I live a sheltered life. I work as a lifeguard during the summer and am in college for the rest of the year. My parents are still together and still love each other very much; I get along with my siblings, and I have never had a real reason to fear for my life. I went to private schools starting in 2nd grade, I have always been a part of the majority, and I have never been discriminated against.
Yet, something is missing. I'm tired of living with my head in the ground, never really understanding the real world around me. I am protected from the true pains of life. I have never been to a funeral or heard that my best friend has been killed. I've never been in a courtroom or jail for anything other than a field trip. I've never held or seen a semi-automatic anything.
And still, I live on thinking that one day I might be able to help someone who has lived in a broken home. I could help someone who has lost a friend, family member to a cause they can't really describe as anything more than "us vs. them". I think that I will help take care of children who pray that when they come home there might be something to eat for dinner; that I can help a child who has been abused, a teenage girl who has been raped, a boy who will one day be initiated into a group bent on supremacy.
Sir Francis Bacon once said that "knowledge is power". What knowledge do we have today that makes us powerful? Is it the mentality that the only important thing to know involves the knowledge and ideas only held by people just like you? Is it that we don't need to know anything about the present, just the past in order to continue growing? Is it the knowledge that we think none of us are prejudiced or racist anymore? Or is it the knowledge that we still know nothing about the world around us?
Another famous quote is about walking a mile in another person's shoes before passing judgment. How can I, as a 20-year-old understand how someone who lived through the Holocaust lived then and carries on and lives day-to-day? How can I understand what life in a ghetto is like while I sleep in a bed with a roof over me? How can I understand how people perceive me when I cannot see me through their eyes?
I see myself one day, as someone who has an impact on people's lives. I want to help people through the trials of life. Yet, I can't do that without understanding how those events have left their impact. I cannot begin to understand what it feels like to be raped. Granted, I'm not going to get myself raped to find out what it's like so i can relate to other people. Just like I truly can't change my skin color or sexual orientation to understand the hardships of others.
That, however, does not mean that I can't sympathize. See, there's a difference between empathy and sympathy. Empathy means that you have gone through the pains another is going through and have a basic understanding of what that person is feeling. For example, a mother can empathize with her daughter who is in labor and childbirth. Sympathy means that although one person has not lived the exact pains of another person, he/she can try to understand how they would feel or react in a similar situation based on what they have personally lived through that would lead to similar reactions and emotions.
I can be sympathetic to others. However, I still have so much to learn to even begin to understand the emotions of others. My life has been exceptionally simple. The worst pains I've had to deal with are the loss of my grandmother, great-grandparents, and pets. All these came when they were expected and in the order they were expected. I have never lost a friend to violence or car wreck or suicide. I have not been directly affected by any horrific event. I understand that I live a life that some people can only dream of. I've learned to be thankful for having loving parents, siblings I get along with, friends who are there for me. But to be the person I want to be, I have to learn the other side. The rougher, less friendly, warm and fuzzy life.
Freedom Writers has begun the process. I empathize with Ms. Gruwell. She was very sheltered in her beliefs and understandings until she began to work at Wilson High School in Long Beach, CA. Suddenly, she was faced with gangs, separations along colored lines, shootings, murder, and far more than she ever imagined 14-year-olds could really be a part of. Certainly, the movie was not as violent as real life is, but I still don't understand anything. I do understand that whites have a supremest mindset that leads to pompous "we're better than everyone" type thinking. What we can't understand is why we are so hated. We see ourselves as gods, that we have delivered other people from their own strife. However, we can't see that we are no better than anyone else. We, too, are violent when others don't think like us or do the things we want them to do. So many say they aren't prejudiced, but underneath, we all still hold the ideals of our grandparents who lived through the Civil Rights Movement. We claim we are better than they were, but we still discriminate. Now, discrimination is not just whites vs. blacks as it was in the 60s. It is whites vs. blacks, Latinos, Filipinos, Chinese, Japanese, Vietnamese, Muslim, and on and on. And each of these groups is against the others, a constant battle for one-up manship. Not once do we stop to look to see that we are still dealing with the issues our grandparents fought to end in the 60s. We are still fighting the battles of who should be at the top of the proverbial social ladder.
Will we ever see a day when everyone can look and see themselves in everyone else despite the obvious difference of tint? Can we see that the color of our skin is only different based on evolution and biology, and that biology has nothing to do with brain capacity or one being better than the other? Our skin is different colors based on our ancestors habitat in relation to the equator. It all has to do with the amount of UVA and UVB radiation the person needed to be protected from. White people are pale because northern European countries were not hit with strong radiation from the sun. Africa is at the Equator, and Africans had to evolve to survive the stronger radiation from the sun. Although South America is near the Equator, these countries were mostly rain forest at the time, and thus, the habitants were more protected from radiation but still needed some personal protection beyond just the foliage of the trees. It's all based on melanin. It's why we can tan in the summer. But we can't see that we are all the same because we only want to focus on what's different between us all.
Yet, something is missing. I'm tired of living with my head in the ground, never really understanding the real world around me. I am protected from the true pains of life. I have never been to a funeral or heard that my best friend has been killed. I've never been in a courtroom or jail for anything other than a field trip. I've never held or seen a semi-automatic anything.
And still, I live on thinking that one day I might be able to help someone who has lived in a broken home. I could help someone who has lost a friend, family member to a cause they can't really describe as anything more than "us vs. them". I think that I will help take care of children who pray that when they come home there might be something to eat for dinner; that I can help a child who has been abused, a teenage girl who has been raped, a boy who will one day be initiated into a group bent on supremacy.
Sir Francis Bacon once said that "knowledge is power". What knowledge do we have today that makes us powerful? Is it the mentality that the only important thing to know involves the knowledge and ideas only held by people just like you? Is it that we don't need to know anything about the present, just the past in order to continue growing? Is it the knowledge that we think none of us are prejudiced or racist anymore? Or is it the knowledge that we still know nothing about the world around us?
Another famous quote is about walking a mile in another person's shoes before passing judgment. How can I, as a 20-year-old understand how someone who lived through the Holocaust lived then and carries on and lives day-to-day? How can I understand what life in a ghetto is like while I sleep in a bed with a roof over me? How can I understand how people perceive me when I cannot see me through their eyes?
I see myself one day, as someone who has an impact on people's lives. I want to help people through the trials of life. Yet, I can't do that without understanding how those events have left their impact. I cannot begin to understand what it feels like to be raped. Granted, I'm not going to get myself raped to find out what it's like so i can relate to other people. Just like I truly can't change my skin color or sexual orientation to understand the hardships of others.
That, however, does not mean that I can't sympathize. See, there's a difference between empathy and sympathy. Empathy means that you have gone through the pains another is going through and have a basic understanding of what that person is feeling. For example, a mother can empathize with her daughter who is in labor and childbirth. Sympathy means that although one person has not lived the exact pains of another person, he/she can try to understand how they would feel or react in a similar situation based on what they have personally lived through that would lead to similar reactions and emotions.
I can be sympathetic to others. However, I still have so much to learn to even begin to understand the emotions of others. My life has been exceptionally simple. The worst pains I've had to deal with are the loss of my grandmother, great-grandparents, and pets. All these came when they were expected and in the order they were expected. I have never lost a friend to violence or car wreck or suicide. I have not been directly affected by any horrific event. I understand that I live a life that some people can only dream of. I've learned to be thankful for having loving parents, siblings I get along with, friends who are there for me. But to be the person I want to be, I have to learn the other side. The rougher, less friendly, warm and fuzzy life.
Freedom Writers has begun the process. I empathize with Ms. Gruwell. She was very sheltered in her beliefs and understandings until she began to work at Wilson High School in Long Beach, CA. Suddenly, she was faced with gangs, separations along colored lines, shootings, murder, and far more than she ever imagined 14-year-olds could really be a part of. Certainly, the movie was not as violent as real life is, but I still don't understand anything. I do understand that whites have a supremest mindset that leads to pompous "we're better than everyone" type thinking. What we can't understand is why we are so hated. We see ourselves as gods, that we have delivered other people from their own strife. However, we can't see that we are no better than anyone else. We, too, are violent when others don't think like us or do the things we want them to do. So many say they aren't prejudiced, but underneath, we all still hold the ideals of our grandparents who lived through the Civil Rights Movement. We claim we are better than they were, but we still discriminate. Now, discrimination is not just whites vs. blacks as it was in the 60s. It is whites vs. blacks, Latinos, Filipinos, Chinese, Japanese, Vietnamese, Muslim, and on and on. And each of these groups is against the others, a constant battle for one-up manship. Not once do we stop to look to see that we are still dealing with the issues our grandparents fought to end in the 60s. We are still fighting the battles of who should be at the top of the proverbial social ladder.
Will we ever see a day when everyone can look and see themselves in everyone else despite the obvious difference of tint? Can we see that the color of our skin is only different based on evolution and biology, and that biology has nothing to do with brain capacity or one being better than the other? Our skin is different colors based on our ancestors habitat in relation to the equator. It all has to do with the amount of UVA and UVB radiation the person needed to be protected from. White people are pale because northern European countries were not hit with strong radiation from the sun. Africa is at the Equator, and Africans had to evolve to survive the stronger radiation from the sun. Although South America is near the Equator, these countries were mostly rain forest at the time, and thus, the habitants were more protected from radiation but still needed some personal protection beyond just the foliage of the trees. It's all based on melanin. It's why we can tan in the summer. But we can't see that we are all the same because we only want to focus on what's different between us all.
