Dan Rather: Bridging the Gap

Sitting down to listen to Dan Rather's lecture I had one regret: I didn't bring anything to write with. What a fantastic opportunity I was going to have to get some great blog ideas and I was about to miss out! I knew there was no way I was going to be able to remember everything he said and be able to take it to make a good blog post about it. I decided to take notes on my phone in the form of a text message, which isn't the greatest medium for note taking to I apologize if my Dan Rather information seems a little holey. Texting notes just isn't very efficient.

What I took away the most from Mr. Rather's lecture was the important role media has as a bridge between what the government is doing and what the citizens want their government to do. The newspapers, he said, are a form of checks and balances and it is our responsibility as citizens to find a reliable newspaper, out of the thousands that are made available to us, that was can use as a gauge for our satisfaction in the government. De Tocqueville also spoke about this important and powerful role newspapers have in our government.

Speaking more like de Tocqueville, Rather emphasized that the future depends on our individual and collective rolls and how we act on these roles. Rather's points on the importance each citizen has in our country filled me with inspiration and motivation to do my part. It brought back a feeling I had in AmCon a few weeks ago. It was a feeling I enjoyed and one we kind of got away from as our focus moved away from citizenship to our projects and final essays for the year. Rather's lecture was a good reminder of what we learned in class and was refreshing to hear from an "outside source"