visual advocacy

The United States is a country that is extremely diversified in culture, religion and race. Nowadays, in the United States, interracial relationships or marriages are quite common. Some individuals or groups are very skeptical about interracial relationships and how they could possibly work. My husband and I are a prime example of an interracial marriage, he is Arabic and I am Italian and Slovakian. The essential key roles to making one work are open mindedness and communication. From the very start of our relationship, we had been very open with each other about the similarities and differences, between our cultures and religions. We both respect each others religion and culture and intertwine them through our everyday life. The six photos I choose show the differences between us but they also represent how an interracial marriage is able to work.

The first photo I took represents our religions. My husband is a Muslim and I am a Roman Catholic. We each believe in one God and that prayer is a way of communicating to Him. A Muslim prays five times a day, facing the holy city of Mecca on an Islamic Prayer Rug. As a Roman Catholic, I pray before meals and at bedtime with an occasional reading from the Bible. The Holy Bible and Koran are the religious books of our religions. The construction of each is different; the Bible is made of the two Testaments while the Koran is the revelations to Prophet Muhammad from Allah.

The next slide represents the difference of our races. As anyone can see my husband’s skin color is a couple shades darker than mine. The color of our skins may not look that different but to others it as if mine is green and his is red. I chose to intertwine our hands to show our love, respect and devotion for each other and to symbolize that nothing or no one could come between us.

visual advocacy

Disasters, such as hurricanes, have been around for centuries. Although with in the past couple years, the United States has been experiencing more consecutive and aggressive hurricanes. It seems that after all these centuries and with the advancement of new technology, we would be better prepared for such a disaster.

I plan on showing recent photos of Hurricane Ike and the aftermath it left behind. Also, I will show how the society in general was affected by hurricane Ike or hurricanes in general. I will also provide testimonials from those affected by Hurricane Ike and other disasters and how hazardous the outcomes are on the community.

I feel there is a better approach to prepare for any hurricane. Why do we wait until the last minute to bring in supplies for those left stranded? I know there are hurricane preparedness guidelines but those guidelines are not doing any good if we keep running into the same problem.