what ho! a foe?
I just got to the part in Freedom Writers where the kids take a trip to Washington, D.C. I have never been there. The junior high in my town takes a trip there for the eighth grade students, but I went to school in another city that didn't do many field trips, especially out-of-state trips. We went to the Big E and to Medieval Times, and that was it as far as out-of-state trips. We wanted to go to New Jersey, I think, at one point, for something for Drama or Geography (same teacher so I forget which class it was), but were told no because it was too far and the school didn't have the insurance. My brother got to go with the local eighth grade class to Washington, D.C., though. Hopefully I'll get to see it some day too.
So in this part of the book, the kids are enjoying seeing the sights in the city, like the memorials and the giant Abe Lincoln (as cool as the Daibutsu in Kamakura, Japan, which I have visited). But then they are walking through the city, and they see a bunch of swastika graffiti on walls. Of course they were appalled. The swastika obviously represents innumerable horrible things. It was Hitler's logo of hatred. Worst of all, he stole it - originally the swastika was just a Hindu simple of prosperity. Swastika is actually a name, too. I've heard of kids being named Swastika because they are Hindi, but non-Hindi or non-Indian people don't always realize that and think the child was named after the Nazi symbol. The Nazi symbol isn't exactly the same as the Hindi swastika, but it is similar. I think it's just backwards or reversed or something.
Anyway, the kids see all these Nazi symbols, and decide to do something about it. So they come up with their own "Freedom Writers" logo and draw it on pieces of paper. Then they tape the logos over the swastikas. That way, they are not damaging property and they are also replacing hatred with love and justice.
It reminded me of something that happened in eleventh grade. I was in the cafeteria when I passed a sign for our snack bar. The man who runs our snack bar is black, one of the few African-Americans in our neighborhood. His name is Charles and he is a sweetheart. I ran into him at Dollar Magic once, and we had a nice conversation. I've seen him elsewhere too, and he's always just the nicest guy. In school, girls innocently flirt with him when they buy snacks from him just because he's funny and makes them laugh. I was shy and didn't flirt, but he always joked with me, and gradually I got comfortable around him and felt confident joking back. All the girls, and a lot of the boys, just thought he was the greatest.
But there's always some punk who has to mess up people's happiness. When I found this particular ad for the snack bar, I was shocked to see that someone had written "Charles has AIDS" in big letters all over it. I think it was the only one of the ads that was destroyed, but it was one too many. I was so upset that someone had dared to do this. Just because he's black, they think it's funny to write something totally dumb like that. I got my pen and scratched the letters out. Then I went back to my table and told my friends what had happened.
Kathryn was just as upset as I was, but it was Ben who put things in perspective for me. "Why didn't you just take the sign down?" he asked me.
"Well, I thought about it, but I didn't want to get in trouble for taking down a school ad," I said.
"I don't think you'd get in trouble. No one's looking anyway. That sign shouldn't be up," he replied.
I thought about it, and decided he was right. So when the bell rang, I took a detour through the other caf where the sign was, ripped it down and threw it in the trash. It was a small thing, but at least I did something about the sign when everyone else was leaving it alone. My school is the same as any other public high school - graffiti everywhere, boys drawing penises on the walls of the girls' bathrooms, girls making up horrible gossip to scrawl on the bathroom walls. People even rip down or cover up posters for clubs to make up their own.
But while all that prejudice was going on, still it was only the petty, trivial things that were addressed. Like in tenth grade, when I joined the school paper. I wrote an article about the anime club. I didn't enjoy the anime club when I visited it, because that year it was mad up of twenty-something boys and maybe three girls who didn't even come all the time. That would have been fine, but all they did was watch anime porn. I got to talk to one guy about Rurouni Kenshin, which was fun, but the videos they played were just gross and insulting. I'm not into the "free love" philosophy, so maybe my views on sexuality are old-fashioned, but I don't stay near things that make me uncomfortable, so I never went back to the club. However, the article I wrote about it for the paper was still glowing. I talked only about the good things in the club. I did mention that things were a little crazy, but that was true, and expected of a high school club. It was only one comment and the rest of the article was nothing but praise, but still lots of kids got on my back about it. They said I'd insulted their club and were talking about me behind my back. The leader of the club, Jenn, was a great girl. She asked me personally if I didn't like her or the club, and I explained to her that I had never meant to offend, I had nothing against her or the club. She said she hadn't felt insulted by the article, but some of her friends did so she just wanted to make sure things were cool. She turned out to be a really awesome person, and she was on the Japan trip with me so it was good we became friends. After the incident, I wrote an apology note for the next issue. My teacher told me I didn't have to if I didn't think I had anything to apologize for, and most people not involved in the club seemed to think I didn't. But I wanted to avoid more confrontation, so I published an apology, and that was that.
It's just funny that there was this whole fiasco - brief, to be sure, but still ridiculous - just because of an article about the anime club. Yet no one wanted to take the ADL meeting, or the issues of prejudice in our school, seriously. And I'll tell you why: It was easy to point fingers at me, because that made the anime club's "bad name" my fault. But when it came to the issues raised by the ADL meeting, everyone knew we were all to blame. And it's so much harder to admit that we ourselves are responsible for the suffering of others.
Today I went to the orthodontist and got my braces tightened - yay. Then I went to the doctor for my physical. I had to get a meningitis immunization before I went to college. I was nervous about it because I hate shots, but I thought about the last time I had to have blood taken and remembered that it hadn't hurt at all. I had a doctor I've never met before who was really friendly. He used to be in the military, stationed in Okinawa. He told me that after asking about my college studies and finding out I'm minoring in Japanese. He even told me some interesting stuff about Okinawa, and I got to tell him about Hana and Lyndon who are in Okinawa as a teacher and a Navy soldier. His geniality plus his military background really made me like him. Then the nurse gave me the shot. I asked if it was going to hurt, and she said yes, after it would feel like someone had punched me in the arm. But when I actually got the shot, I didn't even notice the needle go in. I didn't feel a thing! Now I am a little sore, but I've been a lot more sore than this. I guess I'm a little better at dealing with pain than I was when I was six, and four nurses plus my mom had to hold me down just so the doctor could give me one little shot!
Yeah, I'm stubborn... I know that side of me still exists somewhere!
I want to see the new Jane Austen movie! And also Evan Almighty. I have to see Tory really soon before she goes off to Bellhaven. Kathleen and I are trying to make plans to see Evan together, so I invited Tory along. I hope she can come, but she might not be free. Still hoping to get time with Audra to go to Mitsuwa. And I really, REALLY hope I can get Kathryn, Alli and Rini together so we can go to the Rennaissance Fair. I want to see them before we leave, and I haven't seen Alli since graduation. (But I did just see Kathryn and Rini when our troop went to see Spamalot. It was so cool, but we were all punchy on the train ride home, and had a raunchy conversation. Haha! I'm not going with them to the spa, but I still talked about it with them. It was lots of fun.)