High Apple Pie In the Sky Hopes

If you're free next Wednesday, the University Near Here has a major event: "High Hopes", which is described this way:

President Barack Obama's election and presidency hold different meanings for many people. The University of New Hampshire will explore the diverse and layered meanings of hope and the real-life manifestations and complications of change in the "era of Obama" at an event Wednesday, Sept. 23, 2009.
Uh, ok. But what's it about? Take it away, Cait Vaughn:
"Since November, whether one is having an academic conversation in a university setting with faculty and students, or sitting on the porch with friends, or talking to young children -- the themes of hope, change, and possibility continue to emerge and they grow more complex and layered with each conversation," said Cait Vaughan with the UNH Center for the Humanities.
Yes, I've noticed that myself. Emerging, complex, layered themes out the wazoo. It's a mess, frankly. But the thing, again: what's it about?
At this event, participants will explore what import and substance these concepts have to the culture of the United States, now and in the future. How do people of all different backgrounds view and understand "the price and promise of citizenship," particularly under the Obama administration? What do President Barack Obama's words, ideas, and style of leadership convey to and demand of U.S. citizens as we work toward the perfecting of our union?
Where do people learn to write like this? Where's the style guide that suggests overstuffing your paragraphs with vagueness and bullshit?

Oh well. Maybe there will be a part where everyone writes letters to themselves about how they can help the president.

Who's going to be there?

The event will consist of a moderated panel discussion followed by questions and a group discussion with the audience. Panelists are Marla Brettschneider, professor of political science and women's studies; Carol Conaway, assistant professor of women's studies; and Melissa-Leigh Gore, an undergraduate student in English and Africana and African American studies.

The event is sponsored by the minors in Africana and African American Studies; American Studies; and Race, Culture and Power under the UNH Center for the Humanities.

I think it's safe to say this will be yet another shining example of the University's political monoculture delivering a tongue bath to its current idol. (Apparently they couldn't coax anyone with a token Y chromosome to participate.)

I found Melissa-Leigh's blog, by the way. Interesting! Her qualifications to be on the panel?

35. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?
This year I fell in love with Barack Obama!

36. What political issue stirred you the most? Haha see number 35.

She'll fit right in.