I was really disappointed with how critical of Shahbazi some of the other students in class were being. Going far enough with thoughtless statements to call such a heroic man "dumb" was in my opinion, pretty narrow minded. How can such bravery be overlooked? What Shahbazi did for his beliefs was beautiful, brave, and amazing. Not to mention, it is far more than any of us have done.
I heard people saying, "But he's just one man, what can one man really do?" Haven't you all heard of Jesus Christ or Gandhi? Think of the following that those two have! The most monumental movements have begun with one person, and if they die in support of their cause, it does not end there. I heard people saying, "But now he's dead, so what good is it going to do?" I'll tell you. Now our class knows about it, the community members who strive to inform themselves know about it, and his children are continuing his legacy through activism. This is an opportunity for individuals who care about the cause to stand up and continue what Shahbazi began. It's not over.
I heard people saying, "But he's just one man, what can one man really do?" Haven't you all heard of Jesus Christ or Gandhi? Think of the following that those two have! The most monumental movements have begun with one person, and if they die in support of their cause, it does not end there. I heard people saying, "But now he's dead, so what good is it going to do?" I'll tell you. Now our class knows about it, the community members who strive to inform themselves know about it, and his children are continuing his legacy through activism. This is an opportunity for individuals who care about the cause to stand up and continue what Shahbazi began. It's not over.
I heard people say that "everyone needs oil, we rely on it!" If you genuinely care about the oil conflict, you don't have to rely on it. Ever heard of riding a bike? I know plenty of people who dis-continued supporting the oil industry by selling their cars, relying on public transportation, walking and biking. If you truly care, you take responsibility through your own actions by adjusting your life accordingly. You can live in a small community with biking access to everywhere, or you can live in a city with a subway system. It's unstudied and naive to assume that our reliance on oil is predestined or incessant.
I was so caught off guard by the negativity in the class that day that I couldn't even contribute. I didn't even want to be in the room, let alone speak. The presentation was awesome, but the feedback could have been far more compassionate, wise and well thought.
I was so caught off guard by the negativity in the class that day that I couldn't even contribute. I didn't even want to be in the room, let alone speak. The presentation was awesome, but the feedback could have been far more compassionate, wise and well thought.
2 comments:
I am on your side and I posted this opinion on other blogs. I said that the process of recognition takes time. When people were not affected by the gas prices it didn’t matter much. But now that the gouging is interfering with our livelihoods, we just have to wait and see what types of protest will come about. I think students jumped the gun with their judgments and many are taking a step back and realizing how unfair they were.
It's crazy how true this is sometimes. It's not till an issue is brought to our front door till we really start to notice it and want change. Of course this isn't everyone. When we started out this project one of the questions we where going to ask was would you protest gas if it went above 4 dollars? And then the next thing we knew it was above 4 dollars, it'll be interesting to see how this goes. And Shahbazi definitely raised awareness on this issue.
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