United Nations meeting...

Tonight (on my night off) I got to deal with a situation where one of my students hit another student. I wasn't required to sit in on the meeting, but when you have a job like ours where you live with the students and your life is being around them...you want to be there for it. Anyway, the entire meeting made me upset and very annoyed. I usually have patience with the things that go on in the dorm, but tonight these students got into it over something very stupid. When it all boiled down to it, it was because they didn't like the other country the student was from. I will not name the countries involved, but it made me think back to what it must have been like back when we dealt with segregation in our own country.

These two groups bicker back and forth about which country is better or which nationality is superior...of course it is a never ending argument because there is no superior nationality or greatest country in the world. I love the United States and think it is the best country, but understand that everyone feels that way about his/her own country or nationality.

With 40 different countries represented here at the academy we can be seen as a small UN. The students come to our little United Nations with his/her preconceptions and ideologies of what life in America is like (Believe it or not Friends or American Pie are accurate depictions of life in the United States). The students call each other names or make ignorant statements regarding a specific race and have no idea what they are talking about. The pride the students have for their country automatically cause them to have a knee-jerk reaction and make another ignorant statement in return. In reality it is like two yapping dogs barking back and forth...neither of which is big enough to take a bite out of anyone and if they attempt to they're not going to cause much damage.

During the meeting when I felt like steam was going to blow out my ears as I sat and listened to these students battle back and forth as to which race started the disagreement...as if these were the first students from these countries to have an issue with each other...I couldn't help but think of the P.O.D. song "Ghetto" below are the lyrics and some of the best advice I could give to anyone who finds themselves in this situation....

P.O.D. - "Ghetto"
Satellite

I believe that this world believes in love

We might never really agree
On anything about the lives we live
Between you and me. So differently.

We don't always see things the same
We should agree to disagree
If we meet at love we can work it out

[chorus:]
I believe you and I will overcome
I believe you and I believe in love

Whether you think I'm so confused
Or if you feel the way I do
So don't give in to this hate within

Living in this world of pain
Don't let it bring you down
The world is a ghetto

[chorus:]
I believe that this world believes in love
I believe you and I believe in love