Mesa Legend - ARCHIVES - Vol. 39, Issue 10


Volume 39, Issue 10. Today is .

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Volume 39, Issue 10
February 12, 2002

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Diversity proves to be dose of reality

By Elias Rodriguez

I was born in Kansas City, Mo., 29 years ago, and went to a high school in the suburbs that eventually got a small dose of reality.

In 1990, due to the overflow of students in the inner-city schools, our school was selected as an overflow site.

The first day of my junior year I walked through the doors and something had changed from our simple little Caucasian environment.

Diversity! Beautiful diversity!

We had black students, Hispanic students, and even a few Asian students plus one exchange student from Norway (who would sit with me in Biology and teach me cuss words in his native tongue in exchange for cuss words in my native tongue.)

But, as with all change, ignorance reared its ugly head. These were my friends, the ones saying, "Gee, it's getting awfully dark around here." Or, in some cases, using words meant to demean a human being, to reduce a person to an object that could be hated the same way some people hate peas or cold sores.

It wasn't long before the race riots started. Inevitably, metal detectors were implemented and the Kansas City Police Department started patrolling our lunch rooms like we were inmates eating lunch at Levenworth State Prison.

So much for diversity.

However this was important to me-this was part of what made me who I am now and in part, shaped the way I look at people and how they interact.

The most important word that I ever learned was "Why?"

I took this job here with a background in the school of hard knocks and subjective and objective observation. Ten years of it in fact!

And everyday I ask myself that same question, Why? Why do we sell ourselves as an image that can be cut out of a catalog? Why do we wear ourselves like a suit? Why do we fail to effectively communicate our intentions with ourselves? Why do we do this to other people?

Are you beginning to understand where I'm going here?

This word has been a guiding force in how I see and understand the world that I live in. And that, my friends, is what I would like to give you.

My job here, technically, is to write an opinion on current topics, submit that opinion, and sit back as you, the reader, take it in and do whatever you will with it.

But today I am going to push the envelope. I am going to challenge each and every one of you who reads this to ask themselves "Why?"

If you want to take that challenge or toss it to the wind, I don't care. It's your prerogative. But please, do not think that this will be the only time that I will pull this stunt on you. Every article that I write will, in some way, ask this question of you.

My opinions are not bolted to the floor. They may change. And certainly my opinions are mine and in that respect mostly subjective. And this, my friends, is what I have to offer to you: my perspective.

Elias Rodriguez is a guest columnist for the Mesa Legend and a Music Business major at MCC.