Jean Paul Sartre: by any means necessary

Today I was priviliged to hear Rev. Otis Moss who worked closely with Dr. King, who presided at the wedding of Rev. Moss and his wife, deliver a talk at the City Club. His theme was the need for a strong central city...without that the rest of the area will collapse. One of the factors (he name seven or more) that will help build a strong city is public education. I couldn't agree with him more. I would like to change the typical view though. The term, public school, today means a school that are supported by local, state and federal government that do not charge tuition.

The speeches of Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. were a part of my childhood. My brother, Bill, attended the rally in Washington in 1963 and heard the "I Have a Dream" speech live! When I was accepted to attend Georgetown University in the fall of 1969, the country had suffered the loss of Dr. King and Robert Kennedy and Vietnam was consuming our nation. The freshmen reading list including the Autobiography of Malcolm X. I remember seeing a picture of Malcolm X in Life Magazine holding a gun with a caption of "By Any Means Necessary!" I must admit I was scared by that pronouncement. I read the book and began to get a glimpse into a world I really did not know.


34 years later I had left my position as principal of Saint Ignatius High School in Cleveland which I had held for twelve years, and I was driving down Superior Avenue on Cleveland's East Side. I was scouting out the neighborhood which was going to be home for a new school we were starting. I noticed painted in Day Glo orange on the slats of a cyclone fence the words: "Revolution is the only solution." Lord, I thought, I was back in the urban maelstrom of Lima, Peru! I must admit that scared me too. This time, there was no book to read--in a way we were writing our own. Five years later I have begun to get a glimpse into a world where slogans such as "By any means necessary" and "Revolution is the only solution" arise from the people.


"I was not the one to invent lies: they were created in a society divided by class and each of us inherited lies when we were born. It is not by refusing to lie that we will abolish lies: it is by eradicating class by any means necessary." — Jean Paul Sartre, Dirty Hands: act 5, scene 3. 1963

Jean Paul Sartre perhaps puts this whole question into a larger context. Malcolm X, two years later says this: "We declare our right on this earth to be a man, to be a human being, to be respected as a human being, to be given the rights of a human being in this society, on this earth, in this day, which we intend to bring into existence by any means necessary."— Malcolm X, 1965.

I cannot bring myself to advocating violence, in this regard I am a follower of Jesus, King, and Gandhi. However working for five years at E. 61st and St. Clair allows me to see the absolute futility of life without having the chance for a decent education. That chance has to be NOW!

What if we have some fun with that term and we say a public school is any school that educates the public. In Peru, all schools receive government subsidy. Even Catholic schools receive funding for everything save religion teachers and texts. The closest we have to this in the United States was the GI Bill. It could be used by the student to attend and pay for any college, public or private. In the end, the idea was that everybody could have the opportunity!

As Cleveland begins to develop STEM schools, magnet schools like the three at John Hay or Cleveland School of the Arts the chance for a quality and safe education rises significantly. My question now is quite simple, "What happens to the thousands of kids who can't get into those schools???" Why can't we have a much wider vision of education of the public and look to excellent schools already in existence to help with the severe lack of quality now? Perhaps they are charter schools or private schools that are not tuition driven that could help educate thousands more now. For me the best way to look at this is to ask the question from the family's point of view: "I have an eighth grader now, where can I send her in the fall of 2009 and be sure that the school is safe, effective and will have demonstrated student learning and success?" the answer cannot be, "We are working on it...give us time." That child today doesn't have any time. Here is an analogy which might bring to light the absolute urgency of this education crisis. Suppose avian flu broke out pandemically right now. Thousands of people needing medical attention all at once. Would not all hospitals be part of the solution? Even if in some there were rabbis, or Roman Catholic Masses going on, or Imans counselling? What if they had Saints in their names? Would it matter if at those hospitals you could get the needed treatment?

It is my belief that the urban education crisis is as urgent and deadly as the Plague. If we do not do something right now we will pay for it dearly in the decades to come.