Money your money right now.

Thank you thank you and
I resent no pressure.

Just because you're an employee.

Well and thanks to all of you for
coming out this morning.

It is Election Day And as you can see
from my handsome decal I voted and

I'm happy to see a number of
details around the room on you and

I hope that by the end of
the day everybody will get one.

It's easy enough to do and
it's an important thing to do.

It's an important thing to do
is not indicated the topic of my

talk believe as I teach because you vote.

What Whitman said I hear America
singing I say I see America voting and

realize that some of those
voters are my students and so

it's an important part of my job here and

this particular line came to me
several years ago I had a student in

class I was teaching a big American
history class and one of my students said

well you know I'm an engineering student
why don't you take this history stuff.

And I have to say as a history professor
at Georgia Tech you can sometimes

feel on wanted but
you never feel I needed.

And so I told the student
I said I teach because you

vote I don't know what gets you here in
the morning but I know what gets me here.

Now what I mean by that and I want to be
very clear is not that I want to tell

anybody how to vote or
certainly for whom to vote.

I have struggled that myself sometimes
frankly including this morning but

I think the larger question is
to never to take voting for.

Granted and
the work that goes along with it.

And I think that as we confront
the electoral process and

think about the issues.

We need some kind of intellectual context
for that we need some background and

we have to work sometimes to get it.

And this is I have to say one
of the things that I think my

role in teaching history does.

We know there are very few simple
answers in history at least

the interesting questions don't have
simple answers it can't be reduced to

a yes no right wrong black white issue.

Just a couple of examples I teach
sometimes about the American Revolution

and I sometimes ask how can you have
this movement this radical movement for

liberty and equality that at the end
still denies so many people.

African-Americans and women and
Indians the right to vote and

does or
something that came up in class yesterday.

What does it mean when we
see that the last passenger

pigeon in America dies in the Cincinnati
Zoo one thousand nine hundred fourteen and

with that is the end of the species.

I don't know the answer
to those questions or

at least I don't know all the answers are
simple answer those questions think they

are worth talking about and
that's why I stay in this business.

That's why I think we all ought to
be in this business in some respect.

And I don't want to suggest by any means
that simply by asking questions of

the past and doing the research and
talking about them.

You can come up to some kind of answer
that will necessarily tell you what was

right in the past much less
what's right in the present.

We can ask questions about why the
American of the revolution didn't result

in a wider electorate.

At the time we can also ask questions
about who has the right to vote.

Now whether we're talking about
the immigrant population people who

are not citizens in this country
should they have the right to vote.

We don't just talk about the death of
a particular pigeon in the Cincinnati Zoo.

When we talk about extinction and

that can't necessarily tell us what
to do today about oil spills and

climate change and so forth but
it can put us in the right direction.

It can get us thinking about
some of these issues and

the thinking is the critical issue here.

Again I never try to tell students nor

my faculty colleagues what to do what
to think but I do invite them to think.

Because I think especially as we approach
this political season I we're now

at least knee deep in it.

We can't get our information
simply from the easy sources.

You can't just rely on Fox News M
S N B C The Daily Show you can't

rely on the ads that the candidates put
out for themselves make We've seen that.

I think we have to work.

We have to do some some thinking we have
to do a bit of research a bit of analysis

and yeah a lot of conversation with other

people including people who don't
agree with it and that's what I

think universities do well that's what
I think universities ought to do well.

You know we're not here as
college professors and we're

not here as a university simply to help
students to get a job and find a career.

We do that we do that quite well but
that's not the only purpose.

Or also in the anti stupid business and

it's a big business and
will never go out of business.

I'm afraid.

But I think one thing that universities
do is to try to help students and

really try to help faculty staff and
administrators through our various

conversations become what I call
sophisticated citizens sophisticated

in the sense you're able to look at a
variety of issues able to analyze and able

to put things together and able to come up
at some point with some kind of answer.

And the citizen part is that
you're a member of civil society.

You're not just an employee
you're not just a breadwinner.

You're not just a worker.

You're a person who has
responsibilities in society.

That's what I think universities do well.

That's one thing I think Georgia Tech
as a university can do better.

And it's not just a question
of taking my history classes.

I think there are a number of
opportunities on the campus outside

a class where people can carry on
conversations about important issues where

people can have informed discussion and
yes informed debate.

I think open forum has become
one of those opportunities

on Georgia Tech's campus I'm very glad to
see it's here and I think at that point it

might be a very good opportunity for me to
open the form up to you with my thanks for

this three minutes of time I've
had this morning thank you.