To my Partners in Peace...

The confessions of a struggling idealist..

The Peace Corps changes us. It flips the world we once knew upside-down and turns us inside out exposing our deepest fears, doubts, and motives. This experience helps us to see the world through a different lens, and sometimes that new perspective is uncomfortable. We see the ugly side of development. We see the difficulties of making a deep sustainable difference. It can be overwhelming and deflating. When one problem is followed by another greater issue, my role as a volunteer begins to shrink in the shadow of a colossal societal problem. I now understand why some volunteers become jaded as they near the end of their service. Cynisism is lurking behind every doubtful thought that I can make a difference. I believe that this experience is supposed to challenge our views of development and sustainability. It is a very unique opportunity to learn what our role in development is and to challenge ourselves to fulfill that role. Everyone has a differnet job to do, a different community with various challenges, and specific personal motivations for being here.

However I think that coming out of this experience a cynic would be an incredible waste of beautifully talented people. As politics in the United States spin out of control, and politicians everywhere continue to dissapoint the public, I feel that we have a great responsibility to be a part of the debate. I believe that the discussion in the United States is in desperate need of our perspective. The perspective of those who dared to see the world through a different lens. We have a responsibility to speak up for what we have seen and not seen. Our generation has a heavy load to bear, and in the face of these great challenges, we are experiencing a 'brain drain' in the public debate. Maybe it is better to describe it as a 'rationality drain'. If anyone can inject some sense into the discussion, it is people like us who have seen the United States from a new perspective, who have taken the challenge to put others first.

Someday we will go home; each volunteer having undergone their own personal changes and having their own struggles. We try to make some sense out of our work here and scratch out a bit of purpose hopefully having done something sustainable. During that process our hearts may be hardened to utopian ideas we once had. During our time here we might feel small and insignificant when faced by gigantic social issues. We may look stateside and see a similar broken society and system. However, I encourage us all to fight the cynisism. They say that every cynic was once an idealist. And there is no better way to beat down an idealist than to place them alone in the Salvadoran campo. However the world still needs your sunken idealism, injected with reality, and surfacing as positive rationality.

The election season has come and gone back home, with the usual mud-slinging and belly-flopping politicians. A clear sign that things aren't changing. More radical people are taking control of the conversation leaving the majority of the population unrepresented and unheard. We need loud rationality. All of you beautiful, opinionated Peace Corps volunteers who have been blessed to see the world from a different angle have a responsibility to our generation to be a part of the discussion. To take it back from near sighted individuals.We don't have to become cynics, we can use this experience and the lessons we have learned to take the public debate to uncharted territory and unknown places. I believe in you people.