Digital Collaboration and the 21st C.

One of my favorite quotes from this article...

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"I read sweet stories, too. I don't want to make you think that I was a glutton for punishment. It's just that the meaty books - the books that made me feel, the books that made me think, the ones that dealt with situations that I'd never personally experienced - were the most gratifying of them all. And those are the ones that people want to remove from library shelves."

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Another regarding those who want to ban books...

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"Most people are not willing to communicate about difficult things, which is the crux of the problem that results in people wanting to ban books. They don't want to think about difficult things, either because something happened to them, or because it is so far from their reality that they want to ignore it."

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And one more...

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"How can we hope to stop the horrors that humanity can wreak upon itself if we do not allow ourselves to notice that they exist, discuss the problems, and move past them together?"

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The best literature engages us with plot and thereby we allow ourselves to discover and consider our responsibilities to each other for reducing the pain and suffering resulting from those who are foolish or evil.

I always believed that true optimism was not the Panglossian belief that everything is wonderful as it is. But rather, the optimism  of Mother Teresa and Martin Luther King jr. where the first knowing is knowing that there are serious problems that can be addressed and never losing faith that "something" can be done to reduce the chasm between the present and the perfect. 

As in...

We are NOT perfect.

There is SOMETHING we can do.

Reaching perfection is unlikely.

So the choice is leave it be as short of perfection as it is or don't.

 ~ http://www.GoogleLitTrips.com ~

"Google Lit Trips is the legal fictitious business name of GLT Global ED, an educational nonprofit