One of the reasons Barack Obama spoke so powerfully to me is that he reminded me that WE are the ones who will make a difference in this world. Our elected officials may make the laws, but it is acts of goodness by hundreds of thousands of Americans that will make a real change.
One month ago, I left my job as editor of a community newspaper to begin teaching on an American Indian reservation. After more than two decades working as a reporter and editor, taking the new job was a leap of faith. Incredibly, the pay was even less than I was getting at the newspaper.
But for me, it was my chance to make a difference.
The reservation where I'm teaching has more than 70 percent unemployment. As on most reservations (called "the rez" by my students), drugs and alcohol have enslaved the spirits of a high percentage of people.
Even at the tribal college where I work, unwed pregnancy is so common that it's almost expected. Many of the students arrive at the college with sub-standard educations, received at local high schools. Nearly a quarter of them cannot do math as basic as fractions. Sentence structure and syllable counts are as incomprehensible as Latin.
But before you write these students off as a lost cause, let me tell you about what I have learned in the past month. I have learned they are a proud people who delight in their heritage. Among themselves, they are full of humor and playfulness. They love their children, and they want desperately to carve out a better future, both for themselves and their families.
Many of the students have been in trouble with the law, or fallen into the trap alcohol and drugs create. They are here because they have recognized that education is their only chance at a better life.
On inauguration day, I gathered with more than 70 people in the school cafeteria to watch history unfold. The room was 90 percent Native American (although my students tell me they prefer "Indian.") Watching Obama take his place in history with a people whose own race has been both repressed and oppressed was an uplifting experience. The only bad moment was when Obama talked about our forefathers "settling the west." There was a definite cooling in the room at that phrase. :)
I will admit, I am something of a bleeding-heart liberal. But in the short month that I've been at this new job, I've had the opportunity to meet more remarkable people, to touch more lives, than I had in six years at the local newspaper. I am learning about a culture that is beautiful and unique, and I hope that I can help my students discover and embrace their own power.
Yesterday was my 45th birthday. I suppose you could say this job change was the result of a mid-life crisis. But I like to think of it more as a mid-life evolution - becoming the change I've been waiting for.