Mar 07 2008
Bringing service home
by senior Jonathan Scott
I’ll skip straight to the point - working in a foreign culture is a wonderful and invigorating experience. The typical expectation is that such an experience would drive someone to keep working abroad, but it is in fact fueling my desire to serve in the United States. Not because I don’t want to be here and serve the people here - life here is a blast and the people are wonderful - but because I want to serve the values of America that I hold so dear: the respect for individuality, the rewards for drive and the limitless potential for success. These ideals are what I want to serve and to protect, for I believe the U.S. can still lead the world.
In contrast to the Dominican Republic, the main issue within the U.S. is not educating the public about health and hygiene - which is the service I’m doing here - the issue is instilling in Americans a thirst for life, a thirst that is available in great abundance here in the Dominican. The tough question is: What is easier? Instilling a thirst for life or educating about health? Is it easier for us to advocate healthy practices because we think we already know it all? Is it easier to show a man how to wash his hands to kill germs or to show a man how to live his dreams? As it always ends with me, what takes away more life: malaria, tuberculosis or television?