Sister Virginia from the Padua Center spoke to us today, and I found it interesting. Although she wasn’t the most engaging speaker, just hearing about where the Padua Center is located and what kind of work they do for young people raised a lot of thoughts in me about certain issues. For example, she told us about how businesses would dump their garbage in the neighborhood instead of paying to dump it in a landfill. I also have some problems with the public school systems (not just locally, but nationally). It seems that in our society, there is a tendency to ignore the problems of poor people and to stereotype them as lazy, dumb and so on. Kids in public schools, or in systems like Toledo Public Schools, don’t get the attention and educational opportunities they need. However, this isn’t only a local issue for inner- city schools; it is evident that even in our government, education isn’t a high priority. Often times, politicians will cite “Think of the kids! They’re our future! Think of the kids!” as a reason for a decision or policy. These are only a few of many of those issues: same-sex marriage/adoption (it would influence our children to take part in the Satanic institution of homosexuality, of course), abortion (babies’ lives are sacred), and abstinence- only sex education (because if teens actually know- I think it’s called something like 'true facts'- then we’d obviously be promoting sex almost to the point of prostitution). But honestly, they don’t really care. When discussing budget cuts, apparently education can afford less funding, so it's one of the first to suffer. In addition, teachers, who have the job of educating our beloved children (and don’t forget, our future- our shiny, bright, sunny yellow orb of a future), are seriously under valued and under appreciated. Not to mention that the U.S. is one of the only industrialized nations that doesn’t have a national parental- leave and childcare system. So, do they really care? If your answer is something along the lines of, Well it’s not like they don’t care at all…They do care, then let me ask you this: how sad are they to see investments in education go? How do you think they’d feel if we scaled back on, for example, the military, terrorism, illegal immigration, or the drug war? Just imagine the outrage if we scaled back on defense. [insert joke about "random" checks at the airport... call me crazy, but something tells me they're not random, and not so effective].
It is not hard to see the flaws in our system; but all rage aside, we did go to the Gift and Kind Shop again this afternoon. I must say, hanging eight bags of clothing and sorting through bins of more clothing was not exactly an appealing task. Of course, I was happy to help. On the other hand, they did separate us into boys and girls… again. Boys moved mattresses and furniture, and girls got clothes, clothes, and more clothes. This isn’t the first time I’ve complained about this. Again, I’m sure it was unintentional, but is that the attitude that is really engrained in our society? Perhaps it doesn’t seem like a big deal, but shouldn’t it be? It was not just a one- time thing, as innocent as the action may have been. It happens all the time, and it’s subtle, so we don’t think twice about it. It’s just another one of those stereotypes that we've been talking about. But I’ll stop there. If there is anything I’ve learned, any life lesson or valuable shred of wisdom that has revealed itself to me as I continue to awkwardly stumble and struggle as a teenager, it is this: when it comes to situations like this, I am easily provoked. Even something as simple as a mattress (and oh, the herculean task of lifting one) can catapult me into a spiel about gender in society. My friends basically get a free course on gender in our society by simple virtue of being my friend. Then they proceed to roll their eyes and say, “Oh my gosh, shut up,” or laugh in anticipation of the avalanche that is ready to rush out of my mouth at the slightest provocation. Because no one wants to hear it. At least, no one I’ve met yet has openly admitted that they want to hear it.By: Nora Jaara
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