tjeffers@whitehouse.usa.service
FSU President Sandy D'Alemberte talked about corresponding with Thomas Jefferson at the dedication in September of the Center for Civic Education and Service. Parts of his speech, edited for space:
For the last few months, letters from Thomas Jefferson appear on my desk. I assume there is some sort of time-warp "E-mail" at work. ...The latest has to do with this occasion.
"My dear Mr. D'Alemberte,
Again, I find it appropriate to address you briefly on a subject of mutual import. As in the past, I advise that you not be overly concerned with the sources of my intelligence regarding your work, or with the vehicles employed in the transmission of this epistle. Suffice it to say that the messages arrive.
I noted with substantial interest the creation on your campus of a `Center for Service and Civic Education,' Having a long concern for the latter, I questioned at length how it is related to the former and confess that some fundamental change must have taken place in American society or in our patterns of thought and association.
When I founded the University of Virginia, I understood fully that Democracy's very existence depends on an educated electorate and, therefore, colleges should train students in `Republican virtue.' Observing the success of the colleges which were established for the principal purpose of training ministers of the gospel, I determined that there should be colleges to train the leaders of society, those who would profess the values which underlie citizenship.
I pray you, sir, am I to understand that Civic Education and Republican Virtues are now related to `service?,' How can this be?
Your humble servant,
Thomas Jefferson"
When I reply to Mr. Jefferson, I will tell him there have indeed been fundamental changes in our speech and in our pattern of thought association and in our society. When Alexis de Toqueville, the great observer of American life, wrote about the way Americans care for their neighbors, he used a phrase which I cherish, but which has not survived. He referred to the "habits of the heart." In modern times, we call it `service.'
Still, we have confused the word by using it to mean other things. When we are at war, we draft people into the "service." Judges often sentence criminals to "community service."
The sad consequence of this is to diminish the concept of community service, which was once a special characteristic of our nation
I sincerely hope that one side benefit of this new program will be to restore to the word "service" the noble connotation it once enjoyed and to renew the rich tradition that goes back to the days of Thomas Jefferson.
There has also been a fundamental change in the relationship of the better educated citizens -- the professionals -- to the rest of citizens.
When Mr. Jefferson founded the University of Virginia, the students came from, and returned to, small southern communities. They came from "leading families" and many returned as "professionals," but they were never isolated from the farmers, tradespeople, widows, orphans, sharecroppers, old folks and the indigent who lived next door to them, went to the same schools and worshipped in the same churches. They were "of the people," and their profession was realized as they served the people. Today, those relationships have changed.
In Habits of the Heart, the classic work on our society today, Robert Bellah and others wrote that American professons are losing their connection to their communities. As Bellah wrote:
" `Profession' is an old word, but it took on new meanings when it was disconnected from the idea of a `calling' and came to express the new conception of a career.
"In the context of a calling, to enter a profession meant to take up a definite function in a community and to operate within the civic and civil order of that community.
"The profession as career was no longer oriented to any face-to-face community but to impersonal standards of excellence ... Rather than embedding one in a community, following a profession came to mean ... `to move up and away.' "
America's educated have too often moved "up and away." We live in different neighborhoods, go to different schools and clubs, and places of worship. We even shop in different stores. The people we see are too often just like us.
I harbor no illusions that we can return to a past overtaken by modern society and economics. But we can work to reconnect our professionals with the larger society -- and thus serve the society rather than enrich and insulate ourselves and our peers.
In legal circles, I have advocated "pro bono" work ...because masses of people who need solid legal assistance cannot afford a lawyer...
But meeting the need is only half the reason for service. The other half is that service reconnects the professional and the student professional with the other people in their society.
In the law, I find my best illustration in Atticus Finch, who lives in the pages of Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird.
Atticus is a poor, but patrician, country lawyer during the Great Depression. He enjoys the respect of his community, the love of his children and the quiet confidence of a man whose practice and profession cannot be separated. He's the best shot in the county and the Methodists want him to play football on their team -- even if he is too old.
Atticus agrees to defend a black man accused of raping a white woman. He knows it will be a painful and unpopular task. He agrees because, he tells his daughter, Scout, "if I didn't, I couldn't hold my head up in this town again." Later, he watches a lynch mob dissolve as Scout chats with a ring leader who had once paid him a legal fee in hickory nuts and collard greens.
I suggest to you that Atticus Finch found his full measure of conviction and courage and compassion -- his full humanity -- not in his DNA or his law studies. Rather, he found them in the streets of Macomb, Ala., as he walked, for a time, in the skins of Walter Cunningham, Jim Robinson and Arthur Radley. He served his community, often without charge, and in serving he became one of them.