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Show September 28, 1990 DIXIE SUN page 3 Dixie President Douglas Alder Urges at Dixie College. Do you being realize that you will have some 40 years of employment ahead of you and you will likely live 70 more years from now? We already know that you are going to see dramatic changes and intense technological development in The beginning of a your lifetime. You have just lived new school year adds a zest to living for me. Having spent through the most dramatic most of my life in the year I can remember, the year classroom, I know of the magic 1989. You have seen the end Cold War, the it can provide in a student's to the life, the difference it can make reunification of Germany, the to one's feeling of worth, and splitting of the Arab World, the contribution it can make to and unbelievable changes in You have a society as a whole. This the Soviet Union. week the campus has come seen Eastern Europe escape alive with wonderful people, from the Russian Bear. Most young and older, who are here importantly, you have seen the to partake of the learning four great powers in the world--th- e United States, Europe, process at Dixie College. I am thus sharing in today's column Japan and the Soviet Union-cocloser and closer the message I gave to the incoming freshmen at the together. What does this mean held student assembly for you? I expect it means that Tuesday, September 18. To see the Cox those four powers are going to Performing Arts Center filled race into high technology and to capacity with new students economic development at is a most gratifying sight. I lightning speed. The United cannot help but wonder what States is going to be you feel about your purpose in challenged on every side, me for world challenged leadership, challenged for technological progress, challenged for economic supremacy, challenged for productivity. This is going to have direct impact in your lives. Right now the dollar is the world currency, the English language is the speech for international affairs and the President of the United States is the most important man on the globe. Will that be the case in 50 years? I submit that you will be the ones to determine that. If you are as well educated as the Europeans and as productive as the Asians, then the United States will still be one of the club of four. If you are sluggish, unproductive, incompetent, uninspired, then we will be replaced quickly by aspiring newcomers. We won World War II and emerged as the world leader. Remember in those days the Germans and the Japanese were destitute. The U.S. and the Soviet Union were invulnerable. Now it already seems that the Students to Excel Europeans and the Japanese are inching ahead of us. So am I pessimistic? Not at all. You are living in the best of all times. You are living when America is being challenged again. Americans perform best under a challenge. I found it really exciting to be alive during World War II. It was a time when we saved scrap metal, planted victory gardens, worked in arms plants, bought war bonds and listened attentively each night to the We pulled radio news. together. We mourned our dead hut we sacrificed along with them to pull our country and the world out of a huge crisis. You get to live through a more subtle but more important crisis. Likely you will not have to die for your country. What your country needs from you is competence. We need your brains. We need your creativity, your dedication to purpose. We need scientists, teachers, thinkers, writers, producers, inventors, linguists, environmentalists, craftsmen, parents, civic workers and on and on. You will not need to worry about finding a place where you are needed. We will have labor shortages, but mostly we will have a competency gap. To compete with the Japanese (and all the rest of the Asians) and with the reinvigorated Europeans will be our biggest challenge-equival- ent to the American Revolution, the Civil War or You will World War II. determine whether we will lead or follow, thrive or dwindle. You will feel this sense of need as I did during World War II. our generation is depending on you, and your children's future will be similarly fragile; it will be in your hands as no other to before generation's determine whether we decline or prosper. This test differs from the ones that preceded you; this will be more than a test of It will he a courage. competence issue. The contest will be between engineers instead of soldiers, between of instead scientists propagandists. Continued on Page 7 HEARING AMPLIFICATION S) cc uu You will know that TUTORS c JOIN STUDENT o73 SERVICES NOW! n -- SUPPORT O Oct. to Oct. a. - h- z O cn O O Reg. $49.95 Binder plus year daily planner the Dixie College Bookstore - z o Academic Assistance. 03 o Do any of these describe you? Low income O Parents are not college graduates Learning disabled O Physically Z z SSS is funded by a grant from the U.S. Department of Education for co Q. H CO o Z challenged o Don't miss this golden opportunity for an educational boost at no cost to you. Only 150 slots are available. O See Donna Dillingham Evans or or Neal Dorenbosch Browning BuiUdding. room 105 or coll ext 253 TALKING COMPUTERS 7Z LA BOOKS 7::"3 IRHIP 08, n iiNuinnnm |