Ken Hackett, CRS president, speaks

Ken Hackett, president of Catholic Relief Services, and author and former boy soldier Ishmael Beah spoke at Cabrini’s 50th Anniversary Founder’s Day on Tuesday, Feb.19.

Cabrini’s relationship with CRS has flourished in the last three years, as Cabrini has become one of four Catholic colleges partnered with CRS.

Hackett spoke of the challenge of becoming dedicated to creating global solidarity.

“Solidarity will transform the world,” Hackett said. “This vision statement is ‘fairly utopian.’ It is probably beyond our reach in our lifetimes, but it is an idea we strive for.”

Hackett praised Cabrini for being the first college in its state to make community service part of its curriculum for undergraduate students where they learn and practice moral and social responsibility.

Both speakers explained how important it is for students to connect to the rest of the world. Their encouragement was echoed by senior communication major, Yadira Toledo in her introduction to Ishmael Beah.

“Coming to Cabrini three and a half years ago, I didn’t travel many miles from home for my college education, but in many ways, my experience here has introduced me to the world- not as a spectator, but as a participant, an agent of change.” Toledo is a CRS Fair Trade ambassador.

“Through programs, skills, and activism, with the help of Catholic Relief Services, I have begun to understand the true meaning of global solidarity.”

In the early 1990s, Hackett was the CRS regional director for Africa. He explained that although CRS had been in Rwanda for many years, they were shocked by the genocide in Rwanda. Despite CRS’s efforts to help Rwandans develop their country, there were deep-rooted tensions between ethnic groups that erupted in 800,000 Rwandans being slaughtered in 100 days. CRS saw that without fundamental justice, all their development work

Editorial

Beah Inspires Students

Think about your childhood for a minute. What comes to mind? Swing sets, sandboxes and popsicles? For most children, their experiences, the ones they remember anyway, are about their favorite toy at Christmas or their tee-ball team winning a trophy -all the good memories. Maybe some kids remember the harder memories if something tragic happened to them, such as a parent dying or breaking a leg or even abuse from family. Now imagine a childhood with memories consisting of machetes, AK-47s and grenades. These images, as awful as we may think they are, is the reality that Ishmael Beah lives with everyday of his life.

In our lives, a little scrape on our knees when we were little was the end of the world to us. Having the little bumps and bruises makes us who we are today, right? That’s what our parents would tell us when we are growing up, “The hard things in life make you to be a better person in the end.” Sound familiar?

When your parents tell you that, they probably aren’t thinking that you may possibly be living on your own and killing people by age 13. In their minds, you will grow up to be a doctor or lawyer, not a child soldier, surviving by killing others, and whose security blanket is an AK-47.

It’s easy for an adult to decide to partake in war, not thinking about the consequences for others, especially children. Children are chosen to become soldiers, and basically brainwashed into believing they are killing people for the betterment of their environment. They’re seeing things that are so unreal for most to think about, things that most people will never see, even in movies or on TV. In Beah’s last remaining years living in Sierra Leone, he was addicted to drugs, lived for violence and thrived on the fact that tomorrow he would be able to kill more people.

In his memoirs, Beah never spoke about the true reason he was fighting. At 11-years-old, you aren’t aware of the reasons the war was occurring. All he alluded to was that the rebels were coming, and when they did, you did not want to be there.

After everything he had been through, seeing people beheaded, houses burnt down until there was nothing left salvageable, people shot in the head right next to him and even watching the house his family was supposed to be in, burn down. He lived his life day to day and survived the greatest tragedies a child could possibly endure. Today, he is 27-years-old, a graduate from Oberlin College and lives in New York City.

If everything that happened to Beah happened to you, where do you think you would be today? Why worry about the small things, when much bigger instances could happen tomorrow, and you would never see it coming.

In a talk with Ken Hackett this week, he mentioned that Americans are for the most part kindhearted. He also said however, that although compassionate, Americans are unaware of many of the things that happen in the world. It is until we are aware that we step-up and do something about it.

This is a wonderful thought that really struck a nerve. Finding a way to advocate for change to help the 3 billion people on our planet who live in violence and poverty is something each and every single person should do, no matter where you live or what your living circumstances may be. There has to be a way to determine the causes of violence in the world and find a way to build peace.