Melissa Harris-Lacewell: Fighting for Change, Longing for the Sea
[Melissa Harris-Lacewell, an associate professor of politics and African-American studies at Princeton University]
I was recently reminded of a famous quote from Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, author of the classic text The Little Prince. Saint-Exupéry offered a particularly relevant lesson for our current politics: "If you want to build a ship, don't drum up people together to collect wood and don't assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea." I believe Americans are in need of a refresher course on how to long for the sea.
If 2008 was an election marked by hope and readiness for change, 2010 can be understood as an election fueled by fear and loathing. On the right, disaffected Tea Parties are steeped in rhetoric about the president's secret religious affiliations, about the burden of deficits, about economic competition from undocumented workers, about America's flagging international influence and about the terrifying prospect of expanding the social safety net. On the left, progressives can barely hide their disgust with healthcare reform they deem insufficient and financial reform they find laughably weak, with Democrats who seem unable to silence the filibustering GOP, with a president who did not immediately withdraw all American combat troops from Iraq and Afghanistan, and with the emerging populist backlash. Both sides wring their hands about the corrupting influence of corporate money in elections and fret about the continuing economic crisis. Each side accuses the other of stupidity, arrogance, racism and inadequate patriotism....
At the moment, Americans seem so intent on gathering the tools and perfecting the plans for our individual boats that we have lost sight of the immense sea. We are faced with the challenge of pursuing our short-term policy agendas while remaining cognizant of our long-term national interests, and, more important, we must remain aware of our limited ability to predict what our future challenges will be. Like our founders we are part of the continuous process of making and remaking America. I am always excited to lecture my students about the Declaration of Independence. Jefferson's 1776 manifesto is easily my favorite of the founding documents. My respect for it is rooted in the human frailties and ethical failures of Jefferson himself. Jefferson was an enslaver who held his own children in intergenerational human bondage. He was a misogynist who could not fathom women as equal partners at home or in government....
Read entire article at The Nation
I was recently reminded of a famous quote from Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, author of the classic text The Little Prince. Saint-Exupéry offered a particularly relevant lesson for our current politics: "If you want to build a ship, don't drum up people together to collect wood and don't assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea." I believe Americans are in need of a refresher course on how to long for the sea.
If 2008 was an election marked by hope and readiness for change, 2010 can be understood as an election fueled by fear and loathing. On the right, disaffected Tea Parties are steeped in rhetoric about the president's secret religious affiliations, about the burden of deficits, about economic competition from undocumented workers, about America's flagging international influence and about the terrifying prospect of expanding the social safety net. On the left, progressives can barely hide their disgust with healthcare reform they deem insufficient and financial reform they find laughably weak, with Democrats who seem unable to silence the filibustering GOP, with a president who did not immediately withdraw all American combat troops from Iraq and Afghanistan, and with the emerging populist backlash. Both sides wring their hands about the corrupting influence of corporate money in elections and fret about the continuing economic crisis. Each side accuses the other of stupidity, arrogance, racism and inadequate patriotism....
At the moment, Americans seem so intent on gathering the tools and perfecting the plans for our individual boats that we have lost sight of the immense sea. We are faced with the challenge of pursuing our short-term policy agendas while remaining cognizant of our long-term national interests, and, more important, we must remain aware of our limited ability to predict what our future challenges will be. Like our founders we are part of the continuous process of making and remaking America. I am always excited to lecture my students about the Declaration of Independence. Jefferson's 1776 manifesto is easily my favorite of the founding documents. My respect for it is rooted in the human frailties and ethical failures of Jefferson himself. Jefferson was an enslaver who held his own children in intergenerational human bondage. He was a misogynist who could not fathom women as equal partners at home or in government....