Civic Duty
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| This is the kind of organization that this place has. Also, i thought it was lol. |
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| This is me carrying a crate of food stuffs. you can really see my beard in this photo. |
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| This is me labeling a little baggie that im going to fill with coffee. you can see my giant nose. |
Civic duty is an important part of our society. It is sort of a socialistic idea but the civic duties of the American people effect the overall quality of life in the country. People can perform various tasks to carry out their duty to the country. Abby Michaels, a writer for several newspapers and magazines within the past 12 years, writes that civic duties can include paying taxes, serving on a jury, writing a petition, voting, or any type of community service (www.ehow.com).
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| This is me grabbing a peanut butter and a jelly. No one can take a picture at this place. Jeez. |
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| Look! it's Brad! i wanted to take a picture of the sign but he ruined it...... |
The least amusing things on the list are paying taxes and serving on a jury. Nobody ever wants to spend a day at the H and R Block counting up totals and going over bills or taking time off of work to sit and listen to a trial, but these things are important. The taxes that people pay to the government go to fund schools and build roads or put up street lights among a range of other things. Most of the money comes back and can be seen in the improvements to one’s community. It is listed in the Bill of Rights under the 7th amendment that one gets the right to a trial by a jury (www.justicelearning.org). So, serving on a jury can be thought of as protecting the rights of the citizens of the United States, instead of being thought of as a long and boring waste of time.
Voting is a duty that American’s have that they seem to neglect. No one thinks that their vote counts or that they cannot possibly make a difference in the result if thousands or even millions of people are voting. However, sometimes elections are won by only a couple of votes. In the year 2000 Presidential election, Florida was decided by only a few votes and the outcome determined President Bush as the winner (cnn.com). When people do not vote they are giving up their duty to input their opinions of how the government should be run in the United States of America. Writing a petition, just like voting, makes change in America. Bills can start out as a petition in a town and a representative or a senator can bring it to Congress and try to get it made into a law. When a person signs a petition, they help out their country.
Community service can include many types of activities. The point of it is to help other people without any reimbursement, so a person looking to help their community out can give food and clothing to those in need, help to build a home, pick up trash around town, raise money for a cause, or anything that improves the well being of another human being (www.ehow.com). People need to help each other out. It should not be regarded as a political ideology but a social one. When someone helps a person or a family in need, the act is considered to be a good thing to do, but if a government does the same thing, the American people call it communism and condemn the thought.
Civic duty should be believed to be an obligation to society or a service provided as payment in return for joining the American way of life. Without voting or taxes, there would be a dictator in power and no one would be able to voice their opinions and nothing would be changed. There would be miles of cracked or unpaved roads. Education would have no funding and people would not be paid to teach. If nobody provided any community service, people would be on the streets starving to death. It is clear to see exactly what civic duty can accomplish. It has shaped the United States of America and makes it a better place to live.
Implications of Civic Duty
Community service was not as bad as I thought it would be. I always complain about helping other people but it was actually kind of enjoyable. The only thing that I had to give up was my time. I definitely think that it was a good trade off. My time was well-spent and I liked making other people’s lives a little bit easier. The food that I gave away helped feed about forty-five families for three to five days. I also helped to give them a nice thanksgiving meal. I think that there is definitely not enough help to go around. If Alison and I had not shown up, the foothills food bank would have been in some serious trouble. People need to give some more of their own time for things like that. To help out a family in need. People have busy schedules, but there is always some time that people are not doing anything.
At times, when doing this project, it made me depressed to hear the stories of the people that walked in. They had to go through so much in the past couple of years. I felt as though they did not deserve to be treated like that by the world because they were some nice people. They were grateful for our help. I brought some of the food out to their cars and they only had nice things to say like, “You guys are amazing. Thank you so much”, and, “God is good. Yes, he is.” It really made me realize how hard life is for some people. Some of the bananas were rotten but they did not mind a few bruises. They were happy to eat. I did not even know there was such a thing as powdered milk, but everyone got a small bag of it, and they were happy to get it.
If people did not volunteer as a means of fulfilling their civic duties, there would be people starving in the streets. There were about five-hundred families that came in to the food bank in the month of November. If they did not have the option to seek aid, they could possibly have to be forced to not eat. There would be mass turmoil and people in desperate need of medical attention from being too weak and skinny. These charitable organizations thrive off of volunteers and could not function otherwise. Thankfully, there are kind and generous people that sacrifice time to help those who need it the most. Donations are another important aspect of the food bank and civil service in general. Donating resources is even more important than donating one’s time. If people had to purchase all of the food themselves, there is no way that they could provide food to the hungry for very long.
In other countries, the government does not care if people are starving or poor. That is what makes the United States so different. There exists a deep sense of caring and people go out of their way to give relief to those who seek it. America was founded on ideals that people could come here to find an opportunity for their families so that they can live the American dream. The Statue of Liberty is inscribed with the phrase, “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.” We as Americans take any and all people in need and help them. That is what makes Americans so mindful of their civic duties.
Narrative
My service hours were spent at the Foothills Food Bank in Cave Creek. On my first day, I had to break down bags of coffee into individual portions and label them. Josh Fogolsong was there too. There was a short supply of sandwich bags, so we had to dig around to find them. After that, I bagged up some laundry detergent. They made me do that outside. It was not the most exciting thing to do and it was cold and lonely out in the back of the place. Then, Alison helped me bag some rice. She held the quart-sized bags open and I tried to put the rice in without dropping it all over the table. Before we knew it, it was noon and we all had to sign some sort of paper and we left.
The Second day was a little more exciting. I got to help give some people food. There were three different lists: breakfast, lunch and dinner. The lists said what to give to people and how much to give depending on the size of the family that ordered. I was in charge of breakfast. For every order that came back, we gave them everything on the three lists and anything else that they wanted that was special. Since it was just before Thanksgiving, each family received a turkey and a bag of “fixin’s”.
The last day, I was in charge of breakfast items again and Brad Draper was there. There was a lady that walked in that was so picky. She did not want any red meats or any kind of cereal but Special K. There was also this couple with a mastiff and nine cats. We were all thinking that those people should give there cats away. It was kind of lame because the lady that set up our hours was never there and we never talked to her face to face. No matter how many times we said that we needed ten hours, she did not listen so we only have nine. We might as well have asked a pile of rocks to give us hours. So we had Mary Jones sign the green card and Alison and I left and ate a cheeseburger at Dairy Queen.
your face isn't in a single photo/....??? :(
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