Conflict, climate change and forced migration were the three global issues addressed during Hofstra’s Day of Dialogue on Wednesday, Oct. 23, in the Sondra and David S. Mack Student Center.
The event, hosted by the Center for Civic Engagement, included a panel of speakers who discussed the need for increasing societal awareness of these problems, and how it is time to find solutions. The speakers included history professor Michael D’Innocenzo, professor of geology Robert Brinkmann and clinical professor of law Lauris Wren.
The first topic was conflict. “It arises from limited resources,” D’Innocenzo said. Situations involving limited resources can result in people being forced to migrate from their homeland, as it was not safe or did not have what the people needed to survive.
“People dislocated, people die, people suffer,” D’Innocenzo said.
Conflict can lead to war, and it is killing millions of people and forcing others to become war refugees. “The times are so much more urgent, the issues are much more demanding and extreme,” said Linda Longmire, professor and director of the Center for Civic Engagement.
Concluding his discussion on conflict, D’Innocenzo talked about King’s conflict resolutions. D’Innocenzo explained that one must “gather reliable data, [then present] the data to those who disagree, use the First Amendment, don’t hate the haters, change and monitor law and policy changes and [lastly] reach out for reconciliation and bring people into the community.”
Brinkmann’s topic was climate change, and how it is affecting us both globally and locally.
Brinkmann first talked about the cause of climate change, greenhouse gasses warming the atmosphere. “As time goes on, if we have a lot of greenhouse gasses in the atmosphere, we will have more warming,” Brinkmann said.
Climate change is a problem in society, according to Brinkmann, and he discussed surfing and suffering sustainability as the main environments people around the globe live in today.
Surfing sustainability saves a lot of energy, but even while doing that, we are not changing the amount of energy usage – “it’s hip, organic, includes environmental justice, global purchasing, recycling, Green New Deal and resiliency,” Brinkmann said.
In a state of suffering sustainability, people are trying to survive in a harsh environment. “It includes migration, poverty, conflict, human rights challenges, pollution, lack of resources and opportunities,” Brinkmann said.
“As a Hofstra student, turning the light off, not using the lights too often and taking public transportation [can help] … it’s those small choices you make every day that can make a good impact,” said sophomore entrepreneurship major Isabella Burckhardt about what people can do to lessen energy usage.
Surfing and suffering societies affect forced migration as many people today have been fleeing where they live due to Earth’s environmental changes. For example, the recurrent flooding in Port Fourchon, Louisiana, has forced the people living there to leave.
“A lot of state, federal, local and private money has gone into the port, but thousands of people have left because of flooding,” Brinkmann said.
The final panelist of the day, law professor Lauris Wren, spoke on forced migration, which affects the people of Long Island, as Hispanics and Latinos are the second-largest majority in the population.
Wren discussed asylum seekers and the process of entering the U.S., as those immigrants are allowed to legally apply for asylum at the border. “You hear a lot of talk about asylum seekers breaking the law, but they are following the law,” Wren said.
Even as refugees attempt to apply legally, the Obama and Trump administrations have pushed to put families in jail in order to scare them into going back to their countries. “I’m not an expert on it, but it’s blatantly against the law and xenophobic,” said Benjamin Welch, a junior public policy and public service major.
Wren then explained why people are becoming refugees. Most often they are fleeing war, gangs, LGBTQ+ violence and drug cartels. “There are a lot of women and children, including women, are very targeted by gangs and drug cartels,” Wren said. Solutions to make the process easier for refugees include allowing immigrant lawyers to see their clients across the American border to keep both party members safe. Josie Dituri, a sophomore graduate student in psychology and a member of the Center for Civic Engagement, agreed with Wren’s words. “Rather than displacing the immigrants, we should provide them with help,” she said.
By the time the discussion came to an end, the audience became aware of the modern problems affecting America and the globe, many of which are now more urgent than they were 10 years ago. “The crisis on the border, the crisis in the environment, all the issues are conflating to make these urgent times,” Longmire said.
“It’s getting to a point where we can feel these issues impacting our lives, and it’s time we do something about it rather than being apathetic,” Welch said.
As the younger generation, specifically Generation Z, is becoming more aware, students are noticing the activism happening in America. “With the climate strike and Greta [Thunberg] and young adults that are becoming activists in the public eye, you’re seeing that were taking a stand for things we don’t agree with,” Burckhardt said.
