Reference no: EM133460335

What are your goals for the future if you will like to continue the project to keep your neighborhood clean and without som many plastic pollutions? According to Rogat-Loeb, "We compose lives of commitment....by continually asking what we believe in, and then devising ways to participate in public life that mesh our convictions with our circumstances". 1) What small steps can you take toward reaching your civic goals that are realistic given your life circumstances? 2) Share at least one idea from our readings, activities and discussions that you take with you as we conclude this course.....an idea that will help you to make choices about civic engagement.

Based the question two on this reading 

In Module 4, we explored the question of "Who Rules America?" in order to understand the complexity of the role that individual citizens play in the governance of a democracy. Now, we explore differences between groups of Americans that make some more able than others to pursue happiness as promised in the Declaration of Independence? The weight of the evidence from social science research suggests that there are such differences that make equal opportunity for all difficult to attain. Some groups of people have obstacles to well-being for themselves and their families that are associated with their income as well as their race/ethnicity.

During this module, we will watch a movie called Unnatural Causes that compares the lives of four individuals and explains how their place in the "social hierarchy" affects their health, which is one indicator of well-being.  "Social hierarchy" is a concept from sociological theory. Theorists argue that American society is organized into groups based on income (sometimes called "social class") and that individuals have more or less power and access to resources based on their group's rank.  The power derived from the group is passed on from generation to generation as Mills argued is true of the elite.  

In the U.S., both race and income have a significant impact on an individual's health and well-being.  The table below shows that people with less income are more likely to report that they have poor or fair health (as opposed to good or excellent health).  And within each income group, white individuals are least likely to report poor health.  There's no question that the choices we make about diet and exercise also affect our ability to fight disease and manage stress. However, stress is experienced by some groups more than others and, as the movie explains, the physical effects of stress lead to differences in our health by race and income. 

(Note: Income is measured in this table as a percentage of Federal Poverty Level, which was $23,550. Those whose income is 400% of the FPL, have an income of $94,200)

Is the American Dream Alive and Well?

Do individuals believe that they have as much power as anyone else in America to affect the direction of their lives regardless of their race and class?  Do we believe in the American Dream regardless of our place on the social hierarchy?  Jay McLeod, author of "Ain't No Makin' It" (1987, 2004), found that some do and some don't when he interviewed two groups of young men who are residents of a public housing project in a northeastern city.  Members of one group of young men believed that their income and that of their parents destined them to a life of limited opportunity. Another group believed that their own intelligence and ambition would lead them to a better life....the American dream.  How do we account for the different perspectives of these two groups and which one is likely to be accurate?