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Practically Idealistic blog
 
The title for this blog originated with use of the term “practical idealist” in this 1996 opinion piece, which asked: “To what kind of work should a practical idealist aspire?” A century and a half earlier, Emerson, in his 1841 essay Circles, wrote: “There are degrees in idealism.  We learn first to play with it academically. . . .  Then we see in the heyday of youth and poetry that it may be true, that it is true in gleams and fragments.  Then, its countenance waxes stern and grand, and we see that it must be true.  It now shows itself ethical and practical.”  John Dewey and Mahatma Gandhi embraced practical idealism in the 20th century, as did UN Secretary General U Thant.  Al Gore invoked it in a 1998 speech. In the context of this blog, the term is meant to convey idealism tempered but not overwhelmed by realism: a search for the ideal on a path guided by common sense.
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Sunday, June 14, 2020

"Generations after the Movement, Civil Rights Imperatives Remain"

Appalled by the extent of continuing race-based injustices, I wrote an opinion piece interweaving historical and personal observations, including mention of the boys whose basketball team I coached this year with fellow volunteer James Forman Jr.  The piece appeared in the Connecticut MirrorGood Men Project, and a Medium publication, Noteworthy.
7:10 pm edt 

Saturday, June 6, 2020

Toward Justice and Peace

Amid understandable fury, grief, and protests after more in a long history of racially motivated, unjust killings, the National CASA Association issued a related statement.
6:47 pm edt 


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