On Bickford:
I appreciated Bickford's conscious decision to bring up differences between service vs. activism. When I first think of activism, I automatically think of people standing outside of a building or on a street corner holding signs and shouting for people to honk. Overall, when I think about it, it actually seems quite passive. It's like what people in high school would do so that they could sign off their required service hours as quickly as possible. Simply signing up to stand on a street corner for a few hours and putting together a sign with a few words to convey a message, to me, doesn't seem to be one of the most effective mechanisms of change in the long run. In service, however, you are actually engaging in collaborative relationships with organizations and people. That, to me, takes a very raw and genuine effort. Human connection is not an easy thing to establish, let alone cultivate, and that connection is absolutely essential in service. It's hard, but it's real, and it can be an incredibly powerful tool for change in certain cases. Of course, activism and service can indeed both be effective. Certainly, activism is not JUST a passive or even negative thing. But I do believe it's important to consider what these ideas imply and the kind of connotations they have when you first think about them. Generally, I think that those first thoughts can give you a good idea about just how effective and applicable either strategy may or may not be to dealing with a particular cause. Personally, I would like to think that we can use human connection and relationship to solve, or at least approach, some community issues. But I also acknowledge that this may be too idealistic of an approach for every time. Activism does indeed play a key role in bringing about change, and it's important to use it when appropriate, just as with collaboration and human connection.

On Flower:
More than the other things, I really appreciated Flower's discussion of finding active solutions to problems. In class a few days ago, I actually mentioned my concerns for a LACK of this. So many times we try to cure the problem by simply helping out with the symptoms, and we find that at the end of the day we often still have a problem. Indeed, dealing with the tangible and obvious effects of the problem can help temporarily, but it does not address the source. I have to admit, however, that this is not an easy thing to dig out. It doesn't happen overnight, and sometimes we miss it completely. So, maybe that's where these helpful treatments come in. Perhaps, until we can even figure out the problem in the first place and find out how to go about working with them, looking at and dealing with the obvious (the symptoms, the effects, the sadness/upset/etc. that we can see with our eyes as we walk down the street) just helps us get by in the meantime. However, I do not think that we can just settle for "helping out" in the end. We should always be searching, learning, and adjusting our strategies for change.