Well Said!  Thank you.
from one who does works in the field.
Evelyn

Evelyn Brown
Academic Development Specialist
Parkland College
2400 West Bradley
Champaign, IL 61821
217.351.2587 
ebrown at parkland.edu


>>> "Daphne Greenberg" <ALCDGG at langate.gsu.edu> 7/3/2007 4:32 PM >>>

As the moderator of this list, I want to make sure that everyone feels welcome on this list. I think that we need to remember that we are a diverse community-diverse in gender, orientation, religion, race, profession, age, literacy skills, life experiences, etc. In my view, we can all learn from each other. Recently, we had a discussion on how females are treated around the world. For some of us, some of the specifics that were shared were eye opening and included new bits of information. For others, this information was something that was already known. We all had different reactions, depending where on the continuum we fell. I have been thinking about these different reactions and wanted to share my thoughts, because I want to make sure that all of us feel welcome to voice our different voices on this list.

I think that when many of us are confronted with horrific news, we want to do something about it, and we want to do something about it immediately. We are outraged, and part of the reason may be because it contradicts one of the core beliefs in this country, that terrible things don't happen on a grand scale in this country-they only happen in other countries. We then think that if they do happen, we can change things and change them quickly-another one of the core beliefs many of us are raised to believe. For others of us, learning about horrific events may trigger memories of terrible things that happened to us in the past. By trying to save others now, we are perhaps trying to save a little bit or at least acknowledge, the little girl/boy inside of us who was abused. 

For those of us who know about the information (whether it is from our own histories, from friends, of from reading about it), we realize that there are so many awful things in the world, that we can only prioritize where our attention will fall, and hope that if everyone does their little bit, eventually things will become better in all arenas.

I think that we can all learn from each other. When people who are new to the information have strong reactions, they remind the rest of us about how horrific it all is and how we should ALL be mobilized to act NOW. I am grateful for these people, because for those of us who know the information, they remind us of how terrible it all really is. It is because of those people that things eventually do get better. 

I am also grateful to the people who already know the information. They remind the rest of us to realistically appraise what we can do and can't do. They remind us that we can't save the world (as much as we would like to) and that if we do our little bit, the world will be a better place.

Anyway, those are my thoughts. Basically, what I am trying to say is that I think that both voices should be encouraged on our list as we strive towards a better understanding of helping our communities.

Daphne




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