My interview on the Animas River Spill: https://storycorps.me/interviews/voices-of-the-animas-wendolyne-omana-interviewed-by-evan-horst/ The interview archive for our project: https://storycorps.me/?s=%23AnimasRiverSpill&post_type=interviews
My project reflection: The point behind this project for us juniors at Animas High School was to gain a deeper insight behind what people were thinking when they saw or heard about the spill. To do so we took to the public. The juniors enrolled in Jessica McCallum’s humanities class were tasked with reaching out to the citizens of Durango, Colorado and interviewing someone of their choice on how they felt about our river situation. The purpose of the interviews were so that we could make our voices from our small little Colorado town heard. After our interviews were made, we uploaded them to the Storycorps website so people all over the nation could hear what they had to say. Throughout the course of this project I learned a lot about people's feelings towards the river. I learned that in other cultures than ours the river means lot, that it’s a sense of life. Going into this project I didn’t know a lot about the river or the spill, or Durango for that matter. But going through the research and learning about the history of Silverton and Durango and how the spill happened, really helped me get a better understanding of how people feel about the river. I’ve always been interested in history around the area that i live in and this project was a great chance for me to learn more about where I live and how the people around me treated the area. To me what stood out during the interview portion of the project is how many different views on the river we got, or how many different views on the whole superfund in Silverton we got. I loved being apart of this project and getting to see how my interviewee felt on the river and really getting to know someone who has lived here for a long time. My interviewee’s opinion on the river was really unique in a way, her view had a much more spiritual meaning behind it. The way that Wendelyn described it is that, she saw the river as a source of life, something that gives to everything around it. She said that when she saw the river in its orange mucky gross state she said that she felt so much sadness for the river that she was so worried about it not being able to provide for people anymore. The exhibition for me was very interesting mainly because it was my first one ever. But overall it was very interesting seeing the community come together to see the work that us high schoolers have done. It was cool being able to walk around and listen to all of the different interviews that my peers had created and seeing the work that everyone had done. I think that I grew a lot during this project as a student because I was able to walk around and look and listen to other people's projects and learn what they did that I didn’t do. I think that most importantly I got to see what people did that I didn’t do and what I could’ve done better to improve my final product. I love being at Animas and how the student teacher relationships are so strong and how the students were so accepting to the new kids. It was a big change coming from a real high school too here that does everything so much differently.
Rhetoric and Ideology Project
The last few weeks in class we have been learning about the use of rhetoric through public speaking, and that is what our latest project was based on. We were supposed to pick a topic that was heavily debated in our society and speak about it. For my project I decided to pick a topic that I am very passionate about, and that topic is gun control. I picked this topic because there is so much false rhetoric that is involved in why more gun control should be put into place. I chose to do a speech for my presentation because a speech is a good way to put rhetoric into a easy way to understand. I really enjoyed doing this project and the freedom that came with it. Because it really gave us students a chance to really get out there and do really whatever we wanted to do and take this project wherever we wanted to take it. I loved how much I learned about the other topics that other students had done. But the thing that I took away from this is being able to look at the other side of the argument and use that to enforce my own, or using the flaws in someones thinking to my advantage. Honestly for me this project was fairly easy. Really the hardest part of it was getting up in front of the public and having to recite my speech and I'm sure it really shows in the video of my speech. But really I don't think I would've changed much about my project because I am very happy with how it turned out. I have learned a lot about rhetoric and the different types of it that there is. My eyes were definitely opened to the reality that we know is actually full of rhetoric and that we see it every day in our normal lives, in politics, in music, and so much more. I learned that in our studying of this project that my ideological views weren't exactly what I had thought they were. I learned that you can't be so set and closed minded on your own views that you can't open up to see the other views. You don't have to accept them, but at least acknowledge them.
Here is my speech from the project: Firearms aren’t Murderers In recent years we have had countless numbers of mass shootings in America. It makes me think “what are we doing wrong?”. We have to ask ourselves, especially with the number of mass shootings we have, “what needs to change?”. This problem has gotten so bad not because of law abiding citizens but because of more and more people who feel the need to attack America. The problem here isn’t that the American law abiding citizens have guns, no the problem is much bigger than that. I think that this solution to these crimes against humanity are still going to happen as shown on December 2, 2015; where there was a shooting in San Bernardino, California that left about 14 dead and many others injured. The thing about California is that it has some of the strictest gun laws in the United States. They have already banned assault rifles and high capacity magazines. Among other laws such as requiring all firearms purchasers to obtain a Firearm Safety Certificate (after passing a written test), and limiting handgun purchases to one per person per month. The thing is with these laws, is they were supposed to keep as little guns away from the citizens to prevent shootings like the one in San Bernardino. The laws that the government want to put into place for gun control have proven to be ineffective as demonstrated in cities such as Philadelphia, Chicago, Detroit, Los Angeles, etc. while also making the 100 million gun owners in America unhappy with the government's’ decisions.
“A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed." This is the 2nd Amendment, as it is written in the Constitution. This Amendment was not written to just GIVE citizens guns. It was written to state that we as a people have the right to rise up against an oppressive government through the use of firearms. To take that right away would be taking away our right to revolt against the government for our freedoms.
People say that guns are the leading cause of death in the United States but let's take a look at the statistics. In 2013 there were 11,208 deaths by firearms that’s 3.5 people per 100,000. Now, in that same year there was a total 30,057 deaths by motor vehicles now that is 10.3 people per 100,000. So what is the leading cause of death in America?
A firearm is just a firearm, nothing more nothing less. Yes they are dangerous and they can kill, but they can only kill when put into the hands of a bad person, someone who is deployed overseas and needs to defend themselves or someone who is simply using it out of self defence and home protection. See the thing is that, why would people want to take my right of protection away from me? The average response time for the police to respond to a 911 call about a home robbery is around 7 minutes. what would you rather do? wait for police and possibly get your family hurt, or take care of things yourself. and that is what I am trying to make you think about here tonight.
The aim of this project was to get my peers and I to really think and dig deep into our own personal philosophy in order to find out more about ourselves and what we think happiness is. For my individual project I really had some troubles coming up with my final idea but then I finally landed on one and wrote something I was pleased with. The question I was trying to get people to think about was "what makes you happy?". My inspiration that I took on from this project was a lot of what my father had talked to me about when we had first made the move down here to Durango.
For the last few years I have been fairly solid in my own philosophy and how I thought that everything worked. Although doing this project made my beliefs sway more towards the idea that it doesn't necessarily matter where you are or what you're doing in life, you can find happiness and meaning through being around friends and family.
Honestly, I can not say where I stand now, after doing this project I really stand in about the same place as I was before with just a little more insight on how I feel about certain things. But a couple questions that I asked myself a lot through this project would have to be "What really makes me happy? What things could I talk about to get people thinking?".
My Writing piece for our happiness and meaning. Where do you find happiness? I want you all to think really hard about this. About the things that bring you happiness in the long term and the stuff that brings you happiness for just a second in everyday. What is your happiness? Here’s mine. My family, friends, the things I love to do. Well, Because in the end things are gonna come and go, but your family, and your friends, they are always going to be there. This past year I’ve gone through some pretty big changes in my life, I moved 1500 miles from the school that I was dead set on graduating from. Now as a kid who has moved around a bit, but this time took a toll on me. For the first few weeks I didn’t try to meet anybody or make any friends, and that was tough and the only thing that I thought would help was if I could go back home. I thought that I was being smited for something I did wrong. I distanced myself from everyone, even family. Until I had a conversation with my dad about everything that was going on, and that was the first night that I had told anyone what was going on in my world. Like I said, I was miserable in the place that I was at. But my dad had told me a lot of the things I’m talking about right now. And after he said these things I started to appreciate my life here more. Happiness and meaning are things that could be found anywhere, for me, they are found where you have good friends and family, through the people that make you feel like you matter. So tonight I am here asking you to go to where or whom you find happiness. Everyone is different. So figure out what makes you happy. And when you find it, pursue it.