Mike Davis

Very interesting graphic

Please consider supporting one of our tremendous faculty members as she raises money for the Mon River Trail! This Fall (October 3), Julia Miller will be cycling 105 miles (yes, all in one day!) to fundraise for the Mon River Trails Conservancy. The donations from the MRTCentury will go directly to helping fund repairs from storm damage, trail upgrades, and access improvements on the Mon River and Deckers Creek Rail-Trails. If you are open to it, I would greatly appreciate your support in reaching her fundraising goal of raising $1,000 on my rail-trail route. You can choose to pledge a donation by-the-mile or donate a flat rate at the MRTCentury donor page here: go.rallyup.com/d4947c/m/juli…

This would be a pitch clock violation on the batter now.

My remarks from the Constitution Week Kick Off this afternoon: Good morning, and thank you for joining us as we begin Constitution Week. One of the first things I did when I got on campus was begin the planning of a Civics Institute. The reason I made this a priority here is because I believe universities have a responsibility to help prepare students not only for careers, but for citizenship. We spend a great deal of time talking about workforce preparation, professional skills, and economic opportunity—and we should. But higher education has always had another responsibility as well: helping people understand the institutions they inherit, the responsibilities that come with citizenship, and the role each of us plays in sustaining a democratic society. And that work feels especially important right now. For much of our lives, many of us have been given some version of the same advice: don’t talk about politics. Don’t bring it up at dinner. Don’t talk about it at work. Don’t discuss it in polite company. And I understand where that advice comes from. Politics can be divisive. It can become personal. It can make people uncomfortable. But I’m not sure avoiding those conversations has served us very well. If we lose the ability to talk with one another about difficult public questions, those questions do not disappear. We simply lose the skills necessary to discuss them. A democracy cannot function if its citizens are afraid to talk about the things that matter. They end up retreating to the social media or the TV news networks that happen to agree with them. And people of every political persuasion are guilty of this. I’ll admit at time even I have been guilty of this. So part of the purpose of a Civics Institute—and part of the purpose of Constitution Week—is to create space for those conversations. Not so that everyone agrees. Not so that a university tells people what to think. But so that we become better at thinking, listening, disagreeing, asking hard questions, and participating in public life. Each year, Constitution Week gives us an opportunity to reflect on one of the most important documents in our nation’s history. But I hope we use this week to think about more than the words written on a page more than two centuries ago. The Constitution is not self-executing. Democracy is not self-sustaining. Neither survives simply because we inherited them. They depend on us. They depend on the choices ordinary people make every day about how we treat one another, how we participate in our communities, and whether we are willing to accept responsibility for something larger than ourselves. That idea is at the heart of what we mean when we talk about civic virtue. Civic virtue is the recognition that citizenship is not just about what we are entitled to receive from a democracy. It is also about what we owe to one another in order for democracy to work. It is the habit of placing the common good alongside our own individual interests. It is the willingness to participate, to serve, to listen, to vote, to speak honestly, and to take responsibility for the health of the community around us. And importantly, civic virtue is not something reserved for elected officials or people who hold public office. It belongs to all of us. It can be as simple as showing up when your community needs help. It can mean listening seriously to someone with whom you disagree. It can mean defending the rights of someone whose views are very different from your own. It can mean telling the truth when doing so creates discomfort. And sometimes, it means standing up for someone else when it would be much easier to remain silent. That is where civic virtue becomes difficult. Doing the right thing when it is easy is important. Doing the right thing when it is difficult is character. And a healthy democracy requires people willing to do both. It requires us to listen to people with whom we disagree. It requires us to defend the rights of people whose views may be very different from our own. It requires us to resist the temptation to reduce one another to political parties, labels, or social media posts. And it requires us to speak up. That may be especially important right now. There are moments when silence feels easier. When the safest thing to do is to keep your head down, stay out of the argument, and allow someone else to take the risk. But citizenship has never been a spectator activity. Our democracy depends upon people who are willing to say something when something is wrong. People who will defend someone who is being treated unfairly. People who will challenge an idea when it needs to be challenged. People who will ask difficult questions, even when those questions make people uncomfortable. Speaking up does not mean shouting louder. It does not mean assuming that everyone who disagrees with us is acting in bad faith. And it certainly does not mean abandoning civility. In fact, one of the greatest demonstrations of civic virtue is the ability to speak with courage while still treating others with dignity. That is something universities must continue to teach and model. Fairmont State University should be one of the places in our society where difficult ideas can be discussed honestly, where disagreement is not feared, and where students learn not simply what to think, but how to think. We should be preparing students not only for careers, but for citizenship. That means helping them develop the confidence to speak, the humility to listen, and the courage to stand for something when standing for it is difficult. The Constitution created the framework for our democracy. But every generation has to decide whether it will sustain it. That responsibility now belongs to us. So as we begin Constitution Week, I hope we will spend some time thinking not only about the rights the Constitution guarantees us, but about the responsibilities those rights place upon us. To participate. To listen. To serve. To speak. And, when the moment requires it, to do what is right for others even when doing so would be easier to avoid. That is civic virtue. And our democracy depends on it. Thank you, and I hope you enjoy the programs and conversations that will take place throughout Constitution Week.

Should be in the Hall of Fame. Just like Dave Parker and Minnie Minoso he’ll get in but won’t be here to celebrate it.

Glad to see both debate champions on there!

Bobby Meachem!