Monday, March 09, 2015

Selma & Aesthetic Realism

On March 8th, 2015 thousands and thousands of people marched across the appallingly-named Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama:



John Lewis said "There's still work left to be done. Get out there and push and pull until we redeem the soul of America," I respect John Lewis immensely, for what he did at Selma and during the whole Civil Rights Era and also since then. So much has already been done and yet look at the disparity in this nation -- the racial inequality and also the economic disparity. Both are shocking and yet almost taken for granted by many people, as it seems so hard to bring about real, meaningful, permanent change. When people are studying contempt they, or we, will no longer take it as personal achievement to look down on another person, whether because of their skin tone or because of their lack of money. In fact, when all America is learning about the fight between respect and contempt, and how respect is what makes us stronger, kinder, prouder, surer -- more ourselves -- there will be such an outcry about injustice that America WILL change, one person at a time and as an entire nation. For thrilling and categorical evidence of this, see (1)the writing of Ellen Reiss, Chair of Education of Aesthetic Realism, in The Right of Aesthetic Realism to Be Known, (2) Arnold Perey's beautiful and important novel Gwe, and (3) the Aesthetic Realism Theatre Company's comment on and singing of Woody Guthrie's American folk classic, "This Land Is Your Land."


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