Blog post number 12

My community partners do ask for protection from the state because they both need the state to survive. My first community partner city of Belmont it depends on state help to keep the parks and recreational structures going. The other thing is that when times get rough the parks and the natural elements are the first ones to go exempt water especially now with the crisis. The state constitution does protect parks and even the federal constitution protects parks. For example, Yosemite national park, Yellow Stones, and Native American reservations. The state should give more money for parks and recreational area. In the city of East Palo Alto many parks have been created and the state pays for those services. The city of Belmont is wealthy enough to tax themselves to keep the Parks going if it comes to extreme cuts. My second community partner is the Dorothy Stang center and they also are protected by the state because freedom of religion exists. Without this protection any majority religion would be able to overthrow or vandalize the Dorothy Stang center. The state also does not tax religion practice so this is another protection that they have. If the state starts to tax the Dorothy Stang center or any religious center then it would effect every religious temple or practice center in the State. People might start migrating around to other states.

Blog number 11

My community partners both depend on donations and if times get tough they are the first to get cut. My first community partner city of Belmont is Park and recreation if times get tough they will be cut first before education or other things. This community partner might be able to ask for a tax on the members of the City of Belmont, but the issue might be if the city of Belmont wants to be taxed for Parks and recreation when things go down hill. My community partner is associated with taxes because he has to carefully manage the money and depends on volunteers to survive. The city of Belmont charges the resident a residence fee and in that fee it covers Parks and Recreation. My second community partner does not get tax money but they depend on donations to keep the Dorothy Stang center going. I was in the Dorothy Stang play and they asked for donations. The school does fund them, but they need more donations to stay alive. I think they get money from our students activity fee. It would be great if the Dorothy Stang center could get more revenue from other sources.     

Blog number 10

I have two community partners that I will talk about in this blog. My first community partner is Jonathan Gervais and he is in charge of Park and Recreation in the City of Belmont.This program or branch of the city heavily relies on funding from the city and when times get tough the park is the first one to go. My community partner does rely on money that is giving to him by the city, but when the city is in trouble Gervais program gets cut the most unless the residence of Belmont complain. My community partner is always under pressure because he has the whole city of Belmont to please and he also has a boss who he has to answer to. The people that my community partner funds  are the park workers that take care of the parks and trials. My second community partner is the Dorothy Stan center. This community partner relies on public contributions, sister help fund them, and the university gives them some money. My community partner has a boss that they need to satisfy and thus the money is given. This effects my community partner because maybe they do not like the way they have to teach things. The Dorothy Stan center does have some employees that depend on their pay checks to make ends meat.      

Call To Action Day

I arrived early, like always, to the quad and Diana seemed very stressed. She handed me the wrong folder and I had to hunt down the folder. I started to call people from my list on Tuesday and like three of the people ion the list did not show up. The whole volleyball team came to Water Dog lake it was a great walk to the place. Everybody was on time to, in the quad, which surprised me because usually everybody is late. By 9:30 am Standard Pacific Time everybody was ready and we left to Water Dog Lake part. The Volleyball coaches just dropped off their team and left somewhere else. I felt that this is not fair because if you promote Call to Action Day then people should do Call to Action Day. When we arrived to Water Dog Park Jonathan Gervais was waiting for us with tools and we started to pull weeds out from the ground. I pulled the weeds out with my hands not using any tools; I felt like an armadillo because I was digging random holes just like an armadillo. After, the whole team was done Gervais took us on a tour around the trail and showed us what poison oak looks like. My friend Jon Slocun stated, "I am immune to poison oak." I wanted him to test his theory, but he did not and the day was saved once again.      

Blog post number 9

I am writing this blog post a little bit upset because on Wednesday March 12, 2014 my second community partner city of Belmont Jonathan Gervais was in a meeting the whole day. And he did not call me or anything to let me know. I have lost faith in this community partner. I will now talk about my second community partner alternative spring break Nicaragua. My community partner has not being in any judicial processes, but we did go to a Nicaragua women rights activist group called "la coperasion." This organization helps out the women that have been in domestic violence and I learned that Nicaragua does not have a District Attorney that accuses the defendant. The Plaintiff has to hire an attorney to accuse the defendant. I found this to be the problem of high crime in Latin America after, researching Mexico has the same system. This makes no sense only people with economical resources can afford to go through judicial process. The center helps women get child support and getting to stay in the house that they are current living in. The women in this center get death threats from the men in Mulukuku and I believe they are very brave for this most people would quit and go home. For example, in Nicaragua the center got sued for abusing children and they cannot house kids in the center this is an issue that the Nicaraguan government should fix.   

Blog topic number 8

I am happy to say that I have two community partners and it is extremely difficult to work with both. But I cannot leave Jonathan Gervais hanging after many students have done so. My first community partner Gervais interfaces with the local government because he is part of the City of Belmont Parks and Recreation. The city of Belmont has the sufficient funds to run the department and the city of Belmont has a lot of natural trees they want to conserve. I am currently doing a flyer for Call to Action day with Gervais and I have to have it edit by him and I will pass them out through out the city. It is hard to work with Gervais, but he is really smart. My second community partner is my trip to Nicaragua. In this trip my community partner leader is Amy Jobin, she has impacted the community there with community service from the United States of America. The local government of Nicaragua is not a good one so if they could keep it in the down low it would be amazing. The government of Nicaragua did not like me, when I entered the nation I was randomly selected for extra screening. When I was about to leave, the local government official questioned me until she got tired and finally let me go to board the plane. In Nicaragua their are two leaders that stand out one is Sister Rebecca and Sister Sandy. Sister Rebecca has given 20 years of her life in Matagalpa, Nicaragua helping special families and creating jobs for special people. Sister Sandy is another leader that sticks out because in my point of view she has giving up every comfort that we take for advantage everyday here in the State. For example, indoor plumbing, air conditioning, comfortable beds, and abundance of tap water. She has giving her life to serve the people of Mulukuku, Nicaragua. Both of these leaders are my heroes because I feel that I could not keep living in these conditions for a year not a lone 20 or more.
 

Blog number 7

Well the one situation that John Gervais has talked about is the issue on the crazy lady that I know as the crazy lady on Whipple avenue. This lady was crazy and she first started by writing on her house, then the city of Belmont spent money changing house codes. Finally, the lady protested on Ralston street and El Camino, which the city spent more money to kick her out. Gervais had an issue with this the city spent so much money on this one lady, which I agree with him. The city of Belmont just kicked the lady a city down to Redwood city. John Gervais is always struggling with the state because of funding with resent economical crisis the state of California has no money. The sad thing is that when the state does not have money they first start cutting funding for parks and education. I think they should never cut down the funding for parks and education. The city of Belmont does not have a sprawl they have keep their coding might be good. On the other hand my city of Menlo Park does have a sprawl issue nothing is walking distance. The members of Menlo Park have become dependent on cars to get anything. I believe that states should keep their power of controlling local government because if they give more power to the local governments then, the states are going to want to separate from the United States of America. I believe that people should go on smart grow, which I believe will be the new conflicts between state and local governments. Money is always the problem in any Federal, state, or local government everybody wants more why cant we just learn to share and be happy that we get anything to spend.