Part Five, “In What Do I Place My Trust” – Personal Development

The author Rosalie Bertell discusses how people have put their values into play in the real world. She mentions a story about two grandmothers who protested U.S. occupation in Japan during World War II on the sacred mountain of Fuji. How these elderly women would camp out on the mountain and confront soldiers even though the men were armed, telling the men they should be ashamed of themselves and to go home. Eventually police arrested the two women but the soldiers were so spooked after, they no longer felt comfortable staying and desecrating the mountain. Ms. Bertell also talks about the day it was announced that World War II was over, her mother just kept repeating to herself: “they shouldn’t have done it”; referring to the dropping of the atomic bomb. She mentions both of these stories because they both speak of a value that life is stronger than death.

The message to take away from Ms. Bertell for us (the RA’s) is not about life over death. It’s not about whether we think it’s okay to go to war or whether we think the death penalty is justifiable. What we should learn from Ms. Bertell’s passage is to encourage our residents to act in what they value; and the best way to do that is to show that behavior ourselves. Ms. Bertell also mentions how in her mother’s neighborhood, her mother noticed that black women would wait for more an hour for a bus to take them home after working in caucasian homes all day. But the buses wouldn’t stop if only black people were at the corner so her mother would stand by the bus stop so the buses would stop (until the bus drivers realized what she was doing). This is an example of someone acting on what they believe and value.

Ms. Bertell also mentions how sometimes she’s timid when expressing her value of peace to war-supporters; she’s afraid to act and speak out for fear of others criticism even though she truly believes that her value of non-violence is moral and right. I’m sure all of us have experienced at least one time like this in which we saw something happening or heard something in which we knew was wrong for that person to say or do, yet we stood by and said or did nothing. Everyone has been hypocritical at some point in doing something that directly opposes a value they truly believe in or doing nothing and only self-preaching they believe in a certain principle without actually showing it. As our residents go through their first year in college, they will continue to form and adjust their personal values and beliefs. And as RA’s, if we know those values are not detrimental to their well-being then we need to encourage them to practice behavior that supports those personal, developing ideals.

Jaime