Olympic Aspirations: taking the field for social justice
Sunday, April 22nd, 2007With news that Chicago would move to the next stage in the 2016 Olympic bid, Dan Bassill asked that we take the field for social justice with equivalent passion and dedication. Simply stated: let’s have a Gold Medal for work to end poverty. The Chronicle of Philanthropy’s Give and Take blog gave this challenge a controversial spin. What follows is my comment in reply (with a few additional links).
Dan’s challenge is posed for all of us. It’s great that his post is getting attention. If we look for controversy everywhere we are sure to find it even when it isn’t present.
What can the Chronicle do better in this regard? I think there are lessons to be learned in the positive media movement.
I’m not a Pollyanna. There are likely some significant factors regarding the Olympic bid that deserve critical exploration/attention.
The Olympics should bring out our best. Dan’s call should rouse in us that aspiration for addressing the most pressing circumstances in our society.
April 20 the eChicago Symposium was convened at Dominican University, April 20-21 a conference was convened by “A View from the Ground†at the University of Chicago on the 8 blocks of public housing known as Stateway Gardens, and April 21-22 Chicago hosts the Green Festival.
Each event has a deep and conscious grounding in questions of social justice. It feels like many of us are waking up and coming together.
Chicago presents itself as a global city, and aspires to being the greenest city. Calls for sustainable living, living well together and building the Chicago we want are bringing our attention to our institutions and to questions of social justice.
Philanthropy can take a more prominent role in this blurring of the lines between Environmental, Media, Technology, and Social Justice movements.
This convergence of movements is happening anyway, so let’s come together with Olympic aspirations in all that we do, whether we’re in Chicago or not.
Thank you Dan for challenging us to challenge ourselves in the Olympic spirit.
Note: you’ll find links and recent comments on these three events mentioned elsewhere on the wrythings.net blog.
