Before I Go to Bed...

Here's a new blog layout because I just can't seem to leave well enough alone. 

Also, I thought I'd share something I wrote this week. I write bi-weekly newsletters for my hall which are hung in the bathroom stalls on each of the floors. Their purpose is to provide the students with news and information about things happening in the building and around campus, but I also use them as a means to disseminate educational information related to the curriculum area I'm working with in my building during that educational block. The front page of each newsletter is always an article I write relating to one of these four curriculum areas (Citizenship, Healthy Living, Social Justice, and Academics). Those are the four areas we, as a department, feel that we can impact in students' lives while they live in the residence halls. 

I don't know why I haven't shared these articles before. Maybe I'll make it a regular thing.

Anyway. Here's the article I wrote for this weeks newsletter on social justice:

"I go to church most Sunday mornings. It’s something I look forward to and that’s usually a highlight of my week. Not only do I get to see some of my friends and sometimes eat tiny pieces of bread with a shot of grape juice, but I get to listen to my pastor do his thing and share his thoughts on a variety of topics. Sometimes he says something that fits exactly with something I’ve been thinking about or trying to articulate. That happened this weekend, so I thought I’d share some of it with you.

We, as people, tend to say and do a lot of stupid things. We say and do some smart things, too, but it’s the dumb things which people tend to remember. But that’s okay, isn’t it? I mean, besides being embarrassed, we’re justified in saying and doing whatever we want, really, because we have certain “rights” which allow us to speak and act freely. We can be as offensive or ridiculous as we want, in theory, because it’s our right to be individuals. I can swear at old ladies and babies. I can tattoo a naked lady on my throat. I can draw penises on every white-board and bulletin board in my hallway.** Its my right! Right?

Yes, I guess it is, sort of... But a “right” is not a “should”. We need to understand that our right to say and do what we want as individuals exists because of our membership in the larger society and culture in which we live. Any person who doesn’t understand that his or her individual rights have an effect on the community in which he or she lives has no real understanding of individual rights at all. If you think it’s the responsibility of your community to afford you certain rights, then it’s your responsibility to your community to exercise those rights in a way that shows respect for that community and the rest of its individuals. This means considering the impact that your words and actions will have on the community and its members -- whether or not they agree with you, relate with you, or identify with the type of person you are. We may not mean to be offensive or exclusive with our language or actions, but the reality is that those things may result from what we do and say. If we don’t want to be divisive and offensive, then that should give us pause for a moment. That should make us reconsider how we exercise our rights.

Unless, of course, we don’t actually care how other people feel and saying that we are just “exercising our rights” actually means that we only really care about ourselves and doing whatever we want to do. I hope that’s not the case. I am unwilling to believe that we’re willing or able to be so intentionally self-centered.

So what does this mean for how we choose to conduct ourselves? I think it just means that we should give the rights and feelings of others an equal amount of thought and consideration as we give to our own. It doesn’t mean we can’t swear and poke fun at one another. It doesn’t mean that fart and poop jokes can’t be laughed at anymore. It doesn’t even mean that we have to be super mature all the time.

It just means that we need to see that our words and actions have an effect beyond what we intend for them to have. If we have any hope to build a community where everyone feels comfortable and included, it’s essential that this be something we have and understand in common.

**Please don’t draw penises on anything. It’s dumb."

Stay Gold!

MMK