With Justice For All: Person-able
Person-able
I came from across the seas
With P-T-S-D
Nightmares and cries of the the past
They promised me glory
What about honor I asked
Instead I was ignored or harassed by everyone I meet
For sitting on this lonely street
The tone of birds still hum in my ears
RPGs and afternoon airstrikes
Stars glimmer in my eyes
They look purple yet unreachable
False advertisements and broken promises
They see me as a tool
Not a man
Thus I sit
Once the most capable
Upon walking off that plane I am seen as handicapped
No longer seen as person-able
I am a person
I am a man
I sit here sad
For I was gifted with nothing but betrayal
I walked in a proud young man
And left sulen for my brothers’ and sisters’ deaths
Across the sea
The P-T-S-D can not hurt me
Yet constant pain takes my mind
Back to the sandy dunes and sunny afternoons
In the back of a truck
Before it all went sideways
Just like the sidewalks
I was seen then
But I’m invisible now
The only way people will see me is if I make a scene
Then I am seen as angry, malicious, a rabid animal
But I am no such thing
So why do I watch the blurry faces of passersby
Why can I not receive a simple “Hello”
Or even “Goodbye”
Why have I seen thousands
And only spoken to hundreds
Why can I not be person-able
Throughout the first semester of Humanities 11 we learned about unjust and just laws. We learned about Dr. Kinds civil disobedience leading into 4 political as well as moral philosophies: Libertarianism, Utilitarianism, John Rawls’, and deontology. These are used to justify actions and and influence the legal system used today. After having so much of this background information we were able to come up with an idea for a class project and decided on the social injustices in Durango. We wanted to show our community how to make a difference and learn to accept others and their choices. We had many choices including environmental issues, homelessness, immigration issues, mental illnesses and addiction. Once we narrowed it down we came to a class consensus to do a project on homelessness and bring awareness to it. We incorporated different sub-topics into this generalization so everyone in the class could work on something they were interested in. We had many guest speakers come to the class to give us information about the issue in Durango and the way they have been dealing with it. Food not Bombs, Veterans, Donna Mae and Ed Aber came to speak about the different ways they see homelessness in the community and what we could do to help. We went to one of the homeless camps and I went to the Homeless Shelter to help serve a meal after school. We had so much great information and real world experiences to back up our project and we could begin the steps to our overall exhibition. It was very important that we came up with a WHY for this project. What I mean by this is why do we care about it? Why are so many people homeless? What are the leading causes for homelessness? I feel very strongly for people who don’t have the ability or opportunity to get help and end up on the streets. I see the split between the Durango housed community and the homeless. We lack compassion for people who either chose to live this way or have an event that brought them to this place in their lives. Our goal was to create an event where both homeless and housed can come and eat a meal together and be educated on the situation. We wanted compassionate, understanding and creative work to mold an idea or feeling into someone's brain so they could move forward and help the issue. We wanted homeless to feel welcome and housed to be compassionate and acknowledge as well as be educated in the same space, as a community would.
Our event was a huge success! We had both homeless and housed communities to come and enjoy our art, food and be educated on the subject. We began with people going around and checking out the booths of organizations that help with the issue as well as statistics and info. We then had two guest speakers talk to the community. The first speech was mainly focused towards the issues we face in Durango such as housing, camps, and loitering/panhandling laws. The next speaker spoke about youth homelessness, the causes and effects. It was very informative and created a very vivid image of children going hungry and having a hard time surviving alone. We then had all of the art pieces and projects and videos shown to the entire community and you could walk around to speak with students about their project, the meanings and the reasons we did what we chose. The video presentations were amazing and had a lot of great information that really pulled at your heartstrings. As the night progressed we ate and sat and spoke with everyone from our community. This gave a feel of friendship and equality. Everyone was very respectful and it was super interesting to speak with people who are facing homelessness at the moment. I loved watching a video that was created by three of my classmates. It was amazingly put together with information as well as interviews from real people facing homelessness. I noticed a lot of people reacted very well to that video and it was an amazing part of the exhibition. I learned throughout the entire project that people do chose to be homeless and you cannot categorize all as one group. Everyone started somewhere and ended up in the same place but with different backgrounds and takeaways on life.
For this project I had two partners and we painted a mural. In the beginning we had a set idea and didn’t plan on changing it. After our first rough draft I decided to measure the actual drawing out so as to place a similar drawing on the mural board. I had a great deal of fun drawing and creating our final project. I definitely felt a lot of stress throughout this project since we were working on other things as well. It was difficult to create a prototype that I could be proud of and finally after lots of editing and critiquing we had our plan. When we began painting we ran across many issues like paint colors and board malfunctioning. We cut a few of the pieces out of the mural because we decided we would not have time to do it. My group and I all had something to do each day and we stayed on track to finish our product. We finished the mural on the last day and it felt somewhat rushed. I still feel like the mural could use many more touch ups and we actually did a few at the event. We completed two artist statements and the final one became a poem to represent the artistic side of the project. It also felt more meaningful in the long run.
This project really impacted my bias on the homeless. I saw other sides and had realizations that I never knew before. The really impactful part for me was learning about children and youth homelessness. When I took the implicit bias test after the exhibition I got a less biased result than most people at the exhibition and I believe this is because I was educated about it. It was incredible to see how simple information can create a certain perspective or a change of heart. I believe we should all look for any way to help anybody and I believe the homeless issue hasn’t just been addressed but instead help, organization, love and community have come out of this incredible exhibition.
Person-able
I came from across the seas
With P-T-S-D
Nightmares and cries of the the past
They promised me glory
What about honor I asked
Instead I was ignored or harassed by everyone I meet
For sitting on this lonely street
The tone of birds still hum in my ears
RPGs and afternoon airstrikes
Stars glimmer in my eyes
They look purple yet unreachable
False advertisements and broken promises
They see me as a tool
Not a man
Thus I sit
Once the most capable
Upon walking off that plane I am seen as handicapped
No longer seen as person-able
I am a person
I am a man
I sit here sad
For I was gifted with nothing but betrayal
I walked in a proud young man
And left sulen for my brothers’ and sisters’ deaths
Across the sea
The P-T-S-D can not hurt me
Yet constant pain takes my mind
Back to the sandy dunes and sunny afternoons
In the back of a truck
Before it all went sideways
Just like the sidewalks
I was seen then
But I’m invisible now
The only way people will see me is if I make a scene
Then I am seen as angry, malicious, a rabid animal
But I am no such thing
So why do I watch the blurry faces of passersby
Why can I not receive a simple “Hello”
Or even “Goodbye”
Why have I seen thousands
And only spoken to hundreds
Why can I not be person-able
Throughout the first semester of Humanities 11 we learned about unjust and just laws. We learned about Dr. Kinds civil disobedience leading into 4 political as well as moral philosophies: Libertarianism, Utilitarianism, John Rawls’, and deontology. These are used to justify actions and and influence the legal system used today. After having so much of this background information we were able to come up with an idea for a class project and decided on the social injustices in Durango. We wanted to show our community how to make a difference and learn to accept others and their choices. We had many choices including environmental issues, homelessness, immigration issues, mental illnesses and addiction. Once we narrowed it down we came to a class consensus to do a project on homelessness and bring awareness to it. We incorporated different sub-topics into this generalization so everyone in the class could work on something they were interested in. We had many guest speakers come to the class to give us information about the issue in Durango and the way they have been dealing with it. Food not Bombs, Veterans, Donna Mae and Ed Aber came to speak about the different ways they see homelessness in the community and what we could do to help. We went to one of the homeless camps and I went to the Homeless Shelter to help serve a meal after school. We had so much great information and real world experiences to back up our project and we could begin the steps to our overall exhibition. It was very important that we came up with a WHY for this project. What I mean by this is why do we care about it? Why are so many people homeless? What are the leading causes for homelessness? I feel very strongly for people who don’t have the ability or opportunity to get help and end up on the streets. I see the split between the Durango housed community and the homeless. We lack compassion for people who either chose to live this way or have an event that brought them to this place in their lives. Our goal was to create an event where both homeless and housed can come and eat a meal together and be educated on the situation. We wanted compassionate, understanding and creative work to mold an idea or feeling into someone's brain so they could move forward and help the issue. We wanted homeless to feel welcome and housed to be compassionate and acknowledge as well as be educated in the same space, as a community would.
Our event was a huge success! We had both homeless and housed communities to come and enjoy our art, food and be educated on the subject. We began with people going around and checking out the booths of organizations that help with the issue as well as statistics and info. We then had two guest speakers talk to the community. The first speech was mainly focused towards the issues we face in Durango such as housing, camps, and loitering/panhandling laws. The next speaker spoke about youth homelessness, the causes and effects. It was very informative and created a very vivid image of children going hungry and having a hard time surviving alone. We then had all of the art pieces and projects and videos shown to the entire community and you could walk around to speak with students about their project, the meanings and the reasons we did what we chose. The video presentations were amazing and had a lot of great information that really pulled at your heartstrings. As the night progressed we ate and sat and spoke with everyone from our community. This gave a feel of friendship and equality. Everyone was very respectful and it was super interesting to speak with people who are facing homelessness at the moment. I loved watching a video that was created by three of my classmates. It was amazingly put together with information as well as interviews from real people facing homelessness. I noticed a lot of people reacted very well to that video and it was an amazing part of the exhibition. I learned throughout the entire project that people do chose to be homeless and you cannot categorize all as one group. Everyone started somewhere and ended up in the same place but with different backgrounds and takeaways on life.
For this project I had two partners and we painted a mural. In the beginning we had a set idea and didn’t plan on changing it. After our first rough draft I decided to measure the actual drawing out so as to place a similar drawing on the mural board. I had a great deal of fun drawing and creating our final project. I definitely felt a lot of stress throughout this project since we were working on other things as well. It was difficult to create a prototype that I could be proud of and finally after lots of editing and critiquing we had our plan. When we began painting we ran across many issues like paint colors and board malfunctioning. We cut a few of the pieces out of the mural because we decided we would not have time to do it. My group and I all had something to do each day and we stayed on track to finish our product. We finished the mural on the last day and it felt somewhat rushed. I still feel like the mural could use many more touch ups and we actually did a few at the event. We completed two artist statements and the final one became a poem to represent the artistic side of the project. It also felt more meaningful in the long run.
This project really impacted my bias on the homeless. I saw other sides and had realizations that I never knew before. The really impactful part for me was learning about children and youth homelessness. When I took the implicit bias test after the exhibition I got a less biased result than most people at the exhibition and I believe this is because I was educated about it. It was incredible to see how simple information can create a certain perspective or a change of heart. I believe we should all look for any way to help anybody and I believe the homeless issue hasn’t just been addressed but instead help, organization, love and community have come out of this incredible exhibition.