UPStander Blog

Miss H's class remembers MLK

Miss Huelskoetter's second graders talk about how Martin Luther King was their idea of the perfect Upstander.

• Tom: He led long marches and gave speeches. He helped people. He gave black people freedom. He changed the law.
• Noah: He convinced people to solve arguments in peaceful ways. His most famous speech was “I have a dream that my children will grow up to live in a nation where all are equal.” He was able to march to Washington to change the law so everybody can be friends. He may have been assassinated, but his dream still lives.
• Henry: He told a speech called “I have a dream” and he changed the law!
• Emma: He helped black and white people to be friends, and bring peace to black and white people.
• Claire: Dr. Martin Luther King was a upstander but he hated the law. He didn’t like the way that white had to be separated from black. He had a dream. A dream about black and white kids hold hands and go to the same school and drink out of the same drinking fountain. He was a upstander because he made a speech and thanked God. He said Thank God (al)mighty, we are free at last!
• Adrian: He had a famous speech called I have a dream. Dr. Martin Luther King helped people solve problems in a peaceful and cooperative way.
• Indigo: He had a dream. His dream was black kids and white kids will hold hands and go to the same school. Also use the same drinking fountain. If I saw his grave, I would think of him being an upstander and how all kids can be friends (with) peace on earth.

Martin Luther King

Martin Luther King, Jr. (January 15, 1929 – April 4, 1968) was an American clergyman, activist and prominent leader in the African American civil rights movement. His main legacy was to secure progress on civil rights in the United States, and he has become a human rights icon: King is recognized as a martyr by two Christian churches. A Baptist minister, King became a civil rights activist early in his career. He led the 1955 Montgomery Bus Boycott and helped found the Southern Christian Leadership Conference in 1957, serving as its first president. King's efforts led to the 1963 March on Washington, where King delivered his "I Have a Dream" speech. There, he raised public consciousness of the civil rights movement and established himself as one of the greatest orators in U.S. history. He was shot and killed in Memphis, Tennessee on April 4, 1968 by a white man.

Upstander Definition

I don’t have a certain upstander in mind I just wanted to share the true definition of an upstander. An upstander is different, someone that doesn’t just go with the flow you can’t always see it on his or her face but you can see it through his or her actions. An upstander is anyone who stops and takes time, a moment to think, and to do what is right. Like in the story of the Good Samaritan a parable told by Jesus himself. A man (Jew) was beaten and stolen from on the road. He lay in the dirt and dust unable to stand or walk. A priest came by and of all people shouldn’t he have helped? He didn’t and walked on. Next another man a Levite walked past and did not stop to help. Then a Samaritan came along and looked down at the dieing man. Samaritans hated Jews and the feelings were returned from the other side. That Samaritan took it upon himself to save this man to help him when he didn’t need to. He could have moved along, the others did why shouldn’t he? He took him to the nearest inn and paid the innkeeper what money he had and said, “take care of this man and if you use more money than I have given you, when I return I will pay in full.” (Not his exact words!) That is what a true upstander does he acts upon what he knows is right even when others don’t. Although Jesus may have been trying to get another point across in this lesson he’s left it open for interpretation. So if Jesus was taking about being an upstander 2010 years ago shouldn’t we follow his lesson now since it still applies?

Sarah, 8th Grade

Unknown Upstander

On the way back from the park after a quick game of capture the flag the class and I saw a blind man crossing the street. He was lost on the street. None of us did anything. A person actually got out of their car and helped the blind man cross the street. the upstander is unknown.

Zak

Mom an Upstander at Work

During December my mother was an upstander when she was at work. My mom is a Police Officer, and a man was walking around and my mom was following him in her squad car for about four blocks. When the man saw her he stared to run, and my mom knew something was up so she was now speeding to catch him and he was dropping money out of a bag. My mom later caught the man and it turns out he had a gun. She arrested him and returned the money to the owner. My mother, got the Officer of the Month Award. She got an awful person off the streets and in jail so he couldn't hurt, rob, or have any aggravated battery or assault. She got a dangerous man off the streets and that's all that matters.

Mia, classroom 7/8

Helping Others

When my class was walking back to school from Welles Park we witnessed a blind man walk across the street and no one was there to help him. So this one lady got out of her car and helped the man across the street.

-Jack B.

Jorge Munoz and the Mobile Food Pantry

(from cnn.com)

Around 9:00 each night, relief comes in the form of Jorge Munoz's white pickup truck, filled with hot food, coffee and hot chocolate. The men eagerly accept containers of chicken and rice from Munoz, devouring the food on the spot. Quiet gratitude radiates from the crowd.

For many, this is their only hot meal of the day; for some, it's the first food they've eaten since last night. "I thank God for touching that man's heart," says Eduardo, one of the regulars.

Watching Munoz, 44, distribute meals and offer extra cups of coffee, it's clear he's passionate about bringing food to hungry people. For more than four years, Munoz and his family have been feeding those in need seven nights a week, 365 days a year. To date, he estimates he's served more than 70,000 meals.

Word of his mobile soup kitchen has spread, and people of all backgrounds and status now join the largely-Hispanic crowd surrounding his truck -- Egyptians, Chinese, Ethiopians, South Asians, white and black Americans and a British man who lost his job.

"I'll help anyone who needs to eat. Just line up," Munoz says.

And at a time when food banks are struggling to keep up with skyrocketing demand, he's never been needed more. But for Munoz, a school bus driver by day, this work is a labor of love.

Dad is the UPStander

One time my dad was out in the alley putting the trash bins out for the garbage collectors, when he saw a group of teenagers trying to light a fire in the middle of the alley a few houses down from us. No one else had done anything to stop them, obviosly, because they had gotten this far, when my dad went over to them and told them to stop. There was probably some initial restsance, but eventually they cleared out and they never tried to light a fire in the middle of the alley again.

Katie<(-_-)> grade 8