Last night, I was one of the many people who turned out to see Princeton professor Cornel West speak at the Rutgers Student Center. For those of you who are unfamiliar with West and his work, you can read up on him here (http://www.cornelwest.com/about.html)
Last night’s presentation was billed as a conversation about the nature of race in the age of President Obama. Being that it was a Cornel West lecture, however, conversation touched on topics including religion, poverty, music, and Tiger Woods. For those of you who were not present at the lecture, I will not do the man the dishonor of paraphrasing him. The video of the event will be available later this week at www.rutv.rutgers.edu.
The point that struck home for me last night was one about what the nature of our education here at Rutgers should be. One of West’s more quotable lines, and he has many, is that we should not strive to be successful, we should strive to be great. That is, we should not allow ourselves to get caught up in the baubles of the earthly city (to take a phrase from Augustine). We Rutgers students have been given an opportunity to receive one of the best educational experiences in the world. According to West, we owe it to ourselves and to our communities to put that education to good work.
I apologize if I’m getting preachy. I highly recommend checking out RUTV’s website for the video of the event. West is one of the greatest public speakers of our time, and a man of great intellectual power. I am thankful to the university for allowing me a chance to listen to him.
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