Sometimes I think about certain things I perceive or encounter that upset me and ask that simply question -
Why?
Therein begins a process of expanding my understanding, and thus my humanity.
In December of 1956 in the Miami airport I saw my first whites only sign and asked my mother
Why?
From that came awareness, that was honed the following Fall with the events at Central High School in Little Rock, that led to my own involvement with civil rights issues, that led my having the occasion to remember my participation 50 years ago in the event we commemorate this month, here in DC.
As a person who in a 20 year career in data processing often had to move to the computer things previously done by hand, there was one question that was critical to my understanding -
Why
I once had a paperwork procedure explained to me, and it didn't make sense. So I asked the man the question in a different way - was he secretly left-handed? He stopped and said he wasn't, but that the first person to do the job, three people before him, who was still in the unit, was. The why it was being done that way had never been asked.
It is a question that is central to my life as a teacher.
It is a question that I regularly ask my students - why did you give this answer?
It is question that they sometimes ask me - why do we have to learn this?
Rather than accept everything as it is, when we ask it we take the first step toward deeper understanding.
Some wits will answer with
Because
and then move on.
Others will attempt to put the question back on you, in another form, trying to make you responsible for the answer
Why not?
So why did I write this diary?