Some people are like lightning rods. Electricity filled the lecture hall that day when I went “shopping” for an interesting course beyond my own campus quad. The course description “called” to me because that very word, call, was strategically chosen to attract people just like me from beyond the Harvard Kennedy School of Government (KSG). It was standing room only. I expected to be wait-listed as I registered for “Organizing: People, Power, and Change” taught for decades by Professor Marshall Ganz. I got into the course by virtue of the fact that I was a graduate student at Episcopal Divinity School (where two years later an honorary Doctorate would be conferred upon Marshall Ganz). I had heard that intentional call from across town.
That entire semester was loaded with way too much reading (which upon hearing our complaints, Professor Ganz agreed to a few less books); loads of lively in-person discussion (led by a consummate facilitator); loads of storytelling about years in the field, literally, (Ganz worked sixteen years with Cesar Chavez to unionize California farm migrants without a voice of their own); loads of encouragement and support for real time organizing projects of our choosing. My project took me to Washington, D.C. at the midterm break to advocate for organizing Habitat for Humanity Global Village builds. I had recently led a Habitat team to post-tsunami Thailand. I felt empowered! I felt energized when I returned to the lecture hall. With his team of teaching assistants, Professor Ganz listened to our stories using a tried and true teaching methodology that guided each project to some conclusion by the end of one semester. No easy feat. Yet, it all felt seamless.
One day, when I was asked by one “T.A.” “Why do you do this work?”, without hesitating, I said: “God”. She smiled and suggested I say that in class. I suggested that would not be well received outside of Div. School. When the question was posed in the room, I waited. Other students said: “To help people who can’t help themselves”; “To do something meaningful”; “To make a difference”; Then, I said the “G” word, out loud. You could hear the silence. Then, one younger student (I was the age of the Professor), awkwardly said: “Me, too. I want to put my faith into action in the world.” Another student, admitted she, too, wanted to talk about how faith mattered to the work . . . her work. So, we did just that, right there, openly, directly, gently, and honestly with Professor Marshall Ganz giving each person a voice. The class ran over. Nobody left the room. Afterward, Ganz said to his T.A., “Who would have thought we would ever hear the word God at the Kennedy School?” I looked up, and with a big grin, he pointed across that vast room to me: “You did that!”
Some days later, we ran into one another on the street. He was toting his well-worn Old Testament under his arm. I asked where he was going with that Bible. He told me each week he and some others got together to read the stories. Like me, like others, faith was integral to his work. He wore it openly on his sleeve, or under his arm. He wasn’t trying to impress anyone, certainly not at KSG! That’s why I was completely taken aback this past week when an email came with an attached story written by Professor Ganz in response to charges brought against him for bringing into the classroom his "antisemitism”. He writes eloquently about his feelings, his understanding of current events in Israel and Gaza, and what had happened to bring such condemning charges against him in his very own lecture hall where he had mentored so many students. (see link at end)*
What I, and so many others, had encountered in that very room, week after week, was a consistent message delivered by a truth teller that emphasized how everyone, regardless of race, ethnicity, age, sex, and most importantly, one's own faith, is equally worthy. We are all people in search of a voice that can be aided at times by organizing and empowering people to create change for the better.
Dr. Marshall Ganz, having devoted his entire adult life to others’ causes, deserves nothing less for himself.
Just finished watching Behind the Shield. Thank you! Dr. Marshall Ganz is indeed a victim of the dehumaizationof his person. We must recognize that he is not alone in this. Social media has been proven to be a huge force supporting and feeding this dehumanization. It begins with thoughtlessness which becomes carelessness which then evolves into recklessness.. These create an incubator for deceit and hatred which cannot be ignored.
It happens that I did not watch the Super bowl. Nor did I see any news about the massacre. I have long held the belief that from pop Warner up through high school and college and the NFL has been a systemic indication of whom holds the power and the money…