When did I become an activist?

Some months ago I was on the local news.  I went to a parent informational meeting the local school corporation.  It must have been a slow news week. 

At the meeting, there was a powerpoint presentation and two roving television cameras.  I assumed the tv cameras would film the other community members. 

I said my piece, about keeping the arts (and sports) in schools.  Also that I hoped all cuts would be on the table, that there were no sacred cows that couldn't be cut (administration, teachers, etc.)

The next morning, the first thing the lady who sits next to me said was "Aerin, saw you on tv last night".  And my response was "What did I say?"  I know things are taken out of context and spliced for sound bites.  Fortunately, my co-workers (more than one) said I sounded articulate, which I was grateful for.

Everything they aired did not embarrass me, and I am proud to stand behind.  My name was listed on one station, and a snippet of me talking (without my name) was on the other. Only one or two other community members (despite the tens who spoke) were filmed.

It reminded me, however, how public expressing one's opinion can be.  And how someone may always be paying attention - whether or not that's expected.  Your friends, co-workers, random acquaintances, employers or former employers are all the audience. 

The other night I attended another school meeting, this time with the state board of education.  I listened as community member after community member (including the state representatives) eloquently expressed their point of view.  Professionals, students, former students, teachers spoke of the challenges facing urban parents and families.  They pointed out the success of school/business partnerships. 

I prepared as well.  I didn't have a formal three minute speech prepared and rehearsed, as others did.  And I had come prepared, dressed in an interview suit, wearing heels and make up- to potentially be on tv.

Yet this was the fourth in a series of meetings. Not the beginning or the end, and therefore not as newsworthy.  Evidently there was a nearby reality show star in trouble.  There are other stories that are more current, which gain traction.  Not a school district's woes, the problems of poverty and the parents who show up to defend and explain why things are the way they are.  Explanations that cannot be reduced to sound bites or even three minute presentations.

I find I'm relieved.  I'm relieved not to be on the news again, or to have to explain my political views to my co-workers.  I was not as prepared as I would have liked to be, in order to make my three minutes as effective as possible.

How can I explain my prespective in three minutes - and convince someone whose mind is already made up?  Who sees the community as entrenched and corrupt - no matter what we say.  They see us as the Irish were seen in nineteenth century New York politics, or how Chicago politicians are still viewed.

I'm not trying to decry traditional media.  They are simply doing their job.  In this culture of slogans,140 characters quips and cut throat politics - how can we make our voices heard? How can we tell a different story - particularly about issues that have no simple or easy answers. 

And for that matter, how did I become an educational activist?  I think I've always been one, but perhaps now even more so.

Rebuilding Haiti

There are a few other things I want to blog about - but the poverty in Haiti is what I'm thinking about this morning.  I hope my readers will send donations to the charities of their choice.  I try not to write usually about things in the news, but I thought I would make an exception.

I've read two books that revealed some of what life in Haiti was and is like.  The first is this book, Bury the Chains.I hadn't realized much of the history surrounding the slave trade and the eventual abolition of slavery in the Caribbean.  This book is highly recommended, well written and moving.

One of the things I remember however, is that the governance of Haiti was an experiment.  As the wikipedia entry suggests - it is the second oldest republic in the Western Hemisphere.  But from that beginning, they have had a history of dictators and instability.  The country was freed by France in the early nineteenth century - but the people remained poor and uneducated.  Before the slaves were freed, some of the only education they received was through churches and religions. Before liberation, teaching a slave to read (even the bible)  was a punishable offense.

 So this country (like many others) has a history of slavery, and all the legacies that provides.  They started out on the wrong foot - four steps behind.   Without an educated populace, divided into the have's and have not's. 

I wrote about Rick Bragg's All Over But the Shoutin' here.  He spent time in Haiti in 1994, and he observed that although it was a very different place from the South of his childhood - he said "poverty is the same".  Bragg's mother had picked cotton to feed her sons.

His observation surprised me, because Haiti and rural Alabama seem like such radically different places.  But it's true - when people are just trying to survive, provide for their families, find food,etc. - there is much in common. The surroundings are different, but the struggle is the same.

Natural disasters will always happen - they're like death and taxes.  It seems to me that some places have more infrastructure and resources to deal with them.  I hope that with some of the relief being provided for the Haitian people to survive - some resources will also help them rebuild.