Amelia Baca
Justice Project
Justice Monologue #1
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What is justice? Justice is a noun. Defined as “Just behavior or treatment.”
In society, justice is often classified as fair conviction and punishment for all people. Dalai Lama thinks the truth is more simple. He states compassion and love are what is needed to benefit and convict a society. Compassion in itself is defined “symapthaetic pity and conern for the suffering or misfortune of others.” Being compassionate comes with forgiving, and with forgiving forgetting is not required. Accepting all with compassion and open hearts is what Dalai Lama defines true justice. Dalai says “the past is beyond our control. The way we respond to past wrongdoings is not, however.” Maintaining calmness and nonviolence is an indication of strength” Daili says.
In our justice system, biases play a large role in the conviction of a person. Why does who you are, where you come from, the clothes you wear, and the color of your skin is define your conviction? Dalai thinks what we needed is education for all. We need to educate our childrens hearts with forgiveness and compassion. Not with hate and discrimination. We need to teach forgiveness and how to do all things with love and no malice in our hearts. Even our adults and those with biases are capable of change because in the end, all people are capable of change.
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Justice Monologue #2
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Everyone take a moment and take a long deep breath. Imagine if the necessity of clean and safe air was not obtainable for you or for your family. The indigenous people of America battle with this issue every day. “We cannot breathe. This is our mantra in America now.” states Terry Tempist Williams. Not getting clean air and water is a daily norm for them. This way of living is unasastaiable for anyone. All living being have the right to clean air. “When I have an asthma attack, it feels like someone holding me underwater for a while,” says Marylin Moore, whom is only a fifth-grader. In 2019, the Environmental Protection Agency reported that the burning of fossil fuels accounted over 5 billion metric tons of CO2 equivalent gases. Oil well sites admit many different gases but the #1 released contributor is Petroleum. Petroleum gases and vapors consist of harmful toxins like benzene, butane, and methane which are extremely toxic for the human lungs. After a period of time, exposure to these levels of toxic can have long term medical affects on your body. “Asthma is a normal thing in this part of town. You’re most definitely afraid of the air you’re breathing in because although you need it to survive, that same air is also killing you and your family.” Expalined Yadira Sanchez’s.
Not only is their health being affected but also their way of living. Everyday Indigenous Americans watch the abuse and misuse of tribal land and property happen right before their eyes. Most of the time, these decisions are made without their concent and input. Their air is unsafe but also their sacred lands are filled with hundreds of well sites, pipelines, and oil rigs. “ We have sacrificed the integrity of fragile and iconic landscapes for the development of oil and gas to fuel “the American way of life.” Said Terry-Tempest Williams.
How do we change this? There are already efforts in place in developing renewable energy to replace the use of these fossil fuels. For example, solar energy is growing and could possible replacement. Though we may not see a change in our lifetime, if each one of us in this room puts in an effort for a cleaner enviorment I believe change will happen.
Project Final
Artist Statement
​We live in a world where crucial issues are swept under the rug. We live in a society that is full of judgment projects and hate towards those different from the “norm.” However, what if we were to change the “norm?” What if we could accept and love a little more day by day? What would the world look like then? We need to come to the realization that each and every human is beautiful in their own way and every single one of us has a purpose. We need to do better. We MUST do better. We decided to do this project to create awareness on the discrimination of people of color and LGBTQ+. It is important to realize that all human beings are unique in their own way. Acceptance is something that personally, I don't think will ever reach its full potential, however, if we come together and take steps day by day, in the right direction, we can get on the road to recovery from all the hate and judgement that goes on in our everyday lives. We need to learn to love each other, no matter what, before we wake up one day and it's too late to reverse not only the damage to the earth that we have done because of our judgment, but the damage that we have caused each other.
Project Defense
For our Justice project, we decided to do an inspirational art piece. We wanted to focus on BLM, LGBTQ+ rights, police brutality, and transgender rights. When we were first presented with this project, we knew we wanted to do an artistic take due to each one of us being very artistic. We thought of maybe creating an LGBTQ flag, but once we began we let our artistic minds take over. We started by doing many textural pieces, then painting, then more texture and so on. We then found many names who have suffered from these issues. We then found many different pictures and then printed them out. Next, we mod podged these onto our canvas then applied flowers. We titled our painting “Know their names”. We then were thinking about how are we going to spread the word and our painting. So, we put our art piece in the hallway and made an Instagram page. We posted two different posts, one being our project, and the other being hotlines of self help. We all posted our page on our personal Instagram pages with over 3000 followers in total.
Personally, I was in charge of information. I generated a long doc with names, pictures, flowers, and written work. With this work, we were able to put this on our paint piece and make it inspirational. I also chose some disturbing pictures to put on the painting to make it more “real”. Lastly, I came up with the idea of doing a rainbow splatter paint over it to bring in color and more attention to LGBTQ rights. Our group worked very hard for our product, both in and out of class. Each one of us was a good contributor to our project.
Reflection
In my opinion, I think that our project turned out to be very inspiring and brought out the impact we wanted it to. We found success by having a dedicated and hard working group. Since we were all very passionate about our topic, I feel like that drove our work ethic. We also found success by splitting up the large workload between our group. Each one of us got a job which was focused on our strong points.
With our successes we also had a few difficult parts. To begin, we struggled with the amount of work time we were allotted. Our biggest problem was breaking down how much of the large canvas we could paint before class was over. So we had to split that up into multiple parts. With that being said, we also struggled without painting fully drying with all the layers which lead us to not be able to put the paper pieces on. Another issue we faced at first was getting the word out. We thought about copying our painting and displaying it around Durango but we found that by making an instagram page, it allowed us to spread the word all over. As well as posting other aspects on the page. Such as a hotline for mental health.
All 4 of our group members were very engaged and all participated in this process. We all focused on aspects of our overall project. Such as the painting, research, and instagram page.The collaboration we had worked amazing inside and outside of school for this project.
My biggest takeaway from this project was the need to break down a big task. As a group we set little goals for ourselves, which made the project feel less overwhelming and such a big workload. Setting little goals with rewards helped us work extra hard. I also learned some time management skills, working little by little worked best. Instead of waiting for the night of to do the whole project I can sometimes find myself doing.