My Blind Side

To say that my trip to Jackson, Mississippi has been a different experience for me would be an understatement. I come from a family with a very global perspective. My dad travels globally regularly for his job and has been to every major city I can think of. My sister, mother and I have been to our fair share of cool places as well because of the greatness that is frequent flyer miles. We as a family like to read up on as well as discuss current events.

I find myself extremely angered about the injustice that is happening in Africa with the LRA and my heart breaks for all of the numerous injustices happening in China. Sex trafficking throughout the world makes me sick and I always find myself wearing a "YouMe" shirt to the gym. So why then am I so ignorant to the struggles in the urban communities around me?

On Saturday we worked the carnival to send the kids that come to the Spencer Perkins Center in Jackson to New York for a week. The whole importance of this trip is to take some kids from Jackson to a place that they may have never been able to see just because of their lack of opportunities. When reading and listening to John Perkins he talks so much of how the urban community struggles with crime, drugs and sex and he believes this reason is because people around them don't expect much from them. The Spencer Perkins Center is changing the expectations for the kids in this community. All of the kids that want to go to New York must be on Honor Roll and they must be displaying respectful behavior. I, being the "whiter than white" girl as Dr. Perkins would refer to me, can come to Jackson, work the bouncer at the carnival and do some yard work around the house, but is this going to change and inspire the community of Jackson? No, but that is what the Perkins center is doing here. They are using community to change the community, and it has been eye opening to see that at work.

-Lauren Jacobs