There’s always something to fight about, whether its over power, religion, politics or land, it seems there’s a never ending parade of disagreement and conflict. On the news we hear about conflicts between countries, but if we look at our history we don’t have to look far to see just how much we fight amongst ourselves. As Jessica said in her spark “somebody is always unhappy about something” so with that, why couldn’t and why can’t we (as in today) solve our issues the way the Brownsville Community Center worked to fix theirs? According to Pritchett (which, as mentioned by so many, seems to leave out some important information) the BCC really made a difference in their community.
Unfortunately, conflict usually tends to lead to a negative response. Politicians and leaders put on their brave faces and tell the people “these are the problems we face, but we are combating them using methods that will work if we enforce them.” The leaders in Anbinder’s book like Matthews, Kerrigan and Walsh were ex-military, so is it any surprise that they all tried to dominate in politics? I mean just look at what we call our efforts to solve our problems: the “war” on poverty, the “war” against terrorism. Why do we have to be at war? Not everything needs to be battle, a struggle yes, but to call it a war is to make the solution sound just as bad as the problem.
I agreed with Susan when she said that no one is ever completely satisfied no matter how much effort gets put into improving the community situation. Like with the Board of Education and the specialized curriculum; neighborhoods wanted control of their schools, so the teacher’s unions began a strike to protest. Those that managed to create their own curriculum, like the black population, tried make a curriculum that would provide a better education for them. Specialization didn’t seem to be exactly what everyone wanted since “afrocentric” curriculums tended to send many minorities, including blacks in search of integrated schools. So all that work for nothing, a community fights for something and in the end not everyone is happy about it. After this week’s readings, I know what my mother felt every time she told me to “be the bigger person.” It’s not always about being right or getting your way, its about accepting the fact that not everything needs to be fought about. That seems to be one lesson that we never learn.
