Personal growth is a myth, political engagement is a reality

By Ryan Maloney

Fredonia President Virginia Horvath gives a speech in the Williams Center Multipurpose Room, the site
of Monday's viewing of the first presidential debate

"Personal growth doesn't automatically lead to political results ... the very word 'grow' is a word appropriate to children. After a certain age you do not grow." ~ James Hillman, We've had a hundred years of psychotherapy and the world's getting worse

Fredonia's mission statement starts, "Fredonia educates, challenges, and inspires students to become skilled, connected, creative, and responsible global citizens and professionals."

It goes on, "The university enriches the world through scholarship, artistic expression, community engagement, and entrepreneurship."

Nowhere does it say you will grow, because unless you have an inch yet to gain in height, you're not going to grow in college. But you might take steps toward the person you're already becoming -- an adult.

And adults are engaged in a political community, a group of people trying to create change. That community might be a neighborhood street, a town, a university, or the European Union. It's something you do with other people for everyone's benefit.

If you're in the United States and your political community is the Republicans or Democrats, tonight is very important to you. Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Hillary Clinton will debate how our nation should move forward. It is, theoretically, an adult conversation.

It's also the beginning of Fredonia's ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge, a group with the long-term goal of increasing political engagement, and hence, the number of adults on campus. Their first event is watching tonight's debate in the Williams Center Multipurpose Room at 8:30 p.m.

If you prefer to think of your attendance as a step in personal growth, I suppose that's fine for now.