When life gets me down ...
I try to remember what inspires me - what touches my heart.
I just keep reading or hearing awful things in my communities. There are shootings related to gang-activity in my city. Teachers in the staff room comment on this, the radio mentions it, too. I am enraged by the ongoing Braidwood inquiry, namely the testimonies by the RCMP officers who maintain that they were justified in treating a man as 'armed' when he held a desk stapler. I am thankful, however, that there is an eyewitness video (almost went 'missing') that is being used as evidence.
I am saddened when I read my LJ friends list and discover many teachers losing their jobs to the recession. I remember this happened a few years ago in B.C. when Gordon Campbell became Lord Kingpin of the Province and closed schools and hospital beds. People got shuffled around in their profession, often working part-time or being forced to retire early.
... yet with violent crime featured so prominently in the news, and job cuts affecting my profession, I can't help but wonder that Big Question: Don't politicians know that Good Education = less crime?? SERIOUSLY - there are statistics showing that repeat offenders often have less education than shorter-term prisoners. PLUS staying in school = not being out on the 'streets' committing crimes. Oy. This is elementary. And secondary and post-secondary ;)
So what inspired me today? I had a great day in a grade 6 classroom (teacher was doing reports) but that wasn't what inspired me. All around the classroom are books about inspirational people from history. Martin Luther King, Marie Curie, Winston Churchill, Rosa Parks, Gandhi, and Terry Fox among them. I picked up a children's book about Terry Fox.
I almost always cry when I read his story. Sometimes I forget the pain he endured during his Marathon of Hope, and the determination he had. Even reading a highly illustrated version of the story, I am touched.