Tuesday, September 13, 2005

See you there?

Bill Moyers, one of the country's most respected and important journalists, will speak at 7:30 tonight in the Hill Center's Light Gymnasium. I'm anticipating we'll have a full house, but I want to invite you, our students, in particular. A wide variety of individuals on campus and in the community have asked to speak with him while he's here, and he has basically said no, that's not the purpose of his visit. He is here to talk to you, our students. You're his focus, and his priority, and I am certain you will find him thought provoking and compelling -- whether you agree with his perspective or not.

A few quotes will give you a sense of how he sees things in the world:

Upon his retirement from television in December 2004:
"I'm going out telling the story that I think is the biggest story of our time: how the right-wing media has become a partisan propaganda arm of the Republican National Committee. We have an ideological press that's interested in the election of Republicans, and a mainstream press that's interested in the bottom line. Therefore, we don't have a vigilant, independent press whose interest is the American people."


β€œIt's just a fact: Democracy doesn't work without citizen activism and participation, starting at the community. Trickle down politics doesn't work much better than trickle down economics. It's also a fact that civilization happens because we don't leave things to other people. What's right and good doesn't come naturally. You have to stand up and fight for it β€” as if the cause depends on you, because it does. Allow yourself that conceit β€” to believe that the flame of democracy will never go out as long as there's one candle in your hand.”

Hope to see you all there.

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home