Why

Why

By: Fuller

It is my plan, once I'm out of the military, to pursue a career in teaching. Specifically Highschool History or Government. It isn't a glamorous or a relatively high paying career, bit that is only if you count monetary gain as the measure of success. My goal and aspiration in life is to make a difference in people's lives. To inform and to educate. To eradicate the evils of prejudice and ignorance and to help create a well informed electorate as well as rounded individuals and free thinkers ready and willing at the drop of a hat to ask "why".

Our future depends on the minds, not the backs, of those who come after us. Our future teachers, police officers, politicians, news anchors, historians, authors, etc, should question the status quo and seek to alter and change every aspect of their civilization for the better. We are caught in a loop of the middle and lower classes standing by and seeing no change in their lives through the generations that they produce, yet there is one word through which I believe every single person; young, old, rich, and/or poor can fundamentally change the way everything in their life operates. Why. Why do we treat our fellow man this way? Why do we see poverty and injustice and simply hope for some charismatic leader to change things? Why don't our children receive the education they deserve? Every discussion about a problem begins with a "Why", and every solution begins with a "I" or "We" are going to do something about it. Education is the key. Teach people to ask Why and teach them the skills and knowledge to think, not what to think, but how.

Every problem has historical precedent. Whether that precedent dates back centuries, decades, or two weeks ago. Everything has precedent. Even precedents have precedents, and it is our job to quit being apathetic about the future of our children and the past of our fathers and mothers. It is time to put our differences aside and ask Why again. That is my only "Holy Doctrine", the word Why. It is the only word I live by and the only creed I teach. It is a word that leads multitudes of questions and requires a mind to answer itself. It doesn't come with an answer booklet or a multiple choice test. It comes by itself to whoever seeks its wise counsel and forces its conjuror to give himself what he seeks through thought and understanding. It beckons its user to learn and see and to feel. It cradles emotion and speaks only of knowledge. But it calls out only to brave souls, Those with enough heart, courage, and brains to seek it out from the depths of our human psyche and the locked chambers of our hearts.

It is said that the meek will inherit the earth. I disagree. The meek shall wither and die because Why does not cater itself to cowardice. Why caters to those brave enough to seek it and ballsy enough to ask it. It alone is the death of bigotry and tyranny and of injustice and prejudice. And yet no matter how powerful it is, and it is very powerful, it requires a person, a human soul to be its wielder. It is the Excalibur of the educated and just as the legendary sword did, it chooses its hosts, but even so a sword is just a sword until wielded by a competent swordsman.