Anyway, the other day SoCC essays were due. The following were inspired by my three, which I wrote and typed in forty-five crazy fast minutes. They're OK, if ÜBERmelodramatic!, I'm just proud that I could write so fast! What is DIVERSITY? Diversity is strength. There is strength inherent to any community composed of individuals with varying strengths and weaknesses, with differing views and opinions, with multitudinous passions and curiosities. Within such communities, people share an experience which encompasses the gamut of humanity, from suffering our direst depths--ignorance, anger, and hate--and achieving our greatest heights--understanding, compassion, and love. Diversity is a celebration during which we meet as equals and demand naught but the best from each other: the best care, the best understanding, the best respect. Such things are not the best because we express them better than others, but because they are genuinely and freely offered. I care and understand and respect you TRULY, and not because somebody told me to do so. Diversity is one constant conversation between two people, though the individuals involved may change, during which I look you in the eye and say, “I am me. You are you. I would not have it any other way. I do not want you to adopt my Way, Sister. I do not want to adopt your Way, Brother. I want simply to walk beside you for a time, holding hands, as family." <<<ALERT: IMMINENT MELODRAMA AHEAD! ALERT>>> Influential Individual I have a name that reflects my heritage. I am P*, an American-Filipino whose Island Identity contains the seed of hate and apathy as Spanish friars raped and conquered the matriarchs of my clan. I am C*, an American-Filipino whose ancient Malay clan was forced from mainland China as Northern Purity swept the continent, forcing Asian Southerners to the shore of the ocean, those on the Rim exiled over the edge, consumed by the waves. I am Adam, an American-Filipino whose name makes him acceptable among civilized company, undiminished by the unwieldy mantle of his foreign name and foreign antecedents. I am Adam C* P*, who spent a year in Iraq without a name. The most influential individual I have yet encountered namelessly interrogated nameless prisoners, identified only by combinations of letters and numbers codifying the sequence of in-processing. The most influential individual in my life was killed because he had the strength to defy those whose names we read in the paper and see on TV. He had the strength to love when he wasn’t supposed to love, to be compassionate when he was ordered to harden his heart, to act humanely when every precedent allowed him to commit atrocity. He had no name, but he gave me pride in mine. <<<Man, I hate poetry, but people read this like that, so I presented it in that fashion here.>>> Who I IS^_^ I am a Voice for the Voiceless. I am open arms and listening ears for the lonely. I am the last call or the first for a broken heart. I am the energy to change the world. I am the result of the environment in which I grew. I am a reflection. I am a student of Life. I am a seeker of Truths. I am a single drop of water without which the vast ocean is forever reduced. I am fierce defiance in the face of insurmountable adversity. I am the immovable object and the unstoppable force. I am the inherent riddle. I am a collective and plural identity embodied by a single, individual person. I am Love. I am a supernova and a black hole reaching accordance. I am the pregnant silence after thunder rolls through the heavens and crackles along your bones. I am the charged stillness before lightning rips the night, scorches the earth, and blinds your eyes. I am my mother’s son. I am the Trickster’s Votary. I am your future. I am you. I am. |