Its all a matter of Perspective...

You know, this past week United Teachers Los Angeles ("UTLA") held a protest Rally against the Governor and the School District to sound off against proposed classroom cuts that will happen at the end of the current school year.

My photo pal, Jemal, and I were at Pershing Square for lunch doing the photoshoot thing when we encountered members of UTLA setting up for the evening's rally. As such, I was able to catch this shot of one of the teachers, and for me, it made their entire struggle more personal. She could be a neighbor, a friend's mom or a coworker's sister; just standing up for what's right. Ya know?

After lunch was over, I realized that I needed to put a little zip in my afternoon work flow because there was going to be massive traffic delays as a result of the rally. I did, and was able to catch the earlier shuttle, and it was a good thing because the shuttle had to be completely rerouted in order to get to Union Station and I would have otherwise missed my train. On the long ride to the station, other commuters were complaining about the traffic delays and how they were going to miss their train. One asked did anyone know what it was all about and that gave me the chance to give UTLA's perspective as to why they were protesting and rallying.

You see, a few years ago, when Arnold first became governor, he borrowed several BILLION dollars from the teacher's union in order to balance the State's budget and to date he has never paid that money back. And now that the state is experiencing yet another budget shortfall, in addition to not discussing his broken promises to the teachers, the governator is also looking to cut more from classrooms to close up the state's shortfall.

After explaining those details, several of my fellow commuters nodded in agreement and one even stated, "well if that's the case, I don't mind missing my train".

Sometimes when we don't have a stake in or understanding of why things are going on around us, its easy to become indifferent as to the struggle of others. But when we are able to make it personal or paint a picture that helps us to see things from another's point of view, we gain knowledge and our perspective changes. Indeed, that is the point that the Apostle Paul was trying to make in the Book of Philippians:

"Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others." (Phiippians 2:4)

Its just a matter of perspective.