|
||||||||||||||
 |
||||||||||||||
 |
||||||||||||||
 |
||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||
| "Preach the Gospel at All Times, If Necessary Use Words." - St. Francis of Assisi | ||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||
|
A Purpose-Driven Life
By Loren S. Cahill
Picture an image of the world. Think about all the
diversity found among the different people in the world. Recognize the fact that
the biggest genetic difference you have from anyone else is 2 percent. Two
percent is the cause war, psychological inferiority and hatred. At the same
time, 2 percent can be the remedy for peace in the world. Cultural Leadership is
a year-long program that trains high school students to become activists for
social justice. Over the course of a year, we met monthly for programming, had
three weekend retreats and went on a 3½-week summer transformational journey. In
the program, we learned knowledge and skills and gained allies needed to make
positive change in our communities. Cultural Leadership harbored my passion to
make change and, because of it, my life's work will be consumed with advocating
equality for all.
I came into this program a little hesitant but very curious and excited to find out how to change the world. As Frederick Douglass poignantly stated, "Knowledge simply increased my discontent for life." In other words, the more one learns, the more anger, confusion, and passion one acquires. At the same time, you should feel more inspired to bring about a lasting and effective change to the world. I remember during one of the programs, Professor Bradley, a SLU history professor, discussed the Brown vs. Board of Education case. Even though I have heard it a hundred times before, that day I viewed it through a completely different lens. Two of the psychologists during Linda Brown's cross-examination performed something called the "Doll Test." The psychologists gave her two dolls, one a Black doll and White doll, and a set of questions to answer about both. After the test was administered, the White doll was identified as the prettiest and more coveted of the two dolls, while the Black doll was described as inadequate and inferior. This test had the biggest affect on swaying the court to rule in favor of allowing schools to be integrated. A separate but equal mentality is always inherently wrong. The innocent eyes of a child are what it took for these men to stare racism in the face and to realize that segregation is not just about what you can or cannot do, it is mental.
The mindset that Linda Brown carried on that day is not too different from what I struggle with today. I attend Rosati-Kain, all-girl, Catholic, predominately-white high school. I really struggle with the fact that the only black people on staff are janitors and that I am the only Black girl present in the majority of my classes. The blessing and burden of being a member of my race is that no matter which direction I choose, I might turn someone off. What I found through my experience at Cultural Leadership is that the uncertainty of your position is fine. Though a person may never appease the world, a person's actions, regardless of the amount of recognition or support you receive, have the ability to change the world. While it is one thing to learn about the many tenants of history, it is quite a different thing experiencing it.
During the summer, we traveled for 3½ weeks to various cities in the east southeast Unites States, including New York City, Washington D.C., Atlanta, Birmingham, Selma, New Orleans, Little Rock and Memphis. We visited sites of historical significance to issues of social justice and civil rights. We also met with and learned from the incredible individuals and groups who are working to bring about change in this country. What never ceased to amazed me was the amazing resilience held by both African-American and Jewish races. We visited the Slavery and Civil Rights Museum in Selma, Alabama. I was completely overwhelmed by my emotions. I cried for nearly 15 minutes after being dehumanized and humiliated, thrown in perhaps the most dark and smallest confines imaginable, and told some of the most horrendous tactics utilized by slave owners to keep our races divided and rebelling against one another. While at the National Holocaust Museum, I experienced a similar feeling seeing all the measures that Hitler and his regime used to turn an entire continent against one group of people. It is mind-blowing knowing that someone's entire history and culture were shunned and that they were even a reality. Part of the unsettling sentiment was seeing all of the pictures and numerous artifacts, including a railcar for used to transport prisoners to concentration camps. After seeing the pictures of all the hair recovered and the numerous pairs of shoes, six million Jews losing their lives was no longer a generic number. How much knowledge could the world have gained had these people lived? Unfortunately, their potential for greatness will never be fully conceived.
Despite these hardships, all the pain and hatred never kept African-American and Jewish people down. Through this program, this was one of the hardest concepts to grasp. The disparities among us are readily seen. Look to your schools, media, and workplace. The disillusion that Frederick Douglass spoke of becomes easier and easier to fall into each day. Their victory is their survival. Their mere existence was sought to be abolished, but they have defied the powers that be. They are here and in being present and bearing witness to their ancestors' history through the lives they live today, that legacy will never be lost.
While in New York we visited CLAL, The National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership. Rabbi Kula and Rabbi Hirschfield gave us some great food for thought. They emphasized that we should never seek to become a victim, because at the end of the day one will begin to compare whom is the most victimized among you. Using a cause and effect lens to measure both problems and progression, we can begin to see our effectiveness. For instance, how it is so very easy to see Hitler as the beginning of a problem, but there had to be billions of instances that allowed him to gain the power to do what he did. All of the anti-Semitic attitudes that went unchecked made it that much harder to counterattack. The same applies to slavery and the civil rights movement. In digging deeper, the devalued sense of the Africans through the perspective of social Darwinism held them back from being shown even the slightest form of dignity. That same mentality being passed down to children allows that power structure to stay the same.
On the contrary, progress takes a similar shape. It takes people speaking up about things they view as wrong to take down those deeply rooted structures of socialization from within all of us. Billions of instances of people working away at what ever issues that are made manifest in our lives, that's change. This is what it took for Letty Cottin Pogrebin, founder of Ms. Magazine, to advocate for women's rights. This is what gave Ernest Green, member of the Little Rock Nine, the strength to graduate from Central High School. This is what allowed Andre Klesser, a Holocaust survivor, the opportunity for an equal shot at life in America. This is what allowed Claudette Covin to be the first Rosa Parks and to shoot down segregation on the Montgomery bus lines. The connection between all of these people is they did something where they did not wait for change to fall out the sky. They agitated the powers that be until they got results. Whether it goes unknown or plastered across every television screen in America, people can make change much more apparent through their everyday actions. It starts with fighting those battles that are small enough to win and big enough to matter. Where ever people's passions lie, they have the ability to do something. It is necessary for us to put that 2% into action.
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
 |
||
|
