Remembering The Rules Of Kindergarten

Raise your hand if you have something to say. Wait until someone is finished talking to speak. We were all taught these basic rules of socialization in kindergarten, so where did they go as we grew older? It seems we have forgotten these simple, yet important rules to find the common ground within our different individual lives. With the nation’s gash bleeding onto foreign territory (sorry Canada), we can no longer slap a smiley-faced bandage over the wound and hope it does not reopen. It is time we face these uncomfortable and awkward “elephants in the room,” but in a civilized and polite manner. The first round of stitches is listening to each other.

Listening to someone means giving them your undivided attention, and not spacing out about a cute puppy video you saw earlier in day. It’s easier to hear people, rather than listen to what they say. I think we have seen this reoccurring theme play out perfectly well with the recent events that are happening today. Too many years of not listening to each other have torn us apart from having what could have been eye-opening discussions. But do not fret, because it is never too late to start paying attention to each other, knowing who your neighbors are and having face-to-face conversations with each other. Perhaps you will be surprised to discover how much common ground you have with the people you disagree with. Everybody has a story to tell, but not everyone is willing to listen. And that is where we as a nation start, remembering the rules of kindergarten.

Kalin Moore
Criminal Justice, Junior

Be The Change You Wish To See

The election of Donald Trump to the highest office in the land last Tuesday broke the hearts of everyone who values equality, justice and pluralism. The following day, an inescapable feeling of sadness plagued the campus, almost as if someone we all knew had died. However, the mourning did not last long. By that Friday, students and faculty had organized two separate events for the morning and afternoon. Both were public showings of solidarity for those who felt threatened by the bigotry of the President-elect. Some in attendance were moved to tears due to the overwhelming love and kindness that filled the air. It was at this time that the students of California Lutheran University discovered that unity is the best resistance and that this resistance will continue. Students are mobilized against hatred and ignorance and show no sign of slowing down.

Our federally-elected officials may fail us, but they will not decide our future, we will. All across the country, citizens are once again utilizing the long forgotten tool of civil disobedience. If the normalized bigotry of a Trump administration seems to daunting to overcome, look to the successful struggles of the past. We no longer have children working in sweatshops for inhumanely low wages not because politicians chose to end such practices but because organized labor fought against them. Universities did not voluntarily divest from apartheid South Africa, mobilized students pushed them to do so. Many politicians did not publicly support same-sex marriage until a majority of the United States did. In the words of Frederick Douglass, “power concedes nothing without a demand.” There is no need to wait until the midterms in 2018 or the next presidential election in 2020 to take action. If you care about the environment or farm workers or the rights of LGBT citizens or anything else, the time to take action is now. Volunteering, organizing and protesting are all valid methods of making your voice heard. Social change is not something which only belongs to partisan electoral politics, social change belongs to you.

Jack Rockwood
Political Science, Junior