{"id":106,"date":"2005-12-15T14:41:49","date_gmt":"2005-12-15T18:41:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.law.harvard.edu\/globalfund\/2005\/12\/15\/richard-penn-kemble-a-tribute\/"},"modified":"2005-12-15T14:41:49","modified_gmt":"2005-12-15T18:41:49","slug":"richard-penn-kemble-a-tribute","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/globalfund\/2005\/12\/15\/richard-penn-kemble-a-tribute\/","title":{"rendered":"Richard Penn Kemble, A Tribute"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a><\/p>\n

from <\/span>Democracy Digest, Dec. 14, 2005<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/b><\/font><\/font><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\n

Many readers will be aware that Penn Kemble, co-editor of Democracy
\nDigest<\/i>, recently passed away following a brave struggle with brain cancer.
\nPenn’s death generated some remarkable tributes and obituaries, marked not only
\nby sincerity of sentiment but a notable political diversity, attesting to a life
\nspent transcending sectarianism and building cross-party coalitions.
\n…
\n <\/font><\/font><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

A politician thinks of the next election; a statesman,
\nof the next generation,” said James Freeman Clarke. Penn conceived a
\nrecent conference on the legacy of Sidney Hook<\/a>
\nat which it was noted that he shared Hook’s belief “in the power of ideas in the
\npolitical marketplace.” In a city overly preoccupied with daily headlines,
\npolitical fads and personal fortunes of the Who’s-in?-Who’s-out? variety, his
\ncore conviction lay in building political movements around an intellectual
\nanalysis and a set of values, and through a vision in which ego and ambition had
\nno place.
\n<\/font><\/font><\/p>\n

Penn personified the committed social democrat for whom democracy is a “way of life”<\/a>
\nand, as Carl Gershman argues, who puts the democratic mission<\/a>
\nabove ego or self-interest, and is “prepared to recognize, analyze, and confront
\nhonestly and with integrity every obstacle that lies in the way of its
\nadvancement.” <\/font><\/font><\/p>\n

Penn devoted his last energies developing Democracy Digest<\/i> and this
\ntrans-Atlantic network to connect American and European activists and
\nintellectuals, policy-formers and opinion-makers, in forging a common agenda for
\ndemocratic reform, particularly in the broader Middle East. Typically, at a time
\nwhen trans-Atlantic relations were at a nadir, he felt the urgency of promoting
\ndialogue and action around common values, and transcending ephemeral differences
\nby focusing on fundamentals, thinking strategically and confronting the next
\nfrontier for expanding freedom and democracy. With a new generation of cynical
\nrealists and isolationists emerging on both left and right, committing ourselves
\nto advance Penn’s legacy of progressive democratic solidarity is not only an
\nhonorable vocation but a political and moral imperative.
\nSee our previous blog (Oct. 24, 2005)  on our friend, Penn Kemble.<\/span><\/span>
\n <\/font><\/font><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

from Democracy Digest, Dec. 14, 2005 Many readers will be aware that Penn Kemble, co-editor of Democracy Digest, recently passed away following a brave struggle with brain cancer. Penn’s death generated some remarkable tributes and obituaries, marked not only by sincerity of sentiment but a notable political diversity, attesting to a life spent transcending sectarianism […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":359,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[781],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-106","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-culture"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/globalfund\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/globalfund\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/globalfund\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/globalfund\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/359"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/globalfund\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=106"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/globalfund\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/globalfund\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=106"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/globalfund\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=106"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/globalfund\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=106"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}