Kumbaya . . .

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I’m working on some pages for my class this fall. Do take care, all who may come by here. Kumbaya . . . I don’t remember where I learned “Kumbaya” probably in church; but the most memorable performance I remember hearing was that of a Black South African minister at the 1954 National Convocation of Methodist Youth. I don’t remember his name. He drummed on a hymnbook as he sang, and the rhythms were a little diffrerent from those we hear today. We had watched a film of Alan Paton’s Cry, the Beloved Country.

The origins of “Kumbaya” are disputed, but it seems fairly clear that it migrated from the American south to Africa before it got to me. I was taught that Kumbaya (or Kum Bah Yah) meant “come by here;” but of course as we sang it in the sixties it came to mean “peace.” That’s why today’s fashionable rightist cynicism has developed the familiar trope that sneers at “Kumbaya” in order to sneer at the idea of community. One sneers at ‘holding hands and singing “Kumbaya”‘ in order to proclaim one’s tough minded (individualistic, gun-carrying, etc.) patriotism in the post 9/11 political arena.

It’s a miserable and quite mindless cliché. The South African minister who so moved me in 1954 sang “Kumbaya” as an evocation of solidarity in opposition to Apartheid and in praise of what we used to call brotherhood. These are not foolish things. What is foolish and shameful is today’s strident patriotism, the first (not the last as Dr. Johnson had it) refuge of scoundrels.

Cameron’s Corner

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Cameron Smith is a rising high school senior. I’ve not met him, but over the past couple of years I’ve heard a good deal about him. He’s a debater, and a good one. This summer he’s going to debate camp at Southwest Missouri State. He’s an honor student, and this summer he is also an intern with the Saint Louis League of Women Voters

While he works in the League office I will doubtless meet him, since I hang out there occasionally to watch my beloved work on the Voters’ Guide and other worthy projects. I’m a member of the League, a proud member you might say, and I have a big button to wear that reads: “LWV—Not for Women Only.” Maybe I’ll give Cameron my button when I meet him, unless he already has one. I don’t really need it any more since I am generally recognized as one of the League’s resident old farts.

I wrote about the League here in 2008; and I’m surprised to find that I haven’t written anything since. The Saint Louis League is becoming a model for other Leagues nationally. A couple of years ago my beloved and her now Co-President, Linda McDaniel, negotiated a deal with the St. Louis Post Dispatch to produce the St. Louis Voter’s Guide jointly. Since then our local League’s growth has accelerated. Always a force in the community, our St. Louis League is a primary venue for civic engagement here. As an index of that we will have run fifty plus candidate forums before the current election cycle is over.

Cameron Smith is writing a blog about his adventures working for the League this summer. You can find it here.

A couple more things

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I’ve spoken over the past several posts from a perspective that still supports the ideal of education for civic engagement. What we saw at UVA was refreshing for me and gave me heart (a two-cheers kind of heart) because it seemed to display civic engagement. I was disappointed that student leaders did not support the reinstatement of President Sullivan but instead indulged in high-minded platitudes when they had a turn to speak. It may have been diffidence, as The Washington Post suggested, but I remember engaged students in the nineteen sixties. Not much of that around any more.

And speaking of resource allocation, the University of Missouri has announced an upgrade of sports facilities today that is expected to cost over $200 million. There was no debate in the board as the project was approved. Meanwhile, the university is closing the University of Missouri Press over the protests of concerned citizens, alumni, and others. According to report, “the university hopes to soon unveil a new model for the 54-year-old publishing house that will emphasize digital distribution.”

As one who has been a worker in the digital library movement, I look askance at this press closing, not because yet another source of printed books is being abandoned in favor of a digital alternative which will be said to cost less but, in all likelihood, will not cost less; or because this press has a distinguished history, if not a long one. It’s too bad. The press is part of the University of Missouri’s core mission. Universities exist to create and disseminate knowledge, not to serve as a farm system for professional sports.

Whatever possessed me to say that universities may not abandon their core mission in pursuit of institutional advancement?

—They do it all the time.