Reflection Week 5

Wow! I cannot believe it is week 5 already. This week we did so much I am not even sure where to start; we talked about what if aliens landed on the White House lawn, visited the State Department, delved into whether one person’s terrorist is another person’s freedom fighter, and discussed changes to the citizenship test.
What would happen if aliens landed on the White House lawn? I don’t really know, sure I could hypothesize, and all of us did, but the truth is that none of us really knows what would happen. What should we do, each of us has our answers but I don’t think one is more intrinsically right than the others. Is one person’s terrorist another person’s freedom fighter? Maybe, maybe not. While we may not agree with this quote it does reflect a certain truth, I believe, which is that different people have different views on important issues and while we may cling to our own view that does not mean that we ignore the other perspectives. Will the changes to the citizenship test make the immigration process smoother or more effective? That I don’t know either, my guess is that it probably will but I do not know. When considering such issues which are far from clear-cut it is easy to get discouraged at the absence of right and wrong answers. Sometimes I wonder, if we cannot answer such questions for certain is there any hope that any of us will be able to affect change in the world.
That brings me to the State Department where I am reminded of the goal that all of this questioning is meant to achieve. We ask the philosophical questions we have been posing not because we hope to be able to answer every philosophical question, after all philosophical questions do not have answers. The point is for us to get used to asking the questions and to prepare us for jobs where we will be tackling these questions. We may not solve all of the world’s problems or unlock the mysteries of the universe but we will try everyday to make the changes we want to see made in the world. The passion with which the speakers from the State Department spoke about their jobs made me realize how important it is to find a job that you can be passionate about and one where you feel like you are making a difference in a positive way. That does not mean, however, that you will have the answers to all of life’s questions but I think it means that you will be happy.
Erica Peterson