What Americans Keep Ignoring About Finland’s School Success – Anu Partanen – The Atlantic #fromEvernote https://www.evernote.com/shard/s47/sh/9ea7929d-83ff-46a0-af7d-5318a97a1c0c/5e5ce72bf17660b684c95171c867edd9

The National Mall
Washington, D.C.

11:51 A.M. EDT

THE PRESIDENT: Thank you very much. (Applause.) Thank you. (Applause.) Please be seated.

An earthquake and a hurricane may have delayed this day, but this is a day that would not be denied.

For this day, we celebrate Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s return to the National Mall. In this place, he will stand for all time, among monuments to those who fathered this nation and those who defended it; a black preacher with no official rank or title who somehow gave voice to our deepest dreams and our most lasting ideals, a man who stirred our conscience and thereby helped make our union more perfect.

And Dr. King would be the first to remind us that this memorial is not for him alone. The movement of which he was a part depended on an entire generation of leaders. Many are here today, and for their service and their sacrifice, we owe them our everlasting gratitude. This is a monument to your collective achievement. (Applause.)

Some giants of the civil rights movement — like Rosa Parks and Dorothy Height, Benjamin Hooks, Reverend Fred Shuttlesworth — they’ve been taken from us these past few years. This monument attests to their strength and their courage, and while we miss them dearly, we know they rest in a better place.

And finally, there are the multitudes of men and women whose names never appear in the history books — those who marched and those who sang, those who sat in and those who stood firm, those who organized and those who mobilized — all those men and women who through countless acts of quiet heroism helped bring about changes few thought were even possible. “By the thousands,” said Dr. King, “faceless, anonymous, relentless young people, black and white…have taken our whole nation back to those great wells of democracy which were dug deep by the founding fathers in the formulation of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence.” To those men and women, to those foot soldiers for justice, know that this monument is yours, as well.

Nearly half a century has passed since that historic March on Washington, a day when thousands upon thousands gathered for jobs and for freedom. That is what our schoolchildren remember best when they think of Dr. King — his booming voice across this Mall, calling on America to make freedom a reality for all of God’s children, prophesizing of a day when the jangling discord of our nation would be transformed into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood.

It is right that we honor that march, that we lift up Dr. King’s “I Have a Dream” speech — for without that shining moment, without Dr. King’s glorious words, we might not have had the courage to come as far as we have. Because of that hopeful vision, because of Dr. King’s moral imagination, barricades began to fall and bigotry began to fade. New doors of opportunity swung open for an entire generation. Yes, laws changed, but hearts and minds changed, as well.

Look at the faces here around you, and you see an America that is more fair and more free and more just than the one Dr. King addressed that day. We are right to savor that slow but certain progress — progress that’s expressed itself in a million ways, large and small, across this nation every single day, as people of all colors and creeds live together, and work together, and fight alongside one another, and learn together, and build together, and love one another.

So it is right for us to celebrate today Dr. King’s dream and his vision of unity. And yet it is also important on this day to remind ourselves that such progress did not come easily; that Dr. King’s faith was hard-won; that it sprung out of a harsh reality and some bitter disappointments.

It is right for us to celebrate Dr. King’s marvelous oratory, but it is worth remembering that progress did not come from words alone. Progress was hard. Progress was purchased through enduring the smack of billy clubs and the blast of fire hoses. It was bought with days in jail cells and nights of bomb threats. For every victory during the height of the civil rights movement, there were setbacks and there were defeats.

We forget now, but during his life, Dr. King wasn’t always considered a unifying figure. Even after rising to prominence, even after winning the Nobel Peace Prize, Dr. King was vilified by many, denounced as a rabble rouser and an agitator, a communist and a radical. He was even attacked by his own people, by those who felt he was going too fast or those who felt he was going too slow; by those who felt he shouldn’t meddle in issues like the Vietnam War or the rights of union workers. We know from his own testimony the doubts and the pain this caused him, and that the controversy that would swirl around his actions would last until the fateful day he died.

I raise all this because nearly 50 years after the March on Washington, our work, Dr. King’s work, is not yet complete. We gather here at a moment of great challenge and great change. In the first decade of this new century, we have been tested by war and by tragedy; by an economic crisis and its aftermath that has left millions out of work, and poverty on the rise, and millions more just struggling to get by. Indeed, even before this crisis struck, we had endured a decade of rising inequality and stagnant wages. In too many troubled neighborhoods across the country, the conditions of our poorest citizens appear little changed from what existed 50 years ago — neighborhoods with underfunded schools and broken-down slums, inadequate health care, constant violence, neighborhoods in which too many young people grow up with little hope and few prospects for the future.

Our work is not done. And so on this day, in which we celebrate a man and a movement that did so much for this country, let us draw strength from those earlier struggles. First and foremost, let us remember that change has never been quick. Change has never been simple, or without controversy. Change depends on persistence. Change requires determination. It took a full decade before the moral guidance of Brown v. Board of Education was translated into the enforcement measures of the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act, but those 10 long years did not lead Dr. King to give up. He kept on pushing, he kept on speaking, he kept on marching until change finally came. (Applause.)

And then when, even after the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act passed, African Americans still found themselves trapped in pockets of poverty across the country, Dr. King didn’t say those laws were a failure; he didn’t say this is too hard; he didn’t say, let’s settle for what we got and go home. Instead he said, let’s take those victories and broaden our mission to achieve not just civil and political equality but also economic justice; let’s fight for a living wage and better schools and jobs for all who are willing to work. In other words, when met with hardship, when confronting disappointment, Dr. King refused to accept what he called the “isness” of today. He kept pushing towards the “oughtness” of tomorrow.

And so, as we think about all the work that we must do — rebuilding an economy that can compete on a global stage, and fixing our schools so that every child — not just some, but every child — gets a world-class education, and making sure that our health care system is affordable and accessible to all, and that our economic system is one in which everybody gets a fair shake and everybody does their fair share, let us not be trapped by what is. (Applause.) We can’t be discouraged by what is. We’ve got to keep pushing for what ought to be, the America we ought to leave to our children, mindful that the hardships we face are nothing compared to those Dr. King and his fellow marchers faced 50 years ago, and that if we maintain our faith, in ourselves and in the possibilities of this nation, there is no challenge we cannot surmount.

And just as we draw strength from Dr. King’s struggles, so must we draw inspiration from his constant insistence on the oneness of man; the belief in his words that “we are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny.” It was that insistence, rooted in his Christian faith, that led him to tell a group of angry young protesters, “I love you as I love my own children,” even as one threw a rock that glanced off his neck.

It was that insistence, that belief that God resides in each of us, from the high to the low, in the oppressor and the oppressed, that convinced him that people and systems could change. It fortified his belief in non-violence. It permitted him to place his faith in a government that had fallen short of its ideals. It led him to see his charge not only as freeing black America from the shackles of discrimination, but also freeing many Americans from their own prejudices, and freeing Americans of every color from the depredations of poverty.

And so at this moment, when our politics appear so sharply polarized, and faith in our institutions so greatly diminished, we need more than ever to take heed of Dr. King’s teachings. He calls on us to stand in the other person’s shoes; to see through their eyes; to understand their pain. He tells us that we have a duty to fight against poverty, even if we are well off; to care about the child in the decrepit school even if our own children are doing fine; to show compassion toward the immigrant family, with the knowledge that most of us are only a few generations removed from similar hardships. (Applause.)

To say that we are bound together as one people, and must constantly strive to see ourselves in one another, is not to argue for a false unity that papers over our differences and ratifies an unjust status quo. As was true 50 years ago, as has been true throughout human history, those with power and privilege will often decry any call for change as “divisive.” They’ll say any challenge to the existing arrangements are unwise and destabilizing. Dr. King understood that peace without justice was no peace at all; that aligning our reality with our ideals often requires the speaking of uncomfortable truths and the creative tension of non-violent protest.

But he also understood that to bring about true and lasting change, there must be the possibility of reconciliation; that any social movement has to channel this tension through the spirit of love and mutuality.

If he were alive today, I believe he would remind us that the unemployed worker can rightly challenge the excesses of Wall Street without demonizing all who work there; that the businessman can enter tough negotiations with his company’s union without vilifying the right to collectively bargain. He would want us to know we can argue fiercely about the proper size and role of government without questioning each other’s love for this country — (applause) — with the knowledge that in this democracy, government is no distant object but is rather an expression of our common commitments to one another. He would call on us to assume the best in each other rather than the worst, and challenge one another in ways that ultimately heal rather than wound.

In the end, that’s what I hope my daughters take away from this monument. I want them to come away from here with a faith in what they can accomplish when they are determined and working for a righteous cause. I want them to come away from here with a faith in other people and a faith in a benevolent God. This sculpture, massive and iconic as it is, will remind them of Dr. King’s strength, but to see him only as larger than life would do a disservice to what he taught us about ourselves. He would want them to know that he had setbacks, because they will have setbacks. He would want them to know that he had doubts, because they will have doubts. He would want them to know that he was flawed, because all of us have flaws.

It is precisely because Dr. King was a man of flesh and blood and not a figure of stone that he inspires us so. His life, his story, tells us that change can come if you don’t give up. He would not give up, no matter how long it took, because in the smallest hamlets and the darkest slums, he had witnessed the highest reaches of the human spirit; because in those moments when the struggle seemed most hopeless, he had seen men and women and children conquer their fear; because he had seen hills and mountains made low and rough places made plain, and the crooked places made straight and God make a way out of no way.

And that is why we honor this man — because he had faith in us. And that is why he belongs on this Mall — because he saw what we might become. That is why Dr. King was so quintessentially American — because for all the hardships we’ve endured, for all our sometimes tragic history, ours is a story of optimism and achievement and constant striving that is unique upon this Earth. And that is why the rest of the world still looks to us to lead. This is a country where ordinary people find in their hearts the courage to do extraordinary things; the courage to stand up in the face of the fiercest resistance and despair and say this is wrong, and this is right; we will not settle for what the cynics tell us we have to accept and we will reach again and again, no matter the odds, for what we know is possible.

That is the conviction we must carry now in our hearts. (Applause.) As tough as times may be, I know we will overcome. I know there are better days ahead. I know this because of the man towering over us. I know this because all he and his generation endured — we are here today in a country that dedicated a monument to that legacy.

And so with our eyes on the horizon and our faith squarely placed in one another, let us keep striving; let us keep struggling; let us keep climbing toward that promised land of a nation and a world that is more fair, and more just, and more equal for every single child of God.

Thank you, God bless you, and God bless the United States of America. (Applause.)

END 12:12 P.M. EDT

“And if I go while your still here…know that I live on, vibrating to a different measure behind a thin veil you cannot see through. You will not see me so you must have faith. I wait the time when we can soar again, both aware of each other. Until then, live your life to its fullest, and when you need me just whisper my name in your heart….I will be there.”
– Author Unknown

“Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.” – Steve Jobs

The United Methodist General Board of Church & Society (GBCS) issued a statement at its Board of Directors meeting in Lake Junaluska, N.C., that calls on governments around the world to make fundamental realignment of their policies towards the Middle East and North Africa.

The realignment is necessitated, according to the statement drafted by GBCS’s Peace with Justice and United Nations/International Affairs work areas, by this year’s “Arab Spring” in which people throughout North Africa and the Middle East are rising up against decades of authoritarian and dictatorial regimes, gross human rights violations, and economic deprivation.

The statement was approved unanimously by the agency’s Board of Directors.

The statement follows:
The Arab Spring
Dignity, Freedom, Human Rights
and Economic Justice

The Lord will guide you continually,
and satisfy your needs in parched places,
and make your bones strong;
and you shall be like a water garden,
like a spring of water,
whose waters never fail.
(Isaiah 58:11)

Truly, the pious will be amid the Gardens and
springs. [It is said to them]: Enter them in peace,
in security, And We remove whatever bitterness
they have in their breasts [so that they enter]
as brothers, raised aloft on couches.
No weariness afflicts them there, nor will they
be expelled. Declare unto My servants, that verily,
I am the Forgiving, the Merciful.
(Koran 15:45-49)

The Arab people throughout North Africa and the Middle East are rising up against decades of authoritarian and dictatorial regimes, gross human rights violations, and economic deprivation. There is a dramatic change taking place in the Arab world. The fear to speak out and demonstrate in the public square is gone. Youths, women, trade unionists, religious leaders and ordinary people are engaged in sustained massive demonstrations, strikes, marches and rallies. They have used social media to contact each other and make known their struggles to the world. This is the Arab Spring. People are standing up for their dignity, freedom, and human rights and for economic justice.

In our United Methodist Social Principles, we affirm all persons as equally valuable in the sight of God. We also affirm the use of non-violent methods in the resolution of conflict, national or international.

We, the General Board of Church and Society, thus laud non-violent actions that people in the region have taken. We rejoice that Tunisian and Egyptian people have taken important steps toward liberating their countries from dictatorial rule. While it is not clear what type of government will replace them there is hope. Such hope will flourish if their new-found freedom and human dignity allows them to freely fashion and self-determine for themselves the kind of society they want to have.

We are concerned about military force in bringing about change in the region. It is our hope and prayer that the Arab people will maintain their struggle for a just and durable peace and social order.

We are deeply disturbed that regimes in the region — Bahrain, Syria, Jordan and Yemen — defy the demands of their people for change. They have responded with systematic intimidation, violent repression and extrajudicial killing. A lasting peace in the region must not and cannot include the unnecessary death and sacrifice of civilians whose toll is already high.

We join with the Aug. 8, 2011, call of the World Council of Churches for army and government security agencies to cease the indiscriminate use of force and ensure the citizens’ rights to free assembly and expression. All governments have an obligation to protect the lives and dignity of their citizens, and to protect their human rights and fundamental freedoms.

Nothing should frustrate or usurp the will of the people for self-determination including any opportunism to profit economically from the new and evolving dispensation in these Arab countries. A true Arab Spring must promote a just, participatory and sustainable development. This, we believe, can be the most durable antidote to Arab discontent in areas of political governance and economic policy.

We call on governments around the world, especially the U.S. government, members of the European Union and the Arab League, to make fundamental realignment of their policies towards the region by:
Ending military aid, arms sales, and political support to regimes violating human rights;
Supporting just, sustainable and genuine change based on the people’s vision of what they want their countries to be; and
Urging the international financial institutions to mobilize resources for sustainable development.

As people in the tradition of John Wesley, we call on United Methodists to pray for the people in the region and support citizens’ movements for freedom, democracy and human rights.

The present-day situation in the Middle East and North Africa gives meaning to United Methodist Council of Bishops’ “God’s Renewed Creation: Call to Hope & Action,” released in 2010:

We are not hemmed into a fallen world. Rather we are part of a divine unfolding process to which we must contribute. God has blessed human beings with the capacity to read the signs of the times and to respond with intelligence and faith. God has inspired human beings to envision new futures and to invent the tools to make them a reality. God is bringing people together to plan and to act upon emerging realities.

I share this with you in the name of the Prince of Peace!

Mark Harrison
Director, Peace with Justice

Faith and Health Care Reform – “On Jan. 13, 2010, a vision statement for health care in the United States was forwarded to Congress by Faithful Reform in Health Care. Nearly 200 faith groups and more than 4,000 individuals contributed to the statement that identified four characteristics of adequate health care. The statement declared that health care should be inclusive, accessible, affordable and accountable.” Read more…http://ow.ly/6xiNl

Disturb us, O Lord, when we are too well pleased with ourselves;

When our dreams come true only because we have dreamed too little;

When we arrive safely only because we sailed too close to the shore;

When with the abundance of things, we are losing our thirst for more of God;

When in loving time, we have ceased to dream of eternity;

When in our desire to build on this earth

We have lost our vision of a new heaven.

– Anonymous