Thoughts on Flower.

I can relate to Flower’s discussion on the motives of students who engage in community service. I am the President of a social justice organization on campus called LiNK (Liberty in North Korea) a grassroots organization that directly saves North Korean refugees hiding in China. Although this is not a community service project, it is very similar to one in that it tries to raise awareness about a problem and tries to directly help by raising funds. Last week, I was choosing new board members for LiNK, and what frustrated me the most about it was the lack of passion. It really makes me question whether they want this because they genuinely care for those in hiding or because they want to add this in their long list of involvement, but I would never know—I can only trust what they tell me about their reasons for applying.

I believe it is the same for community service—no matter how much passion an individual exhibits about working with the community, the observer will never know the true intentions. Even I can say that I have a fervent desire to save my fellow brothers and sisters in North Korea, but others can be skeptical and still believe that I am involved in this because I want a nice resume booster. The solution to this problem of uncertainty is nowhere to be found (or I think we would have already implemented this by now). Community service centers can make the application process a long and lengthy one, but any desire: of sincere wanting to help, of meeting a course requirement, of gaining fame and applause, and/or of improving a resume or an interview experience, can drive an individual to sacrifice a big part of their time and commitment.

Flower also discussed how ignorance stems from merely helping instead of actively searching for ways to solve the problem. His example was the beach clean up; instead of asking what caused this place to become so polluted, we just try to improve the situation. However, this does not solve the problem because no matter how many times we clean the beach, if we do not question the cause of these circumstances, we will never fix the root of the problem. I totally agree with this discussion, but at the same time, I am skeptical because searching for the root of the problem will not necessarily take us to it. For example, a causal question is “What causes poverty?” Will we ever be able to answer this question without riposte? We can definitely try and trying is great, there is no problem about that without a doubt, but poverty is everywhere, and every individual has a different circumstance. No matter how taboo it is, I agree that activism is necessary. Without it, we can’t solve the problems of this world; society has progressed because of the way it overcame these types of challenges. Without it, society cannot grow.