Guerrilla Goodness!

Journal 3-2

Last week I asked why there so many Muslim Americans populating Dearborn, Michigan. I found out that the world headquarters of the Henry Ford Motor Company is in Dearborn. Many years ago Muslim immigrants were attracted to the relatively high paying jobs associated with the auto industry in that area. Dearborn now has the highest concentration of Arab Muslims in North America with 32,000 Muslims from Lebanon, Yemen, and Iraq. There are also high concentrations of Muslims in the New York metropolitan area and Minneapolis-Saint Paul. 

Last week in Ethics we planned and executed Valentine's Day Guerrilla Goodness. We were inspired by Patience Salgado, aka Kindness Girl at www.kindnessgirl.com. There were tons of projects that happened, and they were all successful. The "take what you need, give what you can" post-it notes in the hallway, "you are loved" post-its on everyone's car, sidewalk chalk messages of love, valentines for children at a local oncology ward and a super mushy playlist blasting over the intercom. It was awesome. Being sneaky is fun, but its even more fun when you're being sneaky for the forces of all that is kind and lovable! 

I'm not gonna lie, when we were first assigned a guerrilla goodness mission last fall, I thought it was kind of obnoxious and just another thing I had to do for Couillard's class. I didn't think we'd be able to reach the level of awesome that Patience has with her guerrilla goodness. But I was so wrong. Although my guerrilla goodness mission was not necessarily a success, i was inspired by the success of my classmates. But I didn't think we'd have the chance to do it again. But in January, a small "take what you need" poster appeared in the Quad one Monday morning, and we again started thinking about guerrilla goodness. To this day we have no idea who put it there, but it inspired us all that week. I myself took a little "Understanding" for the road. I absolutely love that path that guerrilla goodness has taken in our class. I wish we could do it more often, but the element of surprise is a huge part of what makes it so awesome. All the things that happened on Valentine's Day made me feel all warm and fuzzy inside, because the message of love is relatable to everyone. I felt so good to let everyone know they are loved, because I'm sure there are some of us who don't hear it enough. Moral of the story, Guerrilla Goodness is an fantastic idea and I encourage everyone to try it.

For next week, I am wondering what inspired Patience to start the Guerrilla Goodness Campaign.

Works Cited:

1. Dearborn, Michigan. (n.d.). Wikipedia. Retrieved February 19, 2012, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dearborn,_Michiganhttp://

2. Islam in Dearborn, Michigan. (n.d.). www.30-days.net. Retrieved February 19, 2012, from http://www.30-days.net/muslims/muslims-in/america-north/islam-in-dearborn-michigan/http://

3. Retrieved February 19, 2012, from http://azizaizmargari.wordpress.com/2008/12/http://

Journal 3-1

The current Republican frontrunner is Mitt Romney, but Newt Gringrich has risen up int he ranks due to his second place win in the Florida primary and win in South Carolina. Romney has been popular because his conservative stance on many issues. Voters in Florida think he is conservative yet still able to beat Obama as far as electability goes. Romney has swept almost every state to have a caucus so far with wins in Florida, Nevada, New Hampshire. He has already stated himself to be the de facto Republican candidate to fight it out with Obama. The other candidates with any chance (Paul, Santorum, and Gringich) will have a hard time beating Romney.

Last week in class we discussed what it means to be part of a community. We all drew diagrams of the communities we are a part of and discussed how they differed and were related. Many people included their families, friends, sports teams, school, jobs and other activities as communities they participate in. We realized that we act differently depending on which community we are with at a certain time. For example we may act professional at work and form good relationships with our co-workers and bosses, but we act differently at sports practice or at school. We also discussed how people from differently communities can overlap. For example, you have some friends from school, some from work, and some from sports and those friends all form one community even if we know they are from different communities.

We also watched an episode of  "30 Days" a show created by Morgan Spurlock which puts people in a lifestyle that is completely unfamiliar to them. (e.g. working for minimum wage being in prison, a Christian living as a Muslim etc.) We watched an episode in which a Christian husband and father from West Virginia moved in with a family of Muslims in Dearborn, Michigan and practiced Islam for 30 days.

I thought the "30 Days" episode was really interesting. Putting a West Virginian practicing Christian in a Muslim home was really a fish out of water experience. There were so many things Dave didn't know about Islam, and by watching that episode I learned with him. I never thought that all Muslims were terrorists, but it shocked me to know most of the people Morgan interviewed on the street did. I realize that there are extremist Muslims just like there are extremist Christians, and that mujahideen are no different from KKK members. I was kinda strange to know that so many Americans are that ignorant when it comes to Islam.

Watching "30 Days" this week reminded me of the show Wife Swap. If you've never seen it, two wives swtich families for two weeks. More often than not, the two families lead dramatically different lifestyles, for example a neat freak mom switching places with a messy mom. In the first episode the moms would be completely disgusted with their new families, but warm up to them as the weeks go by. They would institute their way of doing this into the new household and it was interesting to watch the families reactions to that. It is different from "30 Days" in that their is only one person switching lives, and that person cannot make the new families live their way, it is the other way around.

My question for next week is why are so many Muslims populated in Dearborn, and are there any other cities in America heavily populated with Muslims.

Works Cited:

1. 30 Days (TV series). (n.d.). Wikipedia. Retrieved February 5, 2012, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/30_Days_%28TV_series%29http://
2. Fouhy, B. (2012, February 5). Analysis: Romney win leaves rivals few options. Assoicated Press. Retrieved February 5, 2012, from http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hCfjc3GycHG6wY8t1pMS6PN_q4aQ?docId=d4e68887ab4d40c7b0fc4bfe668fea61http://
3. Those Protestant Muslims Next Door. (2011, December 15). www.patheos.com. Retrieved February 4, 2012, from http://www.patheos.com/blogs/blackwhiteandgray/2011/12/those-protestant-muslims-next-door/http://