Keeping the World Small and Our Part in It HUGE

     Well, if you have read any of my prior posts, this theme has emerged: I think the world should be a place without divisions.  Of course, we create more and more divisions while the problems that we all face as human beings are becoming ones that we can only face and solve together.  Whether any of us would like to admit it or not, none of us has all of the answers and we will, whether now or later, need one another in order to address these issues.
     
     We could be talking about climate change, the rise of Daesh, the crises of migration and economic collapse, refugees, wars or changes in political regime.  In any and all of these situations, we can make our voices heard.  It is not always easy and it is often without recognition or remuneration, but if we want a world in which we can live, with or without our artificial boundaries, we must speak.  If we do not raise our voices, we, and our world, may simply cease to exist sooner than any of us can imagine.

     I was born into a society that many wish to have been born into, with a skin tone that affords me more opportunities than others with different skin.  The fact that I have not always made the best choices and have perhaps failed to recognize and take advantage of these opportunities does not negate their existence.  Being born into a skin that some will detest at first sight while others envy or fear is difficult, but not as difficult as it would be if it were another color.  My native language is English and, while I speak another language, much of the world struggles to learn and teach my mother tongue while so many of its native speakers make no effort to speak another.

     I studied my masters in teaching English as an additional language in order to help people who arrive in the United States with little English.  I feel like the imperialists of old (and even the present) when I hear that every country has schools for English and tests for English.  I feel sick that a person must speak my language in addition to his or her own (and perhaps many more) in order to be employed in his or her own country.  Even though without English I could not be understood by many people, I encourage people to stop this trend in their own countries because, while it helps me to understand them, it minimizes their contributions in the world.

     If each of us could look clearly at what society values and throw out what we do not value in it, great strides could be made toward acceptance over tolerance and peace over conflict.  Let the parts each of us play be too big to ignore.