A Dreamer's Dreams Unfulfilled Just Yet.

When I was a child, I naively felt that as I grew older and became a man, all things negative would vanish and the world would simply be at my doorstep WAITING for me to change it. I thought all it took to change the society I grew up in were simple speeches and well wishes, and all would be fine.

It was my naivete that kept me from the realities of this world; it won't change off of well wishes and speeches. Societies and communities don't transform because we merely want them to, they transform because we force it to through action, through collective effort and through self-transformations within ourselves.

How can I as just one man expect to win over hearts and change the minds of others if I cannot do this within myself?

I've realized that in order to change the mentality of one community, you've got to change the mentalities of the families within that one community. However, I can't promote health if I can't take my own advice. I can't promote education if I do not engage in education myself. I can't advocate on behalf of the homeless and ask others to feed the homeless if I have never done so myself. In all acts of community advancement I call for, I now realize that the best advocacy in the world is advocacy that is demonstrated by example.

What are my words without actions to follow them?

What are my goals without efforts to achieve them?

What are my dreams without waking up to live them?

Words, without action, mean nothing.



Here's to us changing the world through example; one day at a time.

- David

Our Nation's Priorities

When we look all around ourselves in this country, we see groups of people and communities that we don't always belong to. That's the beauty of diversity. When we read and hear certain opinions of different people, we sometimes feel that we can never agree with the ideas they value. When we look to our friends, we wonder why they act the way they do and say things they do. That's the one thing about our society that makes it so unique; we have groups of people from all avenues of life, all levels of education and backgrounds. We are in the struggle of finding ourselves. We know who we are as individuals, we know who we are as racial groups... but do we know who we are as a people? One might say, "We're Americans". While that might be true, the struggle in our quest for a universal identity is that we have in our minds this idea that the label 'American' means one entity; we're not one single entity and we're not one united people with one uniform set of values and principles. To some, family is the overlying number one valuable thing in their lives; to others, it might be their educations or their careers. Each of these things encompasses its own set of things to maintain and with different people holding different priorities, there is much to be debated over. A $1,000,000 dollar grant to a poor rural town is not at the first thing many people think about. Likewise, violence in the urban communities isn't something many people would initially want to address head on. These issues which affect the most isolated groups of people are the ones which aren't thoroughly discussed in all areas of the nation. We seldomly read or hear the stories about the other side's struggle. In our country, we give too much power to the phrase 'Out of sight, out of mind'. We know that which we can see and that with which we're familiar. Who you know that starved today in America? Who do you know that got evicted today? in America? Who have you talked to today that has more than enough intelligence to succeed in college but can't because they can't afford it? These are injustices to those in society. Anytime you succeed, anytime you do well, anytime you achieve an aspiration; know that there is always someone who less fortunate than yourself. What if it was you?

When does revolution become necessary?

What are we to make of revolutionary statements from prominent leaders in world history? Are we to disregard what was said decades or even hundreds of years ago? I, among millions of others of people, believe history is meant to teach each generation what arises when certain events go unnoticed and the people become more and more indifferent to the issues of their time. It seems as though the world never quite learns the lessons of generations past and in a cycle of decay, we fall victim to systemic methods of quelling and silencing dissent. Every society is unique and when government officials feel invincible in the political arena, this alone is cause for concern. What many people may not take into is the fact that silence alone can sometimes be the root of struggle and conflict.

Organizations all around the country exist purely on the premise of being a safeguard for the constitution. The overlying problem with this though is that each of these organizations develop individual interpretations of the constitution and like congress, good ideas die in the midst of political disputes. When our government politicians are less concerned with their constituents' needs and more concerned with political fundraising for re-election, the role of being a legislator in a democratic republic becomes construed and forgotten. Just to clarify, I feel that all too often, legislators (incumbents especially) forget what they were elected to do and instead, only worry about what it takes to win an election. Winning elections and maintaining the interests of the constituency aren't always synonymous in American politics. Elections alone are no remedy for preventing a usurpation of our rights from the government. We need grassroots activism where people don't sit idly hoping for actual change and instead stand for what they believe in. We always say we believe in the first amendment; but how often exactly do we use it? We always say we want a balanced budget and responsible government spending but how often do we show up at the building doorsteps demanding it? We always call for more education funds but how often we do storm the districts office demanding it? Imagine a world where the government held bake sales to fundraise for war and schools were given money without question.

Our priorities have fallen out of wack and we've forgotten the very liberties we say our nation embodies. Visualize a society where the ruling class were genuinely fearful of repercussions for corruption and foul play. Visualize a nation where All who complained about the system had done something as simple as voting. Visualize a system where parties debated accordingly by issues and what needed to be done for the American people; even more, the people of the world. I refuse to believe we have become sheep; Sheep cannot take action. Yet it is apparent that as government becomes bigger in scale, so does the submissiveness among the very people it is designed to serve. We must always keep our governments at bay and on edge in fear of removal of power; it keeps them busy at work for us and us only.