The Promise of 2013

On the last Sunday in 2012, the New York Times magazine section ran a series of pieces, entitled The Lives They Lived. [It's an interesting and varied series of short pieces, well worth your time.]

When I opened it up, I found the following excerpt from Adrienne Rich's poem, Dreams Before Waking (1983). [Read the full poem here. It's beautiful.]

[Many years ago I worked on a Jewish feminist journal with Adrienne Rich. Read more about Bridges here.]

The excerpt?

What would it mean to live
in a city whose people were changing
each other's despair into hope? --
You yourself must change it. --
what would it feel like to know
your country was changing? --
You yourself must change it. --
Though your life felt arduous
new and unmapped and strange
what would it means to stand on the first
page of the end of despair?

Considering the education legislation that we are likely to face in Michigan in 2013, this seems an apt place to start.


We ourselves must change it.


Don't be a bystander.