Ten days in

I was listening to the radio while playing taxi-driver this morning, and between all of the analysis about terrorism, somebody said the date in that official reporter voice, “Today is January 10th, 2015.”  And I thought, “Has it been TEN days since New Year’s already?  How can that be?”

It feels like I am in constant motion, like it has been one L-O-N-G day since January first.  So much thinking about a new start to the semester, what classes I will be teaching, what my schedule will be, how to get my house back in order before the students parade into my life.

Not being tethered to grading has felt light and free, I have read some for pleasure, some for work, but I have read very little student work since posting grades on December 23.  I have been working with Katie and Nicholas for their play.  Working lines with them every day due to Influenza A.  The play was originally set for December 19, but so many kids were sick, they postponed it until after winter break.  Therefore, I became a director for two weeks.  Thank goodness, the play was on Thursday night!  It was cute and they did great, but I am so glad that it is OVER.  And a little sad, too.  It was their last play in Elementary School.

I am getting off track, as I seem to do a lot.  I wanted to come here and talk about how Ten days feels so fast and sounds like such a long time.  And, how beginning the year this year with violence sucks.  I feel so many things about this attack at Charlie Hebdo and at the Kosher Deli in Paris.  The overwhelming feeling is sadness.  I am just so sad about it.  Sad for the victims.  Sad for their coworkers.  Sad for their families.  Sad for France.  Sad for the innocent Muslim people that will feel the backlash of racism.  Sad for the human race.

I am listening to how the news and the media are handling this “breaking news” and it is predictable.  Outrage.  Vengeance.  Spin.  It is easy to nod along with some reporters.  I was listening to the TV last night, and I think it was CNN, but I can’t be certain.  They were comparing the cartoons of Charlie Hebdo that made fun of Islam with what has been said to make fun of the Catholic Church.  Their take away was that Catholics don’t storm places of business and shoot people because they make fun of the Pope.

Effective, isn’t it?  To group all Muslims together as crazy fundamentalists because look how normal the Catholic Church is?  They don’t get all bent out of shape at a joke, right?  What is wrong with those people?

It is easy to nod along, until you begin thinking.  Wait a minute.  The Catholic Church has its fair share of scandal.  But we are unwilling to call all Catholics crazy pediphiles.  We are also unwilling to profile kids who gun down their classmates.  Or enter schools in general to kill students…even seven year old students.

We have a problem in the world.  Violence.  The other problem is that violence is seen as a solution.  We, as people, always want to explain why something bad happens, and for some reason this need to explain ends up creating more problems.  It is the fuel to the fire.  It puts us in a catch 22.  The more we blatantly blame groups of innocent people for the crimes of a few, the more those innocent people think that maybe those fundamentalist are right.  Maybe all of this “westernization” is evil.  And then we have more people willing to be recruited into the fundamentalist movement.

The more I think about it, the more sad I become.  I offer no answers.  I just wish that we didn’t have this in the world.  I am sending healing prayers to all the families who have lost loved ones.  I am holding peace in my heart and hope.  I have many Muslim students.  They are just as wonderful as my African American students.  And my White students, and my Asian students.  I am holding them close to my heart after this because their lives just got complicated again….or still.

I hope after another TEN days we can be in a more peaceful place, although it doesn’t look promising.  I guess that is the definition of hope, isn’t it?