Students hesitant to fight injustice
By Meghan Hennessey
Three years ago, when my journey began at Santa Clara, there was a feeling of hope in the air.
I saw students leaving for immersion trips to Immokalee, returning to lead the struggle against the plight of the Taco Bell tomato farmers they encountered. Students traveled to Georgia to protest the School of the Americas. There were trips to East Palo Alto to experience the struggles of our neighbors. Students visited places like Community Homeless Alliance Ministry, the once famous homeless shelter downtown, to gain awareness of their struggle for affordable housing. It was the students who accompanied campus workers in their wage campaign and who have united in celebration of diversity with an amazing drag show.
Students came together and acted on important issues; I thought we were in for real change.
But also three years ago, Sept. 11 was fresh in our minds and the war against Iraq was brewing. While a large number of students on our campus and around the world were mobilizing, enraged and motivated to act, the tide was turning in our country and our student body.
At Santa Clara I have been part of an informed, intelligent and conscious discussion with my fellow students and with some of the most inspiring educators and mentors I've encountered.
But something has trapped us, and the dynamic possibilities end as we exit the classroom. We are scared to call ourselves liberals or feminists or anti-war activists. These have become bad words. And our knowledge has failed to inspire direct community action.
We've been given the tools, but we aren't utilizing them. We are scared to acknowledge the importance of moving beyond understanding the problems of our country. We are not moving beyond ourselves; we are unwilling to sacrifice any part of our comfortable lives for someone else.
"I don't think that consciousness is down. I think that desensitization and detachment are up," said a campus ministry representative who works with students.
This is exactly where Jesuit educated men and women are supposed to be different. We are supposed to challenge any system that demeans the dignity of any person and act toward the formation of a humane world for all people.
Mark Ravizza, S.J., reflected on this idea in a paper drafted for a conference on the university's future direction: "But what would it mean to become a university that is genuinely in solidarity with those most in need? Seriously engaging this question has far reaching consequences for our mission, for ultimately, this would require us as a community of scholars to 'let the gritty reality of this world into our lives.'Ã "
Today, the reality is clear. The war in Iraq is still raging and more people have died; we've become accustomed to daily reports of car bombs or soldiers' deaths. War is not something through which any human being should have to suffer.
And our friends in El Salvador, still recovering from their war, are now organizing to protect their factories, and we as students can do something about it here on campus with the United Students Against Sweatshops movement.
The aftermath of Katrina reflected too vividly the issues of class, race and poverty that have been ignored in our country.
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger recently denied some of our fellow citizens the right to marriage. Love is a human right that must be defended, and simply talking about it in classrooms is not enough.
Students are the impetus for change. I saw it happen my first years on campus, and I believe we can see it again if we let the realities of social injustice into our lives and propel us into action.
"It is not enough for our graduates to know about the world," Ravizza noted. "They must also develop the conscience and compassion to improve it."
Meghan Hennessy is a senior political science major.