IHSS Blog 2020-2021

Liberty After reading the Liberty section in the Encyclopedia of Political Philosophy and Montesquieu, I took away many things. One being Montesque defining liberty as " a tranquillity of mind arising from the opinion each person has of his safety". I really agree with how he said "safety". Liberty is commonly recognized as freedom, what he is saying is that we feel free when we feel safe. I completely agree with this, everyone that lives in fear is almost like a prisoner to their own safety willing to take others’ liberties away to reach their own. He also says that in order to obtain liberty we have to have laws set in place to make us feel protected, but still free. I am not really sure I agree with this. The laws set in place to protect us mean not everyone will have liberty. The guys locked up in prison for being a menace to society don't have liberty. Anyone can go to prison, they just got caught. Also in order for these laws to protect us, they have to be...

     For my engagement, I made little informational books and handed them out to the adults and children of my neighborhood. I was thinking of a way I could share the information I learned while researching alcohol abuse. I decided on something creative and pleasing to look at. I made small books telling all about alcoholism, I included the basics of alcohol abuse; why people abuse alcohol, what does it affect, treatment options one has, and the symptoms of alcohol abuse. At the end of the book, I give a handful of resources and foundations they can use to either donate the cause, find treatment/ hotlines, or if they just want to learn more about the addiction. I made around 15 copies of these little informational books, and I handed them out at a birthday in the neighborhood. It made it a bit awkward, everyone looking at my books, so I left very early, but it was completely worth it. Now they have the information if they ever need help with addiction. I also heavily enga...

     Economics in America has been pretty wack right now, due to Covid-19 countless jobs have been lost and businesses fell under. I will first talk about how Covid-19 had a big impact on the stock market. At the beginning of Covid, most stocks were very low, but as January rolled around they went back up. This is normal even on a non pandemic year, they call it "the January effect".  Unemployment rates have gone up, the United States went from 3.7% in 2019 to a high of 8.9 %  in 2020 and is now 14.8 % , Canada went from 5.7 %  to 9.7 % , and Brazil went from 11.9 %  to 13.4 % . This is a very intense change, the last change we had that large in our unemployment rates was from 1940 to 1942. Most countries are now in recession, the United States went -5%, and Canada went under -15%. In all honesty, I have tried to research recession, but I still cannot grasp what it means, so I apologize if anything I just said was confusing. The countries that rely on ...

 Little Rock Blog      While being an advance in integration the Little Rock Nine faced threats and violent racism from malicious students and parents, but is there a possibility the transition could have been smoother? Take Melba Patillo’s story, for example, the way she described a “terrible wrenching awful fear” leading the students to sneak out of school simply to survive, then having to acquire a presidentially instated bodyguard to protect the 9 kids, which was a good decision on behalf of the president that noticed the adversity and tribulation the kids were facing, however, predicaments such as the violent mob outside of the school may have been prevented if the children were sent into school with bodyguards, to begin with, considering the racist/hostile climate of Arkansas in relation to integration there could have been some anticipation as to the malice and animosity.

  Civil rights in Iran      Iran is a beautiful country, but it has some major human rights issues such as the  freedom of expression and assembly. You are prohibited to protest even if it is completely peaceful. As an example, I am going to use something that happened in January just last year, there was a peaceful protest being held for the Ukrainian plane crash victims. The protesters had to deal with airgun pellets, rubber bullets, tear gas, pepper spray, and being beat and arrested. Another flaw in their civil rights is their systemic ill-treatment and torture. Irans police and security services use torture methods like flogging, prolonged solitary confinement, beatings, the use of electroshock, and forced chemical substances. They use this for crimes such as assault and theft, they also use this for people of the lgbtqia community. The Penal Code went further in exposing them are allowed to use flogging, blinding, amputation, stoning, and crucifixion. The ...

  Week three  I am three weeks into the interview process and no one has responded, I did reach out to Claude my uncle, but I didn't get too far through the interview before everything he said was becoming nonsense. I tried getting some more out of him, but once again he is a very scary, practically insane elderly man weighing under 110 pounds with a track record of attacking nurses, so safety was an actual concern here, I didn't want to anger the bull. Anyways, like Mr. Roddy said I should do, I emailed them all again, but this time in the end I said "this isn't spam, I am just a little desperate". I think that was a bad decision adding that now because I still have no responses when I now need them. I have been thinking of other people, and or organizations I could interview, but the selection is pretty sparse. I am thinking about sending a longer email, telling exactly what I am doing, and why I need this interview, but I feel as if that would be too much, I do...

Week 1 I ended up sending around three emails to different organizations trying to give treatment and inform people about the issue. I sent the first email to AA, Alcoholics Anonymous, and it was a friendly little email saying my cause and telling a little bit of my story. I asked for an interview over the phone, I also said we can do the interview via email if they were more comfortable with that. The second organization I sent an email to was the SAMSA foundation, the Substance Abuse, and mental Health Administration, which offers a national helpline and counseling, they also help educate and inform people about substance abuse. I emailed them asking to set up an interview over the phone, but also offered the option of an interview through email. The third email I sent out was to Drinkaware, they offer information on alcoholism. The email was asking for an interview via email, just because they didn't have a phone number on their website, so I thought they would be more comfortab...

  Patricia Angulo Mr. Roddy IHSS 15 May 2021 15 Dollar Federal Minimum Wage This article on the proposed 15 dollar federal minimum wage talks about how workers who are severely underpaid are often workers of color, specifically black workers, and even more specifically black women. It also talks about the ways this minimum wage raise would take place. It would be a staggered growth going up every year/couple years instead of it immediately being brought to 15 dollars an hour at once. It then goes into statistics about why it would be beneficial to around 20% of the population with the lowest pay. This article does have an obvious opinion as the title is “Why the U.S. needs a 15$ minimum wage” so I will go into what I think about this in my analysis. Basically I do think that in many places it is necessary for the minimum wage to rise. It can be seen in a lot of places that a majority of the underpaid workforce is part of a specific minority group. These underpaid workers need m...

  For my second interview, I interviewed Dr. Reese. Dr. Reese has been there for the entire year. I did my J-term with her for mindfulness and learned a lot from her. This is what inspired me to contact her for my interview. This interview was kind of last-minute but I think it helped me to expand on my engagement with the community. Not only has this interview helped me with my project but I think it also helped me with my personal life. Some questions I asked were similar to my previous interview but very different at the same time. I feel like dr Reesesresponses were very deep and personal which also helped me a lot. She started to get involved with mental health at a very young age when she had an eating disorder as a child. She didn’t actively start realizing that she is passionate about mental health at a much later age. She not only has grown as a person while doing things with mental health but also has helped other people grow. She has started her own business and online p...

India Riley Mr.Roddy IHSS May 14, 2021 Little Rock One quote that I was interested in was on document page 85, It is a telegram that was sent by Wilson Mann the mayor of Little Rock, sent to The President of the United States. “The immediate need for troops is urgent. The mob is much larger in numbers at 8 am than at any time yesterday people are converging on the scene from all directions mob is armed and engaging in fisticuffs and other acts of violence. The situation is out of control and the police cannot disperse the mob I am pleading to you as president of the United States in the interest of human law and order and because of democracy worldwide to provide the necessary federal troops within several hours. Action by you will restore peace and order and compliance with your compliance. Woodrow Wilson Mann Mayor of Little rock Arkansas.”  I found this interesting because in the telegram he states that the mob had gotten so bad that the local police could no longer handle them....

Natalie Gross Mr. Roddy IHSS May 13, 2021 Restaurants fighting through a worker shortage     Many small business restaurants have shut down due to the pandemic, but some did survive, with the help of the government, takeout, and just pure luck. But now even those are struggling. There is a widespread worker shortage because of many reasons, such as people staying home. The article focuses on Michael Pasquarello, who owns and operates 3 restaurants. He has been using each of their "special things" to help keep them afloat. Cafe Lift makes brunch food, which is ideal for takeout. The Kensington Quarters has a fairly large space outside that could accommodate everyone while eating inside was not allowed. The Prohibition Taproom converted some of their parking spaces into places to eat outside making it a unique place to go to eat. "it's been a mixed bag of tricks. Each place had to figure a different way to deal with this"   Pasquarello says. As more and more peopl...

 Natalie Gross Mr. Roddy IHSS May 13, 2021 Liberty Blog          Montesquieu believes that liberty is not just the freedom to to whatever we would like to do. He believes that if that were the cas then we would always have to be worried for our safety and have no confidence in that. If we were able to do whatever we want then we would have that ability to harm others whenever we felt like it. Liberty needs some laws and regulations that can and will protect up from harm and danger, but still let us have the freedom to do as much as is possible. He also says that having a system of checks and balances, like the three branches of government is critical in achieving liberty within a country. If one person has too much power, then that messes everything and we go back to having no confidence in our safety.       I agree with these beliefs because if anyone has the ability to harm anyone they want to, then that causes noth...

Natalie Gross Mr. Roddy IHSS May 13, 2021    Little Rock Follow Up      During an interview conducted by Daisy Bates, president of the Arkansas branch of the NAACP, with Dr. Benjamin Fine, the education editor of The New York Times, he recalled seeing Elizabeth when she tried to get into the school and the guards wouldn't let her and she went back toward the bus stop with a crowd around her yelling, "Get her! Lynch her!", at this point he went up to her and she was crying, so he put his arm around her and said "Don’t let them see you cry". The crowd around her was now yelling at Fine, saying "Get a rope and drag her over to this tree." During this whole thing the guardsmen that blocked Elizabeth earlier did nothing to help the situation, "The irony of it all, Daisy, is that during all this time the national guardsmen made no effort to protect Elizabeth or help me. Instead, they threatened to have me arrested for inciting to riot.” This interview r...

 Natalie Gross Mr. Roddy IHSS May 13, 2021   Interview with Sara Yost          My first interview was with my friend's older sister who is in college for sustainable fashion. First I asked her what everyday things people can do to reduce their environmental impact with clothing. The main thing that she said was to not buy firsthand as much as possible. There's so much clothing already going around, the best thing you can do is keep it in use and out of landfills. She gave me a list of questions that you should ask yourself every time you want to buy something new. Do I really need this? Am I able to get this secondhand? If not, then, What are some sustainable brands that I can buy this item from? In addition to this she suggested to not buy something until you have thought about it for a couple days and know for sure that you will wear it. I then asked why she thinks that most of the big brands are able to not be sustainable or ethical a...

  Jayla Balderas  Mr. Roddy  IHSS 11 May 2021                                                      Little Rock Follow up Blog Plenty of parents started to collaborate to create committees and petitions to reopen schools fighting for either one or two sides for Integration or Segregation pulled from these posters; "We must open our schools! Join the Women's Emergency Committee To Open Our Schools Not for Integration Not Segregation But Education.” Pg. (142 Top Right Image Poster) From the last line I think three groups could be recognized the ones who were only fighting for the reopening of schools so their children could received an education that didn’t involve alternative schooling while other fought for Integra...

  Leon Hoang Mr. Roddy IHSS May 10, 2021 Texas Power Crisis Engagement Blog Sorry for the delay, but I just finished my engagement project recently. My topic was the 2021 Texas Power Crisis caused by winter storm Uri during February. The blackouts caused a massive number of other problems namely; property destruction, exposure to the elements, loss of clean water, and even in some cases, monoxide poisoning due to desperation to stay warm amid the freezing conditions. Over a hundred people died in Texas, both directly and indirectly affected by the storm. As mentioned before, property destruction still affects many Texans today, and with some lacking the money needed to repair, they are in desperate need of assistance.  That is why for my project I decided to make an Instagram account to raise awareness post-crisis. I reached out to the Texas Health and Human Services Commission as well as Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner’s office, for information on how to help, as a student an...

  Leon Hoang Mr. Roddy IHSS May 5, 2021 Little Rock Followup Blog My first piece of text that I found interesting is from President Dwight D. Eisenhower’s telegram message on page 85 of the Little Rock Study. Eisenhower says, “I am pleading to you as President of the United States in the interest of humanity” in need of federal troops to disperse the mob against school integration. I found it intriguing that the president of the country had to plead with Woodrow Wilson Mann, the mayor of Little Rock, and to whom the telegram was addressed. That brings up an interesting point from class; even the president needs permission from the mayor for federal troop support. Commonly in other countries, the leader would have the power to override state governments but not here.  Another quote I found fascinating was on page 92, Mrs. Grace Lorch, the wife of Dr. Lee Lorch, professor at Philander Smith College, who said, “Leave this child alone! Why are you tormenting her? Six months from n...

 Jeremy Chen IHSS Mr. Roddy Little Rock Followup Blog     In the Western Union telegram on page 85 to 86, Woodrow Wilson states that, "Situation is out of control and police cannot disperse the mob..." in reference to the protesters that did not want integration among schools in America. This shows how hard integration was since the large amount of protesters clearly showed how most of the people living in Little Rock were against it. The fact that even the police could not disperse the mob shows how serious the situation had gotten and it makes sense that the mayor of Little Rock would write a letter to the president to help deescalate the situation.     Something else that showed the difficulties in integration was the fact that the president himself had to address the nation due to the increased violence in Little Rock. As shown in the statement by the president on page 83, the president states that "I was pleased to hear... of the progress made in the elimin...

Alex Gross Mr. Roddy IHSS 5 May 2021 IHSS: Little Rock Follow-Up Blog The first piece of text that I chose to examine is from President Dwight D. Eisenhower’s telegram message to Mr. Brown on Page 80 of the Little Rock Study Guide: “To support and defend the Constitution of the United States is my solemn oath as your president … I believe that America’s heart goes out to you and your children in your present ordeal.” To me this quote is very impactful and important in regards to the situation in Little Rock, and for segregation and racism in general. This shows a President saying that he will do his job that he swore to do in an oath to our country, but also shows him giving his empathy and sympathy from the entire country. The next quote I analyzed is “I had the best of both worlds. I had cracked this white institution and still had all of my friends who were super-supportive of what I was trying to do” from an interview with Ernest Green, the first black student to graduate from ...