From ADL to Morehouse...it was a good day!

Today started with a speech given by Bill Nigut who is the southeast regional director of the Anti-defamation League(ADL) which was created to stop the defamation of Jewish people but was later expanded to secure justice and fair treatment to all citizens. The ADL work to end discrimination practices around the country. It also helps with victim assistance and law inforcement training. One thing that I found very important was the fact that the ADL is the leading diversity educator for students starting at pre-K. I think that teaching children about diversity is the best way for society to become more diversify. He also spoke about the fact that racism was still prevalent in society and I completely agree with this statement. Nowadays people will subtly use discrimatory slurrs at others. For instance, somepeople might say "thats so gay" without realizing that those words might hurt a homosexual person by equating them to being lame. This made me realize that we need to be careful what we say because it might offend someone. This can be tied to the homeless issue through certain stereotype that many people have of homeless people. Some people can make insensitive jokes about the homeless being lazy and that they are responsible for their situation without looking at the root causes of the problem.

Bill Nigut finished his speech with this quote from Rabbi Hillel “If I am not for myself, who will be for me? If I am only for myself, what am I?" “If not now, when?” -----To me this means that although we think of ourselves, we can not forget about others in need and if we aren't going to act now, are we ever going to?

The next thing we did was Safe Haven where people are picked up off the street and are given a hot meal. Today there weren't as many people as there were on Tuesday. The reason for this is that many people received their tax returns so they go an spend all their money. What is interesting is that by the end of the month, their money will be gone. This brings up the issue of education or rather the lack of education. Would a better educated person know how to wisely use that money in order to better their situation in life? I believe so.

The next part of our day was tutoring. Today, the students were joined by Laurence Sidbury who plays football for the Atlanta Falcons. Laurence Sidbury stressed the importance of staying in school and not becoming influence by others who are behaving badly. For this example, Michael Vick who followed his friends in making bad decisions was punished by the law. Some of the children were not paying attention but I hope that they at least get his message and work hard to achieve their dreams.

The next part the day consist of some people going to CNN for a tour(tickets sold out but they got to see Emory) and the rest(including me--Kenisha) going to see Morehouse College. Morehouse College was very interesting to see because of the history associated with it. Morehouse College is a historically black male college that was established in 1867. We received a tour from Rob Myric(Reni's friend who goes to Morehouse). We started out tour at the Martin Luther King International Chapel which had a statue of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in front of the building with Dr. King's "I have a Dream Speech" etched in the side of the building. Dr. King was an alumi of Morehouse College. The next part of our tour consist of seeing various academic buildings and dorms names after famous African Americans who fought for justice and civils rights for black people. We also saw benches that were made to acknowledge the importance of black faternities. The next part of our tour took us to Graves Hall which was actually Morehouse College at one point. One interesting fact that I learned about Graves Hall was that when the Ku Klux Klan were nearby, the bell on top of Graves Hall would ring so that students know to go some place safe. In front of Graves Hall was the tomes of Benjamin Elijah Mays and his wife Sadie Gray Mays. Benjamin Elijah Mays was a former president of Morehouse College. Dr. King had credited Benjamin Mays as his inspiration for many of his speeches. The next part of our tour consist of seeing different parts of Clark Altanta University pointed out to us while walking across the promedade or the "strip" which is an open courtyard that is a hang out spot for students(we were in a hurry to get to dinner on time so we didn't get to go and see the campus upclose). We then went to Spelman University which was very beautiful and the more aesthetically appealing of the three campuses. Spelman was very beautiful...too bad my camera died. The trip to these colleges were a success because I learned plenty about the history of African American education in the United States.
Overall, today has been a wonderful day. I have learned the importance of service, the harmful effects of discrimination in the country and what the ADL is trying to do to end discrimination. I also learned history of Morehose College, Clark Atlanta University and Spelman College.

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Kenisha Solomon