Up and Coming Weekly is a weekly publication in Fayetteville, NC and Fort Bragg, NC area offering local news, views, arts, entertainment and community event and business information.
Issue link: http://www.epageflip.net/i/998318
JUNE 27-JULY 3, 2018 UCW 19 WWW.UPANDCOMINGWEEKLY.COM If you yearn for a better political dialogue, reward those who deliver it. Why are you reading this? by JOHN HOOD POLITICS The first day of summer has rolled around once again, and in light of the current hot temperatures with accompanying high humidity, many are prob- ably dreaming about escaping to the ocean with a nice, flowing breeze and just taking it easy for a while. But this time of year is also time to prepare for attending college. Fayetteville Technical Community College is registering students for fall 2018, and the sooner students begin the process, the better. Students should complete the FTCC application and the free financial aid application now to ensure that all the paperwork is in place in time to begin fall classes Aug. 20. Do everything as early as possi- ble to get the best choices for desired classes. Early completion and submission of paperwork when applying for financial aid is wise, too. Sometimes the financial aid process can take a while, so getting started now helps to ensure that aid is in place. To get started, visit FTCC's website, faytechcc.edu, and click "Apply" when the pop-up box appears on the home page. Or, click "Admissions Info" from the dropdown menu at the top of the home page to learn a great deal of information about applying to FTCC. The FTCC Financial Aid webpage shares a direct link to the free, online College Foundation of North Carolina application used by FTCC. Students can also view videos and helpful information about avail- able financial aid opportunities. Once a student has completed and submitted the application, FTCC sends an email to the student's email address used in the application. FTCC also sends a hard-copy letter to the physical address recorded on the CFNC application. The email out- lines the steps for admissions and provides links to forms to request a transcript from high school or other colleges, links to financial aid, the assessment and placement office and links to connect with an FTCC admissions counselor. The email also con- tains links to Veteran's Services and military web- sites, a health programs admissions counselor and counselors at FTCC's Spring Lake Campus and Fort Bragg Education and Training Center. Students will also receive a letter from FTCC pro- viding login and password set-up information for student email and WebAdvisor accounts. This occurs early on, prior to class registration. It is important for new students to check student email and WebAdvisor accounts regularly, as these are the primary methods of communication. WebAdvisor allows applicants and students to manage financial aid, register for classes, contact an advisor, view grades, request transcripts and set up an interest-free payment plan (for students who pay tuition out of pocket). Once the FTCC application is complete, students should visit www.FAFSA.gov. Services provided through FAFSA.gov are provided free of charge. Any website that charges fees for services related to financial aid assistance for education is not the right website. Apply for the academic year 2018/2019. Be prepared with tax documents. Most students who live at home will use their parents' income informa- tion, but extenuating circumstances may change that. Visit the Tony Rand Student Center at the Fayetteville campus for help in answering questions about financial aid. FTCC is proud to offer face-to-face, personal assistance. Visit the Tony Rand Student Center to begin the first step for fall classes – and to a brighter future through education at FTCC. Why are you reading this column? Make no mistake — I'm glad you are. I hope you are an avid reader of editorials, op-eds, and col- umns in newspapers, magazines and online forums. But motivation matters. If you read my column, or anyone else's work, because you already expect to agree with the opin- ions expressed and want to feel reaffirmed, I get it. If you agree and hope you'll gain more "rhetorical ammunition" with which to argue your case, I get that even more. It's certainly one reason I read conservative editorialists and magazines voraciously. But if you don't necessarily expect to agree with me, yet plan to read my column anyway, you have my sincere thanks. All opinion writers ought to aspire to attract readers with whom they don't already agree. If I'm not trying to persuade, I'm not really doing my job. And if you're not open to being persuaded – or, at least, to learning more about a topic and how different people think about it – then, if you'll pardon me for being blunt, you aren't quite doing your job as a reader, either. It's no news at this point that our political con- versation has become coarse, constrained and unsatisfying. Indeed, the conversation all too often devolves into a shouting match among partisan hacks rather than a reasoned exchange of contrast- ing views about challenging issues. Across the political spectrum, people say they don't like this harsh turn in our politics. But which came first, the shouting matches or audience demand for them? Don't the most bellicose, bom- bastic or hyperbolic talking heads get the most pub- lic attention, which encourages them to maintain their shtick and others to copy them? In my view, both the purveyors and the consum- ers of content have some power here. If you yearn for a better political dialogue, reward those who deliver it with your time and money. As for politi- cians and commentators, they can set a better example of construc- tive engagement across political differences – an example that, according to a growing body of empirical evidence, the public truly will follow. Dr. Vincent Price, now president of Duke University, has spent much of his scholarly career studying these issues. In one 2002 paper, he and his co-authors found that exposure to political dis- agreement helps people not just come up with more and better reasons for their own views but also helps them understand why other people might reasonably come to a different conclusion. Interestingly, this effect occurred when people were actually talking across the political divide with acquaintances. It didn't come from exposure to the news media, where the one-sided screeds and shouting matches were already crowding out more substantive fare. Coincidentally, it was at Duke, but before Price's arrival last year, that my colleagues and I founded the North Carolina Leadership Forum, which brings peo- ple from across the political spectrum together each year for precisely the kinds of conversations – respect- ful but spirited – that seem to bear the most fruit. Our goal isn't unanimity. People disagree. In fact, a lack of substantive disagreement within an orga- nization, a profession or a government can itself be a sign of trouble, evidence that the group may not be perceiving, understanding and carefully vetting all its options. In our view, the proper course is neither to engage in wishful thinking nor to encourage group- think. It is to treat others with the respect they are due as fellow human beings. In my case, this means that I should assume you have good reasons for what you believe, and vice versa. If we disagree, I should hope to persuade you, yes. But I should also be open to having my own mind changed. Even if persuasion never occurs, I should hope to have you finish my column having learned something new – a fact, an argument, a way of think- ing – that you will appreciate knowing even as you continue to disagree with my conclusions. And, of course, I should hope that you will read my next column. Taking the first step to improvement through education by DR. LOUANNA CASTLEMAN JOHN HOOD, Chairman of the John Locke Foundation. COMMENTS? Editor@upandcomingweekly.com. 910-484-6200. EDUCATION DR. LOUANNA CASTLEMAN, FTCC Director of Admissions. COM- MENTS? Editor@upandcomingweekly. com. 910-484-6200. Fall classes at FTCC begin Aug. 20.