On March 8, I spent a few minutes watching in horror as NBC's Today Show reported a breaking story from Texas - a woman had allegedly hit a man with her car, wiped him off her windshield, then left him to die. I can't shake this visual or the sickness that I feel in my stomach after having heard this story.
Whether local or national news, stories these days are so depressing: the Boston clergy sexual abuse scandals, the boys that murdered two Dartmouth professors, and the ongoing horrors occurring in Afghanistan and the Middle East, Andrea Yates and poor Danny Pearl and his widowed pregnant wife. Perhaps times are uniquely grim right now and society is uniquely sick in the wake of Sept. 11. This makes the reason I am writing all the more important.
I work at the University College of Citizenship and Public Service (UCCPS). Our mission is to ensure that students graduate from Tufts prepared to be committed public citizens and leaders who take an active role in building stronger communities and healthier societies. The New York Times has called UCCPS "the most comprehensive example of the efforts... of universities across the nation to re-emphasize public service as a core tenet of the curriculum." This effort is by no means unique to the Tufts campus. Campuses around the country are building momentum for a civic engagement revolution: Brown University's Swearer Center for Public Service, University of Pennsylvania, University of Minnesota, Bates College, Trinity College, and Portland State University to name a few.
In my role as Student Leadership Programs Director, my primary responsibility is to build the capacity of the 48 undergraduate Omidyar Scholars who have received scholarships to reward their passions to become more active citizens and to engage in innovative efforts to build healthier communities.
The UCCPS and the Omidyar Scholars are funded by Pierre and Pam Omidyar - Pierre as you probably know, founded eBay. His vision for the University College is to cultivate breakthrough models to rapidly expand student capacity to be active citizens engaged with building healthier communities.
In dire times like these when story after story reflect random social ills, like a young woman wiping a corpse off her windshield - why can't the media take the responsibility for bringing inspiration into our homes each morning? Can't somebody do a series of segments highlighting the incredible movement emerging on college campuses today - civic engagement and the hope of healthier individuals and communities in the future?
I'd love to see the Today Show or Oprah invite Pierre Omidyar and a handful of Tufts students to provide some a.m. inspiration. There are thousands of students nationwide, probably worldwide, who are putting their idealism to work for a healthier global future - wouldn't you like to hear from two of them for every one depressing act of present violence?
I am a 28-year-old woman who has not yet lost all idealism, but like many of you, I imagine, it is diminishing. Imagine if younger kids and apathetic adults woke up each day and saw role models of the kinds of citizens they want to grow into, not the kind that make them nauseated as they walk to school or work each morning. Imagine how parents and neighbors and just average citizens seeking out the 'good' in this world might feel to wake up to those stories rather than to more and more death and violence. What would the ripple effect be in this world if students were trying to 'out-do' each other doing good, rather than taking notes on how to execute a high school murder rampage like that at Columbine? What is the role of the media - from The Tufts Daily to the Today Show - as civic leaders in communicating inspiring stories?
Is it so na??ve to think that the media could even temporarily shift the emphasis to positive initiatives occurring in the world? I think the average citizen really needs a bit of inspiration these days.
I sent this letter to Matt Lauer, Katie Couric, and Oprah - I'd love to see Tufts students currently leading the national movement of civic engagement share their idealism with the rest of the world on national television. Thanks to all of you Tufts students for the good work that you do and the inspiration that you provide to everyday citizens like me.
Carey Levitt is the Student Leadership Programs Director for UCCPS
