The Collegiate Laws of Life Essay Contest asked Penn State Students to explore ethical values and intercultural issues, and their talent for expressing their views in writing. Below, you will find the first place essay from Elizabeth Rush, ’16, Paterno Fellow and Schreyer Scholar, Communication Arts and Sciences, and Spanish, responding to the prompt:
“All mankind is divided into three classes: those that are immovable, those that are movable, and those that move.” ~ Benjamin Franklin
What are the differences among these three, and how can they best collaborate?
Our bus approached the city limits, and I held my breath. I didn’t even have to lean out the window to read the sign. Faded capital letters marked the Edmund Pettus Bridge, and, as I locked eyes with dark and recent history, I couldn’t decide how to feel. We drove down several blocks of dusty, deserted storefronts until we reached a church. Reminding myself to take a breath, I stepped off the bus and found myself standing in 1965.
Like other parts of the nation, Selma, Alabama, has both shifted forward and clung to its past. Our walking tour coupled dramatic visuals with stark facts to reveal a state of de facto segregation. The town is split black and white, literally. Moving from east to west, we could see dilapidated “shotgun” homes transition into grand mansions. Martin Luther King Street intersects with Jefferson Davis Avenue, eventually passing through one of Selma’s poorest residential neighborhoods. And, with statistics, the gaps widen. 80 percent of the city’s population is African-American, and, while blacks dominate local government, white residents retain much of the economic power. Selma High School was only integrated in 2007, but subsequent divisions formed: the white community established the Morgan Academy private school, named after a noted white supremacist, and the public schools are 99 percent black.
It’s worth reiterating: I visited Selma in 2014. That spring, I dedicated months to analyzing the texts and songs and pictures from the era. After reflecting on the past, I turned inward to realize something about myself. When I am confronted with facts that unsettle me, I tend to define situations, categorize, even assign blame. Putting things into categories is instinctual. To describe us as humans, Benjamin Franklin once claimed, “All mankind is divided into three classes: those that are immovable, those that are movable, and those that move.” I try to conceptualize these groups, and I understand mobility as a mindset. Those that move have the framework to lead, initiate, catalyze — and they do. The movable possess this potential for action and can be influenced. But, for whatever reason, the immovable refuse to budge and hold fast to hard opinions.
Immovable community members in Selma maintain such a fixed mindset that, until 2000, many wore campaign buttons that said “never,” as in never integrate. When a black mayor was finally elected that year, there was the “White Flight”: 10,000 white people vacated in protest. That’s how deep this fear of change carries into the new millennium. Human divisions are more complex than three categories allow for. However, taking time to identify and assess distinctions helps to expose the preexisting truths about American society. It’s critical to understand what is going on today through the lens of the Civil Rights Movement, both finished and unfinished. Maybe immovable shouldn’t be understood as “bad.” But awareness of immobility is helpful to society as a whole. People say that change is inevitable, but to assume things will change for the better without struggle is a fallacy.
As I consider change and categories in our current society, I wonder where I fit. I’m reminded of a woman I met in Alabama. Debra Carr, Secretary of the Montgomery Improvement Association, spoke to me from across the dinner table: “Y’all gotta step it, not half step it. Inject yourself into someone else’s fight. That’s not tolerance. That’s great love.” Tolerance isn’t enough for groups to collaborate. It’s too passive. Change takes vision and action. Honestly, I don’t want to be just movable. I want to move. And I maintain that the best way to work together is to deliberate. Finding common ground will be the only productive path. Deliberation among communities can prove insightful to many. Whether they realize it or not, even the immovable can find one key point to connect with the movable and movers. That’s the upside to humanity — we’ve got “being human” in common. Those that move can be the ones to turn down the volume on divisions that are so heightened by our media and act as leaders to promote unity instead. I’m not so naive as to think that uniting for the common good is easy or simple. In spite of challenges, I remain hopeful. Of course, it’s so much easier not to care or to feel. When social and economic disadvantage are so deeply rooted and even intentional, it can feel pointless to hold on to potential and possibility. But we absolutely have to hold this hope. I don’t see how we can live without it. Dr. MLK, Jr. said it best: “If you can’t fly then run, if you can’t run then walk, if you can’t walk then crawl, but whatever you do you have to keep moving forward.” Let us move forward, over the bridge.