The honest truth is that I am writing this blog late at night. It was something I thought I could hold off to do until the night before. I guess the long text kind of suprised me. I didn’t read the whole thing. These are things that caught my eye and my attention.

• The recognition that there is a problem in speaking for others has followed from the widespread acceptance of two claims. First, there has been a growing awareness that where one speaks from affects both the meaning and truth of what one says, and thus that one cannot assume an ability to transcend her location.
• It is interesting to think that from where we speak changes how one can take what we say.
• The second claim holds that not only is location epistemically salient, but certain privileged locations are discursively dangerous.⁵ In particular, the practice of privileged persons speaking for or on behalf of less privileged persons has actually resulted (in many cases) in increasing or reenforcing the oppression of the group spoken for.
• This made me think of this question: Some are not able to speak for themselves for whatever reasons, is it not better to have someone speak rather than no one?
• In particular, is it ever valid to speak for others who are unlike me or who are less privileged than me?
• We might try to delimit this problem as only arising when a more privileged person speaks for a less privileged one. In this case, we might say that I should only speak for groups of which I am a member. But this does not tell us how groups themselves should be delimited. For example, can a white woman speak for all women simply by virtue of being a woman? If not, how narrowly should we draw the categories?
• Adopting the position that one should only speak for oneself raises similarly difficult questions. If I don’t speak for those less privileged than myself, am I abandoning my political responsibility to speak out against oppression, a responsibility incurred by the very fact of my privilege? If I should not speak for others, should I restrict myself to following their lead uncritically? Is my greatest contribution to move over and get out of the way? And if so, what is the best way to do this—to keep silent or to deconstruct my own discourse?

This made me think. Service is like speaking for others…Its a question of should we speak, should we serve, and no matter what we do what are the costs of us speaking for others or serving others. What cost are there if no one speaks for the unspoken for. It seems like these two subjects have such a wide spectrum of doing good on the far side and yet on the other side their is harm. Many wouldn’t think that we could harm someone from helping. Helping has a positive connotation. But in service cases it can have a negative connotation that is rather unrealized or unknown to those who serve.

This ties into our service learning i believe mostly at the end when we have projects like PSA. Who are we to speak for them when we are just outsiders. Her article I find useful if not just that it opens you mind up, it makes you think. I am thinking more about the connection between speech and service. How to two go hand in hand. Also its made me think more just about the effects of speaking for others. is it good, is it bad, should we or should we not?