as we shift – we are people first
by Sophia Love, published on February 24, 2017
I’ve just finished speaking with my friends from the Pleiades. That conversation can be found here. I reached out today because of what I notice in my own life, hear from my friends and family, and observe in the world at large. We are more vocally divided today than ever before.
Rather than go into an explanation or opinion of why this is happening, I’ll offer here another way. According to what we are told, we are still able to change this. Ignore the news reports as best as you are able and let’s watch what happens when we get busy.
Until recently, I was a big fan of NPR (National Public Radio). Their current slant is so obviously engineered that I’ve turned it off.
Until recently, I enjoyed a daily dose of hugs from the children I work with. I’ve just been told that a mandate has come down from the Superintendent. It states that we are not allowed to touch the children under any circumstance. We cannot reciprocate when hugged.
These two things appear unrelated. For me, they are different indications of a systemic issue. It is a world run amok, its direction orchestrated by deeply rooted fear. That fear was intentionally planted by the very group we are extricating ourselves from. This last ditch effort to separate us can be stopped peacefully if we each take action in our own lives.
What is offered here is my response to both issues mentioned above. I will write.
First, to NPR:
To whom it may concern,
I’ve been an avid listener of your station for many years. Until hard economic times altered the financial landscape, I’ve donated as well. I’ve appreciated the intelligent interviews over a broad range of subjects and countries and issues. I’ve felt “smart” when mentioning your interviews in subsequent conversations with friends.
Today however, I turn the channel off regularly. I plan to remove it from auto-dial in my car. I find the rhetoric obviously slanted. This does not sound like news and I don’t turn on the radio to be manipulated.
I am a woman with four children. I have a BA, and have been a public servant for all of my adult life. I’ve been a probation officer, an educator and a school administrator. I care for both ends of the family spectrum – my mom and my children, while working full time. I am a typical American female and your station no longer speaks to me.
Ideally, news should offer and encompass all sides from all parties, allowing the listener to decide for themselves. Where is the report of the recent child pedophile and trafficking arrests? How about some actual financial data that illustrates the real state of our currency? How come it took the station so long to mention the DAPL, and when it did, it had this “they are all divided anyway” personality? What about a few intelligent inquiries into the necessity of land and water preservation and the obvious one – Who benefits from this pipeline? Where are these many jobs that were promised? Will the price of fuel be reduced in the country as a result? Or rather, will the bankers/corporations get the only benefit?
Your listeners are far more savvy than you give them credit for. I am concerned that my mom and her friends fixed income is dependent on a corrupt banking system run by criminals who never seem to be held accountable, and that my college educated children can’t even get a $20.00 an hour job or afford to rent an apartment. Where are these stories? There is no accountability to the people here; in this or any other news source. NPR has lost its edge and relevance.
A former listener
And to the Superintendent:
To whom it may concern,
As an employee in the District, I was told today that I am not allowed to touch the children under any circumstance.
I am writing because this feels like a rule for the sake of compliance rather than for the sake of the child.
I’ve worked here for 3 years, and before that, in several other schools in a variety of capacities. What concerns me is the lack of personal accountability and trust that the rule implies. I’ve been through background checks and been vetted before being hired. I am never alone with a child. Most of the time, there are 3 or 4 other adults in the room.
We are people first. An integral part of what we do happens inside the relationships we develop with these children. Trust happens there. They share with us their worries and problems and lost teeth. As a professional educator, I feel there has to be trust from the administration that hired me as well. Taking away my ability to decide what is appropriate or inappropriate touch, is not trust. Instead, that feels like a program run by automatons. We are people first.
Each day these children are surrounded by rules and standards to which they must comply. The pressures they are under to perform are intense, and put on even the youngest of students at age 5. A school is not a factory. It is a place we send our children to assist in their development. That development begins within and is not expressed solely on the report card. It emerges from the care they feel and then extend to their classmates and peers. They learn this ability from the adults in their days.
I am writing to ask that the humanness and trust be inserted into any rules before they are disseminated to the staff. Those of us who work with children don’t do it for the money. We do it because we believe we may be able to make a difference in a child’s life. This particular rule inhibits our ability to respond naturally to a hug, which, if we are doing our job well, we receive on a daily basis.
I realize I am not in your shoes. I am in mine. I see kids every day and sometimes they just need that hug.
Thank you for listening.
What prompts these letters is a sense of looming separation. I see those efforts made in both “fake” and “real” news reports. I see corporate rules that may sound “proper” yet in fact reduce our ability to connect as humans. The end goal here seems to be divide and then conquer.
Make no mistake, any effort to keep us separate, angry and abiding by seemingly random rules is an effort towards division. United we stand. Divided we fall. This has never been more true. We are people first.
Peacefully put forward efforts to alter the current direction of things in whatever way you feel compelled. There is no issue too small or wasted effort. We are one. This is why we are here.
We are the ones we’ve been waiting for.
In gratitude,
~Sophia
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