This year's Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to Narges Mohammadi, an Iranian civil rights activist who's in an Iranian prison, and who will stay there for the foreseeable future. She's an incredibly courageous woman who isn't afraid to speak out against the current "leaders" of the country, no matter the personal danger to herself. Her case and her courage make me think about the freedoms that I have in my day-to-day life, the choices that I'm able to make every single day without fear of being beaten and/or arrested for wearing the wrong clothes or not covering my hair or saying the wrong thing to the wrong person. The freedoms that I have are many, no matter what limitations I also face, and it's important that I not just appreciate them, but that I take advantage of them to do things that can make a difference in this world. In my case, I try to make the differences as a teacher and as a writer, and in both of those fields I know that I enjoy more freedoms than most people in the world enjoy, and I try to make those freedoms count in my efforts to pass on knowledge of the topics that I've studied deeply, and about which I've learned a lot myself. If I don't take advantage of those freedoms, then I feel that I'm doing a great disservice to wonderfully courageous human beings like Narges Mohammadi. I can't go over to Iran and get her and others out of prison or change their life situations to make their lives better, but I can do my best to take advantage of the freedoms that I do have to try to make this world a better place, even in the slightest of ways.
No comments:
Post a Comment