The first task in teaching is to bring to consciousness what the students already believe by virtue of their personal experiences about themselves and society.
Paul WellstoneRead
We need a new kind of citizenship, so that we can see citizens as themselves earning the rank of patriot because of their involvement in their community affairs....We as a society need to be encouraging people to focus not just on individual wants but on serving the larger community.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote emphasizes the importance of civic engagement and the need for citizens to actively participate in their communities for the greater good.
Paul Wellstone's quote advocates for a transformative view of citizenship, proposing that true patriotism is earned through active involvement in community affairs. It calls for a shift in focus from individual desires to collective responsibilities, suggesting that the health of society depends on the willingness of its members to serve and support one another, fostering a spirit of collaboration and community spirit.
Themes
CitizenshipCommunityPatriotismServiceInvolvementResponsibility
In practice
Example use cases
During a community meeting, I quoted Wellstone to emphasize the importance of volunteering.
More from Paul Wellstone
All quotes →A politics that is not sensitive to the concerns and circumstances of people's lives, a politics that does not speak to and include people, is an intellectually arrogant politics that deserves to fail.
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The future will not belong to those who sit on the sidelines. The future will not belong to the cynics. The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.
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I think the future also will not belong to those who are cynical or those who stand on the sidelines
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Politics is not about power. Politics is not about money. Politics is not about winning for the sake of winning. Politics is about the improvement of people's lives.
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What the poor, the weak, and the inarticulate desperately require is power, organization, and a sense of identity and purpose, not rarefied advice of political scientists.
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A tradition I remember from my childhood was that when there was a wedding in any one family, the entire village shared the responsibility and contributed. Regardless of the caste or community, the bride became the daughter of not just a single family but of the entire village.
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