Human Obligation

Five Things that Obligates me to other Human Beings
Personal
1. I’m obligated to my father for his help and caring throughout my life. My obligation to my father is endless. He not only nurtured me and provided all the necessities I needed as a child he truly loves me and would give his life for mine. This is how most parents feel for their children but my father goes well beyond the call of duty. Aside from my childhood my father continued to help me in my adult life with anything that I needed assistance with. He watched my son when he was young and I needed to go to work for no cost because he would refuse to make any profit from spending time with his grandson which was a big help to me because I did not make much money. He would always be the first one there with me to care for me when I was ill or needed to go to the hospital. He even helps me study sometimes thirteen hours at a time for very difficult tests that I have had to take in college so I could perform to the best of my ability and continue to guaranty my success. He has never judged me no matter what mistakes I have made or decisions I have made in my life and he is undeniably an incredible individual who I owe my whole life to. So I absolutely feel morally obligated to this wonderful man because without him in my life I would not have been able to survive the way I have with all the help he has provided me and he taught me that all people on this earth are morally obligated to care and help one another because human being just as every living thing on this planet are precious and deserve consideration.



Personal
2. I am obligated to my husband who is an important and supportive person in my life.
I am obligated to my husband because first and for most I dedicated myself to this man for as long as I shall live. But without him I would not be able to live the lifestyle I live today while going to school and raising my children. He not only financially supports me but he supports me emotionally and without that emotional support I seriously doubt I could of gotten as far as I did with school while working and raising my children. This is an important amount of help that I could not do without and I feel forever obligated to my husband for that.



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3. I am obligated to the doctors who dedicate their lives to helping develop cures to diseases, medications and treatment for illnesses so that me and the people I care for can stay healthy.


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4. I am obligated to the nice man who owns the deli next store to my job for making my breakfast and delivering it to me the mornings I go to work. He is a very pleasant man who does a very sweet thing for me. Its small but it makes me happy and when I feel like I am losing faith in peoples inclination for kindness this man shows me that it still exists.


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5. I am obligated to all of the people who go out there in this world and sacrifice themselves and some of their happiness to help keep this world running for their fellow man. This represents the factory workers or the retail employees who help produce my food and sell me my material products that work 14 hours a day sometimes with no
overtime money or benefits so that I could get my products quick, efficiently
and cheap. That’s nice and convenient but at what cost. This also represents police
officers who put their lives on the line to keep me safe. The people from different
countries who work to help sustain my life and lifestyle in general while they get
explioted. These are just a few examples of the work that people do and the suffering
they endure that helps me directly or indirectly. As moral human beings we all have an
obligation to our fellow men and woman of the world not just ourselves.

My Passion and My Contribution

Question #1 How will you follow your passion?



My passion was, is and always will be to help people. I choose to enter the field of psychology to somehow contribute to the people of this world who need my help. This is an environmental issue. Human beings are a part of this world. This world is our environment. I think there are a lot of issues with our environment not just the degradation of our physical environment.

I will follow my passion through my career. My career will satisfy my need to want to help individuals who suffer with mental illness at the same time as satisfying my fascination of the mind. I hope to not only handle the therapeutic part of this issue with mental illness but also become a advocate for the fair treatment for the individuals who suffer of this illness but don’t have proper resources to obtain help and hopefully try to get rid of the stigma mental illness has amongst society such as all mentally ill people are violent. People did you know that a mentally ill person is more likely to become a victim of a violent crime than to commit a violent crime.

Letting individuals know this information will help not only the people who suffer from mental illness but the communities they live in by educating individuals in these communities on these facts to better deal with these issues.This will help our people, our communities and our overall environment.

I don’t know if this is contributing on the same level that Mr. Gore has with his cause but I feel it is important. If we consider how we can contribute in small ways to help the physical environment such as not driving to school everyday than this is that one little thing that will help make a difference with this issue.
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Question #2 How will you use your education to make the world a better place?

I think I somewhat touched on how I would use my education to make the world a better place when I stated I wanted to help individuals with mental illness in this world and use my education to do this by becoming a psychologist. I would also use my education to better this world by trying to educate new generations of people on world issues such as Global Warming, poverty and mental illness by maybe teaching.

Mr. Gore used his political career which his education got him to bring awareness and recognition to a world issue that was important to him and hopefully so will I. Politically he gained popularity and eventually used that popularity to further his cause. Now it wasn’t politics helping his cause any longer or solely it was his public figure status.

Education does not only mean to go out into society and educate others on issues but the most obvious way I will use my education to better this world is by knowing the truth about these world issue and take personal responsibility to not contribute to the problem and personally try to prevent the problem from happening by doing the right thing.

We all need to become educated to teach our children which will be the next generation what is important in this world and what they need to do to help better this world not make it worst. If that is the only way you use your education to better this world than you have accomplished a lot.

Important Websites:
www.energystar.gov
This site helps show individuals ways on how to save energy and buy energy efficient products such as appliances.
www.freecycle.org
This site is one of my favorites because it focuses on trying to conserve what you have and reuse perfectly good items while donating items so others can use them without wasting more resources and money in the process.

Materials Economy

Stuff In our society today consumption is such a way of life that we don’t think twice about the things we buy or waste. We don’t think about whether or not we really need it or if we can really afford it. We have fallen victim to this constant need to have the newest and latest thing on the market that we have lost site of how it is taken effect on our environment and if it is even healthy for us. If I had to choose what position I hold in this materials economy I would definitely put myself as one of the less important people, the consumer. I know that on plenty of occasions I have found myself consoling myself with useless material consumption. When I am having a bad day and I need something to pick my spirits up I go shopping when I can afford it. When I feel inadequate as a woman by today’s standards I go shopping to upgrade my appearance. If I am trying to make someone happy or show them their worth to me I go shopping and buy them useless material things that I feel they would value instead of my time and affection as if it was not as valuable. I do this with no thought in the world on what these products represent to me and the environment. I have been ignorant to the logistics of this system on all levels. I did to my defense educate myself on some of the issues that are involved in corporations systems of production. I found out about some of the issues that arise with the way corporations profit partly because of the way they skimp on employee’s salaries, their benefits and how they outsource their manufacturing companies for slave labor. I have always had a problem with this system because of how employees are exploited but I did not take into account all the other damage this system does. Wall mart is in my opinion one of the worst corporations in this department that you can find. They participate in all these horrible legal business practices. If I could be in another position in this system I would probably want to become a political advocate against immoral corporate practices such as exploitation of workers and the degradation of the environment. This would probably be very difficult to do considering the government now a days is run by corporations but that is the position I’d like to hold. The only contribution I can give to making a difference at this point is to try and be conscious of how I consume and dispose of my products as well as what I can do not to pollute the environment any more than it already is, like using biodiesel fuel for my car. I would also like to get involved with some of these environmentally friendly organizations and educate people on the facts of this system and how it affects the world but that is highly unlikely considering my current situation and limitations on time. I will tell everyone around me who will listen. I have already shown this clip on material economy to 5 people. They were in shock on the way products are made and how detrimental it is to people and the environment on so many levels. In the end we are all responsible to keep this earth clean and flourishing but under a system like materials economy it is pretty difficult to do.

Blog #1 The Environment

List of Ten Things I Did Today

1) Brushed my hair
2) Got dressed
3) Took my son to school
4) Went back home and dressed my daughter
5) Smoked
6) Washed my hands
7) Brushed my daughters teeth
8) Took my daughter to school
9) Drove to LaGuardia College
10) Bought my Psychology text book

Driving to school and to my children’s school everyday is effecting the environment by polluting the air and contributing to global warming. Smoking is also polluting the air and my lungs. One thing that I try to consciously do to help the environment is to conserve energy by not always turning on the heat in the winter and in the summer I try not to keep on the air conditioner for long periods of time. These small efforts might not be much but I feel that it helps. One thing that concerns me about the environment is the over consumption of our natural resources such as water. There is such a shortage of clean water in this world that many people in other countries do not have access to any and Americans take for granted the access they have to clean water, that is why they should not waste it. If you go to http://www.wfs.org, The Futurist Magazine’s Annual Outlook Report it states future predictions of the world. One of the things it predicts is, “Water will be in the twenty-first century what oil was in the twentieth century. Global fresh water shortages and drought conditions are spreading in both the developed and developing world. In response, the dry state of California is building 13 desalination plants that could provide 10%-20% of the state's water in the next two decades. Desalination will become more mainstream by 2020”. Another issue that is disturbing is overpopulation. This is scary because with the combination of the lack of natural resources in the future and overpopulation there will be a lot of suffering for human beings in this world. The Future prediction is, “The earth is on the verge of a significant extinction event. The twenty-first century could witness a biodiversity collapse 100 to 1,000 times greater than any previous extinction since the dawn of humanity, according to the World Resources Institute. Protecting biodiversity in a time of increased resource consumption, overpopulation, and environmental degradation will require continued sacrifice on the part of local, often impoverished communities. Experts contend that incorporating local communities' economic interests into conservation plans will be essential to species protection in the next century” ( The Futurist Magazine’s Annual Outlook Report)
ABOUT ME
My name is Lisa Morales. I am married to a wonderful man and I am a mother of two beautiful children. This is really my purpose in life, my two children that is why whenever I am asked to write about myself I start of by introducing the fact that I am a mother. I am finishing up my last semester here in LaGuardia and hope to transfer to NYU on a scholarship that I was nominated for. I then hope to finish my BA and eventually acquire my PhD in neuropsychology. I have had personal experience with mental illness in my family and see how stifling it could be, not only for the individual with the disease but for everyone who cares for them. This is why I chose to study and one day become apart of the field of psychology. I am also fascinated in other cultures. I have not been able to personally experience a lot of them because of many reasons one being that I am terrified of flying but I hope to one day get over that phobia and expose myself to all the different cultures this world has to offer. I am also interested in the arts and fashion. My husband is a fine artist and I am a hair stylist. I know this line of work seems to be the complete opposite of the field of psychology but they do have a lot in common. Being a stylist does not only consist of styling someone’s hair, it also includes being there friend and therapist. Stylists get to here some of the most personal issues in their client’s life and have to console them or give them advice when the client asks because that is the typical bond clients expect from their stylist. It is not so different from a therapy session. I once read that most hair stylist who go back to school end up majoring in psychology because of these reasons. In my profession I get to meet a diverse group of people. It is an interesting and creative line of work but it can be testing. My greatest achievement is being able to raise my two children, work full time and go to school full time while keeping a good grade point average. It is not easy and I did not know when I decided to start school whether or not I would be able to maintain everything well enough but it has been very rewarding. I am also what I like to refer to as, in the words of Hillary Clinton a progressive person, which in the past has been called a liberal. That word, Liberal has acquired a negative image throughout the years but I don’t see anything negative about it. I believe in the plight for the needy people of this world. I believe in tolerance of difference. I believe that as human beings we have a moral responsibility to everyone in this world. I also believe in equality. Every time I say this some people think I am a communist especially since my family is from Cuba (Ha,Ha). I don’t believe in communism, I simply feel that people have lost sight of caring about one another and that individuals should not only think about what is best for them and start thinking about others. Now that I have lectured everyone who is listening I am really a very lighthearted person and I try not to impose my views on others I just like to speak about what is important to me.