Alicja Duda (5)

June 15, 2012

I could go into the millions of memorable details of everything that has happened this week (eating dinner with veterans of SNCC [Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee], meeting John Sgeigenthaler (!), walking through Kelly Ingram Park [the infamous site where Bull Conner unleashed hoses and dogs on children], singing freedom songs with Civil Right Movement veterans, visiting the super awesome, justice-seeking Southern Poverty Law Center, eating some good ol’ Southern barbeque with Kou, Dr. Sapp, Dr. Beth Paul, and Rip Patton J]… but since this is a blog titled, “Reflections,” I think it’s time for me to reflect. So, here we go:

By studying history, travelling to history, meeting history, discussing with history, and embracing history with a community of scholars and students, I truly have gained a slightly wiser, broader, deeper, and fuller understanding of life itself. It’s as if my world of balancing school and service and work and sports and deciding a major and thinking about future careers has been zoomed out tenfold to view the biggest picture: the Beloved Community. John Lewis describes the Beloved Community, a central theme in Walking with the Wind, several times. Quite simply, it is the community in which everyone loves each other. Regardless of social or academic prestige, physical characteristics, cultural differences, religious beliefs—John Lewis, along with countless others during the Civil Rights Movement, strived (and are still striving) toward this Beloved Community.

What struck me most throughout the trip is that every speaker of every event concludes his or her speech or conversation with a mandate: that our generation is wholly responsible for the future. The torch has been passed and we need to continue the race toward the Beloved Community. Though we face bigger and scarier issues (e.g. human slavery, economic injustices, etc.), everyone emphasizes that we also have bigger and better resources, especially mass communication via the Internet.

In addition to internalizing the Civil Rights Movements and current social justice issues, I have learned a lot about myself and the people around me. After years of stressing over "What in the world am I going to be when I grow up??", I have learned that there is no “social justice career”; rather, social justice is a way of life. Whether I become an elementary school teacher or an academic scholar, a lawyer or a doctor, a sanitation worker or a social movement leader, I will do my absolute best in this day and in every blessed day to strive for the Beloved Community just as the "black masses" did in the Civil Rights Movement--by utilizing my political rights, by treating my fellow brothers and sisters equally, by making ethical decisions.

Food for thought:

“We loved you—We didn’t even know you, but we loved you.” –Diane Nash, reflecting on her role as a leader of the Freedom Riders to defend social justice for our generation. She challenges us by asking. “What are you going to do to better your generation? What are you going to do to better your grandchildren’s generation?”