It's All Me

Well this weeks, Ch. 19 has Karre Kern written all over it. I'm not really sure why cultural competence is so important to me it just is, but I can play with why...maybe it's because I don't know very much about my own family culture(s). With both parents and all grandparents gone, it's hard to nail down the info but I've started to. The part of me I'm most drawn to is the Native American side. After reading this I wonder if the lack of information on my ancestry has to do with internalized oppression. Maybe my white family members didn't embrace that side so important details about who when and where got lost along the way. Maybe there is some shame there, I mean being white and having native blood that came from native women might be from force, not choice. For a long time I admired my roots from afar, being white and blonde I questioned my own intentions because I listened to those who said it was foolish to consider that my culture because I'm "so white" in appearance. Well the older I got the more I understood myself and what would make me happy mattered more than those outsiders judging me. I think that you can be a male anatomically and identify more as a female, it's your human experience. Now I'm less worried about what other people think about what my cultural identity is. Honestly I don't look at skin color so much as I look at humans being human and sharing a human experience together.
Reading the experience with discrimination I empathized with her. I've been in positions like that myself and I know how very hard it can be to even get yourself to walk in the door let alone speak about why you are there. If you are hungry for humble pie I suggest you show up at a food pantry and pretend you are someone who needs help. Go through the whole process, maybe you can tell them at the very end you are a student in social work and you felt you needed to immerse yourself in those shoes as best you could to be a more competent social worker later on. You know the saying "until you've walked a mile in their shoes" well that's some of our service learning and field work but we are there helping not really being in that position. Whatever the area of social work that interests you the most I think the more ways to be competent the better, become that person for a little while and feel that discrimination. If it's a safety issue, then read about it. Find books on people who were or are homeless, immigrants, battered women, child abuse, whatever your passion is from the angle of clinician as well as the one wearing the shoes.
In Ch. 20 I love how technology is showing promise in helping the cause. I'm one who stumbles with it, it seems so unnatural to me so things like the story sharing that happens feeds my happy. So does the use of theater or art. I remember seeing a production on Matthew Shepard and it really made a difference being there in a room with the emotions flowing. The following film also brought many tears to my own eyes~
Native Film: Dakota 38
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1pX6FBSUyQI

School Savagery

I can't get around the topic of food, it's just the way it is. The video on education was brilliant. The discussions about ADHD and ADD and our school's brought me back to my own experiences with food and how I feel the two are related. It's kind of a curse and kind of a blessing having been diagnosed with a food related disease, Celiac. I used to eat with pride all that is so bad to eat. Big Mac's were my favorite but fast food in general from KFC to Taco Bell, dollar menu my life, I should write a book! I really don't know much more about food than most people, at least I don't think I do. We all know we really should never eat these things but we figure if we do it in moderation it will be ok. Trouble is, who really does anything in moderation? We are an over indulgent society, more more more and fast fast faster are the only way to get by, get things done and get bills paid. We eat more than we need to and it costs us more than it needs to both in our health and our pockets. Food related illnesses have become big business money makers for food manufacturers and the pharmaceutical companies. I hate to sound like I'm paranoid, but it's interesting to me how one in three kids today will be diabetic and corn syrup's including high fructose are in most everything you can buy pre-packaged that isn't organic. Oh and the corn it comes from is most likely GMO, talk about a monopoly! Bring our schools into the mix and kids today seem more inclined to say they don't like to read than they are to say they don't like veggies. reading is a mellow task, high voltage diets require the action be in real time. At meal time they get fed this "cornucopia" of chemical sugar slop and are expected to sit and stay like a good dog??!! Speaking of, there are dogs that are eating better and getting better mental stimulation than children are getting?! Will a diet change make a hyperactive kid less hyperactive isn't it worth a shot? Why is it our preference is to try a pill and not consider trying a diet? Well that word alone sends shivers up and down my own spine...d i e t. RUN! Proper fuel in an engine makes it run more efficiently, kids need proper fuel too and so do I. I live for the day when an illness is diagnosed and the first thing a person tries is a different fuel, not a medication. My best food guru advice is to start reading labels and start learning what that stuff is in there. I've gotten to the point that if there is a long list I won't even weed out the ones I have problems with my illness, I put it down. Am I perfect? I'm perfectly flawed and it's hard hard hard to pass by all that so bad for you stuff when it tastes so dang good. There are times when I cave, but it's never something related to my disease, I entirely respect that certain foods will hurt my body and could kill me. In my perfect world, there would only be organic food available for kids at school and there would be different classrooms for different learning styles and plenty of exercise. In my perfect world that would translate to higher education and the barrage of food choices we drive by daily. For now I feed myself and my own son gluten-free foods and do the best we can with the brains we have and the learning style(s) we are offered~
:)

On Celiac:
http://celiacdisease.about.com/b/2009/09/17/mortality-risks-with-celiac-disease-and-latent-celiac-disease.htm
On food labels:
http://www.examiner.com/article/the-top-5-food-ingredients-to-beware-of
On sugars and health problems:
http://digitaljournal.com/article/351810
On sugars and ADD/ADHD:
http://healthyliving.msn.com/diseases/adhd/5-foods-to-feed-your-child-with-adhd%E2%80%94and-5-to-avoid-1

Community Organizing

          

While I was working this weekend I got the skinny on how the Ferry Service used community organizing to gain control of the boats. I was all excited to read about how it benefits communities then hear about how it benefitted ours! I will try to re-tell the story to the best of my ability. The ferries were at one time owned by a Greek philtopist who had no interest in the islands themselves, but sure did have an interest in money. In the early 80's this person ran the service in the hole financially, there was some corruption involved ending in bankruptcy. Although they had failed in a big way to provide service, they still wanted to keep it. Islanders weren't happy, the service was poor to begin with and this owner intended on raising rates substancially to make more money off it. Some islanders got together and finally made the plunge into court to try to gain ownership. They had no money, no money to buy boats or to be in business at all. They were able to get the services of an attorney who would only take a fee if they won. They had to show proof on paper that they had the funds to make this operation work where it had previously failed and that meant a LOT of money on paper. Big on their list was an effort to keep rates as economical as possible, something the courts did like but that doesn't help an already lacking business plan. They were again able to get a bank in Maine to offer to sell bonds and would back this unsold money on paper. WOW, so they had a free-ish- lawyer who believed in power of the people as well as a bank who did too! Well in the end they were able to kick the crook out, who was definately unable to show on paper they could make it go having had to file bankruptcy, and they were awarded official ownership. However, they still had no actual real money for boats. Until they were offered grant money to do so, yes more free, because they were non-profit. Wala, the ferries are still run by this group of islanders who banded together as a community to save what they initially felt was way out of their league. Big things do happen, baby steps do matter regardless of how big.
The toned down version is here:
 http://www.cascobaylines.com/about-us/history/

Garden Gangster

Well I'm not a blogger but I am a food guru of sorts. As a gal with Celiac disease (allergies to glutens including wheat) I'm very passionate about the food we are sold. I grew up on processed everything. I can't remember a meal that didn't have a boxed something or other in it's "recipe." Going on four years now I was diagnosed with this autoimmune disease and I feel it's linked to the foods I poisoned my body with all of my life up to then. That doesn't mean everyone get's sick, but with cancer #2 on the death list I choose for my family to keep off that roulette wheel as much as possible. If I could wave a magic wand I would eliminate high fructose (obesity rates sky rocketed after it's invasion) and msg from our food supply first. Old habits die hard, I'm not entirely out of the boxed foods but they don't contain any preservatives and while I don't steer away from chemicals in foods all together, it's maybe 10% of my diet. So I consider myself a gangster of sorts as well. I don't follow the typical American diet of easy and quick and fast anymore, even the evil Mc -word has wheat in their rotted upon production chemically infused french fries...this TED talk was entirely up my "alley." I could see myself out there doing a similar thing in my next home, if the only lawn is out front it will have food growing on it. Being a gal who grew up in a box of food, it's a work in progress with no need to draw boundaries around it. Kids are my big concern, with one in three a current or future diabetic I am greatly saddened at the lack of supportive nourishment available for too many children and adults. Big business has turned us into drones, who like robots, spend our hard earned dollars on crap food that hurts our bodies and makes more money for the other big business of prescrpiption drugs. I love the concept of gangster gardening. It is so true, when a kid is involved in the growing of the food they will want to eat it. WOW what a soap box, I guess you know something about me now and one way I would like to make a difference is with food...the Jamie Oliver of social work maybe.
:) 
If you want to know more about the food you eat watch Forks Over Knives or Food Inc., Supersize me is a fun watch too~

Forks Over Knives trailer:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F-OzTWY2J8E
Food Inc. trailer:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5eKYyD14d_0
Supersize trailer:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I1Lkyb6SU5U


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Our World

Ok I'm not a blogger but here I am! I'm not a journal writer either and I do feel like both of these mediums help us process our "stuff" so really I should be doing this anyway. What stuck out for me this week was the video art project. I'm artsy, might not be a shocker, and I would love to come up with some kind of installation that involves emotion evolving. That's how I saw her wall, it was emotion evolving. What began as her grief, went to a place of community change. I have an interest in hospice social work so this project really meant something for me. Death is not something we are taught about in a way that involves beauty yet I saw this beautiful wall of emotion come from a place of death. Being a massage gal, I was taught that our body holds onto emotions and they materialize as ailments such as tight muscles. My personal response to the statement "before I die I want to" would be "be less anxious." Our society is so fast paced, it's work work work, deadlines this and that from bills to coursework. There is much to be anxious about, it's almost a race to death. I really try to live in the moment, but the world around me rejects that. Maybe that's a big reason why I enjoy my work in massage and with seniors, it's a time to be slow. That is probably a healthier response to the statement "be slower" versus "be less anxious" just looking at the word anxious can make you anxious reminding you of what you should be anxious about! Looking at "be slower" is an ahhhhhhh moment for me, I need to remind myself to just take it in, it's a good thing to slow it down. Installations like hers require you to be slow, to stop what you are doing and take it all in, I like that.