As part of the University's Alternative Spring Break (ASB) program, two groups of ETSU students went south for spring break to engage in community service. One group of five undergraduate students and a graduate staff learning partner spent the break at Camp Boggy Creek in Eustis, Florida.
I've been having a really hard time writing about my experiences in Mississippi. In fact, I don't think I ever have, in almost four years of visiting and community organizing in Mississippi, written about what's happened or how it affects me. I told myself that this time I would wait and write my journal entry after I returned to Johnson City so that I could extract myself from the situation and then recreate the emotion I'd felt while in Mississippi, which I'd never tried before.
I have always believed that the meaning of life comes from giving meaning and joy to lives around you, thus I have always found myself enjoying community service and volunteering expenditures. I generally participate in laid-back and low-key volunteer positions, (not that there is anything wrong with these,) but during our Alternative Spring Break trip this most recent spring break I found myself stepping well beyond my own personal limits of service.
I told them-don't be surprised! The sign said-don't be surprized! But the cold stares, heads turned. But the deputies observing and circling, holsters held. But the clench-teethed smiles, how nice of y'alls stated. But the snitches watching, phone calls made.
In response to the recent figures that put this current war at costing billions of dollars, Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz recently remarked, "For a fraction of the cost of this war we could have put Social Security on a sound footing for the next half-century or more.
