Author: mkdenner

On March 2^nd I attended an event where the keynote speaker was Leila Fadel.  Leila works for the NPR as a National Correspondent. Over the years, she has written multiples stories ranging from smugglers in Egypt to the Muslim experience while living within the United States.  Leila has won many awards over the years for her work including in 2017 when she won an award about a story detailing the hardships of a mother and two daughters.

Leila spent a decade in the Middle East covering hardships that people went through.  Within the past few years she moved back to the United States and became a National Correspondent.  Since moving back she has shifted her focus more towards the Muslim American experience within the United States.  She went into detail about the increasing hate crimes within the United States, especially within the past few years with the election of President Trump.  She also showed clips throughout her presentation that had many effects on myself as a listener.  The first clip she showed was a clip of Bosnian girls who live in Chicago singing a song.  She mentioned how many of the girls wanted to assert their identity and wear a traditional scarf.  However, since their parents wanted to protect their children from discrimination they did not allow them to wear the scarfs.  The fact that little girls could not dress how they wanted to just to avoid the possibility of being bullied is a very sad fact that goes on in the United States.  Similarly, she played a clip from an interview with a little boy where he details the bullying he constantly faces in school.  The little boy talked about how kids go up to him and say be careful his watch might be a bomb.  These are huge acts of racism and prejudice that unfortunately go on and many Muslim Americans have to deal with.

The main takeaway from the presentation is although we may think the United States as a nation is all about freedom and equality, we are not.  Unfortunately, there are still large biases within the United States that do not seem to be slowing down anytime soon.  As I move forward in my own life I will try to be more aware of biases that I might have as I attempt to make everyone around me feel equal.

Yesterday Kwan came to teach us more about the lion dance.  We learned two new moves that we put to use along with all of the dance moves we learned in the previous meeting.  The first new move was the bow.  At the start of each lion dance the individual in the head of the lion bows three times.  The technique was a little tricky at first as I was bending down with my legs too much and not enough with my hips/back.  Once we got the hang of it we then went into our normal dance that we learned last time.

Another new aspect that we learned yesterday was the importance of the drum. Kwan was very experienced at drumming and it was cool to see him drum to various beats.  One of the jobs of the drummer is to stay in sync with the lion as it bows.  After the lion bows the drummer then plays freely until once again it is time to bow at the end of the performance.  We wrapped up our dance with a bow and wave to the imaginary audience to thank them for coming.

A few weeks ago I attended a talk by Dr. Fleet Maull.  Dr. Maull is an author, certified mindfulness teacher, and social activist who founded the Prison Mindfulness Insititute.  However, one unique fact about him was he had to serve a fourteen-year prison sentence for drug smuggling.  He was originally from St. Louis, and his life was forever changed from his experiences inside the prison.  When he first arrived to prison there was no real religion course or area for people to express and practice their faith.  The way he grew the program from nothing to something so large was very impressive and showed how passionate he was about his beliefs.  In his talks with us he told us what it was like to practice Buddhism inside the prison, and how mass incarceration is more of a policy failure than a moral failure.  He did mention how recently there have been some reforms, but not nearly as many as he thinks are necessary.  He also mentioned how he really enjoys going on retreats and sharing his life experiences with others around the world.  After hearing his talks I definitely have a different outlook on both the prison system and the individuals inside them.

As everyone knows the coronavirus has been all over mainstream news over the last few weeks.  It has infected hundreds of thousands of people and has left many people in a large panic.  Some cruise ships have been quarantined and I’ve recently seen videos of people being dragged from the streets in China because of the disease.  To make matters worse this whole outbreak is coming at peak flu season,  leaving hospitals and health centers extremely busy. I recently read an article online about how the United States is preparing for this world pandemic. The articles mentions how health care providers need a plan for a patient “surge”, and how they must make sure they have the proper staff and equipment to deal with this difficult situation.  One step hospitals in San Diego are taking to address this shortage in supplies is to consolidate medical supplies such as masks, gloves, and gowns.  It will be interesting to see how this disease will impact the world over the next few months as more and more individuals are exposed to the disease.

When thinking about the disease it reminded me of some of the readings we have been talking about in class.  Specifically, it reminded me of when we talked about the Tao Te Ching and Doaism.  In class we talked about finding balance in our lives and how there is a cause for every effect.  When thinking about the individuals directly affected by the virus, I realize how hard it must be to find this balance in their lives.  They are most likely struggling with the realization they may not have much longer to live, which is a tough thought for any human to have.  I look forward to learning more about this balance throughout the semester and how it relates to current problems across the world.

Feburary 17^th:  Yesterday we had our second meeting with Benny and Kwan who are representatives from the IACA. One of the opportunities we have for the ICR is to learn and perform the lion dance.  The lion dance was something I was very unfamiliar with going into our event as I had only seen it performed a few times on Youtube/TV.    We were originally going to learn and possibly perform the dance at the Chinese New Year’s festival.  Unfortunately, this event was postponed due to recent concerns with the coronavirus (many people fly in from various destinations to attend this celebration).

As we started learning the dance Kwan taught us two basic movements he wanted us to focus on.  First, it was to lift the head up in the air and twist.  Then bring the head back down and twist left/right once again.  The job of the person in the tail of the suit is to keep their backed maintained at a 90-degree angle and slowly move their arms to make it appear as if the lion was breathing.  I was impressed with how passionate Kwan was about the dance, and it really helped our whole group stay more focused.  As we got more comfortable with the lion dance we added more movements and even cheerleaders into the dance.  The cheerleaders job is to draw the attention of the lion and make him move up and down. Throughout our practice Kwan continued to stress the importance of making the dance fun and attractive for the audience.  He even showed us an 8-minute clip from two members of the IACA who had been partners for around 12 years.  The way the moved so gracefully was very impressive and you could see how much effort and practice they put into their craft.  Overall, I had a great time and look forward to Kwan teaching us more advanced moves in the future.

On February 6^th we met as a group to meet with the two leaders of the IACA Benny and Kwan.  They are retired individuals who have lived in the Indianapolis area for a large part of their careers.  The brought in dumplings for us to eat which was a unique experience for me as I rarely eat Chinese food.  After getting to know them and telling them a little about us and our majors we began to talk about the IACA and what the organizations does.   The IACA, which stands for Indiana Association of Chinese Americans is a not-for-profit organization that was established in 1973.  The organization’s four main goals are:

• To foster constructive citizenship on the part of Chinese Americans in the State of Indiana, and the nation.
• To cultivate the understanding and the appreciation of both American and Chinese cultural heritages.
• To enrich the Indiana society with Chinese American contributions.
• To improve the overall well being of Chinese Americans in Indiana.

I really enjoyed getting to know Benny and Kwan, and hearing about how their involvement with the IACA has helped shape their lives.  We talked about potential opportunities where we could help with the IACA moving forward.  Some of my favorites we talked about were visiting local museums, help cleaning up parks/public areas, and learning the famous lion dance.  I look forward to working with the IACA this semester and learning more about what they do to help the community.