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://