In India with my family dealing with the tragic loss of my father. He passed away June 1st at the young age of 67. While we mourn and find peace in memories, I also began emailing people back today. Have much to catch up on. One such message was about Marion Nestle's blog post on Tony Kushners speech. I had heard him a few years ago at Vassar where I was attending the graduation of a cousin. Tony Kushner left us crying, laughing and changed. I hope this speech has given many young minds a new reason to speak up and make change happen. His words as always are inspiring and wonderful. Here below, I share them with you. We have the always clever and sage Marion Nestle for them.
Food Politics
by Marion Nestle
Tony Kushner: Respond to the planet’s cries for help
The playwright Tony Kushner gave his much fought over graduation speech at John Jay College yesterday. I could not find the complete text online, but here’s what the New York Times says he said (with some editing):
Engage with society’s thorniest issues…find the human in yourself by finding the citizen in yourself, the activist, the hero in yourself.You face a beset and besieged world…Rspond to the planet’s cries for help.
There’s injustice everywhere. There’s artificial scarcity everywhere. There’s desperate human need, poverty and untreated illness and exploitation everywhere.
Everywhere in the world is in need of repair. So fix it.
Solve these things.
And what does this have to do with food politics? Everything. It’s what the food movement is about.
And what does this have to do with food politics?
Posted by: sports hats | Friday, August 12, 2011 at 08:54 PM