Identity Crisis

I came here knowing pretty darn for sure what I wanted to do with the rest of my life. Law School. Civil Law. Sexual Assault.

Of course I was not oblivious to the other issues that are presented to “us” American’s or even to us humans, but I guess that those books I read before never convinced me.

My first experience of doubting what I am planning to do with my life came when our Core Course went to Little Village, and spoke with some community organizers that discussed the issue of environmental pollution that was affecting everyone that lived there, and every aspect of their lives. Their children were being subjected to physically harmful agents due to a principal’s laziness. It took years of protesting to get the actions changed and this principal out of the school.  I have never expressed interest in the environmental issues of today (at least when it came to career options) simply because I always thought you had to like science to do it. For the first time in my mind I was thinking, “Rape Victims? NO no no. I need to be helping these people get these polluting companies out of their land and out of their lives.”

The next time was my trip to the Juvenile Courtroom. These kids, yes, may be committing crimes, but they’re being handled completely in the wrong way. They are being detained for months before their trial has even taken place, before they have even been found guilty they are spending time in jail. Also, these teenagers as young as thirteen are getting sentenced to prison for life without the possibility of parole, (granted these are in only specific cases. But one that is most upsetting is the case where a young man was a “look out” for someone else. This someone else committed a multiple homicide. Because he was an accomplice he is being treated the same way his acting partner was, so he is now being charged with murder. Because he’s being charged with murder he’s automatically sent to Adult Court. He was found guilty, so therefore he has a MANDATORY sentence of life in prison without the chance of parole. This young man, I believe, was 14 years old.)  So then I think, environmental issues? NO, no no. I need to be working with youth that are going through the court system.

Then, we go to the Southwest Youth Colaborative. And they mention that some of the drop out rates in Chicago are in some places as high as 70%. My roommate tells me that the average reading level for the US is 8th grade. And now all I think is, youth in the court system? NO, no no. I need to be improving our education system.

After this we take a trip over to Beyondmedia, and watch documentary after documentary about women in the penetenary. A woman was forced to give birth in her cell, because she was negelected so much. The sexual assault by officers is infuriating. The children that are affected by having their mother’s gone for such long periods of time. Now my mind is saying, education system? NO, no no. I need to be working for the rights of women who are incarcerated.

We make our way over to CeaseFire. Meet with two ex gang members, talk about the hundreds of kids being shot daily, the hundreds of kids being killed weekly, by gang violence. We discuss, of course now that Fenger has happened this is a more nationally known problem, but we discuss how for some youth, simply walking to school, is a fight for their lives everyday. Rights for women who are incarcerated? NO, no no. I need to be working on prevention and intervention of gang violence.

This can keep going. We can talk about the elderly, we can talk about the LGBTQ (for those that don’t know Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender and Queer) community, we can talk about autism and mentally disabled people. We can talk about prostitutes, and public housing issues, we can talk about the lack of funding to social services, and global warming, and taxes, and health care. We can talk about the bigger issues, sexism, racism, adultism, “faithism,” ageism, “lookism,” ableism. But basically, I’ve decided that everyone should be going into the social service field.

until next time.

-elle

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