Everyday I get up around 6, mess around for a while, and then head over to the "El" where I board a mini train and head to school. Always with a cup of coffee and a little twinge of anxiety, because I just don't know what is going to take place at school. I can plan and plan from my end (which definitely helps), but knowing students' reactions and attitudes is impossible from one day to the next. Anyways, as I'm on the El, the sights change quickly headed west on the green line. Art slowly disappears and the emergence of trash is alarming. There is one stop deep into the west side of Chicago, however, that has students art posted all over the station. Some of them look like they are drawn by grade schoolers, and others by teenagers. There is one that always grabs my attention, and not because of the picture, but because of what it says.
We Real Cool
We Left School
We Lurk Late
We Shoot Straight
We Sing Sin
We Thin Gin
We Jazz Tune
We Die Soon
This simple poem always leaves me thinking for a little while. Is it a gang member being proud of this pattern? Or is it someone realizing the unfortunate reality of their neighborhood? Either way it was written, I think that it is fairly profound. It all starts with a prideful mentality that step by step destroys a person's life. For most of my students, they live the first six lines of the poem, and have yet to figure out the last two, or the inevitable ending.
I refuse to believe that this is the way it is supposed to be. I have to believe it is the result of a failed system and the oppression that was created by it. Not everyone has the same opportunity. I have no reason to believe that if I (same DNA and everything) grew up in a family where my parents didn't care and where all I saw was hopelessness I would somehow develop a hard-working mentality filled with hope. Magically I would arise and overcome the need for friends in my community and have the knowledge to know the importance of education.
I doubt it. People come out of poor situations because someone else helped them in some way. Maybe with encouragement, maybe with finances, maybe with knowledge, and maybe, just maybe, by example.
People are not created to be lazy. Somewhere the drive was lost and the will was broken (many times in early childhood). The question is: What are we, as individuals, going to do to restore it? We all have our own strengths.
Sunday, October 26, 2008
Thursday, October 16, 2008
Flashback
As elections come around, I can't help but to reminisce what it was like to talk about politics ALL the time for the short period I lived in Bolivia. Every bus driver, every taxi cab driver, every street vendor, every "Joe, I didn't register to vote, the Plumber" had an opinion on how to make progress and change for the people. It seemed, many times, to be people's only hope. The hope that one day there would be a policy change that thought about the people, the majority people. And in Bolivia's case, along with most of the rest of the world, the majority people are the poor people. The people that by their very nature are blessed by their curse, if you will.
Politics in the states are not the same at all. It's a two party system that forgets its place in the world and its impact on other peoples and nations, not to mention its own marginalized people. But for the first time since I've been a voter, I can say that I agree with a candidate on the most humane level. A candidate that is causing the marginalized and poor people of America to talk and think and most importantly, hope. Take a step back and think along with me for a second, let me take you through a Watson thought process and maybe I can find the nerve that is creating this nostalgia.
How beautiful would it be to rid ourselves of our desires and just be content? To think and really act for others, and not for our own agenda. It would mean we we are no longer striving for something better in our lives, but for the lives of those around us that actually need. I guess that begs the question for everyone to answer themselves: Who are the lives around you? Is it your neighbor? The people in your country? The country next door? Or how about the continent next door that you've only read about? Is it possible to say it's all of humanity? Because at this time in history, life can be seen more clearly on a global context. It is more noticeable than ever before. When our economy struggles, it causes others to struggle as well. We are competing for resources against other people, real people that experience thirst, hunger, pain, loneliness, etc. The unfortunately reality is that we are not a content culture or people, we desire more and more and more, and this desire causes others to have less because of the limited resources this world can produce. Our greed causes other's poverty. Our inability to live outside discomfort causes others to live in discomfort. Our discontent causes a competition that results in LESS for other people. You don't have to like it, but it is true to some extent whether you are willing to face the new global era or not. Our actions and richness oppress others in a worldly context. While we say that we would like to help other countries develop, do we really mean it if it means there will be less for us? That fuel costs, food prices, could increase and we would have to cut back on some of the luxuries?
Judging from how the religious sector of America has responded over the past few months, I would say we don't really mean it. We would rather them struggle as long as life remains easy on the home-front, as long as our costs remain low and our wages high.
So, when I hear a candidate talk about "spreading the wealth", it reminds me of a people that struggle from the bottom with the hope that a policy and a leader will remember them and give them a fighting chance. It's a call to the rich to give a little more of their hard earned money for the poor that didn't have a chance from the beginning. It's a call to be content with the basics. After all, are we not called to carry each others burdens? Spread the wealth, live with less, love with your content spirit, and maybe then we can finally be an example to all the nations and spread the news of a Savior that did not come for the rich, but FOR the broken, marginalized, sick, and poor people of this world (he also came as ONE of those people). We can fight it all we want, but in the end the truth and only the truth will remain.
I am no exception.
Politics in the states are not the same at all. It's a two party system that forgets its place in the world and its impact on other peoples and nations, not to mention its own marginalized people. But for the first time since I've been a voter, I can say that I agree with a candidate on the most humane level. A candidate that is causing the marginalized and poor people of America to talk and think and most importantly, hope. Take a step back and think along with me for a second, let me take you through a Watson thought process and maybe I can find the nerve that is creating this nostalgia.
How beautiful would it be to rid ourselves of our desires and just be content? To think and really act for others, and not for our own agenda. It would mean we we are no longer striving for something better in our lives, but for the lives of those around us that actually need. I guess that begs the question for everyone to answer themselves: Who are the lives around you? Is it your neighbor? The people in your country? The country next door? Or how about the continent next door that you've only read about? Is it possible to say it's all of humanity? Because at this time in history, life can be seen more clearly on a global context. It is more noticeable than ever before. When our economy struggles, it causes others to struggle as well. We are competing for resources against other people, real people that experience thirst, hunger, pain, loneliness, etc. The unfortunately reality is that we are not a content culture or people, we desire more and more and more, and this desire causes others to have less because of the limited resources this world can produce. Our greed causes other's poverty. Our inability to live outside discomfort causes others to live in discomfort. Our discontent causes a competition that results in LESS for other people. You don't have to like it, but it is true to some extent whether you are willing to face the new global era or not. Our actions and richness oppress others in a worldly context. While we say that we would like to help other countries develop, do we really mean it if it means there will be less for us? That fuel costs, food prices, could increase and we would have to cut back on some of the luxuries?
Judging from how the religious sector of America has responded over the past few months, I would say we don't really mean it. We would rather them struggle as long as life remains easy on the home-front, as long as our costs remain low and our wages high.
So, when I hear a candidate talk about "spreading the wealth", it reminds me of a people that struggle from the bottom with the hope that a policy and a leader will remember them and give them a fighting chance. It's a call to the rich to give a little more of their hard earned money for the poor that didn't have a chance from the beginning. It's a call to be content with the basics. After all, are we not called to carry each others burdens? Spread the wealth, live with less, love with your content spirit, and maybe then we can finally be an example to all the nations and spread the news of a Savior that did not come for the rich, but FOR the broken, marginalized, sick, and poor people of this world (he also came as ONE of those people). We can fight it all we want, but in the end the truth and only the truth will remain.
I am no exception.
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