Put a pebble in your shoe: Go hungry six hours a week, Yale students.
Debunking Cynicism
Bill Clinton rightly said today at Yale that he has always considered cyncism a "cop -out".
I agree.
And its best antidote is activism.
That is why I added comment # 24 to the column "Debunking 'Service'" by Ms. Kim, below.
Yale students could easily organize the weekly $10,000 scholarship to New Haven's poor which I propose.
Sacrificing one Yale Food Service meal a week---or even the price of a Big Mac -- by 5000 undergraduates would translate into a weekly $10,000 scholarship with little more than a few hunger pangs for a few hours weekly by Yale students.
For fifteen years I knew a man who was principal of a Vermont high school who, every day when he dressed, put a small pebble in his right shoe to remind him of the discomfort, suffering, hunger, and pain in the world.
Surely Yale students can suffer one six hour segment of their week when they consciously agree to go a tiny bit hungry to benefit the academic future of New Haven's poor.
Surely.
PK
PS: If this worked at Yale it could spread to campuses around the country.
Kim: Debunking 'Service'
By E. Tammy Kim
Guest Columnist
The Yale Daily News
Published Thursday, May 13, 2010
On Saturday, Yale students and alumni all over the world will participate in the Yale Day of Service. In New York City, the projects organized by the “Public Service/Social Justice Committee” of the local alumni group range from “sprucing up parks” to “reading books to children” and “teaching tennis.” This is the second annual Day of Service, and I dread and rebuke it as much as I did last year.
A planned day of charity is ultimately a misdirection of time and energy, lost both on participants and their intended beneficiaries. How regrettable that the vast resources and talents of...
#24 By Money Talks 3:24p.m. on May 23, 2010
Let's get practical and concrete.
There are 5000 Yale undergraduates.
If each one voluntarily forfeited a single meal at food service once a week ( in check- off option at registration) that would amount to at least $2.00 per student or $10,000 a WEEK!
That $10,000 could be awarded as a scholarship EVERY week in New Haven's schools to students with financial need seeking to attend post-secondary educational institutions (including vocational schools).
Think of the public relations excitement and the academic interest it would generate
It could happen in an instant. All it takes is organizational leadership and a decision.
Paul Keane
M.Div. '80
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