Never Again

Tonight was my final debrief with the SAI 2010 graduate students. I started off by reading this address from Nelson Mandela, 1994:



STATEMENT OF THE PRESIDENT
OF THE AFRICAN NATIONAL CONGRESS
NELSON ROLIHLAHLA MANDELA
AT HIS INAUGURATION AS
PRESIDENT OF THE DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC
OF SOUTH AFRICA
UNION BUILDINGS, PRETORIA
MAY 10 1994

Your Majesties,

Your Highnesses,

Distinguished Guests,

Comrades and Friends.

Today, all of us do, by our presence here, and by our celebrations in other parts of our country and the world, confer glory and hope to newborn liberty.

Out of the experience of an extraordinary human disaster that lasted too long, must be born a society of which all humanity will be proud.

Our daily deeds as ordinary South Africans must produce an actual South African reality that will reinforce humanity's belief in justice, strengthen its confidence in the nobility of the human soul and sustain all our hopes for a glorious life for all.

All this we owe both to ourselves and to the peoples of the world who are so well represented here today.

To my compatriots, I have no hesitation in saying that each one of us is as intimately attached to the soil of this beautiful country as are the famous jacaranda trees of Pretoria and the mimosa trees of the bushveld.

Each time one of us touches the soil of this land, we feel a sense of personal renewal. The national mood changes as the seasons change.

We are moved by a sense of joy and exhilaration when the grass turns green and the flowers bloom.

That spiritual and physical oneness we all share with this common homeland explains the depth of the pain we all carried in our hearts as we saw our country tear itself apart in a terrible conflict, and as we saw it spurned, outlawed and isolated by the peoples of the world, precisely because it has become the universal base of the pernicious ideology and practice of racism and racial oppression.

We, the people of South Africa, feel fulfilled that humanity has taken us back into its bosom, that we, who were outlaws not so long ago, have today been given the rare privilege to be host to the nations of the world on our own soil.

We thank all our distinguished international guests for having come to take possession with the people of our country of what is, after all, a common victory for justice, for peace, for human dignity.

We trust that you will continue to stand by us as we tackle the challenges of building peace, prosperity, non-sexism, non-racialism and democracy.

We deeply appreciate the role that the masses of our people and their political mass democratic, religious, women, youth, business, traditional and other leaders have played to bring about this conclusion. Not least among them is my Second Deputy President, the Honourable F.W. de Klerk.

We would also like to pay tribute to our security forces, in all their ranks, for the distinguished role they have played in securing our first democratic elections and the transition to democracy, from blood-thirsty forces which still refuse to see the light.

The time for the healing of the wounds has come.

The moment to bridge the chasms that divide us has come.

The time to build is upon us.

We have, at last, achieved our political emancipation. We pledge ourselves to liberate all our people from the continuing bondage of poverty, deprivation, suffering, gender and other discrimination.

We succeeded to take our last steps to freedom in conditions of relative peace. We commit ourselves to the construction of a complete, just and lasting peace.

We have triumphed in the effort to implant hope in the breasts of the millions of our people. We enter into a covenant that we shall build the society in which all South Africans, both black and white, will be able to walk tall, without any fear in their hearts, assured of their inalienable right to human dignity - a rainbow nation at peace with itself and the world.

As a token of its commitment to the renewal of our country, the new Interim Government of National Unity will, as a matter of urgency, address the issue of amnesty for various categories of our people who are currently serving terms of imprisonment.

We dedicate this day to all the heroes and heroines in this country and the rest of the world who sacrificed in many ways and surrendered their lives so that we could be free.

Their dreams have become reality. Freedom is their reward.

We are both humbled and elevated by the honour and privilege that you, the people of South Africa, have bestowed on us, as the first President of a united, democratic, non-racial and non-sexist government.

We understand it still that there is no easy road to freedom

We know it well that none of us acting alone can achieve success.

We must therefore act together as a united people, for national reconciliation, for nation building, for the birth of a new world.

Let there be justice for all.

Let there be peace for all.

Let there be work, bread, water and salt for all.

Let each know that for each the body, the mind and the soul have been freed to fulfill themselves.

Never, never and never again shall it be that this beautiful land will again experience the oppression of one by another and suffer the indignity of being the skunk of the world.

Let freedom reign.

The sun shall never set on so glorious a human achievement!

God bless Africa!

Thank you.

I chose to read this as I reflected on Edwin Smith's comment the other night that Nelson Mandela may have hurt South Africa by saying the words "never again." Why? Because it almost seems as if blacks need to create a similarly unjust system -as the one that oppressed them for nearly 2 centuries- just to close the gap in racial inequality that still exists in South Africa today. It is an utterly complex country with as complicated a history as we have in the United States against our own backdrop of racial inequity and oppression.

Reading this out loud to the group was powerful for me. To think about what Mandela had lived through, and what his hopes were for the future of his beloved South Africa against the backdrop of everything we had seen stirred deep, conflicting emotions. You could not have read this address before the trip, and read it after the trip... and have had the same experience of reading it each time. Thus, I asked the group, "What has South Africa done to you? Because if this place hasn't done anything 'to you' then you weren't really here. You may have been here physically, but you could not have truly come to South Africa if it didn't do anything to you."

Written by Frederick A Hanna

We All Need Goals

After doing a little "technologies" teaching today, I decided to keep up my theme of goals and vision. It was really inspired by the 6th grade students sharing "what they want to be when they grow up" with me. So, I began an impromptu talk about what it means to set goals and the kind of goals that a 6th grader might be thinking about. At the end of the session, I asked each of them to share some goals with me... goals that they will write down and actively work towards:

Here's a short list. I hope you'll be as inspired as I am.

1. You cannot be "Daddy" before you are "Husband."
2. Mommy 2nd, Wife 1st. No babies before finishing school.
3. Never smoke drugs.
4. Make better marks next term.
5. Don't bully other students at school.
6. Avoid peer pressure.
7. Do what the teacher instructs.
8. Come to school with the expectation to learn.
9. Build good study habits.
10. Take responsibility for my education.
11. Become a doctor, judge, teacher, lawyer, soccer player, pilot, architect, taxi driver (hey don't knock it!), singer, artist, police officer, soldier...

I felt so inspired by these young people's excitement around goal setting. Sometimes, all young people need is some encouragement. Someone to say "you are special" "you are beautiful" "you are uniquely and wonderfully created, and you have a future and a hope and a destiny"...

Written by Frederick A Hanna

Learn How to Tell Your Story

These 5 young men gave me a chance to share my story with them, as they shared their lives and their dreams with me. It is important that we all learn "our story." That is, the journey that God has you on in this thing called life. Why did you go through this or that? How have your experiences impacted or changed you for better or worse? How do you process each experience so that it becomes a marker on the journey, and not an exit ramp that takes you off course and stops you from reaching your God ordained destiny? Who are the people who have helped you along the way? What choices did you make that helped and/or hindered the process?

We left off with this,

1. We all need "purpose." In order to understand our purpose, we need to know who we are-our identity; what we are good at-our gifts and talents; and what we love to do-our passion.
2. Next, we must set goals, short term and long term.
3. We need to evaluate those goals in a timely fashion. If we aren't making progress towards those goals, then we need to make adjustments that will allow us to move forward.
4. Overall, we need to have a vision for our lives, and we have to believe that we can, with God's help, see that vision come to fruition.

And anyone who doesn't believe in that vision or discourages it in any way can keep it moving!

Frederick A Hanna

Killed You on Your Own Track

Remember when Redman killed killed EPMD on their own track, Headbanger?



How about when LL killed EPMD on Rampage?



Or when Cannibus ripped LL on 4, 3, 2, 1? (the original lyrics, not the LL revenge joint)



I remember me and my boys talking about how EPMD always had a fly collabo on every album where another artist basically got wreck on them.

I found this ill list of artists who got "murdered on their own track." Can you add to it?

Here are the rules as per the link below:

1. Guest artist must outshine song’s host.
2. One song per artist on the list.
3. No bootlegs or freestyles.

Killed You on Your Own Track

Be Ready When The Door Opens

Matthew 25 - The Parable of the Ten Virgins

With so much going on in my life right now, I was led to this text today...

1"At that time the kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. 2Five of them were foolish and five were wise. 3The foolish ones took their lamps but did not take any oil with them. 4The wise, however, took oil in jars along with their lamps. 5The bridegroom was a long time in coming, and they all became drowsy and fell asleep.
6"At midnight the cry rang out: 'Here's the bridegroom! Come out to meet him!'
7"Then all the virgins woke up and trimmed their lamps. 8The foolish ones said to the wise, 'Give us some of your oil; our lamps are going out.'
9" 'No,' they replied, 'there may not be enough for both us and you. Instead, go to those who sell oil and buy some for yourselves.'
10"But while they were on their way to buy the oil, the bridegroom arrived. The virgins who were ready went in with him to the wedding banquet. And the door was shut.
11"Later the others also came. 'Sir! Sir!' they said. 'Open the door for us!'
12"But he replied, 'I tell you the truth, I don't know you.'
13"Therefore keep watch, because you do not know the day or the hour.


Some seasons in your life are times of preparation for what's next. Its easy to get frustrated or anxious in those seasons. You might even be tempted to think that time and chance have passed you by. The worst thing you can do in these seasons is to become complacent or despondent. Instead, PERSIST IN THE THINGS THAT WILL PREPARE YOU FOR YOUR DESTINY... And, Stay ready! The worst thing you can do is to not be ready when God opens a door for you.

Be Blessed,
Written by Frederick A Hanna

A Challenge to the Black Church

article here: Blacks, Mirroring Larger U.S. Trend, 'Come Out' As Nonbelievers

Frederick A Hanna


I don't honestly see this as a threat to the Black Church, but a challenge. I hate when people criticize black churches without having spent significant time inside of them. AND when I say "inside" I don't mean some jaded experience you had that disenchanted and marred you as a youth, nor do I mean a cursory outsider's perspective based on your intellectual opinion.

Nonetheless, statements like,

"...religious principles get in the way of effectively addressing the social ills facing the black community, including a higher proportion of HIV and AIDS cases compared with other races and ethnicities."

AND

"... black churches are sometimes be part of the problem, not the solution... We need clinics, jobs, and schools in black neighborhoods... We need proactive solutions, and praying and churches is not the answer." (which I would change to "is not the full extent of the answer")

are at least partially true for far too many churches. Movements like this should force churches to critically analyze their role in society in a post modern age. Preaching and praying isn't enough. I have said it before, it's not enough to "have" church we have got to "be" the church. Far too many Christians don't truly understand what that means because they have become ensnared by religion. Still, as a good friend of mine once told me, "you can't blame the people for that, it's what they've been taught."

Remember who killed Jesus? Religious folk! The religious elite... the establishment...

Having said all of that, if I'm going to roll the dice, I'm rolling with Jesus!

Building a Better Teacher

Doug Lemov gets to the point... well, at least one of the points that are of importance when looking at educational outcomes... "The smarter path to boosting student performance, Lemov maintains, is to improve the quality of the teachers who are already teaching."


This is the path I favor in improving educational outcomes. We can't just sellout and fire all of the teachers in failing schools. We have to help the ones who need help and want it. If they don't want it, then out they go. Too many teachers are victims of poor training, and I don't think it's fair to hold them accountable where the system has failed them without offering to help make up the difference. We also need to elevate the standards for those coming into the classroom now and in the future so that the cycle is ended, and we need to pay teachers in accordance with the significance of the job they do.

Nothing new in this article from my perspective. It's just something that needs to be said. Subject matter knowledge, pedagogical knowledge and pedagogical competence add up to good teaching. PERIOD


Building a Better Teacher - NYT Article