The Rose Cafe event with Professor Enns was a great way for me to get back into the Rose programming this semester.

Professor Enns’s relaxed demeanor along with the new Cafe setting seemed to create an area free for discussion of concerns, questions, and comments about the current political state of affairs in our country. I greatly appreciated the professor’s expertise on the subjects discussed, and perhaps more so his admittance of his lack of answers and his own confusion over where our country is going.

Among his wealth of knowledge about current affairs and government, perhaps the most important thing he passed on to those at the Rose Cafe was his examination of personal biases and how that is shaping what we think of what is going on with our country. The example he gave was with the Republican’s strategy to place Senator Sessions’s hearing after DeVos’s so he gets a vote in her hearing. When he heard this happened, he was angry and thought of it almost as evil and wrong. With reexamination, however, Professor Enns was able to recognize that he would not feel the same if it was his party doing the same actions. This is contrasted with his anger over President Trump’s blatant lies to the country and his failure to correct himself. No matter the political ties of a president, this behavior is not ok.

Sharing these examples to the group, as well as Enns’s plea for us to look at intended outcomes instead of actions, really helped me reevaluate my anger over the state of our country. It helped me remember that although I do not agree with many republican ideals and policies, I can respect what they are trying to accomplish even if I disagree with how they go about it. It also completely solidified my belief that Donald Trump is not fit to run the United States of America, and that I would feel this way no matter my political affiliations.