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Yvonne Marie Blaisdell (Mann)
Dear Classmates,
So we wonder what we can do to help with all that is going on around us, around our families and friends, and around these new alums from AHHS. We can do what we have done since our own young adulthood, where we faced long gas lines, no lights for Christmas to conserve, a presidential scandal called Watergate, birth of personal technology (Microsoft and Apple), a long ongoing war in Vietnam and people (women, people of color and people of different sexual orientations) asking for the right to be treated equally and respectfully.
Wow, strange, only you all would realize how it seems we are repeating headlines all these years later, with government scandals, no toilet paper (you know I had to go there), human rights violated and invasive technology. Yes, we could go to a “sit in” – we created that move (well more likely a march now), but that is not how we will make a change. First and foremost we need to “lean in” and not step back or stand still. We grow the most when we face adversity, when we learn the changes we need to make – transform our thoughts and look outside the bubble we may live in. We need to use the tools of life we have been sharpening in all our 65 years – using faith, hope and love (I know, right?) to guide us. We are not the kids we were back then, we have loved and lost, learned the value of hope against despair and found the power of strong faith.
They are the values we need to strengthen in these times and this starts with us in everyday small powerful actions, like seeing a police officer kneel with protestors. When you all comment on the loss of a classmate I see how you don’t talk about if they were rich, successful or beautiful – you always speak of their honesty, humor, faithfulness, and loyalty. So, come on, get out there – drop a knee in prayer, give a smile of hope and spread unconditional love - that is not just 70's hippie talk. Maybe then, decades later these young adults will not be pondering like us about why this is still happening. Just felt led to share with you, didn't mean to be so long!
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