What I Learned

I have had more experiences over the past eighteen months than ever before where I have thought, “People are really good”. I have also had more experiences over this period of time than ever before where I have thought “People are absolutely terrible”. Sometimes those experiences happen in the same day or even almost simultaneously. Never before have I lived that close to the edge where the highs are so high and the lows are so low and they can change in an instant. I think constantly hearing about and witnessing incredibly bad things and incredibly good things makes you think about this question of whether people are inherently good or bad.

For the past eighteen months, I have known some of the best people in the world. They have every reason to be bitter, cynical, distrustful, pessimistic and fearful. They have every right to feel owed something, to bemoan the fact that life has dealt them a bad hand. But they are not these things. They are positive, unselfish, good humored, incredibly caring, bold and understanding. This always leads me to believe that deep down, people are inherently good. But then I think about why they are in the position they are in, why I know them in the first place. It is because people have done unspeakably horrible and evil things. This leads me to think that deep down people are evil because how else do you explain landmines that look like toys, killing your neighbor with a machete, slow roasting people over a fire, raping a child?

Though I know amazing, honest and forgiving refugees, I also have met conniving, dishonest and small refugees. For every refugee who tries to promote peace and harmony in the face of what is undoubtedly a bad situation, there is another who sews division and clings to old hatreds. For every official who really cares and tries to do right, there is at least one who is corrupt and selfish. For every person who treats people well, there is someone who treats others poorly. The human capacity to love seems equaled by the capacity to hate, and the capacity to forgive seems equaled by the capacity to hold a grudge. I don't know which comes out ahead. The scale seems balanced.

Here is what I do know. I know a young man who, when he was eight years old, walked across Angola fleeing a seemingly endless war. He grew up in a refugee camp. Now he is a year away from completing a university degree and has the prospect of returning to a peaceful and increasingly prosperous country. I know a young woman who was disowned by her parents when she refused to marry the man they had selected for her because she wanted to finish high school first. She was cast out, but she managed to get a scholarship to school. Between terms, when all boarders were sent home, she lived on the floor of a church. A few months ago she completed high school. Now she teaches preschool and is in the position to influence other girls to follow her path. I know a young man who knows twenty languages because every time he hears his parents might be in a certain country, he goes there and picks up the languages on the way. Despite being insecure in his community, manifested by several instances where he was targeted for death or threatened with the same, he serves as the deputy headmaster at his community school and recently reported his superior for stealing. When asked if this is going to make his position even more difficult, he says, “Yes, definitely.” I know another young man who returned to Angola after fleeing as a child. He lost his mother in the refugee camp to a medical condition, leaving him alone and with the responsibility to help support a young half brother. Back in Angola, he was able to find a job with an organization that removes landmines. He is well paid and is helping to reclaim his country. I know a whole community who took a chance on their country, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and, to the mantra “Home is home”, returned to the place they fled with the intention to rebuild what was destroyed.

Things do change. Wars do end. Wounds do heal. The human spirit is impossibly resilient. For me, that tips the scale. That, and maybe that alone, is why there is hope for the future.

-Nick