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Popular journalist challenges audience to fulfill promise It took Tavis Smiley just 30 minutes to inspire and exhort hundreds of people at University of La Verne’s Founders Auditorium on Tuesday night. The national television and radio host and best-selling author shared his views concerning the current climate of the United States. He challenged the audience to help America fulfill its promise of valuing each and every individual as part of ULV’s 2009 Fasnacht Lecture. “I believe whether you’re black or white, rich or poor, urban or suburban, illiterate or educated, young or old—my sense is we all want as Americans the same thing, to live in a nation that lives up to its promise,” Mr. Smiley said. “As great as she is, America is not yet a nation as good as its promise.” Mr. Smiley’s lecture coincided with the recent release of his latest book titled, Accountable: Making America As Good As its Promise. The 320-page work presents a model for holding the nation’s political leaders accountable to their promises and challenges Americans to be accountable as individuals and as a community. The Fasnacht Lecture Series was created in 1985 in honor of former University of La Verne President Emeritus Harold Fasnacht. The purpose of the series is to enhance understanding and promote public discussion on religious issues and their influence on society. “Nothing pleased him [Fasnacht] more than to see the diversity of speakers and the kinds of talent his chair brought to this campus,” said ULV President Stephen Morgan before Mr. Smiley took the stage. “And I know he would be extremely pleased tonight to have Tavis Smiley on this stage and speaking from this platform.”
“When you make Black America better, you make all of America better,” Mr. Smiley said. “Black history is at the epicenter of American history. W.E.B. Du Bois once asked ‘what would America be like without her Negro people?’ To paraphrase that for today, what would America be like without the contributions of African Americans?” Mr. Smiley went on to touch on topics of inequality and discrimination. While he mentioned President Barack Obama’s election as a step in a right direction, the best-selling author said America still has work to do in order to live up to its promise. “There is no way in the world that just because we have a black in the White House, it doesn’t mean that black, brown and even poor whites don’t have any excuse,” Mr. Smiley said. “People are being disenfranchised socially, economically and culturally. Too many people’s humanity is being contested.” The speaker then proposed the idea of Americans being committed to loving and serving others as solutions to the nation’s problems. He exhorted the audience to be leaders and people who seek “greatness” over success. Mr. Smiley’s words resonated well with the Brothers’ Forum, an African-American club on the ULV campus. The club members volunteered as ushers for the event. “He gave us a definition of what leadership is and made it synonymous with greatness,” said ULV junior Justin Jerry, a member of the Brothers’ Forum. “Greatness is giving and being great doesn’t have to be monetary. This was great for the university and more importantly great for the Brothers’ Forum. It was inspiring.” ULV junior and Brothers’ Forum member Branamier Courtney was inspired for a different reason. The business administration major found himself encouraged when Mr. Smiley advised students to search for their vocational calling after graduation and not to look at it as just a job. “What stood out was when one of our members asked what advice he could give us,” Mr. Courtney recalled. “He [Smiley] told him not to look for a job but to look for his calling. So that makes the purpose of going to school to help us find out what we’re great at so we can leave here and live a life that makes a difference.” According to Mr. Smiley, it’s a life of legacy. “The dash in the middle is the most important spot on your tombstone because that tiny dash represents the life you lived and the legacy you left,” he said. “You can’t lead people if you don’t love people. And you can’t save people if you don’t serve people.” —Landus Rigsby |
