Grateful to be a student again

7/19/2019

By Tomi McCutchen
Martin, Tennessee

Perpetual student.
That is where I fell on the ACT World of Work map back in the dark ages of my high school career, an outlier on an official piece of paper. Given that each person’s map is linked to that person’s stated interests, I should not have been surprised. My interests always have varied widely, often surprising others in this rural, conservative area who have an “image” of who I should be because I teach college journalism and am now married to a minister.
Also, because I am the faculty adviser to my university’s student newspaper, I have spent the past 23 years being extremely private about my opinions on various hot-button issues. I felt the need to self-censor because I did not want to be perceived as exerting undue influence on my student staff.
We all know that perception is tougher to fight than reality. And I know who I am – a 59-year-old woman who loves the land and wants to make a difference in some small way.
So, on the issue of climate change, I can no longer remain silent. I am absolutely terrified of the havoc we are wreaking upon our planet, this beautiful Earth that God gave us for our home. And I am absolutely appalled that our treatment of our home has become just another political issue or salacious headline on any given day.
No more. Collectively, we must act now, but we must arm ourselves with knowledge and patience, and be willing to be vilified for our efforts, in order to try to save our world from self-destruction.
This, then, is why I am so looking forward to our time in Puerto Rico with Fossil Free PCUSA. I am deeply grateful for this time to learn – about permaculture, about restoration projects, about different environments, about an island that refused to bow to a major hurricane or clueless politicians – and thus to be the perpetual student that ACT correctly predicted lo those many years ago.
The July 14 lectionary included this verse from Colossians (1:10), “… so that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God …”
When my husband and I return to Northwest Tennessee from Puerto Rico, my hope is that we can fulfill the directive of this verse by sharing what we’ve learned with others and possibly finding ways to effect change, either in others’ views of climate change or through projects that help our local environment.
My prayer is that the fruit we bear will reflect well what we learn, and that we both will continue to be perpetual students.
Our home is worth the effort.

1 Comment

Elysia Duke

7/21/2019 08:46:00 pm

Despite the current political unrest in Puerto Rico and as a "self-employed political scientist," I still do not see unrests in other United States. Puerto Rico is a U.S. territory and its folks know that Donald J. Trump is their President whether they like it or not. Puerto Rico uses U.S. currency and postage stamps like their other American counterparts. Yes, I know about the 2017 hurricane situation and it goes to show that its people have a voice as other Americans do. I just read on Bustle that each of the five U.S. territories, including Puerto Rico, have one representative, of all five territories, in the United States House of Representatives. However, they do not have rights to vote for President of the United States nor send electors to the Electoral College except for voting in the primaries. My question remains why the five territories do not have their own two Senators despite the intent of our Founding Fathers to only allow states in the Union to vote for President. The 23rd Amendment allowed Washington, DC, residents to vote for President although it only operates as a mayor-council government and I should recommend legislation for it to start electing its own two Senators. The District of Columbia elects a "delegate" to the House of Representatives. If our five territories can use our currency and Forever stamps, legislation should be enacted that they can also have their voice in our Presidential elections with implementing their two Senators with a spot in our Electoral College.

I am looking at an article from "The Conservation," on President Trump's assertion of energy dominance would extend "boundless capacity" for energy production with the global expansion of American fossil fuels to demonstrate its independence from foreign oil. Catalina de Onis, who wrote the article, collaborates with Comete Dialogo Ambiental, a non-governmental organization in Salinas, Puerto Rico, that deals with environmental situations within the territory. Her term of "energy dominance" is referred to a new referral of U.S. Colonialism.

According to Freedom House, Puerto Ricans are have similar guarantees of freedom along with their U.S. State counterparts in respect to religion, academics, the press, assembly, sexual orientation in the workplace, civil rights, individual rights, trade rights, and equal protection under law (gender). There is room for improvement in regards to achieving democracy and safety. Puerto Rico continues to have issues with drug cartels that often dominate public housing neighborhoods, civil rights violations among law enforcement officials, collusion between law enforcement and drug dealers, and political unrest. It yet needs to achieve full democracy by allowing its people an opportunity to vote the commonwealth territory into the Union as Puerto Ricans as considered U.S. citizens with the same civil liberty guarantees. If Puerto Rico is finally admitted into the Union, there should be tough regulations to strengthen the war on drugs in public housing neighborhoods along with routine drug screenings for new applicants.

Grateful to be a student again

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