I don't want to die without any scars

Living in Denmark is often like living in a nice safe bubble. The physical distance from America allows me to easily separate myself from the reality of what is happening but I cannot stay silent any longer. I don’t really feel like I have the words to express myself properly so here are some quotes: 

“Throughout history, it has been the inaction of those who could have acted; the indifference of those who should have known better; the silence of the voice of justice when it mattered most; that has made it possible for evil to triumph.” Haile Selassie

“If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor. If an elephant has its foot on the tail of a mouse and you say that you are neutral, the mouse will not appreciate your neutrality.” Desmond Tutu

“History will have to record that the greatest tragedy of this period of social transition was not the strident clamor of the bad people, but the appalling silence of the good people.” Martin Luther King, Jr.

“You should protest about the views of people you disagree with over major moral issues, and argue them down, but you should not try to silence them, however repugnant you find them. That is the bitter pill free speech requires us to swallow.” Julian Baggini

It’s important to fully understand what happened/what is happening so you can meaningfully talk about it: Vice News did a good job here

I started volunteering at Welcome House here in Copenhagen a few months ago. Welcome House is a kind of in-between home for newly settled refugees while they wait for permanent housing here in Denmark. It also has a wide range of activities for adults and children - all run by volunteers! There is a sewing room, playroom for kids, computer room, teen club, cafe, art room and much more. There are Danish conversation groups, groups for help finding jobs, and even Aikido! Since mid July I’ve been working on an art project with the kids. Yesterday together with my fellow volunteers we presented “De 4 Årstider“ (The Four seasons) at Kid’s Day which was a part of Immigrant Artival - an art festival here in Copenhagen which is ongoing. We were super happy that so many kids from Welcome House came with us and that there was such a great turn out at the event! The room was packed! There was storytelling in Danish AND Arabic (at the same time) and lots of fun activities for the kids. There was even a clown!

Volunteering at Welcome House isn’t easy. All the residents are learning  Danish (and few know English) so I am forced to use my limited Danish with them. Sometimes I struggle to understand or I am unable to communicate properly but I think we should all force ourselves out of our comfort zones more. The kids aren’t angels or anything, but I am often struck by how similar they are to the kids I worked with at Girls Inc in California or the kids I nannied for here in Denmark. Children are the same everywhere - whether they come from California, Syria, or Denmark. They always want to win the game, have trouble sharing things, and love being outside. They have big hearts, loud voices, and so much personality. They give great hugs, throw tantrums sometimes and always get into trouble when you’re not looking.

“…When I say the greatest athlete in a generation, I mean the greatest in any sport. Sorry, LeBron. Sorry, Tiger. Sorry, Derek. For fifteen years, over two generations of tennis, Williams has been a spectacular and constant yet oddly uncherished national treasure. She is wealthy and famous, but it seems that she should be more famous, the most famous. Anyone who likes sports should love Williams’s dazzling combination of talent, persistence, style, unpredictability, poise, and outsized, heart-on-her-sleeve flaws. 

But not everyone loves her. Part of this is owing to the duelling -isms of American prejudice, sexism, and racism…. 

…But it’s not enough to say that Williams would be more uniformly adored if she were a white woman, or a man. Instead, the failure to fully appreciate her importance is perhaps evidence of our inability to appreciate the stubbornly unfamiliar narrative arc of her career. Williams is underloved because, at times, she has been unlovable and, in the end, mostly unrepentant about it—something that might be admired as iconoclastic in a male athlete, but rarely endears women to a wide audience…. 

[Recently,] after a disappointing showing in the three previous Grand Slam tournaments, Williams said that she adopted a new way of thinking about the game, to put less pressure on herself by appreciating what she had already accomplished. ‘That’s the beauty of my career,’ she said before the Open. ‘I don’t need to do anything at all. Everything I do from this day forward is a bonus. Actually, from yesterday. It doesn’t matter. Everything for me is just extra.’ This is surely wisdom, but it is also a form of sports sacrilege. I don’t have anything to prove; I have been great—so great, in fact, that at this point winning doesn’t even matter.” 

Excerpted from an article by Ian Crouch for New Yorker Magazine

Photograph by Darron Cummings/AP

by Nicolas Jaud