A Blog on McConnell Center Life

 By Bradfield Ross One of my primary goals in college is to expose myself to new points of view and perspectives. This year I made a reading list of all the books I had been gifted or bought in the previous year, along with a smattering of books recommended by professors I had last year. The result contained a greater diversity of books than I have probably ever challenged myself to read. Ranging from the grueling epics of  Infinite Jest  and  Roots  to the uncomfortable nihilism of King in  Pet Semetary  and McCarthy in  Child of God  and  Blood Meridian , and from the spectacular and political science fiction of Le Guin’s  Left Hand of Darkness  and Huxley’s  Stranger in A Strange Land  to the political realities of Lorraine Hansberry’s  A Raisin In The Sun  and Alan Paton’s  Cry, The Beloved Country . And starting out on this list has already opened many new interests and points of view. I’m going to...

 By Macy Waddle  Thanks to McConnell Center U.S. Army War College Fellow Col onel Kimberly Pringle, I had the opportunity to travel to Texas A&M University to participate in the 68 th Student Conference on National Affairs (SCONA), specifically the International Strategic Crisis Negotiation Exercise (ISCNE). I had the opportunity to expand my negotiation skills and broaden my horizons by learning more about Texas A&M and the various military academies in attendance.    Traveling with Col . Pringle and fellow McConnell Scholar Alli Geiger , we flew to College Station airport. This being my first time traveling to Texas, I wasn’t quite sure what to expect.    We were welcomed with open arms by the students of Texas A&M, specifically those in the Army Corps of Cadets. I learned that until 1965, Texas A&M served as a military academy only. This was reflected throughout their campus with the various memorials dedicated to veterans and the wee...

By Alli Geiger Gooey half-baked cake, slippery icing, and pools of sticky juice; what a cake for a picnic. I had decided to make the picnic cake myself-ish heavy on the ish since I used a box cake and icing. I started on the cake, which was red velvet. The red velvet is essential, but I will save that for later. The directions said to split the ba tter between two pans, but it barely covered the bottom when I poured half in the first pan. Worrying it would burn and be crisp, I did what any non-practical person would do: poured all the batter in one pan and put it in the oven. You can imagine how well that went, right? The cake came out unevenly cooked and with a drastic dome shape. I cut the cake in half, flipped the dome upside down, and filled the sides with icing to make the top flat. The cake ever so slowly started to sink back into a dome shape, pushing away the icing. Giving up on the body, I decided to begin icing. Since I had flipped the top over, the crumbly side was showing. ...

By Karmyn Jones   Principlism is based on the idea that there is a common morality that is shared by all humans and has developed over a long period of time in the form of prima facie obligations. In ethics, principlism offers 4 principles that are often used to decide how to act in certain situations. These four principals provide us with the course of action to take in any situation. These include: autonomy, nonmaleficence, beneficence, and justice. Personalism is an approach that stresses the moral nature of a person. It is not based on principles, but based on what is best for the human being. It's based on the features of personality such as consciousness and self determination. In personalism suffering does not always justify killing or letting die.  Medicine is the sum of knowledge about disease and illness. It also focuses on feelings, experiences, anxieties, and the fears of patients. In Principlism, doctors are expected to intervene for the patients best interest, re...

By Hannah Cease Less than 5 miles from campus, something none of us would be here without, is the Ohio River. The Ohio, our source of water to all of us that live in Louisville, is a busy river, usually filled with barges and pollution. At 6am however it feels like a different world. This year I walked on the rowing team at UofL and often get to be on the water in the mornings. I am a coxswain on the team, someone who directs the boat and the rowers. Having the opportunity to be on still, calm water and watch the sun rise, has made me appreciate this river and recognize it as something I never had before, beautiful. It is calming and comforting. It is full of life in ways I had never seen before. Most days I see fish jumping, graceful cranes, and even a funny beaver. Somedays I even catch a glimpse of a bald eagle. I have lived next to this river my whole life but never took the time to stop and really look at it. I would like to share some of my favorite pictures taken during my earl...

By Dyllan Tipton During my junior year of high school in January 2021, I was one of five students selected to participate in the Kentucky House of Representatives page program under the leadership of Chief Clerk Melissa Bybee-Fields. The program is designed to provide high school juniors and seniors with an opportunity to learn more about state government and the legislative process.  This legislative session during which I served as a page was anything but typical, due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Social distancing guidelines, protective plastic screening, and masks were required for all individuals present in the chamber. Despite these challenges, the 30-day legislative session passed by quickly, with each day typically lasting between one and two hours, followed by a similar procedure. The veto-override days on Day 29 and 30 were particularly long, extending into the late evening hours. As a page, I, along with other House staff, was required to arrive one hour bef...

By Grant Avis On March 3, 2023, a storm tore off a barn roof in Grayson County, Kentucky. With it, the wind threatened to blow away a hundred years of history.  Many mornings, I find myself walking to class with earbuds in, listening to songs of my choice on YouTube, like the old man I am. The first song is always an easy choice, as I always have some melody that has planted itself in my head, and I arise in the morning with the tune on my lips. This earworm I release through my earbuds carries me just to the other side of Third Street, where I am faced with the daunting task of choosing the next song. As I continue on the concrete past the Speed Art Museum, briefly looking up to avoid the cars of late commuters zooming carelessly into the parking garage, I scroll through the songs that the all-knowing algorithm has deemed fit for my listening. One crisp morning brought the recommendation of a song from a band I liked, Old Crow Medicine Show, titled: “We Don’t Grow Tobacco." My fi...