Monday, January 18, 2010

Scratch and Dent Dreams: Legal Here?

Sorry for the radio silence. My excuses include recovering from the semester, illness, travel, and, really, no good reason.

But in the last week or so, I've been doing a lot of reading for the course I'm teaching this semester on race, gender, and Christian discipleship. I've also spent a little time on YouTube, visiting some DefJam poetry.

Today being MLK day, I have "I have a dream" echoing in my head. That speech is of course well worth listening too, and easy enough to find on YouTube if you are so inclined. I'm thinking very seriously about starting my class with that, and then following it up with the two below. I find them, respectively, so hopeful and so hopeless. I find the second very disturbing, but not nearly as disturbing as the contrast between the two. How do you--whether you teach or write or raise kids or whatever--how do you disturb the optimism without killing the hope?




2 comments:

Rachel said...

Catapult Magazine: Big Hope, small hope

I read this essay today, and it brought to mind your blog post.

Molly said...

Wow - both very gripping & thought provoking. Thanks for sharing. I am mulling over your question......