Hello Bob (sorry if I missed your name out last time) Isabel, Ian and all
dreamers,

Firstly, thanks Ian for the support - much appreciated. You have articulated
my feelings perfectly. It seems we are certainly singing from the same hymn
sheet!

To Bob, Isabel, and anyone else who may be offended or enraged - I am lost
for words. It always comes as a shock when something you take to be obvious
is challenged.

Haven't we all suffered from corruption in our lives?  I bet every one on
this list is motivated by the desire to right the perceived wrongs of the
past and present and to ensure that no-one suffers in the future as he or
she has done. If we do not desire to prevent others from suffering what we
have endured - our words are merely self-justification - not words of
understanding or wisdom.

I am a woman Bob - not black - but white - but as prejudiced against in many
situations, personal and professional, as any coloured woman. I could get
bitter about that - but I would not allow myself to be degraded in that way.
Would I swap my life for the life of a man - with all the status of a man -
but with his responsibilities? Never. I have loved being a woman - bearing
and giving birth to children, feeding them and caring for them. No man has
that joy. How can we compare ourselves to others? There is pain in every
life. Every person is a unique being with gifts and feelings that no other
person has ever had.

Going back to the children I taught - (who taught me more than I ever taught
them) - the fact that each has a unique fingerprint always moved them. All
children understand that we have different gifts - not equal - just
different. The child who did not excel academically often excelled on the
stage, in art or on the sports field, or even as the class humorist. The
children in any class always knew who had the gifts and pushed those forward
who were the best in any field. The role of the teacher is to foster the
gifts of each. I remember one child in particular who came up to me after an
examination, delighted that she had come 13th in class - because last exams
she had been only 15th! Some of the greatest joys in teaching come from
helping the less able - not the brightest. It is all about helping people of
all ages to become what they are meant to be.

Children need people who are better than they are in certain areas as role
models. Don't we all? How could we ever know what we could achieve if we
didn't know the stories of Martin Luther King, Gandhi, Mandela, Barack Obama
or even Richard Branson, Maggie Thatcher or Bill and Hillary Clinton? They
came from nothing, were coloured, female or disadvantaged and look what they
achieved! I look at Hillary and think - 'I can do that!'. Her life was just
as hard as mine and she has suffered more abuse than any of us. (I know the
down sides too - I'm not glossing over those - none of us is perfect!)  And
- as of now - I am determined - I will! 

How about joining me?  Isn't that what we dream of? You know you can do it.

Just do it! Where there is a will there is a way!

With love

Cherryl



-----Original Message-----
From: Group concerned that academia should seek and promote wisdom
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of ian glendinning
Sent: 27 March 2007 2:38 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Our Dreaming

Isabel, et al,

Cherryl's dream is indeed a big one, none of the rest of us expressed
it that way, but I believe we share it - unspoken - perhaps because it
does indeed sound like motherhood and apple pie, when spoken. Well
done to Cherryl for having the sense to voice it.

Like Alan I genuinely (without the slightest shadow of a doubt) see
the economically (and otherwise) disadvantaged as inlcusive
participants in all our arguments, even though I also express the
pragmatism of differences in value being a part of reality we must
deal with - "equality" cannot be the utopian dream . Well done to
Cherryl for having the sense to voice it.

The "corruption" as you call it, is the very motive for my being
active in this space at all. I have seen a "flawed rationality" - a
smug objective hyper-rationality used by all organisations to
post-rationalize, justify the most immoral decisions in the name of
"logic". The catch-22 is that such arguments cannot be argued against
logically - and those oppressed often resort to desperate measures.

Fixing that "corruption" is the dream we are about.

In the words of the song
Moslem & Christian
Pepsi & Coke
Amen

On 3/27/07, bob Macintosh <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
> Dear Dreamers,
>
> I think it is time to wake up and smell the corruption. I work in the
> service industry, cleaning toilets and vacuuming carpets; it would indeed
be
> very nice to be valued - and paid - as much as a university professor, but
> not just 'in your dreams'. You dream of inclusiveness, but do you really
> respect the cleaners of your college as equals; are you as concerned with
> their contracts as with your own? If not, then 'equality', 'justice',
> 'eradicating poverty', are just like motherhood and apple pie, pleasant
> dreams that keep your minds off the harsh reality of you own selfishness.
> Best wishes, bob Macintosh
>
> http://bobtwice.blogspot.com/
> http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/meetingpool
>