Breathing Space has really opened my eyes to many things. I know that I live in a sheltered world, and I never assumed such atrocities were occurring within the borders of "the land of opportunity." I always think of the United States as a nation that is overwhelmingly blessed, and we are, however I always thought that in order to give "real help" you had to leave the country. However, the real help is needed here. The real change is needed now.
Where does this change need to come from though? Does our government need to step in and provide it? Mahatma Ghandi once said, "You must be the change you wish to see in the world." I read that quote everyday, but I guess it never really sunk in until I read this week's piece from Neumark. She says, "Where is the locus of real power, authority, and change for the church? More and more, it seems to me that the congregation is the real seat of transforming power." In reading this I was further motivated. We cannot sit and wait on our government to change things (sometimes more rules take us two steps back). We must be the change. We must be the people who bring change to our brothers and sisters. We must be the transforming power in our world.
"We must be the change we wish to see in the world." This is one of my most favorite quotes. I agree that there is so much in need of change- no one could deny that. I just hope that we can all take away from this course a sense of urgency and purpose.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you that change is much needed especially in today's society. I also think that many people have come to realize that we need change in order to be a better society. Thus making that not the main problem; the issue is that many people are not able to take on the will power needed in order to start this change. Like Camille said in her response: "We must be the change we wish to see in the world" I strongly agree with this quote and only wish that others will be able to spark change as well.
ReplyDeleteYou have great great points! I completely agree with everything you said. Honestly, it is all up to us whether we want to realize this responsibility or not. I think most of us just want to run away from it. It is truly an overwhelming thought to understand all the power that we have, we almost dont know how to use it.
ReplyDelete"Passive bystanders." I think that sums up a lot of our society and the way we go about things. WE recognize the problems and issues at hand, but we passively let them continue to occur. It has been readings such as Breathing Space and The Irresistible Revolution that spark the opposite of what many of us all do. We need people like Heidi, Dorothy, and Shane in the headlines of newspapers and media, instead of all the corrupt scandals and controversies taking place.
ReplyDeleteI've always been fascinated with why Americans have such a lackluster worldview in comparison to many other countries. A lot of it is just simple geography in that aside from Canada and Mexico, The U.S. stands pretty isolated in comparison to many other countries. Also, as you've mentioned, we all tend to be egocentric in thinking that because america is labeled the "land of opportunity" it should logically be synonymous with "land of no problems" but it just isn't true. We tend to overcompensate just how "blessed" America is in a certain sense, it's not that we AREN'T the most blessed nation on the face of the earth in comparison, but I think a lot of the reasons people like you said feel as though they need to leave the country in order to fight poverty maybe as a coping mechanism for fighting off guilt. After all, if they go to another country, they won't see injustices in their own backyard. if we all we're to dive head first and go where the action is like Neumark, Claibourne, or Day, then we would be forcing ourselves to see injustice that has been staring us in the face all our life and years beforehand, and if we see that, some of us may feel guilty about living such a sheltered and ultimately blind life. Maybe that's why we're all so quick and use that as our definition of "helping"? who knows, but bottom line, you're right, there is no excuse, we are and need to be that change. I'm constantly reminded of a quote Sydney has said a couple times in class.
ReplyDelete*loosely* "if you convince yourself that there will always be things like poverty then you're giving yourself no chance to see anything different because you already see things as that way" it is for this reason that we can't be passive bystanders, we can't fall into this trip, even if our change starts with one person, or start with this class, bottom line, action is necessary.
I agree Abby. We can't just wait for other people to fix things and create change. We need to be the ones who make change happen. Each individual is the one who needs to do everything they can for change. I also like that quote for Gandhi.
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