Civics - Something All People Should Have, Right?

With the given, political and ethical traditions developed in the east and west, they did develop differently. Therefore, with bringing in the past different concept of citizens rights, justice and ethics in public life, come into play as well. Without getting into government and such, lets get into public civics. In class we made a journal that asked about 5 things that annoy us, and I as, like the rest of the class, put down what really annoys me. Everyone started saying what annoys them, and we got into big discussions and such, but I didn't really listen and looked over what I chose as my five things. These five attributes are what really just gets under my skin and annoys me to no end. What did they all have in common? Pushing ideas. When church, or  any kind of movement, pushes their ideas on me, without giving me breathing room, I hate it, with a passion. If people could their ideas to themselves and just keep living their lives with their beliefs, and let people have their own without trying to convert people or push their ideas. Just live and let live. Its a simple belief that can go a long way.

The Choice of Poverty

In many countries around the world I would be arguing the opposite. However in this country, I believe and have experienced poverty as a choice. There are different types of poverty, as someone already pointed out, a single death in a family, or serious illness can force a family who was very functional into poverty that is desperately hard to recover from. This usually results in bankruptcy. In these situations the members of the family have choices, over the course of seven years their credit is re-built, and if they make smart choices regarding their spending and lifestyle, stability can be reached. If there are kids in the family and college is approaching, providing that child wants to go to school there are numerous ways to do so- even without help from parents/guardians. If correct FAFSA forms are filled, the process is now streamlined online and scholarships are applied for, just about anyone can find a way to make higher education possible. In situational poverty you are often looking at people who are highly motivated to turn their lives around and regain what they once had. 
Generational poverty is a little different. Generational poverty exists when multiple generations of one family have been born into poverty. This can also be called a culture of poverty. In these circumstances you will often see parents who do not value education for their children, are dependent on the government/state for aid and have an attitude of "being owed" a living. Children coming from this background are at a much higher risk of not graduating from high school and therefore not going on to post secondary education. However even in this situation, it is still a choice. True getting "out of poverty" can be very difficult, but it is doable if an individual is willing to put the time, effort and energy into bettering themselves. 

If you live in India and were born in the slums, the chance of you changing your luck are slim to none, but in this country if you want to change, if you want to succeed, you can. The problem is people's attitudes, it can be very addicting to consider your self a victim of circumstance and poverty. My question to those of you who say poverty is not a choice: when was the last time you asked someone in poverty what they had tried to do to fix the situation? Often you will hear many short term answers that are really excuses- it is always someone's fault- never theirs. Getting out of poverty is difficult and takes years- but it is doable for those who refuse to be victims and who decide to take control of their own lives instead of demanding everyone else take care of them.

Integration

Integration. Do we want it? I think first there should be a clear distinguishing of integration and desegregation. It seems that desegregation is largely a legal matter, almost forced integration. Where integration is largely a social one, people have to choose to let people in, and that brings back up the question, do we really want integration? Desegregation is pretty much breaking down the Jim Crow ideas of the American society, whereas integration is providing an equal opportunity, but in another sense integration calls for the random distribution of a minority throughout society. Trying to balance the racial balance in areas such as occupation, education, residency, and the like. From the times of WWII the military establishment rightly understood that the breakup of the all-black unit would in a closed society necessarily mean more than mere desegregation. It was constantly used to describe the racial goals of society. Rarely, in the files, does it ever include much correspondence with the forced desegregation. I believe in integration to the fullest but, in this case, if people let it be a majority rules, and see if the 2 sides really do want the integration or desegregation if you will.

Malcolm X

Malcolm’s changing views of America’s problems reflect the development of his character, especially through chapters 1-12.  As a child, he sees both of his parents destroyed by white society, he feels despair about the plight of blacks. His attitude changes, however, after his experiences in the black ghettos of Boston and New York develop in him the philosophy that black people should not accept help from white people. The teachings of the Nation of Islam that he receives in prison effect a further change in both Malcolm’s character and his view of white people. He simultaneously abandons his wild past and embraces a systematic hatred of whites.
Malcolm has this desire to correct this perception as he drives his fight for racial equality. He experiences subtle racism in his youth from his family and school, who treat him differently from others because he is black. Though his foster parents and some of the people he encounters in school are nice to him, Malcolm thinks these people treat him nicely in order to show how unprejudiced they are. He feels that they are using him because he is different, as though he were a “pink poodle.” In Boston, he displays his white girlfriend Sophia as a kind of status symbol, viewing her less as a person than as an enviable object that he owns.