Learning Letter/Plan of Action

Let me start off by saying that this class was definitely not what I thought it was going to be. I imagined that we would be reading very low level children’s books — picture books really — about children from different parts of the world. We did read one “picture book", Kampung Boy, which was a graphic novel and in my opinion was actually a great way to start the class. It was light, easy to get through, quick, and still had merit. It showed a different kind of culture through the eyes of a young boy but at the same time was still relatable. I really enjoyed the pictures in this book and I think by using pictures, we were able to relate more to something that we are so far from. I really hadn’t looked into Malaysian culture before reading this book so most aspects, if not all, were completely new to me. To go along with this unit, we did the Museum Display project and to be honest, I was not looking forward to it. I tend to not think outside of the box so I was a little lost when I began, but after looking through my house I found quite a few things that I could use. The Museum Display actually ended up being my most favorite project. I really enjoyed taking a look into my own culture and showing it to others. It was also very eye-opening and interesting to look at everyone else’s Museum Displays and see how their culture was different and similar to my own.

The next book we read was Sold. Before beginning this book, I was really nervous for what I was about to read. I  guessed that it would be graphic and disturbing, but I didn’t expect to read what I did. I don’t think I was quite prepared for what I learned and to be honest, it almost doesn’t seem real. After reading this book though I realized that I was really interested in it and immediately searched Neflix and the Kindle app for anything that I could get my hands on regarding sex trafficking. I watched a movie called Abduction of Eden and read a book called Trafficked: The Diary of a Sex Slave. These books were quite similar to Sold but different in many ways too. I definitely appreciated the book more thought because it went deeper into Lakshmi’s everyday life in the sex trafficking industry and showed her thoughts and struggles. The movie and other book did that too, but I think that Sold was a little more appropriate for students. Sold was definitely my favorite book that we read as a class and its also a book that I would consider teaching to students in high school because of how raw and real it was.

After Sold, we read Crossing the Wire. This book was a little slow at first and was not my favorite to read but it was on the top of my list for topics to think about. Part of the reason for that is because it hit so close to home. Being that he was crossing the U.S. - Mexican border and that fact that he ended up in Washington State made me feel like I had some part in this. I had a pretty conservative view about illegal immigrants before reading this book and one thing that I really appreciated about reading this book was how much my views changed. After reading, thinking about the text, and hearing our guest speaker, I felt that I had been completely blinded by the media and my own judgements. I always try to think of things from the human level, and I thought that I had been before reading this book, but hearing about how he had to face so many different obstacles and set backs just to make a better life for himself really affected me. I had absolutely no idea that in order to get legal papers to be in the U.S. after you had made it here illegally you had to go back to Mexico to finish the process. No wonder so many people continue to live here illegally! I would too! I think we need to really think about this issue as a country and come up with some better practices because what we are doing is obviously not working.

Along with this book we did research projects on other border conflicts around the world. My topic was kind of boring because the two countries, Serbia and Croatia, were in a stalemate and it looked like that would continue for a long time. Although I found my specific topic to be a little dull, I really enjoyed listening to the other groups present because almost every issue they presented on was something that I had not heard a lot about. It was like getting a short but detailed news program on border issues and I really felt like I learned a lot.

The next book we read was Revolution is not a Dinner Party. I had studied the Chinese Cultural Revolution a little bit in an East Asian history class that I took at Eastern, but other than that I had never heard of it. The book was good and hearing from our guest speaker was really interesting, but what hit me more was the fact that I had never even heard about this until I was in college. Why aren’t we learning about this in middle and high school?? China is obviously a country that we are in competition with and it seems crazy to me that we don’t take any time to learn about them. We are so focused on our own history that we forget there are other things out there that deserve attention. Although this book was not my favorite, it really made me realize that I needed to open my eyes to the rest of the world. Not just Western Europe and North America, but places that we don’t get to learn about in public school.

A Long Way Gone was just a whole new set of emotions. This book was particularly hard to get through and I had to just keep chugging along and then deal with all of the emotions after I had finished. One of my good friends and coworkers joined the Peace Corps this year and is leaving for Sierra Leone in June. He got his placement as I was reading this book and so we both did research on the civil war and all of the issues surrounding it. He found out that all of the soldiers and officers of the rebel army, except for 2, were released. 2 of the main leaders (I can’t remember the names) were charged with war crimes and everyone else was just sent away. He learned that he would probably be living next to some of these soldiers and that a lot of them moved back to their villages where they had killed and raped many of their friends and neighbors. One of the Peace Corp volunteers who had already been in Sierra Leone told a story about how one of the soldiers raped his own niece and then came back to their village to live after the war. They literally lived next door to each other and had to think about it every single day. It makes me feel so happy that Ishmael got to America, but it also made me think hard about all the people who didn’t and what they were still dealing with today.

If I can say anything about this class and what I got from it, I would say that I really started to open my eyes and think hard about things that so often I try to just push to the back of my mind. Sometimes its really hard to think about the difficult stuff, but it is absolutely necessary. We can’t just continue living in a bubble, even though it is really easy to do in the United States. Reading all of these books has really made me realize that even though I am a citizen of the United States, I am also a citizen of the world and I need to start taking advantage of that. Reading all of these books has re ignited my desire to travel and see the world. I read a poem recently by Naomi Shihab Nye called Kindness and one of the lines is “Before you learn the tender gravity of kindness, you must travel… Before you know kindness as the deepest thing inside, you must know sorrow as the other deepest thing.” This kind of made me realize that the reason I don’t know much of anything that is going on around the world is because I haven’t been anywhere. I haven’t seen these issues so it is too easy for me to just pretend they don’t exist. Reading about this issues is definitely a good start, but until I see what is really happening, I don’t think I will fully understand.

For my “Plan of Action” I have decided to start small and local. There is a group in Spokane called the Coalition to Abolish Human Trafficking in the Inland Northwest. They have meetings once a month to educate people about this issue and to help spread the word and stop human slavery. This is a partnership with World Relief Spokane and their mission is “To abolish slavery by collaborating with local organizations and individuals, educating our community, addressing the demand, and providing services to victims of human trafficking.” I have decided to join this organization, go to meetings as often as I can, and do my part to help stop human trafficking.

Graffiti Wall

War and Peace Graffiti Wall Project - Artist Statement

My “graffiti wall” has two parts; the first part depicts a young boy playing in his yard with toy soldiers. The boy is smiling, sitting under the shade of the tree, and is in view of his home. Many of us can relate to this boy. We played outside as children, our parents always reminding us  to stay close so that they could keep an eye on us. He has no cares in the world and is in a peaceful place. He is in the now; not thinking about the past or the future, but enjoying himself as he plays by himself. 

The next part depicts a young, faceless soldier, covered in blood and with a gun in his hand. He is shooting and killing people, but the only thing we see of his victims is their bloodshed. The young soldier is faceless because, to the army that he is in, he is just another killing machine. He is not a person with feelings and humanity - he is just another pawn who can pull a trigger. His victims are not seen because, to him and to the army, they are unseen and unnamed. They are not human beings to the army, rather they are just bodies who are in the way. Behind the soldier there are buildings and a tanker. The buildings are vacant as one has been blown up. The windows are shattered and the buildings are probably being used as hideouts for the enemy. The tanker is seen in the background with its artillery aimed and ready. 

The first picture has only a small amount of green, the toy soldiers, and the rest is shades of grey. The next picture is also mostly shades of grey, but with a considerable amount of red depicting the bloodshed of the many victims. This is meant to be a stark contrast showing what the boy is seeing, feeling, and doing. In the first picture he is outside of his family home, but in the second picture his family is nowhere to be seen. What happened to them? Does he still think about them and where they are now? Does he care? Since he is obviously not with his family, how far away is he? Is he on the other side of town? Other side of the country? How far away is he, both physically and mentally? If he returned home, how would that affect him?

When people look at these drawings I want them to consider what happened to this boy from the time he was an innocent child playing with toy soldiers to when he was turned into a faceless killing machine who had the blood of many on his hands. No family encourages young boys to become killers, but we do allow them to play with toy soldiers and enact made up battle scenes. We value our children and, especially with boys, teach them to grow up and be tough and strong and fearless. We don’t teach them to be brutal and unsympathetic, though. What happened to this boy that made him like that? What did he tell himself to justify murder? How many emotions did he have to put away in order for him to be able to kill countless people? How is his life different now than it was when he was a kid? Will he ever stop? Will he ever change?

These pictures tell a story. A story of a young innocent boy who ends up as a brutal killer in an army. But I hope these pictures also make people think. What happened from the time he was a small boy playing with toy soldiers outside of his house, to when he was in the field, as a soldier, killing people?