| Dr. Cornell West: Share the road but STAY in your lane |
By Denise Lofton |
Published
11/26/2008
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Arts & Leisure
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Dr. Cornell West: Share the road but STAY in your lane
| “Freedom is not about success and life in a vanilla suburb, it‘s about Greatness. The people who died before you, died so that you could be great.” (Photos by Timothy Moore)
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This is a learner’s reaction to the powerful booming voice of Dr. Cornel West, renowned Princeton professor and Harvard alumni, and author of the book, “Hope On A Tight Rope.” Dr. West spoke to a capacity, multigenerational crowd at the Rose Theatre on the campus of the University of Memphis on Thursday, Nov. 20th.
Here are my notes:
In the “Age of Obama,” as Dr. West coined it, it is easy to believe that your dreams will manifest, and why not? We can see for ourselves the purposeful journey that will place a man of color in the White House, which was built on the backs of Africans, designed by a freedman (and) represents the seat of power of the free world.
| “You may not have what you need in your antecedents but you can have it in your progeny.” (Photos by Timothy Moore)
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| “I ain’t been on the block that long that I can go into a group without some respect and expectation that I will learn something.”
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| A multigenerational crowd determined to hear an address by Dr. Cornell West jammed into the Rose Theatre on the campus of the University of Memphis last week.
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| Pictured: David Matto, Karen Madlock and Beverly Bond
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We can share the road, but success comes when you stay in your lane. Dr. West reminds us that “We are living in the Age of Obama and we must bequeath this to our next generation.”
Celebrate the manifestation of the journey of President-elect Obama, and understand clearly the light it represents. But don’t forget, the Lane of Governance belongs to Obama,” said Dr West. You must “do the work” to determine your lane.
This move will require the intestinal fortitude to interrogate oneself, to take a critical view of who we are, not just our accomplishments, and listen to the internal voice, “to allow suffering to speak, is the cause of truth.”
Dr. West, in his own selfless manner proclaimed, “We are a Delta Blues people, who can face a financial Katrina on Wall Street and rise to redeem the soul of the democracy and signal “the end of Southern rule.”
“People who have different lanes work together so you can be great in Your lane. Dr. West profoundly states that “Freedom is not about success and life in a vanilla suburb, it‘s about Greatness. The people who died before you, died so that you could be great.”
We must (honor Toni) Morrison’s “re-memory,” (John) Coltrane’s dedication to his craft, and some Woo Tang Gang respect “for the rules all around me” to stay in our lane.
Of his own lane, Dr. West says, “I ain’t been on the block that long that I can go into a group without some respect and expectation that I will learn something. It is the same critical discernment that has you quoting Grandma when times are hard, no matter how much education you have.”
Dr. West asks the question, “Who expects people to transform the underside of society into a creative delicacy?” Grandma did. “You may not have what you need in your antecedents but you can have it in your progeny.”
Let’s share the road, but stay in our lane, “for the quest for truth and power is our creative force.”
Collectively, we can achieve Greatness in the Age of Obama. Hope may be on a tight rope, but Blues people know how to hold on.
(Denise Lofton, CBA, PMP. Appeals Business Systems Planning)
| Dr. Cornel West gives 9-year-old Diamond Justice Payne of the University of Memphis Campus School some personal attention while signing his book, “Hope on a Tightrope,” after his lecture at the Rose Theatre on the campus of the University of Memphis. Diamond attended with her mother, Renee Payne. See related story, page --. (Photo by Earl Stanback)
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