The Sobering Reality of Social Change

My daughter was caught in the middle of a terrorist attack in front of an elementary school in Israel.

She lived near the school and was driving home. As she was about to pass in front of the school, everything went into slow motion.

Here is her story.

“I’m driving home and turned in front of an elementary school. That’s when I saw him.

He had a semi-automatic machine gun like the guards have who are positioned in front of all schools in Israel.  But he wasn’t a guard. He was shooting at everyone and everything moving.

I was trained what to do in case of terrorist attacks, as many Israelis are. But when I heard the bullets, I forgot everything I had learned.

When I saw the terrorist shooting, I tried to turn the car around but the wheels locked and I just ducked. The bullets kept flying.  When it was over, 10 people were killed, blood was everywhere. I couldn’t move. I couldn’t get up. I was shaking so hard.”

The reality of social change can be bloody. But it isn’t always so.

Listening to her story, I, too, couldn’t move. Tonight, last week, and the weeks before today, I relive her story. She has moved on; I haven’t.

I say I live vicariously through my entrepreneurial son, wishing I too was in his realm of reality. Now, I know I live vicariously through my daughter’s experience. And I don’t want to forget.

I am part of a university with a mission to educate change makers. I am part of a team of faculty, staff, and students who want a better world. Change happens when we hold ourselves accountable to continually take action to make a difference.

Do we have to experience terrorism first-hand, or hatred so deep that we kill, in order to positively affect change? Do we have to bleed, suffer, lose everything we have in the world, including love ones, to make the world a better place? A resounding NO.

However, we have to feel someone’s pain to make a change. That starts with you.

Here are some ways to do so.

1. Be mindful that others may have a different view and value that opportunity to learn more about it.
2. Strive to listen, understand and accept that we are all different but as humans we are the same.
3. Define new ways to collaborate across religious, economic and ideological perspectives. This is not easy, but consistently hold yourself accountable for your actions.
4. Above all: Exemplify the Golden Rule. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.

Photo credit: © Timonko | Dreamstime.com