“People fail to get along because they fear each other; they fear each other because they don’t know each other; they don’t know each other because they have not communicated with each other,” former Attorney General Loretta Lynch said, quoting Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
WCU political science major David Benoit speaks with former U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch during a reception held after the chancellor’s list ceremony. Photo WCU Public Relations Office.
Lynch, who spoke to the full auditorium at Bardo at the Chancellor’s list ceremony on Sept. 18, gave a challenge to WCU students, “The Choose to Listen Challenge.”
Lynch said that Americans are “separated by politics more than ever,” but did not fail to say that she believes “there’s a path to bring us back together.” This is the main point of her speech, which is for people to engage in respectful dialogue with others, including those whom we disagree with.
The challenge is simple, find someone you disagree with and listen. She said the hardest part of the challenge is asking the questions “Why do you feel that way?” “Why is this so important to you?” and “What’s your biggest concern when you hear mine or the other point of view?”
Political science professor, Dr. Niall Michelsen, said her speech builds on something WCU did few years ago with the campus theme on Citizenship and Civility.
“Ultimately, the way that she blended all of these things that she mentioned in there and led to civil discourse. That was some of the best stuff that I’ve heard about civil discourse. Western has had a year where as our theme, it was civil discourse, trying to learn to speak respectively. That all developed out of the things she said earlier in the speech,” Dr. Niall Michelsen said.
Hear her full speech.
Lynch did take time out of her speech to mention Senator John McCain.
“Senator McCain, the former prisoner of war, whose courage and character during that time literally defined the word hero. Worked tirelessly in the senate and around the globe to open relations with Vietnam, the country that was the source of his greatest pain, not many people could have done that,” Lynch said.
She also mentioned a memory of her and Aretha Franklin.
“My fellow preacher’s daughter visited the Department of Justice for an event and stayed for a small reception. We didn’t think she’d stay and mingle with people in the room, but she stayed for the reception and afterwards she spoke with everyone equally warmly, and then she sat, and she talked with me about the pressures of public life and at one point I looked down and she had her shoes off. That was how real she was,” Lynch said.
Lynch discussed other topics including WCU’s late Chancellor Belcher and Hurricane Florence.
“I know that you all miss Chancellor Belcher and I extend my condolences to you and the entire Western Carolina family on your loss. I also know that all of you join me in sending not just your prayers, but for many of you, your efforts to our friends and family members our fellow North Carolinians in the Eastern part of our state who are just beginning to come to grips with devastation that’s brought there,” Lynch said.
Lynch’s speech was part of the Distinguished Lecture Series, which is cosponsored by WCU’s Division of Academic Affairs and Center for the Study of Free Enterprise. Future speakers in the series and more information can be found on here.
