CITY|year: day.16

This puppet democracy brainwashed your psychology, /
So you're nothing like diversity with equality. //
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oh dear, it's been a minute since i've written anything..but that's because of the hecticosity that city year has been providing. we began our third week at cyNY with BTR, or basic training retreat. when you boil that down it pretty much means that we were taken to a camp that offered bunzdoodoo food and slept in window-less cabins.

what a teambuilder.

the purpose of BTR is to talk about and prepare the corps for various issues revolving around diversity (*shudder*) and other issues of sensitivity. i didn't wanna enter the week negative, so i assumed the best; i looked forward to engaging and stimulating conversations about our prejudices and what we can do to ensure that we remain respectful of people's differences. instead, conversations focused on semi-philosophic drivel and giving certain folk an opportunity to do some frontal-lobe masturbation, ejaculating a series of statements used to either solidify their defenses or show off their acute sensitivity skills. suffice to say, i got little out of the weekend except a chance to view some corps members in a more natural environment, the people-watcher that i am, and legitimatley befriend other peers. people chose to deflect truly difficult issues like homosexuality, racism, and self-identity, offering little more than sound-bites and glib remarks about how "not racist" they are. even some of the workshops aired on the side of safety instead of probing a bit deeper. to be real, i woulda liked to see SOMEONE get offended or show a bit of emotion and then have it challenged instead of coddled. but i guess that's what the year is for...

i've been debating on whether or not to delve into another issue that BTR brought about...i'm on the fence only because i would like to believe that in time the issue will resolve itself. however, my gut says that it won't so do i bring it up? let me know the 4-6 of you that read this blog and make the decision for me; if y'all say yes, expect it in the next couple of days.

quick update on young heroes: the team is coming along nicely. we're still in our training regimen, YH practicum, and we enter our schools for the first time on monday (SUPER GASSED about that). as a group, the three heroes teams are definitely the most solid corps members and i can taste the incredible things we're gonna make happen this year. i'm in the process of deciding what role i wanna have on the team. i can do mostly anything, but my heart is calling me to try the service role or event/operations). E/O reminds me a lot of the programming that i had to do at the 'nell, coordinating events and being the point person. it would give me a chance to properly develop my delegation skills and give me a familiarity cushion. if i wanna push myself more, i should do service because i'll then be responsible for being the HDIC (head dude in charge) for all of the service projects that YH does, coordinating with the civic engagement team (NYCE!), and calling communities organizations for possible service projects. PLUS, the service projects will hafta relate to the topic for the day...mad pressure. i kinda wanna test the waters and do service, but we'll see what i choose...by tomorrow.

anyhoo, that's enough for one session...shout out BSP, SB for making me talk, and of course all the future young heroes. oh, and again, if there's a city year site in your area, PLEASE look out for and attend a service day (http://www.cityyear.org), you won't be disappointed.

still reppin'....HE-ROES!

PS: free the jena six...