On Campus Event: Campaign luncheon

I went to the brown bag luncheon about foreign policies in the 2008 campaign. I know it wouldn't really be a stretch for most people, but I'm not quite as politically involved or aware as I should be. Regarding that, this was a pretty interesting event for me. I wish they could have talked a little more about each candidates views on foreign policy, just because I'm not very familiar with them. However, I'm sure I was one of the only ones in attendance who needed a review session.
One thing I was particularly interested in was the emphasis the speakers put on Pakistan and the danger it poses. Their argument was that, since Pakistan has developed nuclear bombs their potential threat to us and other countries has drastically increased. I really hadn't considered this as an issue and I'm glad they brought it up.
My knowledge about the political situation has really improved since I started Paideia, which is definitely something that needed to happen. Between our discussions and reading Newsweek I feel much more informed about the goings-on of the world and the US, though I could still use some improvement.

I wish that we would have had some more time to discuss my topic, but I think it went well. The majority of our discussions could last for days so I was expecting that. One thing I wanted to bring up that I didn't have time to was the percentage of black men who no longer have their voting rights, about 1.4 million or 13%. I'm interested in what everyone thinks about this. I was torn between two thoughts. The first is that ex-convicts should have to deal with the consequences of their crime. The second, however, was pure astonishment that so many members of a demographic are not represented in the voting process. I'm not sure what the laws are regarding this topic, but I think that after a certain amount of time voting rights should be regained.
Another issue I wanted to bring up was the comment about the cyclic nature of this issue. (Parents go to jail, are no longer around to raise their children, these children are then "more likely" to commit crimes themselves, etc. etc.) This reminds me of the cycle of low-income families and a lack of education. In my FYS (The Quest for Educational Equality in America) we discussed this at length and it really interests me as a possible venue for our service project. I know we haven't really started sharing our ideas yet but this article presented a good motivator for me to start brainstorming.