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Barbara Jordan
Nancy Hanks Lecture
American Council for the Arts
Washington D.C.
March 16, 1993
I am most delighted to be included among the list of distinguished
persons who have presented the Nancy Hanks Lecture. Thank you for the
honor.
In 1988, Arthur Schlesinger Jr. gave this lecture. He referred to the
well-regarded work he and his father have done in developing and promoting
the idea of the cycles of American history. I quote now from his book, which
bears that name:
Wise men have remarked on a pattern of alternation, of ebb
and flow, in human history. "The two parties which divide the
state, the party of Conservatism and that of Innovation," wrote
Emerson in 1841, "are very old, and have disputed the
possession of the world ever since it was made. . . . Now one,
now the other gets the day, and still the fight renews itself as
if for the first time, under new names and hot personalities."
Innovation presses ever forward; Conservatism holds ever
back. We are reformers spring and summer, in autumn and
winter we stand by the old; reformers in the morning,
conservers at night. "Innovation is the salient energy;
Conservatism the pause on the last movement."
Continuing, from Professor Schlesinger:
Half a century later, Henry Adams applied a more precise
version of the cyclical thesis to the first years of the
American republic. "A period of about twelve years," he
wrote, "measured the beat of the pendulum. After the
Declaration of Independence, twelve years had been needed
to create an efficient Constitution; another twelve years of
energy brought a reaction against the government then
created; a third period of twelve years was ending in a sweep
toward still greater energy; and already a child could
calculate the result of a few more such returns."
We are properly positioned in time, in this year, 1993, to begin a new
cycle. Optimism is fairly dripping from the air. A new generation of leaders
struggles -- at first somewhat awkwardly -- to find its sea legs. Old words are
coming out of new mouths as we seek to find our niche. This is not a time to be
shy. One way to guarantee that this sense of hope will not be lost is to act on it
now.
If your thing, that is, your interest, concern, involvement or passion, is
the arts, you are probably at this moment in time some what reluctant to speak
too loudly. With all the rhetoric of budget deficits and sacrifice perhaps you
feel that it would be somehow sacrilegious to talk about the arts. WRONG! ! The
I - mmp
