Spank You, Honey

Ok, Mr. College Edjumacated that I ask for help when I write has informed me that it is a big no-no to use "You", even in the collective, when writing papers for school. SO.... here is the revised version of the essay:

As a general rule, racial discrimination does not exist today. People perceive they are being discriminated against today because historically, certain populations were most certainly discriminated against in society. The memories of that shame, anger, and humiliation as a result of discrimination have been passed down from generation to generation. President Obama is quite right when he says “That anger is not always productive; indeed, all too often it distracts attention from solving real problems; it keeps us from squarely facing our own complicity in our condition and prevents the African-American community from…bringing about real change.” Three ways of bringing about that real change are: Personal responsibility, education, and service.
Before any change can begin, people who feel they are victims of discrimination need to do one important thing – stop playing the victim. They need to take charge of their life, take personal responsibility for their situation and stop blaming others for all their troubles. It doesn’t matter if they are blaming their troubles on skin color (theirs or someone else’s), the person who molested them/raped them/bullied them; People who have been victimized need to step up and say “Okay, this happened. Now what am I going to do about it? What am I going to do with my life from now on?” Because if all that they do is sit around for the rest of their lives and stew in the anger or sorrow that resulted from a tragedy that was perpetrated against them, or maybe not even directly at them but to their family generations ago… There is nothing but misery that awaits these people for the rest of eternity.
Once people accept responsibility for themselves and their actions, they can move forward. No longer the victim, they now have the power to do whatever they will with their lives. An education, whether by way of a college, university or trade school, is the second most powerful tool one has to better their station in life. Ignorance is what keeps men down, not race. When knowledge is obtained, men are armed with truth and no one who has truth can be kept back from their desires and success.
A few years ago there was a discussion between the characters Phoebe and Joey on the popular NBC sitcom “Friends” which when summed up goes like this: It is impossible to do something for someone else without getting something for yourself, therefore it is impossible to be completely selfless, you are always being selfish even when you don’t mean to. The theory behind it was that even if you did something nice for someone else, you still walked away feeling good about it and have received something in return for your service – the good feeling.
When we are serving others, we gain something in return. We feel good. That feeling is addicting and can lead to doing more good things for others. If we are all doing this, everyone benefits and there is no need for a population of misery, suspicion and doubt. Granted, this is an extremely ideal suggestion, but not impossible to be carried out. People have to be dedicated to serving others, knowing that in a round about way they are serving themselves. If one is dedicated, there is no time to feel sorry for oneself or angry about a perceived slight or discrimination. One will be too busy to notice, too busy to perpetuate the generational anger and suspicion, and time will heal those wounds.
Our country is still young, many of its citizens still hurt from past atrocities. As these three principles are practiced, change will come. Life is messy. It does not come neatly wrapped and with a toy and a drink at a drive-through at their convenience. Hardships can’t be nuked in the microwave in three minutes and come out tasting good. But with patience, hard work and dedication - these things will not only be a memory of the past, but the anger and frustration will be too.

Essay One - "A More Perfect Union"

This is my essay for my English 1A class. The prompt we were given was a section from Barack Obama's speech "A More Perfect Union" given on the presidential campaign trail in spring (?) of 2008. Here it is:

As a general rule, racial discrimination does not exist today. People perceive they are being discriminated against today because historically, certain populations were most certainly discriminated against in society. The memories of that shame, anger, and humiliation as a result of discrimination have been passed down from generation to generation. President Obama is quite right when he says “That anger is not always productive; indeed, all too often it distracts attention from solving real problems; it keeps us from squarely facing our own complicity in our condition and prevents the African-American community from…bringing about real change.” Three ways of bringing about that real change are: Education, personal responsibility, and service.

Before any change can begin, people who feel they are victims of discrimination need to do one important thing – stop playing the victim. Take charge of your life, take personal responsibility for your situation and stop blaming others for all your troubles. It doesn’t matter if you are blaming your troubles on your skin color, my skin color, the person who molested you/raped you/bullied you; You need to step up and say “Okay, this happened. Now what am I going to do about it? What am I going to do with my life from now on?” Because if all you do is sit around for the rest of your life and stew in your anger or sorrow that resulted from a tragedy that was perpetrated against you, or maybe not even you but to your family generations ago… There is nothing but misery that awaits you for the rest of eternity.

Once we accept responsibility for ourselves and for our actions, we can move forward. You now have the power to do whatever you will with your life. An education, whether by way of a college, university or trade school, is the second most powerful tool one has to better their station in life. Ignorance is what keeps men down, not race. When you obtain knowledge you arm yourself with truth and no one who has truth can be kept back from their desires and success.

A few years ago there was a discussion between the characters Phoebe and Joey on the popular NBC sitcom “Friends” which when summed up goes like this: It is impossible to do something for someone else without getting something for yourself, therefore it is impossible to be completely selfless, you are always being selfish even when you don’t mean to. The theory behind it was that even if you did something nice for someone else, you still walked away feeling good about it and have received something in return for your service – the good feeling.

When we are serving others, we gain something in return. We feel good. That feeling is addicting and can lead to doing more good things for others. If we are all doing this, everyone benefits and there is no need for a population of misery, suspicion and doubt. Granted, this is an extremely ideal suggestion, but not impossible to be carried out. You have to be dedicated to serving others, knowing that in a round about way you are serving yourself. If you are dedicated, there is no time to feel sorry for yourself or angry about a perceived slight or discrimination. You will be too busy to notice, too busy to perpetuate the generational anger and suspicion, and time will heal those wounds.

Our country is still young, many of its citizens still hurt from past atrocities. As these three principles are practiced, change will come. Life is messy. It does not come neatly wrapped and with a toy and a drink at a drive-through when you want it to. Hardships can’t be nuked in the microwave in three minutes and come out tasting good. But with patience, hard work and dedication - these things will not only be a memory of the past, but the anger and frustration will be too.

Ok, My REAL - Real Blog Addy

I guess I forgot to change this, last year!

My real blog addy is: www.sallygirl.wordpress.com

Enjoy. You know you will. ;-D

Can You Hear Me Now?

Ok. Here's the deal. I came over to Blogger instead of Blogdrive because Blogger has better templates. And I also have a couple other blogs here. But then I found out Blogger only uses a few standard fonts so anything I cut & paste from Word that was in a much cuter font just ends up looking like what you see now. Which irritated me more than not having cute templates did. So I moved myself on back over to my old website at Blogdrive. The address is still the same, www.salgal.blogdrive.com , but I changed the name from "Hi, Neighbor!" to "Sunny Side Up". And my friend Joe helped me find a place that converts Blogger skins to Blogdrive skins. Enabling me to have not only cute fonts but cute skins, too!

So I am still available for baby-training advice, completely useless knowledge of assorted topics, and the banality that is my life, for your enjoyment! I will leave this addy up until September and then I'm takin' it down.

Toodles!