I started service learning at the Alton mental health facility some time ago. I went with the intent to help the displaced individuals, from Louisiana, register online with the American Red cross in an effort to help them find their loved ones and to inform them of their possible FEMA benefits. When I visited the facility my first impression was that it was unorganized and people were running around everywhere. Well, that's because it was. I am not sure why I had this inclination yet I figured that someone should get some sort or order to the situation. I wanted to help in my heart yet I realized quickly that these are grown adults and they can think for themselves. For the first thirty minutes after signing in at the front desk, I wandered around aimlessly trying to find someone to help. I then met a woman who was also a volunteer who had attempted to help individuals with registering online and to inform them of their possible FEMA benefits. She spoke fast as we were talking I learned that I needed to just go out and mingle with the individuals and ask if they needed help. Needless to say, I was basically in awe for those first thirty minutes and she obviously noticed it. Well, a barbecue was being thrown so I had lots of room to "mingle". I did so and thought I would start with a young man who seemed to be around my age.
He wore his hat backwards and had shiny gold teeth. He quickly dismissed me saying, "No thank you sir. I have already been helped." I received this response from a couple individuals until I met a middle aged woman by the name of Delores. She asked if I could really help her to locate her children. I explained that I could definitely try and we went to the computer lab where we were followed by a male who I later found out was her significant other. She wrote down the names of her children and included their last known location. I started my search using the American Red Cross website then to Dogpile.com and so forth. This unfortunately all to no avail, and she became noticeably impatient by the results. The fact that someone sitting right next to us who had actually found their relatives and was now celebrating, did not help at all either. I ended up helping her to register online with the American Red Cross so everyone in the world would know her temporary location. I assured her that this was the first crucial step in attempting to reunite her with her children. Well that didn't blow over well and she left to go back to the barbecue. Her significant other asked that we help him look for his family members as well. Within 5-10 minutes we were able to locate his father and I set up an email address for him so he could send and receive emails to the address his father had listed on the American Red Cross website. After Delores learned this she came back up to the second floor computer lab and asked did anyone have her daughter’s social security card. I could almost see the accusatory Ora surrounding her. After a while she just flat out said, "Why would you take my social security card man!" Alarmed, confused, and offended yet with understanding of her situation I replied, “I wouldn't do that to you Delores." I continued with this approach until she calmed down. She went on about how I was the last person she sat with and how I had to be the one to have it. At this time, everyone in the computer lab is checking their pockets just to be "sure" they didn't have Delores’ social security card. Obviously Delores was not a happy camper. In the end, a social worker found the social security card. Delores apologized and went back to the first floor of the building. The social worker came over to me and complimented me on how I had handled the situation. She asked if I had experience in the field of social work or if I was studying to be a social worker. She explained to me that the whole time Delores has been there, she has never apologized to anyone when she gets upset. [It gets hard when you really don't know if your kids are alive].
Having avoided getting my nose broken, I even questioned whether or not I may want to go into some type of social work, service work or education. I mean besides, I had done a good job now that I think of it and I do work well with people in a classroom or lecturing setting. I told her I was studying general courses at STLCC with a focus on sociology. After that event, more people seemed to come to the computer lab and we had a line of 5-6 people at one point, all waiting for us to search for their loved ones. The day had been a success.
I came to a shocking realization after contemplating the day’s events. In class I heard you, Mrs. Haun, on two occasions refer to some African Americans as a “subculture”. At that point in my existence and with my perspective at the time, I was greatly offended by the comment. My thought process was, "I am not part of any subculture!" The word itself struck my psyche as offensive and impossible. I realized on that day, at the Alton Mental Health facility, that you were partly correct. Part of my race is living in a subculture. I had not been deeply offended by you describing African Americans as a subculture but was more offended by witnessing an African American who was obviously part of a subculture, had been all of her life, and who was not planning on pursuing anything further. I was offended by her actions and the way she lashed out at me. I was offended that she was intimidated by computers and from the way she responded when I asked her to grab the mouse and click the start button, she had never touched one before in her life. This woman was, by definition, part of a subculture. That's a hard pill to swallow because I was actullay raised in a subculture myself. My “choices” are what have given me the expressed opportunity to be a person who has removed himself from the psychological bondage's of a subculture to a level of higher education and awareness.
Needless to say that was my first and last day at the Alton Mental Health Facility. I think Diane Foster felt similar to the way I felt on the day she decided to pursue other areas of service work. I remember her saying something like, “I got tired of giving handouts to the same people over and over again". So where do I go from here. I don't know the answer to that question. Socialization is a lifelong process. I have however been expanded mentally and discovered a little more about myself as a person. At twenty four years of age, I still have that question of where should I be? What should I be doing with my life? Where will I be in 20 years? Will I be happy at all? Is what I am doing now going to help me get to where I want to be? Where the hell DO I want to be?
I have concluded that you have to take your place in society and “live” in that place. Here are a few examples. One is the President of the campus here at STLCC. She has taken her place in society as the President of a community college where she can expand the minds of those who seek to be expanded and those who come just because their parents said so. Another is Diane Foster. She is the head of the service learning department, among other things, and also has a perfect position to expand minds and create new levels of awareness in students. Margaret Haun takes sociology seriously because to understand how the pieces of society fit to other pieces is a wealth of knowledge in itself. Knowing these things helps you understand why people may think or react in certain ways. (Without being ethnocentric of course). One by one you are able to touch individuals with wisdom and probably with little or no thanks. To take your place in society and “live there” is also like an old man in the grocery store who mopped the floor for 7 years after he had retired. You always saw him yet he rarely spoke but always listened. Then on your worst day he said one thing that made your entire life seem to change. I am sure this old man is not able to provide life changing advice everyday and probably also receives little or no thanks, yet he knows what he has to offer to society and he was comfortable where is was right there in his skin. I know this may sound elementary but before I started this semester, I felt like I could save the world if I could just talk to the right people and say the right things at the right time. Yet in reality, that’s just not the way the cake is sliced. Looking back on my K-12 education, I can remember lots of individuals who were my “old man mopping the floor”. Even though I cannot remember thanking them at the time, I sincerely thank them now for being right there at that moment. All this brings me to a conclusion which is also another question. Why wouldn’t I want to be an educator?
Before I forget and another 10-15 years passes before I am able to thank my educators, I’d like to say thank you Margaret Haun and Diane Foster. Pass or fail, I am walking away from this class a better person. "To the world you might be one person, but to one person you just might be the world" - Unknown
Months later I received a letter and a certificate of appreciation from Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich. I guess my reasoning for volunteering is what prompted the response from the state. Wow! Maybe more than blue collar democrats like myself arent the only ones after all who knows New Orleans was mistreated huh?
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