[image_credit]REUTERS/Carlos Barria[/image_credit][image_caption]President-elect Joe Biden[/image_caption]
[image_caption]Jim Scheibel[/image_caption]
We need, and Biden should give, an idealistic message — a call to act together, recognizing change sometimes requires sacrifice.
Some lines Biden might borrow from the students are:
- “Hello, fellow Americans! I am humbled that you chose me as your president. The task is great and the challenges are many.”
- “I ask you to think what you believe is possible. I stand before you with big dreams for this country and its people with hope and determination to make those dreams come true.”
- “The picture is not always rosy. Americans fight. Americans disagree. From the dinner table to the floor of the Senate, political discussion is a part of American life. We need to have conversations with people different from ourselves and learn where they come from and what experience and knowledge they bring.”
- “What I plan to do in my first term won’t solve many problems ingrained in the system completely; however, it will take a step in the right direction. Law enforcement is deeply flawed and needs to be abolished in favor of a more inclusive system. As it stands now, the poor and diseased are held down by the system and forced to suffer for the benefit of the rich and powerful. I aim to stand against the systemic discrimination against women and people of color. My administration will try its hardest to improve the lives of the LGBTQ+ community.”
- “I ask for you to stand by me these next four years and help me build this country to what I know it can be.”
Jim Scheibel, a former mayor of St. Paul, is Professor of Practice in the Management, Marketing and Public Administration Department, Hamline University. He is a former director of both AmeriCorps VISTA and the Senior Corps.
WANT TO ADD YOUR VOICE?
If you’re interested in joining the discussion, add your voice to the Comment section below — or consider writing a letter or a longer-form Community Voices commentary. (For more information about Community Voices, see our Submission Guidelines.)
Unity? This goes from talking about trying to understand people with whom we disagree, to being as toxic and divisive as possible. I shudder for the future if these kids are at all representative.
Those without sin throw the first stone. These young people expressed their views, their right in a free country. You only expressed condescension and condemnation.
I always find it weird when someone says something stupid and offensive, that someone will defend them with a strawman free speech argument. I didn’t say they didn’t have a right to express themselves.
Its my free speech right to respond to their stupidity and divisiveness with condescension.
Think back to your 18 year old self, and decide that any of those ideas floating around in your head were hands down, smarter than what these kids said. They don’t speak for me either, but they are at least dipping their toes into the morass, which in my book says that in 10 years, this dip will serve them well – certainly better than not even trying.
“Law enforcement is deeply flawed and needs to be abolished in favor of a more inclusive system. As it stands now, the poor and diseased are held down by the system and forced to suffer for the benefit of the rich and powerful. ”
Law enforcement seems to work for over 99% of our Minnesota and American cities. Don’t be an idiot. How are the diseased being held down and exactly what diseases do they have? Please give examples of what the rich and powerful do to hold down the poor in this “system” that they do not control? Please show examples of how Mark Cuban and Bill Gates personally force poor individuals (say their names) to suffer.
My goodness, the conservatives might be right, colleges and universities are polluting our children with the ideology of the left.
And you are not a conservative? I see you denying that racially based police violence is not a issue. Of course, it doesn’t affect you so you claim 99% of people are not affected. Maybe you would consider talking to parents of minority children and listen to what they have to stay? These students are hopeful about overcoming the shortcomings of our society, which includes indifference and contempt for the poor. Look at health statistics by race and income to see how short we fall with those without health insurance and good access to health care.
The black parents I know (and the black groups that have opposed Minneapolis’s defunding attempts) are acutely aware of the severe problems with policing, while also understanding how unbelievably stupid the idea of abolishing the police is. My black clients gave been abused by the police, but also call the police when they are the victims if crime.
The people supporting the defunding movement explain that that isn’t what they mean. Usually, the problem is just the bad messaging. But these kids are so dumb, so divorced from reality, that they have basically become a Republican caricature.
Hey, Black Lives Matter.
So, hows the weather up there on your moral high ground? Too bad the opinion of these young kids so offends your delicate world view. They at least have the courage to say something, you know, other than like your snark “say their names”. It’s almost like you don’t care that the police murder Black people at an astonishing rate, but then you don’t hear about those things on Faux news do you.
Each of the 5 students’ comments are credible. Are Gazelka, Daudt, McConnel, et. al. going to read them and think about how they can work with the newly-elected administration, this time, to actually improve this Country for it’s citizenry ?
I won’t hold my breath because their actions in recent National and State issues give no indication that it could happen.
Read an interesting book on Nixon. Forgot name of book. In the 60s the young people of America were protesting in ever bigger numbers, the continuing war in Vietnam and high casuality rate amongst drafted young American men. Nixon went to the Lincoln Memorial to brood. Soon spotted be young people milling around to protest that seemingly never ending war. They talked and Nixon said he didn’t want the war to continue, the Vietnamese didn’t …one young person asked than why is it continuing? He wrapped up the conversations and returned to his aides and car. He commented something to the effect that even a president doesn’t have that much real power. Alot of other “players” with their own agendas and connections. He said he hadn’t really thought about it that way before one of the kids asked ” You really don’t have that much real power. Do you?” (Not praising or defending Nixon, who was forced out later as he should have been). If I have a point it is this: many people, many agendas, some good, some not so benign, have an impact on what happens to us. Then of course, there are things we can personally actually control, like how we as individuals, treat other people.