Kimberly Moffitt, an associate professor of American studies, joined The Baltimore Sun’s “Roughly Speaking” podcast with Dan Rodricks on July 20 to discuss reaction surrounding recent shootings across the country.

In a lengthy segment that covered a range of issues, Moffitt described how she has been talking about the news with her children.

“I’m speaking as a mother right now by saying I really struggled with making the decision to even watch and put those visual images in my head because I knew I then had to process what this means for my own children,” she explained. “This is my mantra in my classroom as much as it is in the realm of being a parent is trying to talk to them about how human beings right now are really struggling with how to treat each other fairly and nicely in many respects…that whole sense of humanity seems at a loss for many people.”

Moffitt also responded to reaction and criticism surrounding President Obama’s remarks at the Dallas police officer’s memorial.

“He at the end of the day is still the leader of this country, and we need to hear him lead,” Moffitt said. “To offer his condolences, that’s part of it, in terms of the healing beginning, but there is also a need for our leader to lead us by saying here is what we need to set our sights on, here is what we need to be thinking about, and here is what we need to be working toward in order to move past these types of major and horrific incidents.”

Listen to the full podcast titled “Black lives, blue lives, and what we tell our kids,” on The Baltimore Sun website.

Image: Kimberly Moffitt speaks to students in her class. Photo by Marlayna Demond ’11.

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A new eight-part series at Towson Library aims to answer questions and inform citizens about this year’s election process. The series, which started last week, is organized by School of Public Policy Assistant Professor Lauren Edwards.

“In these times of polarization, with people talking past each other, it’s important that we have these types of open discussions in public places,” Edwards said in The Baltimore Sun article.The “Voices on Government” series, recently featured in The Baltimore Sun, began July 13 with a discussion led by experts from the Maryland legislature and national committee members from the Democratic and Republican parties about the Republican and Democratic conventions. The first event included an explanation of the delegates and how party platforms are formed.

She explained that she was inspired to start the series when thinking about how many citizens grapple with questions surrounding how politics and elections work.

Edwards is partnering with the The League of Women Voters of Baltimore County for the series, with support from the Friends of the Towson Library and the Baltimore County Public Library. The UMBC School of Public Policy is also a sponsoring organization.

Other topics throughout the “Voices on Government” series include gerrymandering, immigration, the Electoral College, and money in politics, among several other issues.

“We wanted to think about which topics were most useful when,” Edwards said.

Read the full article “Series at library seeks to answer this year’s election questions” in The Baltimore Sun.

Image: Voting in Baltimore. Photo by  Jay Baker, CC by 2.0.

This story, by Max Cole, originally appeared here.