one thing that we are unwilling to throw away or compromise.

According to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, humans are motivated by various levels, the next level can only be realized or attained by first satisfying the level beneath it. The levels are ordered as such, starting with physiological, safety, love/belonging, esteem, and self-actualization. If you’re reading this, you are most likely fortunate enough to have satisfied a majority of these levels, in which case, this blog post will focus on self-actualization.

Self-actualization primarily deals with our set of morals, thought process, and creativity. It is in this level that our code lies. It is here at this level that we draw the line of what we are willing to do given the choice and what we are unwilling to do.

Now for myself I know my code. To a certain extent I have multiple codes, some of which I picked up from those that have influenced me. But ultimately, given the choice, I will never willingly let people down.

What does that really mean? Why is that significant?

Let’s put it this way, some people see it as credit, other people see it as sticking to what you say you will do. It is the result of a promise or a commitment. To me, my code encapsulates all that I believe is important in human interaction. It may lead to people being disappointed in my answer to their requests  or questions, but I would rather give a truthful response than lie or fail to do something that they ask of me. For those of you who know me, I hope I haven’t let you down before. If I have I’m sorry. As for myself, I know I have been let down before. But in the end, it doesn’t bother me because human interaction is complex. Every single creature is selfish to a certain extent, some more so than others. It is the simple truth of what guides individuals. We as individuals think in a “me” mindset. How will that benefit me? This question is what we think of when presented with opportunity.

For some of us, the most simple code isn’t obvious. It may be because you never put much thought into it or because you have multiple codes. That is ultimately the reason for this post. I hope that by the time you get to this portion of the post you will have already asked yourself two questions. What is my code and what am I unwilling to compromise?

Feel free to leave comments. Thanks for reading!