This is a day for sober reflection. In short order the US — and the world — has lost three giants: Steve Jobs, Fred Shuttlesworth, and Derrick Bell. All were men of vision and principle who persevered through defeat and emerged triumphant.
Steve Jobs'
succinct and memorable 2005 commencement address at Stanford University
was just on WCPN 90.3/FM [NPR]. I suggest that whatever your current
stage of life, you take 15 minutes to listen to perhaps the best such
talk I have ever heard. The talk consists of three deeply personal
stories — one on birth, one on life, one on death. They are honest,
vivid, and gut-grabbing.
I went looking for the link on
NPR at the request of my wife, who wanted it for her SAGES course on
Movers and Shakers at Case Western Reserve University, but my friend Ken
Lumpkin sent me a twofer: both the text and video are here.
Derrick Bell
was a pioneer legal scholar and activist who consistently forsook
personal gain for the greater good. He gave up privileged positions
because he knew his sacrifices would benefit those who would come
after him.
Perhaps he was inspired by the example of Fred Shuttlesworth,
who as a young minister in 1950s Birmingham, Alabama repeatedly put
himself in harm's way to protest the US apartheid system and to agitate
for a new society.
Who among us could not learn from these giants?
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