English Video

Media Effects on Society from Joanna Tafoya on Vimeo.

Peace Commitment

As the semester comes to an end I would like to reflect back on all my blog posts about Peace. Peace may never be the same but it is not impossible to acheive it. We can all make a small difference in this world if we really want.
I would like to commit myself in helping the less fortunate. I would like to help my church by taking food for the poor every week. This is a small action that can be done by many people and in the end we will make a big change. Its like the priest says "We may not be rich, but we are a lot" which means that if everyone donates a small portion in the end we will make a big difference.
Also I would like to donate clothes or blankets to people who are in need especially during the winter months. I think this is a great thing that we should all do because many of us hae clothes that we dont use anymore and instead of throwing them out or selling them we can give them to someone who really needs them. There are organizations like Candle Lighters who we can donate to or we can also give them to the church.
Peace was a great subject for this semester because we can see how there is no loger peace in our world because we let it out of hand. I think that together we can bring that peace back but we would really need to work together.

Are we Politically Aware?

 

Many people today are not aware in politics because they don’t take the time in contributing their opinion of who should run. I believe that not many people vote because they forget or they just don’t have time to actually find out how. Today many people have to work and take care of their families and therefore they don’t have the time to go and learn about what is going on and who is running for what. Many people are not interested in politics so therefore they cannot make the right decision because they don’t know enough information about who is running. Politics may not be the most interesting or easy subject but it is very important for the rights we have as American citizens and we should go out and vote when we can.

Another reason why people do not go out and vote is because they don’t see a change in their community. For example I live in Socorro and ever since I was little I still see it the same way and there is no change. Recently they found the mayors from Socorro stealing money from the government and therefore they can lose their place as mayors. These are some reasons why we don’t trust politicians. Politicians promise us many changes that they know people want but when they get elected they let us down and they don’t do anything of what they promised. Politicians only buy peoples votes because they want to be elected. When they are running they make us see like our world is going to change with them but they only lie to us and don’t do anything. This is why not many people vote anymore because politicians just promise change and people are tired of it so they don’t buy it anymore. In the end the most powerful will end up winning anyway.

I believe that school is related to this because politics is not really taught in school. If it was taught more at school then students will be more educated in politics and will be willing to go out and vote. I only had a government class in my last year of high school and we briefly talked about politics. This is an important subject because it is the young people who are less likely to vote but they are the ones who should be voting more because it is their future leaders who are going to govern them. 

Television affects the way we vote. When it comes the time to vote we see numerous commercials of the people running. However, that is the only thing that we see, we don’t know anything else about them except a few things that they mention. For example, during the president and vice president election we constantly saw commercials of Borrack Obama and Rick Perry.  We only know a few things about them like changes that they wanted to make but we did not know who they were or where they came from. If people don’t know enough information about who is running then they can’t make the wise decision of choosing who the right person is.

This trend will affect the creation of peace because since people don’t want to vote then politicians will no longer look for the opinion of people and they will end up electing one another. We will get to a point where we will not have a voice in our communities and we will have to do what the governors tell us to do. This is very upsetting because we live in a world where we are able to elect who governs us and we don’t take the advantage of it and just let others vote for us. Many other countries don’t have this kind of system so we should appreciate that we are a few that do. People may think that their vote would not matter in an election but every vote counts and it can make a difference.

In the long run we will be affected if this trend continues. We should not complain of the people who are governors because if we did not vote then we don’t have a voice in politics so therefore we should not complain and just ask what is told to do. If we don’t want this to happen then we should go out there and vote even if they don’t do what they promised us.

Juarez Violence

People in Juarez are suffering a lot with all the killings that are going on. Innocent people are always being killed. People are killed everyday and we hear about them every day on the news. Nobody is confortable living in Juarez anymore and they are scared to go out. I have not gone to Juarez in a long time and neither has my family because we are all scared that something might happen to us.

Barely this weekend there was a shooting at a 14 year old party. Many kids were killed and injured. Kids are innocent and it is not their fault that there are so many problems in Juarez. Thes drug deallers are randomly killing people. They were looking for someone who was going to be at the party but he ended up leaving and when they drug dealers showed up they just started killing and they did not care who. It is sad that so many children died because of this inncident.

The Juarez violence has greatly increased over the years and I think that when the president leaves it will all come down. For now people in El Paso have also suffered because there are many who have families in Juarez. We are scared that the violence may move to this side of the U.S. Hopefully, this will end soon so we can live in peace.

Creativity for Peace

Women have always been seen as the minority group all over the world since the early years. They have been discriminated by men and have been known as being weak. It is not until now that women have had more opportunities like men. Women are usually known to work inside the house, to cook for the family, and clean the house. However, women are also humans and they deserve to have a break from cleaning and cooking.

The Creativity for Peace is a peace community to help girls be the next to be the leaders. Girls are given the opportunity to believe that she has the power to change her government and live without violence. Girls range from 15 to 25 years old. The girls are from Israel and Palestine and they attend summer camp once a year in New Mexico. The girls who go to camp receive training year round and the formal campers can become young leaders and they also receive training before going to camp. The goal of this peace community is to bring people and nations together by understanding and respecting each other. Other goals include developing skills of resiliency and self-empowering, leading groups, public speaking, and understanding of self.

Girls who would like to help or attend the camp can by filling out an application or e-mailing Anael Harpez for more information. Girls from previous years are sent e-mails and newsletters of upcoming events or they can see the calendar on the Creativity for Peace website. The Creativity for Peace community can also be found on Facebook which includes helpful links on information, photos and events. Formal campers also communicate with each other by having a home gathering in their country. Creativity for Peace is a non-profit organization and seeks for donations from individuals, families, foundations, and businesses.

The necessities for this peace community is to help girls be more open about situations or problems they may be having and sharing it with the other girls who may also be in the same position as them. Girls learn to be open and have confidence with one another. The camp has many activities which include arts and crafts to share their feelings and release their pain. They share a bedroom with another girl which then they get to know each other and share personal stories from their home town.

The Creativity for Peace community has changed the way girls think about themselves and promote them to have more dignity to stand up for themselves and make a difference in their community. Girls have more self-esteem and are able to show what they are able to do without having a man in power.

Building Peace

Building Peace Video Greg Mortenso


I thought this video was amazing because education is important to everyone no matter how poor someone might be. They don’t need a lot of education as long as they can read and write they can get far in life. In the video a man named Greg was able to get education to people in Afghanistan and I think it’s amazing what he did to help these people. They are very poor and don’t even have clean water to drink which in many cases causes death for children under 5 years old. It is very sad how these people live and Greg was an amazing person to get some time out of him and get a little of education to them. By teaching them up to the 5th grade it is enough to make some great changes like reducing deaths.

We are very fortunate to have the education that we get for free because we can go very far but that is our decision. Also we have a lot of technology that help us improve our education by making it easier. We should be grateful for everything that we have because not everybody can afford what we have for free. Sometimes we might not want to go to school in the morning but we learn something new every day and we can someday teach someone else just like Greg did.

An Enemy

“An enemy is a person whose story we don’t know” Gene Hnudson


An enemy is a person who we dislike, but why don’t we like them? Is it because of something they said or did? Well an enemy is someone whose story we don’t know. It may be that they are like that because of something that happened in their life that caused them to be the person that they are. When we find an enemy we should first ask y don’t we like them? We can get to know them and change the way we feel about them. Maybe you and that person have a similar story to share.

How many times has it happened that in the beginning of the school year you don’t like a certain person but as the year goes on and you have to be in class with that person you soon get to know that person more and more and by the end of the year you are friends with this person. I’ve had people in my classes who I don’t usually like however, I get to know them as the years go on and soon enough they are my friends. I try to get along with everyone so I won’t have any problems in class and who can also affect the way I feel about going to class. If I don’t like a certain person I try to get to know them or I simply ignore them. I like to work comfortably with everyone in my class just in case I have to be in a group with them one day.