Now then, to business! My government class is one of my most controversial classes that I've ever taken. (the second is astronomy because Mr. Ferris is quite the politician.) We talk about everything in government and my teacher, an older white male, is always trying to raise our awareness on the limited rights of women in the good ol' U S of A. If you may recall this particular post, the latter half sums of my government instructor's general thoughts--which I agree with. Well in today's lesson we were going over the statistics of rape, sexual assault, and assault against women. There is this one male student, who I will call K, who I used to have an immense respect for.
When we did our debates K always presented a good argument and could carry it well. He would speak out in class and voice his opinions loud and clear with valid reasoning and facts. I was amazed with his skill and control of his words until today. Today K showed me, and the rest of the class, how terribly rude, pessimistic, and evil he is.
When shown the statistics of the reported rapes, sexual assault against women, the collective days of work missed by women because they were beaten, etc., K responded passionately that the statistics were spewed to make men look bad. Our teacher strongly disagreed with K's statement to which K responded, "Well it's been like this since the beginning of our country. It's not going to change."
I was taken aback. I was appalled. I was insulted. How could this person with such strong morals not care for 50.9% of the world's population? What if the African American slaves said, "Eh, there's no point in trying. We're always going to be slaves as long as we live in this country?" What if women said, "Well the men control politics, there's no reason we should even try to be granted suffrage?" What if the people who run our country said, "We are in so much debt already. Let's just throw in the towel and watch the cookie crumble?" The world would be so much more miserable if people didn't have reasons to fight, reasons to push for change.
I was later informed that K hates women and has for at least six years, and yet claims that he will never beat a woman. Hm, somehow I find that hard to believe. It's not that I didn't think he was a good guy, because I thought that since the day he walked in the classroom, but I see that there is so much anger against the half of the world that is not his own gender. It was disappointing to see all those brains used to justify men striking women, so terribly disappointing.
And yet, I hold hope in my heart for him. I feel that everyone has the power inside of them to do the right thing and think the right thoughts; it's all a matter of choice and opportunity. I hope y'all feel a bit inspired to be better than a wife beater or a crazy ex. Things will change in time but sometimes we have to help time make changes.
What if one day, we all just quit?
I took this photograph from a news article last week
(You can find the article here.)
