tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post4658698728617887276..comments2024-03-29T03:19:09.227-04:00Comments on The Philosopher's Stone: AFRO-AMERICAN STUDIES: A TUTORIAL PART TENRobert Paul Wolffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11970360952872431856noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post-48418862826166687862011-07-11T07:46:43.176-04:002011-07-11T07:46:43.176-04:00I think Williams' poem may be part of the idea...I think Williams' poem may be part of the idea of a nation "conceived in liberty". <br /><br />I can't help but think that he shows here the complex relationship b/w that idea and reality.Murfmenschhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00031877154740991965noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post-55855795053768756702011-07-09T12:19:53.575-04:002011-07-09T12:19:53.575-04:00Doesn't that penultimate stanza reproduce the ...Doesn't that penultimate stanza reproduce the spurious story about the Idea of Freedom gradually attained? Or are you pointing to the way it contrasts with Dr. Wolff's argument?English Jerkhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14960822939548263926noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post-59196510294324934522011-07-09T10:27:48.759-04:002011-07-09T10:27:48.759-04:00A friend of mine, Chad E. Uchtmann, posted this po...A friend of mine, Chad E. Uchtmann, posted this poem by Miller Williams on July 4th. I am struck with how it sits alongside the point Dr. Wolff has been making. <br /><br />(Chad is a remarkable photographer who seeks to use Facebook as a means of presenting his work well. He's at http://www.facebook.com/isomchad) <br /><br />The next paragraph is Chad's followed by Williams work: <br /><br />Written by Miller Williams for the inauguration of William Jefferson Clinton and read by the author on January 20, 1997. Its message is one about the past and potential, memory and future of America, written by one of America's finest living poets, Arkansan Miller Williams.<br /><br />Of History and Hope<br /><br />We have memorized America,<br />how it was born and who we have been and where.<br />In ceremonies and silence we say the words,<br />telling the stories, singing the old songs.<br />We like the places they take us. Mostly we do.<br />The great and all the anonymous dead are there.<br />We know the sound of all the sounds we brought.<br />The rich taste of it is on our tongues.<br />But where are we going to be, and why, and who?<br />The disenfranchised dead want to know.<br />We mean to be the people we meant to be,<br />to keep on going where we meant to go.<br /><br />But how do we fashion the future? Who can say how<br />except in the minds of those who will call it Now?<br />The children. The children. And how does our garden grow?<br />With waving hands -- oh, rarely in a row --<br />and flowering faces. And brambles, that we can no longer allow.<br />Who were many people coming together<br />cannot become one people falling apart.<br />Who dreamed for every child an even chance<br />cannot let luck alone turn doorknobs or not.<br />Whose law was never so much of the hand as the head<br />cannot let chaos make its way to the heart.<br />Who have seen learning struggle from teacher to child<br />cannot let ignorance spread itself like rot.<br />We know what we have done and what we have said,<br />and how we have grown, degree by slow degree,<br />believing ourselves toward all we have tried to become --<br />just and compassionate, equal, able, and free.<br /><br />All this in the hands of children, eyes already set<br />on a land we never can visit -- it isn't there yet --<br />but looking through their eyes, we can see<br />what our long gift to them may come to be.<br />If we can truly remember, they will not forget.<br /><br />- Miller WilliamsMurfmenschhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00031877154740991965noreply@blogger.com