On Friday, I attended a speech by the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi at Meredith College. Pelosi’s talk jumped from topic to topic but there was one central theme — the growing responsibility of students in the modern world.
Pelosi began her speech by alluding to John Adams words: “I must study politics and war that my sons may have liberty to study mathematics and philosophy. My sons ought to study mathematics and philosophy, geography, natural history, naval architecture, navigation, commerce, and agriculture, in order to give their children a right to study painting, poetry, music, architecture, statuary, tapestry, and porcelain.”
Throughout the course of her talk, she stressed her mission as Speaker of the House was to shape a world that we, those still in the educational process, can inherit and change society for the better. As she discussed topics ranging from global warming to the War in Iraq she always made it a point to charge our generation with the responsibility of carrying the torch.
Throughout the House Speaker’s dialogue with the audience, I continued to ask myself if what she was saying was true. Is it our responsibility to carry the torch that the people running the country are lighting right now? Should it fall on our shoulders to carry on Gore’s fight against global warming and Bush’s struggle against terrorism?
The answer: No.
Pelosi’s point was we have to carry on what she and her colleagues have started. It’s undeniable the issues of today will fall down to us. When our generation becomes the workforce of America we will have to take on the unresolved issues — global warming, terrorism, education, the economy and many others. However, I think that it’s our responsibility to take these issues and not continue on in the current way but find a new approach.
What I mean by this goes back to the John Adams quote that Pelosi used to open her speech. The generation above us has used politics and war to work at solving world issues. It’s our responsibility to think about world problems in a new way and bring about a paradigm shift.
Therefore, I must disagree with Speaker Pelosi on what we should be doing as we take control of the country. Political theory has been relatively constant for long — the same process and the same problems. It’s time for a new approach.
Right now, each issue facing our country is handled on an individual basis. As we obtain our interdisciplinary education we can analyze each issue as it affects the world system and find ways to fix the problems of the generation before us.
I charge our generation with changing the standard and finding new ways to tackle the problems in our world. During each class you attend until graduation day soak in every bit of thought and knowledge you can from every discipline. Soon we will be at the head of our nation and it will be our responsibility to take today’s problems and apply tomorrow’s solutions.
Will you take Joe’s charge and find new ways of solving the world’s problems? E-mail [email protected] to give us your solutions.
