Monday, April 23, 2012

Mistreatment of Undocumneted Workers


Here is a question for you guys, do you believe that un-documented workers that are employed over here in the US, deserve to receive the wages and safe workzones they deserve.  These companies that hire undocumented workers know that these workers cannot find work elsewhere and are able to abuse this power.  They will hire workers for wages less than minimum wage in some cases and work them for long hours.  They also have unsafe work zones for some workers, such as construction workers.  The construction companies won’t hold safety classes before entering the job and allow these workers to work in unsafe zones with no training.  Doing this, a lot of undocumented workers have died and or have been seriously injured in these unsafe zones.  A large percentage of these un-documented workers don’t receive all the wages they are entitled to, because these companies know that the ndocumented workers can’t go to the authorities to report them.

                Even though these workers are here undocumented, they are still human beings.  They are doing the work, and they deserve to be paid.  They have families and homes just as everybody else and they need to survive off the wages they work for.  How would you feel if you worked a long week doing hard labor and you are out of money come payday, and when you go to get your paycheck the employer gives you one third of what you should have been paid?  This kind of mistreatment would not stand if it was an American Citizen, why should it be any different for an undocumented worker?

                People here undocumented is a totally separate issue; this is an issue of fairness and the defense for the common human being.  What needs to be done about this issue is that these companies that are willing to hire undocumented workers need to be held accountable for their actions.  First off the safety issue, undocumented or not, needs to be taken care of first.  An unsafe workplace should never be tolerated and these deaths or injuries should never have to take place before we do something about it.  Next thing that needs to be stopped is the unpaid wages for the work that has been done.  Regardless of if the worker is legal or not, if that person completes the work, that person deserves to be paid.  We as America are better than this and it really makes me sick that this type of mistreatment takes place.  We cannot keep turning our heads the other way and let these injustices take place, and we need to take these issues head on.  This issue needs to be stopped and stopped now!

Here is a video on for you to watch and maybe it will help you understand that this is actually taking place.

Friday, April 13, 2012

America the Beautiful!!


How much do Americans really take for granted?  In my class we watched a movie called “Wasteland”, which depicts an artist who goes to Brazil to film a documentary/art project to try to help the trash pickers.  These trash pickers are Brazil’s form of recycling because the country does not have recycling.  The dump trucks would come to this dump yard and dump the trash, and then hundreds to thousands of people would walk through picking out all the recyclable material.  These “pickers” are happy because they are not having to live a life of prostitution or drug dealing and can make a living in a respectable way.  The workers only make $25 a day and they are happy with that pay.
Again how much do Americans take for granted?  These people in Brazil are happy to dig through trash and filth for $25 dollars a day working god knows how many hours and Americans only have to work 8 hours a day making at the minimum $58.  I would love to see a business man, a doctor, even a garbage truck driver, to go over to Brazil and work just one week in these conditions.  What do you think would happen?  They would whine and complain about the work and when they got paid they would flip out on how much they got paid for it. 
Americans need to start to realize we have it good over here.  Even though our economy is in the dumps right now, we still have it a million times better than a lot of these other countries.  I believe that Americans have a much skewed sense of reality and are so spoiled we don’t even appreciate the good things in life.  To be able to have a minimum wage, to be able to not have to work more than 40 hours a week unless you want to, to have government assistance (such as food stamps and unemployment), and to have the freedom to go out and achieve anything we want.  Now granted it is much more difficult than some to get by in America, but even the poorest communities still have it better than third world countries.  Americans need to open their eyes and see what a beautiful and blessed country we have and to realize that even when times are hard you still have it better than most.  If we as a country could all think this way, a more peaceful happy society will emerge. 
Here is the trailer to the movie so you can get a better understanding

Wednesday, April 4, 2012

Homosexuals are People too!!


My Social Justice class keeps coming at me like a whirl wind.  This week we were talking about homosexuality and the strife they have to endure.  Now that I am older I never really thought of any issues with homosexuality, other than societies laws against them (such as no gay marriage in certain states, and no rights to possessions for gay spouses), because I view them as normal people in society.  I have already forgotten what it was like in high school and even my own viewpoints towards the gay community.
            Growing up with my friends, we always made fun of each other if we showed any sign of femininity by calling each other “gay” or “fag”.  I never thought anything of this because it was just a norm in my high school.  Now looking back what if one of these young teenage boys that was having trouble dealing with what his sexual preference was or trying to figure out what was wrong with him, over heard me and my friends saying these kind of derogatory terms.  When I thought this, I immediately felt sick to my stomach.  No one from my high school killed themselves due to being harassed for being gay, but what if someone did?  What if that someone would have killed themselves because of what he overheard from my conversations with my friends?  To this day I wouldn’t have been able to live with myself and now after taking this class I am having a real hard time forgiving myself for my ignorant past.
            It is so easy to say things that can hurt someone else without even knowing it.  Using the term “gay” or “fag” as a joke is wrong in every way and as a society we must be conscious of what we say.  Homosexuals, Lesbians, Tran’s genders, and many others are all human beings.  No one today should be judged for the color of their skin, what sexual preference they are, what socio-economic status they belong to, or what culture they are from.  America promotes itself as a diverse society and that we are all created equal, than why are there still these prejudices’ that exist in our society.  I myself will start being more observant of these types of terms and start to fight against them when I hear them.  Being guilty of this I am disgusted with myself and I will devote myself to make a difference.  Through word of mouth, through being educated, through social interaction, we can make a difference.  I will fight for the equal rights for everyone till the day I die and I hope one day I can see an America united, rather than an America full of separation and hatred.  We as a society need change, until we make that change, America will never be the country I can be proud of.