A Blog on McConnell Center Life

So there's a boy walking down 6th Street His hands and his pace don't match his quick feet  Frequently shattering his shins from the instinct  Phillip Lentsch - Class of 2018 Of sliding down slippery wet winter concrete  His eyes flash to the drums in his ears  Boppin’ to a dope beat His mind reminiscent  Of a fleet-footed dream  In the sweaty summer heat He shifts his gaze  And tells himself to keep moving  He doesn't have time to swim in his fantasies He's just tryna help his momma make ends meet.   This is the story of the boy that lost his way This is the story of monumental potential  That fell through like quicksand Last year There was a sexual assault not too far from where I lived Three suspects were shortly taken into custody in the days thereafter Following in the wake of empty screams  And nightmarish PTSD One of the boys charged was only 16 The police couldn't even disc...

Each president gets to designate one location as their private residence. This residence is afforded secret service protection and security upgrades. Reagan decided to designate a small, quaint ranch named “Rancho del Cielo,” or “Ranch in The Sky,” as his private residence. I was afforded the truly humbling opportunity to visit the place that the president had called a home away from home for more than 30 years. Evan Wright - Class of 2020 I had already learned much about Reagan from reading about him and hearing the stories of those who had lived through his presidency. But after visiting the Reagan ranch I realized that I never truly understood the dynamic of his presidency. From listening to his son Michael Reagan, I learned how this president was also a father who instilled in his son patriotic values, simply by recounting stories of America's past and singing patriotic songs on rides to their Ranch. He taught him the burden of taxes by stipulating his allowanc...

Earlier this semester, I had the honor of attending a series of seminars in conjunction with the Strategic Broadening Seminar at the McConnell Center. It was a fantastic opportunity to interact with members of our military and discuss major security dilemmas and opportunities from different angles.     A particularly poignant lesson came during the lecture series on China. One of the visiting professors asserted that most characterizations of China either come from the “panda huggers” or “dragon slayers.” – that is the two diametrically opposed viewpoints regarding China’s rise in military, political, and economic clout. The professor noted that in many academic circles today, while the former school of thought is on the decline, the “dragon slayers” are ascendant. Christian Bush - Class of 2018   However, I believe the silver screen is one area where the panda huggers are thriving. The depiction of China in Hollywood films as antagonist or ally speaks vol...

If 97% of engineers said that the airplane you were going to take off in was going to crash, would you fly in it? If you said “no,” “hell no,” or something of that variety, then you possess a wisdom and clarity that the Trump Administration lacks. In 2017, Donald Trump steered the United States into being the only country to reject the Paris Climate Accords.  This was an agreement formed within the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) dealing with greenhouse gas emissions mitigation, adaptation, and finance, starting in the year 2020. 196 representatives from all around the world negotiated this treaty. 195 countries signed the treaty which is aimed at attempting to reduce the rise in global temperature to below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. Frank Bencomo-Suarez - Class of 2018   Whether or not this will be effective remains to be seen. That, however, is not the most concerning notion. The most concerning notion is that the pro...

Napoleon Bonaparte once said, “China is a sleeping giant. Let her sleep, for when she wakes she will move the world.” The giant has now awoken, with China in position to become the global economic hegemon within the next fifteen years. The goal of United States should be the pursuit of a more cooperative relationship, as these two superpowers will lead the world throughout the 21 st century. Robert Gassman - Class of 2018   The United States is experiencing economic growth at a rate that hovers around 3%, and over the past five years U.S. growth had been in the ballpark of 2%. This stable and limited economic growth is common for industrialized nations. Last year the economy of Great Britain grew 1.9%, Australia 2.7%, and France a mere 1.3% of expansion. For China in 2016, 6.8% was one of the lowest figures of annual economic growth since the reforms implemented by Deng Xiaoping in 1978. There is no indication that China’s rapid expansion will decline to the levels of W...

“You’re doing what?” Her voice was incredulous, steeped in equal parts wonder, shock and just a little bit of playful derision. I still remember the way her smile looked, a splotch of mockery and a dab of pity. I knew what it sounded like. Jared Thomas - Class of 2020 It was just the latest in a long line of projects designed to “take my mind off things” or “give me a new perspective.” Inevitably, it would end up rotting in the trash pile of a million other initiatives, ideas and idiosyncrasies just like everything else some younger iteration of me had tried and failed at. After all,I wasn’t a musician. Far from it--I could barely scratch out Vance Joy’s “ Riptide ” on an old Ukulele I rented a few years back that I kept for so long that they gifted it to me out of incredulity at my stubborn determination to be aggressively mediocre. I hadn’t picked up my chipped and cracked guitar with the faded wooden finish since my eighth birthday, the first time I swore up and down th...