Entries Tagged 'Teen DAWG' ↓

The Teen Track went great this year. The teens are becoming more responsible and aware of their actions and how they impact everyone. We did however have some name calling and rumors (It was not just by the teens) but that cant always be avoided when you have that many people together those that were the target of these name calling and rumors handled things very well. There was no physical violence things were talked out with the person or the person saying these things was ignored when starting rumors or name calling. You all handled yourself very well. Everyone pretty much followed the rules. I want to thank you all for showing respect to the Teen Track staff even if you were older then or the same age as them. We had some unexpected guests that we were glad to see this year Tanner (TJ) Parsons and Sam Roseberry we are glad you both could come this year!! It wouldn’t have been the same without you.

I aged out of the system and no longer can get health-care…So I can’t afford to go to the eye doctor which is a really big problem because I have a really bad astigmatism, which basically means I am going blind, and I can’t see 6inches in-front of me without glasses or contacts. Well the dog got a hold of my glasses two days after my CHIPs ran out in January 2007. Luckily I had my contacts and then I ran out of contacts so I wore the same pair for 3months, you are only suppose to wear them for 1month but when you have no money and no health-care you gotta do what you gotta do sometimes. Eventually my eyes started to really hurt bad from wearing the same contact lenses. So I searched for some old glasses hoping to find some that would work the only ones I could find were 3years old bent up and held together with a bread tie its all I had so I had to wear them I couldn’t see good at all with them and they looked crazy but it was better then none after I filed my income taxes I called the eye doctor and got an appointment I have glasses and contacts now with the help of my mom who paid for my appointment and I paid for the glasses and contacts but the glasses and contacts alone are $200 which is cheap compaired to what it could be but it is only a six month supply of contacts. I do need the contacts I can see better with them, the glasses are just a back up but because I had to buy glasses and contacts I had to make a choice weather I needed to see or go to the doctor to see about a pain I have been having wear my gallbladder is and I chose sight because I can always go to the ER if it gets really bad and pay it off slowly over next 20 years but if I can’t see then well I wouldn’t be very much help to anyone and it would also be dangerous for me I would be falling downstairs I didn’t see and such. I shouldn’t have had to make that choice no-one should have to make that choice.  We need free universal health-care!!

Poor People have to make choices like this everyday…for example A lot of parents have to go without medical care because they simply cant afford it. I know a single mother that only has been to the doctor when she breaks something or she is really sick and isnt getting better. And when she goes to the doctor she has to make a choice what not to pay if she needs medication.

This is why I fight to end poverty no-one should have to make choices like these and I don’t want my little niece or nephew (that will be here this summer) to have to make these choices when they grow up. This is why I fight to end poverty it is for the future I don’t want them to have to make the same hard choices as so many people before them have had to make.

The students came and I went with them to .  If you don’t know about what happened in Matewan you should read up on it or watch the movie. A lot of people, including children, lost their lives in Matewan over coal mining and trying to fight for safe working conditions. The history of Matwan nd the Coal Wars is something that is important for everyone to know. Not only for those of you here in West Virginia  but everyone.  It is the only time in history that the US military fired on their own citizens. When we were in Matewan Donna May who runs the Depot Restaurant said during that time there was a train called the Bull Moose Special  it came through where miners were striking to unionize the mines.  As the train rolled by with guns point out the windows, they shot everyone in sight men, women, and even children. The families dug holes to put the children in to shield them from the flying bullets for the next time the train came rolling through.

For along time Matewan’s story went untold because if you admitted you knew anything about what happened you were dead in a matter of months. Everyone in America needs to know this story because even though lives were lost they were not lost in vain. Everyday when people go into the mines, they are safer now and have a union to back them up thanks to those brave miners and their families that stood up and said I have had enough and I will not be treated this way! When the head of the coal company at the time was asked whats more important to you your miners or your mules he said “the mules they are harder to replace”. I was shocked when I heard that statement.

Hearing the story of these miners also made me think about what people in my family have always said.  When I am ready to run to the streets and get in the face of someone about something I believe in, my family says ”is it worth dying for if ?” . If the answer is yes then go do it. The answer was yes for these people and the answer is yes for me to end poverty. It is a cause I would die for and I am not afraid to stand up and fight for what is right like these brave souls were not afraid to stand up.

On the way to Matewan the students talked with me about Teen DAWG and how we started that day at the capitol during the stop the TANF cuts rally. How we took matters into our own hands and when we saw the head of the welfare department walking on the capitol grounds we were off and chased him clear to the other side and surrounded him demanding answers…And I also joke that that was the only time I ever ran.

 They spoke with our teens in Big Ugly about anything and everything from school to boys and music. They are really interested in Teen DAWG and what we do with the youth here in West Virginia and the fact that we are a statewide project. I talked with them about the upcoming conferences and our Teen 2 Teen reference books we distribute. 

We are planing to make the Appalachian Immersion Trip an annual event and I would love if they met more of our teens. I want to hold a party for them to get to know our teens and for them to see how strong and wonderful our teens are. I am really excited for them to come again and I can’t wait for the teens to meet them!!

Well OK…… so I have had every emotion known to man writing this, but that’s OK.  I miss the students and i can’t wait for them to come back.  I met some great youth and an awesome professor at Ithica named Alicia Swords who was brought up protesting and fighting for justice,like I was. We talked about how we could’t rebel against our parents by getting aressted or leading a walk out like most kids do because our parents did it already and are cool with it.

Also we found out that Carl Johnson, who is from Baltimore with UWA, received a grant from Self Development Of People. The same people DAWG has received two grants from and Teen DAWG received the grant to do our own teen conference this summer from. We learned this after Carl told Jesse Haynes he knew him and told him how…Isn’t that just wild?! At least I think it is. I cant wait to see everyone again…And the new people they bring next time!!

I am Beth, Teen Coordinator for Teen DAWG, which is a project of Direct Action Welfare Group . I found out about the USSF and wanted to go. So I spoke with the Director of Direct Action Welfare Group, and told her that I would love to attend the US Social Forum.  She told me if I found an adult DAWG member willing to go with me then I could go.  I of course wanted to know why I couldn’t go on my own and she said “You can’t just send a nineteen year old girl from rural