Re: student's dreams

[Arthur Hu <ArthurH@TANGIS.COM>]

This bounced off of judih, so pass this on...

I'm sure Asian Week in SF would publish this, can I pass this on to
them?

101 - help elect Arthur Hu to WaSPI?????
        -----Original Message-----
        From: Judi Hirsch [mailto:judih@OUSD.K12.CA.US]
        Sent: Tuesday, June 06, 2000 7:40 PM
        To: ARN-L@LISTS.CUA.EDU
        Subject: student's dreams


        Dear All,
        It is with great pride and tears in my eyes that I share this
with you. The student who wrote this piece as part of his graduation
requirements at our school has been with me for six years. We have
changed each other's lives.
        When I met him he was in worse shape than any other student I
ever had. His life is very hard and yet he represents all that I ever
wanted for any of the young people I work with to know-
        a very humble and proud Judi


        100 Things I Will Do In My Life

        1.  Get a high school diploma

        2.  Go to college

        3.  Go on a job interview

        4   Get job training

        S.  Get a job

        6.  Buy a car

        7.  Find a girlfriend

        8.  Get married

        9.  Raise a family, have two children

        10. Go to Cambodia.

        11. Become a famous, intelligent Cambodian artist

        12. Get some computer games and hip hop CDs

        13. Cut my hair like a gentleman

        14. Get my nails done

        15. Buy a tuxedo

        * * *

        16. I will build a big house.

        17. I will have my own acre so my family can plant their crops

        18. My farm will raise pigs, cows, chickens, and horses.

        19. I'm going to have a lot of fun.

        20.  I'm about to help OUT Poor People

        21. Make art

        22. Teach art

        23. Make a wonderful art pieces


        24. Learn to read

        25. Learn about computers

        26. Teach other kids who have learning disabilities just like me

                          * * *

        27. Go back to my country

        28. Help my country

        29. Make things

        30. Build a house down in Cambodia

        31. Make a school down in Cambodia

        32. Find out more about Cambodia

        33. Run a business in Cambodia

                          * * *

        34. Swim

        35. Run

        36. Jog

        37. Be outdoors on the mountainside

        38. Travel. Go to Marine World, Disneyland, Great America, Las
Vegas, Los Angeles, Seattle, New York, wherever, all around the world.
The more you travel, the more people you meet, and you can change the
world.

        39. I WANT TO CHANGE THE WORLD, make it a safe place.

        40. Change police brutality

        41. Change the Mayor of Oakland

        42. Help youth with activities. Give them a place to be where
they can grow up
         to be who they really are, not punk "gang-bangers"

        43. Play football and volleyball

        44. Go on a waterslide

        45. Become a vegetarian

        46. Become an art teacher

        47. Become a Cambodian bilingual translator

                          * * *

        48. Become Sotha, the real Sotha; the evil Sotha is gone, the
new Sotha  has
        arrived, the Sotha who is brave and strong and hard-core.

        49. Be a role model for the kids here at Far West.

        51. Make a model of the world we will live in, a world that is
happy, all
        living together.

        52. My children will be healthy people who grow the seeds of
their heritage,
        raise their culture up, don't abandon who they are, stick with
it, work with it

        53. My children will tell their children that we want no more
war, no more
        guns or killing. We have had a revolution

                          * * *

        54. Be a musician, play music, make beats, play guitar and
keyboard

        55. Spread my wings and fly like a kite and know how to glide

        56. Be a role model

        57. Be a peacemaker

        58. Be a father. My child will have a better life than I had

        59. Make changes in my ways

        60. Make progress in reading and writing

        61. Learn more interesting things, cooler things

        62. Become a millionaire

        63. Become an artist

        64. Become an Asian rapper

        65. Become a Khmer leader for my people

        66. When I go back to my country, I will change the Army. The
kids in an army
        don't want to kill their own people. You don't have to rob your
own kind. You
        have to stop all that hate and the killing. I'm tired of people
killing their own kind; why don't you just stop that. Then my country
will be changed a lot.

        67. I will teach the American activists who protest and help
Cambodia change.
        We need more organizing. The world will learn to be not just
full of greediness;
        no more "last man standing, wins" idea:  When you are on top you
are standing
        on the poor, your own people.

        68. I will go to my country one day and help my people to
organize. For example,
        I will build a healthy place to drink water. My auntie just got
back from there and helped with all kinds of projects. If I go to
college, and get a degree, then I can go
        to Cambodia and help my people to ORGANIZE!

        69. After I learn carpentry, I will teach them to build.

        70. I will be the youngest chief.

        71. I will be knowledgeable, because knowledge is power, which
can bring you
        many things in this world.

                          * * *

        72. Write.

        73. Get my writing published.

        74. All the young Cambodians will read my writings. I will teach
the young Cambodians how to get by in life. I will tell them: "You have
to figure out what
        is good. You could die at a young age, but wouldn't you rather
die old, like me?
        Do what is right so the people who are still down there will
appreciate where you
        come from. All the Americans want to know your story, who you
are, what you
        want to do in the future. This is your life story. Don't give it
up. Rise to the top,
        like me.

        75, Every week I will write my opinions on the world in the
newspaper and how
        it can change.

                          * * *

        76. Let the President know what needs to be done, and that this
is not easy to do
        by yourself.

        77. I will go to Cambodia and bring food and make roads so the
whole
        population will be better. The Cambodian people don't want to be
the next
        victims of starvation. You know what I'm saying??

        78. 1 will have an "education fund". The kids who are bilingual
here will go down
        there and teach them how to read and write. I will lead them.

        79. I will build my own house.

        80. I will build a temple to hold my grandmother's ashes.

        81. I will make sure my people are wealthy and that the ancient
temples are rebuilt.

        82. I will teach my people to be more Americanized. I'll teach
English and how to
        deal with American people, speak English, translate, help them
fill out forms.

        83. I will take a lot of photos of the people and places of
Cambodia. I will take it
        and then exhibit it as a gallery with all the photos and the
stories of peoples.  I
        will invite people (friends, family and teachers who have been
there for me) to my gallery of research to see pictures of a world that
is different from their lives here.

        84. I will teach people my Cambodian language and about my
heritage.

        85. I will learn carpentry and get a job doing that.

        86. I will try out many jobs.

        87. I will learn many skills. The more I can learn, the more
things I can do.

        88. I will be the most famous Cambodian artist.

        89. I will be a local artist dealing with the place I live in,
what I hear and experience every day, changing it and making it better.

        90. I will build for them (the people who care about me), make
things for them,
        draw for them, publish for them, and they will pay me what I am
worth, for who
        I am.

        91. I can only guide my grandchildren. I don't want my people to
drop any more tears, or to cry blood on the land, all over the land,
until it is flooded with blood. So stop killing each other. I don't just
mean Cambodians, but people all over the world.

        92. When I am so rich and so popular, I will teach the kids so
much and give them so much stuff so they can use so they will turn it
into a piece of ART.

        93. My family is made of myself and my wife and our two
children, who will learn
        a lot of things about America, like how to speak three different
languages so they
        can be trilingual. They will follow in the footsteps of
grandfather and auntie, and organize even more than my auntie did, be
leaders over there, live down there for a long time, go to school down
there and teach other kids who don't have the money to go to
school--EVERYBODY HAS TO HELP EVERYBODY ELSE, OR WE WILL STAY ON THE
SAME LEVEL. Know what I mean?

         94. I will be an old gray-haired man, sitting on the
Mountainside and just reminisce about the past when I was still young. I
have many grandchildren. I will sit under a shady tree to talk with my
grandchildren, teaching them about the land and the countryside, show
them all the beauty that is in the dark inside. Outside you see light
        but the true beauty of the land is in your heart, deep inside
where no man can hide.

        95. I will teach my children. I will put together all the pieces
of the puzzle of our heritage that was lost somewhere in the deep, deep
ocean. The French invaded the country a long time ago when you weren't
born yet, so I have to teach you. They stole
        a lot of our history and tried to ban our culture and they took
the ancient bible of the gods and tried to burn it and turn us into a
Christian, Catholic culture. They tried to
        change the real native people into a poor people so they could
overpower us and step on us. We fought a long time but the revolution
never ended, and so we lost many people who had knowledge, a lot of
doctors and people who knew about our world, and now all you see left
are hard working people who use their muscles, not their brains. You can
change the world if you use your brain. This I will teach them, let them
see how many got lost in the countryside. If they can change the world,
I will be an old happy man.

        96. All the broken pieces of the wall of Cambodia that was
destroyed by guns and bombs I will repair.

        97. I will work to ban sweatshops so my people won't have to
work for ten cents an hour. In a week they get a dollar, that's cheap. I
will work to ban cheap labor and children's labor.

        98. I will have a big huge celebration, be on TV, telling the
whole world that it must change. You can make a change if you just stick
with what you have to do, talk about it, and actually do the work to
make it really happen.

        99. All I gotta say is I really love you.

        100. I will die a happy, wise, sad, been-there-done-that,
helpful, artistic, BRAVE, struggling, changed, changing, loved, and
trusted old man.