"A democracy is created to ensure that arbitrary forms of power are not deployed or used against fellow citizens and fellow human beings." "Democracy is affirming the humanity an dignity of people of color."
"I am not a politician. I am a fellow citizen but I am deeply political."
West reminds us of what Malcolm X suggested about the fact that the chickens will come home to roost. "We must not think that there will ever be enough police or prisons to deal with the overwhelming social despair that results from the social neglect in those kindergartens, elementary schools, and secondary schools and high schools.
"Resources are necessary for education, but not sufficient for essential education. "Creative thinking, critical intelligence, deep commitment, connection with students, believing deeply that students can learn are other critical essentials." Yet, when 1% of the population has roughly the same wealth as the bottom 95% of the population, there needs to be a serious discussion about the wealth inequality in this country.
"Charity is not justice."
"I am not optimistic. Anyone who has the audacity to adopt a democratic vision cannot be optimistic, though I do not conflate optimism with hope." Hope means one keeps keeping on to come together to form communities and schools that embody democratic principles.
"Maybe we have a problem. Maybe we ought to really try to take seriously multiracial democracy. Which we know was not the division of the founding fathers, even given their relative wisdom. They could not conceive of black, white, red, yellow, all having equal citizenship status. They could not conceive of women having equal citizenship status. And one says that not to trash them just contextualize them. They had wisdom but it is relative to context, just as we have wisdom today but it is relative to our context. But we are building on their vision...if we do not wrestle...with [its] overwhelming inequality and increasing inequality, then yes, we can begin to lose that precious democratic tradition that was transmitted, bequeathed to us by the best of those who came before."
West reminds us of a staple from the Martin Luther King legacy which was to let go of bitterness, hatred and revenge, regardless of history. We must fall in love with peace and justice and the desire to serve.
Saturday, January 19, 2008
Cornell West Insights --Part 2
"We are all on the same ship, and that ship has leaks in it. We must all stick together, or we will all fall apart, for we are inextricably linked together."
"While the unexamined life is not worth living, the examined life is a necessarily painful one to lead."
"What does it mean to be human? To be human is to suffer, to shudder in the face of life's mysteries and to struggle with that mystery."
West quotes William Butler Yeats who said, "it takes more courage to dig deep into the abyss of one's own soul than it takes for a soldier to fight on the battlefield."
"Teachers must forge a courage in themselves and attempt to make it contagious with their students to move from learning that is too hollow, too shallow, too quantitative, too standard-oriented."
"Lack of democracy: voicelessness. Democratic reality: a sense of being an agent in the world.
"West quotes Emerson as saying that all forms of imitation are suicide. Therefore, each must find his or her own distinctive voice and practice it and "bounce it up against other voices within the community like a jazz quartet."
"While the unexamined life is not worth living, the examined life is a necessarily painful one to lead."
"What does it mean to be human? To be human is to suffer, to shudder in the face of life's mysteries and to struggle with that mystery."
West quotes William Butler Yeats who said, "it takes more courage to dig deep into the abyss of one's own soul than it takes for a soldier to fight on the battlefield."
"Teachers must forge a courage in themselves and attempt to make it contagious with their students to move from learning that is too hollow, too shallow, too quantitative, too standard-oriented."
"Lack of democracy: voicelessness. Democratic reality: a sense of being an agent in the world.
"West quotes Emerson as saying that all forms of imitation are suicide. Therefore, each must find his or her own distinctive voice and practice it and "bounce it up against other voices within the community like a jazz quartet."
Cornell West Insights
Because I was so impressed with Cornell West's speech on Thursday, I took some time to read some of his other speeches. The following are some "gems" I discovered:
"There can be no substantive Essential Education without accenting non-market values, activities that allow us to situate ourselves, and our young people, our students, in stories bigger than us."
"We have become addicted to stimulation and titillation, shallow pleasures, and have discarded the search for depth."
" 'Gangsterization,' a movement which is mean-spirited, cold-hearted, and back-stabbing is going in our society. In our search for material success, non-market values such as concern, compassion, or unity have been forced to take a back seat."
"The 9-11 terrorist attacks in the U. S. gave white Americans a glimpse of what it means to be a black person in the U. S. --feeling 'unsafe, unprotected, subject to random violence, and hatred' for who they are."
"There can be no substantive Essential Education without accenting non-market values, activities that allow us to situate ourselves, and our young people, our students, in stories bigger than us."
"We have become addicted to stimulation and titillation, shallow pleasures, and have discarded the search for depth."
" 'Gangsterization,' a movement which is mean-spirited, cold-hearted, and back-stabbing is going in our society. In our search for material success, non-market values such as concern, compassion, or unity have been forced to take a back seat."
"The 9-11 terrorist attacks in the U. S. gave white Americans a glimpse of what it means to be a black person in the U. S. --feeling 'unsafe, unprotected, subject to random violence, and hatred' for who they are."
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