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Roth on Wesleyan

Bob Dylan

Civic Engagement Has Never Been More Important

January 7, 2021January 7, 2021 by Michael S. Roth '78

Like so many, yesterday I watched with horror as a mob invaded the Capitol Building, hoping to stop the certification of November’s election results. Inside Higher Ed asked if I would write a quick response to what I was seeing, and I immediately thought of the Bob Dylan song, “Idiot Wind.”

“Idiot wind, blowing like a circle around my skull, from the Grand Coulee Dam to the Capitol.” The words of the Bob Dylan song echo in my mind as I watch rioters marauding in Washington, D.C., playing make-believe politics in their cloud cuckoo world of conspiracies and fantasies.

Though despite yesterday’s stunning turn of events, I wrote, I do see glimmers of hope:

That said, I was surprised, if not quite stunned, when I got up in the middle of last night and saw the results from Georgia. I know how hard people worked to turn out the vote in this runoff election, and how Black women and their allies overcame obstacles to ensure that the right to vote would be respected — and their votes counted. I have also been heartened and surprised how young people across the country have found so many ways to engage in the political system over these many months, despite the pandemic. 

You can read the rest of the article here.

As I was finishing, a reporter from The Chronicle of Higher Education called to talk about what was happening in Washington. I focused my comments on what had been accomplished over the last several months in energizing students to participate in the electoral system. I was thinking of—for example—Anna Horowitz ’23, who was on leave fall semester working on organizing voters in the Senate races in Georgia. Led by a courageous group of Black women, she and so many others were building the future of civic participation, even in a pandemic.  “As we begin to restore order, let’s use education for the civic preparedness we desperately need,” I’d said on Twitter earlier in the day.  Once again, we in higher education must recommit to encouraging the kind of democratic practice that is fully in sync with the goals of liberal education: habits of discussion, compromise, collective aspiration and care for the vulnerable.

It has never been more important.

 

Categories UncategorizedTags Bob Dylan, Chronicle of Higher Education, Civic Engagement, E2020, Inside Higher EdLeave a comment
Michael S. Roth

Michael S. Roth became Wesleyan University's 16th president on July 1, 2007.

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Wesleyan SACLC 4 hours ago

Student-Athlete of Color Leadership Council: The Battle Is Worth It. 💯 Retweeted by Michael S Roth

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Michael S Roth 5 hours ago

Another new #CivicEngagement class @coursera from @wesleyan_u coursera.org/learn/take-act… @Wes_engage

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Michael S Roth 6 hours ago

Sun is coming up, really...

test Twitter Media - Sun is coming up, really... https://t.co/CBinLa18We
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Michael S Roth 6 hours ago

RIP Mary Catherine Bateson 'Love Across Difference' - and life as a "desperate improvisation in which I was constantly trying to make something coherent from conflicting elements to fit rapidly changing settings" nytimes.com/2021/01/14/boo…

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Michael S Roth 7 hours ago

New @coursera class offered by @wesleyan_u coursera.org/learn/designin…

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Michael S Roth 7 hours ago

How Big is Your ‘Big Lie’? 1. Saying you won an election you lost? 2. Starting a war on a false pretext? 3. Claiming a pandemic is a hoax? What’s the standard of measurement?

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Michael S Roth 7 hours ago

Noble lie? twitter.com/DAMendelsohnNY…

However scary it may be, this is *such* a good Plato teaching moment. https://t.co/63nLdSoW4O

— Daniel Mendelsohn (@DAMendelsohnNYC) January 15, 2021
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Keeanga-Yamahtta T. 2 days ago

The real coup twitter.com/AriBerman/stat… Retweeted by Michael S Roth

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Michael S Roth 1 day ago

Read ⁦@parul_sehgal⁩ on judgment, Saunders &Chekhov: “Saunders writes that the story seems to ask us to sit in judgment of the character, to ask, “Is this trait of hers good or bad?” Chekhov, he tells us, answers: “Yes.” via ⁦@nytimesbooks⁩ nytimes.com/2021/01/12/boo…

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Michael S Roth 1 day ago

Read ⁦@jenszalai⁩ on use & abuse of Orwell ‘s “1984” “the novel itself isn’t so much a treatise on free speech absolutism as it is a warning about the degradation of language and the potency of lethal propaganda.” ⁦@nytimesbooks⁩ nytimes.com/2021/01/13/boo…

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Michael S Roth 2 days ago

So pleased to see this @wesleyan_u students getting their work out! twitter.com/wesleyan_u/sta…

As a result of an assignment from Professor Fred Cohan's course, Global Change and Infectious Disease, more than 25 students have had their work published in newspapers across the US – many citing the University’s COVID-19 safety protocols.https://t.co/Msxzk3XkA2

— Wesleyan University (@wesleyan_u) January 13, 2021
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Michael S Roth 2 days ago

Dayenu twitter.com/aedwardslevy/s…

in most other presidencies we do not impeach even once

why, in this presidency, do we impeach twice

— Ariel Edwards-Levy (@aedwardslevy) January 13, 2021
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Daniel Steinmetz-Jenkins 2 days ago

Extremist movements in 20th century Europe are often viewed in ideological terms. In the US they have been associated with religious extremism. Fascism as a category of analysis in the US might be debatable, but cultish, millenarian, religious sects are as American as apple pie. twitter.com/dbessner/statu… Retweeted by Michael S Roth

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Eddie S. Glaude Jr. 2 days ago

Where is the bottom? Retweeted by Michael S Roth

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Michael S Roth 2 days ago

Read insightful ⁦@AdamSerwer⁩ “The belief that only impoverished people engage in political violence—particularly right-wing political violence—is a misconception often cultivated by the very elites who benefit from that violence.” @theatlantic theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/…

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Michael S Roth 3 days ago

Re-posting from the early summer: "Higher Education Needs Antifascism Now" #IntellectualDiversity does not = total neutrality insidehighered.com/views/2020/06/…

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Michael S Roth 3 days ago

Read ⁦@risenc⁩ on “the modern American experience, from immigration &the promise of postwar abundance, through the tumult of the 1960s, to the search for meaning in a secular society —&finally, in the early 21st century, to the ravages of a pandemic” nytimes.com/2021/01/11/obi…

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Michael S Roth 4 days ago

Read @samuelmoyn "Cruz & Hawley have been making..outrageous moves..not because they learned them at Harvard &Yale, but because Harvard &Yale put them in a position to ascend to the heights of U.S. politics as it shifted so disturbingly over recent years" chronicle.com/article/the-fa…

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Wesleyan University 4 days ago

Wesleyan University Press authors Hafizah Geter, Rae Armantrout, and Honorée Fanonne Jeffers were recently longlisted for awards from PEN America. fal.cn/3cFkT Retweeted by Michael S Roth

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Michael S Roth 4 days ago

@jasonintrator @Notorious_RSG @dbessner Same claim the Communists made about the socialists in the 1930s Germany. SPD more dangerous than NSDAP

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