Rush Limbaugh, backlash and other fears

By now, most of you have seen the replay of the Rush Limbaugh clip where he says something to the effect of "We're being advised to hope President Obama succeeds (because he is the first black president) but I personally hope he fails." I'm not a Rush fan, or even a viewer, so I first saw the clip on The Daily Show. I thought maybe Jon Stewart was making a bad joke, but deep down I knew better. By the time I saw it replayed on CNN, MSNBC, and CBS news, it seemed my fear and loathing for statements like that were fortunately not the minority. If this sentiment was expressed about our President right after 9/11, Mr. Limbaugh might be a Gitmo grad by now.
It seemed no coincidence that about the time I was queasy over the say/replay of that unfortunate person, three other pings hit my radar. First, I got a call from the eighty-five year old woman who raised me, who happens to be a woman of color, to talk about how wonderful that our country has taken a step forward although my old hometown, according to her and she still lives there, has not. We talked about the old Jim Crow days and my family's "difference." My mom was a closet Texican. My dad, a Jew by birth who experienced both the quota system while growing up and life in a Nazi prison camp, lived in fear of being "found out" in our All Christian Town.
I'd gotten off the phone with her and was checking email when I discovered a request for "National 'Hug a Caucasian Day" from a young friend. Obviously, in some circles I don't qualify as a Caucasian, but I pass. There is a backlash of fear that some of our majority privilege might be diminished. It reminded me of the late sixties, being one of the few white people on the bus to Washington D.C. and feeling the hostility. "Hey, I didn't choose my color! I'm here trying to right the wrongs!" I wanted to shout. It got so bad on that bus ride-- between people threatening to burn us, jail us, or bomb us and my fellow travelers glaring and in one case, spitting on us--that the other three white people began to invent black relatives.
The final thread in this little saga was a note from my second reader (remember packet #5 is coming soon) to remark that I hadn't addressed white privilege in my thesis which is about governance and fundraising for NGO's. The thesis uses our school in Kenya as an example of what not to do. Okay, I whined a little. "That's not what this thesis is about" not because I didn't agree that there were issues , but because I didn't want to write another, perhaps more relevant thesis, about white people going to Africa to Save the Natives. It happens a lot. Still, all this concentration on race in such a short period of time made me feel, well, vunerable somehow.
Maybe what is really bugging me is that I have made so little progress. I cried for joy as I watched the inauguration so maybe I am just as hung up on race as Rush--in a different way. My emotional response to my second reader was a flashback to the sixties. Have I gained so little depth of understanding of the experience of people of color? And yes, as I hit "publish post" I am a little nervous about some people finding out I am a half breed Jew/Texican. What am I so afraid of? What are any of us so afraid of?

Imagine?????????

Imagine you are me. You have just returned from Kenya where you hosted a group of engineering students (Engineers for a Sustainable World). One of them asked on the trip if I'd ever been thrown in jail. I told them about the time I got arrested for loitering in Denver while traveling on the bus to Washington as part of the Martin Luther King Peace trip. Are you still imagining you are me? Can you imagine how I feel about tomorrow's inaugeration? Watching those Harvey Mudd College students in Kenya, watching the Kenyan students from Clay International School--as cynical as I am, it fills me with hope. I never imagined I'd be starting a school in Africa. I never imagined we'd have a black President. If I didn't imagine these things, what else might be possible? How's your imagination working?
Of course, inspirational as all this is, those of you at Goddard in the SBC program know it's packet time. We're on the home stretch for this semester and I am personally on the home stretch for finishing the program. Ann Driscoll asked what suggestions I might have for improving the program. Natually, like you, I think the program is pretty awesome as it is, but living in this new world of possibilities we never dreamed of, I gave thought to how we might make "progressive education" even more progressive.
As I've said more than once, I believe we need to keep our program academically rigorous. Somebody says "progressive" and somebody else thinks it's just another way of saying "slacker." And maybe some of you really have a better handle than I have on how to do the Goddard thing in a more meaningful way. For my thirty cents (and we all know it was quite a bit more) I'd like to change the idea of "study plan" to "inquiry." I wish I'd started every semester with a question. In my case, looking at fundraising, the first semester's question would have been, "Why do people give money to non-profit organizations?" Each of you have your own questions, or maybe you didn't, and then your question might have been "What does 'sustainability' really mean? or social entreprenuership? or whatever you had on your mind. The "study plan" then might look more like, first I'm going to do a literature seach and describe what I found. Then I'm going to do a little field research and describe it. Then I'm going to write my conclusions and come up with the next logical question.
Okay, it's just my idea. Hopefully you have some ideas of your own. And by the way, I don't think anybody in the SBC program would find accreditation issues or rigor issues in approaching it this way. I just never thought about it that way. Now as I near the conclusion, I wish I had. And I'm only one student. I hope you have some thoughts of your own and if you are reading this, you take them time to post them. Thanks.

Jambo from Kenya and Engineers for a Sustainable World

It' nice and hot in Kenya this time of year and we're trying very hard to adjust. This morning we leave for the tiny village of Ngomano where Engineers for a Sustainable World from Harvey Mudd College will get their first experience of field work in a third world country. The Goddard students, Kirsten, Jim and I, will do some classes on microfinance and some basic business principles. We planned our project before we understood what a mess Kenya is in at the moment. As our friend Benson Matua says, "When the U.S. sneezes the whole world catches the flu." The economic crisis combined with lack of rain so that food production is down more than 30 percent, has created famine. Our engineer friends have come to help us figure out why after three years of trying, we still aren't able to get water to the village. Keep your fingers crossed for them. Their success will literally mean life for many as we will be able to grow the crops we were successful with only last year. By contrast, our plan may be more germaine after the rains return.
The women's co-op has been very successful with the Kiondo business (the baskets they weave and we sell in the U.S.) We've been so fortunate that our major problem right now is how to maintain the supply as we haven't found an economic way to ship. Right now, that's the only means of making money in Ngomano. If the microlending is successful perhaps more small businesses can germinate in this dusty thirsty financial climate. Too many people are hungry for us not to be able to figure out a simple thing like shipping, either. And hooray for Goddard for an education program that allows us to be here doing this as part of our studies.
For me, the joy is being here, watching more people who are genuinely interested in making a difference experience Africa, and being with my Kenyan friends who are so willing to share their hospitality, knowledge, and wisdom with us. I hope we'll be smart enough to repay a fraction of the gifts they so freely give.
Sorry if this blog is a bit disjointed. Second typing. First disappeared in the African cyberspace. I'll be back to you in five days to tell you how we did before proceeding on to Masaii Mara to work with Andy Aho on energy sources, pumping, and for the SBC's, social entrepreneurship, of which Andy is the Master. Wish all you were here for the first hand experience.