Citizenship blog

After listening to Dr. Alvin Thornton’s lecture, I did a lot of thinking. I discovered what I need to do and what everyone else needs to do to become something more. To become one of the “best and brightest” of Howard I need to and will be the best me possible. It will take more than just studying and good grades to be “the best and brightest”. I need to be active, outgoing, get myself out in the world and experience the things that it has to offer. Then I need to bring those things back and use them to enrich my Howard experience. I need to network and make many friends and get my name known to make sure I am always in the loop for events that could enrich my experience. That is how I will be the one of the “best and brightest”, by being everywhere possible and gaining knowledge on things people would not expect to be necessary to get ahead in life.

I feel that the definition of being a citizen is being a human that exercises their universal rights. However we must also define our rights. As people of the world and of our nations we all have the right to education, life, liberty, shelter and more. If we demand those rights and fight for them then we are citizens. If you have the right but choose not to exercise it, then you are still a citizen however, you are not utilizing your citizenship to its potential. The world views people by what nation they are citizens of. Therefore, my being a citizen of the US allows people to predetermine what kind of citizen of the world I am. Which would be an arrogant, selfish American. However, my citizenship of a certain nation does not change the fact that I am still a citizen of the world, and I have the same rights as everyone else. What I am saying is that my being a citizen of America gives me a distinction in my character and allows me to play a larger role as a citizen of the world due to privileges that I have due to being an American.

Stokely Carmichael is a “representative thinker” of Howard University. His speeches and fights for freedom are inspiring. His life’s work inspires me to keep changing the world for the better and ensuring the universal rights of all people. His work in non-violent protests inspires me to do work that helps other people in certain situations in a peaceful way. In order to “till and turn the soil” I must build of previous work and then use it to start anew and change the world for better growth of the human race.