I have my reasons. Reasons such as extreme amounts of homework. Such as looking up countless news articles about Iraq, China, AIDS, natural disasters, Islam, ethics in science, terrorism, gender issues, and copyright law. Reasons that keep me sleep 4-5 hours a night.

And now my focus is primarily on gender issues, specifically, inequality of treatment of both men and women (primarily women). I'm writing a 10-15 page research paper about gender issues and specifically how the family is affected. Then next week, my group is working on a project together. We'll tie in how government, family, education, and communications all deal with gender.

Our collective thesis statement is about how both male and female are of equal value --and when people get that through their heads, I mean really understand it in the "to know is to do" sense of the word -- there won't be gender-based injustice.

And yes, perhaps it looks a bit idealistic to go against centuries of culture, but I think it could be possible. Maybe not in my generation, but I'll do what I can--even if that is just getting 20 people to act this way. Then they change 20, then 20, then 20....exponentially it'll work.