Problem

Your teacher has assigned that you perform a community-service project, specifically directed toward addressing the problem of poverty (in the Seattle-area). Though your project may be as simple as giving granola bars to a homeless person, there is one requirement: you must provide picture evidence that you did indeed complete the assignment.

Scenario A

You have had well over a month to complete this assignment; yet, you were too lazy to do so. Now, you must come up with some sort of solution that will allow you to remain seated on your rear, in your nice, comfy home, and receive a passing grade.

Scenario B

You and your mom headed to Downtown Seattle in a hulking Chevy Suburban, fully equipped with a trunk filled with granola bars, one sunny Saturday morning. Upon arrival, however, a sinking feeling suddenly gripped your very being.

Dark thoughts and X-rated images whirled, rushing through your disproportionally little head. Stereotypes are rooted in fact, you think. Terrified for your life and of being viciously mugged, you decided it safest to just head home. The assignment is due tomorrow.

Because you were too chicken to actually complete it, you must instead make haste by weaving a totally believable scheme that will bail you out of failing Mrs. Honchelmeyer’s class.

Solution

You have decided to write a poem, which implies that you have done the project, while cleverly explaining your lack of picture evidence.

Scenario C

You completed the assignment but felt it was not enough. In your mind, that a one-time deal could possibly be considered community-service is absurd. You felt the requirement to take pictures of people, whom you barely helped, was equally absurd. Not only that, but the whole idea of “providing evidence of service” seemed morally wrong.

Of course, you do not want to fail this assignment either. So, now you must come up with an explanation for your lack of photographic evidence, while still demonstrating that you did indeed complete the assignment…

Solution

You have decided to write a poem, which explains your lack of pictures and clearly shows you did what the teacher has asked of you. Moreover, it reveals true depth, reflection, understanding, and provides insight into your character.

Band-Aids Don’t Heal

After witnessing the domestic tragedies
of poverty, homelessness, hunger, unemployment, etc,
which plague our immediate community,

I felt it would be highly insulting and insensitive of me
to simply hand over a granola bar,
snap a few pictures of someone’s misery and destitution,
and walk away triumphant and feeling warm inside.

The mere contemplation that granola bars can solve an atrocity is absurd;
it is like saying a Band-Aid can heal a broken heart
or nation, which, despite its efforts,
remains largely indifferent toward those in dire need.

Photographic journalism has historically brought to light
little-known problems and instigated change, response, and action;

however, misery and destitution are not new.
We see, hear and feel these everyday,
whether in passing through Downtown Seattle
or a food donation bin at Safeway.

Insensitively taking pictures of the sad strangers
to whom I am bound in brotherhood through God
not only serves as demeaning,
but also dehumanizing.

For this reason,
I specifically chose to content myself
with carrying my memories
in hopes that I might someday make an actual difference
in these people’s lives.

After all, Band-Aids don’t heal;
cures do.
Change does and, I believe, so can I
by utilizing my experience as a tool of empowerment.

The power to do great things rests not in granola bars or pictures.
It does not rest in that feel-good sensation,
which one gets after performing
a one-time community service assignment.

Ultimately, real power rests in all of us.
It rests in discomfort and dissatisfaction with current situations;
it rests in our memories, which inspire us to take further action.

This is why I have chosen to do what I have done;
this is why I am choosing to instead write this poem for change,
urging us here to stop the indifference now,
start taking real action,
and commit to “the long run.”