WHST.9–10.7 (Literacy in History/Social Studies, Science, and Technical Subjects) Archives

A Messenger of Hope

When Edward James Olmos wanted to deliver a strong anti-drug and anti-gang message to kids in the barrios in his film American Me, he went home to East Los Angeles. There he invited young gang members like George Sarabia and Gil Espinoza as extras and crewmembers. He hoped to demystify the glamour of gangs, while giving kids new skills and a way out of the gang world. Before he met Eddie, George had only one goal in life: to come back from prison a hero — having earned his “stripes.” He now shares his life-changing story with other young people, asking them to stop the violence. “We all have a choice. You can do whatever you want to do,” George says. Then he pauses and adds, with quiet intensity, “Think about it. What you could do. What you could be.”

We Walk Our Talk

The Reverend Cecil Williams is pastor of Glide Memorial Church in San Francisco and a pioneer in fighting the war on addiction. He reaches out to pushers, pimps and drug users with unconditional love and a non-violent battle cry “it’s recovery time!” Alex, one of the toughest drug dealers in the infamous housing projects near the church, says”… at Glide there were all these hands, reaching down to help me. All I had to do was hang on and keep climbing until I got to the top… this is recovery.”

The Banker with Heart

Professor Muhammed Yunus created one of the greatest humanitarian campaigns in history by listening carefully to poor people in the streets and villages of his homeland, Bangladesh. He learned that outrageous interest rates were the that the root cause of their poverty. He started out by giving loans from his own pocket and was later awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for founding the Grameen Bank and pioneering the concepts of microcredit and microfinance.

Teaching Jazz, Creating Community

Wynton Marsalis is best known as an award-winning jazz musician. But for students in the thousands of schools he’s visited, he’s a role model telling them to “take your freedom and put it into the service of somebody else’s.” Young people like Roberto Perez in Washington D.C. have learned from Wynton how jazz can be a metaphor for creating democracy. “What a kid learns from jazz is how to express his individuality without stepping on somebody else’s,” says Wynton. ·”Being a good neighbor, that’s what jazz is all about.”

Table for Six Billion, Please

Judy Wicks was 5 years old when she opened her first “restaurant.” Now the owner of Philadelphia’s White Dog Cafe, she “lures innocent people into social activism” by getting people from different worlds to sit down to a good dinner and talk with each other. Through her local Sister Restaurant and international Eating with the Enemy programs, she gets people who might consider themselves enemies to instead become friends. And for some of the patrons of her restaurant, it’s been more – a life-changing experience that has opened the world. Judy’s vision for the world is “Table for six billion, please.”

Share Your Strength

Dr. Deborah Frank is a Boston pediatrician with a mission. She knows that childhood hunger often masquerades itself — as a sleepy kindergartner, a toddler with an earache that won’t go away, or a seemingly healthy 2-year-old who is actually an undernourished 4-year· old. Dr. Frank has ·dedicated herself to finding out the real source of these problems, and solving them — thanks to support from Share Our Strength (SOS , a national anti-hunger organization that teams up with companies, restaurants and bookstores. This story, told by SOS founder, Billy Shore, shows how Dr. Frank came up with an ingenious – and surprisingly simple — solution to the mystery of 26-month-old Rosie Smith’s failure to thrive. Her timely intervention makes a world of difference for Rosie’s future.

Oakland’s Firefighting Peacemaker

As a child, Ray Gatchalian was taught to help others. “We’re here to inspire one another, to bring out the best in each other,” his father told him. When Ray’s Oakland, California neighborhood was about to go up in flames in the largest urban wildfire in U.S.history, Ray organized a dozen curious onlookers into a makeshift fire brigade that saved many homes and inspired one of the volunteers to become a fireman. “Fighting the fire with Ray changed my life,” he says.

Kennedy and the Peace Corps

“Ask not what your country can do for you: ask what you can do for your country.” With these inspiring words, John F. Kennedy launched the Peace Corps in 1961. Since then, over 150,000 Americans have brought skills, life-saving technological improvements – and a goodwill message of generosity and optimism to poor countries around the world. Harris Wofford tells the little-known story of how it began when Kennedy, on the campaign trail, spontaneously asked a group of college students if they would give a few years of their life to help others in underdeveloped parts of the world. The students’ response was so overwhelmingly positive, and their energy so contagious, that it galvanized the newly elected President into action. His campaign promise to create a corps of young men and women who “could work miracles for peace,” has been coming true ever since.

Helping Others to See

For people at the Aravind Eye Hospital in Mudurai, India, Dr. V is a hero. Both a village elder and a hospital chief, he insists that his staff provide “impeccable service” and guides his institution of compassion with a glance, a word, a silent presence, a smile. As Gandhi once said, “My life is my message.” Dr. V’s ·unique blend of being and doing is his message. Thanks to support from the Seva Foundation, he and his staff perform 92,000 cataract surgeries a year and 850,000 treatments to prevent blindness. “If you allow the divine force to flow through you, you will accomplish things far greater than you imagined,” says Dr. V. In this story, Seva’s founder, Ram Dass, explains how their support for Dr. V – balances ”being and doing” — or compassionate Actions and compassionate hearts — so they can do the most good for others in the world.

From Street Kids to Wall Street

When Steve Mariotti, a successful young businessperson, was mugged by a bunch of teenagers in the streets of New York it changed his life. He decided to find a way to channel these young peoples’ destructive energy and creativity into more positive pursuits. In this story, we learn how the organization Steve started – the National Foundation for Teaching Entrepreneurship – has helped kids like Felix Rouse turn their passions into profitable small businesses. In just 10 years, NFTE had 186 teachers and 14,000 mentors who are replacing the deadens of drugs, crime and teenage pregnancy for over 10,000 students with a vigorous pursuit of success in the business world. As one graduate put it, “My dream is not to die in poverty but to have poverty die in me.”

Freedom from Madness

Mahatma Gandhi had a very ambitious mission: to teach total nonviolence to the people of India. He had used civil disobedience and his fasts to free India from British imperialism in 1946. Now he wanted to teach his people how to create peace and racial harmony. “We are one human race,” he would say. “Religion must unify us, not divide us.” In this inspiring story, Gandhi’s grandson tells the story of how the great teacher helped Souren Bannetji, whose life had been ruined by religious hatred, to set aside anger and vengeance and learn how to forgive. Out of tragedy, Souren could create a new life for himself and his new family. He came to understand Gandhi’s words: “Change can come only one life at a time.”