Since the beginning of my University career, a faint two and a half weeks ago, there have been several questions brought to my thoughts that I haven’t yet been able to answer. Things such as “What is a Global Citizen?” and “How am I ever going to find enough time in the day?” being the most common, although the former being the most relevant to academia. With this larger question in mind, our ASTU 100 class has discussed how literature can be instrumental in creating a Global Citizen. As well as how memory can influence literature and other technologies such as media in distinctive ways, therefore generating responsibilities to the various genres to initiate conversations and create new ideas to build upon. This responsibility is highlighted throughout our CAP program, with Sociology and Political Science, along with ASTU, bringing their own branches of ideas and theoretical framework that interconnect in different and vital ways. To me, being a Global Citizen incorporates and highlights the importance of finding these connections and building on them, to connect and create a world that is both beneficial and educational for each individual, as well as society.
My overall idea of what being a Global Citizen encompasses is turning the word History, into Histories. Looking for every perspective, in any given opportunity. Often times there is only one History heard; that of the loudest voice, the most heroic tale, or the least oppressed opinion, and with this being taught in our schools and being constantly portrayed by the media, it’s hard to view the world in any other way. In our daily lives it’s difficult to challenge the opinions and views of the majority (or the loudest), especially with the general basis of historical memories being tainted by mob rule, which is often full of inaccuracy or bias. The way we remember things and who remembers them creates History, but often times not everyone’s truth is portrayed. An example we discussed in class was the Iran War, and how George Bush Jr. created the image of Iran as being a part of the “Axis of Evil”(Bush, 2002). There are various other examples like this which have influenced and shaped our more recent Histories like the Iran War, let alone the History we know from hundreds and thousands of years ago in different genres of literature. Tying back to being a Global Citizen, this limited opinion on such large factors of the world that we are shown through popular technologies doesn’t ever depict the whole story, and our responsibility as broad thinking individuals should be to investigate and know the full truths.
Histories should always be plural, since we all deserve the respect of being considered individuals. I’m excited to go through this year with this thought in mind; to take insight from my fellow scholars, as well as to learn about these diverse disciplines in their own light, to then bring everything together to create a horizon of potential while moving forward in the world.
A life of privilege should entail a life of responsibility.
-MC Global Citizen
Works Cited:
George Bush Jr. (2002), “The President’s State of Union Address”