The question comes up every once in awhile in class-that if you lived in the time of the Civil Rights Movement, would you have participated in it? I hope I would, but sometimes I am not sure. In many of the revolutionary times in this country and in others, taking part could mean sacrificing your life. There are things that I would like to think I would give my life for, but really--how much can you change if you're dead? Resistance comes in many different forms--and I respect all of them. I was reading a book called Groundwork today--it's about local grassroots movemements during the Civil Rights Movement that you never really hear about. There was a group of women that nurtured the non-locals who would come in for the Freedom Summer and do the sit-ins, protests, and whatnot. They got money to buy them things to help them if they were imprisoned, they gave them places to sleep--oftentimes their own house. Their resistance was nurturing others, not necessarily that they had to do all of the protesting themselves.
I hope of course that I always do what I think is right, but I just think that possibly sacrificing your life can hurt more than just you. If you have three kids who depend on you--should you do something that could put you more at risk of losing your life? Or even just take time away from them?
I am totally for protesting/resistance/revolution and whatnot if it is needed--but when it comes to my personal choice of participating--I'm not sure what I would do and how much I am willing to sacrifice? And what kind of a cause would make me consider sacrificing my life?
1 comment:
I really liked your honesty in this post. I was thinking the same thing recently, I watched the movie "King" on the History channel about Martin Luther King and his last days before he was shot. It made me wonder what I would have done during that time. It is hard to really think about that, because it is not something that I can really relate to, there hasn't really been such a powerful movement since then.
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