A World We Dare To Imagine 1
I have visited Mexico, Australia, The Bahamas, and a handful of states. I am endlessly grateful for these experiences however, comparatively, I am not well traveled in the slightest. Thus, who am I to say what would make the world a better place, when all I truly know is my world? Further, small, gradual change is the best catalyst to global change, meaning: local change leads to global change. Thus my recommendation for a better world will mainly refer to the US, the state of California and communities within it, for this is what I know best.
I truly believe the first step to an immediately better world is impeaching Donald Trump. It really has little do with politics but simply the principle that the United States will only take steps backwards as long as he is in power. He only perpetuates institutional racism, sexism, and xenophobia through his speech, policy, and demeanor. We live in a very complacent society and it saddens me to believe that Trump even had the remote possibility of being elected. It only reveals the skewed priorities our country holds: business over humanity.
I recently canvassed for Grassroots Campaigns and found that all my colleagues were so interested in their liberal agenda, they lost the ability to effectively communicate with anyone with a remotely different stance. I come from a family who voted for Trump. Mainly, my siblings and I try to understand how our parents could prioritize business over the rights of immigrants, people of color, women...and we have asked. And as I work towards building my own future and financial independence, I can see why they made that choice. I don’t agree and would never do the same but I don’t hate them or pity them, I just try to understand their background and it has helped me communicate with them and those alike. I find that with a nation is such divide, this is what we need. We need to slow down, take the time to understand the decision of others that might seem so totally counter intuitive to our own. We need forums and community engagement and ‘accompaniment.’ This would manifest in resilience groups, meetings, education and any way that brings people together, face to face. We need more engagement in local communities.
I agree with you. I feel that society now is becoming more and more sensistive towards the issues that matter. Sensitive in a way that they refuse to talk about complex issues specially with people that disagree because of a fear of getting hurt or offended. I thin this sensitivity hurts our ability to communicate and understand each other. We need to learn to talk about politics, racism, sexism, and other tough topics in an educated way to understand each other.
ReplyDeleteTotally agree as well. You mention at the beginning that you haven't traveled all that much outside of the US. You talk a lot about creating change and I agree that everyone has the potential to create a lot of change. Sometimes it is best to stick to what we know and help the communities we are already in because there is always room no matter what the community is to become better. It is so important for everyone to use their voice regardless of their prerequisites!
ReplyDeleteI think that you bring up a key problem with society today, which is that we have become selfish in a sense. Meaning that we have started to use technology as a way to avoid conflict, hide from dissenting views, and ridicule anyone who stands in our way. We have become cowards.
ReplyDeleteI love your idea and think that it could have tremendous impact on a lot of people. One way I think you could make it better would be to create conversations with people of different views, but the problem is (which I have experienced at work) that you can't have a constructive debate about a topic unless their is mutual respect between sides.
I think that is going to be the most difficult part in keeping this organization afloat, how do you assure mutual respect while maintaining constructive debate