Becoming More Committed to Doing Justice Bryanna Geiger, ‘17 When Ms. Baber asked if I would be interested in speaking about being committed to doing justice, the first thoughts that ran through my head were “why me?” and “what does it actually mean to be committed to doing justice”? Truth be told, I'm still trying to figure that out myself. Nonetheless, I turned to Ms. Baber and said “Yes, I would be very interested. Thank you so much.” I went home and spent the next few hours wondering exactly what I had gotten myself into. Then I started considering what it means to be committed to doing justice. I even looked it up online, but Google wasn't helping me. Though no one interprets what it means to be committed to doing justice in the same way, I think I finally came up with what it means to me in my life. One experience that has helped me better understand what it means to be more committed to doing justice is the Brownbaggers program. I suspect that many people understand what Brownbaggers is all about and many of you have been on Brownbaggers at least once, but if you have not, you really should go. Starting Brownbaggers freshmen year, I began participating because it was an easy service event that counted for credit. I just wanted to complete the required service work, but throughout sophomore and now in junior year, I have continued doing Brownbaggers even though it no longer counts for credit because it is something I have grown to truly enjoy. As a freshmen, Brownbaggers was one of my first service events and one of my first interactions with the poor or marginalized. Through this service event, we have freshmen come together with upperclassmen to prepare lunches and to help those in need. I think that it is so important for all grades to come together because it helps us understand that service is not isolated, but rather a community experience. As one of the first service events that most do, Brownbaggers is often a truly eye opening experience; for me as a freshman, it was first time I saw a significant amount of people suffering. Each month we head to Tompkins Square Park and see the countless number of people who are in need. The reality of poverty hits when there are not enough lunches to hand out to everyone; that is a heart wrenching moment. That experience makes it clear that there are so many people living in poverty that a lunch made by a group of high school students helps. If there are that many people living in poverty in just that one area, imagine how many people in poverty there are in New York, or across the nation, or throughout the world. Knowing the amount of people that are in poverty encourages me to go out and think about the root of injustice. I remember freshmen year Christian Service Class. We talked about a wide variety of topics but kept coming back to the same idea – the idea of a broken bridge and people keep falling through the bridge into the river. We talked about how charity was helping people in the river from drowning, but justice would be fixing the bridge so that people would no longer need help. As a freshmen, I did not quite understand why we had to have an entire class devoted to talking about a broken bridge. I wasn’t really sure why it was important and at the time, I actually thought it was pretty useless, but I was wrong. The idea of a broken bridge helped me to understand the difference between charity and justice. It was only through Brownbaggers that I really began understanding why we spent so much time talking about a broken bridge. Brownbaggers allows us to do service for those in
need, but it is charity. We are helping an immediate need, but it is not justice. Through Brownbaggers, I see the importance of the Christian service program and why it is so important to do charity work and help the immediate need. Seeing the need for charity and the large number of people in need encourages me to seek out justice. It encourages me to think about and find a solution to the root of the problem so that there is no longer a need for charity. Being committed to doing justice involves not just the heart and the mind, but also in the hands. Brownbaggers are my hands for now to help me understand the depth of the problem; understanding the problem better makes me more committed to doing justice. It is through Brownbaggers that I am able to actually do the service work and actually implement the idea of what it means to be committed to doing justice, but the heart and the mind are just as important. I feel that doing service work means little unless you put your full effort and spirit into doing the work. When doing service work, it was only through doing that I was able to understand what it meant to be committed to doing justice. There is no set definition of what it means to be committed to doing justice because the experiences differ from person to person. I have found what it means to me in my life. Being committed to doing justice is the way that a person lives their life. When Ms. Kusk asked if I would be interested in being a part of the Brownbagger Leadership Team, I was not sure what exactly to expect. It was through that incredible opportunity that I gained a better understanding of how to live my life in a way that is more committed to doing justice. When I do Brownbaggers on the weekend, it is no longer because it is an easy event. It is no longer just something that I have to do, but it has become a part of my life because it means something to me. This commitment to Brownbaggers surpasses the required service hours, but I continue because of the value I find doing service. As a freshman, my reflection began as distant responses, but Brownbaggers changed my reflections into being personal. Now, when I write that Brownbaggers is an incredible program that encourages not only freshmen, but the Loyola community as a whole to inspire us to think about justice, I mean every word of it. Being committed to doing Justice is more than just saying that there is injustice, but it requires us to put our full effort into going out and actually doing the service work and really understanding the problems, not because it is required, but because it means something to us personally. For me, it is through Brownbaggers that I have been encouraged to seek out the root of injustice and try to think about solutions so that there will no longer be a need for charity work. It is through these experiences that I have been able to develop a better understanding of what it truly means to be committed to doing justice. Thank you.