Through this point I’ve used my weblog to share my “thoughts, reflections and musings” as “an ordinary athlete in search of the extraordinary, both in sport and in life.”
But I recently came across some notes I made in a journal from last summer, that until now I had near-forgotten of, about the desire to create a public forum, titled A Tiny Ripple, “where ideas have room to breathe.”
And in reviewing my inspired scribbles, I am motivated to create a space to share my observations — and solicit the observations of others — about politics, philosophy, and society; but not at the exclusion of continuing to share my experiences of training for an Ironman triathlon, nor at the exclusion of the idea of posting some creative (and not-so creative) writing of mine in a central location.
Thus my site Run With It! (formerly at www.runwithitnow.com) will merge with the hope of A Tiny Ripple – and merge with all other ideas I have for subjects of writings — at this, my new website: www.jasonatwood.com.
The summary/explanation of what can be found here is broad and ambitious: The observations, reflections and musings of an ordinary athlete in search of the extraordinary, both in sport and in life. Social, political and philosophical commentary. A place where ideas have room to breathe. Creative and not-so-creative writings. But the last sentence sums it up best: Me.
I hope to post on a more frequent and regular basis as well, since I am granting myself the freedom to write about pretty much anything and everything that interests me, not just stories of sport. And I begin with the (slightly edited) notes from my rediscovered journal about an idea to allow “ideas room to breathe.”
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Notes from journal, dated July 2005:
A Tiny Ripple: Where Ideas Have Room to Breathe
Introduction: “A Speech to Students Everywhere”
The most fitting manner to set this discussion forum in motion is to immediately anchor it in the values that inspired and shall continue to guide our dialogue: honest presentation and debate about what we can and should do to better ourselves and each other.
The word honest, however, at least with respect to current public discourse about political, social, economic, and philosophical issues, is a qualifier that has been usurped by modifiers that yield greater advertising rates: tantalizing, sensational, scandalous, and of most concern, easy. In 1999 the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press interviewed 552 working journalists and news executives. The research illuminates “increasing disquiet within the profession over eroding standards of professional conduct.” To which Richard Morin, Washington Post Polling Director, asks: “What’s dumbing down American journalism?” Answer:
Journalists say the problem isn’t in the newsroom but in the boardroom, where they say growing financial and business pressures are taking a toll on news-gathering. “At both the local and the national levels, majorities of working journalists say that increased bottom-line pressure is hurting the quality of coverage. This view is more common than it was just four years ago.”
Source: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/polls/wat/archive/wat040599.htm.
During the evening news in 1968, presidential candidate soundbites (the length of time that clips of candidates speaking were aired without interruption) averaged 43.1 seconds. In 1972 presidential candidate soundbites were whittled to 25.2 seconds; in 1976, 18.2; in 1980, 9.8; in 1988, 9.8; in 1992, 8.4 seconds. In 1996 the average length of presidential candidate soundbite aired on the evening news was 8.2 seconds — barely the length of time to say a complete clause, let alone communicate a vision for the country.
Source: http://www.brookings.edu/gs/projects/HessReport/hd_quantity.htm.
My concern is not simply with the deterioration of standards in the news and the trend to air clipped, out-of-context soundbites via public airwaves. I am concerned with a general lack of seriousness in the acts of gathering, reporting, and absorbing the ideas of the policies and players that serve as characters in the news.
The demarcations of what constitutes news, punditry, and entertainment have eroded such that they now overlap and blur together to create this age of infotainment we find ourselves living in. And so the telling paradox: that while infotainment is ubiquitous, little does it do to provide us with the intellectual armor to defend against hyperbole, superlatives or silliness, and rarely does it provide us with the vocabulary to employ the necessary critical thought to advance truly good ideas rooted in principled and sound foundations of reason rather than rhetoric.
In our always-up-to-the-minute culture where breaking news, or what we accept as news, is packaged in ever-easy-to-digest nuggets and bits of infotainment, the presentations about “issues of the day” are frequently devoid of the powerful intellectual virtue necessary to educate, and thus change the minds of, others. It is easier to yell (on a television panel, at work, in the car, on the street corner, on talk radio, at talk radio) than it is to engage in conversation about the “why” that lies behind our beliefs that abortion, gay rights, a flat tax, Karl Rove, providing aid to third world countries, the United Nations, drilling off the coast of California, carpool lanes on the highway, pornography, France, gun control, cable news, red meat, Christo’s latest installment, or capitalism is either (a) good or (b) bad.
Only two categories? Good or bad? With us or against us? Is not the truth somewhere in between or outside the scope provided by the talking points of opposing parties? Is there not more to the ideas behind the issues than what is provided by a mainstream media that, in competing for the largest audience share possible, often caters to the lowest common denominator?
Thus the intention of this forum: to provide ideas room to breathe. Ideas about politics, government, economics, society, art, philosophy– all should be explored, scrutinized, challenged, defended, and if successfully done so, then advanced, too. So let us share.
But one prerequisite before we do…
Robert F. Kennedy’s Day of Affirmation Address delivered at the University of Cape Town on June 6, 1966, also known as the “A Tiny Ripple” speech, is the inspiration for this forum. His storytelling of our collective history and vision of “what could be” is both captivating and stirring. And I can think of no better initiation for those who have discovered and are interested in this forum than by inviting you to read aloud Mr. Kennedy’s remarks and vision of hope.
Now, let us share…
Wandering and Wondering,
J.R. Atwood
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Excerpt from Robert F. Kennedy’s Day of Affirmation Address delivered at the University of Cape Town on June 6, 1966:
“There is a discrimination in this world and slavery and slaughter and starvation. Governments repress their people; and millions are trapped in poverty while the nation grows rich; and wealth is lavished on armaments everywhere.
“These are differing evils, but they are common works of man. They reflect the imperfection of human justice, the inadequacy of human compassion, our lack of sensibility toward the sufferings of our fellows.
“But we can perhaps remember–even if only for a time–that those who live with us are our brothers; that they share with us the same short moment of life; that they seek–as we do–nothing but the chance to live out their lives in purpose and happiness, winning what satisfaction and fulfillment they can.
“Surely this bond of common faith, this bond of common goal, can begin to teach us something. Surely, we can learn, at least, to look at those around us as fellow men. And surely we can begin to work a little harder to bind up the wounds among us and to become in our own hearts brothers and countrymen once again.
“Our answer is to rely on youth–not a time of life but a state of mind, a temper of the will, a quality of imagination, a predominance of courage over timidity, of the appetite for adventure over the love of ease. The cruelties and obstacles of this swiftly changing planet will not yield to obsolete dogmas and outworn slogans. They cannot be moved by those who cling to a present that is already dying, who prefer the illusion of security to the excitement and danger that come with even the most peaceful progress. It is a revolutionary world we live in; and this generation at home and around the world, has had thrust upon it a greater burden of responsibility than any generation that has ever lived.
“Some believe there is nothing one man or one woman can do against the enormous array of the world’s ills. Yet many of the world’s great movements, of thought and action, have flowed from the work of a single man. A young monk began the Protestant reformation, a young general extended an empire from Macedonia to the borders of the earth, and a young woman reclaimed the territory of France. It was a young Italian explorer who discovered the New World, and the thirty-two-year-old Thomas Jefferson who proclaimed that all men are created equal.
“These men moved the world, and so can we all. Few will have the greatness to bend history itself, but each of us can work to change a small portion of events, and in the total of all those acts will be written the history of this generation. It is from numberless diverse acts of courage and belief that human history is shaped. Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring, those ripples build a current that can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance.
“Few are willing to brave the disapproval of their fellows, the censure of their colleagues, the wrath of their society. Moral courage is a rarer commodity than bravery in battle or great intelligence. Yet it is the one essential, vital quality for those who seek to change a world that yields most painfully to change. And I believe that in this generation those with the courage to enter the moral conflict will find themselves with companions in every corner of the globe.
“For the fortunate among us, there is the temptation to follow the easy and familiar paths of personal ambition and financial success so grandly spread before those who enjoy the privilege of education. But that is not the road history has marked out for us. Like it or not, we live in times of danger and uncertainty. But they are also more open to the creative energy of men than any other time in history. All of us will ultimately be judged and as the years pass we will surely judge ourselves, on the effort we have contributed to building a new world society and the extent to which our ideals and goals have shaped that effort.
“The future does not belong to those who are content with today, apathetic toward common problems and their fellow man alike, timid and fearful in the face of new ideas and bold projects. Rather it will belong to those who can blend vision, reason and courage in a personal commitment to the ideals and great enterprises of American Society.
“Our future may lie beyond our vision, but it is not completely beyond our control. It is the shaping impulse of America that neither fate nor nature nor the irresistible tides of history, but the work of our own hands, matched to reason and principle, that will determine our destiny. There is pride in that, even arrogance, but there is also experience and truth. In any event, it is the only way we can live.”
Click here to read the full text, watch a video excerpt, and download or stream the audio of Mr. Kennedy’s Day of Affirmation Address (oft-referred to as “A Tiny Ripple”).
