...Social Issues...

Hi all,

During class yesterday, we focused much of our time on social issues in our community.  This activity had my full attention because it was something that interested me.  I was surprised when Linda told us what the example picture was.  At my first glance, I thought it was a list of family names for the dispense of food.  I was under the assumption that there was a natural disaster and they were in desperate need of food.  Once I found out that the list was for medication for HIV positive patients, I was dumb founded.  I knew that HIV and AIDS was a huge concern in Africa, but I never understood how desperate people were to get help.  This picture is extremely upsetting because if you think about it, not all people in Africa are able to get the medication.  How does one choose who gets it and who doesn't?  What happens to the people and families who aren't fortunate to get the vaccination?

I did my social issue on homelessness.  I am originally from Philadelphia and this has also been a concern of mine for a long time.  Living in Bloomington, I have also seen the impact of homelessness on the community.  I work at Village Deli, which is not far from the public bus station and the public library.  Every time I drive to work, I am surprised by how many homeless people I see.  Bloomington is definitely different than the city of Philadelphia because I feel that homeless people in b-town are accepted.  There are countless shelters and soup kitchens for such a small town.  Compared to inner city Philly, there are not nearly as many options and there are triple the amount of homeless people.  I volunteered at a soup kitchen during high school and was taken back by the stories that I heard from the homeless people.  Many of the people had families and were trying to provide for their children.  There was a family that I encountered that lost their house because they could not afford it.  The mother worked at walmart but could not pay rent.  Her and her two young children were living out of their car.  This is definitely a social concern of mine that needs to be taken seriously.


Marisa