One of the presentations on AS Day was by Maria Finitzo, who showed us a documentary called The Interrupters. Here is a link to the trailer if you would like to see it. The Interrupters is about an organization called CeaseFire is to intervene conflicts before they result in violence. The documentary takes place in Englewood, a lower income community area of Chicago. The filming of this documentary began as Chicago became one of the centers of violence in the United States.
During the presentation, we discussed how different the North Shore, where we live, is to Englewood, which is only on the other side of the city from us. Finitzo said that many of the kids in Englewood believe they are living for today. They don't worry about tomorrow, it's about surviving this moment. But if you look at the North Shore it's completely different. All we think about is tomorrow. Where are we going to college? What do we want to do with the rest our lives? Everything we do is for the future. We do well in school to go to college. We go to college to get a job. We get married and have kids. We have a job to support our families. It's a huge cycle.
I think this really shows the importance of place. I may receive more opportunities than a kid from Englewood just because I am from the North Shore. I don't have to worry about getting shot everyday. I don't have to worry about not being able to go to college or earning enough money to support my family. I look to the future because I can. And it's incredibly sad that not everybody has that opportunity.
What about the middle class? Do they life say, for the week? Or the month? How can they be in the middle of those two extremes? What about lower class people who constantly dream about the future and what it may hold? Although they may be an exception, they may inspire others with their dream. How about upper class kids who don't care about college or the future? They say that they live for today and party all the time. What category do they fall into? While some may not be able to look ahead to an incredibly bright future, I think that just looking into the future may be a mistake. I think that even though we have to plan ahead, we should still live for now. If you don't make it through today, there can be no future.
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