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Austin Alexander Burridge, Volunteer Advocate, Shares 3 Great Reasons to Volunteer and Help Others

Austin Alexander Burridge is an avid academic who studies Environmental Science at Winona State University and believes that work in the service of others is a key pillar to personal development.

Pauljohnson7782

Pauljohnson7782 Feb 11, 2019

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Sometimes it's easy for someone to adopt a "me, me, me" attitude. While focusing on oneself, a person may feel nice in the moment, but serving and helping others will bring lasting benefits. While there are many great reasons to serve and help others, there are three universal truths that resonate with volunteers around the globe.

Austin Alexander Burridge's 3 Reasons to Volunteer:

1. Accomplishment

Often, people fall into a trap of focusing on themselves when they are feeling down. Maybe someone did not get a job they wanted. Or perhaps a person gets dumped by an expected lifelong companion. Maybe someone feels they have underachieved after looking at Facebook and seeing great things a high school classmate has accomplished. When feeling down, helping others is a proven way to improve one's mood and attitude, and it can provide a sense of pride and accomplishment. The act of giving to those in need is an inherently good action and leaves people with a wonderful feeling of joy.

2. Gratitude

One can become more appreciative of life by serving others that have less. Whether volunteering at a soup kitchen, visiting the elderly at an assisted living center, or helping families after a natural disaster, service enables people to be grateful for what they have. Seeing people who have fewer advantages, especially those who are spirited and thankful for small things, allows one to realize just how fortunate he/she is in life.

3. Friendships

Volunteering is a great way to build meaningful friendships, not only with other volunteers but also with those who are served. One of the most profound and fascinating aspects of these relationships is how volunteers will learn from those served and vice versa. As these special bonds are built, they lead to impactful connections that last for years to come.

Of course, these are just a few reasons to volunteer and serve others. One can never go wrong by helping others as opposed to merely focusing on oneself. Volunteering invariably and inevitably contributes to personal growth, development, and satisfaction.

About Austin Alexander Burridge: Helping others has been of paramount importance to Austin, and as a part of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes (FCA), Austin gave back to the community around him. He also has participated in annual peanut butter drives, The Minnesota Sandwich Project for the Homeless and collected canned goods for local food shelters. Additionally, Austin has a passion for the environment, which he pursued when visiting the Galapagos Islands, Ecuador, and the Amazon Rain Forest while studying at the School of Environment Studies, which investigates ecological systems and their sustainability

Pauljohnson7782

Pauljohnson7782 Feb 11, 2019

Saying You "Don't Take Political Stances" IS A Political Stance

All you're doing by saying this is revealing your privilege to not care politically, and here's why that's a problem.

bethkrat

bethkrat Jun 11, 2019

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I'm sure all of us know at least one person who refuses to engage in political discussions - sure, you can make the argument that there is a time and a place to bring up the political happenings of our world today, but you can't possibly ignore it all the time. You bring up the last ridiculous tweet our president sent or you try to discuss your feelings on the new reproductive regulation bills that are rising throughout the states, and they find any excuse to dip out as quickly as possible. They say I don't talk about politics, or I'm apolitical. Well everyone, I'm here to tell you why that's complete bullsh*t.

Many people don't have the luxury and privilege of ignoring the political climate and sitting complacent while terrible things happen in our country. So many issues remain a constant battle for so many, be it the systematic racism that persists in nearly every aspect of our society, the fact that Flint still doesn't have clean water, the thousands of children that have been killed due to gun violence, those drowning in debt from unreasonable medical bills, kids fighting for their rights as citizens while their families are deported and separated from them... you get the point. So many people have to fight every single day because they don't have any other choice. If you have the ability to say that you just don't want to have anything to do with politics, it's because you aren't affected by any failing systems. You have a privilege and it is important to recognize it.

Martin Luther King Jr. once said, "history will have to record that the greatest tragedy of this period of social transition was not the strident clamor of the bad people, but the appalling silence of the good people."

We recognize that bad people exist in this world, and we recognize that they bring forth the systems that fail so many people every single day, but what is even more important to recognize are the silent majority - the people who, by engaging in neutrality, enable and purvey the side of the oppressors by doing nothing for their brothers and sisters on the front lines.

Maybe we think being neutral and not causing conflict is supposed to be about peacekeeping and in some way benefits the political discussion if we don't try to argue. But if we don't call out those who purvey failing systems, even if it's our best friend who says something homophobic, even if it's our representatives who support bills like the abortion ban in Alabama, even if it's our president who denies the fact that climate change is killing our planet faster than we can hope to reverse it, do we not, in essence, by all accounts of technicality side with those pushing the issues forward? If we let our best friend get away with saying something homophobic, will he ever start to change his ways, or will he ever be forced to realize that what he's said isn't something that we can just brush aside? If we let our representatives get away with ratifying abortion bans, how far will the laws go until women have no safe and reasonable control over their own bodily decisions? If we let our president continue to deny climate change, will we not lose our ability to live on this planet by choosing to do nothing?

We cannot pander to people who think that being neutral in times of injustice is a reasonable stance to take. We cannot have sympathy for people who decide they don't want to care about the political climate we're in today. Your attempts at avoiding conflict only make the conflict worse - your silence in this aspect is deafening. You've given ammunition for the oppressors who take your silence and apathy and continue to carry forth their oppression. If you want to be a good person, you need to suck it up and take a stand, or else nothing is going to change. We need to raise the voices of those who struggle to be heard by giving them the support they need to succeed against the opposition.

With all this in mind, just remember for the next time someone tells you that they're apolitical: you know exactly which side they're on.

bethkrat

bethkrat Jun 11, 2019

At University of North Dakota

1. "Then hang them. No prisoners, no mercy."

2. "Deport the dreamers, hang the politicians who support them."

3. "HANG THEM HIGH!"

4. "Move them kick them out of a moving airplane... whichever method works."

5. "There are plenty of men who are feminists who should be gassed too."

6. "MOABs being dropped on refugee camps also work. Truly, something must be done to drop their Reproductive Index to 0."

7. "It's sad that America exported this black lives matter racist bullshit to other countries. We should have crushed it violently when it started and put all the leaders in jail for life via RICO charges."

8. "Breathe calm down get guns."

9. "Get bows and arrows as well and learn how to shoot them. Modern day vests are pretty good at stopping a lot of the available rounds, but they suck at stopping knives and don't stop arrows. Plus bows are almost silent."

10. "Kill the messenger?"

11. "Kill babies, save illegals."

12. "I wish I could go back in time and put every SJW on planet Alderaan right before the Death Star blew it up."

13. "November 3rd: Trump labels panty-fags as terrorists, encourages state militia, national guard, and armed citizens to eliminate these threats as needed."

14. "I want all these degenerates to be slowly tortured and executed in the most inhumane way possible. Get them to turn on one another by offering them slightly better deaths, then kill them all."

15. "Wishlist 1. gf 2. kill all normies 3. tonka truck."

16. "Have we set up a suicide assistance hotline for libshits yet."

17. "This is so great. Burn everything down! Everyone is gonna die hahahaha! They think we are just here to take down the dumbocrats but we havn't started and won't finish until all your kids are dead you deep state fuckers."

18. "Is it time to hog wild and just kill all anti-Whites? We have tried to be polite and ask them to stop advocating for the genocide of our race but it's clear that words alone will never stop them."

19. "We would rise up and kill all government officials. Populism works."

20. "Ya gringos, whatever you want, just kill all our politicians and all the cartelos, we are tired of finding babies impaled on metal pipes and women with their tits cut off and set on fire. These people are disgusting, send Delta and kill them all, go USA."

21. "I Wanna Kill the invaders."

22. "Next step: Shoot all the surviving members. Then shoot every member of their family so the bloodline ends."

23. "Should put a bullet in his ass...save the taxpayers some money...what a dirty POS."

24. "We have to kill thugs, it's the number one threat to our way of life, even more so than Muslims."

25. "Just fuckin shoot the animals."

26. "Nah, just shoot them dead every time they try this. It's the only language they speak."

27. "I say just shoot Muslims on sight."

28. "Hes right, the teaching of islam is to kill your enemy... so if we kill all the muslims, rape will be reduced."

29. "The permanent and most effective solution to dealing with a death threat is to kill them when they try to make good on it."

30. "Kill the nuslim invaders. If this is the way they behave as a coddled "minority" with billions in handouts... How will it be oncw they become a majority? London has fallen!"

31. "Don't lead kids that much, they are slower than older targets. Also remember to shoot them from BEHIND the "No Gun Zone" line so you don't get into extra legal trouble."

32. "Why waste money? Wall them off and let their AIDS law kill them off. Simple quarantine. That law goes for blood drives too, just so you know, so it'll be quicker than you think."

33. "This is the part where our founding fathers would put a bullet in their heads, if i'm being frank. they'd better be careful."

34. "Shoot the parents."

35. "No, snowflakes pile up and get scooped to the side while I'm rolling coal in my Chevy Silverado Duramax 6.6L Turbo-Diesel V8 with 6 speed Allison transmission and Meyer snow plow attachment."

37. "Go look in the damn mirror you people who support those who do this kind of s*** and you never bring up the pussy grabbing thing again do it to my face please so I can put my fist through your f****** noses you're such a hypocrite you dont deserve a voice."

38. "KILL THEM ALL PREEMPTIVE STRIKE TACTICAL NUKE INCOMING."

39. "So can we shoot the Kenyan lowlife?"

41. "Not if you just, y'know, kill the unnecessary ones."

42. "I'm going to mount fucking anti-tank rifles to BATTLE BEARS, and train them to shoot the arms off my enemies. Take that, you leftist hippies, and your fucked up interpretation of a simple enough document!"

43. "Can't be starved to death by commies if you kill them."

44. "The evil within these people is a virus, not a bacteria. To kill the virus, we have to kill the host."

45. "Kill them all to save Europe."

46. "Kill them in the streets if they show up."

47. "Can we shoot the Clinton gang for cheating?"

48. "KEK may have granted you the peace and energy to kill the fuck wit podestas.... you never know? KEK willeth and KEK taketh away."

49. "If they are still mad about the civil war they are going to really hate the next one."

50. "'Colluded' in quotes. Completely inappropriate and unnecessary. Bunch of dishonest propagandists. Hang them."

51. "Then hang them. No prisoners, no mercy."

52. "Antifa is backed by George Soros and Muslims like Saudi Arabia. Soros eats infants every morning to consume their life essence. Muzzies like to rape newborn babes. MOAB them. (That's the new word for "nuke them to glass".)"

53. "What the fuck? Why isn't it legal to kill these shitstains on site?"

54. "Well, I hope the Angolans are ready to kill all their Muslims, because I'm fairly sure the mudslimes will see this as war."

55. "I'll fight Alyssa Milano! She looks like a weak bitch."

56. "I'm just saying pull the trigger. This "thinking about planning to do something maybe soon" story has been posted here for the last week. Until it happens, it's not a story. Just like Kid Rock for Senate."

57. "I'm from Buenos Aires and I say kill em' all!"

58. "You think there is a fucking jury anywhere in DC that is going to send Clinton/Posdesta/Obama to jail? You have lost touch with reality. The ONLY way we get justice here is French Revolution style, the people storm these traitor's homes and hang them from the lamp posts."

59. "Nah, hold this guy and killers like him til the wall is built. Then hang them off the south side and leave them to rot."

60. "Death to Soros."

61. "Fucking disgusting these people. Kill them."

62. "Too bad she didn't sing at a NFL game and shoot the kneelers."

63. "'We are either going to kill them, or they are going to kill us. There is no diplomatic solution' yep."

64. "So eye-rollingly obvious that Las Vegas was an evil Deep State setup. EVERY SINGLE PARTICIPANT IN DEEP STATE ACTIVITIES IS A TRAITOR. ALL OF THEM DESERVE CAPITAL PUNISHMENT. We could sell tickets to hangings on the National Mall and wipe out the national debt in just a few weekends."

65. "Costs too much money. Just kill the fucker."

66. "Kill the human weeds! Margret Sanger is smiling up from her torture in hell right now"

67. "Kill the rats."

68. "Nah, shoot them is best."

69. "Bomb them."

70. "If you had all the power in the would, what would you do? Put a bullet through every one of these perverts' heads."

71. "Here's an idea: bomb them during the Ramadan month. Even better if you can time the bombs to land at the exact moment when the calls to prayer have begun."

72. "Kill them all, and let Allah sort them out."

73. "Kill them all."

74. "Bomb them to the stone age. Wait, I mean bomb them through the stone age to whatever came before the state they're currently in."

75. "Hang the traitor."

76. "HANG THE RUSSIAN COLLUDERS!"

77. "Oh fuck. Hang them."

78. "Hang them all from lampposts for selling out their electorate."

79. "DEATH TO SOROS! Say it with me now, 'DEATH TO SOROS!'"

80. "I prefer to word it like this: We'll kill the government if they take our arms."

81. "Nah, bathe them in pigs blood, shoot them in the head, and bury them face down with a pig corpse on top."

82. "Deport Rice. Jail Clinton. Lynch Loretta."

37. "Go look in the damn mirror you people who support those who do this kind of s* and you never bring up the pussy grabbing thing again do it to my face please so I can put my fist through your f**** noses you're such a hypocrite you dont deserve a voice."

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