Bring Back Our Girls
I cry too easily. I stopped apologizing for it years ago and have become One with the way I express my emotions. Tears come, at times, from something sentimental and sweet. At other times from great sadness. Today it is from pure rage and frustration.
This morning I, like the rest of the world, watched the news for some sign of progress in finding the more than 200 Nigerian girls kidnapped on April 14th from their dormitories at their school – a rural school where families had the chance to give their daughters an education. In this region, 72% of primary school-aged children never, as in never-ever, go to school, neither boys nor girls, but much more often the girls. These young ladies were to be a rare exception.
But in the middle of the night almost a month ago, armed men attacked the few security guards at the school, dragged the girls from their beds, forced them into trucks and drove into the night. No one has seen the girls since. Over 200 girls simply disappeared.
The terrorist group, Boko Haram, claims to have them. They have sent mocking videos to the world saying that they will sell the girls into “marriage”. As the world expresses it’s outrage in protests and viral messages calling for their safe return, the terrorists laugh.
The terrorist group, Boko Haram, claims to have them. They have sent mocking videos to the world saying that they will sell the girls into “marriage”. As the world expresses it’s outrage in protests and viral messages calling for their safe return, the terrorists laugh.
And hence the tears of rage. I am a teacher who understands the individual power I have to open my students’ minds to something new. I am a unionist who understands the collective power I have to make the needs of students known to powerful people and to hold those people accountable for doing the right thing. I understand my responsibility to accept the power we have as human beings to do something when we see something is wrong.
I feel so powerless in this. I will send my messages of justice out into the world. I will hope that the Nigerian government accepts the offers of help from the United States and the United Kingdom and all who want to join the search and rescue. I will pray with the rest of the world for the safe return of these girls to their frightened families. There is so much in our hearts, and so little to be done that is in our hands.
And so the tears come. Tears as an outward sign that these girls are important. A sign that we will not let them be forgotten. Especially for educators, our tears are a sign that these girls are the faces of all students who dare to dream of something better; that these girls speak to our hearts’ work. That these girls are ours.
As a union of educators we will raise our voices to demand their safe return, and Bring Back Our Girls! | Lily's Blackboard: