Making the World a Better Place to Be - Essay Example

Insert Making the world a better place to be. The world today is filled with lots of social vices and ethical issues that make the living for people of noble character so disgusting. The idea of changing the world from an individual perspective has always sounded so daunting, ridiculous and a joke. This has not helped the efforts to make the world better place as every person view their individual effort as not only minimal but also negligible in the context of the world at large. This has encouraged the unmanaged and uncontrolled rise in the horrible and negative social practices that has finally triggered my conscience into action in my effort to make the world a better and desirable place to be. The social issues in this context refers to the matters and problems that can affect a person, a group of people or the society in general in either direct or indirect way. These social issues generally includes matters of concern such as; alcoholism and health issues, Gender issues, food and drug safety, abortion, suicide, drug abuse, Homosexuality, Media, sex and violence, poverty, child labor, civil rights and many others issues. This continuous rise in these social issues has initiated my reactions to develop this journal to create awareness and embark on creating a new and better world. I am only one person but change must always originate from one person through acts of kindness, generosity and more so social responsibility whose sole little effort would definitely result into a visible change to the face of the world. Through application and observation of the following, just one small action at a time, the world will become a better place to live in. Volunteering time with children. Children are the future of the world and therefore the kind of teachings they receive at the early age will determine their social personality and character of the future world. Spending a lot of time in tutoring, mentoring and joining them in social activities will go a long way to establishing their future life. This volunteering should not consume all the volunteers free time though. Every individual should therefore dedicate a portion of their daily free time to make a positive impact to children’s life. The children especially the teen’s today faces a number of issues from alcoholism, eating disorders to high stress levels. Studies have shown that around eight teens die daily as a result of drunken driving in America (Becker, 676). The high increase in rape cases among the teens below the age of eighteen is a clear manifestation that children must be introduced into social morals at early age in order to experience the dream of a better world. Respect to other people and recognition of humanity. This deals with the ability to recognize that even the homeless street children and beggars are in fact people just as we are. They just ended up into such unfortunate situations through either their own choices or circumstances that are beyond their own personal control and the situation has nothing to do with their being complete human beings. A word of greetings to them in respectful and warm way may bring joy and healing to their heart and go along way into healing the world of these people one at a time. The main point of note is to view and handle people as equals regardless of their social rank and societal status (Becker, 456). Random acts of kindness in everyday actions. This creates a feel-good factor both from the giver and the receiver. Every day, we should cultivate the urge to feel good when we give to others and encourage people to be thankful and appreciative for the acts of kindness shown to them by others and most importantly strive to do the same to others (Katherine, 997). These acts may include giving food, dry cleaning, car wash, parking fees and many other related acts. Use less paper. This may sound negligible but we must admit that the cutting down of our trees has developed into a worldwide disaster. The shift from paper to more of paperless activities such as sending e-mails instead of writing letters would go a long way into creating a big impact globally (Katherine, 465). Help conserve trees by conserving the use of papers. Donate blood and used clothing. Blood is the fuel of life and by donating blood, one goes along way into having a direct positive impact into another person’s life. This ends up to be one of the most satisfying acts that one can easily engage in to make a difference. The simple exercise literally saves one’s life. There is also a good number of less privileged people who need the clothing that you have stopped using and will consider them as new, feel satisfied and grateful. Donations to charity organizations will provide you with the right platform to indirectly improve the life of another less fortunate in the society (Katherine, 989). Health issues. These includes health issues such as sickness and problems caused by drugs and substance abuse that includes alcoholism and such related staff. The number of people suffering from lifestyle diseases like cancer and AIDs is so threatening to the world population every year (Katherine, 987). By taking the initiative to establish rehabilitation centers and promoting social and civic awareness, campaigns will go a long way to ensuring that the world population remains healthy and immune to such lifestyle diseases. Addressing the gender issues. By advocating for equal rights between the different genders, we bring the world to satisfaction from every angle. These also includes the issues of homosexuality and marriage that boils down to social aspects of individuals’ upbringing and immoral family setup. Reduce wastage. Little things such as letting the water to run after taking a shower or after brushing our teeth are simple acts that negatively affects the world. The usage of resources such as water must be minimized and only used where necessary. We must therefore try to limit the usage as much as possible. When we get food, we must always ensure that we eat healthily, minimally and most importantly balanced diet in the aim of reducing wastage. The left-over food should be compost and handled respectfully. Be generous. The society today is driven by selfish interest for material expectations such as money and resources. We should try our best to be kind to others, view and enjoy how our actions improve their lives for the better. Buy something such as food to the street families and enjoy the feeling of their appreciative reactions and gratitude. By giving we will be able to experience love first hand and the world’s perspective about others will change for the better. Take responsibility. Very many people have been reasoning that they are not responsible for the various problems that face the world today and thus have nothing to do with how they are to be solved and addressed. This irresponsible notion appears superficially true until one realizes that these world problems are caused by the daily actions of millions of people in the world. Each of us starting from myself must learn to take responsibility for every action on the planet regardless of how far from where we are it may be. We must learn to appreciate that our impacts in the world are larger than we think and imagine. We thus must feel responsible and make efforts to make corrections whenever we feel that an action does not conform to the societal norms. Self-belief. Most people feel in themselves that they are not capable of having the impacts of world heroes such as Martin Luther King, Jr or even Mother Theresa. They therefore cannot imagine themselves doing the great deeds that have a worldwide impacts of a lifetime shaping the world’s thinking and perspective. They fail to recognize that one does not need to be a saint to make these differences in the world, even these people were never saints. In each and every situation we find ourselves in, we must always strive to make the necessary and positive impacts as this will go a long way into shaping the world both directly and indirectly. Once we have developed a commitment to live a life of positive social values, we then embark on an endless journey of implementing the most practical and effective ways that would bring the better world of our vision into reality. Be an activist. Many people believe activists must have to block roads and trucks, screaming for change or full blast rebels who stage face-off with anti-riot police officers. This results into good number of potential change proponents not wanting to get involved for fear of being radicals. People may not understand that each and every profession, background lifestyle and interests are always involved in social changes both directly and indirectly. People make differences in their daily activities in their offices, at home and in their communities. We need to believe that it is not a must to follow some specifically designed paths to make the impact into the world for the better. Practicing clearly defined personal values, you become more true to self and show activism to the world around you impacting their lives positively. The moment we become objective with the life we live, we begin to give the best examples to the surrounding environment and silently doing the work of activists to our neighbors. Conclusion. In conclusion, we need to be aware that the nature and behavior of the world is entirely determined by our own actions. These actions may go a long way to sometimes threatening others who for some reasons might not have imagined of how they want to live their lives. Some people may also try to thwart your efforts in trying to make the changes in both your life and others lives for their own funny reasons. The changes to a better world must therefore come from the efforts of each and every individuals efforts beginning from me before we question both political and religious leader’s efforts. A lot of things in the world may be disgusting and disappointing. We must thus understand that we are not better that anyone else, we are just one person trying to live the most positive way we may know. The changes in the world starts from me. Works Cited Becker, Carl L. How New Will the Better World Be? A Discussion of Post-war Reconstruction,. New York: A.A. Knopf, 1944. Print. Bell, Katherine. Quilting for Peace: Make the World a Better Place One Stitch at a Time. New York: Stewart, Tabori & Chang, 2009. Print. Hollender, Jeffrey. How to Make the World a Better Place: A Guide to Doing Good. New York: Quill, 1990. Print. Sakey, Marcus. A Better World. Print. Talbott, Page. Benjamin Franklin: In Search of a Better World. New Haven: Yale UP, 2005. Print. Read More