The following was broadcast on 12/11/10 WABE-FM, Atlanta.
By Max Bartlett
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I've never been much of an environmentalist, but a trip to the gulf coast this summer got me thinking about manmade disasters, and ironically made me hopeful. My family was driving across Louisiana under that hot July sun. Tommy Tutone pumped loudly out of the stereo of my father’s car. I rolled down the window and felt the heat blast my face. The seafood restaurants along the deserted coastal towns were still open, hoping other tourists like myself would be arriving.
Unlike most families this summer who canceled their trips to the Gulf, we planned ours to see the extent of this tremendous natural disaster. I was prepared to see a slick of black when we arrived at the beach. However, we were greeted by the old seagulls in the air, seemingly welcoming us, unabated by the crisis in the gulf. As I leaned back in the seat of the car, I wondered if the media had blown the story of the oil disaster out of proportion. As soon as I got out of the car, that notion went out of my head faster than the oil pumping out of that pipe at the bottom of the sea. The stench of sludge flooded my nostrils and had me bent over coughing.
Yet, as I walked towards the water and saw the scores of BP workers sifting through the sand, I started to think of the seagulls. As bad as the situation was, they were still there. And so was I. I knew that one day, the oil would be cleaned up and life would go on. That’s reassuring.
Previously from WABE:
• Community Service or Disservice?
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The November elections are just around the corner. According to Bakari Kitwana of the Huffington Post, the 18 - 29 age demographic will be extremely important once again. However, he makes the argument, “Over the last two years President Barack Obama did not fulfill his campaign commitments to the 14 million plus young voters so crucial to his 2008 victory.”
He explains that the youth sent Obama to the White House to make change happen, and now they have to decide if he’s done enough. Are the changes to health care, student loans, the economy, and the war in Iraq big enough signs of change?
While we can’t predict which way the elections will go, we can see the political energy still surging through young people around the country.
The College Republicans National Committee (CRNC) has been actively recruiting new Republican voters. “We’ve put field representatives in Florida, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania, and Ohio to work with the local college representatives to recruit, train, and engage college students for statewide victory purposes,” said Rob Lockwood, Communications Director for the CRNC.
Lockwood said they focused their recruiting efforts in these battleground states and have succeeded in recruiting 25,200 new college Republicans in these states alone. He said young voters are especially important to this election. “It’s been proven that the college years are the most formative in shaping a political opinion. Because young people voted in record numbers in 2008, it’s important to get them to the polls again. We believe young people voted for the power of personality in 2008. They were energized. They voted for hope and change. However, neither of those has been implemented. The only change they got is massive debt on their tab, in exchange for short term political gain,” said Lockwood.
Likewise, the College Democrats of America (CDA) are busy recruiting young people to vote. Alejandra Salinas, President of the CDA said they have targeted certain states. “In Texas, we only had eight chapters last year. This year we have 45,” she said. She also cited the numbers of young voters in 2008 as a powerful sign. “We all learned in 2008 that the power is with the people who show up to vote. We elected democratic people who stood up for student rights issues such as credit card reform, health care reform, and student loan reform. These changes have improved the lives of young people across the country,” she said.
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ABC’s show, Extreme Makeover: Home Edition is all the rage. Even if you have no interest in home-building yourself, the elaborate interior decorations and the emotional endings never fail to touch viewers. In July, this show did something special for the youth population in Baltimore, MA.
During one intense week of construction, July 10 - 16th, the Extreme Home Makeover crew will be building a girls’ home for the organization Boys Hope Girls Hope (BHGH), in Baltimore.
This organization is one of a kind. According to the BHGH website, the goal of the organization is to offer at-risk teens a supportive home environment where they can continue their education and reach their full potential. These young people might otherwise have been held back by destructive factors at home, such as drug abuse, poverty, or neglect. Jiarra Jackson, who worked for BHGH in Baltimore a few years ago, said, “No BHGH scholars are any angels but we help kids who want to succeed and they just want a helping hand. We help them accomplish their dreams.”
A boys home was built back in 2002, while Girls Hope was still just a day program. Jackson said, “I remember the boys giving a tour of their home excited to point out their favorite toys and place in the home. They were showing me their home. It brought joy to my heart.”
Now, thanks to donations, and Extreme Home Makeover, the girls have a residence as well. The show will be aired in September, even though the house was revealed to the girls on July 16th. Jackson thinks the show will have a huge impact on the organization. “I think that whoever watches the show will see the moment that the girls' lives change. The majority of the people will just feel that it is a heartfelt story, but others will feel inspired - inspired to change their lives or even inspired to help improve the lives of others.”
The youth in BHGH work to change the lives of people in their community as well. According to BHGH website, “Each scholar completes about 100 hours of community service annually, spending time helping such entities as the Maryland Food Bank, Johns Hopkins’ Children’s House, Food for Thought, Student Sharing Coalition and East Rosemont Neighborhood Association.” The youth can do more good in society, and more good for themselves, if they are living in a good place. “I think their lives will be forever changed. Having a bed, three meals a day, and safe and comfortable environment,” said Jackson.
Working with BHGH meant a lot to Jackson. She recalled, “I was there to give a speech/ testimony about how BHGH impacted my life. The speech went well, but the part that was most memorable was when the scholars can up to meet thanking me for being there. I personally felt like I should have thanked them for having the courage to join BHGH.”
On July 13, 2010, a press release announced that Extreme Makeover: Home Edition in conjunction with the College of Notre Dame in Maryland will offer scholarships to the seven young women in Girls Hope to go to college. The scholarship will cover 100 percent of their education for for years, including room and board, fees, and tuition. These girls have everyone rooting for them. "I think their lives will be forever changed," said Jackson.
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By Wykera J. Skidmore
Today I saw three kids playing in the park, they seemed happy,
until someone picked them up. In the car were a mother and father. The
father was drunk, the mother abused, and their children were scared to death of being picked up. On the other hand another family drove up, just the same but yet different, a lot different, a mother who cared, a father who was protective, and children that were happy as ever.
By Philip Riley
Hope, by definition means: a desire or wish accompanied by confidence or expectation. Most of us live for hope; a lot of us pray for it; while others, we give up on hope entirely. Not because we are pessimists, but because we understand why the Greeks considered it to be as dangerous as one of the world’s evils. When we are young society teaches us to believe in hope, but what they don’t teach us is the reality that hides behind it. You see, hope can take an individual to their wildest dreams. Or, drag them to a hell of their own insanity.
Yes my view on hope can be deemed as quite cynical, but I now see what hope can create: a false sense of security in a human. I hoped to get into my dream school; I hoped not to worry about my education financially; I hoped for my mother’s health. Now, I only live for today and wake up everyday to learn from hope. Each and every one of us has been blinded with hope and has succumbed to its spell. But it is time that we, as individuals, wake up and understand hope. But what I don’t get is why they say hope is the only thing people have left in this world? What we, as people, need to realize is that hope was put here to open our eyes and see what lies in front of us: a harsh reality.
If I had the chance to meet the individual who gave birth to this belief, I would…I wouldn’t know what I would do. But, I will ask them to create another belief or idea; maybe even combining hope and reality to give faith to those who have lost it. For it is said that hope is a pleasant acquaintance, but an unsafe friend.
John was the kind of teenager who’d drive 100 miles per hour without a seatbelt and jump into a pool from the second story of a building. What his parents said no to, he’d do ten times harder.
“I didn’t think I’d live past 21,” says John, who asked us not to use his real name. “I had alcohol poisoning at 15, I was in a coma one stage away from death.”
Adults always say people my age think we’re immortal, and that’s why we take crazy risks. But for John, who’s now 25, it was the opposite.
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After the hype and excitement of Obama's victory November 4 has died down, people are beginning to look more closely at what Obama will bring to the future. President-elect Obama was voted in on the basis of his groundbreaking campaign. He used the ideals of hope and change to promise Americans of the country that they want to see. But now that he is officially in there, even Obama supporters and fellow Democrats are becoming skeptical that he can deliver on all his promises and the hope he gave to the American people. Read more...
Ancient Greece gave us the myth of Pandora’s Box. Forbidden to be opened, but opened anyway, the box spewed out a torrent of plagues to torture people forever. Pandora slammed the lid back down trying to trap the worst of it, but only one thing remained there at the bottom - hope.
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The following entry is not a transcript of the audio, but a web extra to the radio story.
By Summer Sewell
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