A is for advocate
We fight for men and women whose poetry is not yet written. –Robert Gould Shaw, abolitionist In 2008, I will be a better advocate for those who need—and want—my advocacy. Long ago on a faraway planet, I once worked in an organization where I sat through a management meeting every …
B is for “be FOR something”
There is no virtue in being uncritical nor is it a habit to which the young are given. But criticism is only the burying beetle that gets rid of what is dead, and, since the world lives by creative and constructive forces, and not by negation and destruction, it is …
H is for human rights
Most people, no doubt, when they espouse human rights, make their own mental reservations about the proper application of the word ‘human.’ –Suzanne LaFollette In 2008, I will fight for the rights of human beings I see being dismissed and excluded and not listened to. And killed for who they …
Teach fear to heel
“We invent what we love, and what we fear.” – John Irving A student of mine was murdered this week, on Wednesday. No, she was actually assassinated as she prayed at a Buddhist monastery in northern Thailand. The reports are that masked gunmen in black leapt from a van and …
Remember the green book
“Far away is only far away if you don’t go there.” -O. Povo When my friend Gay tells a story, it comes out like a hot knife through rich butter—all soft, fluid, full, with a drawl that makes you want to move to Mississippi and listen to a big bearded …
Fund your own revolution
“The American Revolution was not financed with matching grants from the Crown.” – David Bayles and Ted Orland, Art and Fear Quick. Look around your office or workspace. Do you have a clock there? Do you have a visitor chair—a chair where a visitor could sit, should one suddenly appear …
Replace “they” with “we” with “I”
We all believe in equality, as long as it is equality with our superiors. What is the tipping point? I’ve long been fascinated by the fact that our Social Contract works—that people stop at four-way stop signs and allow the person to their right to move first, creating a sweet …
Don’t stop to wave, you’ll drown
“Why are women immobile? Because so many feel like they’re waiting for someone to say, “You’re good, you’re pretty, I give you permission.” –Eve Ensler This week, I watched a videotape of Eve Ensler speaking at the 2004 Omega Institute “Women in Power” conference. Ensler is a playwright most famous …
Be outraged by your own racism
“No human race is superior; no religious faith is inferior. All collective judgments are wrong. Only racists make them.” –Elie Wiesel When my oldest daughter was in the first grade, she stopped me cold with just 16 words. “Mom,” she said as we stopped at a traffic light near Dupont …
Choose the tuxedo
KELLI DAVIS, Class of 2005 “If you hate a person, you hate something in him that is part of yourself. What isn’t part of ourselves doesn’t disturb us." –Herman Hesse Sometimes when I wake up too early and read the newspaper before having that first cup of coffee, and particularly …
