If you haven't seen this Youtube video yet, please watch it. One of my professors of a documentary class that I'm taking sent it to me. It's a very real, timely, and touching documentary about how the economic situation is affecting students in Pomona, CA. I think it's important for people like myself, who come from economically stable (thankfully) families and are attending prestigious universities, to remember to relate to and try to help people who are not in the same fortunate situations. Seeing this only further reinforces my decision to volunteer with City Year in Boston next year...(http://www.cityyear.org)
"Is anybody listening?"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_WMTTrOrKVI
And here's a story about the video from the LA Times:
http://www.latimes.com/news/education/la-me-pomona-school13-2009mar13,0,5729334.story
Monday, March 23, 2009
Friday, March 13, 2009
For the Love of Writing
Writing makes me excited. When I'm faced with the seemingly daunting assignment of a 10-12 page research paper on a topic that I care about, I get this odd feeling of power. Like I have the power to reach so many people. Hope that my voice can somehow make a difference. Idealistic, I know, but it's my weird way of getting a high. Sometimes I'm so excited to write a paper that I get all these books to research, articles to read, but I have so many ideas that I don't know where to start and I get so overwhelmed by all the things that I want to say, and I get so distracted because before I even start writing, I'm scared to potentially destroy what could be something so great. My little masterpiece. If that makes sense whatsoever.
Right now I'm writing a paper about mainstream teachers - i.e. White, upper-middle class, female teachers - in inner-city, urban schools and their effectiveness on classroom success. I picked up a book about one woman's Teach for America experience in 1995 as a 1st and 2nd grade teacher in Compton, meaning only to read her memoir for 10 minutes, but by the time I looked at the clock, it was 2 hours later and I was 80 pages in. Her stories were SO compelling and I have been meaning to contact her and thank her for writing her book. The stories of her students are so gripping, so tragic, and they make me scoff at my life's "problems". Her book made me feel so blessed to have been born into my social status; blessed to have attended schools that were equipped with the most basic of supplies that we take for granted: books, pencils, a functioning bathroom, asbestos-free ceilings, an incorruptible (for the most part) administration; blessed to have been raised by love and not by abuse, violence; blessed to have never witnessed a person being shot, as all the 6 year-old children in her 1st grade classroom had witnessed. 6 years old! The fact that I am writing about such a real topic that affects America's people, my fellow people, is exhilarating.
Exhilarating, exhilarating, exhilarating!
Right now I'm writing a paper about mainstream teachers - i.e. White, upper-middle class, female teachers - in inner-city, urban schools and their effectiveness on classroom success. I picked up a book about one woman's Teach for America experience in 1995 as a 1st and 2nd grade teacher in Compton, meaning only to read her memoir for 10 minutes, but by the time I looked at the clock, it was 2 hours later and I was 80 pages in. Her stories were SO compelling and I have been meaning to contact her and thank her for writing her book. The stories of her students are so gripping, so tragic, and they make me scoff at my life's "problems". Her book made me feel so blessed to have been born into my social status; blessed to have attended schools that were equipped with the most basic of supplies that we take for granted: books, pencils, a functioning bathroom, asbestos-free ceilings, an incorruptible (for the most part) administration; blessed to have been raised by love and not by abuse, violence; blessed to have never witnessed a person being shot, as all the 6 year-old children in her 1st grade classroom had witnessed. 6 years old! The fact that I am writing about such a real topic that affects America's people, my fellow people, is exhilarating.
Exhilarating, exhilarating, exhilarating!
Thursday, March 12, 2009
How Hollywood Can Help the Homeless
Below is an Op-Ed that I wrote for my Polical Science class that Steve Lopez, a columnist for the LA times, has read and edited himself. It's long, but you can handle it. :)
_______________________________________________________________________________
How Hollywood Can Help the Homeless
By Kristina Lee
Cursed is Los Angeles for being the “Entertainment Capitol of the World,” for the fanciful title steals all the spotlight from L.A.’s other Very Important People: the homeless. Overshadowed by mindless celebrity gossip, the pressing issue is too often neglected by the media, shoved under the rug.
But alas, there is a glimmer of hope that Hollywood and the homeless can collaborate. Soon to be released is “The Soloist,” a movie based on a book written by the Los Angeles Times staff columnist, Steve Lopez. The movie recounts Lopez’s unlikely friendship with Nathaniel Ayers, a homeless musician living on Skid Row.
I have yet to see the movie, but its concept and potential for social activism is thrilling. The film, which stars A-list actors Jamie Foxx and Robert Downey Jr., is bound to make the big bucks, but hopefully, the movie’s success will instead be measured by the amount of viewers who feel compelled to act on its message.
Finally. It’s about time something be done.
The issue at hand is that L.A. is known as the “Homeless Capitol of the United States.” It was reported that in 2008, nearly 142,000 people were homeless, 80% of whom were living unsheltered - that is, in alleys, encampments, overpasses, or doorways. Furthermore, a Los Angeles homeless count was recently conducted in January and February earlier this year, and the published numbers are sure to be even greater as more people are losing their jobs and are forced be destitute.
Hard as it is to accept that our beloved city is a slum for so many thousands, this stark contrast between the rich and the poor exists. What’s even harder to swallow is that the way in which we handle the clash between the two worlds is often mindboggling, even repulsive.
The Hollywood Greek Reporter wrote, for example, that on the Sunday of the 81st Academy Awards, a day when “the rich and famous were wearing clothes and jewelry whose worth could easily feed all the homeless people of Los Angeles,” two people were found searching for food in the trash cans along Hollywood Boulevard, right next to the Kodak Theater itself.
Another incident occurred at 5am on February 24, 2009 when the celebrity Nicky Hilton had a homeless man arrested for pushing her outside of IHOP in Los Angeles. Granted, it’s never nice for anyone, regardless of status, to push another, but was arrest necessary?
These two instances prove that when our semi-charmed lives are interrupted by encounters with the homeless, we react in fight or flight tendencies. It is apparent that when confronted, the response of choice has been to run away, rather than to fight for the humanity of our fellow Angelenos. Compassion has taken a back seat to our impulsive defenses against the misunderstood.
We have chosen to flee from the burden of homelessness in our backyard because it is easier to resort to this mindset than to attempt to understand and deal with the guilt we feel from our lack of activism. Maybe we’re scared to know just how much we’re at fault for not caring.
Thank goodness Lopez cared for Ayers though, the subject of “The Soloist,” who is “not some bum,” Lopez wrote to me, “but a brother and son who was struck down through no fault of his own, and who was left to defend himself against predators, rats and cockroaches on the streets of Skid Row.”
Perhaps we fail to act because we’re too scared to recognize that the homeless, like Ayers, are actual people. Just like you and me.
Jimmy Carter once said, “The measure of a society is found in how they treat their weakest and most helpless citizens.” Unless we act, celebrities like Ms. Hilton will standardize L.A.’s message to the homeless: stay in your filth; if you disrupt us, we will push you back down and show you where you belong.
It is a shame that such apathy and insensitivity have become normative behavior towards L.A.’s dispossessed, but if it takes a movie to put a face to homelessness and popularize activism, well, that’s a start.
Thus, do not simply pay for your movie ticket and watch “The Soloist” when it is released in April 2009; rather, watch “The Soloist” and pay-it-forward. Let the movie stir you to action. Help fund solutions to homelessness, mainly permanent supportive housing initiatives, such as the Corporation for Supportive Housing. In doing so, we can transform this hell-on-earth for so many thousands to be a City of Angels for all.
_______________________________________________________________________________
How Hollywood Can Help the Homeless
By Kristina Lee
Cursed is Los Angeles for being the “Entertainment Capitol of the World,” for the fanciful title steals all the spotlight from L.A.’s other Very Important People: the homeless. Overshadowed by mindless celebrity gossip, the pressing issue is too often neglected by the media, shoved under the rug.
But alas, there is a glimmer of hope that Hollywood and the homeless can collaborate. Soon to be released is “The Soloist,” a movie based on a book written by the Los Angeles Times staff columnist, Steve Lopez. The movie recounts Lopez’s unlikely friendship with Nathaniel Ayers, a homeless musician living on Skid Row.
I have yet to see the movie, but its concept and potential for social activism is thrilling. The film, which stars A-list actors Jamie Foxx and Robert Downey Jr., is bound to make the big bucks, but hopefully, the movie’s success will instead be measured by the amount of viewers who feel compelled to act on its message.
Finally. It’s about time something be done.
The issue at hand is that L.A. is known as the “Homeless Capitol of the United States.” It was reported that in 2008, nearly 142,000 people were homeless, 80% of whom were living unsheltered - that is, in alleys, encampments, overpasses, or doorways. Furthermore, a Los Angeles homeless count was recently conducted in January and February earlier this year, and the published numbers are sure to be even greater as more people are losing their jobs and are forced be destitute.
Hard as it is to accept that our beloved city is a slum for so many thousands, this stark contrast between the rich and the poor exists. What’s even harder to swallow is that the way in which we handle the clash between the two worlds is often mindboggling, even repulsive.
The Hollywood Greek Reporter wrote, for example, that on the Sunday of the 81st Academy Awards, a day when “the rich and famous were wearing clothes and jewelry whose worth could easily feed all the homeless people of Los Angeles,” two people were found searching for food in the trash cans along Hollywood Boulevard, right next to the Kodak Theater itself.
Another incident occurred at 5am on February 24, 2009 when the celebrity Nicky Hilton had a homeless man arrested for pushing her outside of IHOP in Los Angeles. Granted, it’s never nice for anyone, regardless of status, to push another, but was arrest necessary?
These two instances prove that when our semi-charmed lives are interrupted by encounters with the homeless, we react in fight or flight tendencies. It is apparent that when confronted, the response of choice has been to run away, rather than to fight for the humanity of our fellow Angelenos. Compassion has taken a back seat to our impulsive defenses against the misunderstood.
We have chosen to flee from the burden of homelessness in our backyard because it is easier to resort to this mindset than to attempt to understand and deal with the guilt we feel from our lack of activism. Maybe we’re scared to know just how much we’re at fault for not caring.
Thank goodness Lopez cared for Ayers though, the subject of “The Soloist,” who is “not some bum,” Lopez wrote to me, “but a brother and son who was struck down through no fault of his own, and who was left to defend himself against predators, rats and cockroaches on the streets of Skid Row.”
Perhaps we fail to act because we’re too scared to recognize that the homeless, like Ayers, are actual people. Just like you and me.
Jimmy Carter once said, “The measure of a society is found in how they treat their weakest and most helpless citizens.” Unless we act, celebrities like Ms. Hilton will standardize L.A.’s message to the homeless: stay in your filth; if you disrupt us, we will push you back down and show you where you belong.
It is a shame that such apathy and insensitivity have become normative behavior towards L.A.’s dispossessed, but if it takes a movie to put a face to homelessness and popularize activism, well, that’s a start.
Thus, do not simply pay for your movie ticket and watch “The Soloist” when it is released in April 2009; rather, watch “The Soloist” and pay-it-forward. Let the movie stir you to action. Help fund solutions to homelessness, mainly permanent supportive housing initiatives, such as the Corporation for Supportive Housing. In doing so, we can transform this hell-on-earth for so many thousands to be a City of Angels for all.
Thursday, March 5, 2009
Powerful.
“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do."
-Nelson Mandela
-Nelson Mandela
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