jcameron

So last week was spring break! It was extremely nice to get some time off of school and everything. Before I left I was emailing with Monica about setting something up with volunteering at Open Arms. I am now all set and will be able to go in for orientation next week! Finalllllyyyyy I have found a place that WANTS me to volunteer! I'm really excited about working at Open Arms. It sounds like an amazing organization with great ideas and an incredibly positive attitude and outlook on things. I found it most interesting that not only does Open Arms help people living with AIDS or other chronic illnesses around the Minneapolis area, but that they also send meals and aid over to their sister organization in Cape Town, South Africa. I'm very anxious to learn more about this organization and what part I will be able to play in helping these people.

For this week we were assigned to read Robert Bellah's Habits of the Heart. This reading mostly talked about how different people of different communities get involved with their own communities. Part of the reading talked about a town called Tocqueville. In Tocqueville there are independent citizens as well as town fathers. The town father is supposedly the character ideal of the independent citizen. "The town father advocates ideals that are in the end unable to guide him through the maze of economic interdependence and political conflict that defines his social world" (Bellah et al, 170). Although this quote confused me a little, I think it means the town father is the ideal for how the average businessman should balance his drive for his business succeeding with a moral concern for his community.