Statement by someone traveling to the dialogue

Responding to the announcement of
Revolution and Religion: A Dialogue Between Cornel West and Bob Avakian

November 10, 2014 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

 


I will be traveling from Kentucky by bus to Chicago, where I will be joining a group of people who are attending the Cornel West/Bob Avakian Dialogue in NYC. While it will take me nearly 48 hours of travel each way to make the journey, I feel that the Dialogue is a historic enough event to make it more than worth it. One of the great paradoxes facing people of my generation is how spirituality and activism coexist, and whether or not democracy even continues to be a viable solution to the American dilemma. There are not two people better qualified to address this paradox than Dr. West and  Avakian. Since Dr. West is a revolutionary Christian, I want to understand how Dr. West is able to draw such passion and courage from the same religious tradition that was used to justify slavery of Black Americans. As an activist, I also want to understand how to get more people to stand up to being systemically oppressed. Religion plays a very important role in many people's lives, so understanding how religion fits into revolution is key to getting people to realize that religious integrity is part of humanity's journey to freedom from oppression. In order to better understand my role as a leader in the fight against systemic oppression, I must be at this dialogue.

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