Life Lesson from a Dentist

At our new student convocation a few days ago, one of the speakers was an alumnus. He was introduced as a dentist. The man proudly spoke of his experiences at Niagara University, and happily mentioned that his daughter is joining Niagara as a first-year student. He said all of his friends who went to Niagara University are successful. But more important, he said, is that all of his friends who graduated from Niagara are good people. I love that he used his time to convey the importance of being a good person.

We live in a society that is obsessed with rags-to-riches stories. We put way too much emphasis on individual success stories. It seems like we're in a contest about who came from the most humble circumstances. There's so much talk about success, but I don't hear much about being a good person. Why focus on "riches" without paying attention to the character of the person?

So here is a dentist--who by most indicators would be a considered successful (no one likes to go to the dentist, but a dentist represents a successful occupation). He references "success" but does so in the context of being a good person. In doing so, he highlights the value of being a good person. The overall message is that being a good person is more important than obtaining financial success. I was struck by these wise words and report them here so I don't lose sight of his message.

No one goes to college to become unsuccessful. Who wants to accumulate student loan debt while doing all-nighters in order to be unsuccessful? Pursuing success, defined in traditional terms, is obvious. I am inspired by the dentist to move the conversation to goodness. How meaningful is success if you aren't a good person? I don't wish away all rags-to-riches stories. I do wish we would reign ourselves in and stop trying to outdo each other in terms of our humble origins. And with regard to higher education, can we agree that part of the mission should be to develop good persons? (Defining "good" is another topic for another day. Suffice to say here that we speak often at Niagara University of serving others, especially people who are poor. Our emphasis on service to others, I believe, helps develop good citizens.)

Lost in the Supermarket

I spend lots of time in the supermarket. They are everywhere in my suburban community. My two children behave pretty well in the supermarket. I put my one-year-old in the cart and hand my four-year-old groceries to put in the cart. Once in a while, there's some soothing music from the 1980s to enjoy. In all, it's not a miserable experience, so I always volunteer to do the shopping for our family.

I would shop more happily if people didn't stop dead in their tracks to text or use their mobile device in some other way. It's not uncommon that I'm cut off by a person who stops suddenly to check their phone and start tapping. Today, a woman walked slowly in front of me, barking at someone through her phone: "YOU CALLED BOTH MY PHONES!!!" I don't know why she brought two phones to the supermarket, but I'm sure she had a good reason. And then the idea came to me: maybe one day they'll make the aisles bigger and make special lanes for people to use their mobile devices. Right now, the supermarket feels like a crowded highway. One day, maybe the supermarket rulers will figure out a way to ease the traffic. One tip for those folks: lay off the giant-size carts, but keep those little carts coming. Small carts and lanes for texting and making calls, there's your recipe for success. Thanks. Gotta go now and listen to The Clash.

Martin Luther King, Jr. on the Semantics of Black and White

Let me get out of the way so you can read the words of Martin Luther King, Jr.

"Even semantics have conspired to make that which is black seem ugly and degrading. In Roget's Thesaurus there are 120 synonyms for blackness and at least sixty of them are offensive, as for example, blot, soot, grim, devil and foul. And there are some 134 synonyms for whiteness and all are favorable, expressed in such words as purity, cleanliness, chastity and innocence. A white lie is better than a black lie. The most degenerate member of a family is a "black sheep." Ossie Davis has suggested that maybe the English language should be reconstructed so that teachers will not be forced to teach the Negro child sixty ways to despise himself, and thereby perpetuate his false sense of inferiority, and the white child 134 ways to adore himself, and thereby perpetuate his false sense of superiority."

Source: I Have a Dream: Writings and Speeches that Changed the World. Edited by James Melvin Washington. Pages 170-171. From a speech delivered on August 16, 1967 at the Southern Christian Leadership Conference annual meeting in Atlanta, Georgia.

Broke and Famous

In the future there will be two categories of people: broke and famous.
79% of the population will be broke, 21% will be famous.
But that’s okay because everybody will have the chance to be famous.
Everyone will be monitored 24/7/365 and every action recorded permanently.
That’s how they will decide who gets to be famous.
It will have the intended benefit of ending crime.
(People will stop committing crime once they realize they will be caught and punished immediately. Even white-collar crime will be punished.)
The streets will also be totally clean because littering will bring immediate punishment.
At first people will bemoan the end of privacy but complaints will stop after people see how nice it is when there is no crime and the streets are clean. Plus there is the chance of being famous.
And it should be said that it won’t be horrible to be broke.
Basically the conditions will be tolerable enough so that nobody minds too much.
Everyone will be able to pay their rent and have enough to eat.
How we gonna eat? Just watch The Jetsons.
They will also require immunizations for everybody, free of charge.
Plus they are going to turn January into Equality Month. Everybody will have exactly the same amount of possessions and money for one month. It will take a lot of maneuvering but they can figure out how to do it.
So everyone will get to taste equality for 31 days.
Why January? Gotta start the New Year out right, right?
People will be rewarded with lots of cash if they demonstrate proficiency in another language.
They finally figured out that two languages are better than one.
Only one news channel will exist and it will be called HOTT News.
All the anchors and reporters and pundits and sportscasters and meteorologists will be models.
There won’t be any hate on HOTT News because it will replace all the other news channels that will lose ratings when they run out of ways to hate. (It turns out that hate has an expiration date.)
People will embrace the change because HOTT News is gonna make tolerance sexy.
Music will be pretty good too because they will ban lyrics.
So there won’t be any violent and misogynist songs.
Don’t worry, there will still be plenty of good music. It’s amazing what they can do with JAZZ.
(If you’re wondering what happens if people listen to songs with lyrics they already have, the answer is they will be punished immediately. Don’t worry, HOTT news will make censorship sexy.)
So there will be broke and famous people, no crime, clean streets, free immunizations, rent and food paid for, more multilingualism, censorship, and tolerance. It won’t be a perfect situation but it will be good enough. They finally figured out that if conditions are good enough and if beautiful people say everything is gonna be alright and people stand a decent chance of being famous then people will shut up.
The end.

Author's note: my attempt to use creative writing to glimpse the future.

Cornel West

This is a good read: Cornel West's op-ed in the New York Times...
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/26/opinion/martin-luther-king-jr-would-want-a-revolution-not-a-memorial.html?_r=1&hp

West offers a powerful critique of American culture and American politicians. No doubt our treatment of our impoverished and elderly citizens is deplorable, and the persistent racism in our society is tragic. We've come so far but still have so far to go.