When John Turner left Walker State Prison in Georgia in early August, his wife gave him a new set of clothes. He put...
- Progressive Staff
ANNOUNCING OUR 2015 PROGRESSIVE EDUCATION FELLOWS!
A fundamental struggle for democracy is going on behind the scenes in statehouses around the country, as a handful of wealthy individuals and foundations pour money into efforts to privatize the public schools. The Progressive is launching a new project to help pull back the curtain and reveal what is at stake—to follow the money and expose the privatizers—but also to celebrate the resistance and the hard work of people on the front lines of public education. Our goal is for all parents, teachers, and concerned citizens to understand what is going on and connect with each other to stick up for schools.
The “Progressive Education Fellows,” is an online gathering of twelve prominent, advocates, activists, thinkers, and writers in the progressive education movement. Throughout 2015 we'll be posting submissions from them on all things public education and democracy. Here's the backstory on why we feel this project is needed.
We're kicking things off with this dynamite talk from Jesse Hagopian, straight from the Seattle picket line (read the story here):
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The barrage of anti-Muslim rhetoric in the Republican primary appeals to a very specific segment of the party’s base...
By Wendell Berry
Manifesto: The Mad Farmer Liberation Front
Love the quick profit, the annual raise, vacation with pay. Want more of everything ready made. Be afraid to know your neighbors and to die. And you will have a window in your head. Not even your future will be a mystery any more. Your mind will be punched in a card and shut away in a little drawer. When they want you to buy something they will call you. When they want you to die for profit they will let you know. So, friends, every day do something that won’t compute. Love the Lord. Love the world. Work for nothing. Take all that you have and be poor. Love someone who does not deserve it. Denounce the government and embrace the flag. Hope to live in that free republic for which it stands. Give your approval to all you cannot understand. Praise ignorance, for what man has not encountered he has not destroyed. Ask the questions that have no answers. Invest in the millennium. Plant sequoias. Say that your main crop is the forest that you did not plant, that you will not live to harvest. Say that the leaves are harvested when they have rotted into the mold. Call that profit. Prophesy such returns. Put your faith in the two inches of humus that will build under the trees every thousand years. Listen to carrion—put your ear close, and hear the faint chattering of the songs that are to come. Expect the end of the world. Laugh. Laughter is immeasurable. Be joyful though you have considered all the facts. So long as women do not go cheap for power, please women more than men. Ask yourself: Will this satisfy a woman satisfied to bear a child? Will this disturb the sleep of a woman near to giving birth? Go with your love to the fields. Lie easy in the shade. Rest your head in her lap. Swear allegiance to what is nighest your thoughts. As soon as the generals and the politicos can predict the motions of your mind, lose it. Leave it as a sign to mark the false trail, the way you didn’t go. Be like the fox who makes more tracks than necessary, some in the wrong direction. Practice resurrection.
Wendell Berry is a poet, farmer, and environmentalist in Kentucky. This poem, first published in 1973, is reprinted by permission of the author and appears in his “New Collected Poems” (Counterpoint).
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