It was great to have Professor Peter Enns come and discuss with us some of the political issues and discourse currently dominating this country at the Rose Cafe. We touched on a variety of issues, such as the whether or not President Trump’s recent executive orders are actually legal and how to have constructive and inclusive conversations with all types of people. And on the subject of having inclusive and fruitful discussions, one of the points raised was to try not to attack and question the motives and character of individuals, but rather focus on the substance of the issues at hand. However, I believe that the values, beliefs, and motives of individuals are essential to the way they approach policy on these various issues. For example, whether or not people feel areas such as education and health care are human rights dictates the types of policy they put forth or support. And thus, while discussion of the validity of someone’s motives and beliefs can be a very challenging and perhaps uncomfortable subject to approach in a conversation, I actually think that it is crucial to truly get to the root of many of the political issues that face this country.

And while conversation is never a bad thing, I think what is far more important is actually calling out and standing up against injustices that take place in this country. I believe that such events like the Women’s March are simply awesome and are incredibly hopeful signs.  This actually relates to what Professor Enns discussed as the “zone of acquiescence”, which refers to a range of acceptable policies on political issues, and certainly many events and occurrences of the past couple years should have exceeded and gone far beyond society’s zone of acquiescence. Thus, although our country is facing a difficult political climate, I genuinely believe that as long as we continue to follow our morality and act against injustices, the country will be in good shape.