Goodbye Class, Hello World

Now that class is over, the big question is "What will I take away from it?"
          First, I will not take my rock that I was hiding under before I took Mrs. K's Africa and the Middle East class.  I feel that I have found sufficient motivation to stay updated with global news for the rest of my life.  Before, I would excuse myself by believing that I could have no significant influence on the big scale of worldly events even if I knew current events.  I now know that is a false belief, that I can make a difference, and that any difference I make for the better is desperately needed. 
          I have also learned many of the faults of my generation.  We are taught to secure our own potential and success at all costs, and often that is the cost of other people locally and worldwide.  How many products do we buy that ultimately support enslavement, violence, corruption, and other such detrimental happenings in the world today?  We are so trained to buy the cheapest or most in-style products and hoarde all our money so that by the time we're old we can enjoy ourselves.  On the backs of the distressed my generation and I enjoy our selfish pleasures.  Yet we complain so much without the courtesy to care how our actions affect our world.   I hope to eventually and completely overcome this fault.
           A sad reality that I learned from this class is that there are always deathly conflicts in present times.  Whether its in the Middle East, the D.R.C., North Korea... there is no escaping it.  The education of others about these current conflicts is vital to them being resolved.  If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?  Yes, but the wood is left to rot.  To keep the rotten forests to a minimum, I learned the large scale of violent, deadly conflict in Darfur and the D.R.C., leading me to live my life with a little more effort toward you and yours than me and mine.  So I'll become reaquainted with the world, accepting the current situations but, more importantly, hoping for the future with more than just words and thoughts. 

          mission accomplished, signing out
               Thank You Mrs. K

Hope in the Congo

As a reaction to finally learning the horror of war in the DRC...
I am enraged by the situation in the DRC that the entire Western world (considered so "wealthy and powerful") has ignored.  We are selfish gluttons.
Yet there is hope that as awareness grows that not every shoulder will turn coldly.  There is always hope for the better, and as an American citizen I feel obligated to support the hope that the many refugees and suffering families in the DRC cling to. 
The international community needs to start believing there is hope and take action toward peace in the DRC.
Last night on the news there was a multiple-minute discussion about whether dogs can get the flu.  Where are our priorities??  Why did I not hear of this kind of tragedy and how almost nobody does anything about it until now?  I hate our selfish society--if advancement teaches us to ignore death without guilt, I want no part of it.
See you in the real world.