Awaken Your Inner Gaia

Our Time To Be Alive

Dude, our generation has a lot to experience. Also known as Generation Y, Generation Einstein, the iGeneration, the "rear end" of the MTV Generation, we are the Millennials (all those born between 1982-1996. Not to be confused with Generation Z, 1996-2001, the Neo-Disneys). Like the GI Generation (1901-1924), we are the "civic heroes" of the world according to Strauss and Howe's list and book Generations.

Doesn't that alone get you pumped?

And just think about it for a sec.; there is this life changing "war" going on, technology is booming (I mean, MC Lars said it best in his song, iGeneration, "this is the internet generation"), and everyday there is more to know.

The world, as I write, is creating a natural, evolutionary revolution! Every generation has their call to arms, and this is ours: adapting to change. We are right at the age where we weren't born with all this, and we aren't too old to understand it all. With all this change, only the best will survive.

Though as Millennials, we have this awful rep: Millennials have a reputation for being peer oriented and seeking instant gratification. Businesses are scared to hire us because of this! Even 60 Minutes created a warning to the world about us(Part 1)(Part 2)! But something nice to grind your teeth on, fellow Millennials out there, like the WW2 babies (Baby Boomers), we as Cold War babies, are almost equal in numbers (Baby boomers have 76 million, we have 70 million).

What gets me started on this, is that I, along with my fellow Team Gaia members, have been watching I Love the New Millennium on VH1. And it reminded me of all the change we are going through, and really makes me just want to say, "This is our time. Bring it on."

Violent Days

It is a sad, sad week for many here in Jacksonville, Florida.
This past weekend, there were three slayings, another near death, and a police shooting that left a knife-wielding man dead.

The three slayings.

The first of the homicides was Patrick Stafford, 39. He was found dead in a front yard. Sgt. Mike Perry said that Stafford lived on Lem Turner Rd, but may have been visiting family at Academy St. The Autopsy showed that he was shot multiple times. There are no suspects.

The youngest, was 16 year-old Monquell Wimberly, who was shot while innocently riding his bike from one grandmother's house to another's in the Westside at Hollybrook Apartments. Police reported that he died at the scene at about 10 a.m.

At about 2:40 p.m., a man identified by a witness as Nathaniel Grant walked into a Williams Grocery near Talleyrand. Grant had been shot in the head and there were wounds in his torso. He was sent to Shands Jacksonville, where he was pronounced dead.

The near death.

Daryll Alexander, 33, was stabbed at the Hilltop Village Apartments. Friends loaded him into car, and eventually they rendezvous with the Shands Jacksonville Rescue Unit. He was in critical condition through Sunday, July 20th.

The knife-wielder.

Ex-con Daryll Edward Waters, 38, was shot and killed by police officers at about 10 p.m. Police reported that he ran from the police, stole a patrol car, smashed two other police cars, and threatened officers with a large knife. Police suspect Waters may have used the knife to stab Daryll Alexander at the Hilltop Village Apartments.

So what does Mayor Peyton have to say?
"If we do not reverse this trend, we are going to limit our future," Peyton said for First Coast News.

But my question is "How?"

This bloody Sunday has left many community members scared. I wonder why we live in a world with so much violence, and I wonder what we can do to battle it as a community. Violence is caused by people, and only people can prevent it. This large community that we have here in Jacksonville, I mean, we are the largest city in the United States, land-wise. We must have tons of people in that space. Our year 2000 census reported 1,300,823 people here. Thats more than enough to stop violence.

World of Nations Celebration

About once a month a group of teens from all over Jacksonville, Fl meet together to discuss social issues that affect them daily. This group has come to be called Jax Teen Alliance!!!

Once convened, the teens use their brain juice to solve issues in the community. The rest of Team Gaia and I are a part of this wonderful group as well as LOUD, One Jax, City Kids Arts Factory, PAL, and The Bridge to name a few.

Our purpose, as a whole, is to:
A) Build a sustainable, replicable coalition of youth
B) Be a catalyst for youth voice
C) Create a dialogue across differences
D) Create a space for youth to empower themselves
E) Create opportunities for youth to be heard by the entire community
F) Dialogue leading to action leading to change
G) Provide a viable future for tomorrow’s youth

Within this supergroup, we are divided into four groups or teams to work on a topic of our choosing. My group is tackling prejudice and stereotyping.

Our group decided that in order to fully bring awareness to the community we needed to have a booth at the annual World of Nations Celebration at Metro Park in Downtown Jacksonville this past May weekend. After months of anxiety stemming from trying to get people committed to the project searching for and gaining sponsors, and organizing some way to get people’s attention at the booth we finally came to the agreement that we would ALL work together as a team to make the booth a success.

We decided that a mural would be one way of getting our message across and we invited people to add their own thoughts to the panels we started. To make it a little more exciting we also filmed a documentary filled with interviews of people expressing their thoughts on the subject, “What do you see when you look at me?”

And through all the hard work, we came out really good. Better than I ever expected. We ended up having T-shirts, a documentary interview, and stamps for the visitor passports, as well as tons of fun! Check out the photos at www.teamgaia.com and see for yourself!

Facebook

To tithe or not to tithe-that is not a question.

CBS did a Sunday morning special in the beginning of March, questioning the point of tithing.

To tithe, as 'translated' by the Christians, is to give 10% to your church the catholic church gets. There is no real place referenced where the money goes, so many churches use the money for remodeling, CCD classes, and buying the body and blood of christ.

CBS News goes on to talk about what the church does with the tax free moolah, should everyone have to give ten percent, should they preach the tithe lalala? I'm not gonna talk about that here.

My gripe is: People shouldn't have to feel obligated to give. They shouldn't feel PRESSURED to give. They should WANT to give. Simple.

In the Gospel according to Luke, there is a little parable of the Good Samaritan. So in the Bible, it says to be good for no reason, to do good for no reason - and you can be a Satanist and still be a good neighbor. Giving money doesn't make you a good person. It doesn't open the door to sainthood. Being good for goodness's sake makes you simply, a good person.

I never understood, in all my life of attending Catholic School, going to Catholic Church on sundays, and also in rejecting Catholicism, the purpose of the tithe, I would just blindly put five bucks in the basket every Sunday because I was taught that was what I was supposed to do. And that was half the reason I decided to reject my mother's religion and return to my father's
and my baptized, Eastern Orthodox. I returned because in the Eastern Orthodox religion, they don't believe in a median between you and God, and the Eastern Orthodox church I have attended didn't say tithe for us or tithe for the sake of being good, they have a modest box where you can give money if you want, and constantly asks people to volunteer their time, not their wallets.

If you believe in giving, I think giving your time is more important. For instance, certain charities have things like 5K runs, that are sponsored, and the sponsors give money to the charity for the amount of people signed up by day X, and they get money from the runners for registration, which more or less covers a tee-shirt and a few water bottles.

If out of the kindness of your heart you want to put a 20 in the basket passed around at St. Whatever's, sure go ahead and do it...but churches shouldn't preach, "give us money, it will be good for you."

Propel needs to get a grip

Okay. So this really ticks me off.
Propel water, using a stupid, sales strategy to throw a curve ball at vitamin water.

If you see, at the bottom of the screen, in tiny little white font, it says that the facts contrived are based on 20 fl oz. In this commercial, they make it seem like there is 125 calories in 8 fl oz, even though it does say at the bottom based on 20 fl oz, because all the people are holding just ONE bottle.
Sure okay, they got their facts right, 50 calories for 8 fl oz is exactly the same as 125 calories for 20 fl oz. And sure Propel has less calories than vitamin water. BUT COME ON!
Unless all you do when you work out is walk a mile, you need those extra calories. CALORIES CAN BE GOOD. Energy is measured in calories! More energy = more work = big juicy healthy muscles!

Sure fat has more calories, but aren’t you working that off anyway?! I mean, leisure biking that is less than 10mph (according to this nifty thing (link to: http://www.nutristrategy.com/activitylist.htm) That’s like 238 calories, almost 5 vitamin waters! Anyone who hydrates that much (40 fl oz) in one exercise might just die of over hydration. Or just get a headache. And what of just plain regular water? How many vitamins does one need during or after a workout?

It’s sick, it’s disgusting, and it’s a cheap way to get buyers. It just makes me sick and pisses me off. Pass me the one, the only, the original H2O please!

Current Events, Schm-urrent Schm-ents

I’ve have recently come to realize that only a small amount of teenagers watch the news of their own accord. Some only watch it when their parents have it turned on the tube, BUT most don’t watch it at all.

I began to understand this concept slightly when I was talking about some pro-choice/pro-life debate with my friend ‘Anthony’ (name changed to protect his ignorance). He had no idea what I was talking about, so I explained the concept to him, and he didn’t understand why there couldn’t be harmony. I am not going to get into this topic now, but I will take it up in a later blog, of that you can be sure.

More and more teachers have begun to ask about current events such as Darfur, vote yes/no on 1, and the newly established Sunshine State standards for Evolution. Perhaps four kids in each class were able to keep the discussion of these subjects going.

And today, a friend of mine, whose dream it is to be a cop, didn’t know a thing about what happened on “Go-Skate” Day (celebrated on the longest day of the year, June 21st, aimed to get kids outside and having fun), nothing about this cop who arrested a kid for calling him “dude,” shown on FOX News recently, and didn’t know about the cop who didn’t believe that a man was paralyzed and tossed him out of his wheelchair! It was all over the NEWS!

Something has got to inspire teens to watch the news or read it. Not only can you view the news online now, but there are so many places that you can see it, read it and write about if you so choose. I mean, there are fun websites like Digg, Wired, Huffington Post, and even my own Team Gaia, which are all pretty cool! Then there is always that thirty minutes when there’s nothing on TV when one can turn on the news.

Long ago, Linda Ellerbee used to air a news show on Nickelodeon, and back then everyone hated it and no one ever watched it so I don’t think it airs anymore, but it was someone trying to take initiative in interesting teens in the news! I mean you’re getting some of it right here at Team Gaia right now!

The future of America needs it. For instance did you see the article in USA Today (Yes, a NEWSPAPER…so probably not!) that most teens do not know anything about History – I mean come on – it’s being made everyday!

What are we turning into? I don’t think there should be a “Current Event Class” to count as something like a History credit, but I think teachers should find more ways to integrate current events (and it would seem past ones as well – DUH!) into their lesson plans. It can be done very creatively, and easily, with a little invention called the Internet, the World Wide Web! In this information age there is just no way that we should be uninformed or news ignorant.
It’s not much to ask for someone to get people interested, if it was a part of a grade maybe it would work! Maybe then the history of now will pave a way for the future.