Long Term and Short Term Goals

My short term goal is to continue to be open to people and not close them out because their religion, race, gender, or sexual preference. I believe each person personal experiences are worth being shared because you can learn from them.  Life is short and so are your experiences in life, but by sharing you can expand your knowledge by learning from other peoples experiences. My long term goal is to all ways be there for my current friends and future friends because you never know when they will need your advice or just someone to vent to. 

Inner Peace

To me inner peace means having a positive outlook on life.  I maintain this positive outlook by going to the gym on a daily bases.  To some this might seem like a small and useless task, but in fact it is quite the opposite for me. The gym gives me an outlet of my anger and frustration in life, and by disposing the anger and frustration in my life, it makes makes me happier and friendly person.  People that do not dispose of their frustration tend to take it out on others.

Opinion Piece

Alfonso Sanchez

Opinion Piece

Media Coverage

Intended for: everyone

Are You Brainwashed?

The one element that I believe is preventing peace is greed.  Too many people become corrupted by this element to such an extent that people become inconsiderate of others and over whelmed with satisfying their own personal needs.  You do not believe me?  Lets take a look at news stations in the United States and then decide if these stations are natural as some many believe them to be.

 People often believe that these news stations are neutral because the station itself wants you to believe this to be true by bringing people that seem to have opposing views.  Thereby creating an illusion that they are showing both sides of the story equally, but in reality each stations is only interested in persuading the viewer to their cause. 

In order to find out what a news station is interested in, you have to think what is going on behind the scenes.  Who owns this station? What are their interests?  What are they funding? For example A few days ago I was watching Fox News and they were discussing how alternative fuel would hurt the economy and that the gas corporations are not that bad.  They argued that an alternative fuel would cause drastic job losses because fuel companies would shut down.  At first I thought it to be true, but I began to think more on the issue and discovered that it was completely false. If anything it would create more jobs.  Their argument would be true if alternative fuel simply replaced regular fuel. One reason is because not everyone has the money to buy a new car or upgrade their car to an alternative fuel and 2ndly many people will not have to because alternative fuel would create competition causing prices of gas to go down.  After I came to this conclusion I began to think who is funding Fox News. Are they     getting money from gas corporations?

Most people chose a station blindly and stop when they hear something that they might agree with.  When in reality they should stop on the channel with a issue that they disagree with to get a better understanding of the issue.  This process results in a brainwashing effect because people that are not aware of what is going on behind the scenes begin to take these one sided arguments as a form of truth.  Creating more followers and creating more viewers.  The mover viewer equals more money for the station.  More money equals more money to spread on the owners political interests.  You do not believe this logic?  Take a look at what takes place during the super bowl.  Companies pay millions just to get ads to play during the super bowl.  Why do you think the companies pay so much money during this event? It is because there are so many viewers.  Thereby proving that more viewers equals more money.

By the media making arguments on sided it leaves the viewer to be inconsiderate of opposing political issues such as war, immigration, abortion, gay rights, and other political views.  These greed associated arguments creates division in the nation and making peace seem like an impossible, unreachable outcome.

Stand Up!

Today I saw a video on homophobic bullying.  In this video you see the effect that one person can have on others and you begin to question if that person didn’t stand up, what would have happened. Would some else stand up or would it be ignored?  I think that it is ironic that most people that are religious are against gays because doesn’t the bible say something about choosing your own path? The only person affected is that person so the only that should judge that person is god.   Some of these people take religion to the extreme and go to ex-service members funerals preaching that their son or daughter are going to hell for serving in the war.  When did these people become speakers of god?  Remember simply showing up to church doesn’t make you a holly person, your actions do.

Egypt A Country Fighting For Democracy

Egypt has been struggling to keep their independence ever since their revolution.  The President that put democracy to the test in Egypt was Hosni Mubarak.  His corruption in elections and excessive violence on people that opposed to his values led to riots.  The riots resulted in Mubarak stepping down. The vice president has his work cut out for him because he has been in the back seat with no authority and now as the president of Egypt it’s his job to insure that his people are led in the right direction.  Currently Egypt is attempting to reestablish order and prevent further corruption.  The Egyptian people have started voting on amendments to add to their constitutions, in an attempt to prevent future government corruption.

Seeds of Peace Memo

Date: February 14, 2011

To: Lynn Gilden

From: Alfonso Sanchez

RE: Seeds of Peace

Violence around the world has divided humanity, whether it is due to religion, terrorist attacks, or political views. Each side experiences the negative outcome that comes from violence and places the blame on the rival actor, creating a stereotype of: guilty by association.  This creates a social road block that constricts communication and creates hatred on each side.

The program, Seeds of Peace tries to resolve the violence by creating friendships in an attempt to eliminate the violence and hatred for one another.  It attempts to break down this social road block by placing people from rival sides that have been divided by violence together in a stress free environment. The awkward situation forces the two to work together and to get a better understanding of each other.  In hope, that they will be able to persuade their friends and family that their neighbors are friends and not enemies. 

The Seeds of Peace attempts to achieve this goal by requiring a certain portion of the day dedicated to dialog.  During this session of dialog the two must communicate and share personal experiences with one another.  This allows the two to get to know one another and see, firsthand, how each side is affected by the violence.  This begins to break down the exaggerated truths that their governments have led them to believe. 

The program also attempts to build leadership skills and trust through activities such cultural events and color games. During culture night, the campers are asked to experience what the other cultures have to offer by tasting different foods, listening to each others’ music, and wearing clothing from different cultures.  During color games, the camp is divided into two teams.  The teams participate in sports like tug-a-war, soccer, basketball, baseball, chess, cannoning, and dance.

The spread of the seed doesn’t end here.  The website is very informative. On the website there is Information on how to donate, how to be a camp counselor, and how to enroll children in the program.    On the website viewers can also see inspiring video interviews of former campers.  In these interviews the campers share the cultural struggles and overall influence the program had on him/her.  The viewer can also read tweets of former campers posted on the website.  

Building Peace

After viewing the video, “Building Peace,” I thought about how there are many things we take for granted. For example, in the video the children were excited to go to school and learn basic learning skills whereas here many kids have to be forced to go to school. Children in America take the educational system for granted because it is offered to them for free. They do not know what it is like to work and have to pay for classes and books until they go to college. In many other countries children cannot go to school because their parents cannot afford to send them, school becomes a luxury and not a necessity. Another thing that stood out to me was how the community united together. They all helped build the schools and in a way it reminded me of the Amish community. They were all happy to help in any way they could, their pride was in building the schools themselves and not having outsiders do their work for them.