Reading Wendell Berry in Berea, KY
November 11, 2008
A few days after we voted Barack Obama into office, I found myself in Berea, Kentucky. Joan’s father is from Bimble, Kentucky (or as he says in the title of his memoir, “The End of the Road at Bimble, KY), and we were driving him around for a few days to visit some old haunts. One of those was Berea, a town that’s pretty much wrapped itself around a fine little liberal arts college called Berea College. People familiar with the world of fine crafts probably have heard of the place, but for my money what’s more remarkable is that the college is one of the oldest incarnations of true radicalism that you can find in the US of A. Think back to 1855, and think of some missionary types founding a college in southeastern Kentucky that would be tuition free and would serve the children of Appalachia. Including blacks. And think of what it was to try to run a college founded on anti-slavery and egalitarian principles in a slave state just a few years before the Civil War. The college was run out of town by 1859 but its founders returned in 1865 at the end of the war, a rather impressive example of stubborn commitment to a good and important idea. The race problem would continue to dog the college for the next century, but it has held more or less true to its founding mission, still providing an education for kids who are smart enough to get in, and still paying tuition for those who can’t afford it. I talked with one young woman who has a half dozen brothers, and whose parents had no education beyond grade school (mother) and high school (father). She’s a dual major in chem and biology and wants to be a doctor. On the other hand, another student told me she’s quitting the college. It’s not a good fit for her. I sat in a smoker’s gazebo on campus, reading a from Wendell Berry’s book of essays published in 1991: Sex, Economy, Freedom and Community, while other students dropped in, seeking a bit of protection from the cold rain, and the opportunity to smoke in a college -sanctioned spot. Read the rest of this entry »
