Over the past three years I've been trying to figure out what I am going to "be" when I graduate from college... I have known what I am going to do with my life since my sophomore year of high school, but how I'm going to do the things I'm called to do is a completely different can of worms... Before this semester, my favorite class was a women's issues class because we explored the hardships that females face every day. From sexual violence to human trafficking to the access of equal opportunity; these issues are the same from Norman, Oklahoma all the way to Phnom Penh, Cambodia. The things we deal with are universal.... They're human issues; not American or African or Asian issues. These topics require change, and until this semester I had yet to learn about how I was going to make this change come about....
Many of us believe that life is all about having fun, and to a certain extent, I can agree... I think that life should be enjoyed! But I also think there is so much more - so many things that are wrong in the world that are calling for us to get mad about and to do something about them.
This semester I'm taking a class called Social Change Process, and though it may be challenging, it's my new favorite. Basically our professor asks us about controversial topics and challenges us to form an opinion. The conversations typically start out about one thing and escalade into something totally different that is accompanied by a debate between conflicting view points. For example, a few topics have been on stem cell research, same sex couples applying for adoption, the legalization of marijuana, women receiving less pay than men, free health care, human trafficking and so on...
Today the focus was on women receiving less pay than men. When he asked us to raise our hand if anyone was involved in the movement for justice, not a single woman raised her hand. He didn't understand. He asked why none of us were interested in doing something about it. One girl said that taking a job with less pay was better than denying the job and receiving no pay at all. Another girl explained that statistics show that a major reason for the increase in divorce rates was due to women making more money than men, creating insecurities in the male; therefore, it was more important to her to have a lasting marriage than equal pay... There were so many reasons that we weren't standing up for what we all agreed was right. The conversation quickly changed to human trafficking.
He said, "Kirby, aren't you passionate about human trafficking? So what are you doing about it?"
I was silent for a few seconds, and he continued... "What are you guys doing to change the things that you consider injustice? Are you writing letters to the Senator explaining that Oklahoma is one of the largest transits in the United States for trafficking humans across state borders? Are you asking leaders to pass a law that requires each truck to be searched at the stops along the high way to insure that human beings are not being commuted from one city to the next? What are you doing to create change?"
I was challenged. Then he said something that I haven't been able to stop thinking about all day...
"College students are one of the most powerful groups of people in the United States. Why? Because you all have nothing to lose. If I were to stand outside and picket about something, I have the chance of getting fired, but you? They're not going to tell you that you have to stop paying them for an education... You all have the most powerful voice - you can stand up for whatever you want. Human Rights. Equal pay. Whatever.... but it's a shame, because you don't use it."
He's right. The truth is that we are in such a crucial time in our lives. We have the world at our fingertips... We are free to go wherever we want, see whatever we want, and do whatever we want. We don't have a career tying us down and most of us don't have other people we are trying to provide for. But we waste our lives on empty nights that we don't even remember... Our generation is the one that can change the world. We have access to knowledge of the things that are taking place around us, and we have more ways to speak to large amounts of people than ever before.
Two of my favorite sentences every spoken are "I'm not afraid, I was born to do this." - Joan of Arc and "If our God is for us, who could be against us?" Romans 8:31.
There are more injustices happening around the world than we could ever begin to imagine. It's not enough to simply get angry about them. We have to write letters. We have to create or join the movement. Love takes action. We can't be afraid of failing. We have the opportunity to do things that 95% of the rest of the US population doesn't. We may be young, but we're powerful.
We just have to be bold enough to stand.
Many of us believe that life is all about having fun, and to a certain extent, I can agree... I think that life should be enjoyed! But I also think there is so much more - so many things that are wrong in the world that are calling for us to get mad about and to do something about them.
This semester I'm taking a class called Social Change Process, and though it may be challenging, it's my new favorite. Basically our professor asks us about controversial topics and challenges us to form an opinion. The conversations typically start out about one thing and escalade into something totally different that is accompanied by a debate between conflicting view points. For example, a few topics have been on stem cell research, same sex couples applying for adoption, the legalization of marijuana, women receiving less pay than men, free health care, human trafficking and so on...
Today the focus was on women receiving less pay than men. When he asked us to raise our hand if anyone was involved in the movement for justice, not a single woman raised her hand. He didn't understand. He asked why none of us were interested in doing something about it. One girl said that taking a job with less pay was better than denying the job and receiving no pay at all. Another girl explained that statistics show that a major reason for the increase in divorce rates was due to women making more money than men, creating insecurities in the male; therefore, it was more important to her to have a lasting marriage than equal pay... There were so many reasons that we weren't standing up for what we all agreed was right. The conversation quickly changed to human trafficking.
He said, "Kirby, aren't you passionate about human trafficking? So what are you doing about it?"
I was silent for a few seconds, and he continued... "What are you guys doing to change the things that you consider injustice? Are you writing letters to the Senator explaining that Oklahoma is one of the largest transits in the United States for trafficking humans across state borders? Are you asking leaders to pass a law that requires each truck to be searched at the stops along the high way to insure that human beings are not being commuted from one city to the next? What are you doing to create change?"
I was challenged. Then he said something that I haven't been able to stop thinking about all day...
"College students are one of the most powerful groups of people in the United States. Why? Because you all have nothing to lose. If I were to stand outside and picket about something, I have the chance of getting fired, but you? They're not going to tell you that you have to stop paying them for an education... You all have the most powerful voice - you can stand up for whatever you want. Human Rights. Equal pay. Whatever.... but it's a shame, because you don't use it."
He's right. The truth is that we are in such a crucial time in our lives. We have the world at our fingertips... We are free to go wherever we want, see whatever we want, and do whatever we want. We don't have a career tying us down and most of us don't have other people we are trying to provide for. But we waste our lives on empty nights that we don't even remember... Our generation is the one that can change the world. We have access to knowledge of the things that are taking place around us, and we have more ways to speak to large amounts of people than ever before.
Two of my favorite sentences every spoken are "I'm not afraid, I was born to do this." - Joan of Arc and "If our God is for us, who could be against us?" Romans 8:31.
There are more injustices happening around the world than we could ever begin to imagine. It's not enough to simply get angry about them. We have to write letters. We have to create or join the movement. Love takes action. We can't be afraid of failing. We have the opportunity to do things that 95% of the rest of the US population doesn't. We may be young, but we're powerful.
We just have to be bold enough to stand.
