The making of a radical: Hope in troubled times

When I was in 7th grade, I had a teacher whose name I probably have chosen to forget. I recall one day in her class where we were discussing something about a presdential election. I believe it was the year that President Bush I was elected. My teacher called on me and I made some sort of glib comment which I was prone to do often. For the life of me I cannot remember what I said but it really upset her. She was so mad that she said to me something that I will never forget. "I hope you never are elected to any political office with an attitude like that."

It is funny because I haven't remembered that exeprience in years. I have never much cared about politics. Not for any reason other than that it really bored me and I never really saw a point in it all. Perhaps that was my glib comment to my teacher that so infuriated her against my possible political career. Anyway I have only voted in one election in my whole life though I believe four elections have occurred since I turned 18. I am very ashamed to admit that.

I bring this up because I have had something of a change of heart recently. First, I got married and we have been talking about having kids. That certainly changes your attitude about the state of the world and the women and men who lead it. Then, I was selected to represent my law school in a trial advocacy competition at Harvard law school. The competition dealt with animal rights and my specific argument about the valuation of a pet in a tort case. You may ask yourself what this has to do with politics. Through my involvement in this competition I met many great people who work to make a difference in the world. Whether or not you agree with the animal rights movement, I think it is hard to ignore the fact that these individuals are active in trying to change things even though most people think they are crazy or dangerous.

The final and most important change that came upon me was that I went to Israel and Palestine as part of a class on international human rights. I was there for 14 days and got to visit with groups of people from every level of society in Israel: The jews, the palestinians, the bedouin tribesmen, and sudanese refugees. I saw the effect that politics had in people's lives and how many of them never had a voice in the laws the afflicted them. I heard arguments from all sides. I realized that religion is not as devisive as economics. I also learned the amazing ability of humans to forget. (Imagine visiting the Holocaust museum one day and the next visiting a Sudanese refugee camp and learning that the Israeli government is trying their hardest to eject these refugees who were fleeing religious persecution and ethnic cleansing)

I left the country absolutely disheartened and depressed. I thought to myself that there is no hope, there are no answers here. I have none and nobody else does either. Perhaps thes cynic feelings and negative attitude were what so offended my teacher so many years before.

One day about a week after I returned home, I had what I would call an ephiphany. I realized that the worst thing that I could do was to sink into cynicism and negativity. To do so would feed into the world's problems. Answers and solutions only come through hope. Negativity and cynicism leads nowhere and in most cases make things worse. Hope leads to answers. That is why people can continue to have children in a crazy world like ours. That is why animal activists continue to protest foi grae and circuses. That is why I believe the struggle in Israel will find a resolution. Because hope leads to answers. Perhaps my seventh grade teacher would even vote for that platform.