EVERYONE has |
“SHARING STORIES...CREATING CONNECTIONS...CHANGING PERCEPTIONS”
At Human Connections blog and storytelling page, we plan to shed light on the inspiring stories of resilience and resistance using storytelling. Storytelling practices allow us to address and explore the pressing issues facing our humanity in this modern era. Let’s build compassion and solidarity across borders.
Goals
Goals
- Connect with each other via sharing stories about the human experience of joy and sorrow.
- Broaden perspectives and foster empathy, resilience, and genuine relationships.
- Highlight contemporary and historical key figures and groups who worked/working on social justice and human rights issues.
- Recognize our shared humanity and encourage universal values to bring peace and justice in our broken world.
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Connect with Us!
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STORY BY ASHWIN TELANG It is a human reflex to feel numb. We’ve all felt it. Powerless. Paralyzed. Desensitized. So many intense emotions that boil inside you—unable to escape—but suppressed to a sour cooling point. Crowded by so many issues of significant scale, today’s young Americans feel helpless as they are guided by the hand of quietism, passivity, and normalization.
Mary Hanna, the operations manager of the Meta Peace Team and Melody Arnst, the development coordinator of the Meta Peace Team, hope to halt this cycle of normalization. “If you’re feeling isolated and alone, the first that comes to your mind is, what can I do?” Melody says. After traveling to West Bank and many other conflict hotspots around the world, Mary finds that “one person really can make a difference.” |
Mary recalls a particularly compelling story when a Palestinian boy no older than 7 years old was nearly arrested by the police for throwing stones during a protest. His family greeted the Meta Peace International Team with a deep appreciation for their protection and presence. When Mary had to leave, she was “waiting for this family to beg for more protection…but instead they threw a celebration.” According to Mary, “they were so grateful for one night of peace without worrying about taking their child.” It was at this moment that she realized “it was worth every penny and hour to go there…even knowing that she won’t change the course of the conflict.’
Mary shows us that “it's important to take opportunities of peace, solace, and caring.” Though the media constantly covers the ripple effect of shootings, conflicts, and outgoing trauma, it often ignores the ripple effect of individual and community-wide healing efforts. “A single act can have an impact much beyond the local community,” Melody says. Efforts at the individual level can unravel to state and national reform, but too often, the American media leverages a different strategy to profit from public attention: “If it bleeds, it leads.”
Beyond reworking the media, Mary asks young people to adopt a daily practice that makes them feel like their most genuine, caring selves. Melody finds that effort translates to impact and that “we need to teach young people about how they can better make a difference.” In this way, the path to ending America’s vicious cycle of desensitization and normalization starts at the individual-impact level.
Mary shows us that “it's important to take opportunities of peace, solace, and caring.” Though the media constantly covers the ripple effect of shootings, conflicts, and outgoing trauma, it often ignores the ripple effect of individual and community-wide healing efforts. “A single act can have an impact much beyond the local community,” Melody says. Efforts at the individual level can unravel to state and national reform, but too often, the American media leverages a different strategy to profit from public attention: “If it bleeds, it leads.”
Beyond reworking the media, Mary asks young people to adopt a daily practice that makes them feel like their most genuine, caring selves. Melody finds that effort translates to impact and that “we need to teach young people about how they can better make a difference.” In this way, the path to ending America’s vicious cycle of desensitization and normalization starts at the individual-impact level.
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Igniting Change: Tackling the Shortcomings of Public Education in the U.S.What are the first steps to solving generational, systemic social justice issues? For Asquith Clarke II, the healing process begins with truth.
Since he was a child, Asquith has been passionate about helping people. Initially dreaming of saving lives as a doctor, Asquith is pursuing a career as a truth-teller, which, in his own words, is "embracing and learning about the full history of my ancestors that isn't whitewashed." As a truth-teller, Asquith hopes to advocate for diverse, inclusive, and equitable education globally. |
As a college student, Asquith understands the shortcomings of public education in the U.S. and how disparities in education affect students personally. He has experienced the difference between his under-resourced school in Brooklyn, New York, and the violence and lack of motivation present there, and the opportunities and unique challenges at better-funded suburban schools in New Jersey. In Brooklyn, he recalls, "there was just so much work and so little guidance… you were trying to succeed in a system that was ultimately trying to fail you."
Asquith hopes to address the fundamental issues in the public school system. These goals connect directly to his passion for truth-telling. Both in education and social justice environments, Asquith believes that the first step toward healing is acknowledging trauma and the reality of our history. "If we want to change the future," he says, "we have to understand our past."
Asquith's vision of an aware and engaged school system and the public is clear in his work with various groups, where he advocates for inclusive, supportive, and research-based work. He hopes his advocacy work can ignite change through while serving justice to the movements and histories it shares and avoid reinforcing any harms or issues the groups intend to aid in solving.
Asquith hopes to address the fundamental issues in the public school system. These goals connect directly to his passion for truth-telling. Both in education and social justice environments, Asquith believes that the first step toward healing is acknowledging trauma and the reality of our history. "If we want to change the future," he says, "we have to understand our past."
Asquith's vision of an aware and engaged school system and the public is clear in his work with various groups, where he advocates for inclusive, supportive, and research-based work. He hopes his advocacy work can ignite change through while serving justice to the movements and histories it shares and avoid reinforcing any harms or issues the groups intend to aid in solving.
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STORY BY ASHWIN TELANG Injustice isn’t easy on the human mind. It’s often numbing, draining, and depressing. When we so passionately fight for reform, only to see an issue persist, we become hopeless. Kim Redigan was raised during the devastating Vietnam War. Many of her neighbors and friends passed away in service. As such, her road to social justice was “grounded in her own personal experience.”
At 11 years old, Kim struggled with severe depression. She initially channeled her sadness and confusion through poetry. But when world conditions became too painful, she, like many, resorted to alcohol. Drinking was a long and arduous journey, but eventually, |
she found recovery. Kim came to realize that “our world is in denial of its brokenness and…violence.” Today, she finds that drinking was her violence and wouldn’t recommend it to anyone. Just as worldwide atrocities hurt her, alcohol hurt the people she loved.
Now, Kim is a high school teacher that works rigorously to engage her students in current events, social justice, and community participation. She writes for the Meta Peace Team’s quarterly and Pax Christi newsletters. Kim also coordinates LGBTQ+ protests and human rights groups at the Mexican border. Most importantly, she has done invaluable work for Detroit’s water security, which is led by example of indigenous communities.
Amid a war in Ukraine and the mental aftereffects of the pandemic, Kim believes that we need more of the arts and poetry to express our feelings. This helps us channel our burning anger and draining depression into a creative outlet. Art can also bring communities together, decreasing the loneliness brought by the pandemic. Societies need to recover from divisions, numbness, and depression.
Gone are the negative thoughts of Kim’s past. Today, she hopes. She hopes for a brighter future with more creativity and community. And she advocates. She advocates for a more equitable world with peace and justice.
Now, Kim is a high school teacher that works rigorously to engage her students in current events, social justice, and community participation. She writes for the Meta Peace Team’s quarterly and Pax Christi newsletters. Kim also coordinates LGBTQ+ protests and human rights groups at the Mexican border. Most importantly, she has done invaluable work for Detroit’s water security, which is led by example of indigenous communities.
Amid a war in Ukraine and the mental aftereffects of the pandemic, Kim believes that we need more of the arts and poetry to express our feelings. This helps us channel our burning anger and draining depression into a creative outlet. Art can also bring communities together, decreasing the loneliness brought by the pandemic. Societies need to recover from divisions, numbness, and depression.
Gone are the negative thoughts of Kim’s past. Today, she hopes. She hopes for a brighter future with more creativity and community. And she advocates. She advocates for a more equitable world with peace and justice.
