As households across the country prepare to watch stars strut down the red carpet at the Oscars tonight, we thought it was appropriate to remember a few films that have inspired new understandings of solidarity with our brothers and sisters throughout the world.
I recently returned from an immersion trip to New Orleans, my second immersion experience but my first domestic trip. As the student leader for the trip, I spent a great deal of time preparing our group for what to expect, but the actual word ‘solidarity’ was never brought up in our pre-trip meetings. I think that many of the general concepts of solidarity were touched upon, but the word itself is hard to define and therefore hard to teach. I am a firm believer that ‘solidarity’ is one of those rare words that can take a unique shape depending on the individual experience.
This past January, I was blessed with the opportunity of a lifetime; I embarked on my first-ever international service-immersion experience, which was organized by the campus ministry office of my primary undergraduate institution (Canisius College in Buffalo, New York). This experience enabled twelve Canisius College students and two Canisius College professors to live alongside the Dalit (also referred to as the “Untouchables”) for two weeks in the province of Tamil Nadu in southern India.
