Heavy Snow Falls

So firstly to all of you reading this who I haven't spoken to since and especially to those of you who I hadn't spoken to before – I hope you all had a very good, happy and as the peeps over here say a merry Christmas, I also hope that the new year is treating you all well?

Since I last wrote there have been a number of incidents, I took my first and hopefully only trip in an ambulance after a sledging accident which apparently knocked me out, this resulted in an ambulance being called and hastily dispatched emergency response team, a cop and I think (bearing in mind I had been knocked out things were quite hazy) another ambulance coming to see me. I ended up being transported to the hospital in part going down the wrong way on a one way road with the lights and sirens going. I was later sent home.

All this came on the same day that we had our first, hopefully not last, substantial snow fall of the winter, we got over 2 and a half feet of snow in a 24hr period. It was pretty crazy but good fun. It brought home even more the extreme nature of where I live, the snows of winter and the recent cold snap contrasted with the torrential tropical rains, high humidity and ridiculous heat of the summer.

The extremes of the weather, as a geographer, I happily understand and am easily excited by, however they are exemplifications which illustrate how extreme I find America at times. The paradox that certain people who I come into contact with daily argue that a national public health system is going to ruin America but are the same people who have worked tirelessly for great inclusion across the nation for more publicly administered special educational schools.

That I right this today on the federal holiday to mark to birth of Martin Luther King's birthday, and the role that he had in shaping the civil rights movement, a day when people are asked to participate in a day of service, adds to this paradox. That America, the land of the free home of the brave, land of capitalism where socialist is a disparaging term, actively invites people to participate in something for the common good, and it's paradoxical and hopeful.

As someone who is actively engaged in a year of service it offers me a great deal of hope and is a source of inspiration. As a US history teacher it staggers me to see how transformational the civil rights movement was and is not only in America but around the world and how this source of hope as personified by great, simple people of conviction likes Rosa Parks Martin Luther King and countless others continues to this day.

 

So thank you once again America for offering a greater understanding of the ability for people to have an active role in changing sytems, organizations, mindsets and the present.