Amidst today's problems, a chance for change

By Katy Erker

This winter I returned from studying abroad in El Salvador with Santa Clara's La Casa de la Solidaridad program. Never before have I appreciated and recognized the freedoms and privileges afforded to me by merely being born in the U.S. At the same time, I have never felt such responsibility to the plight of the rest of the developing world. Now, my mind is painfully consumed with clarity and confusion.

The editorial entitled "A bleak future for America's youth" that appeared in the Jan. 25 issue of The Santa Clara could not be read without rebuttal. Thank you to the TSC editorial staff for falling into the same pattern of fear-inducing journalism seen in newspapers across the country. More importantly, thanks for the opportunity to ask students to really step up.

Yes, we are drowning -- in military occupation, bills, melting ice caps, rising tuition and human rights abuses. How much longer can we sit by and not get angry? If we don't challenge what we are taught, we will get nowhere in the laundry list of global dilemmas that face our country.

Take, for example, the contrasting economic paradigms taught within our own university. Economics students learn the importance of seeking the cheapest markets to gain almighty profit. But across campus, anthropology courses expose the evils of unfettered capitalism in the free market world. It is laughable that, simultaneously, we are asked to be educated women and men for others.

Dean Brackley, S.J., a jesuit who has worked in El Salvador for over 25 years, tells us "the suffering of the affluent is intimately bound with the suffering of the poor majorities of our world." The very principles of St. Ignatius' spirituality call us to be global people for humanity.

But, as a nation, we often separate ourselves from the rest of the world by referring to the habitants of the United States as "Americans." Many don't realize -- or choose not to realize -- that we are not the only Americans. Take a look at the map and see Central America, South America also -- we are all Americans.

Santa Clara has developed a goal to foster a sense of social responsibility within students and the greater campus community. But offers of fair trade coffee and some sweat-free options in apparel contrast with a business school that teaches Adam Smith's trickle-down economics in a global arena.

Santa Clara uses imported textiles from El Salvador -- think Ruff Riders shirts. And, in the 1980s, the United States invested $1.4 million daily for ten years in a Salvadorian government that funded thousands of human right violations.

From a student's perspective, these topics seem out of our hands. But basic changes in our daily lives can have huge impacts. Just think of our use of language. We use the words "gay," "fag" and "retard" because they have come to mean "stupid." Really? Give me a break. We spend $40,000 a year at this university -- be a little more creative and a little less ignorant. It is these small things that we must change within our daily lives: Think globally, act locally.

Feel free to join the editorial staff's sad outlook on our generation, and buy into the fact that "older Americans are screwing our future." But if you would like to embrace this time in college and see these four years as time given to making a difference, then be altruistic: Pick your issue(s), stand up, get passionate and educate yourself and others.

You have plenty of options. Join Students Together Organizing for Peace as they protest violence and speak out against the war in Iraq. The Santa Clara has said that the war in Iraq is our generation's Vietnam, so be concerned, get involved and take a stand.

Join the College Republicans if you really want, but be smart: Educate yourself, and advocate for humanity. Stop by the Multicultural Center and learn about how diverse our campus isn't. Walk by the Santa Clara Community Action Program office and check out Gays and Straights Promoting Education and Diversity. The student group Santa Clarans for Social Justice just held a showing of "Invisible Children" on the Kennedy lawn and had a turnout of about one hundred people. That's awesome, and we need to keep it going.

Bash immersion trips if you want -- call them "cultural tourism," or critique the brevity that is one spring break. But then go speak with someone who has seen another reality and experienced humanity in a different light.

Join the new OneWorld revolution; apply for a Donovan Fellowship; volunteer at an Arrupe Placement, and see what Jesuits mean by community-based learning.

As the Santa Clara campus, we embody many different calls to action, but we must primarily listen to the call of education. If we want diversity on this campus, let's go about it academically.

We all complain about university policy, but let's not forget that we have the power to advocate for changes within the university structure. If we want more diversity on our campus, we must make structural changes to encourage more applicants. We must make ethnic studies and women and genders studies classes core requirements for all students.

Moreover, The Santa Clara editorial staff thanked "Mom and Dad" for Social Security's bankruptcy. Let me take this chance to say, thanks mom and dad, for helping me afford to attend a Jesuit university where, as a college graduate, I will move into the top tier that includes less than one percent of the world's population. I bet that some of the first-generation college students at our school -- less than one in five of us -- would like to thank their parents, too. Thanks for helping us be encouraged to discern what it really is to be human, what it means to embrace Jesuit ideals and not just complain about the future.

Let's embrace the fortunate fact that we are blessed enough to have our own agency and advocacy for change. Don't give up.

Katy Erker is a junior sociology and Spanish double major.