Coffee and Conversation: . . . To Die For

“We will continue our journey one way or another. We are prepared to die,”

Freedom Rider, Jim Zwerg – then, a 21-year-old student from Beloit College

I always bring it back to the people who take to the streets for the change we might need.  I can’t shake the story of student activists who knowingly spent their summers doing the kind of community service – voter registration in communities hostile to the thought – that could get you killed. The young man who stood his ground and made a tank driver play chicken. The young folk who are clear to armies of dictators and the hateful that nothing will turn them around. They take to the streets and they are willing to die.

I’ll hit the streets in a minute.  But am I too comfortable or too principled to go further?

Aside from the obvious – my family and a select few friends – what am I willing to die for?  Have you ever been personally confronted with the question? What are we – the collective we – willing to die for?  Freedom? Constitution? Way of life? Consumption? New rights? Someone else who you don’t know?

What are you willing to hit the streets for? What will you die for?

See you at Coffee and Conversation – this Friday from 3-5 p.m. in the Howard Thurman Center.  I’ll bring the cookies and coffee, you bring the conversation.

Peace.

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