I thought the Morris Dees talk was pretty dece. Lame joke alert! Let's start over.
To begin with, I did not expect Morris Dees' talk to be what it was. When he began with the joke about for all of us who were required to be there we should close our notebooks and just listen because we were about to have some fun, he immediately captured my attention and held on to it until his closing words. He incorporated stories into his speech that captivated what was at the heart of his work- standing up for those who do not have the collective strong voice, and who need the legal help as well. This corresponds exactly to what we have been talking about in a lot of our discussion, in my opinion. For what better way to serve others than by using your talents, doing it wholeheartedly and to serve those who need it most? Morris Dees seemed to encapsulate these ideals fully, aspects to service that are indeed important and go along with many of our discussions on service to other.
In our talks in class, it has been mentioned/discussed that in order to develop as a person, the development of one's virtues is a process that comes along with work and patience. Through working on your virtues, it can be easily said they are also developing as a person. In Morris Dees case, some virtues he has devoted his life to, in my opinion. Love is one that comes to mind--love that brings him to desire everyone to have a "seat at the table" equally and without prevention. This is what he sees as justice, justice which he works for in his job every day and which he wishes upon us as a younger generation, which is what he alluded to in his closing words. I believe Morris Dees is a good example of what to look up to as an example of true service to others.
Laura,
ReplyDeleteI wasn't able to make the common time talk, but some of his talk in the small-group session afterwards was about tolerance, and the tolerance education materials the Southern Poverty Law Center provides. That is actually about 1/3 of what the SPLC does, they don't just focus on legal services, they track hate groups and work against them where possible. What I'm curious about is whether or not there is a difference between love and tolerance. Love would be acceptance and respect, to my mind, and tolerance is more like accepting what you hate/don't like. Wouldn't the world be a better place if tolerance wasn't needed, if no particular way of life or race or religion required tolerance to fit in to society?
Laura,
ReplyDeleteI agree that his jokes at the beginning were a nice icebreaker to help introduce his speech. I was also captivated by his humor. I think you did a good job relating his talk with some of the concepts that we cover in class. Considering these concepts are pretty hard to understand, often leaving me clueless, I feel that your example of love really related to his speech. Finally, pretty lame joke, but it made me lol.