“My Dream Is To Be Free”

Why stories? Why write? Why care?

We read so we can see hope. We write so we can give it to others. Freedom Writers, a movie about an inner city school, shows lives–lives that are dirty, messy, proud, angry, and ugly. There’s nothing beautiful in them, and they are going no where. In so many ways, my life seems to be the same. I fight with my ugliness, the ugliness inside me, and I try to make sense out of the chaos, out of my pattering brain that won’t hold still. I fight, and I get angry.

The movie slips past a climax. The students are friends; harmony is beginning to flourish. The stories are offering hope to a people who have none. And then Eva gets angry, and my insides cringe. I don’t know if it is going to end well or not. But we must write. We must share our stories because being heard is the only way the pain goes away. And listening, is the only way to show true love.

We must write less we give up all hope. We must read so we can be free.

We all want Anne Frank to live at the end.

http://www.chasingthefrog.com/reelfaces/freedomwriters.php

http://www.freedomwritersfoundation.org

~ We’re all up against something. — Mrs. Erin Gruwell ~