The Loss of Action

In 1969, the Community Studies department was founded at the University of California, Santa Cruz. This program was a pioneer for experiential/service learning. Students are sent out into the world to participate in "field studies" at non-profit organizations or government programs. They are primed before leaving to look at the organization in which they will work through an intensely critical lens. How does the organization work? What is its mission? Is it effective? Why or why not? Is the way in which the organization approaches the problem appropriate?

This is a way of teaching students to be potent, versatile, critical thinkers, and it connects them with the larger word in a way that traditional education is incapable.

Several weeks ago, Sheldon Kamieniecki, the Dean of Social Sciences at the University of California, Santa Cruz, announce that he would be cutting the Community Studies undergraduate program. The excuse is the same excuse that corporate executives are using across the country to rid themselves of what they deem troublesome or unnecessary - the economic crisis. The reality of the situation is that most corporate entities (I'm forced to include public universities in that category due to the failure of state governments to support them) are willing to shift funds in whatever way necessary to preserve what is valuable to them.

What is incredible to me is that now, months after our new president announced a call to service for all Americans, bureaucrats are going to cut a program that teaches young men and women to do for others rather than to do for themselves.

Are we that far gone? Are our values that misplaced? You'll continue to fund research so that you can have a better shampoo, but you won't fund programs that teach college kids how to run a Boys & Girls Club or how to reach out to people living with HIV/AIDS?

Obama vs. Clinton vs. McCain

You've got some awkward decisions ahead of you.
Today former governor Mitt Romney dropped out of the race for the Republican presidential nomination. He took one for the team. While dropping out of the race, he made a plug for party unification against the Democrats. It seemed like a quick move to circumvent you actually thinking for yourself. He says he's out of the race because you must be united against the Democrats.
Should you unite against the Democrats?
That's a question he prevents you from asking yourself. He ignores what your concerns are and makes you think you're concerned with that which he wants you to be. It's sneaky.
Another part of his dropping out is that, in the general election, Romney vs. Obama would be a nightmare for the Republicans. The truth of the matter is that there aren't enough "morally conservative" voters to carry any candidate. The majority of voters in the United States are moderates. They are not 'liberal" nor are they "conservative."
What Republican strategists want is Clinton vs. McCain, and for this they're counting on two things.
First, despite John McCain's talk of late, he's not much of a conservative. They're depending on McCain's ability to appeal to moderate voters. Now, Hillary Clinton's ability to appeal to moderate voters is just as strong as McCain's, but that's where factor two comes in.
Hillary Clinton has been a polarizing figure in the past, and they think that in a campaign to demonize Clinton, McCain is a practical alternative. Now, people like to demonize Hillary Clinton because she plays the man's role in politics too well, but there's currently no room for a woman in politics that doesn't play a masculine role. This often gets her called "bitch," but it's no fault of hers.
For Republican strategists, the ideal match-up for the general election is Clinton vs. McCain. What happens if it's Obama vs. McCain? Well then the Republicans actually have to fight a fair fight.
When you are voting in the fall, do you want to be voting for the candidate you believe in, or do you want to be voting against the candidate you oppose?
The next ten months will be trying. You will have to endure ad after ad after ad. You'll hear hateful language, insecurities, and deceit.
The most important thing to remember this year is that for all our dissimilarities, we are more alike than unalike.
"We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools." -Martin Luther King, Jr.