Missionaries and visionaries best serve in areas where their
ideas are most resisted. Although I’ve
never considered myself to be either, I do believe I have a mission, not to
convert but to educate. My vision, not
to create an ideology, but to provide enlightenment to the possibilities of
otherness. Any mission or vision
requires we leave the safety of sameness for to live in a bubble of like-minded
individuals only makes the outside look hazy and warped. To be a liberal mind in a conservative land
risks ridicule, however, the risks to remain in safety are far greater. For to be silent is to be closed, and to be
closed rejects change. It is my greatest
wish that by being freethinking and fair, I can encourage others to be the
same. With mindful listening, I might
encourage others to reflect.
When my brother thought it was an atrocity for his
11-year-old daughter’s fifth-grade class to be forced to listen to the 45th
President’s Inaugural Address, I reminded him that we must teach our children
to think for themselves. To believe his
child must support his opinion that Trump is bad is no different than a
Klansman telling his child to hate persons who aren’t white, heterosexual
Christians. If we are going to create
informed voters, we must provide them access to all the information and then guide
a discussion to discover a middle way.
By teaching them to listen with inquisitive minds rather than question
with closed minds, we all have a vested interest in the future. Just as issuing executive orders that will be
overturned by new executive orders builds no foundation, telling our children
they must only believe as we believe builds no future.
The Women’s March on 21 January 2017 was empowering, and
with the safety of 100,000 like-minded individuals we sent a powerful message to
the world. What comes now is to do as
Dr. King encouraged in his speech after a similar march. We must go back from whence we came to work
in the trenches of our communities until everyone understands the message of
equality and fairness. For me I return
to a conservative part of northwest Iowa, an area that, even when the rest of
the state was blue, has long been red. I
return to teach community college students who are predominantly white,
heterosexual males within a five-county radius.
Rather than scorn my white, male students who don’t
understand the necessity of such a march, I reminded them that we live in a
country where they have always been privileged to have laws made by them and
for them. When another of those white,
male students disagreed, I reminded him of a Constitution written by white men
who claimed “We” all had equal rights yet it took two amendments to give voting
rights to blacks and to women. When he
pointed out that this was in the past, I reminded him that today most women
still earn 22% less than a man doing the same job, and the rights we have
gained over our bodies is again being questioned. I further asked them how many women currently
sit in the U.S. Congress, the U.S. Supreme Court, and the new President’s
Cabinet. To presume women have equal
rights when we don’t have equal representation is illogical.
We must all be missionaries and visionaries from this day
forth. We must take our message that “Women’s
rights are equal rights” to all places and in all forums. When people ask us what this means, we must
engage in dialogue without succumbing to arguing. When a white, male student boasted he Tweeted
that the Woman’s March was “lame,” I asked him, “Why do you think that,”
without hostility or condescension in my voice.
He was unwilling or possibly unable to answer my question. Until we understand, we can never unite.
