A new university president?

Ironically, that last paragraph describes a President that is unlikely to be hired at UF given recent BOG decisions.

 

I agree with Ranger, the division has always been there, we have the internet to thank for it being all up in your face now. But right now I’d say it not that the country is more divided, it’s that there is more action based on said division.

The real problem is the constant need for people to be in power. The constant swapping off ideals between parties to make sure they stay in power. Term limits should applied no matter the level of government. Congress shouldn’t be able to vote for their own salary increase, etc.

Politicians should not be mocking people publicly on either side and the news shouldn’t either. It’s basically toddlers making decisions for all of America.

 

I agree with term limits for sure. I can never see it happening but, it would be a blessing. Not sure I would extend that to the Supreme Court, however. It would became a tool for the party in power with no resistance whatsoever.

 

It’s easier to avoid mixing with people with whom we might differ. Drive-thru food, door dash, remote garage doors, HOAs with no sidewalks, Spotify to only listen to what we select…oh, and I appreciate all of these things while still acknowledging that they reduce the face:face interactions with people I might or might not differ.

 

Not sure what several of these posts ( not just this one) have to do with picking a UF President, but....

I first became politically aware during the Vietnam era and felt far more optimistic then than now.( Perhaps do to youth) I've always felt that if the Republic falls/declines it will be from internal sources not external ones. An attack on the nation's capital is definitely a major step in that direction. More subtle is the removal of government checks and balances.

More relevant to this thread,, the average student has no direct interaction with the university president and probably couldn't pick him/her out of a lineup. In fact most profs never see the president. I have a relatively young family member who has been a professor at 2 major universities, never met the presidents and has no knowledge of their politics. Whether the prez is R or L should not matter if they are qualified. Unfortunately, that no longer seems to be the criteria in Florida, which to me is pretty sad.. Hopefully a S/T issue. .

 

I like what you’re saying here, but don’t quite understand what you mean with the “constant swapping off of ideals between parties……” - it seems to me that the conservatives are pretty consistent other than internal disagreements regarding deficit spending - the liberals on the other hand just seem to be drifting farther and farther to the left. What do you mean by that Hawaii?

 

Let's not wander off the path into differences between liberals and conservatives. OK? We've done a good job so far but that will only lead to trouble, IMO.

 

“Off” was a typo meant to be “of”. Regardless, I don’t think either party has been consistent of what their ideals were originally. In trying for it not to go to the cesspool of Too Hot, I’ll leave specifics out here.

 

IMHO, a lot of our malaise is about the "handlers" of the Great Unwashed having embraced the notion of, you keep them on edge, allow them to proclaim righteousness while deriding the other side, and then when it looks too bleak you swoop down and give them "solutions", also known as acquiescent to authority. And so, the main goal is have us embrace losing liberty in order to receive security. For which we will not have nor deserve either.

Once you get into the game in earnest, you realize that, unless you have an overwhelming advantage in resources and have the resolution (the most egregious being genocide), you have as much to lose as you have to gain and then you are forced to address the differences. I like the line from Golda Meir who was talking about the war with Arab nations, "As long as they hate us more than they love their children, the war will continue."

Right now, we are a righteous, lazy, and reactive folk. And, IMO, it is by design. I also like the latter part of the movie "Lawrence of Arabia", where the Arabs were responsible for the capture of Damascus, one of the jewels of the Middle East and the English colonialists "allowed" them to "do their thing", which made long term grudges to blow up their coalition. And in the end, the Arabs acquiesced to Great Britain in a manner similar to their Turkish rulers.

Civility is not a requirement to live, but it IS a requirement to achieve certain results. And right now, we are losing it all in a BIG way. No civility, it ultimately leads to one person living. Because eventually, your friends become your competition.

I am not sure what this has to do with the President search but I figured it was as good of a support of the hijack as any.

 

I like and appreciate the civility in this thread, and we can’t compel the new UF President to role model civility, nor the faculty or students but we can role model it ourselves here. It’s one place we can do something about it.

 

It's the price we pay to keep the "fundamental change" from infecting our great nation. I also think we can bring back a degree of harmony, and a healthy understanding of opposing view points in time.