Laura Searing was one of only a few women of the 19th century who was a respected journalist. She was on the staff of several publications and acted as a war correspondent during the American Civil War. She conducted interviews with soldiers and Union Army Commander Ulysses S. Grant on battlefields along with interviewing President Abraham Lincoln for a story.
Laura’s poetry was published extensively and praised by literary greats like John Greenleaf Whittier and William Cullen Bryant. She was the first woman during her lifetime to have a town named after her. All of this is great but it becomes amazing when you consider that from the age of 11 Laura Searing was deaf.
She was born on February 9, 1840 in Somerset County, Maryland. Her family moved to St. Louis, Missouri in 1851 and that is when she contracted cerebrospinal meningitis. This left Laura deaf and with a speech impediment that left her only able to speak in sepulchral tones. Throughout her life, Laura depended on written communication until she was 15 and attended the Missouri School for the Deaf. This is where she learned sign language.
While attending the institution Laura composed essays and poetry on subjects such as religion, politics, nature and her own deafness. For her class graduation Laura wrote a farewell poem and gave a speech at commencement which was both published in the American Annals of the Deaf. Her first professional work was done for a church in St. Louis. Her work impressed the editors at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch so much that they hired her. When the Civil War began the newspaper sent her to Washington D.C as its war correspondent. To avoid offending other readers who thought that journalism was “man’s work,” all of her writing was published under the name Howard Glyndon. But it was not very effective. It was largely known that Howard Glyndon was a woman and it was accepted.
Laura’s first two books were published during the wartime period. “Notable Men in the House” was a series of informal mini-biographies that were each based on a different congressman. “Idyles of Battle and Poems of the Republic” was a group of war poems. Laura went to Europe in 1865 where she continued to write stories for the St. Louis Republican and the New York Times and the New York Sun. She returned to the U.
I keep my journal hidden; the script, the drawings, the color, the weight of the paper, contents I hope never to be experienced by another. My journal is intensely personal, temporal and exposed. When opening the leather bound formality of Alice Williamson's journal a framework of meaning is presupposed by the reader's own feelings concerning the medium. Reading someone else's diary can be, and is for myself, an voyeuristic invasion of space. The act of reading makes the private and personal into public. Yet, for Alice Williamson and many other female journalists of the Civil War period, the journal was creating a public memory of the hardship that would be sustained when read by others. The knowledge of the outside reader reading of your life was as important as the exercise of recording for one's self; creating a sense of sentimentality connecting people through emotions. (Arnold)
I knew I loved to help others but it was not until I was an emerging adult that I knew what my calling was. My devotion to improve the quality of life for those who are disadvantaged is one of the reasons I have chosen to pursue a Master’s in Social Work. After obtaining my masters, I plan on diversifying my masters by getting licensed and becoming a Licensed Clinical Social Worker. I would like to study social work because I feel it will lead me directly to one of the most emotionally fulfilling careers available, as well as giving me the chance to combine helping people 's mental well being with their physical
Doctors are well respected within the realm of American society and are perceived with the highest regard as a profession. According to Gallup’s Honesty and Ethics in Profession polls, 67% of respondents believe that “the honesty and ethical standards” of medical doctors were “very high.” Furthermore, 88% of respondents polled by Harris Polls considered doctors to either “hold some” or a “great deal of prestige”. Consequently, these overwhelmingly positive views of the medical profession insinuate a myth of infallibility that envelops the physicians and the science they practice. Atul Gawande, in Complications: A Surgeon’s Notes on an Imperfect Science, provides an extensive view of the medical profession from both sides of the operating table
Narratives such as Rowlandson’s gave a voice to women in the realm of written words, but at the cost of the Native voice. According to the website www.maryrowlandson.com,
Colorism is described as discrimination based upon the tone of ones skin. Colorism is a global issue that affects an array of people around the world. Although colorism is a worldwide issue, it is unique to African Americans due to the experience of slavery and its long-term psychological effects. African American men and women both experience colorism but the psychological effects are more prominent in women. Women in the black community are greatly affected by colorism starting at a young age. This is due to the history of the European standard of beauty in North America which plays a big role in how it affects their self-image, self-esteem, social status and relationships, and opportunities;
Kessler, Carol Parley. "Charlotte Perkins Gilman 1860 -1935." Modem American Women Writers. Ed. Elaine Showalter, et al. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1991. 155 -169.
It is this form of prejudice that has more to do with skin tone rather than race. This mentality oppresses and criticizes those with darker skin tones and those that deviate from one desired appearance. It is for this reason that many Black women have gone out of their way to assimilate to society’s beauty standards or attempt to be “white”. What this simply means is that these Black women have gone to extreme lengths to appear light skinned and to make their natural hair as “white” looking as possible. This is partially due to the racist and colorist mentality in this society but also because there is a huge market in making Black women feel as if they are unworthy of being called beautiful because of their skin tone and hair. In Chris Rock’s documentary “Good Hair” he states that within his own community each individual spends an average of five thousand dollars a treatment on an attempt to get “good hair” and that the industry that is responsible for pushing this upon Black women is worth about nine billion dollars. The effects of this colorist mentality can be seen throughout history take for example during the Supreme Court case “Brown vs The Board of Education” (1954) in which it was deemed unconstitutional for a State to enact laws that created segregated schools solely for Black Americans. One of the pivotal
Since the last fifteen years of my life, I have been interested in social work involving families with children. I have always had an interest in helping, supporting and working with children and adults. These practical experiences social work will continue to lead me to learned, applied, and prepared to become a social worker. I will continue to work with developmental disabilities and other diverse groups of the population.
The basis for such injustices being done within a race of people can mainly be associated with the subconscious racists thoughts of individuals. These are the thoughts that lay deep within the crevices of one’s mind. The thoughts that an individual is sometimes ashamed to acknowledge. The art of believing that a lighter shade of black is better is primarily a thought process that has plagued the Black community for far too long. Maintaining such beliefs is what causes the racial divisions between light-skinned and dark-skinned Blacks to persist.
The paper looks at the physician’s code of ethics that has a direct impact on efficient and ethical health care delivery. The conduct as used by ACHE is applied here.
The Association of Black Psychologist (ABP) (2013) defines colorism as skin-color stratification. Colorism is described as “internalized racism” that is perceived to be a way of life for the group that it is accepted by (ABP 2013). Moreover, colorism is classified as a persistent problem within Black American. Colorism in the process of discriminatory privileges given to lighter-skinned individuals of color over their darker- skinned counterparts (Margret Hunter 2007). From a historical standpoint, colorism was a white constructed policy in order to create dissention among their slaves as to maintain order or obedience. Over the centuries, it seems that the original purpose of colorism remains. Why has this issue persisted? Blacks have been able to dismantle the barriers faced within the larger society of the United States. Yet, Blacks have failed to properly address the sins of the past within the ethnic group. As a consequence of this failure, colorism prevails. Through my research, I developed many questions: Is it right that this view remain? How does valuing an individual over another cause distribution to the mental health of the victims of colorism? More importantly, what are the solutions for colorism? Colorism, unfortunately, has had a persisted effect on the lives of Black Americans. It has become so internalized that one cannot differentiate between the view of ourselves that Black Americans adopted from slavery or a more personalized view developed from within the ethnicity. The consequences of this internalized view heightens the already exorbitant mental health concerns within the Black community, but the most unfortunate aspect of colorism is that there is contention on how the issue should be solved.
was born in Vienna, Austria in 1909, where she lived with her parents until the
The main reason I chose the social work profession, manifested early within my stages of childhood. The importance of giving to and caring for those in need, were deeply embedded in my very soul. Being reared by my grandmother, a nurse and by my teenage mother, a psychology student, I was exposed constantly to acts of kindness and generosity. As a result to my empathetic personality, I was welcomed into many social and ethnic groups, not commonly open to a young gay black male. In these younger years with the assistance of my parents, my love for others allowed me to help other teenagers in crisis, often providing shelter, advice, monetary assistance and a listening
It takes a very distinct individual to be a social worker as this field of study is quite brutal quite frequently. Social Work is enormously demanding emotionally, the pay is average, the daily challenges that must be met, often the work conditions are odd; but these are all responsibilities that I am willing to endure. Having seen and been through a great deal myself, this career seems feasible. I am quite passionate about people and strongly believe that this career will allow me to be rewarded by impacting the lives of others in a positive way. There seems to have been a need for social work since the Industrial Revolution, if not since the dawn of time, and it has always taken passionate individuals
The profession of Social work is a unique and diverse field in that it has the capacity to reach many different individuals in many different aspects of their lives. Growing up with six siblings and being confined to a small three bedroom apartment, while my mother worked multiple jobs to provide for her children, often times I became reliant on others to guide me. In retrospect of my childhood, I have personally been affected by social workers, and each of them treated my family with such professionalism. These individuals who impacted my life, did not realize the blessings they were bestowing upon me. Little did they recognize, they forever enriched my life. I desire to do the same for others. I yearn to not only become a professional at promoting the well-being of others, but also making a long-term difference for others.