what i believe is what i DO

the quote in my senior year book under my name is: "If you believe something passionately, people will follow you. People will follow you because they think you know something they don’t, some clue to the meaning of the universe. What I believe is not what I say I believe; what I believe is what I do." -Donald Miller

Walking around Rome a few weeks ago, i was all the sudden caught in a gigantic gay pride parade. the energy, passion, excitement and raw conviction was contagious. It got me thinking about how many things I believe in would get me to join in a PARADE of thousands and thousands of people. So I added, "participate in a parade, rally or protest for something that I passionately believe in" to my bucket list. 

     I'm not saying that I want to make the news or a headline, necessarily. However, I think everything I believe in should be a belief strong enough to jump into a parade. I couldn't help but let deep reflection pass over me in a sea of people covered in rainbows, smiles, makeup, glitter and signs begging for change. I am guilty of being silent on many political things I believe. Most of my close friends are republicans. Politics rarely finds its place in 95% of my everyday conversations; it feels strange to even blog about this topic. I firmly, with all my being, believe that every single human on this earth should have rights. I don't think that those rights are limited to religious beliefs, personal preferences, sexual orientation or lifestyle choices. In fact, it would be my greatest career goal to devote my life to enforcing the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Sadly, since its creation in 1948, leaders and citizens of the world have done a very poor job of seeing this document bring about change across nations. Keeping the events of the Nazi-induced Holocaust in mind, there have been great steps in the new field of international law. Genocide, crimes against humanity, extreme discrimination and acts of injustice are in news headlines everyday. I urge you not to turn a blind eye to these occurrences, but instead stand vigilant. Inform yourself on these hot topic issues and take a stance. Don't take this post as me telling you what to believe, but instead of begging you to discover for yourself what that belief is. Believing alone is not sufficient. You must take that belief and DO something with it. Don't take the easy way out and say. "oh, I don't know how I feel about that." Don't take the other easy way out and say, "i agree" too quickly. 

    In a class I took last fall, we were discussing laws and social change. For simplicity purposes, I will use one analogy and let you create a list of others in your mind. Just a few decades ago, no one knew smoking cigarettes caused such grave effects to your health so smoking was allowed everyone and an activity engaged in by nearly everyone. Now we have laws against smoking indoors, specific "smoking" designations in places and new intensified warning labels (I think this is awesome by the way. Read up on it: here and flip through the ad photos HERE). I cannot honestly wrap my mind around living in a smoke-filled bubble with no knowledge of the consequences. It makes me wonder what legislation and scientific discoveries our children will grow up around. Will my daughter one day look me in the eye and ask what it was like when abortion was illegal or when the only people who were allowed to get married was a "man and wife"? Will she ask me why we thought that they shouldn't be entitled to the same rights as us? In the same way that I wondered after reading The Help, what made the white man think he was so superior? History is an odd thing. It builds upon itself. 

     I just realized that this is four blog posts I've been mentally writing for weeks all rolled into one, really intense post. I really think great changes will come in the near future for many political hot-topics. Inform yourself and do something with the knowledge that you gain. So that you can tell the next generation WHY you believed what you did and what you did to support that belief: either join the crowd or fight against it.