Women were not allowed to be educated back in the day.
They were looked down upon for wanting to go to school, it was a "manly" endeavor.
Education causes all kinds of issues.
I can TOTALLY see this. People in my life are SO TIRED of me asking questions, reading books, pushing them on issues and making them face things and talking, talking, talking. I've lost friends on Facebook because I make people uncomfortable and I speak my mind and I push people to see that there are new and updated ways of looking at things. And I'm looking at things in new ways and learning that the ways I look at things aren't always the right ways and man, is that hard. It's so stupid hard to realize that beliefs I've held for years and years are just plain wrong and I'm wrong for thinking them. I put that in bold so I can emphasize it. I've had to learn new ways of researching and new ways of learning. I haven't done the best I could but when you know better you do better and I'm trying as hard as I can. There's a reason that people say that college changes people, as trite as that sounds. Hell, LIFE changes people, and you have to roll with it, and if you don't, you're dumb. You aren't the same person you were 5,10,20 years ago, and you shouldn't be. You have had life experiences now that you didn't then.
As an aside, my girlfriend just told me: I don't think you've changed through your schooling so much. I think it's more like you've been unleashed. Which is an interesting thought.
I've been in school for a year plus now and my life has turned upside down. I am a totally different person. I don't attribute it all to school, however. I read a super interesting article on NPR. The question that the writer asked of the people he interviewed was, Why now, white people? Why are you becoming so involved now? What happened to finally flip the switch?
My area of study is Community Advocacy and Social Justice, which is a really interesting area of study in this time. In fact, I would venture to say that this is the best, most thought provoking and historically (at least one of the best) time to be studying this particular subject.
It has been amazingly thought provoking and has stimulated some personal growth as well. Because I plan to work in macro, my courses are almost all on aspects of social work, diversity and oppression, social problems, world populations, current events, immigration reform, marginalized populations, etc. Many of my classes focus on fighting poverty, food insecurity, and other related issues as well as being a better ally in my community. I've volunteered for six years in the homeless community and learned that much of what people think about the homeless isn't true at all, including what I once thought. My immigration reform classes have taught the same, as have the marginalized population classes - it's amazing what people think they know based on what they learn from hearsay/Fox news/talking to friends. I've also taken classes on Gender studies, Political Science, Psychology, Criminal Justice and Females (my favorite so far and the most difficult, but I definitely want to take the next level). Working with marginalized populations helps to make the book learning come to life and gives an empathy and understanding you can only learn in action.
I research the hell out of everything. I have multiple newspaper subscriptions. I spend hours a day reading. I follow this graphic.
i watch news as well, to cross reference what I read. I listen to talk radio - NPR, the BBC, etc. I try, as much as I can, to make sure I back my opinions up with fact.
One of the things that has really helped me to grow and change over the past three months has been the Coronavirus quarantine, and the fact that I've just plain been at home with my kids, and they've been at home with me, and we've had a ton of time to talk and think and read and study together. My girls have asked me questions, and we've talked about many, many things. I've been impressed with their thought processes, education and decisions. My children have gone to protests. They've donated to the bail funds. They are able to see racism, and they call people on it. They are vocal on issues of police brutality. We have talked about good and bad actions and reactions, not painting everyone with the same broad paint brush, and how you need to educate yourself and not just follow along with the crowd.
We've talked about the fact that video is everywhere and how powerful it is and how your actions are always seen and people are watching and recording. Words can be misconstrued but video cannot. And when you watch some of the things that have been caught on video lately, and you fail to be angered by them - I have a hard time with that. Tear gas, people being shoved and hit with batons, reporters being shot after self - identifying, cars being driven into crowds deliberately, shooting people - all of it.
Education positively affects policy change. It's how things get done.
When the numbers for Coronavirus keep climbing, and people keep dying, and it doesn't seem to matter to you, and you refuse to wear a mask because it "infringes upon your rights" - and yet you clamor "all lives matter" - put a mask on your face because until you do, all lives don't matter. If they did, you'd protect all of those lives - the elderly who could die from your asymptomatic ass, the asthmatic who just got off her third round of steroids in three months, the man with Crohn's disease who can't afford to catch even a cold, the cancer patient who has no immune system because she's undergoing chemo, the girl who has rheumatoid arthritis - AND YOU CAN'T TELL THAT ANY OF THESE PEOPLE ARE SICK AND YOU CAN'T TELL THAT YOU ARE ASYMPTOMATIC. These are all real life situations that I know, and seeing people without masks reminds me every time of these people.
And if you are Scripturally based, read these:
"Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility regard others as better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others. Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus." -- Philippians 2:1-5
"Do not seek your own good, but seek the good of your neighbor." -- 1 Corinthians 10:24
"You shall love your neighbor as yourself." -- Mark 12:31
I'm not a fan of the current administration, and the more I study on it, the less I find to agree with and admire. The demagoguery on race has clarified the problem of American Racism is a way that I haven't noticed it in the past - and I'm not entirely sure why. Maybe because I didn't take the time to notice. Maybe because I have more time to think, because I'm not drowning in my life and my own internal issues. My own mental health consumed so much of myself that I think it was difficult for me to see externally, but now that I'm in a good place I can see more, and I'm able to do more. I remember walking through NYC on election night, and seeing the results, and being swept along with a protest, and feeling as if I belonged.
I've kept a daily journal since the Coronavirus began, and actually seeing the numbers tick up, and being able to reference the things that the administration has done/not done said/not said in reference to the virus to help Americans has been very eye opening. It's really easy to just look at today, this week, but to look at the history of the numbers, and see the reality, is scary:
March 1 - Coronavirus cases in the US – 89 Deaths in the US – 2
April 11- Coronavirus cases in the US – 532,879 Deaths in the US – 20,577
May 11- Coronavirus cases in the US – 1,362,684 Deaths in the US – 81,816
June 11- Coronavirus cases in the US - 2,066,634 Deaths in the US - 115,141
Today is June 18, and we are at 118,268.
If we just stay flat, and have 800-1,000 die every day, which is what is happening right now, that's 25,000-30,000 a month. Run the math. We will cross 200,000 by September. And then what? We likely won't have a vaccine until January or later, and some people won't get it.
If we continue to spike, we will cross 200,000 by the end of July. There are currently 21 states spiking, thanks to Memorial Day activities, and who knows how many will spike in two weeks after the protests.
And much of this could have been avoided. It still could be flattened, if people would wear masks, and socially distance. But people won't, and there is not consolidated leadership from above.
Unemployment is catastrophic. Food banks can't keep up, and people wait in line for hours to even sign up for unemployment benefits. Small businesses are failing at an alarming rate.
I can't keep silent about these things. They have affected my family in ways that I don't talk about here and won't talk about in public, but definitely watching the dominoes fall hasn't been pleasant. And I'm angry that these things have happened, not just to those I love, but to all of us. To those I see on tv, to those I see at work, to those I see on the streets and in the stores and lined up for unemployment and at the homeless shelters and waiting for food at the food banks, many for the first time. For people who have lost their 401k's and lost their jobs and never gotten benefits and don't know how they will pay their bills and for those who feel superior because they still have jobs and money and have never had to struggle and think that those who do are just "dumb" and uneducated and deserve what happens to them. I'm angry for those who skip meals so their kids can eat and for people who waited in line for ten hours for unemployment benefits only to get turned away while multi million dollar companies get hand outs. I'm angry to see black people being killed over and over, I'm angry to see lynchings (lynchings!) occur, I'm angry to see that more people aren't angry.
I'm angry to see that more people don't care about these things. Have we become a people who just flat out do not care about anyone other than ourselves?
"In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends." Martin Luther King