ESSAY CEMETERY

Zygmunt Bauman. Image by  Grzegorz Lepiarz Summary In modernism what was considered absolute truth was simply the principles of Western civilization. Propagators of it were intent on converting the rest of the world and abolishing "alterity", and so this "crusading spirit" and absolute knowledge merged. There was a crusade for universality which resulted in only more difference. This masked contingency, or free will and uncertainty, which the modern subject would otherwise have felt. In postmodernism, that is in the present, we are unhappy because we realize that there is uncertainty, that the hope of unification of modernity will not come true and we need to learn to live with this ambivalence. Then Bauman cites Heller who suggests that we can transform the ambiguity into destiny, by embracing our free will, making a decision and sticking by it. Response The title already betrays a lack of absolutes and bottom lines. Nothing striking or polemic, just ambivalence. T...

Lots of scripture and historical, particularly American, precedents to back up his rhetoric and arguments Addressed to whites - "you" refers to heads of white churches or the white moderate Echoes A Model of Christian Charity by John Winthrop “Yes, I see the church as the body of Christ.” Calling on American discourse. Interestingly, he does so on the past and not the future "We will reach the goal of freedom in Birmingham and all over the nation, because the goal of America is freedom. Abused and scorned though we may be, our destiny is tied up with America's destiny. Before the pilgrims landed at Plymouth, we were here. Before the pen of Jefferson etched the majestic words of the Declaration of Independence across the pages of history, we were here. For more than two centuries our forebears labored in this country without wages; they made cotton king; they built the homes of their masters while suffering gross injustice and shameful humiliation -and yet out of a bo...

  1492     Thou two-faced year, Mother of Change and Fate, // The I nquisition Didst weep when Spain cast forth with flaming sword,  The children of the prophets of the Lord,  Prince, priest, and people, spurned by zealot hate. // hatred of Jews Hounded from sea to sea, from state to state,  The West refused them, and the East abhorred.  No anchorage the known world could afford,  Close-locked was every port, barred every gate.  Then smiling, thou unveil’dst, O two-faced year,  A virgin world where doors of sunset part, //  People died and were exiled but at least Columbus discovered America Saying, "Ho, all who weary, enter here!  There falls each ancient barrier that the art  Of race or creed or rank devised, to rear  Grim bulwarked hatred between heart and heart!" // In America the barriers of race creed and rank that make people hate one another fall.

The New Colossus  1883    Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,  //  A famous Greek Colossus With conquering limbs astride from land to land;  Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand //  Warm, welcoming words A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame  // The gatekeeper of America is a woman Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name  Mother of Exiles.  From her beacon-hand  Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command  The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.  "Keep ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she //  She says America doesn't need fancy ancient histories With silent lips.  "Give me your tired, your poor,  Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,  The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.  Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,  I lift my lamp beside the golden door!" // Everyone's welcome in America