H O M E I have always found projects in Ashley's class to hold extreme value and importance. We were asked to create a beautiful piece of final, completed thoughts containing either ethics about the environment or a profound sense of place. We read the works of great minds such as Edward Abbey, Thoreau and so on.
Edward Abbey taught me about the beauty he found between red layers of canyon walls, ones that had history stitched into them. Thoreau taught me about solitude, how he felt Walden to be a safe haven, a place to revive his mental sanity. He made me think about places in the world that kept me safe, that grounded me. Machu Picchu came to mind, holding one of the children I worked in Peru with came to mind. Beautiful waterfalls and spots by the river flashed before my eyes as I thought and contemplated a sense of place. I decided, after an ongoing debate between myself, that the place I feel most at peace is with myself. I used the metaphor that I am a house, and no matter what scenery or situation I am enveloped by, I will always be home. I am in love with the beauty of words, how simple shapes can invoke emotion. I feel like every writing assignment in this class has deeply moved me and improved my writing skills. I could tough on how my essay structure has improved, the way Ashley has taught me to condense ideas and attempt to stay on topic when my mind takes a thousand different routes in one sentence. I think the change that resonates the most, however, is that the sound of my voice grows stronger with every sentence. Like the other assignments, this one shaped my sense of self, gave me more self confidence and pushed me to speak for my belief system. I could write endlessly about how these two pieces deeply affected my personal life, how they were water to my desperately growing flower buds. The environmental aspect of this assignment tore me apart, I spent a large portion of some class periods blinking back tears slipping out of crinkled eyelids.
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I have revolved around the sun 17 times, and am now being asked, what is the purpose of my existence? What a complicated question that it, one with an ever changing answer, but let me provide my current view on my placement on this Earth through an angsty teenage perspective. The philosophy I use as a building block for the construction of my life is compassion. Let me break down those series of letters staring at you on a fluorescent screen; I like to look at the world as one blanket, an endless series of threads intertwining to create a glistening fabric. Though individuals may simply be just one thread, they are all still the blanket, and every other thread around them is simply a manifestation of one universal energy source. (I'm not speaking on a religious tone.) This idea really washes a sense of tranquility over me. When I feel alone/disconnected/paranoid with the strange world gazing upon me, I remember that I am not just a single drop, but the whole damn ocean. We all are, so I let my shoulders relax, holding desperately onto the thought I am not alone in this world, but simply one drop of paint on a canvas that also composes the entire work of art. It's a beautiful thought, really. I like to use the metaphor from the wonderful book we read, A Tale for the Time Being, Ocean, wave, same thing. This is why I place compassion as the overarching virtue on my moral scale, because every kindness and every injustice is simply being done onto yourself. So, when you give a stranger a flower, or tell your mother you love her truly, you're strengthening the beautiful, intricate bonds of the thread work. However, if you send hate to regions of the world, it will not only vibrate back to you (karma) but will slowly collapse and unravel the framework of a blanket you're connected to. This can also be interpreted as a metaphor for how we treat the Earth itself, which is the home for all living things. Happiness to me is really a state of mind, because in the darkest corners of the Earth a light can still be found. For example, I'm currently in Peru working with abused children. The other day we made crowns, they were quite simple actually. Just some paper and stickers. But these simple treasures brought their gentle souls such a profound joy it truly shook me to my core. For them, happiness is a state of mind, it absolutely is. Though scars cover their tiny little bodies they still somehow encompass a gravitating optimism about the world around them, that things will be alright. And there's nothing more beautiful than watching a broken bird fly anyways. (For more information, look on my LINK page.) Of course, happiness comes in different manifestations. For these beams of light, they found joy in having a roof over their heads, to have a meal every day. So, for me, happiness is understanding, it's compassion. Having compassion is really like reading a book. For awhile, you take of your lenses of the world and peer into someone elses. You understand their reality, their pain and their happiness. And when you close the book, I truly think it makes you a better person. Having compassion is this beyond the safety of pages, it's applying it to the homeless man you see on the street, or the girl in class who always gets the answer right. For me, it especially means to recognize all manifestations on this Earth deserve it. This includes the dandelions on your front lawn, the cats and dogs running around on the streets without a home. I personally place meaning over my personal happiness, I know that it should be a balance, to take care of yourself and still take care of others. But it's quite easy to get wrapped up in freely giving compassion to others when you don't even bring it to the front door of yourself. For me, living a meaningful life means to help the blanket stay intact. To spread love to every fraction of the globe, to devote yourself absolutely to helping other lost souls on their path. It means to allow your psyche to be swallowed by a new perspective, culture, or ideology. To see the world with eyes you never thought existed or could even see. It means to accept other people's perspectives, though you may not always agree with them. To come to terms with the fact your reality isn't the only truth of this endless, complicated, infinitely mysterious world. Literature is truly one of the largest reasons as to why I am so deeply in love with compassion. When you read you dive into another perspective, and I think that's so beautiful. To possess the ability to see the worlds horizons beyond your own fraction of a perspective. Literature makes you fall in love with the broken, bad guy. You are able to see his winding path and understand how he got from point A to point B. Another important factor of my personal philosophy I want to bring up is that having compassion doesn't mean you have to forgive a serial killer, it doesn't mean you have to love those who performed awful things. In my eyes, it simply means understanding what got them there. It means you are aware that all the good, and the bad in the world, it's all still in the same blanket as you. Alas, you might as well get to know and understand the other threads. https://docs.google.com/a/animashighschool.com/file/d/0B5ktO3NLUDlcems1NU1kbjZudWM/edit I'm not yet done with my visual but here are a few photos I will be incorporating into it. I always take away something on a very deep, intimate level from Ashley's projects. To me, it's never really school work, but a little journey where she asks her students to find more and more pieces of themselves. (This better make you smile Ashley.)
One of the deepest things I took away is that compassion has to start with your own roots. To provide water to others, you cannot be collapsing from dehydration. This is something I will surely struggle with my entire life. I find myself to be the type of individual to give pieces of my well being away until there is nothing left but eyes filled with tears. Eyes that still glimmer seeing all the love in the world but fail to look upon the graveyard of my own body. I find it to be quite interesting, ironic actually, that I scream compassion at the top of my lungs and fail to recognize or even care when my throat is bleeding from so much noise. It's hard to love yourself, it truly truly is. And though I love the metaphor of interconnected ocean waves, an infinite blanket, I still silently push aside the needs of my individual drop. I have been ripping apart my own thread while trying to glue back the strings of others. So, the biggest insight that is following me outside of this assignment, is that I deserve to be part of the blanket just as much as any other thread. It's quite depressing actually, that I've been trying to rip my piece out for years, and I have to come to terms with the fact that if one string is removes, the entire framework of the blanket will be changed. Now I'm supposed to write about 4-6-1000 questions about myself/this project, that should be quite easy given all I do is question. 1) Why is it so innate for me to love others but not myself? 2) How can there be so much hate on one little world? 3) How can there be so much love on one little world? 4) What are daily routines/rituals I and other people can incorporate to bring compassion to themselves? 5) Will operation compassion be another great idea I never actually finish? Written Piece History has always appealed to me on so many levels. Time to me is simply a human concept, one that makes this absurd universe a bit more tangible. I see it an a realm that connects us all, yet we make sense of it through clocks. So when given the prompt of picking an event that occurred through history, I quickly decided on the crimes of humanity against the Native Americans. I wanted to reach through time, hear the stories and understand their perspective. It's a deeply complicated series of event, and I wanted to dive deeply into it's torn roots. The main framework of my question asked if what took place against the Native American's were a genocide. I approached this on a cultural, physical and spiritual level. It broke my heart.
I find myself to be a very sensitive human being to the injustices of the universe. Thus, this project crushed my soul in so many ways. Researching the atrocities that were brought upon this select group of people became too much at many points. I felt like being an American, a human even, somehow linked my hands to these events. It honestly killed me. My eyes got lost in the hazy screen of my laptop as I read and reread stories of pain, stories from children who walked thousands of miles or were sent to schools where their roots were stolen from them. And that was the most challenging part. Reading words upon words of injustice and knowing I could not reach through the screen and save them. I know that this may just be a grade for some people, that joining honors looks good on their college resume, but diving into things like these is one of the constant waves in my life. There were many changes I made throughout the course of my project. One that I found to be most substantial was my perspective. When I entered this project, I was filled with a teenage angst towards the concept. I saw it in a dark, twisted light and could not comprehend any positivity. With the assistance of my guru (Ashley) I was able to change the lens through which I saw history. The events were tragic, there is absolutely no denying that. Now it's time for me to provide some words of wisdom to future Junior Honors. Forget letters, first of all. The point of honors is not for you to receive an A, it's not to impress future colleges, it's for personal growth. In this project, you are given the profound opportunity to dive through history, little one. That is something truly amazing. In many other countries, children would envy our right to knowledge, don't abuse it. September. In my essay, The Night Thoreau Spent in Jail, Ashley gave me feedback as follows. My first major area of improvement was to embed my quotes. Instead of just dropping them in, I should provide context that helps the reader understand. Thus, my first writing goal is to follow a more basic guideline.
This also includes not getting too carried away in eloquent language that dilutes my message. I find myself getting caught up in the eloquence of what I am writing, the poetic justice of it to such an extent that it waters down my main ideas. My next goal in writing is to not use it as an escape. Though a great form of expression, I find myself only comfortable speaking through paper. I want to be able to freely speak and not rely so intensely on writing. This is my second goal, and I hope to find my voice, both on paper and in reality Equality is a word that the United States promises equality for all, yet forgets animals are living, emotional creatures as well. Thus we must extend this principle it to all beings on this planet and illegalize animal testing. I picked an animal issue for a specific reason. I am a strong activist of human rights, and found a lot of the issues my peers chose to be very heavy on my heart. However, animals are not represented in our court systems, they cannot explain that they do not want their children killed. Humans can speak for themselves to a degree, we can alter our laws to protect one anothers liberty, but for animals I believe they are extremely underrepresented. I wanted to fight for the minority whose most burdened with injustice on our planet. Through this project I found the facts necessary to back up my emotional argument, and found a way to get my foot in the door to spark change on a local level. Through this project, the most significant advice I took away was from my amazing teacher Ashley. Though I am just a drop of water, what is the ocean but a multitude of drops? Basically, that my individual actions make a difference, and the worlds problems do not have to be burdened just upon my shoulders.
My first draft of the op-ed exceeded 1700 words, and my content was a scattered mess of complex language and emotions. Because I am so passionate about this issue, I allowed my emotional mindset to run the entire piece. But after critically reading through it without being attached, I saw great areas of improvement and incorporated stronger philosophies, facts and credible sources into my argument which strengthened my logos and ethos. A pathos mindset came easily to me, and this project helped me learn to deattatch myself from the worlds problems and not take them all on in one moment of my infinity. I cultivated the skill of not loosing my reader in a factual article trying to twist it with a poetic justice, weaving in metaphors. Instead of creating a beautiful art piece I decided to take action, because my conscience couldn't stand anything less. In the project, The Morality's of Justice, I explored what was the best way the United States government could respond to the issue of animal testing. I embedded my mind, body and soul into creating my own herbal lotions etc. I actually brought some to the exhibition to show people there are so many other options besides using the cheap name brand products. I also created a petition and got a significant amount of signatures that I will actually be discussing with City Council. I am also hosting a meeting with local companies to urge them to only buy quality, cruelty free products as they are the heart of Durango and should provide merchandise that has clean history. I showcased heartbreaking pictures and provided the public with lists of companies that test on animals and common procedures. People were shocked, some every cried and couldn't believe all the atrocities that went on. My action piece was designed to bring together a community in act of protest to the multi billion dollar corporations that are taking hold of innocent animals lives and the shelves in our kitchens. I believe this project showcases my strengths because it displayed my passion and desire to speak for those who cannot. I transcended my parties views, my mothers views, and showed the just course of action for the world to take. I am, a sensitive, analytical person. I remember after putting up my petition. The feeling I got after every single signature made my heart smile. However, a few students thought of my project as a joke, and wrote crude comments about animal testing as well as me. It hurt, and I had to use white out quite a few times in one day. I cried for awhile over it, and took the words to heart because I had spent so much time working on this. But I had an epiphany and realized that there are always going to be individuals trying to pull me down, but no one can make me feel inferior unless I give them my consent. Looking back on all the people who did sign it, who wanted to make a difference, that was what I focused on for the rest of the day. Throughout my life, I have dived deep into the injustices of the world, wanting to save the suppressed but finding I myself drowned in their tears. The world scares me, all of the wrongdoings, all of the pain. Sometimes I can't handle it and just explode into a million pieces, feeling each scar of other individuals. This project was the first step I have taken in a long time to deattatch my emotional well being from others. And its hard, believe me it's so hard. Because I want to save everyone from their pain, but this project made me realize I can still be an activist while not jeopardizing my mental health. Watching the videos online, I felt the scientists blood on my hands, guilty by association, guilty by my species. I often take on everyone elses wrongdoings, my entire species and as a result become very paranoid, loosing my identity and thinking I am the killers and the murderers because we trace back to the same roots. Ashley, I know you're reading this, and I just want to thank you for making me feel like I am one of the good ones. That I am not tainted because of our species past. You're a good one too. Testing our Humanity
Albert Einstein once stated, “Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.” Life is a precious thing, thus minimizing pain and maximizing happiness is a universal truth. This applies to all species on this Earth. However, a mindset called speciesism has dominated the world. Within our own species war has broken out against those defenseless. We condemn sexism and racism, yet our entire infrastructure and society is built upon animals suffering. Equality is a word that the United States promises for all, yet forgets animals are living, emotional creatures as well. Thus we must extend this principle it to all beings on this planet and illegalize animal testing. Adverting the facts we’d rather not hear is perhaps to ease a burdened conscience that has been tainted over the years. Let me bluntly state what is ignored. Not only is the suffering inflicted on these animals vulgar, but 12 million of tax funded dollars supports the veins of it every year. AAVS.org provided this information on the article, “How Animals are Used,” and explains some of the most often practiced procedures. Eye irritancy often involves rabbits that are restrained while an extremely painful chemical descends into one eye. They are evaluated and restrained for up to seven days, while the acidic chemical burns their eyes. Mutagenicity is the vulgar experimentation in which animals, often mice are given a mutation that literally changes their chemical makeup, for example cancer. They are forced to go through the same pain a human cancer patient would, and are then killed often without anesthetic and dissected. Not only is it unsuccessful, but alternatives such as cell toxicology which harm no one have a success rate of 80% to 95% according to PETA would be a much stronger alternative to fighting diseases. We look upon human cancer patients with sorrow but give their diseases to other creatures. The emotional connection of giving birth exists in any species. Humans or lab rats. In reproductive toxicity, subjects are given large doses of toxic chemicals. While preparing to bring their offspring into the world, they are dying from this virulent chemical. Just before birth, they are killed. Their fetuses are ripped apart and examined, along with their newly born offspring. The last extremely inhumane practice is ecotoxicity. The victim is often fish and their environment is invaded by toxic fumes, a practice comparable to gas chambers. After a 96 hour period, half of them die at a lethal dose. Though these experiments are obviously cruel and unthinkable to inflict on another human being, they’re performed on animals by the thousands until the desired effect is achieved. None of them are illegal or even regulated despite how cruel, irrelevant to human health or redundant they are. The priority is human benefit, which comes in many sinister shades of black. Human beings forget to extend humanity to species other than ourselves. The Animal Welfare Act is the only law in place that forces labs to use anesthetic and conduct somewhat ethical procedures. A shocking 95% of animals used in experiments are not protected by this law. Meaning the labs can treat them in any grotesque way and perform excruciatingly painful procedures such as the ones listed above without anesthetic. For this reason, over 800 laboratories strictly use animals not defended and are never faced with regulations or ethics. Who protects them? Animal testing ethics were demolished by a man named Harry Harlow. Who bluntly said, “The only thing I care about is whether a monkey will turn out a property I can publish. I don’t have any love for them. How could you love a monkey? I just have no feeling for them—at all.” The Mad Scientist blog studies the history of scientists gone wrong. According to the page, Harlow created tests that subjected thousands of primates to psychological abuse. He was infamous for, “The Well of Despair.” The environment was an extremely small space closed off to any stimulus, light and interaction. For an entire year, these newborn monkeys only knew darkness are were torn apart from their mothers. Even the happiest monkeys showed signs of deep, psychological depression. He progressed this depression by making them become addicted to alcohol. He also forced monkeys to mate by using a rape rack. This resulted in the victimized mothers chewing off their child’s fingers and crushing their heads after the torture they were put through. The 20th century animal rights activist and Utilitarian philosopher, Peter Singer, stated in his book Practical Ethics that “The application of the principle of equality to the infliction of suffering is... fairly straightforward. Pain and suffering are bad and should be prevented or minimized, irrespective of the race, sex, or species of the being that suffers.. When we come to consider the value of life, we cannot say quite so confidently that a life is a life, and equally valuable, whether it is a human life or an animals.” How can we value one life over another? How is it justifiable to kill thousands of animals to produce one vaccine that has an extremely low probability of even helping the human population? Though we may share some genetic structure with species like primates, our systems still respond very differently to drugs. According to PETA, one of the leading movements for animal rights, “Nine out of ten experimental drugs fail in clinical studies because we cannot accurately predict how they will behave in people based on laboratory and animal studies.” Despite this shocking truth, over 100 million animals are dissected, infected, injected, gassed, mutilated, radiated, tortured, burned, blinded and poisoned in a futile effort. A Utilitarianist point of view could come into place. Though many argue animal testing is necessary to maximize human welfare, it is extremely wasteful. Let’s break it down, past the technical labels of humans or animals that create an identity of chains. Every living, breathing organism on this planet is composed of energy. Though we manifest in different forms our framework is eternally linked. We all experience pain or fear and expanding Rawls Veil of Ignorance, the placement on this planet isn’t at our hands. We cannot determine our fate so those with more power must liberate the suppressed. Despite their gender, ethnicity, culture or species, every single piece of this planet deserves respect. Speciesism is synonymous with sexism and racism. Injustice is injustice despite the hue of paint it’s masked by. Sidenote, If this op ed inspired you to take action, I urge you that it can take place even in your own home. Below are links to PETA’s list of companies that do and do not test on animals. Change can begin with the smallest actions. Boycott these companies, fight for the silenced! Please, do not just read this op ed, allow it to tear you apart for a moment and then continue supporting this industry. Do not do the animals and I that injustice! Thank you for listening to me ramble, have an exceptional day. http://www.mediapeta.com/peta/PDF/companiesdonttest.pdf http://www.mediapeta.com/peta/PDF/companiesdotest.pdf |
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May 2016
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