Teachers: Should We Stand Up?
“Best beginning of a book ever”
That’s what I wrote in the left-hand margin over 20 years ago when I first read these words:
The human spirit glows from that small inner light of doubt whether we are right, while those who believe with complete certainty that they possess the right are dark inside and darken the world outside with cruelty, pain, and injustice.
It’s from the second page of Saul Alinsky’s classic, hard-core progressive activism guide-book, Rules For Radicals (1971).
Before this, at the top of page one, is a quote from the Old Testament Book of Job (7:1): The life of man upon earth is a warfare. I first read this about 5000 years ago.
For a long time I have associated these two ideas, along with a third. This is the “Iron Rule” of the Industrial Areas Foundation, a community organizing group founded by Alinsky: Never, never do for others what they can do for themselves.
Then add a little Bob Dylan:
You hurt the ones that I love best
And cover up the truth with lies
One day you’ll be in the ditch