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MONTEBELLO
E-NEWS
December
7, 2006
“We cannot direct the wind, but we can adjust the sails”
- Bertha Calloway
Greetings
to all! We are Montebello E-News, a newsletter made by students eager to
help make a difference in Montebello. This newsletter is designed to:
·
Inform those who "labor, learn, and live" in Montebello.
·
Assist the community in decision-making that benefits the community as a
whole.
·
To encourage the improvement of the quality of life in the community.
·
To create community communication and cooperation.
·
Teach “self-reliance, selflessness, and sustainable solutions.”
Our
greatest hope is that this newsletter reaches as many people in
Montebello. Montebello E-News is a nonpartisan newsletter that not only
offers solutions but also welcomes the recipients to give us suggestions
on how to make the newsletter more useful to them.
Each newsletter will
include:
·
Announcements
·
Fun facts and games
·
Important fact/solution activity
·
Resident advisory note
·
Online community lesson
·
How residents can help themselves and their community
·
Open suggestion box
ANNOUNCEMENTS: INVITATION
I would first like to introduce
myself to all the readers of this newsletter in Montebello. My name
Gabriela Ortiz and I am currently part of the announcement team for this
newsletter. It has been rewarding these past months gathering,
researching, and committing to a beneficial service to the community.
The announcements are one of the most important parts
to our newsletter. They are meant for everyone in Montebello. Every
announcement informs a different person in Montebello; that is why
we invite you to send announcements through this community newsletter,
which is published by students at Montebello High School. This
newsletter is sent out to adults and youth throughout Montebello.
If you wish to send us one or two announcements per
week, please send us the following by e-mail as soon
as possible, as these are available:
1. Up to fifty words per announcement, including a
title, description, location, date, time, contact information, and a
hyperlink to details at a Web site, if these are available. Each
announcement is listed under one or two of these categories:
schoolteachers, youth, families, retirees, businesspeople, nonprofit
organizations, elected officials, civil servants, community leaders, “do
gooders”, motorists, everyone. Personal
announcements, unless pertinent to the community (like
fourth graders winning an academic competition), and advertisements are
not included.
2. Name of your organization leader.
3. E-mail address.
4. Fax number.
5. Web address.
The above information can be sent by e-mail to
Gabriela Ortiz
Zela6884@montebello.k12.ca.us
Vitalina Gonzalez
Zina4576@montebello.k12.ca.us
ANNOUNCEMENT
For everyone in Montebello. Our city
council will have a regular meeting on Wednesday, December 13, at 7:30 PM
at city hall. If you wish to speak, arrive before 7:30 and fill a
card. Remember that time is limited for speakers, so if you have
much to share, write, copy, and distribute.
HOW WE CAN HELP OURSELVES AND THE COMMUNITY
I Don’t Want to Grow Up: Part 1
“The solution to adult problems tomorrow depends on large
measure upon how our children grow up today.” Margaret Mead, American
cultural anthropologist, 1901-1978
“I don't want to grow up, I'm a Toys' R Us kid, there's a
million toys at Toys 'R Us that I can play with! …” This was a
commercial jingle in the Eighties, before the growing years of today’s
high schoolers. The jingle was popular enough that it was
reintroduced in 2001, so we have had back-to-back generations not wanting
to grow up.
Really? Yes, really. The fantasy of
never-ending childhood is part of American culture, so the fantasy
translates into excellent advertising. “I want to be a kid”,
said this bright eleventh grader, a debate student whom I had driven to
Cal State Chico, that is, to the ends of the Earth, for the California
competition of SAGE, www.csuchico.edu/sage . I had been so impressed
with the high schoolers in competition that I had expressed the wish that
adults treat the high schoolers as adults. She protested.
“Kids” has a connotation when applied to youth,
namely, that they are immature and irresponsible when compared with
adults. Those supposed attributes of immaturity and irresponsibility
shape how we adults treat youth: we lower our expectations and we
impose stultifying rules. We make it difficult, if not
impossible, for youth to grow up. Then, when we tell them that they
are grown up, we are frustrated by their driving, workplace habits, and
failure to vote. Also, we fail to realize that they could become leaders
and organizers in addressing major challenges like global warming.
Our treatment of youth as “kids” makes it hard for youth to help solve
the problems which we have created and which affect them and us.
If we gave weight and credence to the optimism and
idealism of youth, inviting them into adult roles commensurate with their
skills and treating them as adults when they assumed such roles;
would it not be reasonable for us to expect that they would make an
effort, unblemished by our adult cynicism and selfishness, to alleviate
the unhappiness, however small, however local? What would we have to
lose if we let them try?
Should we not give high schoolers a chance, starting
with a change in our adult vocabulary and outlook? And would high
schoolers start helping us and themselves if their vocabulary and outlook
changed because of our change?
Van Ajemian, December 7, 2006, Montebello, California 90640
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