A Final Week (in protest)

This week was ruined by casual protests. A swarm of teachers pulled me from my exam to recruit me. They had a movement. For whatever good that movement meant, it hardly seems like it would do well for my students. Their week of final exams was naught. A single vocabulary test is all that we could manage to produce as a grade for this final portion. A vocabulary test more important now than it seemed at the time.

Teachers are meant to be bastions of thoughtfulness, action built out of thorough reflection. How short we fall! This week, I had no choice. My foreigner place does not give me the luxury of argument and going against too many grains. Oh that I could have spoke freely! When petitioning the government, what is the difference between taking the test and refusing to give the grades and refusing to give the test? Both would accomplish the same task, a shutdown of the school’s apparatus. Yet, by not surveying the exams, we have hurt our students. Their opportunities to gain those few extra points are lost in the bumbling smoke spewing forth from the exhaust pipes of fleeing teachers. They are off to gather and casually chat.

In the meantime, I will wait out the remainder of the week and nod my heads at my kids as they pass me on the road. They will shout “It isn’t easy, sir!” and I will reply, “I know” with a wave. The stress of the moment will leave me but those missing hours of lessons will never find their way into those smiling heads. Something is lost in the muddle even if the teachers have found their higher pay.

The world is on fire. It has been said. We can look around and see it is true. Whether the sparks are from unrest across the Arab World or at your doorstep such as we have seen these last few months in Burkina, we have felt the heat. It is not just Africa or the Arab World. Tornadoes, tsunamis, and earthquakes have added fuel to the flame, leaving many seeking shelter and aid. Terrorism and the death of its largest symbol. Wars and protests. Elections and fraud. Chinese suppression to American economics. The wild fire of 2011 has even touched my grandfather’s home in West Texas.

The world is calling. Look around at the chaos and the choices; you will see that help can come in any form. You can serve in the military or at a local food bank. You can tutor a child or fly halfway around the world to help build latrines. It all matters.

You see, wild fires happen. There are always problems. Yet, we do not have to sit by and just watch the flames devour the world. Fire can be useful, even replenishing. It is a necessary part of the forestry cycle or the refinement process. But, when it cannot be put out, fire needs direct.

What are we doing to put out the flames? What are we doing to shape its path towards usefulness?

It isn’t enough to want to help. We have to do something, anything. We have the time. We need only the will. It does not have to be running off to Africa. But, our humanity demands that we look around us and pick up the slack. Join a movement you care about. Learn about a movement. Support your local library. Do something brave. Join the Peace Corps. Join the military. Join an anti-war protest. Start a discussion. End a fight. Seek a compromise. Let go of a grudge. Seek commonality. We are called to act, called to help and “no one is exempt from the call to find common ground.”

If it is a wildfire, give to your local firefighters. Sign up as a volunteer. Give shelter and aid to those that have lost homes.

If it is frustration about those in the streets celebrating Osama’s death, try to find out why they are celebrating and help to educate them about the human cost of any death. Seek a way to help mold that raw emotion into a desire for unity and community. Use it to build roads or clean up a neighborhood. Use it to as an excuse to find common ground and common action.

If it is a problem with policy and politics, seek a higher ground. Try to elevate the debate away from in-fighting and towards common principles. Break the cycle of pundit slash and burn. Turn a cheek.

If you have concerns about how to get involved, then reach out. You can always contact me. Do a google search. Open that ancient thing called a phone book. There are ways to get involved even if you have only a few minutes of time.

For those that say it is easy for me to speak of helping and to go adventuring around, it is not. It has not been. And it will not be. My reply to these skeptics is from E.M. Forester’s Where Angels Fear to Tread:

“I’m muddle-headed and stupid, and not worth a quarter of you, but I have tried to do what seemed right at the time. And you – your brain and your insight are splendid. But when you see what’s right you’re too idle to do it. You told me once that we shall be judged by our intentions, no by our accomplishments. I thought it a grand remark. But we must intend to accomplish – not sit intending on a char.”

I am muddle-headed and I fall short of so many of the goals I set for myself. I am far from the best example of a volunteer or teacher. I by no means measure up to so many far better men and women doing brave and outstanding acts. But, I’m not idle. I’m trying, despite the setbacks and the reasons not to do so.

Further, I am proud of my friends and family. Whether it is serving our forces overseas or supporting a friend/family member through their darker times, I am proud and grateful. What amazing examples of the better parts of human nature.

This blog is as much a call to action for others as a public expression and setting of a goal for myself. It is a way to hold myself to that higher standard and maybe help lift up some of those around me.