February 24, 2009
The President Things You Do
I remember when I used to be annoyed at televised presidential addresses for always messing up my prime time TV viewing. Now to be actually looking forward to one? Amazing. LOL
February 15, 2009
How the President Really Is Spending His First 100 Days
see More political LOL pictures
Happy Presidents' Day!
February 2, 2009
I know it's February
...and that it is Black History Month. But this year time does not allow me to embark on another BHM "blogathon." But please enjoy my posts from past years, especially last year's "32 Days of Black History Month" blogathon held in partnership with Deesha from Mamalicious!
Black History anytime, anyplace: "Black History 365"
2006: "Black History, 2006"
2005: "31 Days of Black History Month"
Please feel free to link in the comments to your own BHM posts. I don't have time to post this year but I'll definitely make time to read!
January 20, 2009
January 19, 2009
Search to Build
From the Martin Luther King, Jr. National Memorial website:
You can help raise funds to build Dr. King's Memorial on the National Mall in Washington, DC simply by searching everyday using your favorite web browser and the MLK Memorial toolbar. For every search you perform using the toolbar $.05 will be donated to the Washington, DC Martin Luther King, Jr. National Memorial Project Foundation.
January 14, 2009
December 13, 2008
SITBB Vault: What's Next for the Junior Senator from Illinois?
| Well, I think we all now know the answer to that question in the title that I posed in December of 2004. What a blast from the past--and what a difference four years makes. Of course, folks in higher education are still hoping that President-elect Obama's ties to and high regard for education will translate to good things for this particular segment of our national economy. For example, a recent IHE opinion piece begins, "In forming a strategy to deal with the severe economic downturn, President-elect Obama and his evolving brain trust of economic advisers should recall the largely successful and innovative efforts by federal and state governments to avoid a projected steep post-World War II recession — in particular, the key role given to higher education."
I am sure the P-E has higher education on his list of priorities, though perhaps somewhere after conflict in the Middle East and the national and global economy. And the new puppy. :-) |
Sen. Obama is all over the place these days. A naughty punch line on Will and Grace. A Newsweek cover story with the title "The Audacity of Hope." A million plus three-book deal. He's the "Patron Saint" of the famous blog, Daily Kos.
Of course, part of the talk is presidential in nature. The Senator, apparently, is Mr. October, 2008 on a "Countdown to 2008" calendar. You can even buy Obama for President (unofficial) campaign gear at one site. (Also see this site.)
But one of the most interesting things about Obama for me is his background as a scholar. A recent Black Issues in Higher Education interview [now Diverse Issues in Higher Education] contains the following exchange:
BI: How have your experiences as a law professor shaped your public policy positions on higher education? As a political leader?BO: Obviously as somebody who sees young people on a regular basis, I am greatly encouraged by the seriousness and hard work that young people are willing to put in. They're hungry to get education, and everywhere I go I meet young people with the will and the drive, and the desire to go to college, but often times they lack (the) money.
And I think as a professor myself, I'm painfully aware of the barriers that a lot of young people still experience going to college, and also recognize the value of higher education because ...I've had the opportunity that I have. I'm not someone who comes from a wealthy family, and I wouldn't be in a position to do the kind of work that I do had it not been for the generosity of the broader society. I want to make sure we pass that generosity on to the next generation.
In terms of my position as a politician, or policy-maker, one of the things that an effective professor learns is how to present both sides of an argument. If you're a good professor, and you're not somebody who is only teaching the things you believe, you're also teaching things that other people believe but you may disagree about.
And I think that being able to see all sides of an issue, having been trained in presenting all sides of an issue in the classroom, actually helps me question my own assumptions and helps me empathize with people who don't agree with me.
Right now I'm about a third of the way through the 2004 re-release of Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance. This book is also widely discussed around the 'net and in the blogosphere. But to my eyes, it is an adoption memoir in many ways: loss, reclaiming, singularity, being rootless, search for authenticity, questions around naming, issues of loyalty and betrayal...
This is a very engaging, very unique, but at the same time, a very familiar story. A family story. I can't wait until this book starts appearing on college course syllabi--It definitely should be on the syllabi in family science courses. I can't wait to see how academics relate and react to one of their own making good and making noise inside the Beltway.
I suspect many of us will adopt a kind of "ownership pose" toward Sen. Obama, similar to the way many academics claimed Paul Wellstone. I suspect many of us will react the way some of his kinsfolk in Kenya did, who expect Obama to now gift them with all sorts of schools, money, and opportunity. Will Obama bless us, his "academic tribesmen"? Will he help all sorts of higher education funding legislation go through? Will he confront the opinions of a larger public that often mistrusts anyone who comes across as "elite" or well-educated?
It's hard to say, although plenty of people are busy speculating.
I guess the real question is less what is next for Barack Obama, and more what is next for those of us in higher ed who have recently--like most of the rest of the nation--"discovered" him. How will we deal with our own "issues"--of loss, authenticity, loyalty and the like--as we see them reflected in the junior senator?
I don't know, but in the meanwhile I'm busy reading. Page 106. A young Barry as an undergrad...
November 15, 2008
October 19, 2008
He, too, sang America
Colin Powell, saying what needed to be said:
...I'm also troubled by – not what Senator McCain says – but what members of the Party say, and it is permitted to be said: such things as, "Well, you know that Mr. Obama is a Muslim." Well, the correct answer is he is not a Muslim. He's a Christian; has always been a Christian. But the really right answer is, "What if he is? Is there something wrong with being a Muslim in this country?" The answer's "No, that's not America." Is there something wrong with some seven-year-old Muslim American kid believing that he or she could be President? Yet, I have heard senior members of my own Party drop the suggestion he's Muslim and he might be associated with terrorists. This is not the way we should be doing it in America.I feel strongly about this particular point because of a picture I saw in a magazine. It was a photo essay about troops who were serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. And one picture at the tail end of this photo essay was of a mother in Arlington Cemetery. And she had her head on the headstone of her son's grave. And as the picture focused in, you could see the writing on the headstone. And it gave his awards – Purple Heart, Bronze Star; showed that he died in Iraq; gave his date of birth, date of death. He was twenty years old. And then at the very top of the headstone, it didn't have a Christian cross. It didn't have a Star of David. It had a crescent and a star of the Islamic faith. And his name was Karim Rashad Sultan Kahn. And he was an American. He was born in New Jersey, he was fourteen ye ars old at the time of 9/11 and he waited until he could go serve his country and he gave his life.
Now, we have got to stop polarizing ourself in this way. And John McCain is as non-discriminatory as anyone I know. But I'm troubled about the fact that within the Party we have these kinds of expressions.
In the words of Langston Hughes:
I, too, sing America.I am the darker brother.
They send me to eat in the kitchen
When company comes,
But I laugh,
And eat well,
And grow strong.Tomorrow,
I'll be at the table
When company comes.
Nobody'll dare
Say to me,
"Eat in the kitchen,"
Then.Besides,
They'll see how beautiful I am
And be ashamed--I, too, am America.
October 16, 2008
Holy hobnobbing with terrorists, Batman! (The debate you didn't see last night)
(Hat tip to Bright Lights After Dark)
