Upcoming congratulations to the EPHS Class of 2011!!! Having the Supreme Court and Invisible Chilren grace us with their presence, insight and energies has been uplifting and inspiring. Never think that anything is too distant for you. I truly enjoy working with you and hoped that I help you become better persons, even in a small way. Moving forward in a complex society where your dreams can be achieved in innovative and aware ways that uplift our individual and common good. Always keep people the most important resource in your journey. Stay grounded and focused and find those things which uplift yourself and community. Build a stronger social fabric and improve all as we have so much accomplished but yet so much to do as we work to bring more people to the table of full participation and to do so in a sustainable and honorable way.
Life can be truly win/win when all accept that personal vices and limitations can inhibit us from reaching harmony and effectiveness. When this occurs, all end up with less. Bitterness can result, but it does not have to do so. Consciously, we need to seek solutions that are effective and life giving.
In our journeying, we hope to break the bonds from past mistakes and use them to become more effective and better humans. Our continued vibrancy and energy is key to achieve a plane of existence that can infuse and uplift not only ourselves but those around us.
Achieving a journeying point where we are interested and interesting as well as filled with expectantcy and dynamism for the present and future is my goal and one that I work to accomplish in my myriad of roles that I engage in daily.
We face a more uncertain world than perhaps even during the peak of the Cold War in the 1980s. These trying times test us and make us stronger. It is up to us to rise to the occassion and to be good stewards of what we have been entrusted with and what we have been given.
Recently, when I received a postcard from South Africa, it reminded me when I received a personal invitation from the South African Ambassador to visit at their government's expense their country. Two dozen of the youth Who's Who Leaders of America had been chosen to spend two weeks in South Africa and then to return to inform America about the wonderful qualities of the nation. I refused. I simply could not allow the Apartheid Government of South Africa to pay for my choreographed trip to promote an unjust and undemocratic regime. I was so happy when Ronald Reagan openly came out later than preferable against the Apartheid Government in 1986, and when President Mandela thanked him and the World community for their strong support in toppling Apartheid by 1990. George Michael's "Pride Without Prejudice" exemplifies the essence and energy of the Mandela spirit that we can all tap that is within us. Of course, the fall of communism in 1989 onwards occured from Berlin to Budapest to Prague to Kiev and Moscow itself.
In the 21st Century I had the opportunity to meet Nelson Mandela and to later see Desmond Tutu when he spoke at the University of Minnesota as well as seeing the Dalai Lama on his Minnesota visit. Those experiences parallel with so many wonderful opportunities that I have the blessing to have had. Of course, life is not to be resting on one's laurels, but to seek new experiences and accomplishments to be effective and contributing in the world today.
Having World War II end which my grandfather Andrew Jackson Bray stormed the beaches at Normandy, and growing up around prominent, forward thinking Republicans like Malcolm Moos who today would be a far left Republican, but yet at St. Olaf in the library, the three books on the Republican Party were written by Dr. Moos. Eisenhower's speechwriter to the University of MN President, Malcolm truly impacted and inspired me. Malcolm wrote the Eisenhower military industrial complex speech. He proved a man of vision and intellect with rational thought and an inclusive outlook. Meeting Barry Goldwater who the far right also attacked as too liberal and spending time with him proved a true impact as well as we talked about a common hobby--amateur radio. I had seen films on Senator Goldwater in his home with his "NASA type" amateur radio operation that looked like something out of James Bond, and I worked as a high school student to construct my own. In the process of building my multimedia powerhouse complete with a 100 foot rotor controlled tower with a 25 foot antenna that from top to bottom spanned 40 feet. I could broadcast worldwide with a copper wire in the attic, but this system allowed me to talk anywhere globally--and this was in the 70s.
Leaders that value human rights and do what is best for community to improve the social fabric and empower all to better places are what I admire. They do not put people down or exploit falsehoods to gain power. They not hypocrites nor are they ones who are casual and careless in their roles and their love of helping make our country and planet a better place for all human beings.
People said that by age 28 I had done what most people never do by age 90, but I did not want to rest on my laurels. Instead I continued on with high goals that by St. Olaf I served as a dorm representative, a campus Senator, and the main planner for four years of all political speakers to campus with my friend Jim Wertjes. We brought in luminaries such as Yitzak Rabin who had been Prime Minister of Israel and later in the 1990s returned to power until he was assasinated. We also brought the Secretary General of the UN, along with the first communist party representative to anywhere in the interior US--coastal areas had been the previous allowed trips. Ambassador Li Baocheng visited Minnesota in a whirlwind three day trip which created the basis, and the international trade department will suppport this, for Minnesota to have one of the strongest relationships trading with China other than California. Visting the Chanhassen Dinner Theater and the Governor's Office while Rudy Perpich served, and many corporations from Medtronic to Pillsbury, we had a whirlwind of an itinerary--all planned to the minute and executed by my team flawlessly. Other national luminaries such as the Health and Human Service Secretary Margaret Heckler, and many, many more, over 70 in total, all came to Minnesota and had a flawless visit. That reputation spread, and lead to job offers upon my graduation from St. Olaf from over 20 corporations and the national campaigns. I ended up working as a surrogate speaker as well as raising monies and planning special events. That experience would take a book or at least several chapters. What a life. Throughout all of this I solidified my belief that education is the root of all empowerment for individuals and for society.
We seem not to blanche at the notion of paying over $40,000 a year for a prisoner, but squawk at paying even $8,000 a year per pupil. Prisons do not rehabilitate and the recidivism rate is high--thus they are like interest on credit card spending--they get you no where fast except further down the slippery slope. One recent fact showed that we have more people incarcerated than China, and China is a military dictatorship. It does make one ponder where we want our tax dollars spent. Invest and empower. Let us not squander our future.
Some conservatives today forget that they are obligated to help those who are less fortunate. Ronald Reagan talked about this all the time. Conservatives just maintain that government is not the way to do it. I applaud all those service groups, some of which I have had the honor and privilege to speak to in recent years in Eden Prairie, who work to help those who are less fortunate. My students did a fundraiser last year with the principal's directions, and we raised close to $2,000 to help the Bridge, a program helping runaway youth. This check, the director stated, came at a time when funds were perilously low. What a great testimony and example of working to be in the eye of the needle.
We are all part of the tapestry of society, and this is not a liberal or conservative notion. If our brethern fails to do well, it has a severe ripple to the whole community. If one member of the community is left out or discriminated against, then it is, as the famous saying goes, not a community. America did not become what it is today from the frontier of the East to the frontier plains of the heartland and the jagged lands of the West by people being hedonistic, invididualistic, and uncaring about community. Think of how that creates a lose/lose situation rather than a win/win, and cross apply this to a wagon train, a football team, or any such example and where all would end up. Of course, community is much more complex.
Teaching in community then became what I wanted to do. I wanted to see if bold and exciting ideas could be applied to an everyday classroom in an everyday type of community. That's why I have taught in poorer communities than Eden Prairie, and even devised a program where for one six week summer program, that I taught 18-24 year old convicted felons who had previously dropped out of high school. We had a great success that summer exemplifying the central theme that there is no such thing as a disposable child.
As a teacher since 1987, I have seen incredible things done by students that have turned then on to learning and to empowering themselves. I will write more on this topic later, but people ask, with all the prestige and income loss, why would you teach? I answer beyond the altruism and the public good, because I am able to empower people to become better people for their lives--and this has been done time and again by students rising to the occasion when they realize how what I do helps them become better--not just do seat time writing overhead notes from a textbook or watching filler movies with linkage to critical thinking or to just sit in class silently filling out worksheets week after week. Nope...I said it at Commencement in 2003 and I continue to believe, if this produces a threat to people, then they are the ones who should leave education. My family has had members of every generation serve as teachers. And it is that role--serve. One must be humble to know how precious it is to have the opportunity to be entrusted with 100 or more minds each term. My grandmother Bessie taught in a one room school house. She taught grades K-8 and some 9-12 all together. Imagine how she had to differentiate instruction! Imagine how she impacted those children in that community of Milbank, South Dakota.
Our past is not our potential. In any given hour we can choose to reshape and transform who we are to rise to greater heights and achieve greater successes for ourselves, our families, America and the World. "If not us, who? If not now, when?"
Carpe Momentum!
Sincerely....and thank you for reading.
Mark Bray
postmaster@markbray.com
Mark Bray
