This week I had a chance to think about the idea of America. I also had a chance to speak with a few people about how our experiences with art, literature, music, and beautiful objects and conversations help to connect us as people. Here’s my re-mix on America:
François-Marie Arouet (he also “rolled” as Voltaire) reminded us that the “instruction we find in books is like fire, we fetch it from our neighbors, kindle it at home, communicate it to others, and it becomes the property of all.” This summer, grab, burn through, talk about, plan on reading, read, recommend, and own one or a few of these works:
The Plague of Doves by Louise Erdrich
Saturday by Ian McEwan
Jazz by Toni Morrison
Continental Drift by Russell Banks
Lucky: A Memoir by Alice Sebold
Meridian by Alice Walker
Man Gone Down by Michael Thomas
Fury by Salman Rushdie
The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion
Hope and Other Dangerous Pursuits by Laila Lalami
Caramba! by Nina Marie Martinez
Omeros by Derek Walcott
Dark Age Ahead by Jane Jacobs
Super Crunchers: Why Thinking-by-Numbers Is the New Way to Be Smart by Ian Ayres
As the Future Catches You: How Genomics & Other Forces Are Changing Your Life, Work, Health & Wealth by Juan Enriquez
Stealing Democracy: The New Politics of Voter Suppression by Spencer Overton
The Shame of the Nation: The Restoration of Apartheid Schooling in America by Jonathan Kozol
Rising Tide: The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 and How It Changed America by John M. Barry
The Ravaging Tide: Strange Weather, Future Katrinas, and the Coming Death of America's Coastal Cities by Mike Tidwell
The Wisdom of Crowds by James Surowiecki
Who Wrote the Bible? by Richard E. Friedman
Chasing Ghosts: Failures and Facades in Iraq: A Soldier's Perspective by Paul Rieckhoff
Broken Justice by Kenneth C., M.D. Edelin
The Future of Ideas: The Fate of the Commons in a Connected World by Lawrence Lessig
The Freedom Writers Diary : How a Teacher and 150 Teens Used Writing to Change Themselves and the World Around Them by Freedom Writers
One Day, All Children...: The Unlikely Triumph Of Teach For America And What I Learned Along The Way by Wendy Kopp
Infections and Inequalities: The Modern Plagues by Paul Farmer
In the Know: The Classic Guide to Being Cultured and Cool by Nancy MacDonell
Birth Of The Cool: Beat, Bebop, and the American Avant Garde by Lewis MacAdams
This summer plan to, suggest, move to, and listen to Epistrophy, The Roots, Johnny Hartman, The Clash, P.E., Wynton Marsalis, Aaron Walker, Led Zeppelin, and Anthrax. Watch Good Will Hunting, Do the Right Thing, Gone Baby Gone, American History X, Beloved, The Godfather, Requiem for a Dream, She’s Gotta Have It, Why We Fight, To Kill a Mockingbird, and Dead Man Walking.
And if you get a chance, check out the great work and the ideas about America from Majora Carter's perspective.
Peace and stay well,
Kenn Elmore
P.S.
Keep up on the musings of the major three with dreams to lead the nation. Jennifer, a friend and student, suggests these three articles, from Foreign Affairs, on the dreamers' perspectives on the limits and use of American power; Iraq; global climate change; Israel; nuclear weapons; and, future relationships with China, Russia, Japan, and Latin America:
John McCain, An Enduring Peace Built on Freedom, pp. 19-35, November/
December 2007.
Hillary Clinton, Security and Opportunity for the Twenty-first
Century, pp. 2-18, November/December
2007.
Barack Obama, Renewing American Leadership, pp. 2-16, July/August 2007.
