Last weekend, many Elon students engaged in a demonstration for the benefit of the “Ugandan Night Commuters.” The Night Commuters are children who travel from their homes at night to sleep in the rain forest or in densely populated areas.

They do this to avoid being impressed into the Lord’s Resistance Army, amputated or used as mules. Demonstrators slept in boxes on the street to raise awareness to this phenomenon of tragic proportions.

As college students, we are often idealistic and motivated. We look at our world and our life and we not only want more for ourselves, we want more for the world, for humanity. It is easy to get gung-ho and believe that we can solve all the world’s problems.

However, for those of us who have looked for a place to start, analyzed the forces at work we are hit by a sudden, crushing realization: we can’t save everyone.

Whether it be a systemic problem, or simply a crisis of such magnitude that one person cannot solve, the realization is stark and demoralizing.

There is so much horror and injustice in this world that even with all the motivation, ambition and idealism we as college students consistently have, we cannot solve these problems alone.

This demoralizing truth leads many to inaction or disillusionment. Many of us will lose our will to act upon graduation, whether desires for career success and families draws us in other directions or an illusion of futility takes over, forcing us away from our idealistic desires. Many may blame themselves.

We must avoid these sentiments at all costs.

We cannot change the world by ourselves. No single man or woman, no matter how extraordinary, can cause such a dramatic change in the world as to solve all the world’s crises.

We must instead find our piece. A wise woman, when talking to a student who felt the loss of his own idealism, once said that we cannot change the world by ourselves, but we must find our piece, our spot where we can make a difference.

As individuals we Americans often see ourselves as a potential one person force; we believe that we can act paternally to those less fortunate and raise them all up. No one person has that power.

If we each pick our piece, our spot where we make our stand, we may find that looked at as a whole, we have created the solution that we have sought after.

Some may do it through their day to day lives or some may do it on the weekends. Some of us may go abroad to do charity work, while more of us may simply volunteer locally. One hopes that the effect is the same. If we all work seperately in unison, perhaps we can change the world.

As Elon students, we are encouraged to think globally but act locally. While students like those who demonstrated in Washington, D.C., have raised the awareness of the problem, others of us will have to act. We must find that place where we are called to act. There are countless ways to act if we simply look.

Whether your desire is to go to Africa to assist in the effort to treat the victims of HIV/AIDS, to Southeast Asia to continue with tsunami recovery or just around the block to coach soccer, we can all find our piece.

Perhaps in pursuit of our piece to act within, we will find our peace.

Staff: - 05/03/07