I was born in Baghdad, Iraq. The country has unfortunately gone from being the cradle of civilization, to one that has been stripped away from all the good things that it once used to be. My family left when I was five years old, some of my few vague memories are ones related to the social injustices in which Saddam Hussein filled the country with. His need for power through the instillment of fear led to oppression, sanctions, wars, and the aftermath of the wars in which people were not able to pick themselves back up and rebuild their lives. I was fortunate enough to have lived the first five years of my life in a big house, with enough food and water, and all the barbies I wanted to play with. My family was relatively wealthy compared to others, but that meant nothing if the community I was living in was suffering. The injustices that filled the country was the reason my family picked up and left to try to attain a better life, before the damage had a chance to affect our lives more directly. When thinking of how the injustices faced by people due to a dictator could be prevented, the simplest answer would be to never let one corrupt leader attain the power in which he uses to destroy so many lives. This ofcourse is not so simple, especially if you're just a citizen who is born in a country that is falling apart before your own eyes. There is not much you can do if speaking out means you would be killed without hesitation. This is when other nations should come together at the slighest inclination that such corrupt leaders are emerging, so prevention of atrocities could be possible.

I was part of the Service Learning Program at ASU last year, where we tutored inner-city middle school kids to fulfill the cultural general requirement credit. I would say that about 99% of the kids were of Hispanic origin, primarily Mexicans. The middle school I went to, where the majority of the students were caucasian, was almost as big as some high schools, where we had computer labs, more than enough material, tons of books and resources, and science labs equipped with everything we needed to learn. We had a teacher for each subject. The school these kids go to have classrooms that are lacking, fewer teachers, small computer labs, and not enough to motivate the kids to learn. I went in not knowing what to expect, but despite all that the kids I worked with were bright. This can be seen as a social injustice because due to the fact that most of their parents are immigrants, they are being raised in a community and going to a school that is lagging behind. A primary way to prevent this is to make education a priority for these kids so that they are able to go to schools similar to those who are more affluent.

  I did not have to think hard to come up with a personal experience in which I can share examples of social injustice.  After graduation from high school where I was a good student with decent grades I was not encouraged to go to college perhaps because of the fact that I was the member of a large, mixed family and lost my Mother to ovarian cancer at the age of six.  My Father is a highschool teacher with his masters degree in biology but after marying my step mother who had her own children got distracted by life and did not save any money for a college education for my siblings or myself and perhaps lost sight of the value of having a college education.  I was not exactly in the education mode at the time either as all I could focus on was getting the heck out of the house and away from all the turmoil that often surrounds a blended family.  I landed a great job right out of high school at Nordstrom Inc. where I began as a stock girl before being promoted to sales and finally manager of the hand bag dept.  After spending 11 years in retail at Nordstrom I became restless with my career choice and somehow found the courage to attempt to return to school.  I quit my job which I had begun to hate anyhow and started taking classes at the local community college.  This was a necessary step in my life as I was not happy in retail but it came with some costs.  The most severe cost was losing my health insurance.  I figured I would be ok as I didn't know of any severe health problems and figured I would be able to find a part time job somewhere that would include insurance, of course I was completely wrong in this assumption.  I began taking some preliminary courses to get myself back into the whole school mode and decided that since I was no longer tied to a particular state I would move to Tucson AZ to live close to  my sister who was married to a pilot in the air force and stationed at Davis Monthan Air Force Base.  I began attending Pima Community College in Tucson and got a job at Fred Enke Golf Course which is a City run golf course located within walking distance from the east campus of Pima Community College.  I got an apartment close by and was able to visit with my sister go to school and work with no difficulties for the first year.  Unfortunately circumstances took a turn for the worse.  My sister and her husband began having difficulties and I ended up being a full time student, nanny and beverage cart girl in a rather short period of time.  To make matters worse my health began to fail me for the first time in my life and I had no health insurance.  This is even though I ended up working at a city run golf course more for 39 hours a week for over seven years.  How can this be?  What the city of Tucson did to keep from having to pay for employee benefits was to impose a two week period each year in which they would basically fire and then rehire their employees.  By doing this the City of Tucson was able to retain valuable employees who knew the customers and the course and not have to shell out any money on health care benefits.  This never bothered me much as I loved my job and I loved the golfers that I came to consider friends as well as customers.  The problem arose when my health began to fail unexpectedly.  For almost a year I suffered from severe stomache pain and had no medical insurance so I never went to a doctor.  One day however the pain seemed unbearable and I began to bleed internally.  My current husband who was my boyfriend at the time is the only reason I am able to share this story today as he literally forced me to go to the emergency room.  I was afraid to seek any medical attention because I had no idea how I would pay for it without any medical insurance.  I was admitted to Tucson Medical Center for a two week stay where I received two blood transfusions before finally being diagnosed with Crohn's disease which is a genetic, auto immune system related, chronic disease which is often not active until early adolescence or early thirties. In my opinion the best healthcare available ought to be the right of every human being on the planet!

At this point I was introduced to ACCHS which is a system that is both essential but wroght with problems.  If you make even $1.00 over the limit, which is by the way, not enough to survive on by any means you are immediately dropped and expected to pay out of pocket the often horrendous prices for medicine,in my case over $300.00 per month in prescription medication alone.  I met a woman who was living out of her car and ended up losing her daughter as well has her medical benfits because she no longer had an address where she could be reached.  This was a good woman with a serious illness and I will never ever forget her. I am now married to my previous boy friend who saved my life and after graduating from UofA he now has a good job with Pay Pal as a software engineer.  I enjoy the luxury of good health insurance and have been symptom free for thse most part for 2 years because of the good health care and medication so essential to maintain a healthy existence.  I realize how lucky I am and often wonder about those like my friend inTucson who are not so lucky.

I would have to agree with those that commented ahead of me and say that it is hard to think of any social injustices I have experienced.  As a middle class white male I fit into a category of people that should be able to get along fine due to the fact that social injustices stear away from my direction.  But in a way that is my social injustice.  The world expects any and all like me to be able to get through life without assistance, as if all I need I already have due to my gender, race, and social class.  Out of high school it was extremely difficult to get any type of scholarship or financial assistance for college.  Being the son of single mom who is a social worker the money I needed to go to school my family could not provide.  So I had to search for other options.  I applied for scholarships and was very surprised that I was beat out by many people not because my applications were of lesser quality, but because my application had specific boxes checked in my gender and race categories.  I agree one hundred percent that we as a community should do all we possibly can to assist those in need to gain a better life by providing financial assistance to them.  But what is happening is that we are assuming who is in need and who is not based on stereotypes. 

A community that I became a part of is one that is located in Ensenada, Mexico.  Over the summers for the past ten years I have traveled to Mexico for a mission trip in which I am involved with a church in the area that rebuilds homes in the impoverished communities.  From my experiences there I now believe that there are two type of people in Mexico:  those that have very much and those that have very little.  A classical case of the rich and the poor, but in this case there is no link between the two.  Those that have it all give nothing away and provide no aid to those who have nothing.  The groups that do reach out and try to help others are usually the groups that are struggling to survive themselves.  This social injustice is a result of a lack of community.  People that live with one mile of each other will turn a blind eye to their neighbors in need.  They have the financial ability to help out but they choose to do nothing.