In a time when so many young people are grappling with the current political scene of the United States, best-selling author Paul Loeb strives to encourage these young people to have a voice – to talk about the issues, he said, rather than the candidates” hair.
Loeb, who is currently a Seattle-based Huffington Post blogger, gave his keynote address, “Soul of a Citizen” Tuesday evening in the Vandal Ballroom. In the address Loeb said the biggest barrier to partaking in change is holding oneself to a perfect standard.
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Keynote speaker Paul Loeb presents “Soul of a Citizen” Tuesday at the Vandal Ballroom in the Bruce Pitman Center.
“All of us have this idea that in order to enact social change you have to be impossibly perfect, you have to have all the answers,” Loeb said. “None of us will ever be that.”
Loeb”s message was based around the concept that activism is possible for students with the application of several ideologies.
Loeb visited Moscow as part of the University of Idaho”s James A. and Louise McClure Center for Public Policy Research”s goal to bring specialists in public policy directly to students.
“Paul Loeb is a breath of fresh air on a campus that needs it,” said Priscilla Salant, director of the McClure Center. “He”s not focused on how many Ph.D”s we put out, or what football conference we”re in – he is focused like a laser on student engagement.”
Salant said a large part of why Loeb”s visit was valuable is because his message is about practicing citizenship – one of the McClure Center”s intended learning outcomes.
In his address, Loeb told a story he heard from Mahatma Gandhi”s grandson about how Gandhi”s original career as a lawyer went terribly – the future activist simply could not win a court case. In addressing the fear that comes with attempting to act with the perfect standard in mind, Loeb used this story as inspiration.
“If somebody is hesitant, they will always be more confident than Gandhi was in his first few court cases,” Loeb said.
Loeb brought up the story of Rosa Parks – as the famous story goes, Parks refused to give up her seat to a white person on a bus. Yet Loeb pointed out that Parks was not just one person – her demonstration was part of a larger movement and a larger support system.
“You need a community,” Loeb said. “You can start with three or four people, but you need to keep each other going when times get tough.”
Loeb also said real change starts by asking the logical questions, and that Rosa Parks is just one example of intentional action that makes such change possible.
He also discussed the importance of getting others engaged, saying it could harbor unexpectedly pleasant results.
“You could end up involving someone who becomes the next Rosa Parks,” Loeb said. “A future Nobel Peace Prize winner could be living in your dorm, but only if you engage them.”
Finally, Loeb addressed the key ingredient for furthering engagement in any civil initiative: perseverance.
“Whatever you”re doing in working for change, there are going to be setbacks,” Loeb said. “Hope is essential.”
Loeb said he began partaking in initiatives for change as a high school student during the Vietnam War, but that his passion for activism grew as he went to college and later worked for a small political magazine.
“It was more gradual, versus “Boom, I”ve seen the light,”” Loeb said.
Loeb”s two best-selling books, “The Impossible Will Take a Little While” and “Soul of a Citizen,” are centered around movements toward social change and the activists who took part in them. Loeb said he has also written about atomic weapons workers, grassroots peace groups and more. His field of expertise touches not only on civil engagement, but environmentalism and war ethic as well.
Loeb”s most recent venture, the Campus Election Engagement Project, is an initiative to encourage young voters to take part in political movements on both local and national levels. Loeb was compelled to start the project after hearing students” main reasons for not voting: they don”t know how to register, they don”t know enough about the candidates or they think the political system is too corrupt and their vote means very little.
Loeb said the Campus Election Engagement Project, based out of Columbus, Ohio, is meant to prompt universities to help students access this missing information. This can be done by offering a non-partisan questionnaire to help students better understand which candidate”s policies best line up with theirs, and by going to students to help them register to vote rather than waiting for them to reach out.
“You have to really go out to people, you have to get out from behind the tables,” Loeb said. “It”s harder, but the difference – night and day.”
In response to the claim that democracy is simply too eroded for a students” vote to mean anything, Loeb said voting is merely one tool in a plethora of tools a student can use to make a difference.
“You can”t build a house with any one tool,” Loeb said. “Voting is a tool among others you can use to bring about social change.”
Though Loeb has been speaking on college campuses since the release of his first book over 30 years ago, he said his recent campus visits are especially useful because they help propel him into further developing his work with the Campus Election Engagement Project. He also said that even though the project is largely based online, the intended outcome should lead to in-person discussions about politics.
“Hearing answers as to why students don”t vote validates what we do,” Loeb said. “It might be a virtual project, but the focus is really on face-to-face interaction.”
Lyndsie Kiebert can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @lyndsie_kiebert