Posts tagged right
Voguit to Examine Two-Party System During Community Lecture Series Event
Oct 9th
“I have looked at presidential elections, congressional elections and gubernatorial elections between 1865 and 1900 and clearly America was voting for Democrats or Republicans,” said Flagler College assistant professor Steve Voguit. “I am intrigued by this tradition since the constitution does not require political parties at all.”
Voguit will address this topic as he continues the 2012 Community Lecture Series on Oct. 23 with a talk on “United Nation, Divided Nation: Patterns in American Politics after the Civil War.”
“I’ll be attempting to show the solidifying of the two-party tradition and the domination of the Democrats and Republicans at the national level,” said Voguit, who was recently included in the Princeton Review’s latest book, “The Best 300 Professors.” “I will also talk briefly about the political conditions of that time like high voter turnout and very close elections for instance as well as the establishment of tradition in our society in general and in this case politically.”
Professor Voguit earned his M.Ed. and B.S. degrees from Millersville University of Pennsylvania. He also completed graduate coursework at the University of Florida, the University of South Florida and Texas State University.
Voguit’s lecture is the second in this year’s lecture series entitled “Reconstruction & Gild: Wealth, Innovation and the Pursuit of Status in Late 19th Century America” which focuses on defining moments in American history during the mid to late 1800s. Speakers will discuss the topic through the lens of their particular discipline.
Tickets are $5 per person for a single lecture, or $15 for four lectures. Active military personnel may attend at no charge. Lectures begin at 10 a.m. in the Flagler Room at Flagler College, 74 King St. Reservations are required, but space is limited. The lecture will last approximately one hour and will be followed by a coffee and pastry reception.
For reservations or more information, call Holly Hill, Assistant Director of College Relations at (904) 819-6282. To watch a live stream of these lectures, visit ustream.tv/channel/community-lecture-series.
Flagler College is an independent, four-year, comprehensive baccalaureate college located in St. Augustine, Fla. The college offers 24 majors, 29 minors and two pre-professional programs, the largest majors being business, education and communication. Small by intent, Flagler College has an enrollment of about 2,500 students, as well as a satellite campus at Tallahassee Community College in Tallahassee, Fla. U.S. News & World Report and The Princeton Review regularly feature Flagler as a college that offers quality education at a relatively low cost; tuition is $23,690, including room and board. A relatively young institution (founded in 1968), Flagler College is also noted for the historic beauty of its campus. The main building is Ponce de Leon Hall, built in 1887 as a luxury resort by Henry Flagler, who co-founded the Standard Oil Company with John D. Rockefeller. For more on Flagler College, visit www.flagler.edu.
Source: Flagler College
Mike Lucas sells “Lukes a Steak Place”
Oct 3rd
After 21 years of amazing food, service, and friendship, Mike is saying goodbye to the business. He has decided to retire and although we grant him that right (even though we don’t want to ), we will miss him ever so greatly! For those of you going into panic mode, don’t worry you can still get your fix. Mike has sold the restaurant to a great gentleman who is not only keeping the same great steaks but is also keeping the name. And we aren’t skipping a beat, we will be open as usual.
With that said, Mike wants to see all of you before he goes. Please join us on Friday, October 12th and/or Saturday, October 13th as we will be taking reservations for any number of guests. This will be Mike’s last weekend of work and he will be visiting each table to bid farewell and will also be saying a few words to everyone both nights at 7:30pm. In addition, don’t forget to send him off with well wishes by signing our farewell book on either of these nights!
Lets give Mike the send off he deserves!! We look forward to seeing you all!!
Sincerely,
Katie
Katie Schwartz
Manager
Luke’s A Steak Place
4990 Kipling St.
Wheat Ridge, CO 80033
303-422-3300
How to Change Someone’s Mind
Sep 17th
Throughout our lives, we encounter many situations in which we try to change someone’s opinion to match our own.
As children, we tried to persuade our playmates to agree with us as to what to play, where to go, what to do.
Occasionally, we tried to persuade our parents to let us stay up later, buy us a particular toy, let us watch television.
As teenagers, we might have had younger siblings to convince to let us have our way, best friends to agree on which movie to see and sweethearts to persuade that we were being honest and true to them.
As adults, we sometimes have a fellow juror or a spouse we try to persuade to agree with us, a co-worker we want to do things the way we want and our own children to persuade that what we want is best for them.
But have you ever examined the art and process of changing someone’s mind? Have you ever thought about your successes and failures and drawn any conclusions about what works and what doesn’t? Have you ever taken the time before an argument to determine what you want to achieve, what the best persuasive evidence is to present and what characteristics your adversary has that might help your cause?
Childhood arguments are simple. We either reach a mutual agreement about what we want to do or one of us walks away in hurt or anger. With our parents, if we don’t have a convincing argument to prove our point, the larger, more powerful person wins.
Teenage disagreements are more complicated. We can usually win an argument with a younger sibling based on our broader knowledge and experience, but we have to be aware that an arbitrary, selfish decision might be used against us later in life. With best friends and sweethearts, we are on equal ground, and logic has to come into play along with our emotions.
Adult arguments are the most complicated of all, and yet society wants us to conduct them in the most logical, dispassionate manner possible, as adults, without violence.
So, what is the best way to change someone’s mind, so that not only do you achieve the result you want, but all parties are also in nonresentful agreement afterwards?
The best approach is to use logic. For example: “If all A is B, and C is A, then C is also B.”
Who can argue against that? If you don’t agree that C is B, then you have to disprove either “all A is B” or “C is A.”
“All politicians are crooks. Richard Nixon was a politician. Therefore, Nixon was a crook.”
The problem with logic is that the opponents have to agree that the premises are true. (“Two neighbors were arguing over the backyard fence, but they couldn’t reach an agreement, because they were arguing from different premises.”)
Humor can be useful in arguments, because it can break the tension, put things in a different perspective and sometimes allow you to save face and agree to change your opinion in an argument that isn’t really important.
However, unless the parties agree to the truth of the premises, no amount of logic is going to change anyone’s mind.
Pro-life people believe “All abortion is killing. Killing is wrong. Therefore, all abortion is wrong.”
Pro-choice people disagree with either “all abortion is killing” or “(all) killing is wrong,” and therefore they will never agree with the conclusion “all abortion is wrong,” unless they can agree to live with something they believe is wrong.
The pro-choice argument is “Women can do what they want with their bodies. Abortion is an act of doing what you want with your body. Therefore, women can have abortions.”
The pro-life people disagree with “women can do what they want with their bodies.” And until the two sides get in the same backyard and argue from the same premises, no amount of logic is going to change anyone’s mind.
When logic fails, threats can sometimes work, followed by force or else sometimes just force without the threat.
“If you don’t give me that ball, I’m going to punch you in the nose.”
“If you don’t go to bed right now, I’m going to give you a spanking.”
Threats and force, however, don’t change minds; they just achieve results in a childish fashion and always cause resentment.
Logic works better, as long as we’re all playing in the same backyard.
I rest my case.