Soapbox

For a student who has degrees in social justice, philosophy and public policy, I am remarkably soft-spoken about my opinions. For more than a decade, I have been utterly fascinated by all facets of ethics, notions of justice and the political ideals that are written in the US Constitution and the Federalist Papers; and while I have participated in a diverse mix of advocacy and charity over time, I have been pretty quiet as an individual in intimate groups of friends or family. I avoid conflict at all cost, and still feel like I "don't really know what I'm talking about" enough to really assert or argue my point.

And I don't plan to assert or argue a point here, either. But I have been overwhelmingly inspired lately, and from a diverse array of sources. I share them with you, to flutter around in your mind as they have been in mine. 

A poem that was included in an address from my CEO:

I slept and dreamt that life was joy.

I awoke and saw that life was duty.

I acted, and behold—

Duty was joy. 

- Rabindranath Tagore

Pieces from President Barack Obama's speech:

As Americans, we believe we are endowed by our Creator with certain inalienable rights, rights that no man or government can take away. We insist on personal responsibility, and we celebrate individual initiative. We're not entitled to success. We have to earn it. We honor the strivers, the dreamers, the risk- takers, the entrepreneurs who have always been the driving force behind our free enterprise system, the greatest engine of growth and prosperity that the world's ever known.

But we also believe in something called citizenship — (cheers, applause) — citizenship, a word at the very heart of our founding, a word at the very essence of our democracy, the idea that this country only works when we accept certain obligations to one another and to future generations....We don't think the government can solve all of our problems, but we don't think the government is the source of all of our problems — (cheers, applause) — any more than our welfare recipients or corporations or unions or immigrants or gays or any other group we're told to blame for our troubles — (cheers, applause) — because — because America, we understand that this democracy is ours.

We, the people — (cheers) — recognize that we have responsibilities as well as rights; that our destinies are bound together; that a freedom which asks only, what's in it for me, a freedom without a commitment to others, a freedom without love or charity or duty or patriotism, is unworthy of our founding ideals, and those who died in their defense. (Cheers, applause.) As citizens, we understand that America is not about what can be done for us. It's about what can be done by us, together — (cheers, applause) — through the hard and frustrating but necessary work of self-government. That's what we believe.

From a letter from one my Hamline professors to the President of Hamline University regarding the neutral position of the University on the effort to amend the MN Constitution to define marriage as the union of one man and one woman:

Some have argued that universities should not take a position on issues such as this because we are a place that welcomes everyone, that welcomes a diversity of perspectives. It is true that we welcome spirited debate. But, do we really believe that all views are entitled to a seat at the table? Are the civil rights of our faculty, staff, students, and alums really something we believe should be subject to intellectual debate? I hope not.