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<\/p>\nPresenters and students speak out against division as the latest installment in a semiannual lecture series draws hundreds of participants less than two weeks before the national midterm elections.<\/p>\n
SAN MARCOS \u2014 In two days of talks covering history, economics, immigration, elections and more, experts from Palomar College and around the region gathered with students to present the latest research and discuss important topics for the Political Economy Days lecture series on Wednesday and Thursday.<\/p>\n
The presenters ranged from former federal staffers and experts in political science to professors in a variety of disciplines, as well as two sisters who shared their family history of the Holocaust.<\/p>\n
When Palomar faculty members Peter Bowman and Theresa Laughlin organize the semiannual series, \u201cWe look for topics that are relevant to the current climate and public affairs, as well as more academic topics,\u201d Bowman said. \u201cCertainly, these are topics that our students will come across when they transfer to four-year schools. They get a sample of that here.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Jordyn Naylor, an 18-year-old Political Science major from Murrieta, attended a lecture on Wednesday and afterward said she was grateful that Palomar hosts the series each semester.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe need this,\u201d said Naylor, referring to the lectures that were engaging students across a range of topics this week. \u201cThere needs to be more education about politics, because it directly affects our lives.\u201d<\/p>\n
On Wednesday, students filled a lecture hall as UCSD Professor Emeritus Sanford Lakoff discussed the state of politics in America with the midterm elections approaching on Nov. 6.<\/p>\n
![\"Palomar](\"https:\/\/www.palomar.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/50\/2018\/10\/Political-Economy-Days-3-of-7-200x300.jpg\")
\u201cThere needs to be more education about politics, because it directly affects our lives,” said Palomar College student Jordyn Naylor, 18, of Murrieta.<\/p><\/div>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re threatened by a loss of civility,\u201d Lakoff told students. \u201cThere is reason for concern about the breakdown of some of the norms in our political system. It weakens the whole process of give-and-take that\u2019s necessary in a democracy.\u201d<\/p>\n
While explaining why it is important for young people to vote, Lakoff defined a liberal democracy as \u201ca system of popular self-government that respects the liberty of the individual.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe divisions are starting to take a toll on our political systems,\u201d he said, painting a scene of increasing dysfunction within the federal government. \u201cOur system requires compromise and cooperation if it\u2019s going to work properly.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lakoff asked for a show of hands of those who planned to vote on Nov. 6 and Naylor was among the students\u2014a majority of the room, in fact\u2014who raised their hands.<\/p>\n
After attending his presentation, Naylor said, \u201cI got a broader sense of the midterm elections, but also what I need to learn more about before I vote.\u201d<\/p>\n
She also confessed to feeling frustrated regarding the apathy she encounters among her peers when it comes to politics: \u201cIt\u2019s unacceptable that so many people think this doesn\u2019t matter. If we communicated more with each other, we\u2019d be less polarized.\u201d<\/p>\n
As the series wrapped up on Thursday, sisters Suzanne Szames and Deborah Walsh took turns telling their family\u2019s story of survival during the Holocaust and World War II.<\/p>\n
With Jewish grandparents from Hungary and Poland, Szames and Walsh told a gripping and tragic story of mass killings, of families torn apart, of the kindness of strangers, of two armies and two ghettos, and of crippling loss but also endurance.<\/p>\n
Walsh described what their father told them about his experiences hiding in the woods outside of his family\u2019s predominantly Jewish village in Poland when he was just 4 years old.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think of my children at 4 years old\u2014how innocent and trusting they were,\u201d said Walsh. \u201cWhat happened to my dad breaks my heart. Nothing will ever heal that child inside him.\u201d<\/p>\n
After recounting how the two halves of their family survived the same ferocious hatred and then came together in the United States after the war, Szames urged the students in Thursday\u2019s forum to have the courage to take a stand in the face of oppression and bullying.<\/p>\n
![\"Suzanne](\"https:\/\/www.palomar.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/50\/2018\/10\/Political-Economy-Days-2-of-7-1024x683.jpg\")
![\"Deborah](\"https:\/\/www.palomar.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/50\/2018\/10\/Political-Economy-Days-1-of-7-1024x683.jpg\")