Week Nine Blog-Biggest Regret

I realized this on November 14, 2014. I lost my grandmother that day. The following day I read this obituary, "Mildred Marie (McClure) Davis, 74, of Grover Hill, passed away peacefully at her home on November 14, 2014.

Marie was born on August 21, 1938 in Continental, Ohio, the daughter of Everett and Violet (Fruchey) McClure. She was one of seven children. She graduated from Grover Hill High School in 1956.

On December 22, 1956, she married Roland Rex Davis at the United Methodist Church in Grover Hill, Ohio. They were married nearly 58 years. She was blessed with three sons: Kelvin (Sandra Carter), Greg "Gus" (Lori Dealey), and Robbie (Jessica Welch). She was the proud grandmother of eleven grandchildren: Joshua, Jacob (Stacy Hatfield), Justin, Janelle, Natalie (Ben Winans), Nathan, Ryan, Caleb, Corey, Christopher, and Cara. Marie was also blessed with six great-grandchildren: Madisyn, Rhianna, Brayson, Cale, Caroline, and Careen.

Marie retired in January of 1996 from the Wayne Trace Local Schools where she served as treasurer for 20 years. She also served as the Latty Township Clerk for many years.

Marie enjoyed spending time with her family and supporting them in everything that they were involved in. She logged many hours in the stands at her children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren’s sporting events.

Marie is survived by her husband, children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, and her siblings: Dana (Sue) McClure, Barb Dotson McClure, Larry McClure, Cleona (Garry) Miller, Earl (Allison) McClure, and Vinal (Leslie) McClure. She was preceded in death by her parents, a brother, Russ "Rex" McClure, and a sister-in-law, Deb McClure. 

Funeral services will be conducted 11 AM Monday, November 17 at Grover Hill Zion United Methodist Church with Rev. Paul Miller officiating. Burial will follow in Middle Creek Cemetery, Grover Hill.

Visitation will be 2 – 8PM Sunday, November 16 at Den Herder Funeral Home, Paulding, and one hour prior to services at the church on Monday. 

In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations made to Grover Hill Zion United Methodist Church or Grover Hill EMS."

This had lasting impact on me because I realized she was actually gone and I realized my biggest regret in my life is not saying I love you enough. I regret this because I saw her a few days before her death and did not say I loved her. However, there is no way to fix this regret, but I can change how I say it to currently loving family members. 

This relates back to community theme since, communities away come together in times of need and time of lost. An example is bring food to the family whom is going though lost. This happens because the struggling family often the thought of food on their mind. This shows how family issue and communities are intertwined.

DC Trash Problem Solutions

In my last blog post, I brought the attention to you all of the DC trash campus problem. Even though DC campus is small, this campus still has a lasting impact on the world around us. Some examples of how the world has been altered is by animal has who perished and/or have been affected. Below is a video of an animal who has been affected by our trash. 

This example only showed how just one form of human trash can have a short or long term effect on an animal.

Last week, I stated that, "Everyday countless students take plastic or Styrofoam to go containers to class. These ends up in the trash. Styrofoam does not degrade well and takes even longer than plastic. These containers can leave a lasting impact on the environment." There are several ways to monitor and fix this issue. One is reuse the plastic to go boxes provided by the cafeteria service. A second way to combat this issue is to use the plastic containers inside the dorms, so there do not end up in the landfill immediately. A third way to lessen waste at DC is to provide biodegradable and edible utensils. A fourth and final way to combat waste is to alter or start up new or current recycling programs.

Blog Post Week Five: Political Community

A political community can be described as a group of people who follow and believe in a set political mindset. A common example of this is the battle between "The Left V. The Right". This battle includes the Republicans and the Democrats, which myself personally never understood, but these two groups have their own doctrines in which the two follow. Some of the republican doctrine included avoiding tax increases, opposes abortion, and oppose the marriage of gays, while the democrat’s doctrines are typically the opposite. They included new taxes rate depending on income, for legal abortion, and supports gay marriage. Theses political community play an active role in reversing or stagnating a community's developmental progress. A political community can lead to formulation of an unhealthy community or a healthy one.

 An example of this is when a political community alters approach towards its ideology. An example of this was brought up by Robert Reich. Robert questioned Trumps move of placing Stephen Bannon above the director of national intelligence and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Reich article also discusses the new policy of putting America first and how it is a dangerous route. Trump's decision has caused several responses. Some responses within Reich article include, "Here’s the big worry: Trump is unhinged and ignorant. Bannon is nuts and malicious."  This quote offers a vivid example of how these groups can tear a community apart. Political differences can make normal conversations into ugly ones.  While in a healthy community, this group can have a more positive than a negative impact. Why this is true because these questioning of these ideas can lead to an effective debate and lead to have somewhat of a consensus. Each type of community can alter how their approach these disagreements and questioning. Changing one's outlook can change the course of a community’s long-term development.

While the article by Rosie Gray, focuses on the Anti-Democracy Movement. She discusses how Steve Bannon has been in contract with Curtis Yarvin. Yarvin ideology focuses on that democracy does not work. It is a flawed concept that is inefficiency and solves nothing. Yarvin prefers thee NRx or a rejection of democracy, for autocratic rule. This community seen as an unhealthy community due to its following of autocratic rule. Both healthy and unhealthy community may see this move as a way of ending their ways of life. Autocratic ruling can directly change their ways of life and their own personalize choice in decision-making. Proof of this treatment is when Rose article states, "The core of our problem is that there is no one with the secure authority to fix things. The core of our solution is to find a man, and put him in charge, with a real chain of command, and a clear ownership structure." and "The only viable path to restoration of competent government is the simple and hard way:

Become worthy.

Accept power.

Rule.”  

These two quotes show how one person can take away a community's ability to make choices for themselves. These communities can combat this by standing up to the NRz movement and over thrown the group if it continues that far.  

DC Trash Problem

Easter is around the corner and all the fun with it will be here before you know it. Though out the day, the family had numerous of bonding moments. These bonding experiences include a day full of conversation and  food.  After all the food, has settled in everyone’s stomachs, the cleanup begins. the dessert and food containers are emptied, the bottles/cans are gathered together. Once everything is straightened up, excess food is either taken home or dumped. What ends up getting dumped, includes all the disposable utensils and one use of cookware. 

According to Toxics Action Center, in 2007, reported that each American discards an average of more than 1,650 pounds of garbage every year, or approximately 4.6 pounds per person each day, nearly double the 1960 average of 2.7 pounds per day. We as individuals are also making an effecting choice on the issue. An example of this is here at Defiance College. Everyday countless students take plastic or Styrofoam to go containers to class. These ends up in the trash. Styrofoam does not degrade well and takes even longer than plastic. These containers can leave a lasting impact on the environment. There are numerous ways to fix this issue. Tune in next week to see some of the ways to combat the trash problem on campus and in the world/community in general.

URL: http://www.toxicsaction.org/problems-and-solutions/waste

An Example of How Everyday Interests can Become a Symbol of Our Lives

  An example of an interests we grow up liking is a show like The Brady Bunch , sports like football, or a hobby like blogging; some interests stick while others fade though our life time. Some of these interests can become a symbol of our lives. An example of my own past interests in sewing. Sewing has shown me how to deal with loss, wear, and love within my life. 

If you have ever been around a sewing machine you often, have to fix some wear and tear on fabric. The wear of the clothing represents the trials and tribulations of my life. One of the initial trials of my life was when I was born. My brother and I were born three months premature.  One difficulty I had was speech problems/difficulties. The speech difficulty I had was I roll my R’s. These speech issues prepared me for life’s challenges. On top of my speech disability, I additionally overcame a number of physical characteristics of being a premature infant. Some of these characteristics pertain in terms of development compared to my fellow peers.

On top of the wear of the clothing, the sew machine fixes and mends the clothing by the use of thread and needle.  The overall tightness of the stitches shows how I am tight-knitted with my family. I am close with my family, because they helped take care of us at a young age. While we were in the hospital, much our family stop to visit us. After leaving the hospital, our grandma would take care of one or both of us while our mom went to college and our father went to work. This is one example of life's love within my life. 

Besides the mending of the clothing, the sewing machine also provides light in order see what you are sewing. The light provided myself with seeing and understanding the loss within my life. Again, my grandmother often would help take care of me while my mother and father again were working/acquiring education. She was a key factor in my life. She would always take us school shopping before school started to make sure we had new shoes and clothes for school. In addition, I lost our first dog after being struck by a car. At the age of 10, I watched as she was put down, while my mother just wanted to leave. I wanted to stay so she would not have to die alone. These are just two examples of loss within my life. 

Lastly, I hope you all began to see that the objects you have in your life could represent you in ways more than you realize. An example of my own life is: how your family has made sacrifices to get you to the point where you are today.  How objects can help shed some light on going life crisis. All of these ideas can be symbolized into any everyday object. 

Blog Post #3- Audience Awareness

Audience Awareness is an important aspect in any form of writing. Writing to your best friend versus a hiring committee requires a total overhaul in how you approach and write any document to each other. When writing a friend that format can be informal and be very basic in terms of style and grammatical correctness, while writing to a hiring committee is greatly more weighted when considering style and grammar. These small important differences can have a lasting impact on your career and other important endeavors. 

The Budweiser goes an excellent job at using audience awareness. The scope of the advertisement (ad) is a broad yet specific audience. The intended audience in my opinion is anyone who is looking for or had a good time within their lifetime. I believe this to be true since the advertisement used different forms of partying throughout the past years. They ideology is based on selling their products and hoping the next time they have a good time their buy the drink that has been used for many years.

While, the Mercedes advertisement has the narrowest scope of the three ads. The intend audience is anyone who is in search of a new vehicle, but has the economic means of purchasing a Mercedes style and price vehicle. The group use the use of a child and his obsession with riding in a Mercedes vehicle. The child traveled to a place across town to have a ride in a specific vehicle. The reason for using the child is to tug at the parent’s hearts to convince them to purchase their vehicle.    

The third advertisement for the John Lewis Christmas ad does an okay in my opinion in terms of advertisement. The scope of this video is anyone who is looking for a gift for their child or family member for Christmas. They use the use of animals, more so the family dog, as an example to prove to its watchers to make them consider purchasing their product. Their ad uses an assortment of animals who jump on their trampoline product, which later leads to the trampoline having a lasting impact on the family who purchased the gift for their daughter.

Interpreting information from advertisements and other sources is an important for various reasons. The most important reason in my opinion is to understand and prevent advertisement from having an unimportant/undesirable effect on our decision-making ability. These advertise leads to unsound decision-making. These decisions can cause individuals to use money in uneducated ways. One example of this is with televise products. I have personal experience in terms of buying television products, the product I brought was a flex seal liquid in a can. The product did not work we’ll and end up costing our family around 15 dollars for a little can of spray.

What Is My Community?- Blog Post #2

The term, "Community" has several different meanings from a group of people to another. There can be multiple forms of community in an individual's lifetime.  A community can be as small as two people to as many as one desires can reach. An example of one form of community in my own lifetime is "my football community". Before getting into the details of why I see this group as a form of my community, we will define what a community is to me. My own personalized definition of community is any group that have similar characteristics/desires that promote a betterment of the group internal/externally.

How I became a part of the football community is by the choice I made back in 5th/6th grade to play little league football. This community lasted for a total of eight season/years. This community help shape and molded me into the person I am today. I learned several characteristic instilled in me today. Some of these characteristics are helping others, having discipline, and being accountable.  I learned to help others through the action of volunteering at a local food pantry. The trip to the local food pantry was a required event for the team. The trip to the food pantry including interacting with the individuals who were receiving the food and assisting them in carrying the food items to their mode of transportation. This activity allowed me to realize that I was bless with an above average life style. This made me also realize who well off I was because of my parents. 

While, the community also taught me to be disciplined in my actions. Football community required me to follow a strict weight lift and schedule throughout the year. These practices will benefit me as a continue my college education as I stay diligent in my academic affairs. These routines and schedule are related back to my academic studies at Defiance College by showing how important following a schedule is. For Instance, an example of this is staying on top of my readings for my classes in Comp I, EDUC 228 and PSY 225. These actions allow for myself to more activity engage in in class discussion, which relates to better knowledge to be applied to test and other activities used for grades/assessments. 

 Lastly, this community provided me with being accountable for my actions. This community provided me with the quality of having accountable for my decision as a college student than as an educator. Throughout playing the game of football, you were always accountable for your actions. If you messed up a play, did not block the right guy, or did some form of questionable behavior you were held accountable for what you did. This idea of being accountable was acquired with the yelling and excess running that was added when things were not done correctly and with fluency. These were just a few examples of how football community introduced the concept of being accountable.

The three characteristics above was not the only characteristics my one of many communities I have been in personally or have been around.  Some forms of community where we are a part of for a moment of out lives while others last an entire life. These forms of communities play an active direct and indirect role in our development as an individual and a society. These many communities leave a lasting impact on us whether we see it effects or not.