Throughout this semester we have been studying Justice and through the lense of many different philosophies. In this project we learned alot about the injustices that happen in the world to help us find our own philosophy and ethic. We studied most elements of justice from the theories of John Rawls to the words of the Dali Lama. In my Monologue I talk a lot about the environment and the critical state that it is in.
Justice Monologue 1:
Justice as Forgiveness:
Justice as forgiveness should always be looked at through the veil of ignorance and the perception that humans can change. Not only can humans change but it is human nature. From the day we are born our views and ideals are shaped by what we experience. In circumstances of incarceration, showing compassion and giving a prisoner a positive experience could lead them in a better direction. In my mind that is just punishment because if we are looking to make society a better place than we need to look out for everyone and not try to get justice as revenge. As said by the Dali Lama “In Primitive human society, revenge may have been necessary for survival, but as society developed, people came to recognize the negative consequences of revenge and the value of forgiveness. This, I think, is what it means to be civilized.” The idea that we can send someone away to rot in a cell is outdated and a violation of our basic human rights. Even prisoners should have a second chance.
Life without parole for example takes away someone's future and anysort of growth. It takes away any change for improvement and is punishing that person to the fullest extent. In True Justice when Bryan talked about the 16 year old kid that was given life without parole all I could think about was how dumb that sounded. The Dalai Lama once said “After all, it is not uncommon for those who lead reckless lives when young to become responsible and caring as they gain in maturity and experience.” People are always changing and a 16 year old kid is still learning how to be a member of society and their own morals. Forgiving these kids and giving them a second chance at life but making sure that they have the willingness to change would be so much more beneficial for our society. Rather than just sending them away to rot. A flaw in our justice system that has always spoken to me is the Environmental injustice that occurs in bears ears national monument. Land that was set aside for recreation and to help keep our surrounding environment healthy is sold to oil companies for oil drilling. When land like this is sold to oil companies that have no interest in taking care of it. Roads are put anywhere that makes sense and the oil rigs themselves are scattered thick throughout the landscape. There is no justice in these situations. This land that had so much value to the people is being made into profit. In our country we value the profitability of land much more than the land itself and its natural uses. If all we do is try to make money off our land then we become a utilitarian society. Valuing profit over individual use.
Justice Monologue 2:
The San Juan Basin is a place full of injustice. The people, Land, Resources, and historical evidence of an unwritten culture have been stripped from the area. As a kid I never understood why there were so many oil rigs out in the desert. It felt like if the land wasn't being used for its natural gas resources it was being trampled by the public. I never understood how In one area for example canyonlands can be a national monument that is marveled by the world and visited by hundreds of thousands of people a year. but if you go a couple of miles south east you will find oil rigs in the same type of landscape. While not having any oil rigs in the landscape would be a great reality, it is not a realistic one. The Principles of Environmental Justice states “Environmental Justice mandates the right to ethical, balanced and responsible uses of land and renewable resources in the interest of a sustainable planet for humans and other living things.” The South west area is chock full of natural resources and we will need to collect them in order to sustain our economy but it is not the only way to collect energy in that area. The same land that is being used for oil and gas resources could be used to collect renewable resources. The average wind speed annually is 8 miles an hour and it only takes 4 mile an hour winds to turn a wind turbine meaning that the southwest area has the perfect climate for wind power. It also has an abundance of sun and doesn't get much snow or other precipitation meaning the area is perfect for a solar farm. A solar farm could collect the sun's energy with much less impact than an oil and gas rig.
Along with switching to renewable energy many of the old mining sites and oil rigs would need to be cleaned and the land would need to be restored to its original state. This means making sure the dirt isn't contaminated with coal or other toxic chemicals but also re planting native vegetation. In some parts of the southwest there are people whose sole job is to drive on the oil rig lands and make sure they are operating within certain standards. But most of the oil rig lands are not governed this way. In an article written by a local resident living on the Navajo Reservation said. “A lot of what I see out here is that the tribe doesn’t have any kind of oil and gas inspector. That’s the issue here.”It is the inspectors job to not only make sure that the rigs are running correctly but that the area is restored when the oil and gas companies leave. Having a change like this could reverse negative effects that take place in the southwest.
Final Products:
Defense/Reflection:
Project Defense: Your project defense needs to answer the following questions:
What did you end up doing for your project?
If you worked with a group, first explain the group project, THEN explain your individual contributions.
For my Project I chose the No pillage at wolf creek issue. The issue is mainly about stopping a large corporation from creating a large village of 8,000 people on wolf creek pass which is home to many migratory paths and a rare type of wetlands that come directly from natural springs. Not to mention that a large portion of the trees on the pass have been killed by invasive Ips beetles. For our Project we chose to make and sell stickers and tshirt. Then donate the money to San Juan Citizen Alliance which is the company .Together Adrian and I made Tshirts. The shirts say “What would Jesus Do” on the front and “ keep wolfy wolf creek wild” with a cancel sign over pillage on the back. We chose the What would Jesus do phrase to catch people's eyes. It asks you a question and you want to see what is on the back. The phrase “keep wolf creek wild” comes from how vital the wolf creek ecosystem is and the impact that the village would have. Along with having a large migratory corridor wolf creek also has very rare wetlands that hold more plants and animal life then others. Then I made one batch of stickers and worked on the Tshirts. The Stickers say “Gate Keep Wolf Creek” with a cancel sign over the word pillage. This was based on the original stickers that said “Pillage at wolf creek with a cancel sign over the word pillage. I wanted to bring back the old message but in a new way. I chose gate keep wolf creek because it has to do more with not letting Red into wolf creek. It took me a while to find the right phrase that could both be read by a moving car and get the message across.
How did your project reflect your personal philosophy of justice?
Please go into depth here. Draw on earlier coursework/texts/philosophies/ethics that we studied and provide a comprehensive explanation of what your philosophy is as it relates to your project and how your project reflects that philosophy.
My project reflects great on my philosophy. Though I still don't exactly know what my philosophy is, I am at the heart an environmentalist and have always thought of the world in that lense. That is why I chose to do a project on something that was both close in my heart but also a necessary action to take. If we cater to lazy people and continue to take from the earth in order to compensate for that, we won't have places like wolf creek that are harder to get too. The 1st principle of environmental justice states that “Environmental Justice affirms the sacredness of Mother Earth, ecological unity and the interdependence of all species, and the right to be free from ecological destruction.”This principle is what I would say best sums up my philosophical belief because it is not just humans on this planet and if we don't take care of the other organisms and places we won't be around for much longer.
Why was your project a just way to address your issue of injustice? How did it bring about more justice or if you were trying to raise awareness, why were the ideas/arguments/messages you were expressing through your work/writing/art more in line with justice than other ideas?
Our project justifies our injustice because we both brought awareness to the issue and donated our profits to an organization that is doing the more important things with the issue. By creating bumper stickers that are similar to the previous ones and t-shirts we are providing more conversation behind the issue which inturn will create more awareness.
Did you do sufficient research and background work to pull of your project, take an informed stance or succeed in your endeavors? Explain!
I could have done more research on what happened when Red took the San Juan Citizens Alliance to court and why the jury and judge chose to not allow him to pillage the land but I felt I did enough research on my project to both understand the issue and be able to accurately represent it in small frases.
Your reflection needs to answer the following questions:
In what ways were you successful in meeting the goals you established in your project proposal? What contributed to your successes?
I met all of the goals we set and was able to make tshirts with our second week because we had finished the stickers so quickly. The one thing I remember setting as a goal was that I wanted to look deeper into the court cases and why Red was not allowed access. I was not able to find time to complete this goal but having 2 and half weeks to do research on a topic then creating 50 bumper stickers and 12 tshirt was a lot to accomplish. Having the stickers made somewhere else and shipped to us was really nice because having to print and cut your own stickers is really hard. Also having done screen printing before and not having to buy any materials but shirts help us get to work immediately. Screen printing can be a very tedious process but in the end it is rewarding knowing that we were able to make something that will make a difference.
In what way were you successful in meeting the goals you established in your proposal? What contributed to your failures? What did you do to try to overcome the obstacles? What should you have done differently?
I didn't have many challenges but the main one I had was that when we screen printed some of the stencils would bleed through which is something I can't control. I think nestime I would make sure that our stencils are only used once because once you reuse a stencil it tends to bleed more.
To what extent did you SHOW UP for this project? How engaged/committed/involved were you in the work? How much did you strive to create beautiful work worth doing? To what extent were you accountable to yourself and others if relevant?
I definity showed up for this project. At first when we were only planning on doing stickers we spent a lot of time coming up with the right phrase to use and how we were going to accurately represent our issue. After the first week we had created two sticker templates and ordered them. Then we had a whole week and half left so we chose to create shirts as well. The shirts are a lot more of a process then the sticker but we were able to reuse one of our ideas from the stickers to use on the shirts. After making a frase we had to draw and cut out stencils which took about two days then we immediately started printing on shirts. Took about 4 days or 8 class periods to complete with both Adrian and I working on them.
What TWO key lessons did you learn from this project that you can apply to senior project? Think about how senior project involves choosing a project you’re passionate about that is viable in the time provided, completing multiple steps over the course of a semester, potentially collaborating with other organizations or people, fundraising, spreading the word, and so much more! The Justice Project was like practice for the big game, rehearsal for the broadway show, an appetizer to the 5-course meal!
This project like my senior project has to do with the environment which is something I am interested in. The first lesson would be that I need to do more research on my project before I just straight into making it. Especially in a senior project I will need to have a sufficient amount of research done before I do anything. The second lesson I learned is that I need to have my final project reflect my research accurately. This is something I think we did well in our justice project. I think that creating stickers and shirts was the perfect way to represent our issue to help combat it. Creating more awareness is a great way to support an issue similar to this one.