Students across 501 were given the opportunity to hear a US congressman and civil rights leader speak on Thursday. Throughout the speech, there was an audible buzz from the crowd, and not the good, enthusiastic kind. In fact, if one turned around in their seat, they would most likely be greeted by the illuminated faces of students engaged with their cellphones, or absorbed in conversation with a surrounding bevy of friends.

Respect is a funny thing, especially in a public place with such prestigious individuals in attendance, but there was a certain hypocrisy in the air that morning.The fact is that the congressman was discussing his own experiences as a young adult while this inattentiveness was going on, how he became involved in the civil right’s movement, protesting, organizing, becoming the youngest keynote speaker at the March on Washington. Congressman Lewis quite passionately and adamantly urged the youth to be involved, engage in politics and communities while students checked social media and took selfies.

Lewis discussed some of the great problems of today: the riots caused by citizens frustrations with a racist system, and the congressman man said quite pointedly that we could be part of the solution by being involved. There inlies the problem; if only part of the student body listens to a message of involvement and reformation in society, what will happen to that society? In a true working democracy, all parts must work together to solve the problems that face us all. Imagine what could happen if all sides of an argument would engage to create a dynamic conversation in such places as Baltimore and Ferguson. Would that not be preferred to acts of retaliation and rage?
The truth is that all the grand ideas stated may sound outlandish or unattainable. And maybe they are, but if each generation tried, there is at least the chance for progress. All that starts with simple attention; listening to what’s going on in the world, in classes, with people, and knowing that it’s worth more than all the elation that results from social media. Listen to the world, and change it.