Greetings on a cool autumn afternoon. Given all the tumult in the world around us, it has been a deceptively peaceful weekend, following a busy, productive week of work. But, I worry.
Mostly, I worry about the increasingly endangered concept of respectful discourse, even when people, principled or otherwise, disagree passionately about important topics. I see degradation of that respect in our government, which no longer is capable of even generating a yearly budget, in our universities, where disagreements have rapidly degenerated into hate speech, and on our streets, where hateful acts based on race, religion and nation of origin are increasingly common.
This is not a new phenomenon to anybody who has studied 19th century American history or has lived through Jim Crow, the Civil Rights era, the far-right movements of the 1930s, the McCarthy hearings and so much more. However, this time it feels different, because in many ways these previous challenges (with the exception of the American Nazi movement before World War II) were home-grown, distinctively American problems.
Today’s challenges certainly retain some of those all-American characteristics, but now that we live in an ever more deeply connected world, we have imported new types of unrest that feel more unstable, angrier and more ominous.
Many of us hope this is a temporary spasm of societal insanity, and that as political turmoil settles down in the United States and issues in the Middle East move toward some form of resolution (probably placing a temporary lid on boiling passions in that region of the world), things will return to “normal,” whatever that is. I am not so sure. The genie has escaped from its bottle and cannot be shoved back in all that easily.
These larger worries carry with them important implications for the work we all do. In times of chaos and turmoil, society invariably takes its eyes off science (except when it serves military objectives). For example, if/when the Congress fails to keep the government open, we will not know the score of our CCSG competitive renewal. We thus will not know what we can expect moving forward until the impasse is resolved. More importantly, what will happen to federal funding of cancer research over the next few years?
I hope my fretting is no more than that, but I imagine that many of you share my angst. More than ever, I feel that my words should be measured and infused with the type of respect that is founded in my personal values and those of Georgetown University. We all have a right to speak our minds and to be true to our ideas and beliefs, but I am determined to avoid contributing to the hate that, like an inferno, destroys everything in its path.
Stay safe, be well and make the world a better place.
Lou
The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed in the text belong solely to the author, and not necessarily to the author’s employer, organization, committee or other group or individual.