Orientation Dinner

   We all met in front of the courthouse and walked over to a restaurant called Seasons, where we were dined on a delicious meal (warm apple crisp and ice cream for dessert!) and got to know each other.  I sat at a table with teachers from Michigan (Lansing), California, Iowa, and South Carolina (Clemson).
   After dinner we had a little ice-breaker activity and watched the lightning show in the sky.  If we wanted to, we could read our "essays" about what it means to be an American citizen.  I was one of three volunteers, and mine was well received.  (I had been a little nervous because I found a poem online to read and knew it could be considered controversial.)  I already shared the poem with Joe, Karen, and Brian, but here it is, along with a personal commentary at the bottom, for the rest of you.  
Mankind Loosed – Anonymous

I have died in Viet Nam but I have walked the face of the moon.


I have befouled the waters and tainted the air of a magnificent land but I have made it safe from disease.


I have flown through the sky faster than the sun but I have idled in streets made ugly with traffic.

I have littered the land with garbage but I have built upon it 100 million homes.

I have divided schools with my prejudice but I have sent armies to unite them.

I have beat down my enemies with clubs but I have built courtrooms to keep them free.

I have built a bomb to destroy the world but I have used it to light a light.

I have outraged my brothers in the alleys of the ghettos but I have transplanted a human heart.


I have scribbled out filth and pornography but I have elevated the philosophy of man.


I have watched children starve from my golden towers but I have fed half the earth.


I was raised in a grotesque slum but I am surfeited by the silver spoon of opulence.


I live in the greatest country in the world in the greatest time in history but I scorn the ground I stand upon.

I am ashamed but I am proud. I am an American.

To be an American citizen is to recognize and celebrate our virtues, but also to recognize and admit to our faults and limitations.  To be an American citizen is to be honest, both as individuals and as a nation.  I have traveled extensively and I have even lived in other countries for several years, and I can say in all honesty that I would not want to claim any citizenship other than American. 

   It's a lot cooler outside now and it's supposed to storm tonight; most of our day tomorrow is going to be spent inside.  I am now officially exhausted!  Oh, and I now have upstairs neighbors (also from the institute).  We meet for breakfast tomorrow at 7:30.  This is gong to be a fantastic week!!