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Boyd K. Rutherford challenged a UMES audience to be pro-active in shaping the future of the nation’s democracy. His remarks were delivered as part of the university’s social justice symposium. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe need more people to be civically engaged,\u201d Maryland’s lieutenant governor said, adding, \u201cYou don’t need to be a crank\u201d to be heard. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
In a broad-ranging, hour-long talk April 29 on \u201cThe Future of Democracy,\u201d Rutherford pointed out the cyclical nature of political and social turmoil the nation has endured since its founding. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
If pundits are troubled about the current direction of the country — especially in the aftermath of the Jan. 6 insurrection at the Capitol — Rutherford is less so. Yet, from his front-row seat as a Black Republican serving in the executive branch of a state that tends to lean Democratic at the ballot box, he does see challenges. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Schools, he said, should rethink how they present \u201cbasic civics\u201d education and place more value on teaching that subject across primary and secondary levels. He even suggested colleges and universities would be wise to do the same — at least for freshmen. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Rutherford said today’s political turmoil underscores the guiding principle of the framers of the U.S. Constitution, who strove to \u201cform a more perfect union.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe’re a representative democracy and a constitutional republic,\u201d he said. \u201cWe have a set of rules in place set out by the constitution,” which he noted \u201cis a guard rail to protect … minorities.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Well-informed citizens, Rutherford said, have to work harder to discern fact from fiction because of the cataclysmic shift in the way information is disseminated. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
In their heyday a century ago, he noted, the political bent of newspapers as the dominant source of current events was well known to readers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThere’s a bias in a lot of media (today) that’s undisclosed,\u201d Rutherford said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Social media, in particular, plays an oversized, sometimes distorted role. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt can rev up crowds \u2026 rabble rousers, which can lead to a situation like what we had on Jan. 6\u201d in Washington, he said. \u201cInformation flows so quickly without being checked (and) it causes these challenges.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cHow do we overcome these challenges with division and angry rhetoric and how do we address that?\u201d he asked. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cMake sure you are civically engaged,\u201d Rutherford said, \u201cparticularly you students \u2026 you are going to be (the) people of influence.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
It is informed citizens’ responsibility \u201cto make sure when bad speech or inaccurate speech\u201d emerges to counter it \u201cwith facts.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
And don’t be reluctant to \u201cpush back on your own viewpoints\u201d as well, he said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cYou need to understand where to go, and help other people understand where they need to go to get redress,\u201d Rutherford said. \u201cParticipate at all levels \u2026 that’s what I hope you all will do as you continue with your lives.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Lt. Gov. Boyd Rutherford wraps up UMES’ ’20-21 social justice series Friday, May 7, 2021 Boyd K. Rutherford challenged a UMES audience to be pro-active in shaping the future of the nation’s democracy. His remarks were delivered as part of the university’s social justice symposium. \u201cWe need more people to be civically engaged,\u201d Maryland’s lieutenant…Read more Democracy demands civic engagement<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12361,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","wds_primary_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[103],"tags":[],"post_folder":[],"class_list":["post-12360","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/scm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12360","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/scm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/scm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/scm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/scm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12360"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/scm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12360\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/scm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12361"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/scm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12360"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/scm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12360"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/scm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12360"},{"taxonomy":"post_folder","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/scm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/post_folder?post=12360"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}