Charge On!

Less than two weeks ago the lives of the students and faculty at the University of Alabama in Huntsville were rocked by tragedy. I am not a UAH student, but I have many friends that are, including my best friend, and spend a lot of time on their campus. And after hearing of the actions of UAHuntsville's president David Williams, I feel more a part of the community than him.
Last Friday's memorial service was a time to cry together, smile together, and most importantly, come together. Apparently, Williams thought the most appropriate response was to encourage the community to "move on." Keep in mind this memorial service came just one short week after Dr. Amy Bishop, for reasons yet to be discovered, took a gun and killed three faculty members, wounding three others, two of which are still in the hospital. Keep in mind the tragedy took place at a school, one of the few places most people believe they can feel truly safe. Keep in mind there were people there in the building shocked, scared, and confused. And his solution? Move on?
I don't know the origin of the "Charge On" mantra, but I do feel it is a better representation of what the UAH community needs. Students will walk into classes and not see the same great professors in the front. They will not be able to "move on," to forget who once stood there. At these moments, the students need to support the substitutes and do their best in honor of their former professors' memories. They need to charge on.
When students see the memorials to the victims set up on campus or walk into the Shelby Center, they will not be able to set aside the memories of what happened in that place, but they can renew their pride in their school, in being a Charger. They can charge on!
I cannot imagine what the students and faculty of UAH went through. It is probably still hard for them to wrap their minds around it. I also have no psychology or counseling degree. But I am a student somewhere, and I have talked to university students. What the students and faculty need now is not a mental eraser, but a mental conviction to show the world that the University of Alabama in Huntsville can rise above tragedy and come out stronger in the end. Don't move on, CHARGE ON!

Man's Greatest Asset

"Man's greatest asset is an unsettled mind."

I read that quote in my eighth grade literature class. I don't remember the story, the author, or the subject. I just remember that quote. It's stuck with me.

I have always been fascinated with learning, whether it be learning how to do something new or just getting more in depth on topics I already knew about. I constantly shift my beliefs and alter my perspectives (notice I never use the word "change"), thought I firmly hold to a few simple truths. My mind is simply unsettled.

Our society is plagued by people who have loss the ability to think for themselves. We hear of a media bias that tells people the way they should think. If media bias is a relatively new concept, and I do not believe it is, it does not force people to think a certain way; people allow it to do so. Media bias has probably always existed, but not until now do people legitimately allow it to alter their viewpoints. Apparently it is easier just to let someone else think for you than to think for yourself.

America would have never reached its potential without people who wouldn't let their minds settle. Edison would not settle with the fact fire was the best way to light a room. Many extraordinary people would not settle with archaic beliefs about women or African-American roles in society. Our country has morphed into a melting pot of fascinating cultures and experiences, founded by people who would not settle with their homeland but looked for a way to a better home. Why now are we so quick to accept what we are told is normal?

Elisa Luna and Amy Brace are two extraordinary people. They refuse to accept that kids from poor neighborhoods won't make it in this world. They have taken their passions and transformed them into a way to reach out to a community otherwise forgotten. They had the concept of no child left behind way before anyone in Washington thought of it.

Imagine what the world could be like if everyone adopted that mentality. Refuse to accept what is "normal." Whether your passion is music, dancing, sports, politics, writing, drawing, working with children, building, or learning, use that passion in a different way than anyone else ever has, because our world needs. Better yet, our world thrives on it.

"Read, every day, something no one else is reading. Think, every day, something no one else is thinking. Do, every day, something no one else would be silly enough to do. It is bad for the mind to continually be part of unanimity." ~Christopher Morley