Ethics and Values

So, this semester, I am taking an Ethics and Values class. I was reluctant to take it at first, but am now finding it to be both my most frustrating and most amusing class. So far, we have gone over everything from torture, to the existence of God, to abortion and so on. I find myself constantly in a state of confusion with what I have been raised to believe and what I find myself realizing I believe now. I will often comment in class and as someone counters my argument, I find myself realizing that I was wrong all along. I think back to my high school years and the view of the world I had then and compare it to my beliefs and world view now and realize that not in a million years would I have expected to agree with some arguments I agree with now. If someone had told me that I would do complete 180's on many ethical and moral topics in the future, I would not only have thought they were crazy, I would have been angry at them. As a whole, we like to close our eyes and ears. We get angry when others challenge our beliefs. "We are what we believe". I want to change this in my life. "I am what I decide to believe." The most mind numbing thing I have learned in this class is my lack on knowledge of the world around me and the history of why people are they way they are and why people react the way they do. The most recent occurrence being this article I had to read for my class on the Holocaust. "The Childhood origins of World War II and the Holocaust".
In many ways, I am furious at my high school history teachers. In other ways I am furious with myself. I recall the countless times my dad tried and tried and tried to open my eyes to history and the world around me. I blatently ignored him, 'knowing' that it's history....boring! I was taught all about the holocaust and WWII in school, but not once was it explained why something like this could happen. I always wanted to know HOW people could be so apathetic to what is going on around them. Although perhaps not to the same extreme, it still blew me away when I came up with the epiphany that WE are a part of this. The countless examples; starving children, countries with STD's out of control, India with it's lawless brothels; we are apathetic to the suffering. We do little to solve the problems saying "it's not our country, not our problem". I want to make a difference in the world. If it means teaching mothers how to raise children healthily, saving lives, or going to Africa to educate on the importance of washing your hands before delivering a baby, I want to do it. This is why I want to be a nurse, so that someday, I will be able to make a difference in the world.