When You Change Things Are Still The Same

At John Muir Fundamental we had the biggest playground that any elementary kid could ever imagine. It would take me a whole recess session to walk around the borders of this play ground. This upper case “l” shaped playground had in one corner a huge baseball diamond that was designated for organized soft ball games and on the other side we had a smaller baseball diamond in which fifth graders roamed and played kickball. In the middle was an endless field of grass that many students tread on by powering their little legs that pumped their little hearts in a chase to the nearest kid to shout “you’re it!” Every field was surrounded by playground equipment. There were monkey bars, jungle gyms, three swing sets (small and large), pull up bars, and tunnels. This playground was my heaven. That was twelve years ago. The last time I visited my elementary school was in 2003 I was in shock at what had happened since I left. I’m guessing the school district put John Muir Fundamental into a “washing time machine” because everything had shrunk and throughout the years it made everything seem as though it had changed.

When I went back everything looked different. My frame of mind had changed but the physical surroundings that I had left behind twelve years earlier had remained the same. I looked for details that proved the field had been cut in half and everything else that told me this place was renovated within the last twelve years. Yeah, sure they added a couple of more classrooms because of the increasing student population but everything else was still the same. The lunch tables were still in front of the fourth grade classrooms, the trailer housed bathrooms were still next to the handball courts, and the portable classrooms 110 – 115 were still in the same row bordered by an endless walkway starting from 110 all the way to 115. At one point in my six year tenure here I was riding little bicycles with training wheels that were provided by the school but I have changed and now I drive a four door sedan that speeds up to 140 miles per hour provided by my income. In essence things changed because I made them change.

Many innovations have come around within the last two centuries that have had an impact on our social spectrum. Many of these inventions or ideas have been proposed to better our world wide society; but as we look around and take notes on the people that live in this world of innovation we notice that the things we change end up changing us and in most cases for the worse.

Issues like global warming and education have been in the hot seat and in very intense debate over the years. Modifying these conditions to significantly affect our society is all talk and talk is not cheap, its expensive. These global issues have been discussed many times and have been solved with ideas that will affect them for the better. We already know that recycling, bio-diesel, and electric cars work so, why are they not constituted into federal law? Many charter schools have dwarfed the success of public schools so, why hasn’t our government copied and pasted their success into our educational system? Countries are comprised with many different social institutions like education, health care, government, work, media, economies that deal with issues that occupy every second of our lives. Billions of people work with these institutions, including each other, creating an interconnection between the effects of ones creations and the lives of those who surround what was created. A lot of change has been made but not a lot has been monitored. Due to the rapid pace of life and the daily activities that consume it we tend to look at everything through the “rear view mirror” but if that rear view mirror was not invented time would have rear ended us.

With the wealth of information and the abundance of life that surrounds us I want to welcome you into a paradigm of change. Live and get inspired so that you can create an idea that will serve a purpose to you, your surroundings and that creates an effect to the rest of our society. It is our job as citizens of Earth to indulge our planet and its civilization with change that will enhance our living.

Recycling Shoulb Be Americas Favorite Pastime

Recycling should be one of our most favorite pastimes। It's already a favorite for those who inhabit the streets. But for those who aren’t in need of its financial reward it is simply a past time of putting cardboard boxes, plastics, glass and aluminum cans in their city provided recycling cans. But why isn’t recycling one of our favorite pastimes? Well, recycling is fairly recent, at least in modern times.

Recycling campaigns erupted during World War II because of shortages in resources caused by the World Wars। But that’s not why most people recycle today. Our country has a large population of people that go out of their way to recycle empty beer cans, soda cans, beer bottles, newspapers, and plastic beverage containers. Heck, they spend the money to consume these products they might as well put them to full use, and ladies and gentlemen that is what these people do. Who are these people? Well for the most part it would be safe to assume they are largely beer enthusiasts, Americans in lower income brackets, caffeine junkies (soda caffeine), the newspaper reading community (grandmas and grandpas) and the homeless. Oh, we can’t forget those who call themselves business men. Those who recycle scrap metal and cardboard. A small percentage of these “business men” steal this scrap metal from abandoned buildings, industrial warehouses (air conditioners and electric polls on rooftops) and wherever they can see these potential dollar bills lying around.

In our current times our so called powerful economy is in what they call a recession। Many people are losing their jobs and are out there struggling looking for new jobs. Most of these people have to rely on working at retail shops which is a mystery considering people are not spending their money. Other jobs like data entry positions, warehousing, and miscellaneous part-time jobs at night time and part-time jobs on the weekend seem to be available.

Largely due to active environmentalists many companies and individuals are “going green” in which recycling is a part of। But recycling today is still not a federal law. Recycling has given us the impression that it is a privilege to those who take part in the consumer economy and for those who just go out of their way to recycle without investing in it. These current times should influence a blind shout-out to those who do participate in our consumer economy by giving back to themselves.

Beer enthusiasts already caught on long time ago. They spend their mighty dollars on their favorite beers and go out of their way to recycle those cans to help buy more beers. This mostly influences these people to continue drinking but that’s another story for another day. Aluminum prices have a forecast that would set 2008’s average at $1.30 per lb. So if people are not going out of their way to fill up the city provided recycling bin they should start going out of their way now…on their behalf.

Today’s expenses like gas and mortgage payments are burning holes in our pockets so our extra money is lost। An extra $50 here and there from recycling can help take the kids or girlfriend out to the movies, pay a bill that just popped up, or even give a homeless individual that extra change they asked for. These are things that most of us probably couldn’t have done before we started recycling.

Our kids may be unhappy or could be getting into trouble out on the streets because we’re not recycling! Our girlfriend or spouse may leave us because we’re not taking them to a dinner and a movie every now and then! So start recycling! In these times people should reap benefits like this. It’s crazy not to. You may lose your house or maybe even your kids.