A purpose confirmed

January 17th 2017

Pre-Reflection 

Today so far I feel lost and without a purpose with being on his trip I think for me all that I was currently looking for on this trip fulfilled yesterday. Lately, I've been feeling more and more stuck in something similar to my situation at home. For example having to watch everything I say and do so my dad won't use it against me. I feel like I have to be silent and think and figure out why they won't talk to me like my brother. 

Greyhound Activity

We started our day out with going to the historic greyhound bus stop for an activity. We had to create a statue by the people and everything on the side of the bus stop. My group chose Jim Zierg because he was a Freedom rider and he was always first to get off the bus and always first hit. With that being said of course we reenacted that via statue.

EJI

Then we went to EJI which is a non-profit who's helping to decrease the number of children in the jail system given life without parole or the death sentence, mass incarceration, and to abolish death row. They also work in jail housing and the legacy of racial and emotional justice. They were founded in 1980. We spoke about the difference of Alabama and Maryland . For example in Alabama they have 22 appeal judges who are all white. In Maryland we have public defenders who we are given when you can't afford one but there they have and appointment system where lawyers around the state will appoint themselves for a moment despite them not specializing in public defense.

Roscoe Jones

We ate dinner with Roscoe Jones who was a teacher and being a young leader in Meridian and the movement. He also was in COFO who helped create the freedom schools. 

Post-Reflection

My takeaway from day 4 of the trip is the confirmation that my purpose on this trip is now to think about where am I going with my life with Roscoe Jones's 3 questions , who am I, where am I going and what can I do to better it? So far in okay with the unknown but I'm nervous of the time that I will find it won't be fitting for what I want to accomplish. At EJI the two people who spoke to us were young educated black people named Keira and Evan. Keira and Evan are everything I strive to be. They are within the equality / civil rights movement, but they found that they wanted to give back to their community through law and I want to do the same through education. Roscoe Jones taught me how meaningful school is for children because they learn the fundamentals and foundation to be a literate equal person in this community. He used School as a refuge similar to how to Schafer in school. I also noticed how to share in schools. He said 2 quotes that confirmed this purpose for me " Become a teach because you care not for a paycheck" and that "Black lives matter should be black life matters because at this point we aren't scared of the KKK killing us but it's one of us killing each other."

-Anonymous