Much has been transpiring as of late in the busy life of mine. We all need rest, though, and tomorrow morning, I will be fulfilling my proficiency in relaxation. As much as I would like to be able to write up a detailed report about my meeting on Monday, time is lacking, and I will have to hold off on that until I come back from my 9-day trip to Spain which begins tomorrow.
However, I will touch on that important event briefly. I can fathom a number of various descriptions for what occurred on Monday afternoon. Among them: a rare opportunity, a personal landmark, and a collective victory. Needless to say, it went well. Alas, legislative mandates are not reversed over the course of two hours.
More than anything else, I would call the meeting a good start, and a significant beginning point for a process that, as I have stated previously, will be a long one. Certainly, it was a positive and worthwhile experience for me. I learned a great deal, as I hope the other men and women there with me did as well. I remain optimistic and moreover, I have gained a newfound outlook for this movement that will become prevalent with time.
The night of the 20th is when I will come home, but my life will be no less hectic when I return from Europe, believe me. As a side note, I'd like to address the problem of the school's filter software regarding the blog, as expressed in a previous blog post. Thanks to a helpful friend, you may now access the site from school at this address: itsoureducation.mihopa.net
For now, I will leave you with a quote, for you to examine and muse over this vacation week. The quote is from historian, Howard Zinn, and it reads:
"One of the things we can learn from history is that history is not only a history of things inflicted on us by the powers that be. History is also a history of resistance. It's a history of people who endure tyranny for decades, but who ultimately rise up and overthrow the dictator. We've seen this in country after country, surprise after surprise. Rulers who seem to have total control, they suddenly wake up one day, and there are a million people in the streets, and they pack up and leave. This has happened in the Philippines, in Yemen, all over, in Nepal. Million people in the streets, and then the ruler has to get out of the way. So, this is what we're aiming for in this country. Everything we do is important. Every little thing we do, every picket line we walk on, every letter we write, every act of civil disobedience we engage in, any recruiter that we talk to, any parent that we talk to, any GI that we talk to, any young person that we talk to, anything we do in class, outside of class, everything we do in the direction of a different world is important, even though at the moment they seem futile, because that's how change comes about. Change comes about when millions of people do little things, which at certain points in history come together, and then something good and something important happens." (2006)
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