Self-described “public citizen” Ralph Nader was welcomed to the Whitman campus with not one but two standing ovations Wednesday evening when he presented “Going Green: Getting it to the Bottom Line,” a lecture on the intersection between big business, the government, the environment and civic involvement.
Nader opened his speech with a call to action, asking how many college students in the room had sat in on a court case or attended a town hall meeting. Few raised their hands.
“I see students today as having an obligation to contemplate their own leadership,” he said.
Nader proposed that Whitman, along with colleges and universities nationwide, implement a civic skills course that would teach students how to be involved in the civic realm, rather than only address theories. Such a class would hopefully give students a passion for civic participation. The proposal was met with overwhelming support from the audience.
According to Nader, fewer than a dozen schools currently offer such civic skills courses.
Nader also emphasized the amount of power that corporations hold in society. He thinks that corporations have become masters of our society on a global scale.
“We let [the corporations] create a corporate state,” he said.
Nader also discussed his disappointment with our political system and the problems inherent in a two-party system, which he believes is one of the reasons the United States has such a low voter turnout.
“I’m disappointed with the political process, and guess what, I’m not the only one,” said Nader. “The two-party tyranny is riding the myth of voter trust.”
His lecture was attended by students, alumni and Walla Walla residents, and many seemed to appreciate the real-world applicability of his ideas. Students were especially receptive to his idea of a civic skills course.
Politics major David Mathews appreciated Nader’s advice about entering the real world. As a senior, Mathews observed that Nader’s speech will be especially useful as he prepares for life after Whitman.
“I thought it was really interesting the way he combined personal ethics with sense of civic responsibility and the idea that you have to actively jump into it,” said Mathews. “Especially as a senior, looking at what I’m going to be doing in the future, having to jump into the real world is something that rang very poignantly for me.”
First-year Kate Kight said that she would like to take a civic skills course as proposed by Nader if it were offered at Whitman. While she views theory as an important aspect of politics, she thinks that it would be helpful to know how to actually put it into practice.
“We have spent so much time on theory and what should be done, not on what we can do and how to implement it,” said Kight.
Sophomore Yonas Fikak would be interested in taking a civic skills course as well. He likes the idea of a class that would teach people how to be involved.
“If you do not know how to be involved in it and make a change, it is almost useless to learn how the system functions,” said Fikak.
Alumus Caelob Henry ’06 thinks that implementation of theory should be a component of many types of classes, not just politics. Instead of writing papers, students could work on applying the theory outside of the classroom.
Andrew Geasland, a Walla Walla resident, attended one of Nader’s presidential campaign speeches and noted that while many people are dissatisfied with what is happening in the government, they do not know how to act on their concerns.
“It is good for him to bring [civic involvement] up in the context of how people can affect change,” said Geasland.
John Kiefel, a Walla Walla resident, saw Nader speak at Whitman when he last came in 2001. Although he thinks that Nader’s speech was funnier last time, he still enjoyed seeing him this time.
“I thought [the speech] was excellent. Ralph usually speaks in critical but inspirational ways,” said Kiefel.
According to the Whitman Events Board Lectures Director, sophomore Charlie Weems, the goal of bringing Nader to campus was to have a well-known speaker at Whitman.
“Recently we’ve been trying to do a big push towards getting a larger-name speaker that people will recognize to come to campus,” he said.
Weems noted that another goal of bringing Nader to campus was to boost applications and to get recognition for Whitman. He was also hoping to promote WEB’s involvement in campus activites, as it is a new organization this year.
“We’re hoping to get people to realize that [WEB is] doing our job alright and that we are pretty active on campus,” he said.
There are many difficulties with bringing such a famous speaker to Whitman. Given the limited flight options into Walla Walla, Nader had to fly to Spokane; he then drove to Walla Walla.
Another challenge is that most speakers will not do a “one-out,” where they travel directly to the location of the speech, because it is a relatively remote location.
Whitman needed to look for speakers that were on tour in the area so that transportation to Walla Walla was easier. Nader will be speaking at Evergreen State College on Friday, May 6, so he was already going to be in the area.
WEB was concerned that Nader would not want to stay in the area for the two-day gap between his Whitman visit and his engagement at Evergreen, yet this was not a problem. Nader will spend part of Thursday, May 6, visiting environmental studies classes. In a press conference before his speech on Wednesday, Nader said he was impressed with the number of resources many liberal arts schools have dedicated to solving environmental problems.
“If where you go to school is your laboratory for green activities, you’re going to be a different person when you graduate,” he said.
