The times they are divisive! It seems like no one can understand how the people they disagree with could possibly be motivated by anything other than self-interest and fear. Personally, I find not only the current political events stressful, but even the conversation is draining. So much so that I have had to turn off the radio on more than one occasion this week.
And once I realized that there are actually people who think that what the president did is defensible, I have also avoided reading most of the op-eds out there. Most, but not all. I thoroughly enjoyed the director of the Harvard Writing Center, Jane Rosenzweig's piece in the NY Times called The Whistle-Blower Knows How to Write, especially the two penultimate paragraphs:
Every semester, I encounter students who tell me variously that they hate writing, that they’d rather not write, that for the careers they aspire to they won’t need to write. I explain that no matter what careers they choose, they will have to write — reports, strategic plans, proposals and, if nothing else, many, many emails.
But I also tell them that learning to write matters because some day they may have something to say that really matters to them and possibly to the world — and they will want to convey it when the moment arrives in writing that’s clear and concise.Amen!
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