Journal and Discussion: Four Stories
1. In your journals you picked either one image you saw, one document you examined, or one passage/quote you read from ONE of the four stories and responded in your journal:
- What about that image, document or quote resonates for you?
- What can it teach us about participation?
2. Now, copy and paste your response here. Please feel free to respond to other participants' reflections as well.
Please make sure you have checked the "Mark as read" box at the top of this page. Then continue to the next activity, Exploring the Website.
What resonated for me the most was the quote by Randy Siemers who said, "If it’s wrong for it to happen to me. It’s wrong for it to happen to my [neighbours]." It’s so simple; why do we ignore the wrong doings that happen to others, but we do not accept them when they happen to us. We are not different than our neighbours, so why do we not support them when they need it. IF something unacceptable happens to me, I want others to stand by me, so why wouldn’t I do the same for others. I think this can teach us a lot. Keeping this in our minds everyday will help to remind us our roles in our own community because our actions create the community. Therefore, we must participate; we must get involved in things that we don’t want to happen to us personally.
I agree with what you said about "stand by me". We do expect other sto be ther, but have many "sound" reasons for not taking an acive role to stand up for someone else. We cite repercussions or the fact that there are other people who have already spoken up, so we don't have to. As you ended, "we must participate;".
Marcia Webb came to the startling realization that, inaction is as powerful as action, in its ability to inflict pain. When she and the other white students, parents and teachers, stood by and took no action, they were just as guilty of causing hurt and pain to the Little Rock Nine, as the students, parents and teachers who actively participated in the jeering and protests. “But then I realized what hurt can come from words, from silence even, from just being ignored.” As a rule, many people do not feel complicit with the unruly mob mentality, if they are not actively participating. They do not see that their inaction is a confirmation of sorts that the actions of the mob are agreeable to them.
With this insight, the term participation encompasses both the active and the passive involvement. You could say that everyone is a participant. Our actions and our inaction to injustice have consequences. It is these consequences that mitigate their placement in favorable light, or an unfavorable light. People felt bad about the actions of the mob, but felt fine about themselves because they had “empathy”. That’s not enough to make you different from the mob. What you say and do puts you in another category. A participant can be a positive force for change, and be called an “upstander”. A participant may be a negative force and be either an active inflictor of pain, or a passive bystander.
What I found uplifting was that Marcia Webb not only saw what she had done by her inaction, she took the steps necessary to correct her inactions, thus becoming an “upstander”, a truly important participant in history. We are all part of the “story”. We are all participants in this “story”. How we are categorized depends on us. Are we the doers of good, do we stand up for the things that are not right? Do we sit back and let things slide or say, “someone else will take care of this terrible thing?” Will we see the light, like Marcia Webb?