So, what does Harry Potter have to do with our nation today? A few months ago I would have been totally blank. But, believe it or not, Harry Potter does have something to do with our nation today. So do a couple other books like The Giver by Lois Lowry, The Hunger Games series by Suzanne Collins and The Freedom Factor by Gerald N. Lund. A lot of books and movies can teach us things, we just have to be open and paying attention.
Sometimes it's easier to see what the book/movie is telling us and sometimes it's not. For example, in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Dolores Umbridge gives a speech when she arrives. At the conclusion of her speech, Hermione comments on how enlightening Umbridge's talk was. Harry and Ron misinterpret Hermione and think that she liked what Umbridge was saying. And understood it for another thing. Hermione explains that what Umbridge was saying, though not very clearly stated, is that the Ministry of Magic is interfering at Hogwarts. We see later that the Ministry of Magic is indeed interfering; Defense Against the Dark Arts classes turn into Reading About the Dark Arts/no wands allowed class and Umbridge takes over the school.
Unfortunately, it's not so easy to see when people are taking over. It's almost always that way. And when we do know what's going on, we don't always do anything about it. Funny, huh? Well, we should be doing something, shouldn't we? Of course! We need to be like Dumbledore's Army. That doesn't mean we should be practicing spells in secret, it means we need to stand up and fight back. Our weapons should be our voices and our thoughts. We don't need force, just us, our opinions and views. I mean, it was with those exact things that our nation was born in. It started with the Puritans, a religious group from England seeking for freedom to believe and teach openly. And then we had a Revolutionary War in which we fought for freedom against oppression. And there was the American Civil War where we freed slaves, but unfortunately we would have to have a Civil Rights movement to finally gain everyone's freedom. And of course we can't forget all the other stuff in between like the Women's Suffrage movement.
So, how can we make a difference? First off, there's always writing political leaders. You can also go to city counsel meetings. I've been to one and it's actually pretty entertaining. (Of course, I'm kind of nerdy that way.) My Mom told me once that somebody she knew went to a city counsel meeting and found out that a building was going to be built in their town. The catch: the building would help boost the city's leaders financially. Then she was able to warn the town and the building wasn't built. Amazing, huh? I think so. Just think, one ordinary person ended up making a big difference. And it doesn't have to be a big difference, it could be a small one; it all adds up in the end. All you have to do is write a message or attend a meeting. It's just that simple.
What are you still doing here?! Grab your wand (aka pencil or pen) and get started! You think problems are going to fix themselves? Go on, get outta here; go do something today that can help the nation tomorrow. It's your homeland too, you know. Get up, you could do something as simple as supporting your town or city's leaders. You never know, maybe you'll be the one making a difference.
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