On Wednesday, I saw Dan Rather speak on campus. What can I say, I'm a sucker for an older guy who uses expressions like "they beat him like a rented mule" and "we used to say if a frog had side pockets, he'd carry a handgun." Good ol' southerners with colorful vernacular.
Anyway, the first part of his speech was disappointingly standard, trite. Follow your dreams, yadda yadda.
He did say a few things that were of interest to me. When asked to comment on the current state of having (too?) many choices for sources of media content, Dan Rather said that while the internet can offer many good things and be a good tool, he still prefers to read the news. Newspapers, news magazines, etc. And he also said it's a good idea to read a book once in a while. (Amen!) In fact, he considers it part of a citizen's duty to read (about the news or whatever else). Also, he reminded the audience not to get too attached to one source of news - he recommends getting your news from multiple sources so that you're not letting yourself just hear what you want to be told so that you can hear many different viewpoints and evaluate them for yourself.
Also relevant was his encouragement to not act on fear, saying that this generation worried him because he noticed an increased tendency to respond to fear where previous generations had not. 9/11 is one obvious cause for this new response to fear and Mr. Rather offered that the response might be justified, but just be aware of people manipulating you via fear. Being a very fearful person from time to time, I could stand to take that advice.
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