Are You the Person in the Mirror?

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YEAH
Johnathan Hemphill

Mirror imagepexels photo 765217.adjThousands of youth from my generation have been promised a land of freedom and opportunity, only to come of age to a world that is a barren wasteland where the desertification of liberty approaches from all sides and the waters from the rivers of opportunity have become a nearly inaccessible commodity. Many of these youth wander this desert without food, shelter, or guidance. They are finding themselves starving, abused, and neglected. Yet, their loss is ignored — and at times even worse, exploited — as a refreshing well of prospect to those who would call themselves advocates yet still pass them by in the street without even offering them a dime.

Now it is time that we go back and review the promise we made to our youth and to ourselves and to review the call to advocacy and its meaning to make good on this promise. If we cannot make good on this promise to our youth today, then we cannot secure with certainty the prosperity of our mutual future tomorrow. But regarding advocacy we must ask ourselves: in our day-to-day lives when someone else is in dire need, how many people would readily come to their aid with protection and advocacy? If we are honest, how many of these same people tragically walk by the lost child, the aimlessly loitering adolescent, or the panhandling young adult? How many times have they walked past these young people and not asked if they are okay, or spared a dime for food or transportation? How many times have they went the other way and taken entire detours to avoid the neighborhoods where they stay?

Now, how many times have we looked in the mirror and realized that we are those people? If you were walking down the street in the rain and saw a young adult on the sidewalk, what would you do? And let’s be clear, what would you really do, not what you think you would! And if it was walking past them then the point must be driven thank you! We cannot afford to avoid and run away from these youths and their conditions, as in doing so we run away from problems we contribute to as members of society. Whether we want to look at the person in the mirror and admit it or not, moment by moment through our interactions with each other we create and reinforce the social structures that end up acting back on us, shaping our perceptions and the situations we live through. This is the truth and this truth is the cornerstone of our sometimes-neglected civic duty. So now is the time we fulfill this duty as advocates. As advocates we must acknowledge the problems and failures of systems and society as a whole, and use our voice and actions to rectify them. We understand that the significance of the personal experiences of those for whom we advocate, so we create a stage and make a chair for them at the table for them to speak.

(to be continued...)

"As advocates we must

acknowledge the problems

and failures of systems and

society as a whole, and use

our voice and actions to

rectify them."

 

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