In case you need some perspective.

***DO NOT PROCEED IF YOU DO NOT WANT A SLAP OF REALITY***

If you start to think life isn't fair because you could not buy those stellar Christian Louboutin's that were on sale (because they still cost $585) or because you had to sit on the highway behind gramps going 40 miles an hour, read this.

"On one of the trips I took to Darfur with Samantha Power in late Spring 2004, we met a woman, Amina, cooking on the ground. She had fled her village during an attack. Her husband had been shot as soon as he left their hut. She had two of her children on her back and the other two in her arms as about Janjaweed chased her on camels. First they ripped her five year-old, Adom, from her, and when she stopped running and begged for her child, they told her they would shoot her. So she continued running away from her village that was up in flames. The Janjaweed then tossed Adom into the fire. He was screaming and calling her name, but she just kept runing. Despite her speed, her seven year-old, Asam Mohamed, was taken then and shot, once in his side and once in his back. She was never able to bury her children." - John Prendegrast, Not on our Watch, 2007, p. 80

I will admit that I have momentary lapses of the important things in life. I won't deny that I like little gadgets and video games and books and food, etc. I am an American and I am allowed these little pleasures (if I can afford them, that is - but that is an entirely different post). However, we really need to grasp reality in this country. Get our heads out of our asses and start taking notice at what is going on immediately around us, and off in the distance. We should all take part in making this world a safer, happier place.

Choose what it is you care about and DO SOMETHING. The world (and the planet, for that matter) is counting on you.

Unemployment Statistics

Does anyone realize that the percentage of unemployed people in the United States has not been this high (currently at 9.4% of total population) since 1982! During that year, it reached 10.8%!!

Man. This is getting serious. :(

Source: http://data.bls.gov/PDQ/servlet/SurveyOutputServlet

My Field Placement is confirmed!!

I've secured my field placement! I will be interning at an ADOPTION agency this Fall and Spring Semester. I will be working with an MSW who graduated from my school/program, and she knows exactly what I will need to learn, be exposed to, how to write my learning plan, etc. She is an infant and international adoption counselor and I will be mainly working with her. She does home visits with prospective parents, goes to court to finalize the adoption, etc. I will accompany her on these visits and will be exposed to writing up home studies, which she says are like a biography of a family - every little detail about them is included. Each family member is also interviewed individually.

They mentioned the need for flexibility because if a birth mother has a child, we have to go to the hospitals on Saturdays, etc. I am fine with that, and they know that I have my other job(s). I will be working with them on Wednesdays and Fridays, and/or whenever the need arises. I could go to hospital visits, recruitment events, writing up progress notes/home studies, going to court, etc.

I am SO excited but very nervous. I know absolutely nothing about this area of work!! Being completely new to the field of Social Work, I am grateful that my field instructor is going to be working so closely with me. I think some people are thrown to the wolves, so to speak, and I would be terrified if that were the case! I asked for some literature to read this Summer and I got what I asked for: 4 books and a 3" binder of the Florida Statutes on Adoption!!

I have to go for my background check in August. And, I sent my field instructor and her supervisor a thank you email when I got home. I really am grateful for this opportunity. :D

Tomorrow is Domestic Violence Awareness Day.

Saturday, May 9, is Domestic Violence Awareness Day.

Domestic Abuse should not happen. Ever. Sadly though, it happens. A lot. What is Domestic Violence? Domestic violence is behavior - emotional, psychological, physical, or sexual abuse - that one person in an intimate relationship uses in order to control the other. Domestic Violence is about the age-old POWER issue. Some people feel entitled to control others, and will use force, should that person not obey. Although men are more likely to be victims of violent crime overall, a recent study by the U.S. Department of Justice reports that "intimate partner violence is primarily a crime against women."2 Of those victimized by an intimate partner, 85% are women and 15% are men.2 In other words, women are 5 to 8 times more likely than men to be victimized by an intimate partner.3 

It takes many different forms and includes behavior such as threats, name-calling, isolation, withholding of money, actual or threatened physical harm and sexual assault. Most domestic violence is committed against women by their male partners. It also occurs in lesbian and gay relationships and is common in teenage dating relationships. In a small number of cases, men are abused by female partners, but because 91 to 95 percent of all adult domestic violence assaults are perpetrated by men against their female partners, this booklet will refer to victims as female and abusers as male. In any case, every victim of domestic violence, whether female or male, gay or heterosexual, has the right to legal relief.

Sadly, my mother comes from an absuive background, growing up and in relationships. And I have friends who have experienced it, as well. Women always say that they wouldn't put up with someone abusing them, but a lot end up doing just that. Yet, there are some who do get out at the first signs.  And it's not just timid women that stay, there have been plenty of strong women that have stayed. Why do some stay and some leave? It's a fascinating phenomena that really puzzles the hell out of me. However, many do stay because they have no other options, or at least, that is how they see it.

Have you ever seen The Burning Bed with Farrah Fawcett? That movie made a serious statement towards Domestic Violence: chances are high that someone is bound to end up dead. As that movie shows, it's not always the victim. Some people loose effin mind - crack, so to speak - and kill their abuser. Of course, many abusers kill their victims also. Either way, the loss is stupid and preventable.

Resources:

• National Domestiv Violence Hotline
  
• Domestic Violence @ MedlinePlus
• National Coalition Against Domestic Violence
• Domestic Violence Survival Kit

Movies:

• The Burning Bed
  
• Enough
• Sleeping with the Enemy
• What's love got to do with it

Girls on Our Streets

I'm a fan of Nicholas D. Kristof, an op-ed columnist for the New York Times. He's done a lot of writing about Darfur, but he also focuses on the troubles in America. Lately, he investigated the unfortunate and overwhelming number of teenage girls who are selling their bodies to stay alive. I really agree with his statement: Solutions are complicated and involve broader efforts to overcome urban poverty, including improving schools and attempting to shore up the family structure. But a first step is to stop treating these teenagers as criminals and focusing instead on arresting the pimps and the customers — and the corrupt cops.  YES - they need to learn the law, but we need to quit throwing them in the system. We all know that our penal system is NOT the rehabilitative environment it should be. What they really need is HELP fighting their inner-demons, so to speak, and assistance to get off the streets.  

This statement is even more true: If a middle-class white girl goes missing, radio stations broadcast amber alerts, and cable TV fills the air with “missing beauty” updates. But 13-year-old black or Latina girls from poor neighborhoods vanish all the time, and the pimps are among the few people who show any interest. What is up with that? Why does this country turn a blind eye when something happens to a minority? Why are we still turning our noses up to these populations? It makes me sick. People feel as though these people are a dime a dozen, and good riddance to the ones that pass on. Frees up resources, right? One less mouth to feed. One less sick child to be taken into the emergency room with no insurance, which jack up everyone's health insurance. One less pimp on the street. One less drug addict. One less prostitute. One less. 

What people don't take a moment to think about is that most of these minorities are stuck in the endless loop of poverty. In fact, most grow up experiencing nothing else. All they see is drugs, sex and violence. It becomes their culture, their distinct set of values and beliefs. Yea. Seems crazy to value violence, huh? But what if it's all the person has ever experienced? 

Can you un-learn your culture? I dare you to try.

And don't even get me started on how our capitalist, oligarchical economy only exacerbates the poor's situation. Or how we have this Just Deserts mindset. Or Cumulative Oppression. Or how we point the finger and blame individuals instead of looking at the broader systems and policies that are not in place, which then exacerbate a situation! We can't expect people to pull themselves up by their friggin boot straps anymore. Not in today's exorbitantly priced world. We need to GET OVER that mindset! 

Do not misinterpret my opinion. I obviously believe that criminals should be punished. However, we are going about it in the entirely wrong fashion, and have been for a long time. And no, I don't have a solution, I just know that our social and penal system really, really, needs an overhaul. However, how do you change a complete system as ginormous as these? pfft. The answer I feel everyone has on the tips of their tongues is: You don't. And that is the sad part...

(I totally ranted and went off on a tangent. Score!)