“Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, today is a gift which is why we call it the present”, a quote from an unknown but probably very wise source. Last Wednesday I had the opportunity to listen to the Honorable Scott Miller speak about his experiences from his start as a scrappy young defense attorney to a sitting judge. While his perspective as a criminal defense attorney was intriguing, I have to say something he said about being an undergraduate student stuck out to me more than anything. He was talking about how in this day and age we have so many causes, as students, that we can protest. Whereas, as an undergrad in the 80s, the government did a wonderful job of keeping college students filled with the ideal that their government was so much better than everywhere else in the world that the students had to protest an institution halfway across the globe: apartheid in South Africa. That caused me to think about why that was possible. Sure, we have better ways of disseminating information now at a quick rate, i.e social media, but something about the statement tugged at my mind.

Today, I would venture to say that social media allows the sharing of thoughts and ideas to an extent allows for the exposure to a wide range of differing viewpoints creating a level of awareness on different issues that may not affect you personally. In comparison to the 80’s where you only knew about certain issues if it became bad enough that it was on the news or it directly affected you. The problem with hearing it on the news is that oftentimes there is a detachment between you and the story that is being reported. This detachment can become dangerous as it can cause a sense of apathy that alienates and causes a false sense of security that everything is okay in the way that you see it. Perspective is important. I’m glad that today, we have the ability to step outside of what we know and interact with people and ideas that we may not be familiar with. With that being said I would have to agree with the wise unknown source, today is a gift and we would do well to remember and cherish that and the gifts of today.