Omar Shehadeh Last Exploration

            I could not help but compare Wendell Berry's essay The Idea of a Local Economy to the Documentary "Fresh" we watched earlier in the class. Both are a call to action for people to realize the impact we are having on our environment and the docile nature people have towards it even though we are all aware of the issue. Wendell Berry immediately makes the readers address this problem stating "The problems of pollution, species extinction, loss of wilderness, loss of farmlands, loss of topsoil may still be ignored or scoffed at, but they are not denied." showing exactly what I said right as readers begin the essay. Amber points out in her exploration, that if one animal goes extinct it can disrupt an entire food chain. This would lead to other extinctions and in some cases even affects the environment the animals were living in. Another issue Wendell addresses is our reliance on companies stating that "Without prosperous local economies, the people have no power and the land no voice." and this could not be anymore correct. Our reliance on companies for everything from food to the clothing we wear are a hinderance on our current society and leaves us blind to what they are actually doing to the land we live on. If we don't rid ourselves of this dependence than nothing will change and we will continue to slowly destroy our environment and eventually this will culminate in the ending of the current society we know if we continue on the blind path we are following.

            One of the issues I feel that is not talked about enough is bullying. I really feel as if its prevalent all throughout our society and its one of those subjects that everyone sort of turns a blind eye too. One of the subjects we learned about was the columbine shooting and one of the things I noticed when researching the subject is that the kids who committed the act were seen as "outcasts". So I did further research into other school shootings and saw that the other shooters were also deemed as "outcasts" Well when someone is a outcast in society, especially in high school they are often times made fun of and bullied. I know this was the case at my high school and even in middle school. If people were more aware of how their actions made others feel and the extremes it can bring them too than maybe they wouldn't bully others. These kids who committed these atrocities were most likely bullied until they couldn't take it anymore and simply snapped. I find it hard to believe that someone would do something as extreme as these acts without being pushed into committing them first. I can admit when I was in middle school, I was one of those people who would join in on making fun of people for laughs or fun. But when I became more mature and aware of how my actions affected other people I became the person who would stick up for the kid getting picked on. One thing I would ask of anyone who is reading this is to simply stick up for anyone being picked on. If we don't address this problem of bullying that is so prevalent throughout our society than issues like columbine will never stop happening. It is not gun control that is the issue-- even though the accessibility to guns is a issue, the problem is the way we are treating each-other as humans.