Word: jeffersonism
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...some respects from Ailey's -- he encouraged dancers to discover their own mistakes, she is more direct about what she wants; he shied away from fund raising and publicity, she embraces both -- but their artistic goals are the same. "Her aesthetic is built on Alvin's," says Denise Jefferson, director of the company's dance school. "The transition was smooth because Judy was coming home...
...first patriots, freedom of speech, even jarring, unpopular speech, was a right worth dying for. Paine upheld "the right of every man to his opinion, however different that opinion may be to mine." Franklin said, "Without freedom of thought there can be no such thing as . . . publick liberty." Jefferson believed "uniformity of opinion" was no more desirable than uniformity "of face and stature." Staid George Washington warned against "the impostures of pretended patriotism...
...Jefferson's Declaration of Independence defines patriotism in an implicitly rebellious fashion. According to that precious document, we do not owe our allegiance to a government or its leaders -- and certainly not to its army or its flag -- but to each other and to our common right to liberty and the pursuit of happiness. "Whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends," the Declaration states, "it is the Right of the People to alter or abolish it . . ." Thus for Jefferson, dissent was not only a right but also a necessity: "I hold that a little rebellion...
...fact, dissidence ought to be regarded as one of our finest traditions and proudest exports to the world. The feminist movement began here and spread throughout the world. Our civil rights movement has inspired the downtrodden in dozens of nations, and gay rights was practically invented here. Jefferson, I daresay, would be proud...
...quieter, tidier land if we all agreed on everything and, if those who didn't would shut up. But in the voice of the dissident, the oddball and the minority, however wrongheaded from one's own point of view, we should learn to hear the echoes of men like Jefferson and Paine. They didn't goose-step to the tune of the reigning authority. They didn't shut up when more timid souls said it wasn't wise to speak. And suppose they had? Then the flag we'd be pinning to our lapels today would be the Union Jack...