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A Mini-Ricochet Meetup at Hillsdale College
This past week, the College held its first “CCA”, or Center for Creative alternatives, conference on campus in Michigan. The subject was “Critical American Elections”, and in the afternoons from Sunday through Tuesday, we listened to many different speakers, on critical elections, including those of 1800, 1860 (lecture by Prof. Kevin Portteus of Hillsdale); 1876 (lecture by Michael Barone); 1932 and 1980 (lecture by Charles Kesler); and 2020 (lectures by Andrew Busch and Phillip Kline). We also heard a great talk on election integrity from John Lott.
Ricochet members attending were @westernchauvinist and her hubby, @rushbabe49, and @raykujawa (RushBabe’s hubby). Funny thing, we just happened to be staying at the same bed-and-breakfast in Jonesville, too, so we had great breakfasts every day before heading to campus. It turns out that a particular Ricochet member is a professor at Hillsdale; the person, in fact, who was instrumental (unknown to himself) in my joining Ricochet in the first place! So, on Tuesday, I emailed that Ricochet member, to see if he would be around to meet up with us for a quick conversation while we all were on campus.
Eureka! It turned out that he is actually on sabbatical, but was on campus to take care of some business. He replied to my email that he would be available at the end of the last lecture. So, for a few wonderful minutes (before he had to leave, and we had to be at dinner), we met up with Dr. Paul Rahe, who teaches history at Hillsdale. We had a delightful conversation, and I was thrilled to finally meet him in person. Here we are.
I’m sure we will be going to the campus again, and when we do, we should have a longer meetup so we can really get to know the good professor. Ray and I are endowing a scholarship at Hillsdale, so we will have many reasons to visit campus in the coming months. I urge anyone who is unhappy with the way things are going in “higher” education these days, to ditch your old alma mater, and adopt Hillsdale as a surrogate alma mater, since they are the last bastion of Liberty and true education in America.
Published in Meetups
Wow, endowing a scholarship. That is worthy of respect and appreciation.
That is cool.
This bed and breakfast?
Or this one?
The second B&B. We had the room I dubbed the “impregnable fortress”, at the back of the house at the top of a treacherous staircase.
As to the scholarship, we started funding it while we were both working at good jobs. We no longer are working, and I am donating half of my “required minimum distribution” from my 401(k) to the scholarship fund. Once the balance reaches a specified amount, the college will choose a recipient, whom we will get to meet.
Hillsdale accepts NO government money of any kind, and they need all the donors they can get, big and small. Donors get great perks, like invitations to dinners in their town, and National Leadership Seminars all over the US. The college also runs dozens of free online courses that anyone can take at any time. They are taught by Hillsdale faculty, and cover subjects ranging from Western Civilization, to Great Books, and Economics. They are adding new courses regularly. I just finished the Constitution 101 course, and will be taking another course quite soon.
Can you offer a synopsis of John Lott’s presentation on Election Integrity? Is there any hope we may fortify the rules and procedures so we may again have confidence in the voting process?
Actually, I can’t. But they will be posting all the lectures in a couple of weeks, on a new Web location on their site. Hillsdale has received their first “strike” on YouTube, so they are moving their videos to their own site so as to make them available to all, always. The new site is not active yet, but when it is, I’ll post a link.
Of course youtube would strike at anything Hillsdale might publish. They are the Stalinesque arm of our gubment propaganda.
Can’t make this one! But have a great time on my behalf!
Edit: Just realized it’s already over! Yeah, timing wasn’t right.
My daughter and I were lucky enough to meet Western Chauvinist and Mr. WC the night before they left for Hillsdale. We had a couple of beers, a good dinner, and wonderful conversation. And I learned all about altitude sickness.
The Hillsdale event sounds great. Will anyone be able to access the lectures when they post them?
I believe that the lectures will be accessible for everyone, once they are all posted. I should also mention Imprimis, the Hillsdale speech digest, published monthly and subscription is absolutely free. I expect at least one of the lectures to appear in a future issue, and it may not be too far in the future. I think that if you email Imprimis@hillsdale.edu, you can subscribe. Everyone should do that, so you won’t miss out on the excellent speeches.
Below are links to the two posts I did on my personal blog.
https://rushbabe49.com/2021/09/19/welcome-to-detroit/
https://rushbabe49.com/2021/09/23/hillsdale-college-cca-the-rest-of-the-story/
Very cool!
For the record, it was great fun seeing everyone. I am in my lair, on sabbatical, writing my next book, and I rarely venture out. This moment of escape was, however, worth it.
ARRRGGGH! How come nobody caught my big boo-boo in the first paragraph?
It’s Center for Constructive Alternatives, not “creative”. My apologies!
We attended a lunch program here several years ago. It was great! If more colleges were like Hillsdale, the youth wouldn’t be pushing socialism and hating America. Imprimus is excellent.
Great picture!