my mini revolutionaries.

7 weeks down. 97 to go.

"The same love that motivates us to preach the gospel and meet some basic
needs should also motivate us toward getting behind the needs to their
causes...The questions don't stop with the structures of society that make
victims out of people. The questions continue right down into our lives, into
our own homes, into the ways that we personally participate in and benefit from
the way the structures are set up. It is painful because we might discover that
we are guilty of being a part of an unjust system."

John Perkins, What We Might Discover from A Quiet Revolution

This week, we had a quick lesson on Frederick Douglass, a black man born into slavery who educated himself, helped educate other blacks, drew white's attention to the issues of slavery, and served as a leader in a number of equality-focused movements. I spent a good portion of my academic career studying the civil rights movements in the United States, the political and violent revolutions in Latin America as well as the Holocaust experience. I believe that the revolutionaries and survivors whose stories I have read are people on the fringe--the marginalized. They are the ones who were not supported by their governments, and when they began to stand up for themselves, they were oppressed further before they were ever given a better shot at life. Some never got that chance and were killed in the fight. I realized that the revolutionaries of the past were people who were independent, free-thinkers, creative, defiant, who acknowledged the laws of the land, but followed the laws of their experience. A lot of horrible things happened during these movements, but in the end, a great majority of them brought positive social change.

I realized that the kids I am working with are mini revolutionaries. Right now, they are rebellious teenagers, but given the right motivations, appropriate direction, and productive activities, these kids could change the world for the better. I believe that there are two types of justices in this world. There is one that this country was built on that gives everyone a chance at life, liberty, and happiness. And then there's the justice that allows people with power and influence to go free and people who are minorities without money or education to be lost in the system. Some of my campers have experienced that justice. This justice that says, "Because of the color of your skin or because of the neighborhood you live in, you don't deserve the same chance as the rest of us." It's the justice that allows people I know personally to do the same activities as some of my campers and never reap the consequences of their choices while my campers are sent to spend nearly a year in the woods to face their consequences.

I am not saying that my campers do not need to be at this camp. They need to learn how to take responsibility for their actions. They need to learn how to successfully engage in our culture. They need to be there. I am simply making an observation that a lot of them have had an unfair shot at life--a lot of them are and were victims of their own environment, victims of the system. On the other hand, it is this system that is giving them a second chance at life. I just wonder sometimes why these kids have to spend a year in the woods and my peers were able to clear their records at the right price.

The question now is how can I help mold these rebels into the revolutionaries they were born to be? By "revolutionary" - I am not referring to the overturning of government. I am more focused on the fact that these kids are creative and thoughtful enough to make positive social changes in our country. They fight for what they believe in, but right now, their belief system is focused on negative activities. What if they fought for equal rights, for education, for life?

At one point in our discussion, I agreed with a point made by my co-counselor, and a camper turned to me and said, "Man, shut up. You don't know what we've been through." I turned to him and said, "You're right. I don't know. I'll never know what it's like to be in your shoes. But I do understand white privilege. I understand that I have been given a different opportunity at life than you. I've dedicated my time in college to learning about the ways our society works and how it has dealt you a different hand than me, and I have dedicated the rest of my life to making sure I am doing all that I can to make sure as many people as possible get the chances that I've had in my life. And I am dedicated to understanding you."