The following post was written by Erin H. in response to the Day 16 Challenge Action: Attend an event that promotes equal rights for all. Day 16 of the 30 Day Challenge was to attend an event that promotes equal rights for all. On this day, the Devils' Playlist teamed up with us to host an equity event in the cafeteria where anyone and everyone could come and be part of the community as we shared ice cream, listened to some music, and talked about equality. Students who attended the event also had the opportunity to sign our pledge committing to act as a responsible citizen and to promote the values of equality, justice, diversity, liberty, and community. While attending this event I was pleasantly surprised by the number of people who came to support our cause. As I looked around the room I noticed that there were so many different people - people from different backgrounds with different ideas and different thoughts. There were people there who I have never seen before, and people who I have know for all four years of high school. We were all together in one place to support the same cause. In such a diverse school I think it is important to know that so many people do support equality and are committed to understanding what it means to be a responsible citizen. When waiting in line to sign the pledge I found myself talking to the people next to me even if I did not know them. As we talked about the music, what kind of ice cream we liked, and what we think about equality, I realized we had more in common than I thought. Even with so many different students it was easy to find similarities with people who used to be strangers to me. By acting on this challenge action we were able to share a nice moment with people we might not have talked to otherwise, and discuss why we were there. It was comforting to learn that our efforts to promote responsible citizenship wouldn't end with this project, that the students of BHS really want to continue the work. When I asked people what they thought about the event, they all said that they support the cause. In fact, when I asked one of my friends about it, her response was: “I think it's great! Doesn’t everyone support equality?” This response made me start to think; it is just about everyone's assumption that we all support equality, but that's not necessarily true. There is a lot of injustice in the world and a lot of work we need to do. I soon realized how lucky we are to be in this high school and this town where we can express freely what we think. I started to ask people if they believe that we moving towards a more equal world today. Most people agreed, while others argued that though we might see more movements towards equality today, there isn’t equality everywhere. Inequities exist. We are becoming more aware of them, but we need to do more. As responsible citizens we need to support events like so we can become more conscious of our world, engage in conversations that make us think and determine how we can best work to make our world a place that is equal for all.
2 Comments
Melanie Sunnerberg
3/29/2017 06:56:35 am
I really love this Erin! Unfortunately I could not attend this event but I really wish I could have. This event was interesting because at first, we believed that people would take the ice cream and go about their days but I think it was awesome that people stayed and chatted amongst the group. One thing I did not realize was that people were willing to speak to new people and discuss complicated topics that are normally thrown under the radar. It is truly heart warming to me that this event brought people together from all over the spectrum.
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Laura Frustaci
3/29/2017 01:40:07 pm
Erin,
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