The Need For Change For The Betterment Of Our World

Going through life, we are told again and again and again that one person can make a real and impactful difference. Just one act can spark a change in the world more than you would ever possibly know. We are told that it doesn’t matter who you are, where you come from, or what your experience is in this world. One action, large or small, has the ability to snowball into something truly amazing. All of that is great and all, and that is how some people truly view the world that we live in. However, there are some people who have a much different point of view. These people would argue that the world that we live in is a terrible and threatening place; it’s not difficult to see their point on that topic. This world has too many terrorist

Humans always surprise each other. The amount of good we can commit in just one simple act can be astonishing. Whether it is donating money to charity, helping out an old friend, or just even offering someone a smile or kind word when having a bad day, can lead to a great impact on their life. “Just as one drop of water creates countless of ripples, so does one gesture of kindness or love change countless lives (Randi G Fine)”. These noble, grand gestures; or le beau geste; are unselfish acts that people commit with the intention of creating a better life for someone else. These acts can be committed due to love, compassion, or sacrifice. However, in the end, all these noble gestures boil down to creating a better world out there for others.

To change the world is an impossible goal, but to change the world around you is something anyone can do, ultimately leading to a ripple and changing the world further. My involvements in my community, family and job have taught me how to be an asset to society, making a difference in other’s lives.

“If we could change ourselves, the tendencies in the world would also change. As a man changes his own nature, so does the attitude of the world change towards him... We need not wait to see what others do.” — Mahatma Gandhi

What is the role of the individual in helping to solve some of the problems we face in our society today? What are some of the problems we face in our society today? In today’s society we are currently facing ten major issues according to toptenz.net and should these problems be considered as individual or social responsibilities? “Now that we are well into the new Millennium society has begun to recognize serious concerns with issues that kids have to deal with today. Some issues have always been there but are now coming to the eyes of the public to find solutions. Other issues are new trends as society begins to adapt to a faster pace of life (Standberry).” Here are some of the issues facing our youth today: single parent households, drug/alcohol abuse, growing up to fast, and violence in schools, materialism, obesity, education disparity, shifting economy, and loss of national pride. So how do we fix just one of these problems, do we come together for a common purpose or do we stand alone and try to make a difference.

What does it mean to form a more just society for the common good? I will be examining Dr. Martin Luther King’s “Letter from a Birmingham Jail,” as well as Gustavo Gutierrez’s essay, “The Option for the Poor Arises from Love of Christ.” Dr. King examines the facets of social injustice through a letter that he wrote while imprisoned for a nonviolent public protest. King’s letter is in response to a letter from eight fellow clergymen. In the letter from the clergymen they criticize King’s due process in seeking justice and his social injustice movement, so King responds with what I believe to be one of the greatest examples of a man who personifies what it means to form a more just society for the common good. He does not only speak on his behalf, but he speaks out all of humanity. Likewise, Gustavo Gutierrez examines specifically the poor in a similar manner, but believes that these “poor” people have found the ultimate meaning in life and we should all seek to have that same spiritual connection to God, for it would make our society a better place. The preferential option for the poor is seeking a deeper connection to God by bringing justice to light. Gutierrez and Dr. King both exemplify men who have truly set an example on how to form a more just society for the common good of humanity.

Positive change in the world starts in the individual and builds its way up until that certain individual’s

As a man changes his own nature, so does the attitude of the world change toward him… We need not to see what others do.” (Mahtma Ghandi) A quote that I found online from the New York Times, which states that it is up to the individual to make a difference in our own world view. So it is up to us to help save what our ancestors and elders have protected since the time of

If we do not expect nothing in return except for our fellow man to have what he needs to make it in life, we will in turn receive more productive members of society, we will receive less starving, freezing, lonely people on the streets, and we will receive compassion if we ever end up there too.

Each person has inside a basic decency and goodness. If he listens to it and acts on it, he is giving a great deal of what it is the world needs most. It is not complicated but it takes courage. It takes courage for a person to listen to his own goodness and act on it. Pablo Casals

The reasons why I feel people may resist to change is because they are afraid, they are stuck in a routine, they don’t like the way the new change is or they just don’t understand it because it to different. People are sometime more resistant to change regardless because they are lazy and been doing something so long they don’t want to learn anything different. Also it because they are so use to doing things this one way for years they don’t understand why it must be done different. Change is always really scary to people that have been use to completing a task the same way. They are more afraid of making a mistake use this new way then they are with the old way. This fear happens because at least they are more understand of what they did wrong

The earth is considered as one of the most beautiful planets in the universe. It is the only planet in our galaxy that has enough water to support life. Unfortunately our planet is suffering due to many problems which should be solved before it is too late. The major problems that are facing our world today are population, pollution and animal extinction.

To make this world a better, safer place to live, there are really two things that stand out. The first is that we need to promote in whatever way possible the idea that we are all human beings and they we are in this together. The world and its resources need not be a zero sum game. Too often, we are divided by race, class, gender, nation-states, religions and we forget that we are all the same inside, that we all want the same things, and that this world has enough resources for everybody if we work together. Conflict, war, and strife are the things that make this world unsafe, more than anything else. It is estimated that 5.4 million people at least were killed in wars between 1955-2002, to say nothing of the conflicts before and after (ScienceDaily, 2008). Millions more are injured and displaced as the result of such conflicts, to say nothing of the negative impacts on economies and the lives ruined as a consequence.

In the article, “Making Difference Matter: A New Paradigm for Managing Diversity,” the authors David A. Thomas and Robin J. Ely state that the discrimination-and-fairness paradigm and the access-and-legitimacy paradigm are the ”perspectives that have guided most diversity initiatives to date.” (p. 80) Thomas and Ely took these two paradigms and came up with the learning-and-effectiveness paradigm, which combines the best of the discrimination-and-fairness paradigm and the access-and-legitimacy paradigm to create a paradigm that genuinely shows care to learn and understanding of diversity.

Willy Brandt once remarked:” Western Europe has only 20 or 30 more years of democracy left in it; after that it will slide under the surrounding sea of dictatorship” (Crozier, Huntington, Watanuki, 1973, 2). It would seem that democratic governments have become increasingly unable of facing “the challenges of the modern world”. Specifically, democratic European governments have become increasingly incapable to adequately represent the interests of the governed, while economic growth has also produced forces within nations that could potentially lead to the potential “regression”(Crozier, 1973, 49-50) of European states from democracy into tyranny (Crozier, 1973, 49-50).