I went to see the movie, Girl Rising, today at the Gateway Theater. Wasn’t sure what to expect, but it was stories of young girls in different “developing” countries whose treatment of women is in the pre-historic era compared to the United States. The movie is extremely well done, well written and moving. Education is the key. Education is the need. I understand that when it comes to poverty and how women are treated. I had a bit of my own growing up and I have to admit, my dream was to go to college, to learn, to expand my horizons. I got that opportunity. These girls deserve the same. “Globally, 66 million girls are not enrolled in school.”
It is just still hard to see so much abject poverty for so many as visually portrayed in the movie. I get overwhelmed by it. I heard a statistic this week that 80% of all the wall street investments are owned by 10% of the population in the U.S. Wow, that is just hard to hear. So let me go off on a bit of a tangent here and say that I hope this film gets shown at Harvard, Stanford, Yale…all the “ivy-leagues” where the money flows. Put that together with the top 20% and honestly, this movie better be shown there. I start to wonder if somehow, some way, these folks might rethink what all the money they amass or will amass is for.
Honestly, this movie got me asking again what the heck the American dream is about? I mean, maybe it’s time for a new dream….maybe those top 20%, along with all the rest of us trying to make ends meet, could pull together and maybe, just maybe, we really could change the world or at least do some amazingly good for some really amazingly sweet, beautiful, strong, courageous, determined, hopeful young girls.
Let me say, I am not against wealth, or amassing it. My question is, how do you keep all that money from stealing your soul, or shrinking your heart so small it becomes a nano heart. We all watch the movie stars, sports figures, corporate bosses…all those who have risen to the top like the cream of the crop, but where are they in this picture? America is the best experiment on earth, but how far out on a limb can we run with this American dream thing until we are too far out for our own good and that limb starts to bend with all the wealth in the hands of few? Yes, I know they earned it, but again, what did they earn it for? Is it bad to raise the “purpose” question?
When I watch movies like this, it is hard on me. I start to feel guilty. I wonder how I can go home and do the same old, same old, stuff. I think about how very small my life really is in terms of influencing anything or anyone. And oh my….all I can say is how I need those 20% so badly and where are you!? On the golf course? On some island paradise? Buying more clothes, building bigger houses, sailing fancier yachts?
I guess all I want to ask is that you rethink the purpose of your wealth. Maybe, just maybe, you could move it towards something beyond what money can buy…maybe you could actually contribute some of that wealth to making the dreams of millions of young girls a reality.
That would be about another movie I would call…. Humanity Rising.
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(UNESCO, 2012)
poetrs 