Last week, I talked about interviewing friends for positions on board and how it might be uncomfortable because I'm supposed to be judging them on what they said on the meeting, even if that's not the person they are outside of the interview. Well, those interviews are now over and I have the lovely task of telling my friend that she did not make it on to board (someone on the board wanted to send out rejection emails, but I retorted with the fact that we are a student run organization, not an employer doing a job search--these rejections require personal phone calls). We came to the decision as a board: she did not have the passion or enthusiasm we were looking for, there did not seem to be a sense of initiative when we asked her about her role within a group and her redefining the mission statement in her own words showed that she understood the mission but not how to apply the mission into programming. She says she wants to be more involved, but didn't give any new program ideas, and the ones she did suggest can be done by someone not on board. I understand the reasons that we did not choose her, but how do I tell her?
She's a good friend of mine, and we had dinner last night. I sat through dinner and all I could think about is I have to tell her she can't be on board, which she has been looking forward to all semester. I talked to a few different people to try and figure out how to say this without hurting our friendship. The comment that was made by everyone was: be honest. Let her know that you were part of this decision, but the final decision was made by the board as a whole--not one person in particular. This is not a reflection of the work or commitment she's had to the organization thus far. She did not show us the leader we were looking for. There is a risk that this could hurt our friendship. And I really hope that our friendship is more than a board position. However, I understand that now programs we go to might be a little uncomfortable. But it is only little discomfort and an awkward stare every now and again that I risk by taking responsibility by being the one to tell her the decision of the board. 

In the case of the Notre Dame president, he risks slightly more than awkwardness by accepting responsibility for the actions that led to the death of a student. He risks a lawsuit and liability payments. But taking responsibility was the right thing to do, just as making phone calls instead of sending out emails is the right thing to do in my situation. It's tough, but putting this much thought into the decision helps to show how right it is. 

This topic came at the perfect time for me. I was recently selected to be Vice President of the organization I am involved with and part of those responsibilities are holding interviews and selecting the rest of the members of the general board. Students interested in being on the board had to fill out and submit an application and then those students will be interviewed by the new President and Vice President. The challenge for me on though, is that most of these students are my friends. I go to most of the programs that this organization holds, part of the reason why I am so involved with it. Most of the students applying for board positions also attend many of the events--being on board is a way for them to be even more involved with the organization. Personally knowing certain students makes me want to work with them more--I have a friendship with them and know what they will bring to the table as a board member. 
However, the problem arises when certain friends do not fill out the application as extensively as they should have. They have many ideas and we have talked about them as friends, but those ideas did not make it into their application. I know that I am only allowed to consider what is on the paper when judging the applications--but how can I read their responses and know that so much is missing? 

During the interviews, am I allowed to ask them questions that will make them give me the rest of the answer that I am looking for, that is can I help them along in the interview to show them what they forgot to include in their application? What about the students that I don't know as well, where I haven't had those kinds of conversations? Is it fair to them for me to ask the same questions knowing that they've already answered them? 

What it comes down to for me, is to judge everyone based on the information gleaned from the application and the interview. More importantly, it is the job of the other students on the interview panel to make the first judgement--I cannot say whether I think this person should or should not be on board because of what I know from a relationship outside of the organization. Everyone needs to be judged fairly. In the case of full disclosure, it should be known that I have a relationship with this person, but that should be known from the nature of our organization and the students applying for board positions. 

During tonight's class the relevant topic of voting was discussed and this question was asked: if you are not informed about the elections, should you vote? And here is my opinion. Registered Americans over the age of 18 have the right and the responsibility to vote in the election. You should vote not only because it is your responsibility but because by not voting, you are saying that you do not care if you have this right. There are so many people fighting and sacrificing their lives for the chance to chose their government. In my previous post, I talked about how one of Judy Meisel's messages was to vote, to exercise your right to chose your government. By not voting, by not exercising your civic right, it is my opinion that you lose your right to complain. If you do not like something that the government is doing, and you did not vote, too bad. You had your chance to choose the official you wanted to govern you and you ignored that chance. 

I think because so many Americans take their right to vote for granted that at this moment in time it is more important to have people registered to vote than to worry about educating them about making an informed vote. Before we can increase the number of educated votes and make people actually think about voting, we have to get them to vote in the first place. If they are not even registered, why would someone take the time to go and learn about the different candidates? I think it is the role of the parties, or even a non-partisan organization to provide information on the candidates positions on important topics so that voters can make important decisions. Before we can provide that information to the voters though, they have to be registered to be voters. 

So, yes I think you should vote, even if you are not informed, because it is your civic right and responsibility. Granted, it would be much better if you were an informed voter, but the excuse of I don't know should not prevent you from exercising your right and responsibility. 

This past week, eleven organizations came together to hear the story of Judy Meisel, a Holocaust survivor and civil rights activist. I was fortunate enough to go to dinner (sponsored by PLA) with her and many of the other sponsors before the event. She is a very sweet woman. We talked about where she's from (Lithuania but lives now in Santa Barbara, CA after previously living in Philadelphia, PA), what she does now (she has worked on the Hillel Board at UCSB for 26 years working to get them out of a small room that barely fit a minyan to a brand new building) and some of her life experiences (she met Martin Luther King Jr and worked to help plan the March on Washington).

After dinner, we made our way down to the auditorium for the event. She has a documentary made about her life experiences. It shows her reaction when a black family moved into her all white neighborhood--how this experience made her start talking about her own experiences in the Holocaust. She had not talked about it because she did not want to traumatize her children. But now that racism was apparent in her world, she no longer felt safe as a Jew in this neighborhood and spoke up for those who were being discriminated against. The movie then goes to show Judy revisiting the places she lived during her childhood: the house she was removed from when theKovno Ghetto was formed, the house she lived in within the Kovno Ghetto, the rubber factory she worked at making boots for German soldiers, pictures of the round-up and deportation to theStutthof Concentration camp, the gas chamber she was half into but managed to get away from, the farmhouse she ran to when the bombs were being dropped on Stutthof, the river she crossed to get from occupied Denmark to safe Sweden, and the Danish family that took her and her sister Rachel in when the war was over and nursed them back to health.

Judy used the movie to tell her story and when she spoke afterwords, it was not about what happened to her, but what she has done since then. She is a remarkable woman. Not many people could have gone through what she went through and lived, let alone talk about it. But Judy has done more. She has taken her experiences and worked hard to ensure that what happened to her never happens again. When it was happening to African Americans in the 1960, she no longer felt safe as a Jew thinking, "if they're being discriminated against, it's the same as if I'm being discriminated against."

She advocated for the end of bullying saying that "the Holocaust started with name-calling." Those simple actions then escalated into what we know as World War II. With the recent cyberbullyingand suicides on college campuses, she urged us to think about what we say and the effect our words and actions have on others. If we do not stand up for what we know is right and stop someone from doing the bad action, it is as if we ourselves have done those bad actions. Her second appeal was for us to vote. We have the freedom to choose our government, and it is our responsibility to choose a government that will keep this country moving in the direction we want it to go. So many Americans take that right for granted while there are still so many people who do not have the right to choose who governs them. Make sure you exercise your right to vote in today's election!