Impact

Every day we hear from civil rights leaders. We hear about their lives, their struggles, their battles, the society they fought against and the world they hoped to build. But the most important part, the most impactful part isn't the description of their past; it's their hope for the future. They tell us the world could be better,  that there's more to do, that the world still needs changing and that we, this generation known for our texts and our tweets and our hashtags, are the only ones capable of changing it. Yesterday I talked to Vaish Shastry, the executive director for the Sunflower County Freedom Project, an after school program dedicated to educating 7th-12th graders. She described the system she teaches under. she described a system based off racist principles that should be more antiquated than blood letting but remain very, very real. At first I felt frustrated. I was disturbed as much by my own ignorance as by the misery of the system as a whole. After a day, I don't feel angry. All I feel is necessity. We are part of the United States and yet we remain in many aspects not simply divided, but segregated. I'd like to say I can promise to change things, to make the world a better place. All I can say is that I'll try to do something. Through phone calls and emails and petitions and organization and anything else I can think up to do, I will try to change something, to make the almost cliched statement "all men are created equal" as true in practice as it ought to be. I'm no genius. I follow more often than I lead and I'm not really all that brave, but I still believe I can part of the changes that need to happen. This trip let me understand that and I really don't have the literary skill or vocabulary to describe how much I appreciate it. To all the funders and supporters out there, you gave me something I really couldn't get anywhere else. 

Aharon, City College