(no subject)
I have this sick fascination with the LAT.com Homicide Blog. Its stated purpose is to list the death of every single person in Los Angeles County at the hands of another human being. The other day it had a feature article, really only a 200-500 word blurb, about how these two men from Compton were lamenting the lack of coverage. "One single reporter?" they asked, demanding to know why the death of a promising young girl, a victim of random gang violence, merited only one reporter and a notch in the Homicide Report's belt. A few months ago it had a feature about car washes that raise money to pay for funerals, for the families who did not qualify for government aid to help pay for the burial.
I've lived such a cozy life on the Westside. I've never seen life just leave a body as it lies, shot for no reason other than skin color and socioeconomic status. For being in the wrong place at the wrong time. I work part-time proofreading ads and writing real estate press releases for a free weekly newspaper based out of Marina del Rey, where homes regularly go for millions of dollars. I just wrote a blurb about a $4.4 million home for the cover of the real estate section. That home has been listed for months. Nobody wants to - nobody can afford to - buy it. And yet a few miles down Jefferson you can get to a part of the city where that sum could do so much to help so many people.
Oprah built a school for girls in Africa because she said they would truly appreciate such a gift. Angelina Jolie adopts children from foreign countries and works with the UN. While it's all nice and grand to be making strides on a global scale, what happens to the poor in a country for the rich? What happens here, now? How can I make a difference when I have to pay off $60k in private loans for an education in a liberal arts concentration? Some people use education to make a difference. Become a teacher in a low-income school, they say. Volunteer, they say. Write letters, get involved, every little bit helps, they say. But it's not that simple.
I have a family to which I am responsible. I have loans for which I am responsible. I have personal desires that I would like to fulfill. It's not as simple as "OK, here, let me give up everything I own and work toward a better good." It's not. Because even if I did that, nothing would change. Even if I somehow gained a windfall of cash, I could never make the difference I would like. Because in the end, I would love to live in that $4.4 million house. In the end, I would be no better than those I deride.
It's just not that simple. Or is it? Can I find a way, a month out of college and $60k in debt, to make a tangible difference in the world today? Or will I be destined for a lifetime of working to pay the mortgage, being solely involved in activities that will benefit my beneficiaries? I'd like to think, at least now while I'm still idealistic enough, that I am destined for the former, for a certain greatness, as minor a scale as it might be.
I've lived such a cozy life on the Westside. I've never seen life just leave a body as it lies, shot for no reason other than skin color and socioeconomic status. For being in the wrong place at the wrong time. I work part-time proofreading ads and writing real estate press releases for a free weekly newspaper based out of Marina del Rey, where homes regularly go for millions of dollars. I just wrote a blurb about a $4.4 million home for the cover of the real estate section. That home has been listed for months. Nobody wants to - nobody can afford to - buy it. And yet a few miles down Jefferson you can get to a part of the city where that sum could do so much to help so many people.
Oprah built a school for girls in Africa because she said they would truly appreciate such a gift. Angelina Jolie adopts children from foreign countries and works with the UN. While it's all nice and grand to be making strides on a global scale, what happens to the poor in a country for the rich? What happens here, now? How can I make a difference when I have to pay off $60k in private loans for an education in a liberal arts concentration? Some people use education to make a difference. Become a teacher in a low-income school, they say. Volunteer, they say. Write letters, get involved, every little bit helps, they say. But it's not that simple.
I have a family to which I am responsible. I have loans for which I am responsible. I have personal desires that I would like to fulfill. It's not as simple as "OK, here, let me give up everything I own and work toward a better good." It's not. Because even if I did that, nothing would change. Even if I somehow gained a windfall of cash, I could never make the difference I would like. Because in the end, I would love to live in that $4.4 million house. In the end, I would be no better than those I deride.
It's just not that simple. Or is it? Can I find a way, a month out of college and $60k in debt, to make a tangible difference in the world today? Or will I be destined for a lifetime of working to pay the mortgage, being solely involved in activities that will benefit my beneficiaries? I'd like to think, at least now while I'm still idealistic enough, that I am destined for the former, for a certain greatness, as minor a scale as it might be.