Goals

My short-term goal: I used to never be a  giving person and if given the chance to help the community, I would have scoffed and said no and gone back to doing arbitrary and trivial things with my time, not making any difference in society. However, with the start of this new school year, I was required to do community service for one of my classes. I was not pleased. But the first day I tried this new experience, I was overwhelmed by how I good I felt. I could not believe how good it felt to actually help someone and not myself, making a difference in these people's lives. That day on, I was a changed person. I continually help out the community, picking up trash, mentoring students, helping marathon runners, giving to the poor, etc. So my "short-term" goal, although hopefully not short at all, is to give back to society some more by continually helping out the community and hopefully pursuing even more beneficial projects.

My long-term goal: The career I hope to pursue is to be a dentist. People think that I'm weird because of this, but I don't know, I've always enjoyed teeth and hope to help others with their teeth some day. Now, this is my long-term goal to help others peacefully because of how I can help people with this aspired career. There are diseases and cancers within the mouth that can lead to death, and with dentistry, all that can be fixed. I want to know that I can actually save people's lives for treating them for such minor things such as a toothache. I also hope to one day go to less fortunate countries so I can help the underprivileged with these diseases, especially since they cannot afford this kind of health care anywhere else, and where these diseases are more prevalent. Since this is my long-term goal, I plan to do this until the day I die, knowing I can save many people in the process, and also making families happy.

Inner Peace

Peace should not be all about struggles between two people or even two different countries or anything like that. True, it is very important to have good relations with others, but in order to do that, people need to have "inner peace." What this means is that in order to have peace with others, someone should have peace within themselves. This peace will show them as a calm and tranquil person, and, thus, no conflict with others since they do not feel the need to be violent or hurtful to other people. After all, conflict always starts with intolerance and anger at another party.

Now, how can someone achieve this inner peace? Well, it is simple. Just stay positive about yourself and others. Keep reassuring yourself if something bad has happened or if you've done a good job, congratulate yourself. This positiveness is contagious as well and may even rub off on other people. Little by little, you will be a very good person to be around and you will be happy with yourself, with no need for others to have conflict with you.

Op-Ed

Peace. Something everyone can agree on wanting. Ask anyone and they would agree that they would like for everyone to get along. However, this is one of, if not the, hardest things that our society will be able to achieve. And people may ask why something that sounds so simple is so hard to come by. The reason is the selfishness that all humans have to put themselves ahead of everyone else. What is being said should not be misunderstood, because it is not like everyone will outright kill each other to get what they want, but it also should not be taken lightly.

            Humans are naturally selfish and greedy, and with that comes the desire for power. Society imprints into everybody’s minds that they are supposed to come out on top, not letting anyone get in the way. Sometimes, it is good to have competition, though, like winning a race or getting that promotion that they deserve. However, there are some people who take it to the next level and totally sever themselves from their family and friends and become completely dehumanized to the point where nobody recognizes them. They will do things such as slander the opposing person or even physically hurt someone just to get what they want. This selfishness gets the better of them and can be detrimental to themselves and others in the long run, causing much unneeded conflict and hate between people.

            To a much greater extent, there are people such as Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi who will stop at absolutely nothing to get what they want. Back in the 1960’s Qaddafi was seen as a war hero to all the people of Libya for liberating their country from the monarchy that everyone wanted gone. Qaddafi became the leader from then on, with people gladly embracing this new change. However, forty years time in office can change someone and it definitely did for Qaddafi. It is apparent that the power has gotten to Qaddafi’s head and the people of Libya cannot stand his presence in office anymore, as can be clearly seen by this huge uprising of the people. There has been massive bloodshed by both parties all because they feel that this greedy, selfish person should not be in office anymore, and Qaddafi will do anything in his power to keep it that way.
            It is apparent that to keep everyone from tearing at each other’s throats, there needs to be a reasonable resolution that everyone can agree on. A good start would be for everyone to start helping out friends and family with small things then work their way to strangers that may also need help. This can even branch out to a larger scale with community service or even opening up shelters for unfortunate families. An even greater scale would be to become a prominent figure in society that can help everyone with greater means that can make a huge difference in everyone’s lives. The main thing that people need to keep in mind is to be less selfish and more giving, so everyone can get along and live in harmony together.

Video Response

This video was an interesting portrayal of showing nonviolence to convey a certain point, in this case homophobia. It was also very interesting to see that they are adolescent-aged, the age group where everyone is trying to identify themselves. This video portrayed two teenagers, both male, and showed them having a secret relationship, but some kids from their school discover this and make fun of what they are doing. The next day at school, the kid at the head of the group that were bullying the two kids singled out one of them and exclaimed, “Who’s gonna hold your hand now?” but one of the guys from the group holds out his hand to the kid, in a friendly gesture. This soon causes the whole auditorium to stand up and hold hands of the people of the same sex.

This is an ideal portrayal of what everyone should do to be informed about people that want to be recognized as equal and should be treated justly. It shows that people should stand up for what they believe in, even if others don’t, and shouldn’t worry what others think. This is a good example for everyone to follow, especially since no violence was involved with making their stand.

Libya

My country is Libya and there has been a lot of conflict over there recently in the past few weeks, especially escalating in the past few days. The main conflict is that there has been a recent split in people who favor Muammar Qaddafi and oppose him as well. These differing viewpoints have gotten especially violent, with the opposite spectrum even bombing Qaddafi’s home. There has been a sort of civil war between these two groups, with many attacks and counterattacks being strewn at each other.

It is especially ironic in that most of Libya was in favor of Qaddafi because of his help and leadership in helping to revolutionize Libya back in the 60’s and 70’s. He had claimed that he would die for his country, no matter the cost. Most of the people who supported him back then are supporting him now, saying that he was their savior and hero, while others could care less and have rebelled against him. This is where most of the conflict has arisen and can be accounted for most of the destruction that has been going on in Libya. This split in the people has also been split in the country, literally. Most of the cities in the Western half of Libya is controlled by pro-Qaddafi forces, while the eastern half is the anti-Qaddafi forces.

Other countries have been taking measures to help Libya and still help their own countries. The United States and many other countries have issued “no-fly zones” to Libya. This means that they are ordered to shoot down any airplanes that fly belong to Libya.

With all this conflict and bloodshed, it is uncertain what the future holds for Libya, but hopefully it ends peacefully and quietly, and with Qaddafi stepping down so Libya can be at its full potential.