Podcast: National Organization of Women

Students discuss the National Organization of Women and what we can learn from them.
You can download it at:
http://www.archive.org/details/StudentsDiscussNow

When Home Isn't Home

As this picture indicates, domestic violence has been a part of America's history. People often don't take it seriously.

by Angela

Imagine living in the worst fear imaginable. Imagine not being able to go home to a loving caring family but to the worst of the abusers. Imagine seeing your mom or your younger sister get beat until they cant even move. Imagine not even being able to trust your own family with your safety because their the ones that put your life at risk. This sounds horrible doesn't it? Unfortunately this is the reality of hundreds of people all around the world. Domestic Violence is one of those issues that don't just affect one race they affect each and every one of them if you were to go India you would find at least one family that goes through this .The same would happen if you went to Vietnam, China, or Brazil. What a lot of these people don't realize is that they are not forced to go through this alone.

The real definition used to define what Domestic Violence is, is when a family member, partner or ex-partner attempts to physically or psychologically dominate another. This then leads to a set of events that further more leads to one of them being the victim and the other the aggressor unfortunately allot of the times they carry other family such as sisters brothers or their children into this problem with them. The saddest part is that allot of the time victims of Domestic Violence get accustomed to this way of living and it becomes an everyday thing.

Help

There are many reasons why domestic violence is such a common thing. For one people don't pay as much attention to this issue as they should either they don't pay enough attention or they don't speak up. That is the first mistake a person suffering from domestic violence can do, not speak up there are a lot of people that are willing to help them but they can't help if they don't know this is happening to them. Groups of people give these woman jobs and the skills necessary to go on on their own .Shelter is not a reason either because there are plenty of domestic violence centers that take these woman and their children in. People do all this because they understand how much emotional damage living in everyday violence can do to a child and even an adult.

Reasons for why Domestic Violence is something that affects us today

Domestic Violence is such a big issue because people are afraid to speak up, people always seem to have a reason for why why they keep that in the shadows, behind closed doors. For some woman it is that they not only get threatened with their life but with their children's life as well. In fact percent of woman that are being affected by Domestic Violence have children between the ages of a 0 months through 5 years of age. That in my opinion is what keeps allot of these woman from speaking up. They say to them selves how am I gonna raise a child on my own or my child has the right to grow up with his dad and well frankly that's true but I'll tell you what any child is gonna thank you more from giving him a peaceful happy home with only one of his parents that for giving him both of his parents but a violent childhood where he faced fear and neglect ion daily. Besides as I had already said if you think you can't make it alone you're wrong. There are allot of people that are willing to help woman that have suffered from Domestic Violence and all you have to do is ask for help.

What you should do if you know someone is going through this

If you know someone from your school or work or anyone else that is going through this help them out maybe you might not realize this but their not speaking up in an act of fear. Or if you don't want to get to much in their business then talk to them maybe that's all it takes to help that person out. Just by listening you could help them take all that stress and pain out of them that could make the biggest of the difference. So just listen to what people have to say.

Domestic Violence Helpers!

If you or anyone you know is suffering from Domestic Violence get help you can contact one of these people. They will care!

• AZ Victims Domestic violence shelter

• Arizona Coalition Against Domestic Violence 602-279-2900
  800-782-6400
  602-279-7270 (TTY)

• National 24 hr Domestic Violence Hot line 800-799-7233 or
  800-787-3224 (TDD)

• CONTACTS Shelter Line (Maricopa County Only) 602-263-8900 or
  800-799-7739

• Vermont Center for Crime Victims 1-800-228-7395

• Quigley House shelter

  24 hour hot line 904.284.0061; 800.339.5017

Photo Credit

Flickr Creative Commons

http://www.flickr.com/photos/25152449@N06/2458152521/

Fight For Justice

Anonymous Student:

Created using graphics software

Is This Change?

by AP

"It's time for a change," people chanted. "Yes we can!" they yelled. "We're going to change Washington. No more of this partisan bickering." These were the promises of the liberal machine and the media was hooked. Like crack cocaine, America began to shoot up the instant promises of change and hope and all of the empty buzzwords of the Obama campaign. Now, I don't deny that he meant well. I'm not saying that he's an evil man. However, his first week and a half in office have proven that Obama is not the savior who will save America.

Obama promised an end to partisan politics. He said that he would work across the aisles. However, in his own inauguration speech he slammed Bush. If there is a time to back off from lobbing critical insults it's during the inaugural address. Then he supported a Democratic congress on a multi-billion dollar bailout. The House outright refused to work with the Republicans. They shut them out of meetings and silenced their voice. How is that working across any aisle?

Next, he ignored the social conservative African-American and Latino communities that supported him. He lifted the ban on government-sponsored abortions. Now, I realize the Supreme Court has silenced the majority of Americans who believe in the right to life. However, it's unfair to expect America's tax dollars to fund the murder of children. Again, how is this bipartisan? Is this really the change America wanted?

Now I'm watching him choose lobbyists in his Cabinet. He has one man who refused to pay his taxes. What happened to all the talk about ethics? Refusing to pay taxes should be a criminal offense. I'm not a lawyer, but I'm guessing it's against the law. I'll go check on Google. . . .

Okay, I was right. It is against the law.

It looks like Obama is just another talking politician. He's a slick man in a suit, popping out soundbytes and America fell for it. Now it looks like we have to have a taste of our own medicine.

Photo Credits
Flickr Creative Commons
http://bighugelabs.com/flickr/onblack.php?id=3001174895&size=large

Should the Redskins Find a New Mascot?

by Dalila

The Redskin logo is offensive because the American Indians suffered a lot and the Washington Redskins seem insensitive to this. The term Red Skin comes from when soldiers would get their knifes and shave their scalps with their hair; which makes the Indians think back about the horrible things that might had happened to their kids and family. The word "Red Skin" became an insult. It would be like using the word "nigger" or "wetback" for a team nowadays.

Some don't really care because it's in the past. But history is powerful and when we deny it, we send the wrong message to Native Americans. I strongly feel that many Indians had a hard time because they didn't had guns just only knifes to kill the soldiers. They had no chance to defend themselves before the genocide. So, why would we ever want to name a sports team after this?

Photo Note:
The use of the Redskins Logo is only meant for educational purposes in our analysis of society.

Racism Is All Around

Global Warming

By Audrey

What is global warming? Global warming is the chemicals that are unleashed into the air. Global warming is not just something that happens it has been going on for along time. The problem is that if it keeps going on the ozone layer will disappear and we will be exposed to the sun's harmful rays. It will ruin life as we know it.

Global warming is caused by the cars and the oil companies. Since cars are driven so often they release gas that is harmful to the earth into the air. Oil companies also put the earth in risk because the oil is so toxic that it harms to the extreme.The chemicals that are in the air make it hard to breath so more people so are having trouble breathing. Global warming isn't the only caused by cars and the oil companies it is also caused by the activities that humans do.

The things that humans do are affecting the earth complete. Like if we keep making buildings and blowing things up the earth is just going to get worse. When we constantly deforest, we release carbon that causes global warming. Instead of wasting money on chemicals that are hurting the earth they should spend money on creating chemicals that are earth friendly. (Only maybe we don't have to use that much money because then we won't have trees and we need to trees to breath).

We don't need to cut down so many trees every year we just need to recycle a lot more then we will have paper to recycle.Like if we recycle more often then we won't have so much garbage laying around and then the fumes from all the garbage won't make the earth worse. Also, we can cut consumption. Do we really need so much packaging? Do we need to constantly get new cell phones? Does our food need to be individually wrapped? We can invest in green technology like green cars, solar panels, wave power and wind power. All of these are steps we can take toward fixing these problems.

Photo Credits

Flickr Creative Commons

Created by Ben Heine

http://www.flickr.com/photos/benheine/2262935457/