In my last post, I talked about one of the biggest problems in Philadelphia right now which is gun violence. I talked about how much it affects our communities and the people that live in it. I gave numbers and graphs that showed the yearly increase in homicides, a map that showed what areas are being affected most by gun violence, and charts that showed victims of gun violence with and without paralysis.

As research continues for my project, Mayor Jim Kenney and congressmen plan to use next year’s stimulus money as funding for anti-violence efforts. Even though this isn’t major, it’s a step in the right direction for combating gun violence. Also, social media is spreading news about gun violence through platforms On twitter, Gun violence was trending just last week. This helped to continue to raise awareness to the issue and gain attention to the people in power. I am very happy that these tactics were set in stone. I think it’s a perfect mix of combining media and views from the mayor and congressman as a way to combat gun violence.

On the topic of social media, I decided to make a twitter page that specifically covers gun violence in Philadelphia. I wanted this page to consist of news, charts, videos, posters and more. Here’s one of the tweets I did, I dedicated this tweet to how gun violence has increased due to the pandemic. I talked about things like unemployment, health care, and housing that have been hard to find during the pandemic, ultimately factoring into an increase of homicides.

News outlets I followed on my twitter page

My twitter page where I talked about gun violence in Philadelphia

My main drive for doing this cause for my Agent of Change project was seeing thousands of people lose their lives to guns, especially in the surrounding areas and communities I live in. It’s truly saddening to know that some of my friends’ communities have to deal with gunshots every day and hearing another person die down the street from your house. Going into this cause I had no experience with gunshots and gun violence in the streets of my neighborhood. Even though I had little experience, I knew my impact on this issue could be just as good as some with more experience with gun violence. Creating a social media page was my way of making a change. I’m glad I chose this route because I know a lot of kids my age are exposed to social media and can gain traction from social media consumers about causes like this.

Going into the project I wasn’t that confident. I thought the change that I would take decades to do wouldn’t have enough impact and would be something that is forgotten quickly. After delivering a social media page gaining traction and attention this would be a project that I will always remember one thing, I made a better situation then me and my city were in. What I learned about myself was being a news reporter would be a job I would be interested in as a future job. I think I’m good at gathering information and publicizing it. One thing I wish I did better was gaining followers. I put out a good amount of tweets but I wasn’t gaining a following which I think would’ve created more publicity. If there’s one thing I remember its change is continuous, it never stops until their is no change to be made.

Annotated Bibliography

This graph shows yearly homicides that date back to 1960

Sources say the main cause of increase in gun violence is the pandemic. Numbers of homicides and shootings in Philly have skyrocketed since the start of the pandemic, causing one of the most violent years in history. Experts say the pandemic likely drove much of last year’s spike in shootings and murders. They suspect that trend will continue for much of 2021, even as cities slowly inoculate residents against COVID-19, as they only see gun violence rising as the city goes into lockdowns. “The Philadelphia Police Department recorded 50 homicides in January, a 32% increase over last year, the deadliest in three decades.”, just goes to show how much the pandemic is effecting gun violence.

Researchers found that after Philadelphia closed non-essential businesses, there has been an increase in gun violence. Unemployment and distress in poor neighborhoods is what’s causing more violence throughout the city. Researchers say, “The pandemic, and its economic and social fallout, have highlighted many longstanding systemic issues, including inequities in employment, health care and housing”. Governor Tom Wolf and senators have proposed a new idea to make communities safer. For example, one of these idea were a senate bill that would report lost or stolen guns to authorities, but if there is not a change soon gun violence due to this pandemic will put a serious dent in our communities in Philadelphia.

This map shows the neighborhoods being affected by gun violence

These shootings are proven to have long term effects on people including paralysis. Dozens of people are affected from paralysis each year, and the number doesn’t seem to be slowing down anytime soon. Experts say, “For each gun homicide, there were four survivors who sustained gun injuries. These injuries can cause significant long-term health effects, including paralysis”. Not only does this affect neighborhoods and the city of Philadelphia, it leaves people with disabilities making it harder to provide for their families.

This graph shows percentages of shooting victims with a gun related hospital visit

Community activists want to see change happening soon due to the increase of gun violence in Philadelphia. Activist feel like there is no sense of urgency, and hey thing some of the main causes of this crisis are narcotics, no food, and sexual abuse.

My research has given me evidence and important information that I can use when fighting against gun violence in Philadelphia. I wonder what city leaders will do in the future to compact gun violence and how soon will it be until it happens. I question the origin of gun violence and I look forward to learning more about it

My annotated bibliography is here

Mi familia es enérgica, nos encanta contar chistes y jugar juegos de mesa familiares. Tengo dos hermanos, un hermano y una hermana. Tengo cuatro tías, un tío y primos. Vivo con mi mamá, mi papá y mi hermanos. Mi hermana se llama Morghan, tiene el pelo negro. Su cabello es corto y rizado. Ella tiene ojos marrones claros. Mi hermana es alta, tiene 5 ‘9. Ella es gordita y trabaja para perder peso. Morghan es tonta, ella se ríe de muchas cosas. Ella está molesta y le gusta mucho ponerme de los nervios. Ella no es extrovertida y puede ser tímida. Mi hermano Jacob tiene cabello castaño claro. Es corto y rizado. Él tiene ojos verdes. Jacob es joven entonces él es bajo, pero alto para su edad. Jacob es juguetón. Le gusta jugar con juguetes. Es muy atlético. Juega béisbol y baloncesto y es un dios corriendo. No es tímido y asustado de las cosas Tengo el pelo negro. Es largo y rizado. Tengo ojos marrones oscuros. Soy alto a las 5 ‘10. Soy muy divertido. Me encanta contar chistes y hacer reír a la gente. Soy muy inteligente en tecnología. Me encanta usar la tecnología y soy bueno solucionando problemas con las computadora Mi hermano y yo somos atléticos. Los dos practicamos deportes pequeños y nos gusta practicar juntos. Ambos no somos tímidos, y somos habladores y extrovertidos. Aunque mi personalidad es la más cercana a la de mi hermano, mi familia es muy deportiva. Mi padre jugaba béisbol, mi madre jugaba tenis y mi hermana jugaba a nadar. Nosotros somos una familia afroamericana. Amo a mi familia más que a nada.

A connection that influenced me is how connected he is to his city Johannesburg. It interests me how much he learned from living there and the details about Johannesburg that he put in his writing that made it sound so special. It influenced me to tell a story where I can go into detail about what it’s like to live where I was born, West Philadelphia. Not only did it influence me to do that but it also made me want to tell a story about the identity and culture that I’ve come to learn that was built by my community, and for Noah, this was Johannesburg. Trevor explores his identity through events that happened in his life. One event that resonated with me is when he took a second thought on whether he should sell a camera that was stolen. The thought that he had was there’s someone that is being affected by all the photos and memories connected to the camera and if it’s sold then those photos and memories are erased. Trevor said, “ We live in a world where we don’t see the ramification of what we do to others, because”. This showed Treavor’s unselfishness by putting other people’s emotions and feelings over the money that he would receive. The way Noah used dialogue in his writing resonated with me. I love the way he incorporated dialogue in his writing to make readers want to read more. This was something that I wanted to incorporate in my writing because I want to interest readers and make them want a sequel to the story, just as Trevor did in his writing. The way Trevor’s story is told, there’s a clear idea of what’s going on from the rising action to the falling action in that chapter. I wanted to create a vivid image for readers with my storytelling from beginning to end of the vignette that compares to his storytelling. I did not choose to use humor in my writing. Sometimes I like to use humor and I consider myself pretty funny, but for this vignette, I wanted to leave out the humor because sometimes I feel like it takes away some ideas in the stories that I want readers to see. I broke down what this culture looks like to provide images for an outsider audience so they could imagine what this culture would look like. My vignette addresses the essential question of what it looks like to be a part of a community and most importantly a culture.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ggYMNqRcRIgkk1LJxvHB9uLIWr0AJyJiyWz-rC1Kq5U/edit?usp=sharing

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1su4tvN9q_mzopxpBMayaofZ_sO08uBiZaWYmttBlpxI/edit?usp=sharing

This year has been a year of ups and downs, but the things that have separated this year from previous years is climate change, a topic that is thrown around and put aside. Climate change, a change in global or regional climate patterns, has struck our world with the worst of it. To forest fires, water rising, up rise in heat, ice glaciers melting, it affects our everyday lives and that was just a few. I believe if we take steps In the right direction we can solve this crisis. You might be reading this and asking, what steps can we take? Well to answer that question there’s a vast amount of little things we can do. It starts by using energy wisely, reuse items, turn off lights when not using them, little things like that goes a long way to providing a safe environment for yourself, your community, and most importantly the world. No matter your age, you can make a difference and it starts now!