An Odd Friendship teaches a lesson in Empathy

For my final TED video talk I watched 9/11 healing mothers who found forgiveness and friendship. We had discussed the video in class on May 5th, 2011 and I decided to watch it. The talk told the story of two mothers; one who had lost her son on 9/11 and the other whose son had been convicted on suspicion for the 9/11 attacks. Basically Aicha el-waif's son killed Phyllis Rodriguez's son. But when they met there was not hate or anger just love and sadness for the loss of their two sons( Since Aicha's son was put in jail for life). But what would cause them to not hate each other? It is empathy. An interesting concept, empathy, and few have harnessed its life changing powers. Phyllis and Aicha bonded over the fact that they both lost a son that day. They put themselves in each others shoes and decided that hate would get them nowhere only love would bring the peace that they both desperately wanted. So this made me think, was there a real power above hate, was it that the power of human nature triumph over hate? I took a moment and took a step back from everything I was going through, from all my stresses, and thought of the most important people in my life and imagined that(god forbid) something bad happened to them. What I would do, how I would react and how I would feel. All I could come up with was don't stop fighting for them, don't stop trying to make everything okay. Then I thought what if I meet the Mother of the person who caused that bad thing. How would I feel towards them? To be honest I wasn't mad at them, I didn't hate them, I wonder though was their loved one alright? I believe that it is Human nature to protect the things and people that are the most beloved. I also believe that people can all connect over that concept that we are all trying to protect what we love and that overcomes everything.

Phyllis and Aicha bonded over that fact that their sons were lost that terrible day of 9/11. Once everyone in the world can bond over the common and empathies with each other we truly will have a successful future.

Sam Richards: A radical Experiment in empathy

"While nothing is easier than to denounce the evildoer, nothing is more difficult than to understand him."- Fyodor Dostoevsky
This is a quote that Sam Richards used in his TED talk about empathy. His main point was for people to walk a mile or even an inch in another mans shoes. That if we can try to understand other people we can create a great social reform To begin his talk he gave an example to think about. That we were all Americans and in the 1800's the Chinese came in and took all of our coal and they built their economy around coal and the energy that is created by coal. Mr. Richards then asked how would we feel as Americans when we are living in poverty and China is full of riches off of our coal and the Chinese don't really care about us all they care about is our coal. How would we Americans feel? I know that I would be angry I would see all these people living the life I wanted and being prosperous and having many things that I just could never have all because they took something from me. Then Sam Richards gave the example, that we were to put ourselves in the shoes of an Arab Muslim living in Iraq. How we would feel about the American "invaders" that were coming in an starting a war over oil. The Americans didn't care about us all they cared about was OIL. And on top of all that they were Christians who didn't understand our religion and they told us that our God is fake and their God is real, that they were on crusade in the Middle East. (Crusade is defined as any vigorous, aggressive movement for the defense or advancement of an idea, cause, etc). The last time there was a crusade it was a religious movement against the Muslims in the middle east. Sam Richards asked the audience how they would react if they were the Muslim in Iraq today. I know for one I wouldn't accept the Americans moving in on my land very openly, I would have a skewed view of what they were doing and quite frankly I would not appreciate it.
What I got from all of this is that everyone in the world needs to take a lesson in Empathy. I feel like that there would be a lot less issues in the world if we could just take a minute and step away from the situation and see the world from someone elses shoes. That is what Empathy is, it is the ability to see the world from someone elses shoes. America defiantly has some issues with that. Like we don't really think about how the people in the other countries are really going to feel. We just kind of brush everything off because the bad things aren't happening to us or on our homelands. We just write it off and don't care; and its not like it is broad casted to us how the other people of the planet feel all we see is how we feel. Empathy is an important skill for everyone to have, its even emphasized as a chapter in A Whole New Mind. I believe that in order to be successful it is prominent that the world knows about empathy in order for the world to not fall apart and for it to be good we all have to walk a mile in another persons shoes.
I thank Sam Richards for teaching that in his inspirational TED talk

Dave Eggers: His wish

Dave Eggers, might be one of the most genius poeple on this planet. He saw something that needed to be done and he went for and did it. I am simply in awe of the brilliance of what his talk was about. It's just like finally someone who gets it! I know from my personal experience that I just feel better after talking to a teacher one on one than getting basic instruction from the entire class. I know that English is not my strong point and every time I receive a project I worry about it so much that I cannot even function correctly enough to do a really good job on it. But if I had a real writer a genuine critic at my disposal at all times I know I would do so much better. Also I know I had troubles writing from prompts that I basically didn't really care about what so ever. But I just get this feeling that if I were to be involved in this program I would not only get to write about things that I care about but also start to care about the things that I have to write about.

Dave Eggers has a wish that all people start engaging in public schools. He and some of his friends started a tutoring company in San Fransisco. They bought a building space but it was in a retail part of town so in order to keep their space they had to sell something, so they decided to sell pirate gear, basically everything someone would need to be the stereotypical pirate. Which I just think is incredible like seriously who does and or thinks of something like that. He then proceeded to talk about the tutoring company and how writers would work throughout the day on their projects and then once school was let out the students would come to the store and the writers would give up their time to work with the students personally and side by side. Once the company started growing, more volunteers started joining in and soon enough there where enough volunteers to start working in the schools so that entire schools. And then more tutoring companies started all over the country. Even though Dave Eggers was a little all over the place his talk was still very good.

The whole point of all of this is creating a way for students to be heard from their teachers and the world. By providing one on one help to students it is now possible for more students to be able to achieve more in writing and literature.