Tag Archives: history

Pursuit of the Creative.

Posted on by

3

I love beautiful, intricate, inspiring pieces of art. I love to look at every brush stroke on a canvas and imagine the work of the artist placing his or her brush in just the right color and in just the … Continue reading →

Psalm 119, Part One

Posted on by

0

Journey to Justice, Five Small Steps into Big Issues Cape Town, South Africa: 2009 Revelation Major revelations in my life often evolve as seemingly contradictory things enmesh and reveal they are not contradictory. Am I a missionary or an aspiring … Continue reading →

Heartbreak

Posted on by

0

Journey to Justice, One

Small Steps into Big Issues

Kona, Hawaii; April 2008

I sat in the small room, tears running down my face, sobbing and convulsing with the pain of heartbreak. I skipped lunch to sit in this state, unable to think of eating as my emotions plummeted. It was the first time I had ever truly fasted.

Isaiah 58: 6-7:

“Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen:

to loose the chains of injustice

and untie the cords of the yoke,

to set the oppressed free

and break every yoke?

Is it not to share your food with the hungry

and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter—

when you see the naked, to clothe them,

and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?

I had come into this prayer room unplanned, after a morning of class about the devastation of AIDS in Africa. I knew the statistics before the class session, but something had pierced my heart. I could not handle it. I could not continue on with my life as usual while this death was haunting me.

The speakers, who had dedicated their lives to spreading awareness and teaching, didn’t come with the intent to destroy my perfect Hawaiian day. Nor did they come bearing pictures of broken bodies, war, blood, the expected symbols of death. They came with one word: Preventable.

AIDS is preventable. The deaths caused by AIDS related illness are preventable. A continent suffering from loss of parents, loss of children and loss of life is a preventable suffering.

I heard the truth and I broke.

I was slotted to make a presentation after lunch, demonstrating a simple, non-media teaching for villages and those that needed to know how to stop the spread of the worst kind of killer – one that had been taking over their story.  But, I couldn’t go on.

Just before I found myself in broken sobs, I stepped up to the professor and asked to be excused from the presentation.

My eyes had begun to water as I barely said, “I just can’t do it. I won’t make it through.” She saw the heartbreak across my face and understood. It was the heartbreak that had ushered her into a life of service and developing understandable programs for those she cared about in an effort to give them a chance.  She knew the look.

In that small room, I knelt. Messy and unconcerned with time or hunger, something bigger hanging over me as I sought one ounce of belief that change was possible. I pleaded, not knowing the proper words or specifics to ask for. I pleaded for a new future for those suffering. I pleaded for the pain in my heart to stop. I pleaded for the rawness to continue so I didn’t slip back into apathy. I pleaded for a change . . .

In an effort to record and remember my own journey into the justice issues of the world, I am taking each piece of heart-wrenching realization and compiling them. More to come.

From Bleeding-Heart Sap to Bleeding-Heart Smarty-Pants

Posted on by

0

The world of communication is difficult to understand. Diving deep into causes, changes, and who listens to what is a tougher process than I expected – one I am going through right now at the University of Colorado at Boulder.

I was invited into an Independent Study under the School of Journalism and Mass Communication’s DeCastro Chair. My Professor has been studying communications and the process of analyzing communication effectiveness for her entire adult life. She has taught at Stanford and Michigan State. She has worked overseas, in villages, with NASA and satellites. She is repeatedly published and considered an expert worth interviewing in her field. She is intimidating. Why in the world do I sit in her office once a week and discuss “International Media and it’s use in Global Change” until my brain shuts down? Because I truly want to be effective in my life goal of bringing the world into a better condition.

And I want to do it damn well.

If I spend  90 years on this earth and never study the people that know what they are doing, never look at the numbers and the facts, but just wing it and hope for the best, I have wasted 90 years. The studies that have been done are amazingly enlightening. Why do we throw them out with the idea that we know better? Why do we submit ourselves to unnecessary trial and error when the answer could be at our fingertips as we stand on the shoulders of giants?

This wasn’t always my philosophy. I love to jump in, travel, get my hands dirty, and have spent the previous 5 years doing just that. Traveling around Asia and Africa helped me see what the need was out there and come to agreement with my own desires, gifts and talents. Now these two things are merging and I have opportunity staring me in the face . . . down the road.  These things take time.

The wait is painful. But the possibility of true success is lightening the load – as is the possibility of reaching a little further then my own meager mind can take me.

I accept the steps of someone that has gone before instead of reinventing the system and repeating the mistakes.

The Unknown Hero

Posted on by

0

Why I Do What I Do

Heroes whose names we should know

I will admit from the start that this idea is not my own, but it resonates with me as if it is.

In 2009, I spent 6 months studying with a communications team in Africa. There,  I was challenged to think differently about reporting the events of the day: to feel their repercussions deeply, and to seek out what was not being said.

One day, as a room full of aspiring journalists from several nations throughout Africa and Europe sat riveted, our instructor delivered to us the concept of the unknown hero and his/her role in our lives as journalists.

This hero is the unsung, uncelebrated man or woman giving their lives for the service of others. He or she lives on the streets, in the villages, with dirty hands and big hearts. They are the world changers – one person at a time. History-makers, whose stories may never make a textbook or timeline.

In studying journalism at university, I have been surprised to find that the story of the unknown hero still fits into the tenants of good journalism. Surprised mainly because todays news often leaves the unknown in anonymity.

Of the 10 elements of journalism, there are three that should directly uplift the story of the unknown hero.

Journalism:

  • Must strive to make the significant interesting and relevant.
  • Must keep the news comprehensive and in proportion.
  • Its practitioners have an obligation to exercise their personal conscience.

Significance and Relevance

When a young woman travels as a midwife to Africa and spends precious years helping to deliver and save children and mothers, she is both significant and relevant. Significant to the mothers, fathers, communities and tribes. Relevant to our understanding of healthcare, needs and practice.

Comprehensive and In Proportion

Her story should be told to help us understand the workings and needs of our world and communities, as well as the inner workings of the heart. The number of infant deaths or deaths during labor in the world is proportion enough to have these stories covering our newspapers and taking up our television screens.

Using My Conscience

I can not look away from this unknown hero. She that is helping, enduring, losing, hoping. Not attempting to publish her story would wreck havoc on my soul, and is already destroying our compassion, our understanding, and our world.

Whether you are a writer, a photographer, a homemaker, a business man, a secretary, a pilgrim on this earth, or another, I ask you:

Who is diving deeply into your community, changing the world one person at a time?

Who is your local Unknown Hero?

How can you lift them up and multiply their efforts?

Will you?