If I were president..

I wouldn't take away the tax rebate that American citizens get for donating to a non-profit agency.

If I Were President

If i were president I would want to make health care affordable for everyone. Obviously I would want to work on bettering the economy and I think it would be important to create new jobs. I also work on an energy project because conserving energy is something that effects all of us. The biggest thing I would do would be to withdraw the troops from Iraq. I believe it is more important for Homeland Security to be strengthened. I'd rather have more people over here trying to protect our country than sending innocent soldiers to Iraq to die. To me that is just futile.

If I were president

If I were president I would get rid of the major political parties that exist. I would eliminate corruption amongst politicians. The money being spent on the war would be pumped back into our country. I would build America to be a model for the rest of the world. Just like Tai I would lower the drinking age to 18. A large portion of government money would go into:
Bettering Education
Creating Youth Programs
Lowering the poverty rates in America
Providing Aid to the people that are working hard and still truly need it
Create Jobs
I liked Mos Def's idea about taxes. A standard rate for everyone and those that make more that six figures a year should have to provide service to their community or pay a higher rate.
I would also find the best way to deal with criminals (jail or rehab or other option) and redo the system to reflect this.

If I Were President

I would try and educate today's youth to get more involved in world issues. I would put more money into schools because education is the best way to make a difference in the country's future. I would make the news channels have local, national, and world news. Cause right now they show very little world news. I would try and create more jobs. I would try and make our country go green and stop destorying our environment.

If I were president

Not like for bad like a sith. No, you would be a good jedi. You'd be a jedi who was with the light, not the dark.~Mos Def, about me being president

Here are some of the things I would do first if I was president:
*Note: this is not the whole list, just what I would do in my first few weeks

• Shut down the School of the Americas in GA, and any other school like it
• Universal health care (this means for everyone!)
• I know that schools are locally run, but I would pour money into public schools, for improved infrastructure, supplies and good teachers
• Pull out of Iraq, Afghanistan, other foreign countries
• Use the soldiers to rebuild things in the US (similar to programs during New Deal)
• Reduce the military budget significantly, put towards schools, health care
• 2 years of service after college and we will forgive your federal loans
• Put the US 100% behind the UN, work to improve it
• Total reform of IMF, World Bank; forgive loans owed by poor nations
• Raise (lower?) the threshold for what it means to live in poverty in US so more families can get benefits, increase and put more federal money into these benefits
• Increase taxes for those in the top tax brackets; get rid of regressive taxes
• Legalize gay unions, partners deserve the same benefits as hetero couples
• Get religion out of the government- this includes public swearing on bibles, "under god," etc.
• Eliminate the death penalty
• Protect a woman's right to choose
• There are countless other things I would do but this is all I can think of right now

~Caitlin

If I were president

If I were president, the first thing I would do is take money from the prison systems and the space programs and apply it towards public education. The children of America are America's future, and they deserve to have a GOOD education, with text books, computers, small class sizes and good teachers. I do not believe that prisonners of the USA should be receiving more funding for their institutions (since they ARE criminals) than the children of America, the innocent, promise of future in our country.
Secondly, I would make voting more accesible. It is very hard for college students to vote, being that most of them go away to school. Many students do not want to go through the hassle, or merely forget to send away for an absentee ballot. If voting were made available ON college campuses I feel that the elections would be more representative of our country's voting population as a whole. Student's opinions are important, and they deserve a just as much of a chance to be heard.

If I were President

What if you were President.

Give this some thought and let us know what you would do if you were President.

-n

Bowling Alone

The first chapter sparked my interest. It gave me a reality check of how society has changed over the years.  Is there a way we can stop this from happening and get people more involved in the community?

bowling alone

I really enjoyed reading this chapter because it brought up a lot of great points...some of which I have seen and others that I have not. I believe that our society is shifting toward a technological society and this has played a role in how we communicate with others. I know that I use my email or cell phone to reach someone instead of stopping by their room or office. Technology is playing a large role in shaping the future of the kids who are growing up now because they miss out on social and physical interactions because they are inside on the computer or playing a video game.

bowling alone

The first chapter made a lot of good points that I don't really think about on a daily basis. I think one of the main contributors to the lose of community groups is how busy everyone has become. We are constantly going from one place to another. And we do have the ability to communicate through all different sorts of technology. I think it's great when people find the time to get together at clubs and such. Our society needs to work on being a community and working together.

bowling alone

After reading this, I believe that there have been serious changes in American society that need to be addressed. First off, due to the technological advances over the past 20 years or so, we the new generations have become used to doing most socializing online, using mechanisms such as AIM, facebook or myspace. People no longer have to desire to go out and socialize, partially due to how busy many people are and partially due to the ease of socializing on the internet, and this is causing a lack of true socialization in our society. A lot of times, people feel as though they are supporting social issues simply through joining an online group or a cause. Although it may be a good way to raise awareness of a certain issue, joining these online groups is not getting the job done.
In my opinion there needs to be a youth movement of large proportions that focuses on getting up off the computer and into our communities, making change where it needs to be made, and helping our society grow for the better, as a whole.

Bowling Alone

Every time i hear my parents telling a story of something they did when they were my age i always mention how they would never allow me to do something like that. Their response every time is: times have changed, things are different now-a-days. That statement is more accurate than they know.
The American society used to be based on communal activities and group clubs. The citizens of the U.S. used to be a group of joiners. A stranger to American history would never believe this to be true if they saw our society today. The individual has now replaced that of the community. People today are more motivated to focus on their own lives and their own achievements. The world has turned into a more competitive, selfish environment. People do not have time to join bowling leagues or book clubs. They focus their attentions on their career and their own family. People have discovered new, independent ways of being a good citizen.
Communities may also be impacted by the increasing amount of broken families. Divorce rates today are much higher than they used to be. Many children no longer have the stability that earlier generations experienced. They learn to rely on themselves, thus the lack of interest in community.
The world has also turned into a more materialistic place. People are worried about money more than neighborly relations. They focus their attention on obtaining wealth instead of community trust. Times are much different than what they once were. The definition of community is slowly deteriorating.

Bowling Alone

The world that we live in today is a completely different than the world that our parents grew up in. One example of this difference is the lack of community involvement. It seems that no one has any time anymore to join a bowling league or be in a bridge club anymore. Everyone is too caught up in their own life and they don't have time to spare for anyone else. Considering how dangerous the world can be today the lack of trust among people has grown tremendously. It only makes sense that people have become more aware of who they come into contact with. Lastly the use of technology facilitates communication without actually being face to face. There's no longer a need to have a bowling league to catch up with friends when you can text, video chat or talk on the phone.

youtube video

It's hard to watch a video like that. It opened my eyes to a problem that we so often forget about. America is always trying to help other countries and it's easy to forget about the problems that exist right here. The part of the video where he talked about a society only being as strong as it's weakest group really hit me. When you look at the people that are living on the sidewalks in SkidRow it becomes clear that our country isn't as strong as everyone likes to think. We have thousands of people in need and so many people ignore it.

Skid Row

Sorry that this response to the youtube video is so late!
Watching this video was very eye opening for me. I agree with Meg and Steph that we truly do live sheltered lives here on Siena's campus. Living here in Loudonville, specifically in the bubble of our campus really gives us no exposure to the extremely unfortunate conditions that people are experiencing throughout the country.
I really can't believe that the people of Los Angeles, California and the entire country are not doing much to help solve this problem. No matter what the true problems are that these people are having, all of them are Americans which means that all of them deserve a fair chance and a helping hand when they need it. We need to start turning our attention to the issues that are really affecting American citizens, not what is happening in other countries. Its great that we are trying to go into other countries to help get them out of poverty, and to "spread democracy", but how much faith should those people have in us when they see the situations that some of Americans are living in? How can we help other countries if we can't even help ourselves?

I HAVE AN IDEA!

How about for this weeks blog, everyone should go to this website and blog what you think about it! =)

http://books.simonandschuster.com/Bowling-Alone/Robert-D-Putnam/9780743203043/excerpt/1

…Actually a Community of People

It’s utterly amazing what a person can witness if she bothers to open her eyes. If she musters the strength to fight off the lull of ignorance for just a few minutes…if she can gather the courage to look beyond her own immediate reality…if she would put down the iPod, cell phone, remote control, book, purse, keys and whatever else holds her attention for this fleeting instant…she might bear witness to something whose images and message may linger far beyond this moment.

She might see something that stirs within her discomfort or sadness, guilt and shame, perhaps disgust. She might see—reality, maybe not her own but that of someone else. Although the visuals and storyline may be foreign to her everyday life, these elements could comprise the daily grind of her neighbor. No less important, no less relevant, and certainly not any less human.

This documentary offers a glimpse at what one person witnessed when he bothered to open his eyes… when he mustered the strength to educate himself…when he gathered the courage to enter his neighborhood… and when he picked up a video camera to capture a few fleeting moments of life that transcend beyond Skid Row in Los Angeles and into every town in the US and past our borders.

Through his actions he transforms psych patients, crack addicts, soccer moms, gangsters, artists, Agent Orange vets, missions, parolees, dealers, and sex offenders into…what they actually are, that is a community of people. With this video he offers testimony to us all that the issues of housing, racism, employment, addiction, mental health and so much more are alive at our door and in our own neighborhoods. It’s not testimony all of us have the capacity to cope with or even wish to hear.

Part of me flinches when I think of what gritty truths will greet my eyes upon their opening…but I can try to remember this documentary. I can remember that all I stand to see upon opening my eyes and engaging the world around me is a community of people living in my own neighborhood. No less important, no less relevant, and certainly not any less human.

Youtube Reflection.

One part of the short film that really hit me was when the narrator said, "How we do anything is how we do everything". It's kind of like you're only as strong as your weakest link. If we sit back and let something like this take place, it's affecting all of our other actions and everything else that we do doesn't matter.

MHRHS Needs Help!

Hey guys!
So I don't know how much news you watch but at the humane society we do bottle sorting. People drop off their bottles and volunteers sort them and the shelter receives money for every bottle. A few weeks ago someone broke into the shed and stole thousands of dollars of bottles. The community has been really supportive and has brought in tons of bottles. But now we need help sorting them. Price chopper has agreed to double whatever the humane society makes from the bottles. If anyone is interested in helping a little this weekend, let me know!!!!

After watching this video I agree with Meg that we do live very sheltered lives. It so easy to forget about those who do not have what we are blessed with. We take so much for granted. Every day we have a safe place to live our lives in and every night we have a warm bed to sleep in. We may complain about how hard life in college is but the people in that video know what a truly hard life is.
There is no way to solve the problems of every person who is homeless or addicted or mentally ill, but if everyone makes an effort to try what a better world we would live in. Giving up is such an easy route to take. It is so effortless to say we are helpless and that nothing anyone does will solve these problems. I don't want to take that route. I agree with meg, we are so worried about solving the problems of other countries that we forget about the problems right here at home. How is it possible to be so blind? Before we can truly help those in other nations we must first help ourselves!

Skid Row Video

After watching this video I realized how much we are all sheltered. Especially here on the Siena campus. Even though we all do our part in going to our service sites each week we are still able to reutrn back to this bubble of a campus that's isolated from the outside world. It also angers me that everyone is so worried about other countries around the world, but they don't realize that the same pain and suffering is taking place in our own country. It's time that action is taken to help our own.

Blog Post- Week of 2/1/09

Think about this video and how it could relate to the Bonner Video Project.

Please post your responses by Friday.

-Nicole