Overheard IN SAXBE
“Democracy is a moving target. What was called democracy in America in the 18th and 19th centuries would not be considered democracy today.” – Bruce Cain, the Charles Louis Ducommun Professor in Humanities and Sciences at Stanford University, delivering “Fixing American Democracy: The Quandaries of Political Reform” during a Democracy Studies Program event on Sept. 27.
“I think we have to think of them as statesanctioned executions.” “There is a faulty assumption that every time you give people civil rights, you risk national security. There is a view that it is a zero-sum game.” – Patrick J. Fitzgerald, former U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, discussing if and when terror suspects should be read Miranda rights during the annual David H. Bodiker Lecture on Criminal Justice on Oct. 8.
– bell hooks, author and social activist, comparing the shooting deaths of Trayvon Martin and Jonathan Ferrell to lynchings in an Oct. 4 discussion about the George Zimmerman verdict with Sharon L. Davies, the Gregory H. Williams Chair in Civil Rights and Liberties and director of the Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity.
“I never doubted my innocence. … I doubted the system that put me in there and tried to murder me.” – Joe D’Ambrosio describing how he never abandoned hope of being set free during the 20 years he spent on death row because of a wrongful conviction. He and two other death row exonerees spoke during a Diversity Week program on Oct. 24.
“When you speed up the pace at which you want to get better, you’re just going to see better results. That’s what has happened since the charter schools have come to be here in Ohio.” – Andrew Boy, at left, founder and director of the Columbus Collegiate Academy, participating in a panel discussion about the benefits and challenges of charter schools on Oct. 1.
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