Ignorance
Kore Gleason
koregleason at YAHOO.COM
Mon Feb 4 16:34:01 UTC 2008
Dear SEELANGers,
It has been a pleasure for the long while to read your posts as a tremendous
supplement to my understanding of all things Slavic, East European, Eurasian
and otherwise, and I look forward to many more discussions and contributions.
It has been, however, disheartening reading the accusatory tone behind this
recent string of comments...
Sure, we can find it surprising in our particular circles that someone has not
heard of Lolita, but that is because we’ve had the privilege to read it. We can
find it surprising that a person doesn’t know where the Atlantic Ocean is, but
we forget that we've had the privilege of seeing it or being taught where/what
it is.
I would think that History, especially the specific histories of the gulags,
concentration camps and atrocities that have been mentioned in the same
breath of this discussion, would have taught us the invaluable need to
reevaluate what one person’s ignorance means – and why it entitles another
person to feel better, smarter, greater.
If you’ve ever taught American adults how to read for the first time, helping
them string the alphabet soup of the shapes and sounds of letters together,
or held the hand of a Russian who experiences the ocean for the first time in
his multiple-decade(d) life, marveling at the smell and feel of seaweed and
waves,
then we’d all understand better that our inequalities in “intelligence” make us
no less equal in humanity.
Respectfully,
Kore Gleason
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Use your web browser to search the archives, control your subscription
options, and more. Visit and bookmark the SEELANGS Web Interface at:
http://seelangs.home.comcast.net/
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
More information about the SEELANG
mailing list