Transitions, part 1

I am writing this story for a long overdue paper.
Please follow along with me as I take a journey from an unsuspecting, uninformed 21 year-old
to a person with a mission in life.
Though I'm still probably horribly uninformed,
my life now has direction.
I hope to share how I got where I am
and to show you a different way of looking at the world.
Please enjoy, and comment frequently.

It all started with my friend Kelley Anderson inviting me to a meeting of the Youth Culture and Arts Center's (YCAC) organizing committee and a dedicated professor named Dr. Franklin. Kelley told me of her idea to start an after-school arts program for local kids and I immediately fell in love. Dr. Franklin showed me that there are many ways to change your world, even more than I can recount. A top ten complaint of teachers, administrators, parents and students for a long time has been that that there aren't enough arts programs in the schools and the community. For a long time I have complained about this when discussing the state of public education in America. Finally I was presented with a way to change this. Here is our mission statement: "The mission of the YCAC is to provide a safe and positive atmosphere for young people to create and experience the arts. The YCAC will help build character in our youth by providing positive role models and access to the tools and technology used in various art disciplines. While focusing on programs for young people, the YCAC will also serve as a community and arts resource for people of all ages."

I was brought in at the very beginning of the organization and quickly was nominated and approved to chair the organizing committee. During my one year term I learned how to prepare agendas, lead meetings and encourage others to voice their ideas. The biggest challenge though has been to get individuals to show up for meetings. I was also made a member of the board of directors for Youth Empowerment through Arts and Humanities (YEAH). This organization the umbrella non-profit and fundraising arm for the Southern Girls Rock and Roll Camp (SGRRC) and the YCAC. Through these experiences, my world-view has been completely redirected; from federal politics to local and state. All in the span of two years. In this paper, I hope to show that focusing our energies on our communities, instead of at the federal government, can change the outlook of every individual and bring back significance to millions of disenchanted Americans. I believe that if I can show this to enough people, our local governments will be empowered to wrest back control of important issues from the states and federal government. I believe that in doing this we can make our country whole and respected in the world again. This is the story of an awakening, followed by another awakening and so ad infinitum.

I have one thing, and one thing only to thank George W. Bush for; his war on the country of Iraq woke me up to politics. In the 2000 election, I actually voted for him. I didn't know a thing about his politics and background. I merely listened to what my parents said about him and did the same. One year later, the World Trade Center and the Pentagon were dive-bombed by airliners, supposedly piloted by Arab extremists angry at my country for our relations with the Middle East. Of course, that was not what I was told by any member of our government. They said that the 'terrorists' hated us because we had too many 'freedoms' and because we are perfect. At the time, I still didn't have a clue. I watched the towers fall 651,504,657,504 times, felt sad and then went on with my life almost as if nothing had happened. The one active thing that I did was to stick up for dark-skinned people who I witnessed being lambasted at local gas stations. Of course, most of them were usually Indian, not Arabs, not Muslims. Regardless, returning soldiers told them that they "just got back from blowing the #*%& out of your kind" and regular Joes generally said "*$^( off" to them. In retort, after making a joke about how they weren't even Arab, I always told the offended person that they were welcome in my country at any time.

I did not take offense to the invasion of Afghanistan shortly after 9-11. I believed then that it was our duty to clean out the riff-raff so that we could get on with our "peaceful" American existence. Now, I don't even know if the invasion of Afghanistan was justified. Nevertheless, it wasn't until late in 2002 when Mr. Bush started spouting rhetoric about the innocent country of Iraq, that I started to take notice of our wrongs. I started picking up the Washington Post on an almost daily basis, reading the justifications given by our President, wondering why this poor, beat up country was being targeted by us. Why was a country, starved by sanctions and still bombed, even though the official war against them was over, being target for the biggest war since Vietnam. Of course, at the time we were told that we'd be in and out, welcomed as 'liberators'. We'd leave behind a wonderful democracy and bring capitalism to the heart of the Middle East. We now know that to be untrue. Every day I screamed at the top of my lungs that we should not carry out this misguided action. Regrettably, though only 30 miles away from me, Washington did not hear my cries. And the rest, as they say, is history.

TO BE CONTINUED...