Tuesday, February 28, 2012

my future plan to make this world a better place


MY DREAM FUTURE:  Husband, children, family, friends, and PURPOSE!





PART 1:  community and connecting



            My third and most significant future is filled with my dreams and passions.  It is a future filled with love, unity, and purpose.  I would like to start a movement, first across the U.S. then to other country’s that would bring people together, help one another, and encourage people to “pay it forward,” which would create a sense of belonging and peace for all.  People would seek to understand, rather than judge one another, and rather than giving up hope, they would work together to attempt to makes this world a better place and become connected.  This dream of the future would allow me to connect with other enlightened and compassionate individuals, the chance to travel, collaborate to make a real difference in this world, and a lifelong journey of learning and exploring.  My dream is to have the opportunity to meet, collaborate, and explore new ideas with individuals who share my passion for making this world a better place.  Together, they could help me evolve my ideas, and explore new ones.  The goal would be networking and communicating with individuals across the globe who would want to support a movement of peace and collaboration.  This can be done with mass media, networking, good communication between individuals, and good old fashioned footwork.  People’s dreams will be met, people will become inspired, things never thought possible will become accomplished, cultural and diverse lines will be crossed, and people will see the power of love!

             I have many ideas on how to get this movement started.  Some may be outlandish but I truly believe that as others learn about the movement, they too will be inspired to want to join in.  My first idea is to find funding for those entrepreneurs who have great ideas and work ethic but no financial backing.  If we can find money to invest in their ideas, we can help their dreams become a reality.  They will make enough money to make life worthwhile, but must also agree to donate a certain amount of their successes back to the community and its programs that benefit humanity.  My next idea is a school program that will help with bullying and encourage positive behaviors from today’s youth as well as pull the “outcasts” into a circle of peers who will care for and support them.  It is a program that will be implemented in schools, where certain morally grounded seniors will become leaders.  They will reach out to other youth in the school system whom others ignore or bully.  They will take this youth into their circle, encourage successes, give this youth opportunity to meet new people and try new things, as well as mentor them.  This will allow these youth to know and understand other youth whom they may have never given the opportunity to know.  It will encourage a peer to be drug free, volunteer in community organizations, and become involved in creative and extracurricular activities.  The youth leader will receive merits and a letter of recommendation from their school to the college that they apply for to help with scholarships and show their leadership abilities.  The peer whom they mentored will then be encouraged, themselves, to become a leader once they become seniors and follow in their mentors footsteps.  I have much more on this idea, which I call “beneath my wings program,” but I wanted to give you a basic overview of the goals of the program.

              Another idea that I hope to evolve on is integrating all the wonderful nonprofits to help benefit one another.  For instance, convicts and community members can donate time to build homeless shelters.  In turn, these people whom live in these shelters will donate time into another nonprofit org..  For example, the youth I work with at Pressley Ridge could donate time to help build additions onto domestic violence shelters or to the humane society.  The homeless people could donate time to visit a nursing home to play a game of cards and converse with the elderly.  In turn, the elderly could knit blankets for the homeless shelter or help them learn to read.   A police officer could visit a juvenile placement and talk to at risk youth, on their level, without them being in trouble or having to feel intimidated.  A person who is given a place to stay at a homeless shelter could agree to donate a few hours a month to the local ymca or boys/girls club to teach a youth how to swim, paint, play a sport, coach a little league team, or any other artistic venture.  All of this would help give each of these individuals a sense of purpose and belonging.  We could take youth who are in placement, people from homeless shelters or other organizations and have them donate time at the local library to help people learn to read.  These are just a few of my ideas on this issue, but I truly believe that people whom receive help will also want to reach out and help others.    Whether it is building something, sharing/teaching certain skills, or donating time to offer love and support to another, the theme would be helping one another.  The CEO’s or representatives from community programs and non-profit organizations will have monthly meetings, in each community across the U.S., to see how they can integrate, support, and help one another.  Through collaboration and joint efforts, far more people will be served and challenges will be overcome as well as less tax money will be used for these specific programs which means there will be more money to build/create more humanitarian programs. 

             Another program that I would like to see implemented in each town is the sober carpool/ride programs.  The cars can be provided by donations within the community, or using automobiles that are built in learning programs such as trade schools, colleges, and prisons.  Old junk cars can be taken into jails, or youth programs where the inmates or youth receive training on mechanics so that they acquire the skills needed to become successful once released from imprisonment.  As each person is taught this valuable skill, and each car is completed, the car can then be donated to a person (preferably to a hardworking family with children who are in need, or a college campus).  If donated to a family, they will then have to agree to donate one 4 hour shift a month, for an agreed time period (preferrabally a year) to drive home college kids or intoxicated individuals on the weekends.  This will help to reduce the amount of drunk driving accidents and deaths resulting from it.  If the cars were donated to college campuses, individuals who receive tickets or citations would have to agree to be a sober driver for a night rather than pay a fine or as a consequence for certain actions.  Automobiles that are seized by the police, for drugs or other circumstances, should also be donated to programs that assist the public such as the sober driving program or a program that assists the elderly or disabled to do things like be able to go to doctor appointments or grocery shopping.  Citizens who receive moving violations, have suspended licenses due to accumulation of points, or individuals who have community service hours could donate time to drive these cars in order to receive a deduction in fines or lengths of their sentence.  People with outstanding and outrageous ammounts of fines to pay in order to get their licenses reinstated would have an opportunity to clean the slate and start over.  I have known many individuals who were involved in situations which resulted in them owing the state thousands of dollars in order to have their driving priveliges reinstated.  Most persons with a family do not have this kind of money, so they either drive illegally, or choose to live on welfare.  Either way, the state does not receive the money most of the time, and the individuals children and family are hurt in the process as well as our tax money is used to pay them for being unemployed or for food stamps, etc.  At least the state would be benefitting somewhat and people can choose to take the right path and have their license cleared through these community service hours, either way, the person will not have an excuse. 

           





PART 2:  PAY IT FORWARD



            My second to largest idea is what I’d like to call, “the kick off.”  This would be a specific date and time to start the events of “pay it forward.”  Pay it forward would consist of three specific aspects and actions and would need the assistance of mass media and supporters to have the greatest impact.  The first aspect would be what I call “tag” and would spread kindness all over the country.  “Tag” would be a specific date and time (“kick off”) and we would encourage as many individuals as we can to take what they can afford and go into the community in search of a person/family who looks like they could use the money, and hand them the money.  The giver would simply ask that the person who is on the receiving end to “pay it forward” with two acts of kindness.  Whether it be to babysit for a couple who needs to rekindle the spark in their marriage, mow a neighbor’s lawn, clean an elderly person’s house, or help a person put the groceries in their car.  It could be anything really, but this person would then ask the next person to do the same.  For those individuals who have more to offer, financially, the greater they would ask the person to pay it forward.  I know that I live paycheck to paycheck, but if an event like this were to occur, I could definitely come up with at least fifty dollars or so, and feel great about doing this deed.  My faith in mankind tells me that there are many other caring individuals who would do and feel the same way.

             The second aspect to “pay it forward,” would be a special newspaper section devoted to “pay it forward.”  Here readers could post skills or actions that they can offer others, as well as things or deeds people may need or to be done.  Only one requirement, if you receive help or a response to the message, then you offer your skills to someone else.  This could be as simple as cooking someone a meal, helping out with chores, helping someone to learn a new skill, or tutoring a youth.  It could be a roofer putting a roof on a persons home in exchange for the person remodeling their bathroom or equivalent to the roofing job.  It could be anything really as each person’s needs are different.  Since each person is specialized in certain skills, and lack in others, this concept would allow people to obtain/accomplish things that they may not have been otherwise financially able to.  This concept is based on a bartering theory.  This would help people to thrive based on Maslow’s theory because it would help people’s basic needs to be met, as well as others to thrive or get ahead.

             The third aspect to “pay it forward” would be what I call “day of dreams calendar.”  I would like to collaborate with individuals and create a calendar that is dedicated to giving.  There are 365 days in a year and I would like to make each day a special aspect to giving.  One day could be a free oil change, another could be a free haircut to a child who needs a confidence boost, another for winter coat giving, another for feed the hungry/grocery giving, another for dreams to ill children, another to a free scholarship to a college or university, etc. etc.  For this, I will need the help of many to communicate and canvas.  We would have to contact businesses and individuals and ask them for their participation.  For example, if it was a free oil change day (once a year), we would approach a business and tell them what we are trying to do and ask them for their participation.  Surely they would oblige when a thirty dollar oil change is a drop in a bucket to what the company earns.  As we get one oil change place to support our cause, I predict that many other automobile places will also want to contribute, to stay in competition if for no other reason.  This example would be the same no matter what service we were applying it to.  It would be one day a year and one service from each company.  I would like to think that successful business owners would like to give back, if not truly from the heart and good intensions, then from wanting to be perceived by the community in good ways.  This calendar will be distributed to all individuals across the globe, and they could assist us in encouraging supporters by word of mouth, and also receive advertisements for their good deeds.  What’s better than good PR, right?







PART 3:  MUSIC CAN MAKE THE DIFFERENCE! 



ITS ALL ABOUT DREAMS….IF WERE GONNA THINK, LET’S THINK BIG!





             My third and largest dream to conquer would be to see WV have a national football team.  People think I am crazy, and tell me that it will never happen.  My response to them is, “well if Baltimore can build a stadium in the middle of a congested city, why can’t we do it here.  We have all this land!”  I think this is a great idea because WV is big on sports, and would love to have a football team.  It would bring in a ton of revenue once completed, create tons of job opportunities, and help tremendously with the economic success of West Virginia.  What would be better than a football stadium in the middle of all these beautiful mountains?  We could have places for camping, music, and activities surrounding it so that people who love the nature aspect and spending times with friends and family could make a week or weekend trip out of it.  Family, fun, campfires, and football.  What could be better than that?

             Not only to I wish to see a stadium built, but I also want it to contribute to humanity by allowing it to double as a concert stadium when it is not being used for football.  I live for music and living in West Virginia, I have come to realize that there are very few concerts in the area. My friends are always traveling to nearby states when they want to attend a concert.  If the stadium was built, one night a week, a musician will come and spend four hours doing a concert that will benefit a charity or cause of their choice.  If you think about it, there are 52 weeks in a year.  That means yearly we would need 52 artists to give away four hours of their time for a great cause.  With all the musicians who are giving, who have went through difficult times, or even had drug abuse problems, there are sure to be, at the least, 52 artists a year who would be willing to contribute.  I would call this stadium “Music Makes the Difference.”  It would be known as a place where people of love, faith, peace, and hope would gather to spread the message of love and hope.

             I know that this is an extremely expensive dream; however, I have ideas that could help make it cheaper and also contribute to the problem of prisoner recidivism. There are so many people who are incarcerated, who reoffend once they are released.  With the lack of transitioning programs available, once released, prisoners either end up back in the same environment or have nowhere to go, and no money or means to make it.  This is a major cause of them reentering prison.  It costs U.S. citizens tons of tax dollars to house and feed them, and the prisons are overcrowded.  If we decided to build a stadium, I’d like to see non violent prisoners working on the construction of it.  They would have the opportunity to integrate some back into the community, learn a sense of responsibility and work ethic as well as earn money so they have a starting point once they are released from jail.  We wouldn’t have to pay them as much as we would a free citizen, but rather something fair, like a half or a third of what a normal individual would make.  While they are building the stadium, and earning money, they would also be able to support their families or pay their past due child support as well as any fines.  This will help to give them hope and encourage them to keep on the right path.  Think about it, if you were released from prison, couldn’t get a job, no home, no way to feed yourself or money to start a life with while also owing the court money and past due child support, wouldn’t any individual feel that they were buried too deep in a hole to dig themselves out of?  I know I would!  This is why so many prisoners reoffend.  They either do not see any hope or any light at the end of the tunnel, or they go from being locked in a cell, to complete freedom, with no transitioning period.  I do see this dream as being possible, and if it had the right financial backers to see it through, it could do a lot of good with recidivism, save on tax dollars, help out financially with tons of good to charities, as well as make the investors tons of money once it was completed and obtained an NFL team while also contributing greatly to the economic success of our beautiful state.

            My ideal future is probably somewhat of a mixture of all three scenarios, and I also realize that I may not achieve many of my dreams but that is what I am, an idealist and a dreamer.  This is what keeps me having faith in all of mankind and know that every little effort from an individual can make a big difference in someone else’s life.  Either way, I know I will be happy because in the end all I could ask for is to be surrounded by loving and caring individuals which I already am.  I keep my mind optimistic, share my love, help to teach others, and truly love and care for every person on this planet so even if I died at this very moment, that would be okay.  It would be God’s fate and I would die loved and happy with my dreams written down on this paper with hopes that others will find it, and encourage one another to work together rather than against one another and create a nation of peace, compassion, and LOVE!

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