Americans for Informed Democracy

So I've just returned from our first meeting of AID, which left me with a good feeling for its future at Trinity. AID's goal is to provide a forum for people to learn, debate, and better understand problems ranging from nuclear non-proliferation, the AIDS epidemic, U.S. foreign policy, to global climate change. Nationally and internationally AID organizes summits that bring academics, government representatives, and field experts together to talk about these issues, as well as put on town-hall style discussions at individual campuses. Here is the link to their website if you'd like to take a peek: www.aidemocracy.org. A friend and I are in the process of starting a formal chapter at Trinity, and so far have received a warm welcome and plenty of support. If you'd like to become a part of this new organization, please feel free to contact me and I'll put you on our mailing list. I'll be announcing future events here in the future as well. We're really an inclusive group and would love to have as many people involved as possible. P.S. They have a blog too!

Tonight we hosted Peter Beinart, who gave an eloquent and impassioned talk about the history of U.S. foreign policy, the underlying problems Democrats face in finding a message, and the importance of strengthening international organizations and NGO's, among other things. Peter is editor-at-large of The New Republic and author of The Good Fight: Why Liberals – and Only Liberals – Can Win the War on Terror and Make America Great. He writes TNR’s weekly TRB column, which is reprinted in the New York Post and other newspapers. He also writes a monthly column for The Washington Post. And he is a contributer to Time magazine, where he regularly writes the “Essay” section of its back page. Peter has appeared on ABC’s “This Week with George Stephanopolous,” “Charlie Rose,” and “Nightline.” He has been a political commentator on MTV. In addition, he also appears frequently on on a variety of radio shows on NPR and has a regular slot every three weeks on Air America’s “The Al Franken Show.” For such a young guy, he has quite a few credentials. He even brought up blogging at one point as a new form of mass media, with a huge potential as a political machine. He did have reservations about tendency of the blogosphere as a whole to be overly partisan and less informationally grounded.

More important than the talk though, was the question and answer session. Students and professors were both asking thoughtful questions which indicated informed backgrounds about the topics at hand. Considering this is AIDs biggest goal, to encourage such conversations, this was a great indication for the future. It can be really easy to succumb to life in a bubble here at Trinity, and forget that there are still pressing problems as far away Darfur and as close as our doorstep. My hope is, through AID, we can make it harder to forget. If you attended tonight's event, I would LOVE some feedback about it. Always looking for ways to improve.

We're not sure what our next event will be, but I'd love to have some input about what issues people care about most right now. We'll be having a meeting next week to hash this out, though we haven't figured out a time. I'm really optimistic about the whole endeavor. Anyhow, that's it for now.