(no subject)
So many fights call to me, so many worthwhile fights. Each one is so deserving of my time, my effort, my sacrifice. My devotion can make a difference, I know I can. I've seen what I can do, what I can change. The burden of unfulfilled personal potential to create necessary social action and change weighs heavily on me tonight after a conversation with Wags and Lisa. I want to fight. I want to grab the corrupt, morally reprehensible institutions with both hands and, as Wags put it, "shake them like a baby."
I'm an activist. I can't divest myself of that, ever. It is how I was raised, it's how I find fulfillment and purpose. CN has taught me that through unrelenting effort and commitment, great strides can be made, even against the tide and even in great defiance of the forces of status quo inertia. Of course, it's also taught me how easy it is to get too obsessed with rolling the ball up the mountain that you can miss when you reach the top and and push it beyond the tipping point; before you realize it, the ball is careening down the other side towards only pain and regression.
Barbara Ehrenreich and Philip Zimbardo have left me with enough green lights that I know I should do something. I hesitate not for the vastness of the size of the fight, but because I know I don't have my shit together. If I rock the boat, I damn well better be able to swim. Right now, I don't think I can.
A year and a half off from SOS, and I'm ready to step back into the ring against my next opponent. I want it. I want to fight. I'm pissed and capable. I know I have to pick my battles carefully and knowledgeably. I find the Greek system here largely appalling, and the University's response to it only slightly less rank. I want to know that our staff at Bucknell get paid reasonable living wages and are treated well. Every instance of date rape on this campus is an instance someone could have prevented, perhaps if they had the right tools, impetus, or standing. Someone needs to upend the Counterweight and smack them about for being such vocal, decidedly near-sighted, arrogant, scornful bigots.
If I decide my life is under control enough for me to fight, I'm calling someone out, and swinging hard. Yeah, I'm idealistic and I'm fully aware how likely naive I can be sometimes. That doesn't make me wrong or impotent.
At the least, I have a new motivation for doing well in school and staying healthy.
Fin.
I'm an activist. I can't divest myself of that, ever. It is how I was raised, it's how I find fulfillment and purpose. CN has taught me that through unrelenting effort and commitment, great strides can be made, even against the tide and even in great defiance of the forces of status quo inertia. Of course, it's also taught me how easy it is to get too obsessed with rolling the ball up the mountain that you can miss when you reach the top and and push it beyond the tipping point; before you realize it, the ball is careening down the other side towards only pain and regression.
Barbara Ehrenreich and Philip Zimbardo have left me with enough green lights that I know I should do something. I hesitate not for the vastness of the size of the fight, but because I know I don't have my shit together. If I rock the boat, I damn well better be able to swim. Right now, I don't think I can.
A year and a half off from SOS, and I'm ready to step back into the ring against my next opponent. I want it. I want to fight. I'm pissed and capable. I know I have to pick my battles carefully and knowledgeably. I find the Greek system here largely appalling, and the University's response to it only slightly less rank. I want to know that our staff at Bucknell get paid reasonable living wages and are treated well. Every instance of date rape on this campus is an instance someone could have prevented, perhaps if they had the right tools, impetus, or standing. Someone needs to upend the Counterweight and smack them about for being such vocal, decidedly near-sighted, arrogant, scornful bigots.
If I decide my life is under control enough for me to fight, I'm calling someone out, and swinging hard. Yeah, I'm idealistic and I'm fully aware how likely naive I can be sometimes. That doesn't make me wrong or impotent.
At the least, I have a new motivation for doing well in school and staying healthy.
Fin.